Being a JBR reviewer

Publishing academic research in influential journals is at the heart of modern knowledge economies. However, submitting to a top-tier journal such as JBR can be a challenging experience for some authors. In this piece I share my experience as a JBR reviewer and offer my thoughts on how authors should approach submissions and resubmissions to JBR.     

Understanding the influence of submission devices on online consumer reviews:A comparison between smartphones and PCs

Online consumer reviews (OCRs) are of immense value to businesses and consumers. With the rapid development of mobile Internet, smartphones have become an important device for consumers to publish OCRs. Information input is more difficult on smartphones than on PCs because of the screen size, the convenience of using keyboard and the interference of use situation. Based on cognitive cost theory, this study compares the differences of the statistical characteristics of OCRs (study 1) and the narrative content of OCRs (study 2) submitted via smartphones and PCs about material purchases in B2C websites. In study 1, an analysis of 24,933 OCRs across six products shows that OCRs submitted via smartphones have fewer words, more images, higher star rating, and shorter time interval than via PCs. In study 2, by coding and analyzing 1001 OCRs, the results show that OCRs submitted via smartphones are less likely to mention price, product functionality, product quality, product aesthetics, service quality, logistics quality, and attitudinal loyalty than via PCs, whereas no significant difference is observed in the dimensions of seller trustworthiness, cognitive attitude, emotional attitude, and recommendation expression. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.     

On Hayek's road to serfdom: 60 years later

Stimulated by recent work of Levy–Peart–Ferrant, Rosser and McPhail, I read The Road to Serfdom by projecting it onto four registers—security and freedom, impersonal forces and the market, rules and the rule of law, and language and education—and identify in each the need for judgement, hopefully balanced but inevitably arbitrary beyond an analytical threshold, a need exacerbated by incomplete and dispersed knowledge. My larger project is to understand the role of the expert, theoretician if one prefers, in a ‘free’ society.     

五年编审与逐年奏销:清代江西人丁数字的史源考察

本文利用户科题本、编审黄册及方志,对清代江西省奏销册内人丁、食盐课数字进行共时性和历时性比勘,基本廓清了册内数字项目的变化轨迹,并通过相关计算关系的建立确定奏销册数字源于人丁编审,但在时间上具有滞后性。同一编审届别内人丁汇总数字的不变与分项数字的逐年变化,证明了孙毓棠逐年“小审”说的合理性。人丁编审的运行实态是以五年编审与逐年小审相表里,进而维持总撒动态平衡,更新了对人丁编审和奏销的制度理解,丰富了对人丁数字的史源认知。此外,可以考虑将奏销册作为参考资料,以弥补现有人丁数字序列时空属性的缺陷,并在人丁数字批量分析的基础上揭示人丁编审的制度运行细节和逻辑。