The Impact of the Interaction of Utilitarian and Informational Reinforcement and Behavior Setting Scope on Consumer Response

The influence of the environment on the emotional responses and behaviors of consumers has been well established in the consumer behavior literature. The Behavioral Perspective Model (BPM) assumes that utilitarian reinforcement, informational reinforcement, and consumer behavior setting scope are independent dimensions of environmental influence, which can combine in particular consumption situations to produce consumer behavior. This paper empirically examines the possibility of interactions among these dimensions by means of the pleasure, arousal, and dominance (PAD) emotional variables. The PAD variables have been shown to mediate consumer behaviors such as the desire to stay or escape from the setting, to affiliate with others, and the willingness to spend money and consume. The results, showing an interaction between pleasure and arousal in high‐pleasure environments, which then leads to increased approach behavior, seem to confirm the synergistic effects of utilitarian reinforcement and informational reinforcement on behavior. This study appears to be the first to find and investigate a three‐way interaction between pleasure, arousal, and dominance in the context of purchase and consumption. This interaction suggests that the three structural dimensions of the BPM combine to produce consumer behavior. It also highlights the important role of consumer behavior setting scope in consumer situations maintained by intermediate patterns of reinforcement. The implications of these findings for theory and marketing management are discussed.     

违约可得利益赔偿证据研究

在我国合同法司法实践中,一般情况下所受损害都能较为顺利地得到赔偿,而法院却很少判决赔偿可得利益损失,原告实际得到的赔偿通常只是其要求的一部分.这里的部分原因在于,由所失利润构成的可得利益往往缺乏证据或法院对相关证据的认定存在较大争议.为适应市场经济发展的需要,有必要借鉴大陆法系、英美法系两大法系的经验,突破传统证据确定规则的束缚,对守约方给予充分的救济,降低违约可得利益赔偿的证明标准,扩大违约可得利益赔偿的证据种类,如原告以往的业绩、原告的利润预测、原告在其他场合的业绩、他人的类似业绩、被告后来的业绩等.     

A model for evaluating the effectiveness of middle managers' training courses: evidence from a major banking organization in Greece

Contemporary management thinking embraces the organizational training theory that sustainable success rests, to a great extent, upon a systematic evaluation of training interventions. However, the evidence indicates that few organizations take adequate steps to assess and analyse the quality and outcomes of their training. The authors seek to develop the existing literature on training evaluation by proposing a new model, specific to management training, which might encourage more and better evaluation by practitioners. Their thesis is that training evaluation is best if it can be based on criteria derived from the objectives of the training and they draw on the management effectiveness literature to inform their proposed model. The study seeks to examine the effect of six evaluation levels – reactions, learning, job behaviour, job performance, organizational team performance and some wider, societal effects – in measuring training interventions with regard to the alterations to learning, transfer and organizational impact. The model was tested with data obtained from 190 middle managers employed by a large banking organization in Greece and the results suggest that there is considerable consistency in the evaluation framework specified. The paper discusses these results and draws conclusions about their practical implications. The study's limitations are considered and some future research needs identified.     

谈招标投标活动应注意的几个关键问题

我国《招标投标法》颁布施行已有10年,促使项目法人责任制、招标投标制和合同管理制日臻成熟,进入稳步发展阶段,加快了我国经济的市场化进程。但是,这项法规在我国尚属新生事物,对此,文章就招标投标活动应该注意的几个关键性问题,提出自己的见解。     

西方文明与经济全球化

近代西方文明的发展表现出对世界经济的深刻影响力，全球化成为了不以人们意志为转移的历史趋势。在全球化的背景下，西方文化加紧了对外扩张的步伐，而其实质则是利益的扩张。清醒地认识这一点，是我们在文化发展中既顺应文化融合的大潮，超越狭隘的民族局限，积极与世界沟通对话；同时又不受制于西方文化扩张的影响，熔东西方文明于一炉，从而为世界经济的发展提供不竭动力，并使经济全球化的进程沿着我们所期待的方向发展的前提。     

