Quality-adjusted international price comparisons of mobile telecommunications services

Many countries' policymakers have conducted international price comparisons of mobile telecommunications services to prevent service operators from overcharging subscribers. However, those comparisons have become more complicated because of the escalation in service usage and telecommunications expenditures spurred by the proliferation of smartphones and broadband LTE wireless internet service networks. The basket-based methodologies that have been widely used for international price comparisons are also limited—first, because the baskets for comparison may not be representative of actual service usage patterns in some countries; second, because they are difficult to apply to highly differentiated service plans due to the significant increase in wireless internet service usage and widely used plans with unlimited voice call service and SMS/MMS; and third, because they cannot consider the quality of service, such as upload and download speed in various service environments, at all. As an alternative, this paper proposes a hedonic pricing model that accounts for service quality and its variation in potentially disruptive environments, as well as fixed charge for a mobile phone additional to the price of service plans. The model was used to derive quality-adjusted price indices of mobile telecommunications services for twelve cities in ten countries with broadband LTE wireless internet service. The empirical results confirmed that the price index of each city varied significantly across the specifications,—both within the United States and internationally—depending on whether the model was constructed to reflect service quality and its variation on roads, in buildings, and in subways. The price index of each city also varied depending on whether the subsidized price of a mobile phone was considered part of the monthly price of a service plan. These results have important implications for policymakers seeking to understand the ultimate level of mobile telecommunication service prices for their country in a global context.     

Implementation of food distribution policies: A case study in South India

Public policy for foodgrains distribution and consumption in Coimbatore District of South India involves processing through state trading institutions, and distribution through fair price shops, Food for Work and Employment Guarantee Schemes. Policies are evaluated in terms of their objectives, and institutions for the implementation of policy are analysed in terms of the way in which they mobilize and distribute resources: foodgrains, capital and labour. Although this deficit district has captured shares of Tamil Nadu State's publicly distributed grain which are disproportionate to its share of the state's ‘vulnerable’ population, nevertheless, schemes to increase the latter's foodgrain consumption have been patchily implemented over space and time, and they have had little measurable impact on intended beneficiaries.     

The information society in California: Social factors influencing its emergence

The authors identify three elements which will influence California's future. First, demographic shifts in the state's population have altered California's ethnic and cultural foundations. Second, the state educational system does not seem prepared to train larger numbers for information work, especially members of its growing ethnic population. Third, almost half the state's workforce is now employed in information-oriented work, whether in the industrial, service, or agricultural sectors. The authors demonstrate that the interaction of these elements has profound implications for California's development.     

Evaluating and comparing salesmen's performance

The measurement and evaluation of the performance of salesmen is complicated in most firms by the situational, environmental, and personal variables involved. This complexity is further increased when management attempts performance comparisons among several salesmen or among an entire sales force. Territorial differences, multiplicity of products, and differences in backgrounds among salesmen are just a few of the factors of variability that compound management's performance measurement and evaluation tasks.In spite of these difficulties, the management process requires that the performance of salesmen be measured and compared to predetermined standards. Subjective judgements have frequently taken the place of objective analysis, particularly as to the overall or composite performance of salesmen, because of the difficulties sales managers encounter in the determination of composite measures of performance. Many have discussed the determination and use of objectives or quotas for salesmen, and some have been concerned with the development of composite measures of salesmen performance. However, most have suggested methods that require quantitative skills not possessed by many sales managers and salesmen. The application of computers to the quantitative methods that have been suggested does alleviate the computational problem but not the equally important understanding requirement. Sales personnel, particularly field managers and their salesmen, should thoroughly understand and accept the methods by which standards of sales performance are determined, in addition to the standards or quotas themselves if they are to accept evaluation against these standards [1].The purpose of this article is to discuss the various determinants of salesmen's performance and to present a practical analytical method for calculating and evaluating the overall performance of salesmen that will permit cross-comparison among all members of the sales force irrespective of differences in assignments and objectives. A hypothetical example is then presented utilizing a tabular analysis format equally appropriate for use by home office analysts or by field sales managers and their salesmen.     

