Configuring and managing strategic supplier portfolios

Acknowledging that not all supplier relationships can nor should be close partnerships, this article explores the development of strategic supplier portfolios. The strategic portfolio perspective considers risks, trade-offs, and interdependencies between the firm's array of supplier relationships. Based on over 50 interviews with managers and archival data from 12 multinational companies, a strategic supplier portfolio management framework is developed. The authors explore processes that firms use to plan, implement, and monitor strategic supplier portfolios. This research indicates that by assembling superior supplier bases, developing suppliers and integrating them into product development and manufacturing, strategic supplier portfolios contribute to competitive advantage.     

Residential Fixed Investment and the Macroeconomy: Has Deregulation Altered Key Relationships?

Financial deregulation in 1980 potentially altered key relationships between residential fixed investment (RFI) and key macroeconomic variables. This study uses a vector error correction model to examine relationships between RFI, money, interest rates, and output in pre-deregulation and post-deregulation sub-periods. Results indicate short-term interest rate shocks account for much of RFI variability pre-deregulation. After deregulation, long-term FHA interest rate shocks better account for RFI movements. Results also show that, in the post-deregulation era, RFI shocks have increased predictive power for overall gross domestic product movements. Thus, the study finds altered relationships between RFI and macroeconomic variables.     

Programming and Advertising Competition in the Broadcasting Industry

We analyze competition between two private television channels that derive their profits from advertising receipts. These profits are shown to be proportional to total population advertising attendance. The channels play a sequential game in which they first select their profiles (program mixes) and then their advertising ratios . We show that these ratios play the same role as prices in usual horizontal differentiation models. We prove that whenever ads' interruptions are costly for viewers the program mixes of the channels never converge but that the niche strategies are less effective and that the channel "profiles" are closer as advertising aversion becomes stronger.     

On the Generalized Bootstrap for Sample Surveys with Special Attention to Poisson Sampling

We study the generalized bootstrap technique under general sampling designs. We focus mainly on bootstrap variance estimation but we also investigate the empirical properties of bootstrap confidence intervals obtained using the percentile method. Generalized bootstrap consists of randomly generating bootstrap weights so that the first two (or more) design moments of the sampling error are tracked by the corresponding bootstrap moments. Most bootstrap methods in the literature can be viewed as special cases. We discuss issues such as the choice of the distribution used to generate bootstrap weights, the choice of the number of bootstrap replicates, and the potential occurrence of negative bootstrap weights. We first describe the generalized bootstrap for the linear Horvitz‐Thompson estimator and then consider non‐linear estimators such as those defined through estimating equations. We also develop two ways of bootstrapping the generalized regression estimator of a population total. We study in greater depth the case of Poisson sampling, which is often used to select samples in Price Index surveys conducted by national statistical agencies around the world. For Poisson sampling, we consider a pseudo‐population approach and show that the resulting bootstrap weights capture the first three design moments of the sampling error. A simulation study and an example with real survey data are used to illustrate the theory.     

An investigation into the role of IT integration,relationship predictability and routinization in interfirm relationships: From the structuration perspective

Recognizing the influence of information technology (IT) in interfirm buyer–seller relationships, the authors draw on structuration theory and its extension as a theoretical basis for understanding the benefits of IT in customer relationships. The authors propose that IT integration gives rise to certain factors in interfirm relationships, i.e., predictability and routinization, which facilitate high quality relationships, i.e., those characterized by reciprocity and stability, which in turn enhance firm performance. Hypotheses are tested on data collected from 152 firms. The results show that relationship predictability is critical in linking IT integration to positive relationship outcomes, and that routinization reinforces the impact on those outcomes.     

