Country of origin: A competitive advantage?

Country of origin has been identified in the literature as an important cue that might be used by global marketers to influence consumers' valuation of the brand. Its effect on consumer perceptions, affect and behavioral intentions has been widely documented, based on consumer surveys and laboratory experiments. Despite this empirical evidence, we argue that country of origin is only one extrinsic cue among many extrinsic and intrinsic cues available to the consumer in a real purchase situation. Furthermore, in real life, consumers are likely to engage in some level of information search, which would further dilute the country of origin effect in the marketplace. Based on these arguments, we conclude that country of origin might not necessarily lead to a competitive (dis)advantage in terms of a price premium or discount. For a sample of products, we show that the objective product quality varies significantly by country of origin, and that these differences are consistent with extant research on country of origin effects on consumers' perceptions. After controlling for quality differences across brands, we demonstrate that marketers from different countries charge prices that are justified by differences in product quality. Price premiums or discounts are therefore explained by differences in product quality rather than the image effect produced by the country of origin cue.     

成功的市场进驻策略是决定市场地位的关键——宝洁公司在中国的市场进驻成功个案

美国宝洁公司在中国改革开放之际,敏锐地察觉到中国市场的巨大潜力,向中国日用品市场进驻。在多元品牌政策和差异性市场策略的总体策略指引下,宝洁公司充分考虑中国经济,政治,文化背景,以中国东西部经济差距,城乡消费者需求差异,中国消费者对传统文化的要求和可持续发展为基础,开发具有中国传统品味的高科技环保产品,建立特殊的分销体系,建立了在中国市场的首席地位。同时,宝洁公司以遵守中国法律,履行社会责任和道德准则为己任,与当地政府配合,协助开展文化和经济辅导活动,保护生态环境与自然资源,在消费者心目中建立了良好的企业形象,为进一步发展提供了有利基础,达到了双赢的目的。     

西方基于利益相关者的财务目标理论探讨

本文从利益相关者理论的演变历程出发,首先论述了西方国家基于利益相关者财务目标理论产生的背景及相关实践,并描述了该理财目标的主要理论及特点,同时还讨论了西方国家基于利益相关者财务目标理论存在的问题。     

Measuring agricultural knowledge and adoption

Understanding the tradeoffs in improving the precision of agricultural measures through survey design is crucial. Yet, standard indicators used to determine program effectiveness may be flawed, and at a differential rate for men and women. We use a household survey from Mozambique to estimate the measurement error from male and female self‐reports of their adoption and knowledge of three practices: intercropping, mulching, and strip tillage. Despite clear differences in human and physical capital, there are no obvious differences in the knowledge, adoption, and error in self‐reporting between men and women. Having received training unanimously lowers knowledge misreports and increases adoption misreports. Other determinants of reporting error differ by gender. Misreporting is positively associated with a greater number of plots for men. Recall decay on measures of knowledge appears prominent among men but not women. Findings from regression and cost‐effectiveness analyses always favor the collection of objective measures of knowledge. Given the lowest rate of accuracy for adoption was around 80%, costlier objective adoption measures are recommended for a subsample in regions with heterogeneous farm sizes.     

Willingness-to-pay for urban ecosystem services provision under objective and subjective uncertainty

There is growing concern that failure to acknowledge the risk and uncertainty surrounding ecosystem services (ES) delivery could have adverse effects on support for ES policy intervention in the long run. However, acknowledging risk may reduce support for policy interventions in the short term. In this paper, we sought to determine whether willingness-to-pay (WTP) for urban forest ES in Southampton, UK is affected by objective and subjective uncertainty surrounding ES delivery. We conducted a discrete choice experiment with a split sample design: one with a scenario specifying risky ES outcomes and one where zero risk was implied. Respondents’ subjective certainty surrounding the provision of ES was determined before and after the choice questions. Despite respondents’ risk aversion, introducing an objective likelihood attribute did not reduce WTP compared to the scenario with implied certain ES outcomes. Furthermore, whilst WTP for the overall scheme was found to be adversely affected by the presence of risk around ES outcomes, subjective uncertainty seemed to reduce WTP more than objective probabilities. Our results therefore support the idea that both objective probabilities and subjective uncertainty should be explicitly incorporated in the design of stated preference studies for ES valuation.     