A policy for UK sugar supplies

A substantial shift in the balance of UK sugar supplies has taken place since entry into the European Economic Community (EEC) as a result of an increase in the production of domestic beet sugar, a fall in consumption, and a reduction in cane sugar imports. This shift in favour of beet sugar would have been greater had the domestic beet sugar industry been able to take full advantage of the increase in production quotas since 1975 under the Community's common sugar policy. A further increase in domestic beet sugar production might yet take place now that the Community's new sugar regulation, which was to have come into force in July 1980, has had to be deferred to 1981. The European Commission has proposed that under the new sugar regulation production quotas should be cut to reduce the size of the Community's structural sugar surplus. The UK government has issued a statement which welcomes the Commission's proposal to reduce the Community's sugar surplus but rejects any cuts in production quotas which would restrict the expansion of its own beet sugar industry.¹     

Salespeople satisfaction and performance feedback

A model of the relationship between sales supervision and salesforce job satisfaction is developed and tested. The model hypothesizes that salespeople will experience greater job satisfaction when they receive more performance feedback and more opportunity to participate in their supervisor's decision making processes and when they have supervisors who are high on consideration and initiation of structure. In addition, because of recent empirical evidence suggesting a possible consideration/initiation of structure interaction effect on job satisfaction, a hypothesized interaction effect was examined in this study. The results suggest that performance feedback is an important predictor of job satisfaction. Furthermore, they indicate that the sales supervisor's consideration and initiation of structure are related to the salesperson's satisfaction with certain aspects of the job. Participation and consideration/initiation of structure interaction were not found to be significant predictors of salesforce job satisfaction.     

Buyer/seller relationships in international industrial markets

This article examines the hypothesis that industrial purchasers' assessments of their suppliers are not based on views of suppliers' technical and commercial skills in isolation. Instead they are closely associated with their assessment of suppliers' skills in developing a relationship with them.     

Plant breeders' rights and international agricultural research

Enactment of plant breeders' rights legislation has recently been a contentious political issue in several countries. An economic perspective to the issue is presented through consideration of the structure of the plant breeding and seed industries. A theoretical account is given of the probable economic effects of plant breeders' rights legislation in developing countries. Aspects which might be usefully considered when examining whether a particular developing country should enact plant breeders' rights legislation are also discussed. Finally, general issues faced by the international agricultural research centres with respect to plant breeders' rights are also outlined and some particular issues discussed.     

A diagnostic study of sales managers' efficiency

The importance of the sales manager to industrial marketing organizations has long been recognized. Consequently, much attention has been directed to alternative approaches for evaluating his performance. Yet, effective evaluation requires being able to suggest approaches to improve one's performance. In order to recommend corrective actions and diagnose performance problems, an understanding of the operating environment is necessary. Little understanding exists, however, on how variables in the sales manager's environment are interrelated. The focus of this study is an empirical identification of the interrelationships of variables in the sales manager's environment. This approach leads to diagnostic models of the sales manager's role along three dimensions: (1) Over-all performance; (2) administrative responsibilities; and (3) personal selling. Data from one division of a large industrial chemical company are utilized in this investigation. Information was gathered from internal records and questionnaires to the sales managers. Significant empirical results are found along the three dimensions of the sales manager's job. The managerial implications of the findings are reviewed in depth.     

Research resource allocation: Determining regional priorities

The paper presents a methodology to assist in the determination of an appropriate regional allocation of research resources to mandate crops in mandate regions of the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Adrid Tropics (ICRISAT). Priority indices are developed on the basis of 10 criteria chosen for equity and/or efficiency considerations. Applying alternative weights to these criteria yields alternative priority indices, which are compared with the Institute's present research resource allocation. The approach helps to make explicit criteria which may have implicity been followed in past resource allocation and the results indicate that a more regionally-spread focus for ICRISAT's future activities would seem appropriate.     

Has Europe missed the endgame of telecommunications policy?

The European Electronic Communications Code (EECC) is a major milestone in the EU's telecommunications policy. But is it such a step forward and are the technical and market developments such that the EECC is the endgame? An endgame would mean that sustainable competition is reached in all telecommunications markets. The current paper argues that the EECC's new policy goal of investment in very high capacity connectivity could actually lead to policies that end in sustainable infrastructure competition. The EECC's policies, however, are not courageous enough to reach this goal. This lack of courage also characterizes the EU's gatekeeper policies on call terminations and net neutrality. In both these areas an endgame with sustainable competition is possible.     

Marketing executives' perceptions of equitable salary increases

Employees' perceptions of fair and equitable salary increases is the subject of this article. Factors hypothesized to be the major determinants of the “perceived amount of pay that should be received” in Lawler's model of pay satisfaction are employed as predictor variables in a multiple regression equation context to explain the observed variation in executives' perceptions of fair and equitable salary increases. A national sample of industrial marketing executives were surveyed. A significant relationship was observed between employees perceptions of fair and equitable salary increases and a number of perceived personal job input and job demands related variables, current salary and wage history, and perceived non-monetary outcomes which are theorized in Lawler's model to be among the major determinants of the perceived amount of pay that should be received.     

