Environmental orientation and corporate performance: The mediation mechanism of green supply chain management and moderating effect of competitive intensity

This study proposes and empirically tests a model delineating the relationship among environmental orientation, green supply chain management (GSCM) activities (green purchase, customer cooperation and investment recovery) and corporate performance. Based on responses from 194 foreign invested enterprises operating in China, this study has generated several important findings. First, it demonstrates that while both internal and external environmental orientations exert a positive and significant influence on the practice of green purchase and customer cooperation, internal environmental orientation further serves as a significant driver for the practice of investment recovery. Second, it shows that the practice of these three major GSCM activities, in turn, significantly enhances corporate performance. Last, the study reveals that competitive intensity strengthens the positive influence of customer cooperation on corporate performance. Overall, the findings explicate the importance for firms, in particular those operating in a highly competitive market condition, to nurture a pro-environmental corporate culture and improve their sensitivity to salient external stakeholders' environmental demands so as to pursue greener supply chain management.     

A multiple group analysis of the training transfer model: exploring the differences between high and low performers in a Korean insurance company

This study suggests an integrative transfer of training model and examines the influence of pre-training performance on the relationship between work environment variables and transfer-related variables. Structural equation modeling was conducted with data collected from 365 Korean employees of a large general insurance firm. They were all participants in a leadership development program. The results of multi-group analyses revealed that the influence of work environment variables on transfer-related variables was moderated by employees' pre-training performance. The findings of the study imply that a more elaborate training transfer model that considers performance not just as an outcome variable, but also as an antecedent variable is required. Also, it is proposed that different strategies should be applied to promote transfer of training based on the employee's level of pre-training performance.     

The integrated yard truck and yard crane scheduling problem: Benders’ decomposition-based methods

This paper proposes a novel integrated model for yard truck and yard crane scheduling problems for loading operations in container terminal. The problem is formulated as a mixed-integer programming model. Due to the computational intractability, two efficient solution methods, based on Benders’ decomposition, are developed for problem solution; namely, the general Benders’ cut-based method and the combinatorial Benders’ cut-based method. Computational experiments are conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed solution methods.     

Retail Trading and IPO Returns in the Aftermarket

Using trade size from the Trade and Quote (TAQ) data set as a proxy for individual versus institutional trading, this paper finds that the effects of trading of these two types of investors on initial public offering (IPO) returns on the first trading day depend on the hotness of the IPO. My regression results reveal that IPOs’ open-to-close returns are positively related to small trade participation, small trade purchases, and small trade order imbalance in the hot IPO sample, but not in the cold and neutral IPO samples. In addition, the aftermarket prices of cold and neutral IPOs are primarily driven by the trading of institutional investors, who are less likely to be driven by sentiment.     

Effect of Money Supply on Real Output and Price in China

Over the past 30 years, China has achieved remarkable long-term economic growth. Using quarterly data, we study the effects of money supply on real output and inflation in China between 1993 and 2008. To this end, we use money supply shocks afler filtering out the expected component of the money supply. Our findings provide evidence supporting the asymmetric effect of positive and negative money supply shocks on real output and inflation in China. That is, real GDP growth in China responds to negative money supply shocks but not positive money supply shocks. In addition, inflation responds to positive money supply shocks but not negative money supply shocks. We conclude that the People＇s Bank of China＇ s policy of steady monetary growth appears to be appropriate. Our study offers important policy implications for China.     

金融危机下企业经济性裁员问题与对策探析

随着金融危机的蔓延及经济衰退,一些企业出现了大规模的经济性裁员.经济性裁员是企业降低生产成本、缓解金融危机压力的一条有效途径,但其直接涉及到企业和员工的切身利益,关系到社会稳定.因此,必须加强对金融危机下企业经济性裁员的管理与规范,采取切实可行的管理对策,化解企业的裁员危机.     

Chinese children’s attitudes towards television advertising: truthfulness and liking

This benchmarking study examines Chinese children.s perceived truthfulness of and liking for television advertising in three Chinese cities with different developmental levels of advertising. An in-person survey of 1758 children (ages 6 to 14) was conducted between December 2001 and March 2002 using a structured questionnaire. Results indicate that a majority of children perceive half of the television commercials to be true, although this varies by grade and geography. Children in Beijing perceived television commercials to be more trustworthy than did children in Nanjing and Chengdu. The percentage of children who perceive all commercials to be true declines consistently with grade in all three cities. There is a high proportion of first graders who perceive all commercials to be untrue. The basis for judgement varies predominantly by grade. Children in higher grades depend more on brand and user experience while children in lower grades rely mainly on authority (i.e. parents or teachers). A high proportion of first graders hold both a strong liking and disliking for commercials. These strong feelings towards advertising decreased with grade, being replaced by a marked increase in neutral or indifferent feelings. Gender and level of television viewing do not show a consistent impact on perceived truthfulness and liking for commercials. Perceived truthfulness of television advertising is related positively with liking for commercials.     

Subjective model selection rules versus passive model selection rules

In this paper, the choice of a particular functional form based on the objective of the author is called the subjective model selection rule and the choice of a particular functional form using pre-selected model selection criteria is called the passive model selection rule. The objective of the author is the analysis of equilibrium, an efficient input choice, the study of the returns to scale function, the estimation of the elasticity of substitution, and the evaluation of the technical progress. Depending on the chosen objectives, economic restrictions such as the homogeneity, homotheticity, and regularity condition (positivity, monotonicity, and quasiconcavity) can be imposed. Various well-known functions beginning from the Cobb–Douglas (CD) to a globally well-behaved polynomial series are listed and the performances are compared with respect to the possibility of extracting economic interpretation, usefulness for advanced studies, computational easiness, and the potentiality of extending the given function to a more complex function. The isoquants and three dimensional output surfaces are plotted for a series of production functions using the transportation data of Zellner and Revankar (1969). Barnett and Jonas (1983) imposed the sufficient conditions for quasiconcavity of production functions while Gallant and Golub (1984) imposed the necessary and sufficient conditions. The strength and weakness of the above two methods are discussed. These methods are extended for three input cases using the U.S. electric power industry data of Nerlove (1963) and Greene (2008).     

Application of system dynamics for evaluating truck weight regulations

In the situation of prevailing overweight transportation and difficult enforcement in China, this paper develops a methodological framework for truck weight regulation evaluation using System Dynamics. Composed of five interrelated subsystems, the framework is able to capture the highway, vehicle and freight variables that influence the effect of TWR and transportation efficiency over time. It specifically describes the development and use of the Truck Weight Regulation Evaluating Model for the highway freight system in Anhui province, China. The simulation results show that, among three policy alternatives, the moderate policy approach is the most appropriate option to solve the social and economic problems arising from overweight transportation in Anhui. In addition, some suggestions of TWR policy in China are also made in this paper.