Professional Ethics in a Virtual World: The Impact of the Internet on Traditional Notions of Professionalism

Numerous articles in the popular press together with an examination of websites associated with the medical, legal, engineering, financial, and other professions leave no doubt that the role of professions has been impacted by the Internet. While offering the promise of the democratization of expertise – expertise made available to the public at convenient times and locations and at an affordable cost – the Internet is also driving a reexamination of the concept of professional identity and related claims of expertise and standards of integrity.This paper begins with a presentation of case studies illustrating the ease by which impostors infiltrate the ranks of professionals. Reports of individuals masquerading as professionals via the Internet often reveal that these imposters cause harm to the unwary victims who rely on assertions of professional expertise. Such reports motivated the authors to examine the origins and evolution of the traditional roles of professions and professionals in today’s society, as well as question how, or whether, the standards for professional practice have been adapted to the challenges posed by technology, i.e., do statements of professional ethics provide a ‘guiding light’ for practitioners and their clients in the cyber age? The authors challenge the professions to consider the notion that technology forces a confrontation between the guild-like aspects of a profession that have served, on the one hand, to protect a profession from encroachment and, on the other hand, have purportedly protected the public.The authors conclude by presenting an examination of websites that show recognition of the challenges that the Internet poses to professionalism, as we have known it. Detailed discussion of the websites of two professions illustrates different approaches to responding to these challenges.     

Equity market data, bank failures and market efficiency

The paper examines the informational content of market data for long-term horizons in models, which predict bank failure. Univariate results document patterns such as declining prices, negative returns, declining dividends, and rising return volatility, up to 4 years before failure. Multivariate analysis shows that market information improves the failure predictive content of traditional models, which are based on accounting data. Out-of-sample predictions show that the use of stock market data does improve the forecast of bank failure. Furthermore, the persistence of this contribution generally increases with greater distances from the date of failure documenting the forward-looking nature of financial markets.     

以科学发展观论我国政府支出的管理策略

政府通过财政支出行使职能,和谐社会的构建要求政府有恰当的政府支出规模和科学合理的支出结构。转型时期我国的支出规模和结构都面临着调整和变革。本文认为政府及其职能部门,应立足科学发展观的要求,以各自的立场和职能为基础,从宏观和微观两个层面加强政府支出的管理。     

The Use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in Tourist Information and Promotion of the Polish Carpathians in Foreign Tourism Markets

The recent years have been a time of rapid development of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in tourism. The objective of this article is to analyse and assess the use of ICTs in tourist information and promotion of selected municipalities in the Polish Carpathians, the largest region of mountain tourism in Poland. Particular attention was paid to the activities taken by DMOs, local entrepreneurs and cultural institutions. The use of ICTs in the Polish Carpathians is at a relatively advanced level, but still not sufficient enough to make these solutions a fully effective tool in building a strong regional brand in the international tourism markets.     

Product differentiation under imperfect information: When does offering a lower quality pay?

In this paper, we extend the Varian (1980) model to examine endogenous quality differentiation by firms, with a particular emphasis on the interplay between the firms’ product quality decisions and the ensuing price rivalry. Specifically, we assume that the price-sensitive (or informed) consumers hold a lower valuation for product quality than the brand-loyal (or uninformed) consumers. It is shown that the firms will choose differentiated qualities for a broad class of consumer utility functions and production technologies. We obtain two results. First, the equilibrium quality choices are efficient as they are also the welfare-maximizing qualities chosen by a social planner. The equilibrium qualities are as if one firm serves only its loyal consumers and the other serves only the price-sensitive consumers, even though they each serve both types of consumers (at least for some fraction of time). Second, the firm choosing the lower quality makes greater profits and also prices more aggressively, in the sense that it maintains a lower maximum price and offers discounts more often. The lower-quality product is more profitable because it yields higher social surplus when consumed by the price-sensitive consumers.

Exploring Electronic Word-of-Mouth (eWOM) in The Consumer Purchase Decision-Making Process: The Case of Online Holidays – Evidence from United Kingdom (UK) Consumers

This study explores the role of electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) in the consumer decision-making process when purchasing a holiday. Using an ethnographic approach, it explores the role of eWOM on consumers’ attitudes toward online reviews (eReviews) and their subsequent behavior. Across the consumer decision-making processes – information search, evaluation, and purchase – the study develops a conceptual framework with three eWOM dimensions: (1) motivation, (2) source, and (3) content. Findings explore the variations of eWOM’s influence across the decision-making stages with implications for theory and practice. The study further highlights implications for segmentation practices in the tourism industry.     

旅游资源调查和评价信息系统的开发

为了配合国标《旅游资源分类、调查与评价》的实施．针对旅游资源调查和评价的实际工作的需要，应用最新的地理信息技术研究开发“旅游资源调查和评价信息系统”．对于实现旅游资源调查和评价的信息化、标准化具有重大的理论与实践意义。系统通过标准信息编码来实现旅游资源数据的规范化管理，能够实现旅游资源数据共享、数据互操作，为未来在全国范围内的旅游资源比较评价提供了可能性。     

以团队为核心的水平式组织结构模型研究

在信息经济时代，企业对于信息的传递和反应速度直接影响到决策的准确性，进而影响到企业的生存和发展。以团队为核心的水平式组织结构模型兼具团队和水平式结构双重优势，信息流动顺畅，分权化提高凝聚力，促进创新，压缩管理层为企业节约成本。     

关于风险投资内在机理的经济学分析

从经济学的角度对风险投资进行了内部和外部两个方面的具体分析。根据交易成本理论和信息不对称理论分析了风险投资的特点 ,揭示了风险投资迅速发展的内在机理 ;依据科斯定理和“囚徒困境”模型 ,阐明了政府积极参与的必要性     

金融证券投资信息与分析

证券投资分析成功的关键在于信息,信息是证券市场的命脉,正确收集和分析信息的能力在投资中显得十分重要。在介绍有效金融证券信息的基础上,探讨了金融证券信息的来源,并着重对互联网上金融证券信息的获取进行了讨论,尤其是从金融证券专业网站上。