Earlier financial literacy and later financial behaviour of college students

This study examined the association of earlier financial literacy and later financial behaviour of college students. Financial literacy was measured by both subjective and objective knowledge and financial behaviours were categorized into risky paying and borrowing behaviours. Based on data collected at two time points from a panel of college students at a major state university in the USA, the results showed that the association between earlier knowledge and later financial behaviours differed by the specific type of knowledge (subjective vs. objective), with stronger effect of subjective knowledge, compared with objective knowledge on both composite and individual measures of risky borrowing and paying behaviours. We found that only subjective knowledge was correlated with a reduction in both composite behaviours. Both subjective and objective knowledge, however, reduced some specific risky paying and borrowing behaviours. Finally, we found consistent differences for two of the control variables: higher GPA (Grade Point Average) was associated with fewer risky paying behaviours; and gender (male vs. female) was associated with more of both types of risky behaviours.     

Beyond Self‐Evident: Recognising the Problematic Political Context of Accrual Accounting Adoption in South Korea

This paper responds to a recent call by researchers that we need to move beyond both advocacy of and technical arguments about the value of accrual accounting to more fully recognise the institutional forces, key change agents and the local political fields. We draw on elements of institutional theory and the practice theory of Pierre Bourdieu to explore the ‘problematic’ aspects of institutional forces, key organisational change agents and the local political field associated with the adoption of accrual accounting in the South Korean public sector. We found that accrual accounting was driven by many factors including a local financial scandal, the advocacy of a civil society group and the ambitions and the ideology of key actors. The contribution of this paper is that it shows how the practices of accounting cannot be separated from their political and personal context.     

Processing Anti-smoking Ads among College Students: The Role of Emotional Response and Level of Smoking

ABSTRACT

The protection motivation model has contributed usefully to researchers’ understanding of fear appeals in advertising. However, the empirical evidence reported to date in the literature has been mixed. An overview of literature reveals that the effect of emotional response and personal difference has not been explored as often as fear in health care marketing. The present study focused on this emotion in a context of antismoking advertisements. Based on the protection motivation theory, a modified structural model was proposed including emotional response and personal difference. Model was tested using college students in United States and Korea.     

Creating Online Brand Personality: The Role of Personal Difference

This study explores the concept of online brand personality, creation of online brand personality, and the role of personal difference in terms of advertising effectiveness – memory and attitude. The primary research question is whether individual's matching personality to online brand creates different responses toward online brand in terms of advertising effectiveness, such as memory, attitude and behavior. The results found that: first, website structure is an important factor on subjects' attitude toward the website; second, individual's personality is an important moderator on the effects of website structure; and third, individual's personality and brand personality have a significant interaction effect on attitude and behavioral intention.     

A Study on the Moderating Role of Alternative Attractiveness in the Relationship Between Relational Benefits and Customer Loyalty

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study was to investigate the moderating role of alternative attractiveness in the association between relational benefits (confidence benefits, social benefits, special treatments) and customer loyalty in hotel restaurants in South Korea. Data were collected from 250 hotel restaurant customers.

The data was analyzed using moderated regression analysis and subgroup analysis. The research findings are as follows: First, confidence benefits and special treatments positively affect customer loyalty. Second, alternative attractiveness has a homologizer moderating effect on the relationship between relational benefits and customer loyalty except for confidence benefits. At the end of the paper, theoretical contributions, managerial implications, limitations, and future research directions are discussed.     

Paying to queue: a theory of locational differences in nonunion wages

Traditional theories of the effect unions have on nonunion wages are difficult to reconcile with firm and worker mobility. We show how differences in nonunion wages can persist in a two-city search model. Nonunion wage differences across cities are driven by transition rates into the union sector. Should union queues form in the nonunion sector, union power decreases nonunion wages as workers are willing to take lower wages to line up for union jobs. However, if queues are formed in the unemployed sector, union power increases nonunion wages as nonunion firms pay premiums to induce workers to leave the queue.     

How Feasible is Carbon Sequestration in Korea? A Study on the Costs of Sequestering Carbon in Forest

In recent years, carbon sequestration has become a more attractive policy in Korea due to the increasing trend of marginal cropland and enhanced public awareness on adverse climate change phenomena. This study aims to calculate the unit costs of carbon sequestration programs through afforestation in Korea and examine the cost-effectiveness of programs. The basis of our simulation is an econometric land use share model, and province level of aggregated panel data are used for model estimation. Four scenarios are considered depending on whether the program includes the harvest and which tree species are planted. The approach of sequestration program is to pay the landowners to convert their lands to forest for a period of time in exchange of fixed annual payment in addition to tree establishment cost. Our results show that the unit cost varies from $122 to $486 per ton of carbon stored depending on the scenarios and payment levels. We found that the carbon sequestration can be a cost-effective mitigation policy in Korea although it is not the least cost option.     

BEVQUAL: a tool for measuring performance quality in beverage operations

The main objective of this study was to develop an instrument to measure the multidimensional nature of performance quality in beverage establishments. This study was based on a sequential exploratory mixed methods design. Interviews with beverage managers and customer focus groups were conducted to create an initial instrument. After that, 405 customers were surveyed, and the final BEVQUAL instrument was developed, including six dimensions that were measured with 23 items. Atmosphere, service quality, and pricing were shown to be good predictors of customer satisfaction, while ambiance, beverage quality, and location did not affect customer satisfaction.     

基于Fishbein合理行为模型的国家形象对中国消费者购买意向影响研究——以美、德、日、韩四国国家形象为例

This study finds that Chinese consumers’ perception of country image can be divided into four dimensions: appraisal of the relationship with China, degree of country development, general product appraisal, and general people appraisal. The items in these four dimensions vary for different countries. The study incorporates country image into the Fishbein’s model, and finds good fitness between the model and data, which suggests that the Fishbein’s model has good generalizability and cross-culture adaptability. Results show that country image has no direct impact on purchase intention; instead, it impacts on consumers’ purchase intention indirectly through the effects on functional appraisal and symbolic appraisal, brand attitude and subjective norm. The effect of country image on purchase intention varies for different products. Specifically, the effect of country image on purchase intention of apparel is greater than that of cell phone, and that on purchase intention of car is the lowest.     

On the Economics of Callback Services

This paper investigates the economic effects of callback services, an issue which has previously brought much disputes and conflicts. Whereas the existence of callback services has been attributed to a rate disparity between countries, we show that it can arise either from the inefficiency of domestic markets or from the accounting rate which is far from cost-based. Although callback service is an inefficient means of utilizing resources, its introduction may lead the international telephony markets in an efficient direction when inefficiencies exist in the market. It also helps us understand why conflicts occur among the agents with respect to the legitimacy of callback services by comparing the international telephony markets before and after the introduction of callback services.