韩国新村运动对中国农村发展的启示

本文认为,韩国新村运动对中国农村发展有着重要的启示:一是要鼓励村民积极参与到农村发展项目的执行中来;二是村庄之间为了获取发展项目应展开竞争;三是项目管理中要允许适当的分权行为;四是要认识到非经济激励的重要性;五是应发挥村级中介组织的作用.     

Association Ambiguity in Brand Extension

A research method is developed to effectively identify associations that significantly influence the perceived fit of brand extensions. Contrary to extant brand extension studies that mainly focus on the fit of associations, the current study considers the ambiguity of associations. The proposed measure of association ambiguity, defined as the level of uncertainty based on the perceived conflict of a particular association in a brand extension indicated by the similarity and intensity level of perceived association distance to the parent brand and extension category, was tested and validated using several brand extension cases. Identifying an association's level of ambiguity and the magnitude of its impact on the perceived fit will allow advertisers to adjust their advertising messages and increase consumer receptiveness toward brand extensions. Implications for advertising practitioners and future research are discussed.     

Counterfactual analysis of bank mergers

We introduce a counterfactual analysis of banks mergers, combining the pre-merger equilibrium setting with post-merger environmental characteristics, while accounting for endogenously propagated changes in market structure. Using this procedure we are able to estimate the effects on loan flows and interest rates that would have been observed if the pre-merger equilibrium was not altered. Results are obtained for firms, households, and banks inside and outside the merging circles separately. We find that mergers increased firms’ access to credit, but had an opposite effect on households and led to a widespread decrease in interest rates.     

Estimating Willingness to Pay for the Development of a Peace Park Using CVM: The Case of the Korean Demilitarized Zone

Conflicts remain an integral part in shaping the world. Tensions on the Korean Peninsula are no exceptions. The Korean DMZ (Demilitarized Zone) World Peace Park has been proposed to help obtain peace by erasing the memories of war and creating new beginnings of trust, cooperation, and unity on the Korean Peninsula. With their ties to geographical space and conflict, peace park research provides an excellent platform for both activism and research in positive peace. Little, however, is known about peoples’ willingness to pay (WTP) for the creation of peace parks, in general, and specifically for the development of the Korean DMZ World Peace Park. Using contingent valuation methods, the weighted average WTP for development of the Peace Park is $49.03 per household per year. It appears South Koreans are willing to pay not only for the conservation of the DMZ, but also for the peace and unification of the Korean Peninsula the Peace Park may bring to the area.     

The Impact of In‐Store Greenery on Customers

The incorporation of greenery in retail areas has scarcely been explored in environmental psychology studies. In a 2 × 2 experimental design, the effect of in‐store vegetation on consumer emotions and responses toward the store was studied, considering the moderating role of the information rate of the retail setting. While introducing foliage in the store environment did not evoke feelings of excitement, it was found to elicit pleasure and to reduce stress in a “complex” store interior. Given the impact of pleasure and stress on consumers’ approach/avoidance responses, these findings support the potential of integrating greenery, particularly in “spatially dense” stores.     

Limit to improvement: Myth or reality?: Empirical analysis of historical improvement on three technologies influential in the evolution of civilization

The evolution of civilization appears to have primarily resulted from continuous improvement made possible by technological advances. A group of social evolutionists and economists have identified, among others, energy, transport, as well as information and communication to be the three most influential technologies. On the other hand, a number of eminent scholars have cited several forces, natural, physiological, technological, as well as environmental which can place a limit on on-going improvement.The purpose of this paper is to empirically explore the continuous improvement process as well as the limit placed on these three technologies. Using the framework of both connected and disconnected multiple technology S-curves and X-factor, historical improvement data on these three elements have been analyzed. The results of our analysis indicate that improvement in general has continued without limit mainly due to a series of emerging new technologies. These emerging technologies can be either connected or disconnected from the existing mature technologies. Our preliminary analysis shows that much of the past improvement comes from new technologies that on first serious application appear to be substantially superior from earlier technologies. In addition, enormous continuous improvement, which has accompanied both connected and disconnected new technologies appear to have played the critical role in sustaining the evolution of civilization. The paper discusses a number of policy implications and suggests topics for future research.     

Beliefs of and attitudes toward political advertising: An exploratory investigation

The major goals of this study were to identify voters' belief structures about political advertising, develop a scale to measure beliefs, and examine how the identified beliefs are related to overall attitudes toward political advertising. The reliabilities, factor structure, and validity tests indicate that five belief dimensions—information, veracity, cynicism, money politics, and entertainment—have sound and stable properties. The scale demonstrates that voters assess political advertising at the instrumental level (e.g., information, veracity, and entertainment) as well as the institutional level (e.g., cynicism and money politics). The results showed that not all beliefs predicted overall attitudes. Furthermore, the results indicated that political involvement was a significant factor in influencing both beliefs and attitudes. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

An acceptance model for an Internet protocol television service in Korea with prior experience as a moderator

This study examines the effect of users' prior experience on the adoption behaviour in the Internet protocol television (IP TV) service domains. This article proposes a new acceptance model for an IP TV service considering the moderating effect of experience and verifies the model with an empirical study. Respondents are classified into either experienced or inexperienced groups according to their prior experience with the IP TV service. The results indicate that motivational factors used in our study affect behavioural intention. In addition, this study shows that the influence of extrinsic motivational factors on the behavioural intention are stronger for the experienced group than the inexperienced group and the influence of intrinsic motivational factors on the behavioural intention are stronger for the inexperienced group than the experienced group. This article concludes with study implications, as well as limitations and future research directions.     

Relationships among consumer vanity,gender, brand sensitivity,brand consciousness and private self‐consciousness

The purpose of this study was to examine relationships among consumer vanity, gender, brand sensitivity, brand consciousness and private self‐consciousness within a context of social comparison theory. The four dimensions of consumer vanity are concern for and positive view of physical appearance and concern for and positive view of achievement. Participants were 400 college students (284 women; 116 men). Participants above the median in three of the four dimensions of vanity (except vanity achievement view) were more sensitive to and more conscious of brand names. Participants above (vs. below) the median in vanity achievement view scored higher on private self‐consciousness. Women scored higher on brand sensitivity, brand consciousness and private self‐consciousness than men. There was a significant correlation between brand sensitivity and brand consciousness. Results support the notion that consumers’ decisions, especially regarding brand names, may be guided by vanity‐related concerns and views.