Consumer Acceptance of Interactive Media in Service Marketing Encounters

This study considers a number of factors that could influence consumer acceptance of interactive information systems in complex service marketing situations. Further, it investigates the potential relevance of various theoretical perspectives to research involving new communication media such as videotex and teletext. Technical characteristics of the medium, which determine its degree of interactivity, are found to affect user perceptions of the medium's ‘personalness' or ‘social presence’. Characteristics of both the medium and the user are found to affect consumer acceptance of an interactive medium in a financial services setting.     

Satellite Lore

Ultimately, any decisions on controls for the new broadcasting technologies of tomorrow, and in particular for satellite broadcasting, will be politically inspired. This paper points out, however, that the opportunities for unilateral regulations by any of the 10 EEC Member States are, at least in theory, subject to those countries' obligations under the Treaty of Rome. The paper considers the case law already available from the European Court of Justice, the guardian of the Treaty of Rome's provisions, in the three main areas of concern for satellite broadcasting: copyright, advertising controls and public morality. From the evidence available the authors draw some personal conclusions and make some suggestions as to how the issues might be resolved.     

The Australian Business Cycle: Joe Palooka or Dead Cat Bounce?

We address the question of whether asymmetry in the business cycle and asymmetry in the persistence of negative versus positive shocks characterises Australian output growth. Using nonlinear time series models we provide some evidence consistent with the idea that Australian output growth is characterised by three distinct phases: contractions, high-growth recovery periods and 'normal' or moderate growth periods. This implies that Australian output fluctuations have a significant transitory component and is supportive of the 'output-gaps' view and 'plucking' model view of economic fluctuations. In contrast to recent evidence for the US and Canada however, we find that Australian GDP growth does not exhibit important asymmetries in the responses of output growth to positive and negative shocks.