IDENTIFYING LEISURE TRAVEL MARKET SEGMENTS BASED ON PREFERENCE FOR NOVELTY

The motivation and knowledge of travelers affects their choice of destination and selection of activities while on vacation. Understanding motivation is important for all stakeholders in the tourism industry. The search for novelty is one motivating factor when planning leisure trips and vacation activities. A foreign destination offers a form of novelty to the traveler because it can provide experiences that are not of the everyday variety. The chosen location may have specific geographical features, a different cultural background, special shopping opportunities, a different language, new foods, and unique leisure activities that can provide a novel experience. The purpose of this study is to identify segments of potential U.S. leisure travelers based on their level of novelty seeking and to investigate the relationship between travelers' levels of novelty seeking and their knowledge of a destination and preferred travel style.     

Beyond under the dome: an environmental documentary amplified public risk perception about air pollution in China

Abstract

Air pollution is a major environmental problem in China and it poses serious risks to public health. Based on the social amplification of risk framework (SARF), this study examines how media, in particular, an impactful environmental documentary titled Under the Dome, influenced Chinese citizens’ risk perception about air pollution. Survey results showed that exposure to the documentary amplified risk perception and risk perception was significantly related to viewers’ information seeking behaviors, policy support, and individual mitigation action about this issue.     

State ownership and banks’ information rents: Evidence from China

In a lending relationship, a bank with an information advantage regarding its client tends to hold up the borrower and charge higher interest rates. We conjecture that state-owned enterprises (SOEs), with worse information asymmetry, are subject to greater information rents. State-owned banks place less emphasis on information production and hence extract lower rents compared to profit-maximizing private banks. We use the decline of loan interest rates around the borrowers’ equity initial public offerings (IPOs) as the proxy of banks’ information rents. We find SOEs in China experience larger declines in loan interest rates around their IPOs; the central government-controlled Big Four banks exhibit smaller declines in rates they charge, and their rate declines concentrate on loans made to SOEs.     

江苏省廉租住房需求预测研究

为了进一步完善住房保障的供应体系,为今后几年廉租住房政策的实施提供具有可操作性的建议,文章以2005-2009年江苏省各年的城市居民人均居住面积、人口总数为原始资料,通过建立灰色GM(1,1)模型,预测出2011-2016年的廉租住房需求总量,误差检验表明,预测结果精确度较好,具有一定的参考价值。     

The decreasing value of non‐SOEs’ political connections during China’s anti‐corruption campaign: evidence and mechanism

In this paper, we find that China’s anti‐corruption campaign since 2012 significantly reduces the value of political connections for non‐state‐owned enterprises (non‐SOEs). We provide evidence showing that the decline of the value of political connections for non‐SOEs is attributed mainly to the decreasing return from political connections, instead of increasing political risk. We further find that the decreasing return of the politically connected firms is driven mainly by the disappearance of the ‘resource effect’ of political connection in facilitating access to bank credit and government subsidies, but not due to the increasing cost of maintaining political connections.     

企业商业模式创新:基于租金理论的解释

商业模式的定义在理论界有多种不同的理解，然而，商业模式创新的驱动力尚缺乏完整研究。本文作者归纳了商业模式的不同定义，提出了一种新的概念解释；同时，作者用经济租金理论来分析企业商业模式的创新行为，通过深入研究，作者对企业经济租金的几种形态做出了分类，分析了企业在不同条件下获得经济租金的形式，从理论上解释了企业商业模式创新行为的内外在驱动力。     

The Postwar Japanese Political Economy in an Exchange Perspective

Early postwar Japan represented a Coasian social contract between an unproductive majority and a productive minority. The contract was possible and enforceable due to the American Occupation of Japan. It was socially desirable because it induced economic growth. It was self-enforcing due to specific Japanese conditions. However, the contract became socially undesirable as Japanese economy matured and the initial conditions changed, contributing to an increase in rent seeking. It also became unenforceable because the distribution of surpluses became more difficult as economic growth declined. As contractual enforcement mechanisms weakened, dynamic rent seeking activities further reduced Japanese economic growth rate (JLE# D72).     

论煤炭产业结构调整与重组

本文认为我国需构建租赁销售模式 ,加快发展中国的融资租赁业。     

Corporate venturing and the rent cycle

This study views entrepreneurial rents as renewable opportunities and explores how firms can effectively utilize corporate venturing to create and sustain economic rents. Schumpeterian entrepreneurs create rents by harnessing corporate venturing to exploit attractive economic opportunities. The Schumpeterian rent is composed of Ricardian and Austrian rents. Ricardian rents result from unique and non-reproducible characteristics or competencies of the firm, and hence, are not appropriable by imitators. Conversely, Austrian rents, or economic profit, are subject to dissipation by imitators and attract entry by competitors or Austrian entrepreneurs until they are bid to zero or destroyed by another Schumpeterian innovation. In this formulation, Austrian entrepreneurs are modeled as infra-marginal rent seekers. Consequently, to sustain rents, firms must cycle between using corporate venturing to create or discover Schumpeterian entrepreneurial opportunities and using venturing as a mechanism to exploit existing rent generating opportunities.     

Exploring the effect of geographic convenience on repeat visitation and tourist spending: the moderating role of novelty seeking

This article investigates the relationships among geographic convenience, tourists' visit frequency and travel spending as well as the moderating effect of novelty seeking. A curvilinear relationship between geographic convenience and visit frequency is first identified. The mediating role of visit frequency is then tested through path analysis, followed by an invariant model test that examines the moderating effect of novelty seeking. The findings reveal that frequency of visit fully mediates the relationship between geographic convenience and travel spending. The moderating effect of novelty seeking is also warranted in that the effect of geographic convenience is only significant for low-novelty seekers while the frequency-of-visit effect is more salient for high-novelty seekers.