Does offering an organic food menu help restaurants excel in competition? An examination of diners’ decision-making

This study aims to examine whether the presence of an organic food menu can positively influence diners’ decision-making. A 3 (restaurant segment: quick service vs. casual dining vs. fine dining) by 2 (price discrepancy between competing restaurants: small vs. large) scenario-based experiment was conducted with 405 U.S. consumers. MANCOVA results indicate that using organic ingredients offers a greater advantage for the quick-service segment regarding perceived food quality, attitudes towards the restaurant, and willingness to select, compared to casual and fine dining segments. The magnitude of a premium price of organic ingredients negatively influences such advantage in the process of consumers’ decision-making. When a large (vs. small) premium price is charged for using organic ingredients, customers’ preferences for the restaurant (over its rival) significantly drops to such an extent that customers are more willing to choose the competitor (i.e., rival restaurant with a conventional menu). Discussions and implications are further elaborated.     

系统重要性金融机构或有资本问题研究

系统重要性金融机构(SIFIs)倒闭产生的巨大负外部性使得各国在危机处置中更倾向于救助而非任其倒闭,但"太大而不能倒"又会引发道德风险,扭曲公平竞争。国际组织就SIFIs的危机处置提出一系列解决方案及建议,其中自救安排中的或有资本计划作为一项重要的资本工具而广受关注。或有资本不仅具有预防和早期救助、自救之功效,还能有效改善公司治理结构,与《巴塞尔协议II》的三大支柱原则完美契合。但或有资本亦存在不确定性较大、价格变动及成本效用减损等问题,需要结合我国具体的金融市场环境论证、设计、草拟相关规则及配套制度,需要在发行规模、发行程序、转化设计和转化条件等方面谨慎论证、不断完善。     

Balancing the risk of ‘Lazearian’ interrupters and the benefits of educational and social peers: tracing parental preferences for class-size reduction

Using Danish survey data from a choice experiment, parental preferences for class-size reduction are estimated. While parents with children in large classes are willing to pay for class-size reduction, parents with children in small classes are reluctant and even express negative utility for further class-size reduction. We interpret this as parents balancing the risk of ‘Lazearian’ interrupters and the benefits of educational and social peers when forming their preferences for class size.     

The effect of firm scale and CSR geographical scope of impact on consumers' response

The role of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in shaping consumer perception and attitude has received many attentions both in the academia and practitioner world. While this domain has invited numerous research, but research highlighting how consumers react toward learning the size of a firm conducting CSR and geographical scope of the CSR impact is still scarce. We investigate how consumers shape their attitude and consumption behavior after knowing that the CSR action is done by a small, locally-owned business that brings impact to the local community through an experimental study. Our study adds a shade in understanding how the effect of a firm size and geographical scope of CSR impact might increase consumers' favorable attitude and behavior toward the business and its products. Our findings show that when consumers learn that the firm conducting CSR is a small, locally-owned (in coffee shop business) that directs its action toward local beneficiaries, they demonstrate more favorable attitudes toward the action and the firm, which manifest in the form of better intentions to acquire the product as well as willingness to pay premium prices for it. Our findings confirm the US consumers' love affair with local businesses, in particular. While the findings generally benefit small, locally-owned businesses, they also suggest recommendations for large, multinational businesses to design their marketing strategy in an attempt to increase favorable reactions from consumers.     

中国新型城镇化必须提升人的城镇能力

中国新型城镇化必须以人为核心,使城乡社会经济的发展与人的发展相适应。文章从人力资本理论的研究视角出发,着重分析中国新型城镇化中人的因素,创造性地提出了"人的城镇能力"这一概念,围绕农业转移人口的市民化,得出了重视人力资本投资,以推进中国新型城镇化的重要结论。     

国有部门与非国有部门的工资差异及影响因素研究

基于CGSS数据，利用Heckman样本选择模型对中国国有部门与非国有部门的工资差异和影响因素进行系统研究。回归结果显示，国有部门员工的教育收益率高于非国有部门，教育收益率与学历水平呈现正相关关系，与非国有部门相比，国有部门中大学本科及以上学历员工的教育收益率更高。工资差异分解结果表明，两部门全样本工资差异中市场歧视占比高于特征差异占比，与全样本相比，大学本科及以上学历员工的工资总差异和特征差异占比更高，系数差异占比更低，说明高学历群体中部门间工资差异更为明显，而且两部门中仍存在较严重的劳动力市场分割和就业歧视问题。因此，政府应努力消除劳动力的流动性障碍，深化国有部门市场化改革，制定更为合理的工资机制，以促进中国经济的持续健康稳定增长。     

Influence of Hotel Information System Quality on System Use and User Satisfaction

ABSTRACT

By applying DeLone and McLean's Updated D&M IS Success Model, this study seeks to understand the influence of information system quality on the intention to use the system and user satisfaction within the context of HIS. Data used for the study were obtained from a survey that focuses on hotel employees' evaluation of HIS quality and their intention to use and satisfaction with the system. The results indicate that information system success measures can be meaningfully explained by HIS quality. Service quality that often represents support from information service providers within an organization, among the three aspects of HIS quality considered, has a significant positive influence on users' intention to use HIS and their satisfaction with the system, given the consideration of users' demographic characteristics, career, and the level of work reliance on HIS. Practical and theoretical insights of the findings are addressed.     

Willingness to pay for safety improvements in passenger air travel

The risk of being involved in an airplane accident is largely ignored in air passengers’ choice models. The reason presumably is that it is hard to operationalize, because objective safety indicators often involve extremely low probabilities that are hard to grasp and interpret by passengers. In this paper, we propose an operationalization that is based on the perception of safety, which is easy to understand and resonates that perceptions often influence decisions stronger than objective variables. We conceptualize that passengers form a safety perception score of a particular flight based on their perception of airline and route attributes and that this score in turn is traded-off against other flight attributes, such as ticket costs, to arrive at a flight choice. In line with this conceptualization, two stated preference experiments are conducted. In a first experiment, combinations of airline and route attributes are evaluated in terms of safety that is captured on a rating scale. In a second experiment, safety perception is treated as an attribute and traded-off against other flight attributes to arrive at a flight choice. The paper presents the results of a regression and a Panel Mixed Logit model estimated from responses obtained from a convenience sample of 161 air passengers recruited in the Netherlands. The results of both models are then combined to calculate the willingness to pay values for improvements made to a range of airline and route attributes, taking into account socio-demographic variables and psychological traits. As expected, the results indicate that the willingness to pay for improving safety decreases with higher initial safety levels.     

深入学习贯彻党的十八届四中全会精神依法推进高职教育事业健康快速发展

党的十八届四中全会通过的《中共中央关于全面推进依法治国若干重大问题的决定》为全面推进依法治国作出重大部署.我们不仅要从历史和全局的高度学习贯彻十八届四中全会精神和《决定》内涵,以实事求是的精神全面推进依法治国,同时又要以依法治国方针为指导,全面推进高职教育事业健康快速发展.     

浅析快递服务的制度改善方向及发展方案

快递服务(express service;courier service)是快速收寄、运输、投递单独封装的、有名址的快件或其他不需储存的物品,按承诺时限递送到收件人或指定地点、并获得签收的寄递服务。运输产业是高速发展的新动力产业,从实际意义角度来看,实现交通运输服务活性化,需要对交通运输服务的制度进行改善及对未来的发展做出规划方案。研究通过快递市场的实态及问题来找到快递服务业制度改善方向及发展方案。以管理学的角度进行实证性的研究。