General-equilibrium implications of international product-market competition for jobs and wages

This paper extends the insight that trade increases internationalproduct-market competition to show that in a world with an endogenousnatural rate of unemployment, countries can benefit througha decline in the natural rate. When the number of firms in theintegrated world market is greater than the number of firmsin each economy in autarky, all trading nations in a world ofidentical factor proportions experience a decline in equilibriumunemployment. When factor proportions differ, equilibrium unemploymentmust fall in the labour-abundant country but may rise or declinein the capital-abundant country.     

Price discrimination via information provision

We study price discrimination where different prices are offered as a bundle with different levels of information about a product. The seller’s price discrimination induces high valuation buyers to purchase a good without information and low valuation buyers to purchase with information. Our analysis highlights several interesting results about price discrimination: (i) the seller’s choice of information provision is the combination of full information and no information, (ii) products can be cheaper without information provision than with information provision, (iii) as a result of price discrimination, prices can be more dispersed as buyers’ valuations become largely similar, and (iv) the high valuation buyers purchase a damaged good and may earn negative surplus. Furthermore, we investigate under which circumstances price discrimination is more profitable than uniform pricing. We show that a decline in transportation costs which facilitate price discrimination can be welfare reducing.     

Team creativity: the effects of perceived learning culture,developmental feedback and team cohesion

This study investigates the influence of perceived learning culture, developmental feedback and team cohesion on team creativity. The results showed that the demographic variables, the three antecedents and their interactions explained 41 per cent of variance in team creativity. Team creativity was positively correlated with a higher level of learning culture, developmental feedback and team cohesion. In addition to the main effects, two interaction effects (developmental feedback and team cohesion; learning culture and team cohesion) were significant. In view of these results, organizations seeking to increase team creativity need an integrated strategy incorporating elements of culture management, effective coaching and team development. Implications, limitations and recommendations for future research are discussed.     

Are Accruals during Initial Public Offerings Opportunistic?

We find evidence that initial public offering (IPO) firms, on average, have high positive issue-year earnings and abnormal accruals, followed by poor long-run earnings and negative abnormal accruals. The IPO-year abnormal, and not expected, accruals explain the cross-sectional variation in post-issue earnings and stock returns. The results are robust with respect to alternative abnormal accruals and earnings performance measures. IPO firms adopt more income-increasing depreciation policies when they deviate from similar prior performance same industry non-issuers, and they provide significantly less for uncollectible accounts receivable than their matched non-issuers. The results taken together suggest opportunistic earnings management partially explains the new issues anomaly.     

Econometric study on the technology gap between Korea and Japan: The case of the general machinery and electrical and electronic industries

This article presents an econometric model relating to the technological development problem of a technologically less developed country when there is a technology transfer from the leader (Japan) to the follower (Korea) nation. By developing a sensitivity analysis of the follower's development speed, the article seeks to determine the most effective means of improving the technological level of the follower nation. The alternatives of independent technological development and the importation of advanced technology from the leader nation are considered. The results of the study indicate that it is more effective for the follower to assimilate, modify, and localize the leader's technologies. The general machinery industry and the electrical and electronic industry are examined.     

Linking green purchasing capabilities to environmental and economic performance: The moderating role of firm size

This study identifies firms’ green purchasing capabilities, classified into operational capabilities and dynamic capabilities, and measures their effects on the environmental and economic performance of a firm. We developed instruments to measure operational green purchasing capabilities and dynamic green purchasing capabilities. This study also investigates the moderating effect of firm size on the relationship between green purchasing capabilities and firm performance. The structural equation model (SEM) is used to analyse 239 responses from Japanese manufacturing companies. The results indicate that their green purchasing capabilities positively affect environmental and economic performance. Operational capabilities and dynamic capabilities have different levels of effects on green purchasing performance. A further analysis of the moderating effect of firm size shows that the high economic performance of green purchasing relies on the level of dynamic capabilities rather than firm size.     

Online narratives about medical tourism in Malaysia and Thailand: a qualitative content analysis

This study explored the written online narratives about medical tourism in Malaysia and Thailand using qualitative content analysis. The Google search engine was used for narrative search. Multiple search terms including medical, health, wellness tourism; treatment abroad; medical or health travel; treatment, surgery, or plastic surgery; dental treatment or braces were used to obtain related blog posts, discussions, and forums via a purposeful sampling method. A total of 43 online narratives were included in this study. Themes were then created after an iterative analysis of the selected online comments or posts. The push factors that act as motivators were: cost (100%), attractions (81%), availability of facilitators (62%), physician’s background and expertise (58%), bandwagon effect (42%). The majority of the subjects (88%) stated that they were satisfied with the outcomes of their medical treatments received in Malaysia and Thailand.     

Distributional Effects of Freedom and Income on Life Satisfaction: Evidence from East Asian Chinese Societies

We estimate the distributional effects of freedom and income on life satisfaction (LS) for East Asian Chinese societies through an ordinal parametric quantile regression approach. The results show that freedom and income exhibit positive and mostly significant effects across societies and LS levels. The freedom effects generally become larger for those at higher LS quantiles. However, the income effects decline as the LS quantile level increases. Thus, one may have a trade-off between freedom and income without compromising individual LS. The trade-off of freedom (income) for income (freedom) is more pronounced for people at a lower (higher) LS level.     

Entrepreneurial spirit among East Asian Chinese

This research showed that entrepreneurial spirit among East Asian Chinese youths is predicted by personality characteristics such as risk‐taking propensity, persistence, and internal locus of control, as well as by motivational factors such as love for money and desire for security. Generally, these characteristics are not prevalent in an East Asian culture. The underlying predictors, however, differed for Hong Kong and Singapore. Risk taking was a common predictor for both groups, while persistence was a predictor for Hong Kong, and internal locus of control and love for money were significant for Singapore. Entrepreneurial spirit was associated with beliefs in ethics and self‐indulgence for oneself, but not philanthropy. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Exploring the dimensions of ad creativity

This study explored the influence of dimensions of creativity—novelty (expectancy), meaningfulness (relevancy), and emotion (valence of feelings)—on attitude toward the ad, attitude toward the brand, and purchase intention. The results indicate that unexpectedness enhanced ad effectiveness over expectedness when the ad has positive feelings. When the ad contains negative feelings, attitude toward the ad was diluted with unexpectedness vs. expectedness. Relevance was not critical in encouraging favorable responses when the ad is unexpected. With an unexpected–relevant–positive‐feeling ad used as the baseline, a creative ad generated more favorable attitude toward the ad than other ad conditions. However, ad creativity resulted in more favorable brand attitude and purchase intention only against selected ad conditions. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed and directions for future research furnished. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.