When and why attribute sorting affects attribute weights in decision-making

Information about alternatives often appears in a multi-option multi-attribute table, with the alternatives hierarchically sorted on attribute levels. This research shows that the choice of the primary sorting attribute can affect peoples' evaluations. Three studies show that the attribute on which options are primarily sorted becomes more important in preference formation, but only if this attribute is hard to evaluate. This sorting effect disappears if attribute level evaluation is rendered easier. Eye-movement data further show that the time to evaluate a given attribute level, a proxy for evaluation effort, mediates the effect of choice of sorting attribute on attribute weight in option evaluation.     

Women and expatriate work opportunities in Austrian organizations

Previous research has indicated that female managers are still a minority among expatriate staff. As studies dealing with this topic from a European perspective are still more than rare, this study focuses on the situation of female expatriates in Austrian companies. After surveying the TOP 500 organizations and the largest banks, insurance and consulting companies in Austria, results showed that – although women are still under-represented in international management – among nearly one quarter of the respondents, women who have already succeeded in breaking through the glass ceiling of local management are also succeeding more frequently in getting postings abroad. Moreover, the limited representation of female expatriates was explained primarily by a general lack of female talent available for the functions which are relevant for international positions, second, by prejudices of host-country nationals towards female managers and, third, by a lack of interest shown by women in global assignments due to personal reasons. This paper reports on a questionnaire distributed to human resource managers and provides more insight into the subject of female expatriates. It begins by reviewing the literature dealing with women in international management before analysing the matter of under-representation of female expatriates from a different perspective and asking for the reasons why female managers are not sent abroad by Austrian companies. Then the research method is discussed before the findings are presented and their implications discussed in terms of future research.     

Segmenting Chinese Outbound Tourists by Perceived Constraints

This study examines travel constraints experienced by Chinese outbound tourists. Four constraint factors are identified from visitor data collected in 2006: structural constraint, cultural constraint, information constraint, and knowledge constraint. Information constraint is identified as a factor unique to outbound tourists from China. Among the four constraint factors, structural constraint is the most dominant. Four clusters of visitors are therefore identified: culturally constrained, structurally constrained, absence of sufficient information, and knowledge constrained. The four clusters are distinct in terms of their destination loyalty. The characteristics of each segment are given, and the practical implications of the findings are discussed.     

The cost (and the value) of customer attire: linking high- and low-end dress styles to service quality and prices offered by service employees

This study tests the impact of customer dress on the price of goods and services offered and on service quality. Mystery shoppers visited stores in three different business contexts. For each context, 30 mystery shoppers paid three visits each, once in sloppy, once in casual, and once in fashionable attire. Supporting research hypotheses, dress had conflicting effects on employees: customers wearing fashionable/casual clothing received better service than those dressed sloppily, while the latter were offered goods and services at lower prices. The findings imply that organizations should reconsider their customer discrimination policies, and engage customers in developing accepted dress codes.     

OECD unemployment: structural breaks and stationarity

The paper is concerned with testing the unemployment rate of twenty two OECD countries for stationarity. A sequential testing procedure was applied where the break data is endogenized. Three different models were tested for unit roots. It was found that the ‘crash’ model, which allows for a shift in the level of the unemployment rate, was most relevant. Furthermore, most breaks were associated with the first oil price shock. Results suggest that in nine countries the unit root can be rejected, in ten countries the null hypothesis cannot be rejected and in three cases the results suggest possible trend stationarity.     

Estimating potential output for New Zealand

One of the main indicators of inflationary pressures used by the Reserve Bank of New Zealand is the output gap. An alternative to the Reserve Bank's incumbent measure of potential output is obtained using a structural vector autoregression (SVAR) methodology with long–run restrictions. The Reserve Bank's official measure of the output gap and the estimate obtained from the SVAR model tend to agree about the state of the cycle, especially during the 1970s and 1990s. However, during the 1980s, the period of economic reforms, they are more dissimilar.     

Four generations of mall visitors in Israel: A study of mall activities,visiting patterns,and products purchased

The goal of the present project is to establish a division between generations as a basis for segmentation of mall visitors. Data were collected through a phone survey of 1120 respondents comprising a representative sample of the Israeli population. The study participants were asked about their mall visiting patterns, activities, and products purchased. Among the 1120 respondents, 725 reported having visited a shopping mall at least once during the last month. The study sample was divided into four generations: Veterans, Baby Boomers, Xers and Millennials. Significant differences were found between the four age cohorts: The Veterans appear to be the least-engaged mall shoppers, while the Millennials are the most enthusiastic about shopping malls, with Baby Boomers and Xers falling somewhere between these two cohorts. It is suggested that these differences derive from differences among members of these generations, born in different eras, and not only from their chronological ages. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

Investment and employment from large-scale photovoltaics up to 2050

Investments in renewable energy were at US$211 billion in 2010 and developing economies overtook developed ones for the first time in terms of new financial investments in renewable energy. Photovoltaics for generation of electricity from sunlight has the highest growth rate among the competing forms of renewable energy and has now begun to achieve grid parity in some regions. If these trends of investments continue, solar energy will play a major economic role. We analyze these developments and assess the ensuing amounts of investment and employment for a range of sizes of the sector of solar energy. We find that by 2050 electricity from photovoltaics could cover up to 90% of total global energy demand, with a then global capital investment in our main scenario in photovoltaic manufacturing capacity at 500 billion US$211 billion in 2010 and developing economies overtook developed ones for the first time in terms of new financial investments in renewable energy. Photovoltaics for generation of electricity from sunlight has the highest growth rate among the competing forms of renewable energy and has now begun to achieve grid parity in some regions. If these trends of investments continue, solar energy will play a major economic role. We analyze these developments and assess the ensuing amounts of investment and employment for a range of sizes of the sector of solar energy. We find that by 2050 electricity from photovoltaics could cover up to 90% of total global energy demand, with a then global capital investment in our main scenario in photovoltaic manufacturing capacity at 500 billion US₂₀₁₀ by around 2030 and 1,500 billion by 2050. Employment in photovoltaic manufacturing is predicted to rise to 6 million by 2050. Sensitivity analysis with respect to the core parameters of assumptions is supplied.