Marketing as an Investment in Shareholder Value

We present resource‐based and capability‐based arguments of marketing investment intensity to offer a strategic view of marketing as an investment in shareholder value. We find that marketing investment intensity has a U‐shaped quadratic effect on shareholder value creation (Tobin's q) that calls for marketing investment to be protected and increased, not surrendered. We show how marketing investments interact with investments in R&D, human capital and operations to reveal how strategic co‐investments can alter the shareholder value of marketing. Finally, we show how competitive intensity and failings in the firm's investment productivity (its ability to convert investment expenditure into sales) point to malaise in the firm's own strategic architecture as a fault for perceived poor returns from marketing investments. Our findings suggest that marketing investment should not be scapegoated when its contributions to shareholder value are not as expected. When invested in strategically and in combination with other investments, marketing can unlock exciting improvements in shareholder value.     

Stressors beget stressors: The effect of passive leadership on employee health through workload and work–family conflict

The current study examined passive leadership as a potential antecedent of two commonly studied workplace stressors (i.e. workload and work–family conflict), and investigated its negative effect on employee burnout and physical symptoms via these stressors. We collected two waves of data from 274 focal participants, and one wave of data from their co-workers. Results showed that both self-reported and co-worker-reported passive leadership was positively related to employee burnout and physical symptoms, as well as workload and work–family conflict. Additionally, workload and work–family conflict partially mediated the effects of passive leadership on burnout and physical symptoms, respectively. Our findings support the notion that passive leadership can create a stressful workplace and have a detrimental effect on employees’ health.     

The adoption of multiple certification standards: perceived performance implications of quality,environmental and health & safety certifications

This study assesses the combined impact of multiple certifications (i.e. ISO 9001, ISO 14001, OHSAS 18001) on perceived performance dimensions related to quality, environmental and occupational health and safety. Using survey data collected from 59 Irish manufacturing plants in 2014, we employed MANCOVA and regression analysis to test our proposed hypothesis. The results suggest that companies that are simultaneously ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and OHSAS 18001 certified are significantly better performers with regard to environmental and occupational health and safety compared to companies without multiple certifications. However, from a perceived quality performance perspective, having these multiple certifications doesn’t seem to be an effective performance improvement tool.     

Managing dependency in China outsourcing relationships

Abstract

This paper examines manufacturing firms’ use of guanxi and formal control to address dependence on suppliers and achieve desired outsourcing performance in China. Using survey data collected from manufacturing firms operating in China, a structural equation model is used to test the research model. The results suggest that manufacturing firms with high dependence on suppliers build Chinese guanxi with those suppliers to overcome the dependence and enhance outsourcing performance. In addition, Chinese guanxi also appears to facilitate the use of formal control, which was also found to have a positive relationship with outsourcing performance. This paper contributes to the literature by illustrating the importance of guanxi in achieving desired outsourcing performance in the China context, particularly in the case where a manufacturer perceives high dependency on its major supplier.     

政府采购招标结构模型的非参数识别与估计

为了揭示政府采购市场的定价机制,探究招标活动的经济机理,本文首先提出了一种基于可观测成交价(即赢价)建立招标结构模型的方法,分析了博弈均衡的分布;然后讨论了该模型的非参数识别,提出了一种三阶段非参数核估计方法.最后,以中央单位集中采购打印机为例,估计了政府采购招标的成本分布和期望供给曲线.研究发现,当前的政府采购机制改革有效地降低了采购成本;对于附加成本较高的商品,投标人存在成本转移行为.     

Electronic payment mechanisms in social security: Extending the reach of benefit and contribution transactions

More often than not, the existing modes of contribution collection and benefit payment of social security organizations are adapted to the collective arrangements that characterize employer‐employee relationships. Extending coverage to individuals in difficult‐to‐reach groups, however, may require new modalities of service that can cope with many separate, secure transactions rather than a few bulk data transfers between organizations. Recent developments in electronic payment show its wide applicability in enabling huge volumes of such individual transactions. It is in this light that the article explores the potentials of this technology and identifies possible arrangements through which electronic payments could surmount barriers that stand in the way of covering difficult‐to‐reach groups. The high level of mobile phone penetration on a global scale augurs well for using e‐payment mechanisms to collect social security contributions and to deliver social security benefits and services. A generic model is used to describe the requisite elements to implement electronic payments in social protection programmes. Based on empirical evidence of current social protection practices from around the world, five scenarios are presented to describe possible configurations for electronic payment, from the simplest to the most sophisticated. The broader objective is to contribute in a practical manner to the international commitment to extend social protection to all, as defined by the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.     

The social security number: A small device underpinning big systems

The possession and use of a personal social security number helps to structure people's daily lives. However, despite its fundamental normative importance, the social security number remains a little‐known entity. Increasingly universal and yet diverse in form, it is a legal and technical norm which is as much a mechanism for surveillance and monitoring as it is a necessary instrument for giving effect to social rights. Analysis of this constituent element of social security systems permits as assessment of some of the technical difficulties presented by the ever‐increasing movement of people and data. Overcoming these technical difficulties should permit to envisage a first technical step towards realizing a universal and global social security system.     

孙中山关于国共合作的心理场结构及其对最终走向的影响

关于孙中山第一次国共合作的态度,我们在以往的研究中或是对孙中山进行了过分拔高,忽视其阶级属性;或是将其过分贬低,仅仅等同为资产阶级利益的守护者。而引入心理场概念,对具体环境下孙中山心理场中影响国共合作的正负向量进行解析,可以还原其真实心态。这种心态也最终决定了第一次国共合作的走向。     

新疆三区革命史研究中的几个问题

新疆三区革命是在盛世才反苏反共,对新疆各族人民实行残酷的政治迫害和经济盘剥的反动政策逼迫下,在苏联的策动组织下发生的,是反对盛世才和国民党反动统治,争取民族平等和解放的革命斗争.由于各种复杂的原因,在革命过程中发生过分裂祖国,反汉排汉的严重错误,但最终接受了中国共产党的领导,为新疆的和平解放做出了重要贡献.