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This study analyzes the impact of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) on the trade between Mexico and the U.S. NAFTA was signed by the U.S., Canada and Mexico on 17 December 1992 and took effect on 1 January 1994. This research found that NAFTA led to a significant increase in U.S. imports from Mexico, did not affect U.S. exports to Mexico, and led to a negative U.S. trade balance in the short term with Mexico. From a policy point of view, the results suggest that further expansion of NAFTA will probably lead to even larger trade deficits, at least in the short term, for the U.S. In order to prepare for the political and economic implications of NAFTA and FTAA the U.S. needs to encourage further research that leads to a quantification of the short‐term benefits and losses, even if most economists, business leaders, and government officials agree that in the long term the countries and populations involved will all benefit.

Compare and contrast how the accounting, organizational behavior and other literatures analyze sunk costs. Sunk costs form a key part of the decision-making component of the management accounting literature, which generally include previously incurred and unrecoverable costs. Management accountants believe, since current or future actions cannot change sunk costs, decision makers should ignore them. Thus, ongoing fixed costs or previously incurred sunk costs, while relevant for matters of accountability such as costing, income determination, and performance evaluation are irrelevant for most short- and long-term decisions. However, the organizational behavior literature indicates that sunk costs affect decision makers’ actions – especially their emotional attachments to the related project and the asymmetry of attitudes regarding the recognizing of losses and gains. Called the “sunk cost effect” or “sunk cost fallacy,” this conflict in sunk costs’ underlying nature reflects one element of incoherence in contemporary accounting discourse. We discuss this sunk cost conflict from an accounting and a philosophical perspective to denote some ambiguities that decision usefulness and accountability introduces into accounting discourse.

Review, summarize and analyze the above literatures

Managerial accountants can apply many lessons from the various literature sources.

We also show how differing opinions on how to treat sunk costs impact a firm’s decision-making process both economically and socially.

Drawing on the confirmation–disconfirmation paradigm and the elaboration likelihood model, this study builds and tests a conceptual model that examines the effect of perceived authenticity on affective and behavioural outcomes as well as the moderating role of consumer involvement on the link between authenticity and satisfaction. The model was tested on data collected from 224 members of a theatre audience using structural equation modelling. Results indicate that perceived authenticity associated with both the core arts product and the venue enhances audience satisfaction which is a strong predictor of intention to recommend. Audience involvement with theatre moderates the link between authenticity of venue and satisfaction, with this association being stronger for low-involvement consumers.

Globally, urban planners and decision makers are pursuing place-based initiatives to develop and enhance urban infrastructure to optimise city performance, competitiveness and sustainability credentials. New discourses associated with big data, Building Information Modelling, SMART cities, green and biophilic thinking inform research, policy and practice agendas to varying extents. However, these discourses remain relatively isolated as much city planning is still pursued within traditional sectoral silos hindering integration. This research explores new conceptual ground at the Smart – Natural City interface within a safe interdisciplinary opportunity space. Using the city of Birmingham UK as a case study, a methodology was developed championing co-design, integration and social learning to develop a conceptual framework to navigate the challenges and opportunities at the Smart-Natural city interface. An innovation workshop and supplementary interviews drew upon the insights and experiences of 25 experts leading to the identification of five key spaces for the conceptualisation and delivery at the Smart-Natural city interface. At the core is the space for connectivity; surrounded by spaces for visioning, place-making, citizen-led participatorylearning and monitoring.The framework provides a starting point for improved discussions, understandings and negotiations to cover all components of this particular interface. Our results show the importance of using all spaces within shared narratives; moving towards ‘silver-green’ and living infrastructure and developing data in response to identified priorities. Whilst the need for vision has dominated traditional urban planning discourses we have identified the need for improved connectivity as a prerequisite. The use of all 5 characteristics collectively takes forward the literature on socio-ecological-technological relationships and heralds significant potential to inform and improve city governance frameworks, including the benefits of a transferable deliberative and co-design method that generates ownership with a real stake in the outcomes.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate an antecedent of perceived authenticity in the relationship between product ethnicity (PE) and evaluations of foreign products. Moreover, the present study explores roles of product involvement and product type as moderators in the relationship between PE and authenticity.

