Education systems and the formation of societal consensus on justice

We scrutinize whether the consensus on economic justice prevailing in a society is shaped by institutions, especially by education systems. We argue that social cohesion is ensured by the magnitude of consensus on justice rather than its content. Thus, we take the magnitude of consensus as our dependent variable abstracting it from its content. We examine the impact of various institutions on this variable by using set-theory based arguments, bootstrapping and multivariate models. The findings suggest that the sense of justice in society is significantly shaped by the institutional characteristics of the education system.     

Determinants of a Relational Exchange Orientation in the Marketing-Manufacturing Interface: an Empirical Investigation

During the last decade, both marketing managers and researchers have focused heavily on interorganizational exchange relationships. In this paper we apply the concept of relational exchange to the intra-organizational exchange relationship between the marketing and manufacturing functions. We apply a relational exchange instrument consisting of four dimensions (trust, bonding, empathy and reciprocity) to the marketing-manufacturing interface and conduct an empirical investigation in order to validate the use of such an instrument in this setting. We find that the relational exchange scale consists of four components of a relational exchange orientation that are both theoreticallymeaningful and empirically discrete. In addition, we identify five determinants(resource dependence, communication difficulties, procedural fairness,interfunctional rivalry and interfunctional distance) and explore how these determinants influence the individual dimensions of the relational exchange orientation. We report a number of differences between the marketing and manufacturing functions with regards to the impact of aforementioned determinants and relational exchange orientation dimensions.     

国有商业银行实施现金管理服务的具体构想

客户对银行现金管理服务的需求受经济和技术环境的影响,在不同时期呈现出了不同的特点,银行现金管理服务的内涵和实现手段也随之发生变化.在今后很长的一段时期内,基于电子银行平台开展现金管理服务将是银行现金管理服务的主流.作为银行实施现金管理服务的基础平台,电子银行在现金管理实施中具有独特的优势.从某种意义上讲,商业银行的现金管理业务体现的是一种客户需求、一种银企关系变化和进步的趋势,是一个具有持续发展能力的过程.基于此,国有商业银行实现现金管理要有战略规划,要抓住实施平台和支撑机制这两个重点,分阶段稳步推进.     

Reconsidering the Role of Fit in Celebrity Endorsement: Associative‐Propositional Evaluation (APE) Accounts of Endorsement Effectiveness

This study is designed to fill any explanatory gaps that have been traditionally underexplored when considering the interplay of implicit/automatic/unconscious and explicit/deliberate/conscious attitudes in the context of celebrity endorsement. The main experiment employed single target‐implicit association test as a measure of implicit attitudes. The key finding of the study is that the experimental condition where the fit between the celebrity and the endorsed product was low induced favorable implicit and explicit attitudes, similar to the condition where the fit was high. The explanation for this finding was that dissonance enhanced the association strength of the attitude object through biased attention and elaboration, which provided a basis for favorable propositions. In propositional reasoning, retroactive confirmation of the favorable implicit attitudes resolved dissonance. This study seeks to go beyond the existing endorsement and sponsorship literature developed based on matching principles such as source models, match‐up hypothesis, the congruity theory, and associative network models. The authors recommend that managers search for more creative and novel partners in addition to image‐matching ones.     

Legal and Institutional Determinants of Factoring in SMEs: Empirical Analysis across 25 European Countries

Weak protection of the rights of financiers intensifies agency problems in SME financing, inhibiting the optimal provision of credit necessary to grow and innovate. We use a survey data set of 4,348 SMEs from 25 European countries to analyze whether the use of factoring as a form of SME financing is less dependent on low quality of laws and institutions. We do so analyzing whether the use of factoring by SMEs differs across countries due to differences in the legal protection of creditors. Our findings indicate that firms operating in countries with legal environments that weakly protect the rights of creditors, with political instability or high enforcement costs, are more likely to use factoring. Managers of riskier and opaque companies operating in such inefficient environments can use the results of this study to better understand that there are suitable options to complement bank financing. Managers who seek loans can use the results to diversify their financing structure through the use of factoring. Since factoring can be used as a complement to bank loans or as a substitute for bank financing, it is important that policy makers take our results into account when revising policies concerning access to external financing.     

Comparison of benefits of radio frequency identification: Implications for business strategic performance in the U.S. and Korean retailers

This study explores a model to compare the benefits of RFID technology on supply chain management by focusing on retail industry. A path model was estimated to examine structural relationships among technological infrastructure, RFID benefits, and business strategic performance in the U.S. (n = 70) and Korean samples (n = 87). Result showed that technological infrastructure was required to more improve inventory management, store operation and demand management, leading to business strategic performance. Especially, data system automation was perceived as a prerequisite for improving inventory management for both countries. Hardware/software application was significantly related to the RFID benefit of inventory management for U.S. retailers, whereas, it was related to the benefits of efficient store operation and demand management for Korean retailers. Business strategic performance was significantly determined by RFID benefit factors (e.g., inventory management and demand management) for U.S. retailers and Korean retailers. The managerial implication for business to business strategic performance in the U.S. and Korean retail industries was discussed from a retailer's perspective.     

Employee Participation in Cause-Related Marketing Strategies: A Study of Management Perceptions from British Consumer Service Industries

The purpose of cause-related marketing (CRM) is to publicise and capitalise on a firm??s corporate social performance (CSP) by enhancing its legitimacy in the eyes of its stakeholders. This study focuses on the firm??s internal stakeholders ?C i.e. its employees ?C and the extent of their involvement in the selection of social campaigns. Whilst the difficulties of managing a firm that has lost or damaged its legitimacy in the eyes of its employees are well known, little is understood about the extent to which managers and their social partners listen to and involve their employees in the legitimation process. Through telephone interviews with non-profit organisations and senior managers of service sector firms, the extent of employee involvement in CRM campaigns and the perceived benefits of doing so are investigated.?Amongst other things, we find that (i) the extent of employee participation varies significantly across firms; (ii) larger CRM campaigns tend to be managed centrally with relatively less employee participation than smaller ones and (iii) financial services firms are more likely to make CRM decisions centrally, with relatively less employee participation than retail services firms.     

Market Microstructure and Real Estate Returns

This paper examines the Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) market microstruc-ture and its relationship to stock returns. When compared with the general stock market, REIT stocks tend to have a lower level of institutional investor participation and are followed by fewer security analysts. In addition, REIT stocks that have a higher percentage of institutional investors or are followed by more security analysts tend to perform better than other REIT stocks. Our results seem to confirm Jensen's ( 1993 , p. 868) proposition that ownership structure (that is, who owns the firm's securities) affects the value of the firm. Our findings also have implications about the well documented phenomenon that the financial performance of Commingled Real Estate Funds (CREFs) is better than that of REITs.     

Optimal Comparable Selection and Weighting in Real Property Valuation: An Extension

Vandell (1991) recently developed a rigorous minimum variance technique for selecting and weighting comparables in real estate appraisal. This article extends Vandell's methodology in three areas: (1) an alternative objective function; (2) an approach that explicitly recognizes the non-negativity constraint on comparable weights; and, (3) a more robust comparable inclusion process. Using Vandell's data, we show how our methodology modifies Vandell's results.