Principles for international agreement

This article considers the necessity for international agreements on climate and weather modification, the approaches that might be taken in developing them, and their feasibility. The first part outlines the problems which weather-modification techniques will pose for the international community, defines various approaches to these problems, and appraises existing developments in international weather-modification policy. The second part deals with specific measures which might be part of an international agreement on weather modification, and discusses in general the feasibility of these measures.     

Kapitalkostenermittlung – von unverzerrten Schätzern und ­Länderrisikoprämien

PRAXIS | Artikel

Kapitalkostenermittlung – von unverzerrten Sch?tzern und -L?nderrisikopr?mien Dirk Hachmeister/Frederik Ruthardt/Maximilian R?mhild     

Dissociating explicit and implicit effects of cross-media advertising

Knowledge of cross-media advertising effects is mainly based on explicit psychological measures, such as self-reports. To fully understand the mechanisms responsible for the success of cross-media advertising, it is important to also use implicit measures. We used both types of measures to assess whether exposure to different media combinations affects the cognitive and evaluative impact of advertising. Results show that participants performed better on all explicit and implicit measures of memory and brand preference after exposure (versus no exposure) to target ads, which validated the use of these measures. Comparison of cross-media versus single medium exposure showed differences on the explicit level, but not on the implicit level. This suggests (1) that cross-media advantages may be driven by explicit rather than implicit memory mechanisms, and (2) that implicit advertising effects may require more drastic manipulations than context changes, such as varying the combination of media used for exposure to advertising.     

Ist ein Arzt an Bord?

Zusammenfasung  Geburt über den Wolken – und nirgendwo eine Hebamme — Ob im Zug oder Flugzeug: Diese Frage kennen wir alle. Und in den meisten F?llen k?nnen wir uns entspannt zurücklehnen. Doch was ist eigentlich, wenn tats?chlich kein anderer helfen kann und man als Pflegekraft in dieser au?ergew?hnlichen Situation gefordert ist?     

The Pricing of French Unit Seasoned Equity Offerings

Units are bundles of common stock and warrants. By issuing units, firms precommit to a future and uncertain seasoned offering at the exercise price of the warrants. This study shows that the issuance of units seasoned offerings in France is accompanied by significant abnormal returns of on average 9–12%, depending on the computing methods. Underpricing increases with the risk of the issuer and the relative size of the future seasoned equity issue linked to warrant exercises. Our results are consistent with our signaling hypothesis.     

Wheat in the world food economy: Increasing role in developing countries

Wheat is the oldest and most important of the cereal grains in world food supply. In the last two decades the role of wheat in the world food economy has increased substantially, especially in the developing world. This article describes and analyses the role of wheat and highlights and interprets changes that have occurred in the last two decades of rapid change. The authors analyse, in turn, trends in production, consumption, trade and prices with special emphasis on the developing countries.¹ Finally, the authors speculate on how these trends are likely to be effected by future events.     

The role of customization,brand trust,and privacy concerns in advergaming

This study investigates the effects of advergame customization features and trust in the brand advertised in the advergame on players’ brand attitude and personal information disclosure. Moreover, we examine to what extent players’ privacy concerns moderate these effects. Drawing on self-determination theory and uncertainty reduction theory, we developed and tested a game with varying levels of customization features and brand trust. Results show that customization possibilities and brand trust may have a positive influence on advergame persuasion outcomes, but this influence is strongly conditioned by consumers’ privacy concerns. When privacy concerns are low, a game containing customization features leads to a more positive brand attitude. However, when privacy concerns are high, the effect becomes negative. Additionally, we find that different levels of privacy concerns do not affect players’ responses toward high trust brands, but toward low trust brands. For low trust brands, players with high privacy concerns show more negative game responses than players with low concerns. These findings set the boundaries for several theoretical and practical implications regarding advergame effectiveness.