More effective sales force reporting

As the need for marketing intelligence by sales and marketing managers grows more essential, field sales personnel are increasingly being asked to gather and report information. Many executives realize the potential value of using salespersons to supply information useful to management decision making. The sales force is familiar with their territories, their customers' needs and sources of information inside customer organizations, their competitors' marketing activities, and trends in product acceptance. The incremental costs and effort required are low compared to other research methods, since information can be submitted within the context of a regular call report system [2, 6, 8].But salespersons have been found to be inadequate and uncooperative reporters in many instances. Numerous field salespersons believe that reporting infringes on their primary responsibility of selling, and furthermore that management apparently doesn't make use of the resulting information anyway. Thus, while salespersons have access to a wealth of marketing information of potentially great value to the firm, they are often inadequate, unreliable, and unmotivated reporters [4, 5].This article reports the results of a study designed to investigate what management practices contribute to, or detract from, effective reporting of marketing information by salespersons. Current practices in reporting are noted and some recommendations are made to help management improve sales force reporting.     

Attitudes of industrial buyers toward selected social issues

Although the demand on industrial establishments to resolve various social problems is ever-present, there is little substantive material in the literature concerning the industrial buyers' perceptions of the social responsibilities of their firm. Studies of executive's attitudes toward corporate social responsibility have focused heretofore on corporate personnel other than industrial buyers. Next to salespersons, however, industrial buyers have more contact with persons and businesses outside their company than other corporate personnel. People in purchasing, nonetheless, are perceived by many as conservative, hard-nosed negotiators either unconcerned about corporate social responsibility at best or denying such responsibility at worst. This article presents the results of a survey of industrial buyers concerning their attitudes toward various social issues.     

Developing and using a customer profile data bank

This article proposes the implementation of a customer profile system to aid the industrial marketer in: making daily sales decisions involving the firm's customers; the development of the vendor's “buyer mix”; and the production of marketing analysis reports used by the firm. The components of the customer profile are presented and the procedures by which these elements can be incorporated into the firm's decision making are explained. Working examples are also provided to reinforce the concepts. Unfortunately the names of the actual corporations had to be deleted or changed for reasons of confidentiality.     

SAM — a baby with many faces

In the last issue of Food Policy, two articles appeared on the subject of the Mexican Food System, or the Sistema Alimenticio Mexicano (SAM). The first article by Frank Meissner¹ reviewed the background to SAM, the proposed strategies, intended targets, its funding and put forward a strong case for considering SAM as a constructive policy for alleviating Mexico's food and nutrition problems. However, Michael Redclift commented in his article that:² ‘There are three principal points to be made of Dr Meissner's article: its interpretation of Mexico's recent agrarian development is questionable; it does not distinguish between the analysis provided in the SAM documents and the policy measures to which they give rise; and, it glosses over serious problems of implementation, giving too little weight to the participatory element without which SAM is doomed to failure’. This rejoinder is Frank Meissner's response to Michael Redclift's comments.     

Pre-emptive patenting,joint ventures,and the persistence of oligopoly

Gilbert and Newbery (1982) have examined pre-emptive patenting and the persistence of monopoly. The present paper considers pre-emptive patenting when there are several incumbent firms, rather than just one. It is shown why the incumbent oligopolists, behaving non-cooperatively, might fail to deter entry. This suggests that a joint venture in R and D might be a useful entry-deterring device insofar as it pools the incumbents' incentives to prevent entry. This is indeed the case for ‘small’ innovations, but for ‘large’ innovations the formation of a joint venture weakens the incumbents' incentive to innovate by removing the competitive stimulus between them.     

China's wheat import programme

China is the world's largest foodgrain producer. It is also the world's major grain trader. China's participation in the world's grain market is unique because of its importance as both a grain importer and exporter, unlike other grain trading nations. This article considers the reasons for China's wheat import programme by following the controversy among Chinese academics, and attempts a more systematic appraisal by the application of regression analysis.     

Agriculture in the EEC taking stock

The focus of this assessment is the European Community's ‘Stocktaking of the Common Agricultural Policy’. While the CAP has attracted considerable scrutiny and controversy, the Stocktaking represents the most authoritative review of agricultural policy from within the EEC bureaucracy. The authors evaluate first the extent to which the Stocktaking's own analysis is a fair reflection of achievements under the objectives which the CAP has set for itself. Second, they ask whether the proposals for policy reform advocated in the Stocktaking are appropriate. They conclude that the Stocktaking's proposals — and their subsequent interpretation within the EEC — are not adequate to tackle the problems facing EEC agriculture.