Revenue Forecasting Practices: Differences across Countries and Consequences for Forecasting Performance*

This paper reviews the practice and performance of revenue forecasting in selected OECD countries. It turns out that the cross‐country differences in the performance of revenue forecasting are first of all associated with uncertainty about the macroeconomic fundamentals. To some extent, they are also driven by country characteristics such as the importance of corporate and (personal) income taxes. Also, differences in the timing of the forecasts prove important. However, controlling for these differences, we find that the independence of revenue forecasting from possible government manipulation exerts a robust, significantly positive effect on the accuracy of revenue forecasts.     

Factors Influencing Consumers' Decision to Purchase Beef

Abstract

The South Korean beef import market was deregulated in 2000. As the beef import quotas were lifted in January 2001, increased market opportunities became available for exporters. Beef exporters are allowed to have direct communication with beef merchandisers in South Korea, which enable them to respond to Korean consumer demand more effectively. Korean consumers apparently have a negative perception on the quality of imported beef. However, little information is available to guide international beef exporters in the design of an export market development program. This study used a consumer mail survey in order to examine the Korean consumer beef market. While this study is exploratory by nature, it goes beyond traditional demand analysis, and it aims to provide comprehensive information on the important factors affecting Korean consumers' beef purchasing behavior. Marketing implications for beef exporters are drawn.     

Big Data and Dietary Trend: The Case of Avocado Imports in China

ABSTRACT

The advancement of data science and technology presents a unique opportunity to understand rapidly evolving dietary trend around the world. In this case study, we show that the Baidu index, a measurement of the intensity of user searches for specific words, helps explain and forecast the growth of avocado imports in China. Specifically, we find that China’s avocado imports rise by 8% in response to a 10% increase in the Baidu index. Furthermore, the inclusion of the Baidu index in a standard demand model reduces the prediction error by 2.7%.     

国际旅游岛的价值分析

自从国务院发布了《国务院关于推进海南国际旅游岛建设发展的若干意见》后,海南省有了新的发展机遇。本文对海南国际旅游岛的战略价值和生态资源价值进行认识,并为海南国际旅游岛创造共同价值和长远价值做分析研究,在达成国际旅游岛比发展有污染的低端工业更有价值的共识基础上,对旅游中生态价值进行价值分析,在开发这种旅游资源的基础上,采取人为行政和立法的方式来保护这种核心价值,利于海南省创造更多的价值。     

eWOM across channels: comparing the impact of self-enhancement,positivity bias and vengeance on Facebook and Twitter

Abstract

When sharing personal details, versus talking about others, consumers tend to accentuate the positive experiences they have with brands in order to self-enhance amongst friends. Consumers also take vengeance on brands in public venues. Turning to social network sites (SNSs), it is unclear which is dominant. Here historical Facebook and Twitter eWOM (n = 47,907) is analyzed for a static group of 783 active US consumers. Self-enhancement is found on both SNSs. The majority of eWOM is positive Vengeance was rare, occurring only in 10.3% of all eWOM. eWOM appears to mirror a consumer's non-eWOM sentiment valence across SNSs. In this cross-platform comparison we suggest that SNS affordances alter eWOM creation Facebook has privacy expectations and limits direct brand interactions. Twitter is a public platform with less privacy expectations and a larger customer service component. Here eWOM is more prevalent on Twitter but contrary to our expectations is more positive.     

Intermediation Behavior of the Financial Superstructure in Response to Environmental Stimuli

ABSTRACT

This paper is an empirical extension aimed at investigating the relationships between the indicators of the financial superstructure and its intermediation environments; and especially how the former responds to the effects of the latter. Intermediation-environmental models patterned after multivariate regression, causality, and partial adjustment models of both linear and log-linear formulations were estimated and analyzed. The results reveal that three environments: socio-political, regulatory, and international finance-exerted significant effects on the intermediation function of the superstructure. Previous intermediation successes ginger up current performance. In the long run, the effects of the environmental factors on the intermediation function of the superstructure, in whatever direction, more than quadruples. In any given year, the Nigerian financial superstructure attains only about 21.9% of desired (optimal) FIR. Given this, it would take about 4-1/2 years for it to adjust its intermediation operations (FIR), in light of the effects of environmental factors, to optimal levels in order to significantly impact the economy as desired. Some consistent behavioral traits were identified from the results to include: the precepts of potential maximization, profit maximization, accommodation principles, survival and cost-minimization principles, and the neutrality axiom.     

维也纳经济大学税法硕士教育对我国的启示

文章考察了维也纳经济大学的税法硕士教育项目,重点介绍其教学实践环节。基于中国税务硕士教育的现状,在师资建设、教学、科研等方面总结出了该教育项目对中国税务硕士教育的启示。     

‘Parasitic invasions’ or sources of good governance: Constraining foreign competition in Hong Kong banking, 1965–81

This paper investigates the operation and impact of the moratorium on new banking licences imposed in Hong Kong in 1965 and the claims that foreign banks destabilised the banking system and drained resources from the colony. First it examines foreign banks' attempts to circumvent the moratorium through claims of special circumstances and buying interests in local banks, and secondly it examines the efforts of incumbents to extend barriers to non-bank financial institutions and to branches of foreign banks. The general conclusions are that while the moratorium was aimed at increasing the stability of the banking system, it had the effect of decreasing the regulatory breadth of the government, and reducing incentives for mergers and acquisitions that might have improved governance.     

Rhetorics and realities of management practices in Pakistan: Colonial,post-colonial and post-9/11 influences

This study explores how colonial laws and administrative practices shaped the evolution of employment management in Pakistan. It identifies important mechanisms used by the British Raj (the period of British rule of the subcontinent) to institutionalise legal and administrative frameworks: the legacies of these structures continue to influence contemporary management practices in government sector organisations. This article investigates the legacy of the Raj's ‘quota system’ in the civil services and the doctrine of the ‘martial race’ in military services, both of which offered enduring structural advantages in the labour market to designated groups. It further considers the implications of the study's findings for international HRM in particular, but also management theory, comparative HRM and comparative management in post-colonial societies.     

The rise and fall of single-letter ticker symbols

A single-letter stock ticker symbol is a limited resource – only 26 possibilities are available in a stock universe of over 475,000 possible one-, two-, three- or four-letter ticker symbols. These symbols were first allocated based on trading volume therefore some of the most important companies at the time were initially placed into this group. This paper examines the history of this group of stocks and documents a decline in the importance of these firms due to a natural turnover in commercial leadership and no established mechanism to remove the single-letter designation from firms that lost their prominence.