Addressing the Advertising of Controversial Products in China: An Empirical Approach

China is a country that has undertaken a great transformation since the late 1970’s, and among these changes, has seen a massive growth in the advertising industry with the influx of foreign advertisers, and the development of regional and global media, such as satellite television and the Internet. This has resulted in the Chinese people of all ages having a greater opportunity of exposure to different types of advertising, including the advertising of potentially controversial products, which could clash with traditional Chinese values. Using a stakeholder theory approach, this study analyzes the responses of 630 Chinese respondents to discover who is offended by controversial advertisements and determine ways potentially offensive advertising messages can be reduced, thereby assisting marketers in being more socially responsible in their advertising messages.     

Russia and the global intellectual services markets

The incipient process of intellectualization of global development is described and the role and behavior of intellectual (nonmaterial) services in the world economic relations is presented. Russia’s position on global nonmaterial service markets is analyzed in comparison with other countries. The scope for utilization of the Russian scientific, educational and other intellectual potential in its foreign economic activities is expounded.     

The effect and moderation of gender identity congruity: Utilizing “real women” advertising images

The present article examines the predictive ability of gender identity congruity in explaining women's responses to advertising appeals. The contributions of the article are twofold: (1) to demonstrate whether advertisements that are congruent with female consumers' gender identities elicit strong positive responses and (2) to identify the factors that moderate/mediate the impact of gender identity congruity on consumer responses to advertisements. The research findings provide evidence of the ability of gender identity congruity to elicit positive responses to advertising appeals. The relationship between gender identity congruity and responses to the advertisement is mediated by advertising involvement. The moderating roles of national culture, physical concern, and physical view are also supported. Overall, the congruity theory provides a powerful framework to examine consumer responses to gender portrayals in advertising. ©2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

AN AXIOMATIZATION OF QUANTILES ON THE DOMAIN OF DISTRIBUTION FUNCTIONS

In an environment in which the primitive is the space of distribution functions, we characterize the quantile functions by the axioms ordinal covariance, monotonicity with respect to first-order stochastic dominance, and upper semicontinuity. We show how to characterize the VaR in a similar manner.     

Prospective Changes in Tax Law and the Value of Depreciable Real Estate

The Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981 significantly reduced the taxation of income-producing properties by accelerating tax depreciation on both new and, especially, existing properties. A partial reversal of the 1981 legislation appears likely. To provide some insight into the possible effects of a decrease in tax depreciation of income-producing properties, two potential tax changes are analyzed: an increase from fifteen to twenty years in the tax service lives of both new and existing properties and an increase for existing properties only. Both residential and commercial/industrial properties are considered.     

Evaluating the effect of soft business support upon small firm performance

The paper applies robust econometric techniques to assess theimpact of publicly-provided subsidised ‘soft’ businesssupport on the performance of small and medium-sized enterprises(SMEs). It considers the assistance for consultancy advice providedtowards marketing under the UK Enterprise Initiative, lookingat its effect on sales turnover, employment and survival, andmaking explicit allowance for selection effects. It is foundthat the policy has no impact on the survival of smaller SMEs,and that it is most effective in the mid-range SMEs, where itraises survival rates by about 4% over the longer run and growthrates in surviving firms by up to 10% per annum. Overall, thescheme has a substantial impact, but the paper draws attentionto the possible displacement effects.     

RECENT FINANCIAL AND ACCOUNTABILITY CHANGES IN GENERAL PRACTICE: AN UNHEALTHY INTRUSION INTO MEDICAL AUTONOMY?

Recently General Medical Practice has been inundated with a range of financial and accountability changes. These imposed changes have been welcomed with considerable resentment by General Practitioners (GPs hereafter). This paper explores some of the key historical and contextual reasons for this resentment. The conclusion is that it is traceable to firstly, the nature of these reforms, which are seen as irrelevant at best or, at worst, run counter to the values and concerns of GPs, and secondly, and related to this, to the perceived inappropriate intrusion into medical autonomy by a Government whose forbears were previously enabling such freedom.     

Maximizing the potential of your systems

In the last two decades, manufacturing businesses throughout the United States have learned that the most important way to ensure the maximum potential of their manufacturing systems when implementing manufacturing resource planning is how they approach the implementation itself--not just their choice of or expenditure for software.