Intended brand associations: Do they really drive consumer response?

Brand managers exhibit considerable effort to define intended brand associations to anchor in consumers' minds. They follow a credo deeply rooted in branding literature: intended brand associations drive consumer response and brand equity. This article investigates the benefits of a strong overlap of actual consumer brand associations and management-intended brand associations (brand association match). The article presents results from two large-scale studies (3353 and 1201 respondents) involving one consumer goods and one service brand with multiple operationalizations of consumer response (attitudinal and behavioral). The results show that consumers with high brand association match show more positive brand response. However, after accounting for the valence of associations match does not add explanatory power. This outcome challenges a key foundation of brand management. The discussion identifies reasons why match may not be necessary to achieve response and provides arguments why the results do not imply free play for brand managers.     

关于加强会计人员积业道德建设的思考

会计职业道德问题已经引起越来越多的关注。由会计职业道德和商业道德引发的信任危机已经不仅仅存在于市场经济成熟的国家。甚至在处于经济转型期间的我国,信任危机也很严重。通过对我国会计职业道德现状的初步分析,分别从会计职业道德制度化、处罚力度、职业道德规范等方面构建会计职业道德系统基本结构。     

Crossing the Boundaries of Obligation: Are Corporate Salaries a Form of Bribery?

Trans-National Corporations (TNCs) pay relatively high salaries to local people in host countries. TNCs assume that such employees will accept an employeeÇôemployer relationship similar to that which exists in North America, but the obligations and personal interests that such a relationship create often directly conflict with systems of obligation already established in the host country. When TNCs do business across the boundaries of systems of obligation, corporate salaries can be seen as a form of unethical bribery. In this paper, the core case of business bribery is described consistent with the usual philosophical analysis of bribery, and the grounds for thinking bribery is unethical are made clear. The amount of a bribe is irrelevant to the ethical analysis. Bribery is distinguished from tips and grease on structural grounds. The concept of a system of obligation is defined, and examples given that show the variability of systems of obligation in host countries. Arguments are given to show that salaries paid by TNCs create obligations and personal interests which sometimes conflict with existing systems of obligation, and that such payments have the same structure as more traditional forms of bribery. The ethical issues of corporations crossing the boundaries of systems of obligations are discussed.     

Development credit corporations: Not-for-profit development finance institutions in the postwar United States

Development credit corporations (DCCs) were innovative not-for-profit organisations first set up in the United States in the years after World War II. DCCs borrowed from financial institutions and lent on a long-term basis to small companies that needed funds to expand or maintain their operations but did not qualify for long-term credit from conventional lenders. DCCs were private-sector bodies created at the state level under charters issued by state governments. The organisations were established in more than half the American states. DCCs continue to function in the contemporary era, and have thus proved to be a permanent fixture in the landscape of development entities and not-for-profit financial institutions.     

在校大学生就业见习基地——"校企携手"合作模式探讨

针对目前高校毕业生严峻的就业形势,及高校毕业生工作经验欠缺的现状,创建"校企携手"合作模式,使在校大学生能够有机会走进企业实习锻炼,为企业建立低成本的人才储备,同时为在校大学生增加工作经验及就业筹码,实现企业与学生的互利共赢.     

Intermediate units in multinational corporations: A resource dependency view on coordinative versus entrepreneurial roles

Due to the dispersion of headquarters’ activities across organizational and geographical boundaries, intermediate units (IUs) are emerging as a key actor of international business. IUs are intermediate structural layers between headquarters (HQ) and local subsidiaries with specific HQ responsibilities. Our study relies on original data of 67 IUs and, taking on a Resource Dependence approach, explores empirically the two HQ roles attributed to IUs: coordinative versus entrepreneurial. According to our results, the main differences between both roles relate to external network embeddedness, internal network position and autonomy. We argue that these differences arise from the dominant sources of power in each role. These findings have signi?cant relevance for theory development and managerial practice as we provide a starting point for understanding the dispersion of complex HQ systems as well as how those systems are discharged and add value.     

上市公司投资者关系管理研究

投资者关系管理(IRM)是近年来在我国出现的新事物。在成熟的资本市场上,IRM已经成为一种潮流,但在我国则刚刚起步。因而,在我国推动投资者关系管理具有十分重要的现实意义。在阐述投资者关系管理产生及发展过程的基础上,对我国现阶段投资者关系管理的现状进行了剖析,并指出了我国在投资者关系管理方面存在的问题及其产生的原因。     

Property taxation in Israel: a non ad valorem approach

The arnona, the system of property taxation in Israel, is a unique form of taxation being based on a property's size (m²) and not on its discrete open market value. The actual use of the property (residential versus non-residential), its location in the municipality, type of property and its age are the determining factors for tax liability. In order to test for equity within the current system, the methodology adopted was to investigate the effect of population size, remoteness and population makeup with respect to some 80 municipalities on the levels of arnona. Although the thresholds of arnona for individual municipalities are approved by a committee of the Knesset, the present analysis indicates that the current differences in per capita amount of arnona collected by local authorities do reflect factors that would normally be expected to influence an ad valorem property tax in a market economy. It is argued that whilst the arnona is an accepted form of local authority property taxation, there are a number of fundamental weaknesses. Its application could be improved by incorporating elements of an ad valorem property tax, which would more fully reflect the socio-economic level of taxpayers and the physical condition of the built environment. However, the arnona, not being based directly on a property's market value should be of interest to countries (e.g. transitional countries of Central and Eastern Europe) who are presently introducing property taxes within an environment where property markets are not as yet fully developed.