The Moderating Effects of Resident Characteristics on Perceived Gaming Impacts and Gaming Industry Support: The Case of Macao

Based on a joint use of social exchange and social representation theories, this study examined the moderating effects of resident characteristics on the relationships between perceived gaming impacts, gaming benefits, and industry support. The findings demonstrated that the relationships changed when the resident characteristics (age, education, tourism industry dependence, and community attachment) were introduced to the structural model as moderators. The study provides a better understanding of which subgroup of people within a community are more or less disposed to certain impacts of gaming. The theoretical and practical implications were discussed.     

Accounting for the recent surge in U.S. patenting: changes in R&D expenditures,patent yields,and the high tech sector

We decompose the recent patent increase into components representing (1) an increase in resources made available to research and development, (2) an across-the-board rise in the patent yield of an R&D dollar, and (3) changes in the patent yield in individual industries. Two high tech fields, computer hardware and pharmaceuticals, account for 22 percent of the patent increase. While these two industries had the fastest R&D growth among the industries we study, the pharmaceutical industry experienced a decline in its patent yield, limiting its patent growth. We show that increased R&D spending accounts for 70 percent of the patent increase. We discuss our results in the context of alternative hypotheses of the patent surge. We also compare our results to the anecdotal evidence of firm R&D performance at the industry level.     

Error Reduction in Distributed DSS Through Coordination of Modeling Activities: Simulation Study

It is well known that the “lemon” problem can cause market failure. Because difficulties in quality discovery of nonstandardized and complex products will increase transaction costs, it was predicted that the “electronic market” would prevail only with less complex and more standardized goods. However, it has been observed that there are many successful electronic (auction) markets for seemingly typical “lemon” goods such as used cars, raw minerals, and agricultural products. It is argued that in such markets, the equilibrium price of electronic trading appeared higher than in the nonelectronic market. Many speculative explanations have been offered for this, but to the best of our knowledge, no analytical studies have been presented. This study is an attempt to fill this gap. In this paper, we look at the problem of quality discovery in the electronic trading of physical goods especially when the goods are not standardized. The information asymmetry between buyer and seller creates the possibility of a “lemon” in the nonstandardized market. To mitigate this problem, several auction markets have devised third party quality grading systems and limited auctions to only relatively higher quality products. Through analytical modeling, we rationalize these mechanisms; that is, the intervention of an impartial third party for quality inspection, market segmentation by quality measure, and the sellers' willingness to pay the cost of quality inspection.     

Effects beyond click-through: Incidental exposure to web advertising

While Web advertising tends to be based on a direct response model, there is a growing debate about the brand building potentials of Web ads. Click-through rates (CTR) are disappointingly low, but Web ads can be effective at brand building in an environment where Web ads are outside of consumers' attentional focus. With this in mind we conducted two experiments. The first experiment examined the effects of incidental exposure to banner ads. Subjects who were incidentally exposed to banner ads reported greater priming effects induced by implicit memory, more favorable A_ad, and greater likelihood for the advertised brand to be included in a consideration set over no exposure to the ad. These effects were found without significant improvement on explicit memories (i.e. recall and recognition) and click-through intention. The second experiment to assess the conditions conducive to incidental exposure examined two advertising strategies: format (animated vs. static) and placement (congruency vs. incongruency). Findings suggest that the level of congruency between an advertised product and Webpage content play significant roles in affecting consumers' responses to incidentally exposed banner ads. This paper examines the results of these two experiments before discussing the implications for the role of Web ads on brand building and directions for future research.     

Cooperative pricing and scale efficiency: The case of Korean rice processing complexes

Unlike most investor‐owned enterprises, cooperatives often have freedom to choose among a variety of firm objectives. Using 2002–2008 plant‐ and province‐level data, we ask in the present article which of several alternative maximands a Korean cooperative rice processing firm pursues. In contrast to earlier studies, farmer‐member supply functions are incorporated into the cooperative's optimization framework. We show that only large cooperative firms have operated at efficient scale, while small and medium‐sized ones have been scale‐inefficient. Because the latter operate where scale returns are increasing, mergers of small and medium‐sized cooperatives likely would be cost‐reducing and member‐return‐enhancing.     

Revisiting Determinants of Convention Participation Decision Making

In the midst of the unprecedented economic downturn, attracting a large number of attendees at annual conventions is more challenging than ever for associations and meeting planners. In order to boost attendance, an organization must understand what would be the factors affecting convention participation decision of potential delegates, and what would be the reasons to put a particular convention on the top of their must-attend list. This article empirically validated the key determinants of convention participation decision making that had arisen from previous studies, and further examined the relative influence of each factor on the convention participation intention. Four determinants were identified (networking, destination, travelability, education), and they are largely in line with the major factors that had been suggested in the extant literature. The findings of the study showed that “networking” and “travelability” factors significantly influenced the convention participation intention of the survey respondents. Several implications and convention marketing strategies for associations and meeting planners were discussed.     

Trends in the use of statistics in major advertising journals over four decades

The use of statistical techniques in data-based articles appearing in the International Journal of Advertising, Journal of Advertising, Journal of Advertising Research and Journal of Current Issues & Research in Advertising was analysed over four decade intervals (i.e., 1980s, 1990s, 2000s and 2010s) and by journal. Among the trends, the study found: (1) nearly seven of every 10 journal articles reported statistical analyses (68.8% or 541 of 786); (2) the trend for statistically based articles was remarkably consistent over the time intervals and held true for the different advertising journals with one exception; (3) the use of different statistical techniques changed over time, with statistical techniques becoming more diverse and sophisticated through the years, but more so in some advertising journals than in others; (4) statistics were correctly applied in the majority of the research reports relative to ‘study purpose’; (5) the use of different statistical techniques varied by method of data collection generally and within articles appearing in three of the four journals; and (6) the presence or absence of hypotheses and/or research questions in the advertising studies was differentially associated with the application of different statistics. The inquiry serves to move advertising research forward in two ways: first, it documents how statistical analyses have changed over time and, second, it provides insight into where the field might be headed regarding the use of statistical techniques.     

Consumers’ preferences for the attributes of post-PC: results of a contingent ranking study

With the explosive growth of the internet and the change in consumer demand, post-PC is emerging as a substitute for the existing desktop PC and laptop PC. post-PC is a new computer which is portable with wireless networking, cheaper than the existing PC and specializing in the specific functions that consumers want. Rudimentary post-PCs such as PDA, web-pad and smart-phone are already in use. In the future, owing to technological progress, the heterogeneity of related companies and the low entry barrier, various post-PCs will be developed. This paper attempts to analyse consumers’ willingness-to-pay (WTP) for post-PC with such attributes as portability, CPU speed, data input method (using key board or electric pen), monitor size, and price. To this end, a contingent ranking method is applied, which makes the respondents rank hypothetical post-PC alternatives featuring various combinations of attributes, via a survey data collected in Korea. Using the estimated WTP, the shape and the capacity of future post-PC are predicted and policy implications drawn for national- and company-level R&D strategies.