Exploring an in-store customer journey for customers shopping for outdoor apparel

The omni-channel shopping phenomenon creates major challenges for brick-and-mortar stores to remain relevant and appeal to customers. A way to counteract these challenges is to offer customers a journey where in-store experiences enable them to encounter numerous physical and virtual touchpoints evoked by affective, cognitive, physical, relational, sensorial and symbolic responses. This study ascertained the customer journey activated by the experiences causing value and resulting in intentions to revisit a retailer specializing in outdoor apparel. Our web-based survey collected 300 valid responses for analyses. The statistical analyses confirmed a positive relationship between the customer in-shop experience factors and the shopping trip value experienced, which in turn mediated the relationship with intention to repatronage. Some conclusions are made and various suggestions for future research are recommended.     

Effects of pro-growth policies on employment: evidence of regional disparities

The main objective of our research is to study the direct impact of pro-growth economic policies on employment creation globally and regionally, as evidence has countered policy-makers’ expectation that output growth leads automatically to job creation. We innovate by using the ratio of employment to the population above 25 years as dependent variable instead of the customary employment elasticity. We apply generalized methods of moments’ econometrics on dynamic panel data models and find that growth stimulates employment creation on average across 76 countries. The policies promoting private sector credit, investments, openness, services, education spending, tertiary enrollment, and a fixed exchange rate are the ones that create employment. Larger government size undermines job creation, while policies promoting FDI and industrial development fail to stimulate employment. However, we establish that the effect of pro-growth policies on employment varies significantly across regions, with evidence of weaker links between economic policies and employment in Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East.     

乡镇企业与小城镇良性互动的对策思考

发展乡镇企业和小城镇,是中国解决农业、农村、农民问题的两个重大战略和根本方针,而二者又是互相影响、相互制约的。它们的协调发展对发展农业、富裕农民、繁荣农村、实现国民经济的快速健康发展具有重要意义。应坚持保护农业和农民利益、市场化、法制化等原则,从宏观和微观方面采取得力措施,实现二者的良性互动。     

Job growth in early transition: Comparing two paths*

Small start‐up firms are the engine of job creation in early transition. We ask about differences in their growth across two different transition economies: Estonia, which experienced rapid destruction of pre‐existing firms, and the Czech Republic, which reduced the old sector gradually. We find that the majority of job growth corresponds to within‐industry reallocation. The within‐industry growth of small start‐up firms is similar in the two countries, in line with the convergence to Western industry firm‐size distributions. We also find similar patterns in the evolution of wage differentials between start‐ups and old firms and small differences in the extent of low‐wage employment in start‐ups across the two transition paths. JEL Classifications: J2, J3, J4, L1, O1, P2.     

The Performance of Service Industries in Canada: A Real Value Analysis

The performance of service industries in Canada has been lower than that of good industries over the last four decades, with noticeable exceptions such as for railways and telecommunication carriers. Service industries were less economically (and technically) efficient in that they generated less output value (quantity) per hour worked (level and growth) or per combined unit of labour and capital (multifactor productivity growth) than good industries. The relative output price of services declined slightly over time compared with goods. At the disaggregated level, changing relative output prices were substantial and proved to be an important factor explaining the relative satisfactory economic performance of many service industries despite their low technical performance. Nevertheless, the output share of service industries increased over that period, sustained, mainly, by the growing recourse of all firms to outsourcing of services.     

Is Volatility the Best Predictor of Market Crashes?

The objective of this paper is to determine the best predictor of equity market crashes by focusing particularly on volatility and market liquidity. In finance, volatility has traditionally been regarded as the best measure of market risk. However, this paper shows that the forecast value of market liquidity, in particular our modified calculated market depth, predicts equity market crashes much more accurately than does the forecast values of EGARCH or Implied Volatility.     

和谐社会与价值--能量理论

本文延续了《经济学的本质》、《经济学的表象》两书提出的“价值-能量”理论,对构建和谐社会的要求、过程和目的进行了科学的分析,并为之奠定了科学的理论基础.     

对商业银行推行客户经理制的探讨

加入WTO后,国外银行业对中国银行业的冲击是全方位的,在个人银行业务领域,首当其冲的就是改革开放20年来日渐壮大的高端客户群和潜力客户群,面对严峻的竞争环境,我国商业银行必须未雨绸缪,从容应对,率先抢占。我们应该清醒的认识到,竞争并不可怕,可怕的是没有明确的市场定位,不了解自己的长处和短处。只有扎扎实实地建立健全客户经理制,才能不断产生新的金融产品,不断满足客户需求,不断适应客户市场的风云变幻,从而取得持续竞争的优势。     

服务企业培育顾客忠诚的营销路径

随着市场竞争的日趋激烈,培育高品质的顾客忠诚逐渐受到理论界和企业界的广泛重视。本文通过对服务企业顾客忠诚的影响因素展开讨论,提出一些服务企业培育顾客忠诚的营销路径。     

优惠性原产地规则的效应分析--兼论世界贸易组织统一优惠性原产地规则的必要性

在国际贸易日趋自由化的背景下，原产地规则尤其是优惠性原产地规则却日渐被用作非关税贸易保护措施。乌拉圭回合制定的《原产地规则协议》对非优惠性原产地规则做出了统一规定，但未能对优惠性原产地规则制订出多边规则。本文分析优惠性原产地规则的保护机制及其效应，指出WTO统一优惠性原产地规则的必要性。