Free Trade Areas in East Asia: Discriminatory or Non‐discriminatory?

The debates on regional trade arrangements in East Asia focus on whether the RTAs can be net trade creating or diverting, and whether they impede multilateral trade liberalisation or not. This paper attempts to answer these questions by quantitatively estimating the economic impact of possible East Asian free trade areas based on a bilateral gravity model, and evaluating the main characteristics of the proposed FTAs. We find that the trade creation effect expected from the proposed East Asian FTAs such as a China‐Japan‐Korea or an ASEAN plus three (China, Japan, Korea) FTA will be significant enough to overwhelm the trade diversion effect. We also judge that East Asian FTAs will likely be a building block for a global free trade.     

Consumers’ use of information intermediaries and the impact on their information search behavior in the financial market

An information intermediary is a human or a nonhuman party designed to assist consumers in information processing. The current study identifies factors determining the likelihood of using human information intermediaries and the effects of using information intermediaries on the amount and the pattern of overall information search. The proposed model is built based on a value‐intention framework and tested in the context of financial investment decisions. The results indicate that a low level of perceived expertise in financial management, a large amount of total financial assets, and a high opportunity cost of time enhance the perceived value of information intermediaries, thus increasing the likelihood of using information intermediaries. We also find that the use of information intermediaries is positively associated with the overall extent of information search and influences the likelihood of using other information sources.     

Building the case for financial education

The need for financial education among Americans is often demonstrated with alarming rates of bankruptcy, high consumer debt levels, low savings rates, and other negative outcomes that may be the result of poor family financial management and low financial literacy levels. The collective response by public and private organizations to the accepted and often demonstrated need for financial education has been impressive in size and scope. This article provides an overview of the wide range of programs aimed at improving Americans’ financial literacy as well as a short review of the current evidence of the effectiveness of financial education programs. We advocate for the adoption of a comprehensive framework or approach to evaluation to assist those currently delivering, and planning to deliver, financial education and highlight some of the key challenges. A five‐tiered approach to program evaluation is described and outlined to provide a general framework to guide financial education evaluation.     

Linking customer resources to firm success: The role of marketing program implementation

Drawing from both resource-based view and dynamic capabilities theory, this research investigates how customer resources (i.e., knowledge and network size) influence firm performance through marketing program implementation. The current research shows that customer resources are critical to the development and execution of marketing programs, which can then lead to firm success. Through surveying 269 retailers, this study finds that while customer knowledge directly affects marketing program implementation, it does not directly influence firm performance. In contrast, customer network size not only directly contributes to marketing program implementation and firm performance, but also serves as a significant moderator.     

Long-run impacts of trade shocks and export competitiveness: Evidence from the U.S. BSE event

This paper examines how comparative advantages of major beef exporters changed following the 2003 bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) outbreak, which significantly disrupted the U.S. beef trade until approximately 2007. Using longitudinal data on beef export values and constructed revealed comparative advantage measures, we show that while some measures of the long-run impacts of BSE on U.S. beef export competitiveness have returned to pre-2003 levels, the U.S.’s comparative advantage has not. We also examine a hypothetical scenario of no BSE event in 2003 and predict that in the absence of the BSE outbreak, the U.S. beef sector would have been increasingly more competitive by 2017 than it actually was. Long-term trade competitiveness may not simply return to normal even after a short-term disruption.     

Asymmetric transmission between factory and wholesale prices in fiberboard market in Korea

This paper extends the estimation of price relationships in wood processing and empirical assessment of asymmetric price transmission by incorporating time lags in both explanatory and dependent variables. Each of the models developed and estimated in this article reveals the existence of asymmetric price transmission between factory and wholesale prices of fiberboard in Korea. Estimation results indicate that wholesalers earn additional profits by exploiting price fluctuations in the markets. The empirical findings in this study suggest the potential for lower wholesale prices of fiberboard with more competition in wholesale marketing.     

Success factors of platform leadership in web 2.0 service business

The purpose of this study is to investigate the critical success factors of platform leadership in the Web 2.0 based service business environment. Because of the lack of theoretical foundation for this topic, we adopted relevant theory and case study analyses. Representative Web 2.0 firms which have developed platform leadership were chosen and analyzed on the basis of previous research on platform strategy through spider web analysis. This study shows that Web 2.0 firms such as Google, Flickr, and Salesforce.com differ in their competitive capabilities for platform leadership. The result of this research suggests that platform leadership in the Web 2.0 era depends on five interdependent dimensions: innovation ability, connectivity, complementarities, efficiency, and network effects.     

Corporate Social Responsibility and Employee–Company Identification

This study proposes two identification cuing factors (i.e., CSR associations and CSR participation) to understand how corporate social responsibility (CSR) relates to employees’ identification with their firm. The results reveal that a firm’s CSR initiatives increase employee–company identification (E–C identification). E–C identification, in turn, influences employees’ commitment to their company. However, CSR associations do not directly influence employees’ identification with a firm, but rather influence their identification through perceived external prestige (PEP). Compared to CSR associations, CSR participation has a direct influence on E–C identification. On the basis of these findings, it is argued that CSR performance can be an effective way for companies to maintain a positive relationship with their employees.     

An integrated approach for port selection,ship scheduling and financial analysis

Ship routing and scheduling is an important activity for ship operators at both planning and operation levels. Ship operators, as commercial entities, have to closely monitor routing and scheduling in relation to their financial implications. This paper presents an integrated approach for port selection, ship scheduling and financial analysis. It aims to discuss the architecture and the major features of an integrated intelligent system for liner shipping. Currently many liners still perform ship routing and scheduling manually based on professional knowledge and experience. The proposed system is developed with an international liner company and is flexible to account for user inputs according to the real situation in the port selection module. Also the system provides two modes in the scheduling module: automatic and manual. The automatic mode makes use of an optimisation model to find the optimal proforma schedule (PFS). The manual mode allows manual modifications to be performed to accommodate the existing liners to allow for a smooth implementation. The financial analysis module examines the financial consequences of the PFS which are crucial for making commercial decisions. As a whole, the solution algorithm calls for an integrated approach that can integrate data from various sources with different levels of certainties and accuracies, knowledge gained from practical operations and optimisation routines. The system will be useful for ship operators in liner shipping.     

Benchmarking and Transparency: Incentives for the Pharmaceutical Industry’s Corporate Social Responsibility

With over 2 billion people lacking medicines for treatable diseases and 14 million people dying annually from infectious disease, there is undeniable need for increased access to medicines. There has been an increasing trend to benchmark the pharmaceutical industry on their corporate social responsibility (CSR) performance in access to medicines. Benchmarking creates a competitive inter-business environment and acts as incentive for improving CSR. This article investigates the corporate feedback discourses pharmaceutical companies make in response to criticisms from benchmarking reports. It determines whether these responses are part of a healthy process in increasing access to medicines or a barrier to improvement. A qualitative analysis on the feedback the industry provided was performed, and the responses seen in these statements were grouped by analysing the language used, the ideas portrayed and atti-tudes of the companies. Increasing transparency through benchmarking is a powerful tool which reveals the industry’s shortfalls to the public, affects the decisions of socially responsible investors, and is a risk to their financial bottom line. This article demonstrates the importance of benchmarking and transparency in creating inter-business competition and the translation of these responses to actual access to medicine practices.