The power of design: How does design affect consumers’ online hotel booking?

Emphasizing experiential appeals to consumers through design is most notable in the emerging lifestyle hotel segment of the lodging industry. This study identifies which lodging design mechanisms evoke consumer responses and provides a novel understanding of the relationships among consumer perception of hotel product/service design and booking intention by incorporating consumer emotional arousal and quality expectations in a theoretical model. The findings of this study suggest that aesthetics and symbolism in hotel design shape booking intention through emotional arousal and quality expectation. The functional dimension of design affects booking intention only through quality expectation. The findings will be particularly meaningful to the lodging industry because online booking requires both emotional and cognitive responses on the part of consumers.     

Conservation finance and sustainable tourism: the acceptability of conservation fees to support the Tambopata National Reserve,Peru

Protected areas are key to the conservation of global biodiversity and ecosystem services; however, their success is contingent upon adequate funding. One possibility to increase funding for park management is to “sell” a wider suite of ecosystem services “produced” by protected areas, such as carbon sequestration. We conducted 420 tourist surveys to analyze willingness to pay (WTP) for ecosystem service benefits via a conservation fee in the Tambopata National Reserve in Peru. We also interviewed eight tour operators about their perceptions of the proposed fee. The average stated WTP was 15 USD. Sixty-six percent of tourists stated they would pay 10 USD or more, which, if actually paid, would have resulted in 318,000 USD for park management in 2015. Most respondents stated they would pay an additional fee if it supported biodiversity conservation or local ecosystem services, such as water, but less than 10% of tourists were motivated by carbon sequestration as a reason to pay the fee. Most tour operators supported the additional fee. Our findings suggest that tourists are willing to pay higher fees to support conservation but that interest in paying for additional ecosystem services from parks may not extend to global and intangible benefits such as carbon sequestration.     

商业信用与合作型客户关系的构建——基于提供给大客户应收账款的经验证据

利用我国上市公司前5名应收账款欠款人信息以及前5名大客户信息的披露数据,本文较为直接地考察了企业是否以及如何利用应收账款的产品质量担保功能与大客户构建合作型客户关系。研究结果表明,客户集中度越高,企业提供给大客户的信用政策越宽松,即应收账款金额越多,信用期限越长;进一步研究发现,在与主要客户地理位置相似度较低的企业、处于竞争性行业的企业以及营商环境较好的地区,上述两者之间的正相关关系有所增强。最后,本文发现,在与大客户构建合作型客户关系时,企业向这些大客户提供的应收账款越多,企业的业绩越好。     

Price and quality decisions in a vertically-differentiated supply chain with an “Online-to-Store” channel

Because of the prevalence of “Online-to-Store (OS)” channel, customers can purchase differentiated products online and pick up in-store. We develop a Stackelberg game-theoretic model to study the impact of an OS channel on quality levels, demands, prices, and profits of a manufacturer and a retailer in a supply chain. We assume that the retailer acts as a Stackelberg leader, and the manufacturer acts as a Stackelberg follower. The manufacturer produces and sells two products with vertically-differentiated quality levels to the retailer who in turn sells the products to customers through a Store channel, an Online channel, or an OS channel. The retailer incurs a handing cost if the OS channel is available, and consumers bear a shipping cost and a transaction cost when the products are purchased from the Online and Store channels, respectively. We find that the manufacturer should reduce both products’ quality levels and wholesale prices, whereas the retailer can increase the selling prices for a relatively small shipping cost and a not too small handling cost. When the products are available both online and in-store, however, the quality levels, wholesale prices and selling prices might increase for a small shipping cost and a not too small handling cost. Compared to the case in which both products are available online only with the OS channel, adding the Store channel is always beneficial for both parties. The intuition behind these results hinges on the trade-off between the handling cost and the increased market demand for the retailer. Moreover, the quality levels, the wholesale prices of both products, and the selling price of the low-quality product would decrease, while the selling price of the high-quality product increases for a sufficiently low transaction cost and a not too small shipping cost.     

