Sensory Aspects of Retailing: Theoretical and Practical Implications

Sensory elements are an important aspect of both offline and online retail stores and can non-consciously influence consumer judgments and purchase behavior. In offline settings, ambient factors like scent, lighting, and music have been shown to influence customers’ shopping experiences and their buying behaviors. For online retail outlets, sensory factors related to color, display patterns, and layouts can have significant effects on consumer behavior. Sensory elements have strong managerial relevance since they can non-consciously influence behaviors and because they are relatively easy to change; for example, it requires minimal effort to change the lighting or the music at a physical retail store or the display pattern for an online store. The eight papers in this special issue address theoretical and practical issues related to how different sensory elements can strongly influence retail practices. These papers focus on underexplored topic areas and also on emerging technologies, which stimulate thoughts for further research in these areas.     

We Eat First with Our (Digital) Eyes: Enhancing Mental Simulation of Eating Experiences via Visual-Enabling Technologies

This research examines how consumers’ intentions to purchase food change depending on the visualisation mode (3D vs. AR) and product format (served vs. packaged). In three studies, we demonstrate that mental simulation of eating experiences (process and outcome) mediate these effects. Study 1 shows that AR visualisation of a served food improves simulation of the eating process over 3D visualisation, with a positive effect on purchase intention. Study 2 reveals that 3D visualisation improves purchase intention for packaged products (high instrumental properties) over served products (low instrumental properties) while the opposite is true for AR visualisation. In addition, interactivity and immersion mediate the effects of 3D (vs. AR) on mental simulation of the eating process for packaged products. Study 3 extends these results by showing that 3D increases purchase intention by eliciting mental simulation of the eating outcome, when the food is visible due to transparent (vs. opaque) packaging (displaying both sensory and instrumental properties), but that no such differences emerge for AR. This research highlights the importance of using different visualisation modes to promote food depending on the product format. The findings have important implications for both offline and online retailers.     

Virtual reality and mixed reality for second chance tourism

The deterioration of attractions, landmarks, artefacts and destinations is a critical issue facing tourism across the world. The closure of tourism sites and attractions is increasingly more common due to the difficulty and expense of managing preservation with onsite tourism engagement. However, the closure or destruction of tourism sites presents challenges for tourism development. The inability to foster meaningful visitor engagement at sites has implications for the local communities. This paper aims to explore the efficacy of creating tourism experiences in destinations and sites that have succumbed to over-tourism, resultant deterioration and even, destruction. To achieve this objective, the paper introduces the concept of second chance tourism and the role of innovative preservation methods such as virtual and mixed reality. Based on the proposed framework, the collation of data will provide indications on site preservation and impact mitigation via a second chance to reduce pressure on inherently fragile destinations.     

我国金融监管的现状与对策分析

“入世”后我国金融监管面临严峻挑战。如何适应新形势建立高效的金融监管体制成为我国经济发展中一个非常重要的问题。文章通过“入世”后对我国金融监管带来的冲击以及目前金融监管存在的问题分析 ,提出转变我国金融监管的对策。     

国库集中支付操作风险产生机理的博弈分析

国库集中支付操作风险是指国库资金支付过程中出现违规操作行为的可能性。国库集中支付制度框架下财政资金支付活动是财政部门、预算单位、代理银行和人民银行共同参与的博弈过程。本文运用博弈理论首先分析国库集中支付操作风险产生的内在机理，然后剖析国库集中支付操作风险产生的外在博弈条件，最后从优化博弈条件出发，提出建立健全监督激励机制以防范国库集中支付操作风险的建议。     

现代企业委托代理问题的“中庸之道”

孔子提出的“中庸之道”从根本上说是一种管理思想和方法,它要求人们作任何事情都要遵循适度原则,这对现代企业中的委托代理问题同样具有重要意义。在这一思想方法的指导下,本文论证了解决委托代理问题的最优激励机制设计,寻找激励与监督的均衡点。     

独立董事的相对独立性与发挥作用的途径

本文的实证结果表明独立董事报酬无论与内部董事,还是与管理高层的整体报酬之间都呈现显著的正相关关系,这说明独立董事具有相对独立性是不以人的意志为转移的客观事实。在此基础上,研究了相对独立性对监督有效性带来的影响。结果表明,尽管独立董事只具有相对的独立性,但只要能挖掘出符合相对独立性要求的机制来激励独立董事做更多实实在在的工作,具有高认知能力的独立董事依然能在上市公司的治理中有效地发挥作用。     

对中央银行会计事后监督的认识

本文从中央银行会计事后监督的产生与演变入手,分析了央行会计事后监督的职能与定位,提出了央 行会计事后监督的特殊性及其对会计事后监督理论的发展,并阐述了会计监督与会计控制之间的统一性。     

Augmented serial rules for an excludable public good

Summary. We present a new class of rules named augmented serial rules for the provision of an excludable public good. First, we characterize this class by the four axioms of strategy-proofness, envy-freeness, access independence, and nonbossiness. Second, we identify two important subclasses by imposing an additional axiom: (i) anonymous augmented serial rules by anonymity, and (ii) Moulins serial rule by individual rationality.Received: 31 December 2002, Revised: 9 June 2004, JEL Classification Numbers: D71, D82, H41.This paper is a substantial revision of Serial cost sharing with simple games. I would like to thank Hervé Moulin, Yoshikatsu Tatamitani, an associate editor, and three anonymous referees for helpful suggestions and detailed comments. This research was partially supported by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology in Japan (Grant-in-Aid for 21st Century COE Program Microstructure and Mechanism Design in Financial Markets).     

我国银行业监管体制改革的思考

长期以来 ,我国的金融机构由中央银行———中国人民银行监督管理 ,同时 ,中国人民银行还负责制定并实施货币政策。随着我国社会主义市场经济体制更进一步完善 ,需要进一步加强宏观调控 ,而货币政策是政府宏观调控的重要内容。因此 ,为了更好地制定并实施货币政策 ,国务院决定将金融监管的职责剥离出来 ,成立银监会来承担这一职责。文中就银监会设立的背景、意义进行了详尽分析 ,提出运行中应注意的若干问题。