A pretest was conducted to guide the selection of the product type utilized in the survey. With 200 South Korean panel data in Study 1, hypotheses were analyzed using multiple regression following the procedures outlined by Baron and Kenny (1986). With 288 US panel data in Study 2, mediation effects were analyzed using PROCESS by Hayes (2013).

The study provides strong evidences of the full mediating role of perceived authenticity between PE and consumer evaluations of foreign products. Experience goods accentuate the impact of congruent PE on authenticity relative to search goods. However, the product involvement as a moderator is not significant.

International marketing practitioners should attend to the importance of how source country consumers perceive the authenticity of foreign product. In particular, insights from findings will provide international marketers with a means to assess the efficacy of strategic communication messages designed to establish a perception of authenticity in the minds of consumers and a more effective approach to market segmentation in the foreign markets.

This study suggests the addition of authenticity into future studies of country of origin (COO) effects. As authenticity fully mediates the relationship between PE and product image evaluations, this study suggests the congruent product-country match as a signal of authenticity, in addition to product image. Moreover, this finding extends literature on COO effects by discussing the importance of authenticity in the context of experience goods relative to search goods.

The author focusses on corporate history from a media aesthetic perspective using the case of the Danish brewer Carlsberg. Through a careful examination of the company’s website that draws on Kress and Van Leeuwen’s work on modality, the author examines how images and symbols of the past and present are intertwined so as to ‘curate’ history and present the brand as both deeply rooted and authentic.

Purpose – In this chapter we consider how two apparently disconnected practices – one very human (loving relationships), another the apparently alienating outcome of consumer technology (videogame play) – may turn out to be linked in very intimate and perhaps surprising ways. In making this connection we hope to comment on how consumer practices may be understood in the context of dynamic human relationships and cultural ideals.

Methodology – We conducted 36 phenomenological interviews with adult videogame players in order to elicit everyday experiences of videogame play in the context of the individual's lifeworld. This chapter deals with aspects of data that explore relationships with partners and children.

Findings – We illustrate that consumer practices, ideals, and even couples are not stable things, but are subject to routine reconfiguration throughout life. We suggest the possibility of a triadic theory of human relationships that consists of the people themselves, their consumer practices, and ideas about what love means.

Originality/value of paper – Previous questions about the value of videogame consumption have tended to ask about violence or the normalcy of how we might spend our time. In this chapter we have attempted to shift the focus to questions about human relationships and how they might be enacted with consumer technologies. By understanding the interactions between human actors, their consumer practices and their ideals we are able to comment on existing critiques and celebrations of the impact of consumer culture on human relationships.

SME funding gaps in developing economies are substantial. Crowdfunding is an innovative way to raise funds that may be part of the solution for closing such gaps. The purpose of this study is to investigate the determinants of crowdfunding contribution intentions in the context of a developing country –Bangladesh.

The authors collect data by using a structured questionnaire distributed through Facebook. The analysis is based on data collected from 252 valid responses and uses the ordered probit regression for estimation. For robustness, the authors also estimate the hypothesized model using ordered logistic regression and OLS regression finding identical results.

The authors find that liking the campaign idea and positive media coverage of a crowdfunding campaign have a positive association with crowdfunding contribution intention. Surprisingly, personal relations, others' recommendation and the location of the campaign's owner were not significantly associated with crowdfunding contribution intention in our study. Moreover, respondents' location in Bangladesh (vs. abroad) and their age are positively associated with contribution intention, while education is negatively associated with intention.

Earlier studies focused on the determinants of ex post crowdfunding intentions in developed and more mature crowdfunding markets. The authors contribute by examining ex ante crowdfunding contribution intentions in the developing economy of Bangladesh, which is at the market's inception stage.