Trust Promoting Seals in Electronic Markets

Abstract

In order to promote web sales, companies conducting electronic commerce are constantly seeking viable and efficient ways to increase web traffic. One approach is to build consumers' trust, and ultimately to increase web sales. Many business-to-consumer online merchants follow this approach and display trust-promoting seals on their websites. However, whether these seals really fulfill the tasks they have promised has remained unexplored. This study empirically examines the influence of trust-promoting seals on consumers' online purchasing decisions. The results show that the trust-promoting seals are generally effective in promoting web sales, and some seals enhance promotion better than others.     

The Psychological Influences of Threat on B2C E-commerce Adoption: An Extended Study and Explanatory Framework

In order to better understand how internet users actually decide to conduct business transactions or related activities in a B2C e-commerce environment, this article adds a new lens of study by investigating the roles of Threat Appraisal (TA) and Perceived Coping Appraisal (PCA) from the end user's perspective. Based on established academic theories and relevant industrial practices, it is suggested that TA and PCA are critical behavioral components influencing the user's intentions to participate in online transactions. These functions serve as important inputs to formalizing our understanding of how services offered by e-commerce websites are utilized.     

我国央行公开市场操作策略与流动性效应

本文检验了不同操作策略下中国央行公开市场操作流动性效应。通过构建并计算央行公开市场操作指标值，根据取值区间将公开市场操作定义为五种操作策略。本文采用2006年10月至2012年3月的数据，估算了每月超额准备金，并计算出实际的公开市场操作指标值，利用排序自回归法证实了央行公开市场操作对利率有非线性影响，进一步建立非线性多阈值自回归模型，研究了不同操作策略的公开市场操作对3个月短期市场利率的影响。实证结果表明央行公开市场操作可分为四种策略，主要表现为防御性功能，但不存在周流动性效应。     

Understanding organizational justice and its impact on managing employees: an African perspective

The past decade has witnessed dramatic social and political changes on the African continent. The present article argues that these political and social changes may spill over in the workplace in the form of a quest for justice and empowerment. Based on the organizational justice literature, the article develops a conceptual framework that advocates the integration of justice concepts in managing African organizations. It also explains how African managers can anticipate this trend by developing and implementing fair organizational practices.     

Lee—Carter框架下基于Wang变换的生存债券定价研究

为了给人寿保险公司和退休基金套期长寿风险提供一种非传统风险转移方式,我们设计了一种以公共死亡率指数为标的的一种生存债券.通过经典的Lee-Carter模型预测死亡率指数,并利用著名的Wang变换为带息票生存债券定价.     

Stock selection using a multi-factor model - empirical evidence from the French stock market

Using a Barra-type factor model, we have attempted to determine whether it is possible to beat the benchmark by taking advantage of anomalies established in the financial empirical literature. More specifically we have built an equity premium model based on three sets of factors (accounting variables, stock market characteristics and sector indicators) using a Bayesian method corrected for heteroscedasticity to estimate risk premiums, a technique that takes agents' learning into account. The results are encouraging: first, the factors that carried most weight on the equity premiums corroborated the results of empirical studies described in the financial literature, secondly, the portfolios constructed from our methodology and simulated outside our sample, returned higher performance than the benchmark and rewarded the supplement of volatility.     

对EMU启动前后欧盟国家贸易状况的实证研究

EMU的启动对EMU成员国、欧盟其他国家甚至全世界都有着很大的影响。但是在EMU启动至今已十年,它是否真的发挥了它应有的作用?为了研究这个问题本文选取了对EMU成员国贸易情况进行实证研究的角度来透视EMU启动所带来的影响。本文选取了1992～2007年的面板数据,并通过扩展引力模型实证检验了EMU对其成员国贸易的影响情况。本文研究结果表明:从整体上而言,EMU对其成员国的贸易影响是正面的,即:EMU的实施增加了EMU成员国与其它国家的双边贸易,但对于不同国家EMU的影响具有差异性。     

Bounds for Ratios of Posterior Expectations: Applications in the Collective Risk Model

This paper considers the collective risk model for the insurance claims process. We will adopt a Bayesian point of view, where uncertainty concerning the specification of the prior distribution is a common question. The robust Bayesian approach uses a class of prior distributions which model uncertainty about the prior, instead of a single distribution. Relatively little research has dealt with robustness with respect to ratios of posterior expectations as occurs with the Esscher and Variance premium principles. Appropriate techniques are developed in this paper to solve this problem using the k -contamination class in the collective risk model.     

EAP理念下大学英语“合作学习”教学模式探究

从上世纪七十年代起，“合作学习”作为学术英语（EAP）能力培养的主要途径引来不少教师的关注，但将其科学合理地运用于教学课堂，并研究其实际开展的例子不多。文章以“行动研究”为框架，对实际教学实践中“合作学习”教学模式进行系统探究，通过文献查找、课堂观摩和教师访谈等研究方法搜集数据。研究表明，“异质组”是“合作学习”前最佳分组方式；“合作学习”任务应将趣味性、真实性、目标性合为一体；而教师不应过度介入学生“合作学习”中。     

A CGE model of 'Dutch disease' economics in Taiwan

A computable general equilibrium (CGE) model of Dutch disease economics in Taiwan's economy is established in order to examine the impacts of the imbalanced growth in output, endogenous learning effects from imports and exports and the import tariff reduction. Twenty-nine industry sectors and five quintiles of households are taken to measure the changes in industry structure and functional distribution of income. An imbalanced growth, either from output or exports, contributes to the reduction in the share of manufacturing industry, but the deterioration in the functional distribution of income only happens to an imbalanced growth in intersectoral output. A widespread trade liberalization policy helps to mitigate the Dutch disease phenomenon in the sense that de-industrialization and deterioration of the distribution of income by an imbalanced growth in manufacturing industry are not so severe.