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Multiattribute ratings of country‐image are commonly obtained to study the influence of country‐of‐origin on product preference and purchase decisions. Usually, such ratings are obtained for products made in different countries in order to make comparisons across countries. However, recent research evidence indicates that, when individual respondents rate multiple entities (e.g., multiple countries), the ratings of a particular country can be affected by the other “contextual” countries included in the questionnaire. The purpose of this study is to examine, via a controlled experiment, the issue of measurement context effects in the measurement of country images. The hypotheses tested concern the stability of attribute‐based and entity‐based country image scaling and potential methods of reducing the vulnerability of multi‐entity scaling to entity context ‐‐ the use of an anchor entity and an insulator question set to increase country image measurement stability.

Sales promotion is an important element of marketing communication strategy which accounts for more promotional expenditures than advertising in some countries. However, sales promotion has been generally ignored by researchers. This article briefly reviews the criteria used in the US to evaluate sales promotions and these criteria are found inadequate to guide the formulation of sales promotion internationally. Environmental sensitivity factors are identified which are overlooked in domestic sales promotions and an audit approach to planning and evaluating cross‐national sales promotion strategy is presented.

This study examines how various characteristics of the discount retail environment and the overall attitude towards a discount retail store, considered to be an abstract and global image component, influence consumers’ satisfaction and how consumers’ satisfaction, in turn, affects store loyalty. The data, collected from a sample of 517 discount retail customers in Daegu, Korea, indicate that: (1) forming the overall attitude is more closely related to in‐store services: atmosphere, employee service, after sales service and merchandising, (2) store satisfaction is formed through perceived store atmosphere and value, (3) the overall attitude has strong influence on satisfaction and loyalty and its impact is much stronger on loyalty than on satisfaction, (4) store loyalty is directly affected by most significantly location, merchandising and after sale service in order, (5) satisfaction is not related to customers’ committed store revisiting behavior. The applications in management and implications for future research are discussed.

The purpose of this paper is to identify critical personality traits affecting and influencing buying behaviour in high involvement consumer durables. It also intends to guide practitioners in selecting appropriate marketing frameworks, consumer segments and processes considering the characteristics of consumer behaviour in developing economies.

It systematically reviews the literature on consumer personality traits, its measurement and related consumer buying behaviour. It uses data collected from potential car buyers at various car showrooms across the Indian subcontinent. The authors have worked with the online survey firm Qualtrics, to gather a data set of 328 car purchase intenders’ responses to their validated survey. The model was tested using the SmartPLS.

The personality traits of imagination, agreeableness and social factors positively influenced attitude towards automobiles with advanced technology. Further, in line with the theory of planned behaviour, it is seen that a positive attitude towards advanced technology and design for automobiles makes a person more willing to pay for the same.

The study is confined to consumers intending to purchase a car, who are Indian residents.

It adds to the comparatively lesser body of study on the impact of personality traits on intentions and attitudes in high involvement consumer durable purchases. Further, it serves as an empirical examination of the adoption of new technologies, in the context of high involvement consumer durables. For practicing managers, it provides a reference for deciding future development directions and approaches related to the effective market launch strategies and commercialization of advanced technology automobiles in India.

This issue is a selected bibliography covering the subject of leadership.

We examine whether discretionary accruals of firms obtaining substantial external financing can be explained by managerial manipulation or managerial overoptimism. Insider trading patterns and press releases around equity and debt financing suggest that managers are more optimistic about their firms around debt financing. Consistent with earlier studies, we find that discretionary current accruals peak when firms obtain equity financing. However, we also find that discretionary accruals peak when firms obtain debt financing. Moreover, discretionary accruals are higher for firms that rely on debt rather than on equity financing. The results are robust to controlling for firm characteristics, excluding small and distressed firms, and using alternative measures of discretionary accruals. These findings support the hypothesis that managerial overoptimism distorts financial statements of firms obtaining external financing.

Local governments have long been concerned with economic growth and development. Some local governments take an aggressive, proactive stance on economic development, while others take a more incremental, reactionary approach. When economic development opportunities arise, the frequently asked question is “Who’s on first?” Is it the responsibility of local government to take the lead in promoting economic development opportunities, or should local government remain in the background leaving development activities to private developers? This article uses community power theory to examine the evolution of economic development in Wichita, Kansas and the roles played by the public and private sectors and their impact on the course of development activities. In order for a booster regime to be successful, the lead government must establish the legitimacy of the development effort with other potential members of the coalition. The lead government must establish a hospitable business climate and establish a commitment to support the infrastructure and service needs of developers. Coalition members must view the undertaking as a positive-sum gain.

This paper aims to give a brief review on behavioral economics and behavioral finance and discusses some of the previous research on agents' utility functions, applicable risk measures, diversification strategies and portfolio optimization.

The authors also cover related disciplines such as trading rules, contagion and various econometric aspects.

While scholars could first develop theoretical models in behavioral economics and behavioral finance, they subsequently may develop corresponding statistical and econometric models, this finally includes simulation studies to examine whether the estimators or statistics have good power and size. This all helps us to better understand financial and economic decision-making from a descriptive standpoint.

The research paper is original.

This paper reviews the strategic responses of successful local Chinese banks (LCBs) in the changeable Hong Kong banking sector over the past decades. Given the mixed outlook of the industry resulting from the handover of sovereignty, financial internationalization, and regional and domestic economic developments, this paper also discusses the benefits of using strategic alliance as a means for LCBs to meet current and future challenges. Based on case reviews, the paper demonstrates the values of strategic management concepts for small banks to cope with an externally oriented and politically uncertain operating environment.

Work-related low back disorders (LBDs) are prevalent among rebar workers although their causes remain uncertain. The purpose of this study is to examine the self-reported discomfort and spinal biomechanics (muscle activity and spinal kinematics) experienced by rebar workers.

In all, 20 healthy male participants performed simulated repetitive rebar lifting tasks with three different lifting weights, using either a stoop (n = 10) or a squat (n = 10) lifting posture, until subjective fatigue was reached. During these tasks, trunk muscle activity and spinal kinematics were recorded using surface electromyography and motion sensors, respectively.

A mixed-model, repeated measures analysis of variance revealed that an increase in lifting weight significantly increased lower back muscle activity at L3 level but decreased fatigue and time to fatigue (endurance time) (p < 0.05). Lifting postures had no significant effect on spinal biomechanics (p < 0.05). Test results revealed that lifting different weights causes disproportional loading upon muscles, which shortens the time to reach working endurance and increases the risk of developing LBDs among rebar workers.

Future research is required to: broaden the research scope to include other trades; investigate the effects of using assistive lifting devices to reduce manual handling risks posed; and develop automated human condition-based solutions to monitor trunk muscle activity and spinal kinematics.

This study fulfils an identified need to study laboratory-based simulated task conducted to investigate the risk of developing LBDs among rebar workers primarily caused by repetitive rebar lifting.