Market Optimism and Merger Waves

We argue that stock and bond market booms and merger waves are both driven by increases in optimism in financial markets and discuss two behavioral hypotheses, the managerial discretion and overvaluation hypotheses that claim that merger waves are driven by market optimism. Empirical support for the managerial theory is provided by evidence that the amounts of assets acquired increase as optimism in financial markets increases and that the returns to acquiring companies are inversely related to market optimism at the time of mergers. Our measures of market optimism also explain managerial choices of finance for mergers. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

How culture matters in children’s purchase influence: a multi-level investigation

Children’s purchase influence (CPI) is an important factor in understanding family consumption behavior. The present study investigated the effects of cultural adaptation, including the role of acculturation and ethnic-identification, on children’s role in family purchase decisions. By conceiving of CPI as a family context-dependent phenomenon, we hypothesized that parent–child cultural dissonance/consonance within the family influences CPI through a cross-level process. The hypotheses were tested on data collected from 99 Hong Kong Chinese immigrant family triads, i.e., father, mother, and a teenage child. The results showed that: (1) acculturation positively and ethnic-identification negatively influenced CPI for most products, (2) the interaction between acculturation and ethnic-identification had a positive influence on CPI, and (3) generational dissonance/consonance had significant moderating effects on CPI through a cross-level route.     

电磁场与电磁波课程教学改革探索

提高电磁场与电磁波课程的教学质量,需要结合课程特点,从教材选择、教学内容组织、教学方法等方面进行教学改革。我校的改革实践取得了较好的效果。     

Corporate foresight in Europe: from trend based logics to open foresight

The paper analyses the role of corporate foresight (CF) as a future intelligence gathering process, which has come into widespread use in a business context where it is confronted with specific contextual, processual and methodological challenges. The results of a 2005/2006 survey on CF by the University of St Gallen in co-operation with Z_punkt are used as a starting point to provide insights into the goals, methods and use of CF in large corporations. Taking into account the challenges facing CF and the factors considered critical for its success, the paper outlines a historical contextualisation of CF practices from the 1980s onward, identifying the underlying assumptions – the ‘dominant logic’ – and opting for a new model of CF as ‘open foresight’.     

岩石非线性弹性对岩石物理实验的影响研究

非线性弹性是岩石的一种很普遍的性质,其主要原因分为2个大的方面:一是岩石内部存在两类不同的空隙,在受压后反应不一致,导致岩石本身的各种参数模量随之而呈现非线性变化,这给岩石物理实验的测定带来了不确定因素。二是岩石本身存在滞后效应,本文将从岩石物理实验出发,精确测定了CQ地区块岩石样品随着压力增加,纵波速度的变化情况,并加以分析,提出改进实验精度的几点建议和意见。     

Linking metaphors of the future with socio-cultural prospects among Taiwanese high school students

This study is an investigation of diverse future metaphors used by Taiwanese high school students with the values and meanings that lie underneath them. The results show that “the strawberry” generation’s chosen metaphors demonstrate their capability of critical and self-reflective ways of thinking. They also exhibit a deep sense of global awareness, foresight capacity and their role as a change agent for a better future. Their preferred stories of the future involve an open and global environment, broad and diversified friendship, leisure and travel over work, family and relationships, and most importantly, a multicultural and sharing world. The most crucial conclusion is that when young people are asked to discuss their future, they begin to explore new possibilities.     

Generational and family structural differences in male attitudes and orientations towards shopping

New evidence suggests Millennial men are assuming the role for household shopping at a growing pace. This study employs the generational cohort theory to examine differences among male shoppers. Specifically, exploring the variables of family structure and social class relative to male enjoyment of their shopping experience through an online questionnaire. ANOVA and logistic regression were used to analyze the data of 443 respondents. The results show significant differences in the impact of family structures across generations. Present social class and the social class during ones upbringing lead to key differences in Millennials in terms of entertainment facilities and willingness to wait on purchases.     

Kondratiev waves and the future of British cities

This article argues that the connections between long waves of economic change and the growth and decline of particular cities are very complex. Three elements of this complexity are extracted. First, it is argued that the Schumpeterian view that innovation per se usually causes economic growth is probably wrong. Second, that innovations connected with information technology (IT) need to be considered in terms of their production, intermediate use and final consumption; and that their production is not likely to cause a major economic upswing in the British economy in general or in many particular cities. Finally, some information-technology-related employment growth is the result of the decentralization of intermediate uses often concerned with routine clerical or administrative work.     

Crises, depressions, and expansions: Global analysis and secular trends

The goal of this paper is to present a new vision about the evolution of some economics-related agents during the last one and half centuries, which when considered as a whole allow a better comprehension on what is happening and shed some light about possible future trajectories. Four actors, or agents, were minutely examined: world population, its global output (GDP), gold price and the Dow Jones index. The joint action of these actors, despite of being only a part of the whole, might be seen as a good depiction of the great piece representing the world economic realm. The application of analytical tools as spectral analysis, logistic curves and the singularity approach on time series data about the historical unfolding of these actors allows the demonstration that the present crisis seems to be a mix of a self-correction mechanism that brought the global output back to its original learning natural growth pattern, and that it carries also signals of an imminent transition to a new world economic order. Moreover it is demonstrated that the next decade (2011-2020) will be probably one of worldwide economic expansion, corresponding to the second half of the expansion phase of the fifth K-wave. The present results combined with previous empirical work of this author suggest that we are witnessing a transition to a new global socioeconomic system whose evolutionary trajectory is leading the world system toward a true age of transition.