Profiling potential green electricity tariff adopters: green consumerism as an environmental policy tool?

Green electricity tariffs are one means by which green consumers can contribute to a more sustainable future. This paper profiles potential adopters of green electricity tariffs. Potential adoption is measured in terms of respondents' willingness to pay a premium for green energy in a national survey of the UK population. Hypotheses based principally on the cognitive–behavioural literature on green consumerism and green energy markets are developed. These are tested using a broad range of variables, which are grouped into three categories (demographic, attitudinal and behavioural). Consistent with past research, the empirical analyses find that attitudinal variables best characterize potential adopters. Further, potential adopters are found to have higher income, be better informed with respect to energy matters, show concern for the environment and believe that individual actions can make a difference to environmental decay. The implications of these findings for marketing and environmental policy are explored. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

A Political Economy Application of the “Tragedy of the Anticommons”: The Greek Government Debt Crisis

The tragedy of the anticommons unfolds when separate social agents—be they private owners of a property who intend to use the property for their own economic benefit or political actors who pursue their political objectives—do not hold effective rights to use their economic or political power for their own purposes without consent of the other players of the economic or political game. I shall discuss the Greek government debt crisis and the Eurozone countries’ policies toward Greece within the analytical framework of the tragedy of the anticommons in this paper. I do not intend to dig deep into the structure and long-term trends of public and private finances in Greece. I shall only show that the successive bail-out programs of the Eurozone countries were doomed to fail because of these countries’ competitive and non-cooperative approach to the Greek financial problems. I shall also show that a coordinating agency, say the IMF, can foster the coordinated outcome only under strict informational conditions.     

Trade Liberalization and Heterogeneous Technology Investments

We propose a trade model where heterogeneous firms decide on a productivity‐enhancing technology investment. The model analyzes the impact of multilateral trade liberalization on firm‐ and industry‐level productivity. Freer trade increases the incentives to invest in technology by raising export profits. It also dampens these incentives, however, as profits stemming from domestic sales are reduced. Only exporters benefit from the former positive effect. The shape of the distribution of efficiency draws, the level of trade costs and the technology intensity of the industry are key elements removing the ambiguities regarding the net impact of trade liberalization.     

Design beyond complexity: Possible futures—Prediction or design? (and techniques and tools to make it possible)

This paper is an attempt to discuss the concepts of complexity and complex social system and their relation with the concepts of design and design activity. It is argued that a design cannot appear as an emergent property out of such systems, since it presupposes intentionality. However, to a certain extent, complex (social) systems need to be governed by means of design. Even if design requires prediction, which in our opinion is impossible in strict sense in case of social systems, there are two important conditions for a “good design”, namely, to look at the past, and to look at the future. After this general discussion, the paper provides a few suggestions on how to do the former without prejudices, and presents an effective technique for doing the latter without illusions.     

一种转型理论

在这篇短评中,我将对孙立平富有启发性的文章,“社会转型：发展社会学的新议题”,做些补充而不是批评。我对孙的文章大都同意,我不想详细讨论我们之间多数是在术语使用上的分歧,而想强调我们在分析上的共同点。     

Sex,education, and unionism: demographic determinants of attitude toward japanese direct investment

This article reports the findings of a major survey of Ohio residents’ attitudes toward Japanese foreign direct investment in the United States. Attitudinal data were collected from 448 respondents with respect to their perceptions of Japanese investment in the United States and its effects. Crosstabulation of the data reveal the existence of significant attitudinal differences. Specifically, sex, educational level, and union membership are found to be significantly related to attitudes regarding Japanese foreign direct investment Women, individuals with lower levels of education, and union members hold more negative attitudes toward several aspects of Japanese foreign direct investment than the state's population as a whole.     

Antecedents of Taiwan Chinese Consumers’ Purchase Intentions Toward U.S.- and Japanese-Made Household Appliances

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this article is to understand the factors influencing Taiwan's Chinese consumers’ purchase intentions toward U.S. and Japanese household appliances. The authors attempt to develop and test a comprehensive model linking such purchase intentions to several constructs including Taiwan Chinese consumers’ openness to foreign cultures, consumer nationalism, product familiarity, traditional cultural values orientation, and product-country image. The result of analysis using structural equation modeling shows that consumer nationalism has a strong indirect effect on purchase intention via the product-country image construct. Taiwan Chinese consumers’ traditional cultural values orientation and openness to foreign cultures have direct effects on consumer nationalism and, hence, are important antecedents in explaining the purchase intentions toward foreign-made goods by Taiwan Chinese consumers. With the growing importance of the Chinese domestic market, this study provides international marketing managers with practical implications in important areas such as market segmentation, branding strategy, and market research and practices in the Chinese consumer market.     

RETRACTED ARTICLE: Compliance as a Cost-Effective System of Interaction Between Business and Government

Journal of Business Ethics -     

The FTC's handling of puffery and other selling claims made “by implication”

The Federal Trade Commission's handling of alleged false advertising representations that are made by implication is examined. Alleged false advertising presentations are held to be implied to the public by the advertiser even though they are not literally stated in his advertisement. The FTC has extended its reach over this kind of misrepresentation in recent years. Cases for 1970–76 are identified, and a catalog is developed of ten types of implications that have been attacked as deceptive during this period. Some, such as the Expansion Implication, are types established as deceptive in earlier years; others, such as the Reasonable Basis Implication, were not attacked prior to the 1970s. Some types, such as the Uniqueness Implication, have been given considerable publicity; others, such as the Inconspicuous Context Implication, are newly categorized in this paper. The consequences of FTC's identification of these types of implications, and of its growing attention to the possibility of misrepresentation by implication, are discussed in detail. A prediction is offered that attention to implications will continue to increase for some time in the future. Puffery is discussed as a category which the FTC might recognize in the future as a type of implied misrepresentation; a rationale is offered for regulating such claims. The role of the researcher is examined, using the assumption that greater attention to misrepresentation that extends beyond a message's literal meaning will produce a greater need for research. The researcher will have attractive opportunities for such work, but will have to confront the problem that playing an advocacy role in legal proceedings may involve significant conflicts with the impartial role that is appropriate for the academic researcher.     

Bank monitoring: Evidence from syndicated loans

We directly measure banks’ monitoring of syndicated loans. Banks typically demand borrower information on at least a monthly basis. About 20% of loans involve active monitoring (i.e., site visits or third-party appraisals). Monitoring increases with the lead bank’s incentives and the value of information and is negatively associated with loan spreads and maturity. The monitoring captured by our measures can either complement or substitute for covenant-based monitoring, depending on whether the monitoring informs covenant compliance. Banks increase monitoring following deteriorations in borrower financial condition and credit line drawdowns. Finally, monitoring is positively related to future covenant violations and loan renegotiations.