Social Comparisons in Ultimatum Bargaining

Experiments are used to examine the effects of social comparisons in ultimatum bargaining. We inform responders about the average offer before they decide whether to accept or reject their specific offer. This significantly increases offers and offer‐specific rejection probabilities. For comparison, we consider another change in informational conditions: telling responders the total pie is $30—ex ante it was either $15 or $30—affects offers and rejection probabilities roughly as much. Our results are consistent with people’s dislike for deviations from the norm of equity but inconsistent with fairness theories, where people dislike income disparity between themselves and their referents.     

Manipulating uncertainty

Uncertainty about the distributional incidence of policy reforms may, if it impinges selectively on particular subsets of voters, alter the direction of the majority vote. This possibility should be a matter of special concern when subject to potential manipulation by a purposeful agent such as a Leviathan-like bureaucracy. This paper discusses a constitutional defense against such prospect. This paper was prepared for a conference on “Constitutional Status Quo and Prospects for Change” held at George Mason University in April, 1994. I am grateful to participants in that conference and to my colleagues at Nova, especially to Mário Páscoa, for their comments and criticisms. I also benefited from comments of an anonymous referee. Responsibility for errors remains with me.     

Three scenarios for the greater Hamburg region

In this paper, three scenarios for the metropolitan region of Hamburg within the next 30 years are presented. The scenarios are based on an assessment of decisions, opportunities and bottlenecks faced by the region in the areas of economic restructuring, demographic and societal changes, city-development and environmental changes. Many core questions that the region is dealing with are representative for Western European cities and highly industrialised regions worldwide. Accordingly, insights gained about strategies and future possibilities for the study region may be of use to other metropolitan regions. Extensive expert interviews were combined with a comparative analysis of the strong and weak points in the development of Hamburg and other big cities to identify trends and critical and strategic success factors. It is argued that economic, political, societal and environmental processes evolve in close interdependency and need to be treated in conjunction. A central question in this context is the meaning of radically different routes of port development—expansion, re-orientation and discontinuation—for the city's economy, the region's environment and socio-cultural renewal. Beneficial outcomes for quality of life, economic development and environmental state are generally found to depend on a combination of economic, societal and political requirements.     

The interactive effects of organizational and leadership career management support on job satisfaction and turnover intention

In the organizational career management literature, scholars have focused on career management policies, with little attention given to practices that can vary within organizations. And despite its recognized importance, research on the role of leaders in the career management process is also scant. In this study, we investigate the effects of career management practices (OCPs) and leadership career support (LCS) on employee attitudes. Grounded on coping theory, we propose that career support received from line managers can be particularly consequential when OCPs are lacking. We analyze the moderating effects of LCS on the relationship between OCPs and both job satisfaction and turnover intention in a sample of employees from a large Brazilian organization, applying multiple regression analyses. Results showed that OCPs and LCS are positively related to job satisfaction and that OCPs are negatively related to turnover intention. In addition, we confirmed that LCS moderates the relationship between OCPs and both job satisfaction and turnover intention. Finally, we observed that the relationship between OCPs and turnover intention is mediated by job satisfaction. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

我国城市老年人主观经济状况充足感分析

主观经济状况充足度指标是经常被用做分析健康、经济幸福感和心理幸福感等问题的重要自变量之一.以中国老龄科研中心2006年"中国城乡老年人口状况追踪调查"的城市数据为例,对全国16个省、市、自治区和直辖市的64个城市8018例60周岁及以上老年人相关数据进行分层多元回归分析.与国外研究相比,相同的结论包括老年人年龄越大、客观收入越多、健康状况越好、离退休及仍在工作的城市老人越愿意认为自己的主观经济状况是充足的;不尽一致的结论表现在老年女性、教育程度越高、已婚以及不与子女共同居住的城市老人越愿意认为自己的经济状况是充足的.在此基础上,分别从老年学理论和政策实践方面提出相关对策建议.     

How green is your packaging—A comparative international study of cues consumers use to recognize environmentally friendly packaging

Consumers have grown increasingly aware of the impact of packaging on the environment. Therefore, interest has grown in more environmentally friendly packaging, but we wondered how consumers recognize ‘green’ as distinct from ‘grey’ when evaluating packaging. We asked over 3,000 respondents from Germany, France and the United States how they recognize environmentally friendly packaging. To solicit responses that we may not have anticipated, we used an open‐ended format, which we then followed with a closed‐ended format so that we could compare the two sets of responses. Not surprisingly, in both sets of responses, we found labelling to be the attribute consumers rely upon most, as well as evidence of misleading labels. We also found consumers in Germany and the United States relied on information on the packaging and named searching for information as one of their preferred ways to decide whether packaging is environmentally friendly. French consumers seemed less trusting of published information and more trusting of the look and feel, especially the material, of the package. Our results point to the importance of cultural influences in the acquisition of perceptual cues by the consumer.     

Performance information use by politicians and public managers for internal control and external accountability purposes

Governance structures have changed fundamentally since the beginning of New Public Management inspired reforms. Particularly local public service delivery nowadays can be characterized as diversified and fragmented, leading to internal management and external accountability challenges for politicians as well as public managers. In this context the use of performance information is seen as a crucial element for effectively dealing with both issues. Nevertheless, empirical research considering different actors and contexts within one study is rare. The present paper fills this gap by applying a multi-theoretical perspective and testing hypotheses on the antecedents of performance information use by politicians and public managers for internal management as well as external accountability purposes in small- and medium sized local governments in Austria. The study results show that both groups use performance information to a greater extent within external accountability relationships than for internal management purposes. Results further illustrate that driving factors show similarities for both groups with reference to the latter mentioned purpose, while a more diverse picture is shown regarding factors impacting their use behavior toward citizens and supervisory authorities.     

Linking corporate productivity to foreign direct investment: An empirical assessment

This paper examines whether foreign firms generate productivity spillovers. Despite the relevance of this question to public policy, previous studies have failed to find consistent and conclusive evidence to support the existence of positive spillovers. Using previously unexploited firm-level data over the 1994–1999 period, we attempt to contribute to the literature on productivity spillovers from FDI by analysing the Portuguese manufacturing industry. The results indicate that foreign firms in the same industry of the observed firms (horizontal spillovers) and linkages between foreign firms and their local suppliers or customers (vertical spillovers) do not impact significantly on firms’ productivity. Moreover, we detected no differences on productivity spillovers associated to firm-specific characteristics.     

Buzz marketing for movies

In today's dynamic entertainment environment, movies are struggling to stay afloat and remain profitable. Challenges such as piracy, digital theft, competition, overlapping movie campaigns, media fragmentation, and audience saturation are forcing marketers to stretch their film budgets and make every dollar as effective as possible. With more and more entertainment options crowding peoples' lives, marketers must search for innovative ways to reach movie audiences. By breaking through the daily clutter and noise, and capturing peoples' attention to the point that talking about a movie becomes an enjoyable experience to share, buzz marketing is one such promotional posture that drives audiences to theaters. In order to achieve success with buzz marketing, however, marketers must recognize the role it plays in the context of movie differentiation strategies to support the company's overall approach. To that end, this article analyzes buzz marketing as it pertains to six movie differentiation strategies (differentiation with cosmetic movie features, differentiation to reach market segments, growing a movie segment, positioning to support the movie image, positioning to extend the movie image, and differentiation via non-traditional channels) and offers steps for its successful implementation.