The role of consumers' attitude towards economic climate in their reaction to ‘PL-only’ assortments: Evidence from the United States and Spain

Retailers’ assortment rationalisation strategies have found an “ally” in the current global economic crisis. Indeed, retail boycotts of individual brands in economic recession contexts are not uncommon in the CPG industry. In fact, many of the consumers who began buying PLs during the economic recession are continuing their PL behaviour post-recession. So, what is the role of the economic climate in consumers’ reaction– in terms of store loyalty – to retailers’ NB delisting decisions? Is it so relevant? This paper examines how consumers’ attitude towards the economic climate influences his/her reaction to retailers’ strategy of offering ‘PL-only’ assortments in the context of an economic slump (Spain) compared to a context of economic recovery (U.S.). To do so, we have designed a controlled online experiment for two large consumer panels in the Spanish and the U.S. markets. Our results suggest that consumers’ acceptance of ‘PL-only’ assortments is a separate phenomenon rather than merely being a “consequence” of the current economic situation. Nevertheless, in an economic recovery, such ‘PL-only’ assortments do not appear to be the best strategy.     

Multiple equilibria in the Aghion–Howitt model

We show that the simple Aghion–Howitt model exhibits oscillatory indeterminacy in the process of creative destruction as firms undertaking new research do not internalize their effect on existing firms. A simple calibration shows that indeterminacy occurs for quite plausible parametrizations of the share of the intermediate good.     

高新区设立与区域绿色经济增长——基于PSM-DID模型

运用非径向方向距离函数测算了2003-2016年中国277个地级市绿色全要素增长率，在此基础上，采用倾向匹配的双重差分法实证评估国家高新区对绿色经济增长的影响，并分析其影响机制和传导途径。结果表明：国家高新区显著推动了绿色经济增长，主要通过推动“技术领导者转移效应”实现;国家高新区对绿色经济增长存在明显异质性，呈现出“边际效应递减”。中部地区、低等级城市和“成长期”国家高新区对绿色经济增长促进作用较大，高新区对协调区域绿色发展具有重要意义。传导途径表明，国家高新区以创新驱动人力资本效应、财政配置效应和对外开放效应促进绿色经济增长。     

海关支持综合保税区高水平开放高质量发展研究——以江苏省综合保税区为例

2019年1月12日,国务院印发了《关于促进综合保税区高水平开放高质量发展的若干意见》(国发〔2019〕3号,以下简称《若干意见》),推出21项政策措施加快推进制度创新、促进综合保税区(以下简称“综保区”)升级发展。文件出台后,各地综保区围绕“五大中心”的建设目标,在海关及其他相关职能部门的支持下,加强政策宣传,推动改革创新,强化考核评价,努力推动各项政策落地。为了更好地推进综保区高水平开放高质量发展,课题组对江苏省综保区发展情况开展全方位调研,并且以江苏省综保区为例,对当前制约综保区发展的原因,特别是影响《若干意见》实施效果的原因进行了深入分析,按照制度型开放的要求,从管理机制、发展目标、监管模式等角度提出合理建议,探索新时期海关支持综保区高水平开放高质量发展的路径。     

国家重点科技资源支撑区域创新经济产出的空间差异研究

根据2011-2014年科技部《国家重点科技基础条件资源调查表》以及国家统计年鉴数据,首先,使用赫芬达尔指数定量描述了利用国家重点科技资源进行创新活动的非均衡性。其次,使用网络DEA方法,实证分析了2012-2014年中国(内地)各省份国家重点科技资源对区域创新发展的支撑作用。研究表明,国家重点科技资源对区域创新发展的支撑作用不仅取决于资源创新生产阶段,而且受制于重点科技资源支持下的区域创新发展阶段。重点科技资源的支撑作用还有较大提升空间,70%的省份创新成果转化能力有待提高,且大部分省份的国家重点科技资源未实现优化配置。此外,全国及东部、中部和西部国家重点科技资源对区域创新发展的支撑效率不存在绝对收敛趋势。     

违反合作原则所产生的幽默效果

幽默在我们日常生活中会起到调节气氛和拉近关系的作用。本文以格莱斯的合作原则为理论支撑,对情景喜剧《老友记》中的幽默效果进行分析,旨在讨论《老友记》的作者是如何通过违反合作原则的方式来创作言语幽默的,尤其是对量的准则和质的准则的违反。