我国商业银行营销渠道的选择

商业银行营销渠道的选择是一项重要的战略决策，它会极大地影响其经营业绩和成本水平。目前，我国商业银行的营销渠道还比较狭窄，基层网点功能单一，服务手段落后。今后，商业银行要根据目标市场客户的需求，积极开发新的金融产品，大力整合、开发和拓宽营销渠道。     

论政府间转移支付的分类

进一步完善我国政府间转移支付体系是当前和今后面临的一个重大课题.我们认为,政府间转移支付按照目标和功能的不同,可分为以下4类:以均等化为目标的转移支付、解决辖区间外溢性问题的转移支付、中央委托地方事务引致的转移支付、以增强国家政治控制力为目标的转移支付.     

高校大学生法律意识养成之客观因素

人类社会进程的新陈代谢决定了大学生这个特殊的精英群体是关系国家和民族兴衰成败的未来有生力量,而法治文明则是实现国家繁荣和民族复兴的必由制度路径,大学生现代法律意识的培养因此构成一项关系到社会主义法治建设的巨大工程。法律意识之养成在于塑造一个法律世界观,但科学合理的法律世界观之形成应依赖客观因素之促进。良好的外部法律环境是健全和改善高校大学生法律意识的最佳途径。必须区别对待我国法律文化传统的积极和消极方面,立足传统并通由有策略的高校法制教育、司法的社会感召等措施培养、引导高校大学生的法律意识之养成。只有在“四有”新人的基础上补上“有法律”这一缺环,这样的民族才是有希望的民族。     

坚持单一的货币政策目标是现实的选择

为了使货币政策的执行对经济运行产生最有效的推动作用，提出正确认识货币政策的作用是选择货币政策目标的关键。由于货币政策在作用时滞上、渠道上、公众心理预期上都存在一定局限性，并且最好要紧紧围绕国民经济发展的根本目的，从有利于激发劳动生产率的要求来制定，因而货币政策的单一目标选择就是必然的和最科学合理的。     

The Significance of Gender in Predicting the Cognitive Moral Development of Business Practitioners Using the Sociomoral Reflection Objective Measure

This study constitutes a contribution to the discussion about moral reasoning in business. Kohlberg’s (1971, in Cognitive Development and Epistemology (Academic Press, New York), 1976, in Moral Development and Behavior: Theory and Research and Social Issues (Holt, Rienhart and Winston, New York)) cognitive moral development (CMD) theory is one explanation of moral reasoning. One unresolved debate on the topic of CMD is the charge that Kohlbergian-type CMD theory is gender biased. This research puts forth the proposal that the issue may be elucidated by exposing an ambiguity in “gender” (Borna and White: 2003, Journal of Business Ethics 47, 89–99; Gentile: 1993, Psychological Science 4(2), 120–122; Unger: 1979, American Psychologist 34(11), 1085–1094). We use the Sociomoral Reflective Objective Measure (SROM) to measure CMD and the Bem Sex Role Inventory (BSRI) to measure gender as a psychosocial concept, rather than as a biological classification. The results of our study indicate that high femininity, measured as a psychosocial attribute, is associated with significantly lower Kohlbergian-type CMD scores among business practitioners. Sex moderates the effect of gender on CMD, but only indirectly. Our research also reveals that education plays a significant moderating role in the relationship between gender and moral reasoning. In addition, age has a significant direct effect on CMD scores of business practitioners. Beverly Kracher is an Associate Professor of Business Ethics & Society in the College of Business Administration at Creighton University. Her research areas include moral reasoning in business, e-commerece ethics & online trust, business ethics pedagogy, and business & the environment. Her research appears in Journal of Business Ethics, Business Ethics Quarterly, Business & Society, International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, Teaching Business Ethics, Interdisciplinary Environmental Review and more. Robert P. Marble is an Associate Professor of Decision Sciences in the College of Business Administration at Creighton University. His research is in the areas of information systems implementation, artificial intelligence, and statistical modeling of business processes. He has published in such journals as the European Journal of Information Systems and Information & Management.