Signaling Quality and Credibility in Yellow Pages Advertising: The Influence of Color and Graphics on Choice

Abstract

This research investigates the ability of color and graphics to convey information about quality and credibility and their influence on choice in Yellow Pages advertising. In Experiment 1, participants exposed to Yellow Pages ads across three product categories had more favorable attitudes toward the advertisement, advertiser, and quality for ads in color than for noncolored ads. Attitudes about the advertisement, advertiser, quality, and credibility were more favorable for ads with photos than for ads with line art. In both cases, results varied by product category. Experiment 2 tested the effect of color and graphics on selection of a Yellow Pages advertiser across eight product categories. Selection from a 32-page, simulated Yellow Pages booklet was made by 384 subjects. A significant effect for process (full) color and photographic-quality graphics on choice of an advertiser from Yellow Pages was found and varied across product categories. The results also highlight the impact of other variables that are controlled by the advertiser.     

AIDS is your business

If your company operates in a developing country, AIDS is your business. While Africa has received the most attention, AIDS is also spreading swiftly in other parts of the world. Russia and Ukraine had the fastest-growing epidemics last year, and many experts believe China and India will suffer the next tidal wave of infection. Why should executives be concerned about AIDS? Because it is destroying the twin rationales of globalization strategy-cheap labor and fast-growing markets--in countries where people are heavily affected by the epidemic. Fortunately, investments in programs that prevent infection and provide treatment for employees who have HIV/AIDS are profitable for many businesses--that is, they lead to savings that outweigh the programs' costs. Due to the long latency period between HIV infection and the onset of AIDS symptoms, a company is not likely to see any of the costs of HIV/AIDS until five to ten years after an employee is infected. But executives can calculate the present value of epidemic-related costs by using the discount rate to weigh each cost according to its expected timing. That allows companies to think about expenses on HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment programs as investments rather than merely as costs. The authors found that the annual cost of AIDS to six corporations in South Africa and Botswana ranged from 0.4% to 5.9% of the wage bill. All six companies would have earned positive returns on their investments if they had provided employees with free treatment for HIV/AIDS in the form of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART), according to the mathematical model the authors used. The annual reduction in the AIDS "tax" would have been as much as 40.4%. The authors' conclusion? Fighting AIDS not only helps those infected; it also makes good business sense.     

An investigation of managerial interventions in employee disputes

Seventy four university managers described up to six recent conflicts and reported on their intervention strategies. Findings show that managers use a range of strategies, including overlooking, as interventions for employees’ disputes, instead of favoring the use of any particular one. Choices of intervention strategies were influenced by the type of issue being disputed, the seriousness of the dispute, and managers’ self-efficacy with mediation. Specifically, managers most frequently used mediation to resolve task-related disputes, and tended to use a variety of different strategies to intervene in personality conflicts. When managers perceived conflicts to be highly serious, they most frequently used mediation, followed by arbitration, offering incentives, and lastly, overlooking. Managers with a high degree of mediation self-efficacy more frequently mediated employees’ disputes, whereas managers with a low degree of mediation self-efficacy more frequently overlooked employees’ disputes. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.     

Bayesian and Frequentist Inference for Ecological Inference: The R×C Case

In this paper we propose Bayesian and frequentist approaches to ecological inference, based on R × C contingency tables, including a covariate. The proposed Bayesian model extends the binomial-beta hierarchical model developed by K ing , R osen and T anner (1999) from the 2×2 case to the R × C case. As in the 2×2 case, the inferential procedure employs Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) methods. As such, the resulting MCMC analysis is rich but computationally intensive. The frequentist approach, based on first moments rather than on the entire likelihood, provides quick inference via nonlinear least-squares, while retaining good frequentist properties. The two approaches are illustrated with simulated data, as well as with real data on voting patterns in Weimar Germany. In the final section of the paper we provide an overview of a range of alternative inferential approaches which trade-off computational intensity for statistical efficiency.     

The causal effect of board size in the performance of small and medium-sized firms

Empirical studies of large publicly traded firms have shown a robust negative relationship between board size and firm performance. The evidence on small and medium-sized firms is less clear; we show that existing work has been incomplete in analyzing the causal relationship due to weak identification strategies. Using a rich data set of almost 7000 closely held corporations we provide a causal analysis of board size effects on firm performance: We use a novel instrument given by the number of children of the chief executive officer (CEO) of the firms. First, we find a strong positive correlation between family size and board size and show this correlation to be driven by firms where the CEO’s relatives serve on the board. Second, we find empirical evidence of a small adverse board size effect driven by the minority of small and medium-sized firms that are characterized by having comparatively large boards of six or more members.     

Is there chronic excess supply of labor?: Designing a statistical test

We devise and implement a statistical test of the hypothesis that the labor market has chronic excess supply. We find that the data reject this hypothesis.     

Fares and Free Riders on the Information Highway

Public policy issues around access to networked information are explored and examined. Long viewed as the quintessential public good, information has evolved into a critically important market commodity in little more than a generation. New technologies and a political climate in which the meaning of universal access to information is no longer commonly understood and in which its importance is no longer taken for granted pose significant challenges for American society. Libraries, as information commons, offer the means of meeting those challenges. Historical, economical, and professional factors that shape the conflict are described and discussed.