Measuring Employee's Creativity: A New Theoretical Model and Empirical Study for Tourism Industry

Based on the componential theory of creativity, this research built and tested a new theoretical model that links the 4P model (people, product, place, and process) with creativity via several intervening variables. Survey data and two-step structural equation modeling were used to evaluate a sample of 338 employees surveyed from 57 tourism and hospitality organizations in Taiwan. As anticipated, we found that people (e.g. personality) positively affected place (e.g. organizational environment and participation) and creative process (e.g. data collection, idea generation, and confirmation), which in turn influenced product outputs of creativity and satisfaction.     

Investment and the soft budget constraint in China

This paper examines the incentive effects of the soft budget constraint on the investment behavior of firms in general and on the investment-cash flow sensitivity in particular. To this end, we develop a simple model of moral hazard that takes the soft budget constraint into account. Within this moral hazard environment, we show that investment is positively related to the amount of internal funds. We further show that the presence of the soft budget constraint deteriorates the moral hazard problem, thereby making the investment level less sensitive to the amount of internal funds. This is the case irrespective of whether the soft budget constraint renders the firm more or less liquidity constrained. To test the model's empirical implications, we employ data of China's listed companies for the period from 1997 to 2003. We use the share of state ownership as a proxy for the severity of the soft budget constraint. We find strong evidence that firms with larger shares of state ownership exhibit lower investment-cash flow sensitivities than firms with smaller shares of state ownership.     

A Taxonomy of Industries Based on Knowledge Flow Structure

With the advent of the knowledge-based economy, the inter-industrial flow of technological knowledge is reckoned as the principal determinant of national competitiveness. The mode of knowledge flows, however, is intractably complex. Taking it as a network, this paper aims at providing an inductive taxonomy of industries based on the knowledge flow structure and thus identifying the user-supplier relationship among industries in terms of knowledge diffusion. Some proxy indexes are developed first to measure the knowledge flows, then the interactive mechanism among industries is investigated by the network analysis and eventually a taxonomy of industries is presented according to the characteristics of respective industries. The taxonomic approach highlights the importance of inter-industrial knowledge management system that facilitates knowledge flows across industries based on the idiosyncratic features of respective industries.     

Adding a freight network to a national interstate input–output model: a TransNIEMO application for California

The state of the nation’s infrastructure is the subject of widespread discussion and comment because it is thought to include many deteriorating and unsafe bridges. Ever since the terrorist attacks of 9/11, there has been increasing concern over the extent to which an attack on infrastructure could result in serious economic disruption. This research develops a model to analyze the economic consequences of an attack on a major element of the highway network. We add a freight network to a national multiregional economic impact model and make freight traffic flows endogenous. The use of a sub-national interstate model recognizes that most infrastructure planning is at the state level and most political leaders’ interest is local. We base our approach on the National Interstate Economic Model (NIEMO) and refer to an elaboration that we name Transportation network and the National Interstate Economic Model (TransNIEMO). The new model enables us to study the state-specific and industry-specific economic impacts of some significant changes in the nature of highway freight movements. We tested the model for selected freight movements in and out of California. The results are entirely plausible and encourage us to elaborate and test the model for hypothetical disruptions of freight traffic throughout the US.     

Terms of trade and economic growth in Japan and Korea: an empirical analysis

This study examines the impact of terms of trade and terms of trade volatility on economic growth in Japan and Korea using time series data. The results of the Johansen (1988) cointegration method show that real gross domestic product (GDP) per capita and terms of trade are jointly determined. Generally, an increase in terms of trade volatility will lead to a decrease in real GDP per capita. An increase in oil price will lead to a decrease in terms of trade. The results of the generalised forecast error variance decompositions show that the important contributors to real GDP per capita are different between Japan and Korea. A favourable and a less volatile terms of trade are important for economic growth.     

A general model for short-term interest rates

A general one-factor model for short-term interest rates is proposed. Besides the long memory fractionally integrated mean process, the model also consists of a power function of the interest rate as well as the GARCH effect in the conditional variance. The estimation results show that, while there is no evidence for fractional integration in the mean beyond the well-known martingale property, both the power function of the interest rate and the GARCH effect (but not the ARCH effect) are highly significant in the formation of the conditional variance. Test results also confirm a structure change in October 1979 due to the shift in the Federal Reserve monetary policy.     

Interpersonal Relationship,Service Quality,Seller Expertise: How Important Are They to Adolescent Consumers?

Drawing upon social capital theory and psychosocial development theory, this paper argues that a true buyer–seller relationship is a key determinant of favorable consumer behaviors for adolescent consumers of hairstylist services. Other important determinants include quality of the service delivery process (i.e., service quality as measured by the five SERVQUAL factors) and quality of the core service (in this case, the hairstylist's expertise). A survey of 350 adolescent consumers confirms these predictions. It shows that a true interpersonal relationship negatively moderates the positive effects of service quality on consumer satisfaction with, and overall assessment of the hairstylist. This negative moderating effect is labeled resource substitution benefit and the argument made that this is the fourth social capital benefit. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Information direction, website reputation and eWOM effect: A moderating role of product type

This article examines how the electronic word of mouth (eWOM) information direction (positive vs. negative) and a website's reputation (established vs. unestablished) contribute to the eWOM effect. The article describes a study focusing on the moderating role of the product type (search vs. experience). The results of the experiment show that the eWOM effect is greater for negative eWOM than for positive eWOM, greater for established websites than for unestablished websites, and greater for experience goods than for search goods. The results support the moderating effects of product type on the eWOM information direction-website reputation-eWOM effect relationship. The impact of negative eWOM on the eWOM effect is greater for experience goods than for search goods. Similarly, the impact of website reputation on the eWOM effect is greater for experience goods than for search goods. The findings provide managerial implications for an Internet marketing strategy.     

Temptation and social security in a dynastic framework

We investigate welfare and aggregate implications of a pay-as-you-go (PAYG) social security system in a dynastic framework in which individuals have self-control problems. The presence of self-control problems induces individuals to save less because of their urge for temptation towards current consumption. Individuals' efforts to balance between the short-term urge for temptation and the long-term commitment for consumption smoothing result in self-control costs. In this environment PAYG social security works as a self-control cost reducing device. In contrast, the presence of altruism induces individuals to save more. This in turn mitigates the adverse effects of self-control problems and PAYG social security on savings but magnifies the self-control costs. We find that in our environment the adverse welfare effects of a PAYG system are further mitigated relative to the environments that incorporate altruism and self control issues separately. However, the level of mitigation is quite modest.