Customer’s Perception of Familiness in Travel Experiences

Festival-goers (“festinos”) put time and effort into deciding to attend a festival, and the way they decide what to see and the length of time they take to decide vary greatly. To attract those who buy tickets for shows—sales of which are crucial for the survival of festivals—and to know when to start promoting the event, festival organizers and marketers need to know how far in advance the visitors make their decision to attend and what influences their decision. This study categorized 438 visitors to the Innibos National Arts Festival, South Africa, using a survey of their decision-making time. Four groups were identified, and labeled “spontaneous,” “limited,” “extended,” and “routine” decision-makers. These market segments can be taken into consideration in the festival's marketing campaign so as to attract visitors to a variety of events and help ensure the long-term sustainability of the festival.     

On the Edge of Buying: A Targeting Approach for Indecisive Buyers Based on Willingness-to-Pay Ranges

Targeting the “right” consumers is a core part of marketing. Whereas existing techniques to identify these consumers use demographic or psychographic variables or behaviors such as response probabilities, a proposed new targeting approach builds on consumers’ incremental responses to identify them by their willingness-to-pay (WTP) ranges. These WTP ranges reveal a consumer as a definite buyer, a definite non-buyer, or an indecisive buyer. The proposed theoretical framework indicates that indecisive buyers offer the highest incremental responses to targeted marketing mix activities and thus should be the most preferred targeting group. A sequence of three laboratory experimental studies validates the proposed approach for targeted price discounts and non-price tactics. In addition, a large-scale field experiment involving a consumer engagement campaign that includes observed purchase behavior demonstrates the high external validity and applicability of this approach.     

The impact of home–host cultural distance on foreign affiliate sales: The moderating role of cultural variation within host countries

Research on how multinational firms deal with home–host cultural differences argues that cultural differences are minimized and assumes that foreign cultures are homogenous. In this paper we relax the cultural homogeneity assumption. In the presence of cultural variation in host countries the minimization of cultural differences leads existing mean-based indices of cultural differences to overestimate the actual cultural differences these firms have to deal with. We test this argument in a 25-year panel analysis of total US multinationals' foreign sales in 54 host countries. At the sample average of cultural variation, the use of mean cultural difference indices yields a 74% overestimate of the actual cultural difference effect. This suggests that home–host cultural differences are a substantially smaller barrier to multinational sales than hitherto assumed. The assumption of cultural homogeneity leads to conclusions in which a too large role is attributed to cultural differences.     

新发展格局下的全国统一大市场建设

百年变局叠加世纪疫情，我国经济发展面临"需求收缩、供给冲击、预期转弱"三重压力，建设全国统一大市场是构建国内国际双循环新发展格局的基础支撑和内在要求。文章利用相对价格方差均值方法测度了全国商品市场、劳动力市场、资本市场的一体化程度，发现商品市场一体化程度在逐渐上升，但劳动力市场、资本市场并未呈同样上升趋势。地方竞争导致的地方保护和分割负面现象、要素市场流动管制行政色彩较重、基础设施缺乏互联互通、疫情冲击是造成我国现在市场分割的直接原因。强化市场在资源配置中起决定性作用，是建设全国统一大市场的政策内涵。当前，建设全国统一大市场要以供给侧结构性改革为主线，为市场提供统一的基础性制度供给，统筹好安全和发展、全国和地方、市场和政府之间的关系，充分发挥单一超大规模市场的优势，形成以国内大循环为主体、国内国际双循环相互促进的新发展格局。     

Profiling shoppers’ coping behaviours during a pandemic crisis: A regulatory focus perspective

Using the regulatory-focus theory (i.e. promotion- and prevention-focused concepts), the research investigates shoppers' positive/negative coping behaviours and segmentation linked to COVID-19. Supported by an online survey with 213 shoppers conducted after the first national lockdown (March 2020), factor analysis identified a set of four shopping factors meaningful to profile shoppers’ coping behaviours and segmentation. Positive coping is represented by quality-, price- and brand-focused shopping factors, whereas negative coping is represented by store-focused. The resultant three shopper segments are known as the mindful shopper (positive and negative coping), and the indulgent and the optimal shoppers (more positive coping).     

