Stuck like glue: the formation and consequences of brand attachments among salespeople

Although managers and researchers put utmost importance on uncovering factors that affect effort and performance of sales representatives, they have largely overlooked a key factor. This research aims to remedy this neglect by shedding light on salesperson brand attachment. A qualitative study first examines the prevalence of attachment and uncovers several potential antecedents. Two follow-up empirical studies show that identification and psychological ownership are significant predictors of salesperson brand attachment. Informed by this research, managers can encourage brand attachment, with the end goal of increasing salesperson effort and ultimately performance, by increasing feelings of identification and psychological ownership among salespeople. This impact is particularly notable among brands with low market share, which are often a key concern of managers. The findings provide novel insights into how attachment affects sales representatives, as well as potential methods to cultivate such an attachment.     

Pseudocontingencies in Consumer Choice: Preference for Prevalent Product Categories Decreases with Decreasing Set Quality

Building on theorizing about contingency inferences, the present research deals with the impact of product category prevalence on consumer choice. We argue that a category's prevalence in the choice set can signal high quality, but the validity depends on the aggregate quality of the choice set. With ever more low‐quality products in the set, high prevalence should increasingly signal poor rather than high quality. When choosing from a poor‐quality set, choices should thus favor products from the rare category. In four experiments, we show that poor‐quality sets increase the proportion of consumers choosing products from a rare category. Furthermore, we show that these effects increase when base rates of a category and quality become more extreme. Finally, Experiment 4 shows that contingency inferences partly mediate the effect of set quality on choice. The results extend previous research on contingency inferences, indicating the adaptive use of base‐rate information in consumer decision making. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

对“医疗服务商品和市场”存在客观性和必然性的理性思考——兼评《对中国医疗卫生体制改革的评价与建议》

针对国务院发展研究中心课题组发表的《对中国医疗卫生体制改革的评价与建议》提出的卫生改革带来“问题的根源在于商业化、市场化的走向违背了医疗卫生事业发展的基本规律。”提出“医疗服务商品”、“医疗服务市场”的存在是客观的,并通过反驳《评价与建议》提出的四对矛盾,提出“医疗服务商品”、“医疗服务市场”的存在也是必然的,最后分析了所谓“卫生改革失败”的真正原因。     

中医院市场定位的两难选择及其对策

中医院的市场定位处于两难选择之中:中医药技术的潜在优势与现实局限性的矛盾、中医院管理者的价值取向与现实窘况的矛盾、中医院发展历史沉淀与市场竞争的矛盾、政府的中医药政策自身存在的矛盾等。这些矛盾涉及多方行为和利益主体,必须深化改革,以实现中医院的良性发展。     

论当前我国医疗市场对医患关系的影响

解读目前紧张的医患关系是一个迫切的社会课题.医疗服务是一种商品,医疗市场是客观存在的,它是导致医患关系紧张的深层次原因.     

马克思与现代性问题

马克思作为生活在现代性盛期的思想家,对现代性做了深入的诊断和批判。作者认为,马克思不是一个狭隘的对资本主义进行功能主义批判的制度分析论者,而是一个现代性的辩证的批判者。首先,他继承了个人自由和全面发展的现代性规范理想;其次,他通过对资产阶级法治国家和市民社会的批判,揭示把现代性理想与资本主义现代化的内在矛盾,并从这一批判中揭示现代性的新的出路,即社会主义和共产主义。这一方案虽然在现实中面临着许多理论和实践难题,但仍然构成我们今天现代性话语不可超越的视域。     

Small wonders of the Indian market

Heavy competition in India in almost all product categories, due to diversification by large and medium companies and increased entry of multinationals, has restricted the growth of domestic companies. Previously, large companies enjoyed high profit margins by targeting premium priced products in the upper strata of Indian society. High levels of competition from equally reputed brands have not only decreased the companies' market share but also created price wars, reducing profit margins and limiting market growth. This has motivated companies to consider the lower classes and the rural segments, which they had previously ignored. By targeting these segments with products in small packs at lower price points, companies have experienced great success. At the same time, small packs also pose some challenges for the companies. This paper explains the importance of small packs for market expansion in various product categories within the Indian market, drawing on several examples to support the views of the authors. Copyright © 2004 Henry Stewart Publications.     

Phantastic objects and the financial market's sense of reality: a psychoanalytic contribution to the understanding of stock market instability

This paper sets out to explore if standard psychoanalytic thinking based on clinical experience can illuminate instability in financial markets and its widespread human consequences. Buying, holding or selling financial assets in conditions of inherent uncertainty and ambiguity, it is argued, necessarily implies an ambivalent emotional and phantasy relationship to them. Based on the evidence of historical accounts, supplemented by some interviewing, the authors suggest a psychoanalytic approach focusing on unconscious phantasy relationships, states of mind, and unconscious group functioning can explain some outstanding questions about financial bubbles which cannot be explained with mainstream economic theories. The authors also suggest some institutional features of financial markets which may ordinarily increase or decrease the likelihood that financial decisions result from splitting off those thoughts which give rise to painful emotions. Splitting would increase the future risk of financial instability and in this respect the theory with which economic agents in such markets approach their work is important. An interdisciplinary theory recognizing and making possible the integration of emotional experience may be more useful to economic agents than the present mainstream theories which contrast rational and irrational decision-making and model them as making consistent decisions on the basis of reasoning alone.     

深化卫生事业改革应关注卫生经济伦理学研究

卫生经济伦理学是应用伦理学的一个分支,相对于经济学和卫生经济学的发展,卫生经济伦理学的建立和发展滞后,导致卫生经济体制改革的经济效果与社会效果的一定程度的偏离。卫生经济伦理学的理论前提是社会结构变迁要求各个相对独立社会领域的规则整合,其研究任务是为社会经济主体的行为提供一个规范性的评判,实现社会的和谐发展。     

Economy of Shadows: The Effects of Restrictive Regulation on Religiosity in China

Religion is permitted in China, but its practice is tightly regulated by the state. This paper uses individual-level longitudinal data to investigate the association between religious regulation and religious outcomes in China. Measures of regulation are constructed from instances of state action against Christians as well as Christian perceptions of unfair treatment by the government. In summary, as regulation increases, an individual is less likely to identify with a religion and less likely to say that religion is important. For those individuals without religious identification in either wave, regulation is negatively associated with religious importance. Yet, for those individuals with identification in one or two waves, regulation is either unassociated or even positively associated with importance. These findings contribute to research on regulation of religion and religion in China. More broadly, they demonstrate the state can wield considerable power over people's private lives but also that this power has limits.