The ratchet,price sensitivity,and assortment plan

The performance of the USSR economy is seriously damaged by the proclivity of enterprises to restrict output and to violate their assortment plan. This note shows that when managers of multiproduct enterprises successfully restrict output, they thereby also increase the influence of output prices on their selection of the relative levels of production of the various goods. If Soviet prices are irrational in that they do not reflect relative scarcities, the increased influence of output prices on this set of managerial decisions induces socially dysfunctional decisions. Moreover, the restriction of output may cause enterprises to violate their assortment plan. The analysis focuses on the two features of the incentive system that induce managers to restrict output and abstracts away from other considerations.     

Exploring air travellers’ voluntary carbon-offsetting behaviour

This paper advances understanding of consumers who purchase voluntary carbon offsets (VCOs) for flights by profiling the socio-demographic characteristics of VCO purchasers in Australia and the UK and investigating their environmental attitudes and beliefs. Earlier research shows that there is confusion and lack of clarity around VCO schemes, yet small numbers of consumers continue to purchase them. Using an online panel survey of 502 respondents, this research considers whether those who purchase VCOs can be considered to be ecocentric, and whether they share a similar socio-demographic profile with those engaging in other forms of pro-environmental behaviour. The results suggest three groups: “Ecocentrics” (36%), “Middle of the Road” (31%) and “Anthropocentrics” (33%). While VCO purchasers appear to be ecocentric, not all ecocentric respondents purchased VCOs and, additionally, those who did purchase, appear to have a different socio-demographic profile from others engaging in pro-environmental behaviour. The study suggests that this segment of the flying public, already willing to contribute towards climate change mitigation, may be the best segment to target with behavioural change messages intended to encourage the structural changes in travel choices required to mitigate climate change. Earlier suggestions that older females are more likely to purchase VCOs are not supported.     

Two Paths to the Same Destination: Participation Levels as a Result of Affiliation Networks in Civil Society Organizations

Voluntary participation is relevant in (CSOs) and crucial to interpret their mechanisms from the perspective of relationship marketing. This article presents two objectives: the first, from the psychometric perspective, was to examine the effect of trust in affective commitment and in participation in Mexican CSOs; the second from the sociometric view was to identify the prominent actors in civil society. An empirical and explicative research was developed in Mexico through a survey applied to postgraduate alumni, professors, and administrative university personnel. The results showed that trust and commitment are antecedents of participation in CSOs. Additionally, it was found that the size of the operation and the ability to obtain resources do not determine the centrality of the CSO within the social network. This study adds to prior literature the relationship between trust and affective commitment in institutions with participation from self-efficacy understood as the confidence in one’s own capabilities.     

Deep community: finding family in the world

True community is based on spiritual awareness which is the foundation of deep community. Deep community is acquired through sharing of pain and traumatic experiences, listening, releasing one's feelings and placing them in the hands of the community. Deep community is a process and a product, a deeper recognition of connection, and a method for self-help. This essay tells the story of four young people who rose above their traumas and found a common bond in deep community.     

Financial systems in financial crisis — An analysis of banking systems in the EU

This Forum aims to systematically describe and analyse the evolution of national financial systems within the EU over the past three decades. It analyses the processes of financialisation that have dominated this period as well as the causes and consequences of the financial crisis from the perspectives of five individual member states — Germany, France, the UK, Italy and Spain. Furthermore, policy proposals which could change the role of the financial system to better serve economic and social objectives are also put forward.     

Service value revisited: Specifying a higher-order, formative measure

Recent marketing literature pays particular attention to customer value because of the potential impact on customer behavior and, ultimately, firm performance. Whereas some studies conceptualize customer value in a unidimensional manner, more recent approaches take a multidimensional approach, generally conceptualizing value as composed of various benefits and sacrifices. However, nearly all of these studies consider value components in a reflective manner, which is not only problematic but in many cases conceptually incorrect. In addition, recent customer value research includes service components to define and operationalize the construct. This study suggests that customer value in service contexts, or service value, represents a higher-order, formative construct with benefit and sacrifice components. Specifically, the authors propose a formative model of service value with four components: service quality, service equity, confidence benefits, and perceived sacrifice. A multiple-industry study substantiates the contention that this higher-order, formative approach best models value. The results theoretically and empirically support the conceptualization of service value with formative components, and the measure is robust and works well across multiple service contexts.     

Canadian Financial Reporting Institutions

The recently published Easy Prey Investors: Why Broken Safety Nets Threaten Your Wealth lambastes virtually every aspect of Canadian financial reporting in exceptionally harsh terms. Although the authors' assertions about the implications of financial reporting violations they have seen are mostly unsubstantiated or overblown, publications like theirs are useful if they stimulate continual, thoughtful consideration of Canada's institutional arrangements. I discuss various methodologies for doing this and present some novel evidence indicating that some of the authors' assertions are simply incorrect. Canada's financial reporting institutions, like all institutions, are not perfect, so we must always listen to their critics' suggestions for reforming them; however, our institutions are in much better shape than Easy Prey Investors asserts.