A Study of the Attitude toward Convergent Products: A Focus on the Consumer Perception of Functionalities

The convergent product is an increasingly important phenomenon in the marketplace. The convergent product allows the developer to include more and more diverse functionalities into their products, which can satisfy a broad range of consumer needs. However, failures of convergent products arouse the need to understand its functionalities, and the optimal combination of functionalities and their relationships to attitude and purchase intention. In addition, because convergent product has the potential to offer more diverse functionality, we consider if this will have impacts on instrumental and emotional needs fulfillment and attitude and purchase intention. Additionally, consumer innovativeness was examined to ascertain if there were differences among consumers on their classification of the functionalities, or if it will moderate functional diversity, needs fulfillment, and product attitude. Using the Kano model, this study examined the nature of these relationships by examining the functionalities of a smartphone. Overall, our results show that the convergent products that include functionalities from two of the three categories of the Kano model, must‐have and attractive, were rated more positively. Consumer innovativeness differences were found. Consumers with high innovativeness considered must‐have and one‐dimensional functionalities the most important, and consumers with low innovativeness considered all three important, although one‐dimensional functionalities were considered significantly less important. Although increasing functional diversity positively raises product attitude and purchase intention, it tends to raise emotional needs fulfillment only once instrumental needs have been met, especially for respondents showing low innovativeness. The findings should arouse interest about factors that should not be overlooked when developing new convergent products.     

人民币汇率波动对NFDI波动的影响及其检验

本文通过对我国NFDI资本流动性及其波动性的计算,检验了人民币/美元汇率波动对NFDI波动性的关系。通过实证分析表明,人民币汇率的波动将导致NFDI资本流动的明显不稳定。在理论研究的基础上,引申出其政策含义：在国际资本流动不断加大的今天,我们必须维护人民币/美元汇率的稳定,这样对于有效引导NFDI的资本流动和维护金融稳定都具有重要的意义。     

A Prototype of Multicomponent Brand Personality Structure: A Consumption Synmbolism Approach

Brand personality (BP) in the postmodern marketplace encompasses a variety of anthropomorphized attributes associated with a brand, reflecting on a wide spectrum of social, cultural, and psychological associations capturing various aspects in everyday life stories of consumers. Most prior research onBP, however, has employed a psychology‐based approach, and has not yet fully demonstrated the concept's market‐driven scope in the contemporary brand schema. To bridge the gap between the practitioner and scholar, this study employed a consumption symbolism approach to develop a multicomponent structure ofBP. A qualitative study was conducted with 36 brands of six product/service categories (fashion/luxury, beverage, automotive, personal computer, cosmetics, and retailer) within a specific context (South Korea). The results yielded a prototype of multicomponent BP structure consisting of one psychological component (traits) and three sociocultural components (narratives of socioeconomic/life scene/physical variability). The findings of the study broaden the current understanding of BP by suggesting a multidisciplinary perspective embracing its sociocultural aspects, and by empirically demonstrating the prototype reflecting on a wide spectrum of consumer narratives.     

The Effects of Brand Strategy and Technological Uncertainty on Pioneering Advantage in the Multigenerational Product Market

This research investigates how brand strategy and technological uncertainty influence the order‐of‐entry effects for a previous generation pioneer in the successive generation. The findings of our longitudinal experiment reemphasize the importance of continuous pioneering, demonstrating that consumers exhibit a strong preference for a previous generation pioneer's product when it continues to pioneer the successive generation. More importantly, the findings indicate that continuous pioneering with a new brand leads to greater brand preferences when technological uncertainty is high. This is because in that condition, consumers perceive greater innovativeness with a new brand than with the extant one. On the other hand, an extant brand increases consumer brand preferences for a previous generation pioneer's product in the successive generation when technological uncertainty is low. The theoretical and practical implications of the results for understanding and managing pioneering advantage and brand strategy in the multigenerational product markets are discussed.