The role of usability on stimulating SME’s on line buying intention: an experiment based on a ficticius web site design

The focus of the present paper was to identify the key role of usability in SME’s Website design. A conceptual model has been proposed to show how buying intention antecedents are reinforced in highly usable contexts. The model is founded on the relationships between usability, perceived risk, pleasure attitudes and buying intention. To test our model an “ideal” fictitious Website was designed by two graphic designers for a non existent small clothing company directed at the segment of middle class consumers. Manipulating the usability of this Website, another week navigable Website was created to apply our model in a different context. This experiment prepared based on the results previously obtained through a qualitative study developed through seven focus groups. Results show that Internet user develops positive attitudes when navigating through simple, fast and orderly (usable) SME’s Websites. This leads to greater buying intentions. Also, as perceived risk decreases the Internet user’s buying intention increases significantly.     

Valuing Credit Spreads on Quality Australian Dollar Eurobonds in a Multivariate EGARCH Framework

We apply a multivariate EGARCH model implied from the closed‐form valuation model of Longstaff and Schwartz (1995), to explain the time‐varying volatility of credit spreads on high‐quality Australian dollar Eurobonds with different maturities. The results support the proposition that relative credit spreads returns are negatively related to both changes in Australian Government bond yields and changes in the All Ordinaries Index. There is also evidence of a high level of volatility interaction and persistence between Australian dollar Eurobonds, though the volatility transmission mechanism is asymmetric in that negative innovations tend to increase the volatility in other bonds more than positive innovations.     

Development and validation of the casino service quality scale: CASERV

With intensifying competition among casino operators, consumers are demanding better services. This research conceptualizes casino service quality as a second-order, four-dimensional construct which assesses casino patrons’ perceptions of service delivery, service environment, food service, and service product. Based upon a rigorous psychometric process of scale development and validation through three studies in the casino setting, the authors propose the CASERV scale as a comprehensive instrument for measuring casino services that is reliable, valid, and distinct from other service quality measures. The paper concludes with discussion of managerial implications and future research directions.     

Testing purchasing power parity in a multivariate cointegrating framework

This paper examines a bilateral PPP(Purchasing power parity) relationship between Australia and the 11 major trading countries by means of two alternative econometric techniques-a multivariate cointegrating framework and a band-spectral regression. It is acknowledged that there is no strong evidence that classical PPP holds in all cases. However, the generalized version of PPP holds in all cases, and provides a better explanation of the long-run relations between exchange rates and relative prices.The use of different price indices, i.e CPI and WPI,lead to different estimates and hence different policy implications.     

Effect of Health and Wellness Values on Festival Visit Motivation

Understanding the motivation to visit particular tourist destinations and festivals is important for building effective tourism marketing strategies. This paper explores the effect of existing health and wellness values on the motivation to visit a festival using a field survey at the Goomeri Pumpkin Festival, a typical Australian festival which uses the natural environment, traditions and local produce to provide 21 events during the festival. The study focused on establishing the relationship between health and wellness values and festival attendees' motivation. Qualitative research with random sampling was selected to collect the data. The results revealed high levels of health and wellness values among the participants as well as social interaction, family togetherness, cultural exploration, novelty, natural environment, relaxation, previous food festival experience and food as motivations. Findings of this paper can contribute to festival tourism marketing especially to demonstrate that health-related interests can be significant catalysts for attracting festival attendees.     

Determinants of cyclical properties of the price-cost margin in US manufacturing industries

Supergame theoretical predictions tell that oligopoly pricing may be procyclical or counter-cyclical. Industry by industry analysis shows that the speed of industry growth and the size of fixed cost are crucial in distinguishing characteristically counter-cyclical industries from procyclical industries. Counter-cyclical industries are characterized by high growth of demand and low fixed costs. Procyclical industries are characterized by low growth of demand and high fixed costs.     

False discoveries in volatility timing of mutual funds

This paper examines the volatility timing of US mutual funds by controlling the false discovery rate to find out how many funds are truly countercyclical (procyclical) timing funds. Empirical results show that, given the whole universe of our sample funds, the percentages of countercyclical and procyclical volatility timing funds are about equal. We also find that while the standard approach, which simply counts the number of significant positive (negative) timing coefficients, does not incorporate false discoveries in volatility timing, it provides quite accurate volatility timing results. Finally, we find that the performance measures for an equally weighted portfolio of procyclical timing funds are greater than for an equally weighted portfolio of countercyclical timing funds in the in-sample test, consistent with our expectation that procyclical timers earn higher returns because they take on more risk. However, the countercyclical timing portfolio outperforms the procyclical timing portfolio in the out-of-sample test.     

Effects of agricultural production fluctuations on the Chinese macroeconomy

Based on a macro-model framed in terms of China's agricultural, industrial, government and household sectors, this paper aims to identify the effects of agricultural production fluctuations on the Chinese macroeconomy over the period 1949–89. Using annual national time-series data, Granger-causality tests indicate that fluctuations in China's agricultural production have been a statistically significant cause of changes in other types of Chinese macroeconomic activity. Impulse response analysis shows that shocks in China's agricultural production were followed by analogous responses in national consumption, industrial output, investment, exports and income which peaked with a two-year lag and vanished after 6 years. Variance decomposition analysis indicates that changes in China's agricultural production were the most important determinant of changes in the level of national consumption and the second most important determinant of changes in the level of industrial production, national investment, exports and national income.