?Media Events, Globalization and Cultural Change?

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

The effect of seasonal adjustment on the properties of business cycle regimes

We study the impact of seasonal adjustment on the properties of business cycle expansion and recession regimes using analytical, simulation and empirical methods. Analytically, we show that the X‐11 adjustment filter both reduces the magnitude of change at turning points and reduces the depth of recessions, with specific effects depending on the length of the recession. A Monte Carlo analysis using Markov‐switching models confirms these properties, with particularly undesirable effects in delaying the recognition of the end of a recession. However, seasonal adjustment can help to clarify the true regime when this is well underway. These results continue to hold when a seasonally non‐stationary process with regime‐dependent mean is misspecified as one with deterministic seasonal effects. The empirical findings, based on four coincident US business cycle indicators, reinforce the analytical and simulation results by showing that seasonal adjustment leads to the identification of longer and shallower recessions than obtained using unadjusted data. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Stochastic dominance with pair-wise risk aversion

A class of stochastic orders is defined on the set of bivariate distribution functions. This class of orders is linearly orderable by inclusion. A family of utility functions, coherent with each of the stochastic orders previously defined, is determined. These utility functions represent pair-wise risk aversion. The relations with univariate stochastic orders are examined.     

The relevance of the tangible and intangible social impacts of tourism on selected South African communities

Most tourism social impact studies emphasise tangible social impacts such as economic improvement. In developing countries such as South Africa, a small percentage of tangible benefits filter down to community level. This creates a problem as various studies revealed the importance of community support for the sustainability of the tourism industry. Therefore it was important to explore the role of both the tangible and the intangible social impacts of tourism. Communities with established tourism industries (Clarens, Soweto and Jeffreys Bay) formed part of the quantitative research. Through exploratory factor analyses, 31 social impact statements could be categorised into four tangible and two intangible impacts. The tangible factor Economic improvement obtained a low rating, meaning that it was not directly experienced by residents, while the intangible factor Community pride and upliftment obtained the highest rating among all factors. This, together with the fact that community members continue their support for the tourism industry, is a novel find, indicating the significant role of intangible social impacts in fostering community support. This finding shows the importance of incorporating intangible social impacts into tourism planning in developing countries. Contributions are made towards social impact research methodology and literature.     

Transformational tourism as a hero's journey

Transformational tourism is an emerging form of tourism that deserves better attention from researchers and reviewers. This article provides a better understanding of the phenomenon, its varieties and its different stages, drawing on the metaphor of Campbell's archetypical journey of transformation: hero's journey. Using a phenomenological approach, the article tries to shed some light upon the conditions of the touristic experiences that foster transformation. Eight factors were identified: personal situation, being away doing unfamiliar activities, interaction with people, live the moment, difficulty, setting, reflection and integration. The three stages of the hero's journey (departure, initiation and return) are subsequently applied to describe the transformative travel process. The paper concludes with implications for research and professional practice.     

Marking your trade: Cultural factors in the prolongation of trademarks

Trademarks protecting the brand name and associations are crucial in a brand's strategy, but little is known about the factors that determine a trademark's prolongation. To explain the prolongation of trademarks, the research estimated a multilevel hazard model accounting for trademark characteristics, firm's characteristics, and firm's country of origin national culture. The dataset comprises a census of 2911 trademarks in the US software security industry across an eight-year period, belonging to firms originating from 11 countries. The results indicate that a firm's culture of origin has a systematic effect on the types of trademark the firm is more likely to prolong and on the length of the prolongation. The age of the trademark, the number of categories where a particular trademark is present, and the age of the firm increase the likelihood of a trademark's prolongation. Larger and more innovative firms tend to terminate their trademarks earlier.     

Place the good after the bad: effects of emotional shifts on consumer memory

Marketing research has a limited understanding about the effects arising from emotional shifts (i.e., the transition from one emotion to another) during the same advertising message. This paper sheds light on this topic through two studies. Study 1 examines whether an advertising message that features a negative-to-positive emotional shift (i.e., a shift from a negative to a positive emotion) generates greater recall of an advertised brand than an advertising message with a neutral-to-positive emotional shift (i.e., a shift from a neutral to a positive emotion) or one with no emotional shift. Study 2 examines whether an advertising message that simulates a buyer-seller encounter—with the seller reproducing a negative-to-positive emotional shift via facial expressions—generates a greater recall of the advertised content than an identical advertisement with no emotional shift. Results confirm that a negative-to-positive shift facilitates the recall of both the brand and the advertised information.     

Understanding the Racial/Ethnic Gap in Bank Account Ownership among Older Adults

The observed racial/ethnic gap in bank account ownership among older adults is substantial. We investigate socioeconomic, cognitive, and cultural barriers underling it. As additional potential barriers are accounted for, the residual gaps in financial inclusion with respect to Whites are reduced by 19% for blacks and 46% for Hispanics. We find that citizenship and “taste for privacy” play a limited role for both minority groups, while real asset ownership, health, cognitive ability, and cultural hurdles contribute substantially to the gap. For Hispanics, language barriers explain most of the gap, while neighborhood‐level socioeconomic characteristics are more salient for blacks. We also examine how the racial/ethnic composition of couples influences financial decisions. We estimate a significantly smaller residual gap between “mixed” and white couples than between minority and white couples. We provide empirical evidence suggesting that, other things equal, mixed couples are less concerned with the cultural/psychological barriers facing minority couples.     

Trends and Drivers in CSR Disclosure: A Focus on Reporting Practices in the Automotive Industry

This work focuses on corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosure practices of multinational corporations. Based on a longitudinal study of CSR reports of companies operating in the automotive industry, the paper offers a detailed study of how disclosure practices are changing and which principles and approaches influence and drive the development of such disclosure. Based on a four-year report-based study, the findings enable us to identify three main trends in the CSR disclosure strategy of automotive firms. First, in line with the mainstream CSR literature, the present study confirms the trend towards the increasing environmental and social accountability. Second, it adds evidence to the emerging debate regarding the harmonization and standardization of reporting and discusses this aspect by mentioning the standards as exerting some normative pressures within the sector. Finally, it provides evidence on specific links emerging between issues and actors. The implications of this evidence contribute to opening up the debate on CSR disclosure to the possibility of combining the institutional lens with a strategic approach that captures the materiality considerations of CSR disclosure.     

A unified approach to systemic risk measures via acceptance sets

We specify a general methodological framework for systemic risk measures via multidimensional acceptance sets and aggregation functions. Existing systemic risk measures can usually be interpreted as the minimal amount of cash needed to secure the system after aggregating individual risks. In contrast, our approach also includes systemic risk measures that can be interpreted as the minimal amount of cash that secures the aggregated system by allocating capital to the single institutions before aggregating the individual risks. An important feature of our approach is the possibility of allocating cash according to the future state of the system (scenario‐dependent allocation). We also provide conditions that ensure monotonicity, convexity, or quasi‐convexity of our systemic risk measures.