方言多样化和企业创新——中国的事实及机制

文化作为非正式制度的重要组成部分会对企业创新产生影响吗？使用企业创新调查数据库和工具变量法,以方言表征文化,本文实证检验了方言多样化和企业创新之间的关系。结果发现,方言多样化对企业的创新投入产生了显著的抑制作用。平均而言,以人口加权的方言多样化指数增加1%,企业人均私人创新投入会下降1.18%。进一步的研究发现,方言多样化对企业创新投入的影响主要在于信任效应(文化身份认同)而非文化交流效应。此外,由于自身资源、人才和风险限制等,越来越多的企业将创新过程中技术链条的各部分外包给其他企业(即创新外包),但方言多样化增加了企业创新外包过程中的交易成本,进而对企业的创新投入产生了显著的抑制作用。最后,方言多样化通过市场分割强化了对企业创新投入的抑制作用,具体表现为产品和资本市场分割程度越高的省份,方言多样化对企业创新投入的抑制作用越强。     

外资准入如何影响中国相邻城市间生产率差距？

区域发展不平衡不充分是我国当前面临的社会主要矛盾之一，同时坚持"制度型开放"有助于增强地区间产业关联，带动欠发达地区相关产业发展，进而促进地区间的平衡发展。文章将"开放"和"协调"议题结合，以中国2002年《外商投资产业指导目录》的重新修订作为案例，研究外资准入政策对相邻城市间管制放松行业生产率差距的影响和作用机制。文章结论表明，外资准入政策显著减小了管制放松行业在相邻城市间的生产率差距。异质性检验发现，在中部和西部地区以及较低创新水平、盈利水平和外资进入程度行业的样本组，外资准入政策可以更显著地减小相邻城市间管制放松行业的生产率差距。作用机制检验发现，外资准入政策显著降低了相邻城市间管制放松行业的创新水平差距和盈利水平差距，上述变化是促使减小生产率差距的重要影响渠道。拓展性分析发现，贸易自由化加强了外资准入政策减小相邻城市间管制放松行业生产率差距的积极作用。地区之间的市场分割程度越高，外资准入政策减小管制放松行业生产率差距的作用反而越强。     

外资开放、市场分割与产业升级——基于双循环新发展格局视角的探讨

文章首先通过定量识别《外商投资产业指导目录》，构造出我国外资开放度指标，然后，采用价格法测算了我国省际地区市场分割程度，同时借助贸易增加值核算框架测度了我国各省市制造业细分行业的产业升级；在此基础上，将交互模型与非线性模型相结合，实证考察了市场分割视角下外资开放对产业升级的非线性影响。研究发现：第一，外资开放与产业升级之间存在"倒U型"关系。第二，市场分割的弱化会对外资开放与产业升级之间的"倒U型"关系起到缓解，甚至翻转的作用，特别是在外资开放程度较高时，外资开放对产业升级的抑制作用会随着市场分割弱化而得以缓解，甚至转变为促进作用。换言之，我国在持续深化外资开放以推动产业升级过程中需要配合统一的大市场。第三，在解决内生性问题、替换指标、加入更多控制变量以及剔除部分样本之后，结果依然稳健。上述研究表明，构建"双循环"新发展格局是进一步推动我国产业升级，实现高质量发展的重要战略选择，而打破市场分割促进以统一大市场为基础的国内大循环的畅通是当前阶段重要的突破口。     

Local guarantees and SOE bond pricing in China

We study the changing landscape of credit market guarantees by examining the risk-pricing of the Chinese state-owned enterprise (SOE) bonds, which have experienced rising defaults across provinces from a zero record. Using primary market bond issuance data, we identify a province premium that captures the perceived local government support for local SOEs. We find that on average the perceived local government support is on the decline, while the subnational debt market has become more segmented since 2018. This evidence is found to be closely related to the divergence in local government’s fiscal space and the occurrence of SOE default incidents in the area, highlighting the adverse linkage between public debt and corporate financing costs.