The Social Reality of Depression: DTC Advertising of Antidepressants and Perceptions of the Prevalence and Lifetime Risk of Depression

This study is rooted in the research traditions of cultivation theory, construct accessibility, and availability heuristic. Based on a survey with 221 subjects, this study finds that familiarity with direct-to-consumer (DTC) print advertisements for antidepressant brands is associated with inflated perceptions of the prevalence and lifetime risk of depression. The study concludes that DTC advertising potentially has significant effects on perceptions of depression prevalence and risk. Interpersonal experiences with depression coupled with DTC advertising appear to significantly predict individuals’ perceived lifetime risk of depression. The study ultimately demonstrates that DTC advertising may play a role in constructing social reality of diseases and medicine. The findings strongly suggest that the social cognitive effects of DTC advertising are far-reaching, impacting pharmaceutical marketing strategy as well as presenting issues regarding public health and the business ethics of advertising drugs to consumers. Jin Seong Park is a doctoral student at the University of Florida in Gainesville. He earned his MA from Marquette University and BA from Korea University in Seoul, Korea. His research interests include health communication and DTC drug advertising, mood and heuristics in consumer information processing and judgments, and international advertising. Jean M. Grow is an assistant professor at Marquette University. She earned her PhD from University of Wisconsin-Madison and her BFA from the School of Art Institute of Chicago. Her scholarly work focuses on controversial advertising case studies. She has published extensively on Nike women's advertising, and her most recent scholarship focuses on DTC advertising of pharmaceuticals and public service announcements for Hepatitis C. In 2005, she coauthoured a book on creative strategy, Advertising Strategy: Creative Tactics from Outside/In (with T. Altstiel). Prior to joining the academy, she worked in the advertising industry with agencies such as DDB Needham, Foote Cone & Belding, J. Walter Thompson, and Leo Burnett.     

On the economics of agricultural production*

Agriculture is in the business of using ecosystem services to produce food. Examining how agro‐ecosystems function provides useful insights into the economics of agriculture. Of special interest are the presence and nature of scale effects, complementarity effects and convexity effects in ecosystem functioning. Implications for agricultural productivity and the economics of agriculture are evaluated. At the farm level, this helps to better understand the current trend toward greater specialisation. Current challenges for agricultural contracts, markets and policy are explored.     

Knowledge: a variable in evaluating clothing quality

This study was designed to determine the effect knowledge has on the types of information cues used to evaluate clothing quality. Students ranked the importance of 24 product attributes for evaluating clothing quality before beginning a 15‐week university course on evaluation of clothing products and again at the conclusion of the course. Most (64%) of the intrinsic cues were ranked significantly higher on the pretest than post‐test and many of the extrinsic (75%) and aesthetic (67%) cues rated significantly lower. There were no differences in the ranking of the performance cues. However, caution should be taken when interpreting the results of the study. Although all of the cues ranked significantly higher in the post‐test were intrinsic cues, when evaluating the relative ranking of the cues in the pretest and post‐test, there were few differences. The same five aesthetic cues were in the top third on both tests and the same six intrinsic cues were in the bottom third on both tests. The findings of this study suggest that knowledge does influence how consumers evaluate quality and additional research that focuses on the effect of knowledge in consumers’ evaluation of clothing quality is needed.     

Public‐private partnerships in the health industry

This article compares the traditional government method of procurement of goods and services with various public‐private partnership methods and provides an overview of the various advantages and disadvantages of both. Governments face many challenges in meeting the basic needs of their people. The private sector is therefore becoming increasingly involved in the provision of a range of services. In South Africa, examples are the Maputo N4 Tollroad, various water and sanitation concessions, and even the building and running of prisons, all of which have received media coverage. Many of these forms of private sector involvement, and lessons learnt from these projects, could be transferred to the health care sector. The health industry is currently faced with the challenge of providing increased levels of service to a growing population. There has been much debate over the state of the nation's hospitals, all of which require some maintenance and at least a third of which need extensive, if not complete, replacement. This also applies to the equipment used in hospitals. Overseas, governments are looking to the private sector to work in partnership with them to address these concerns in terms of knowledge and expertise in delivering, financing and operating these services. By involving the private sector as a partner, governments can focus their energies on ensuring that adequate health policy frameworks are established and that the necessary health services are provided. The article identifies and highlights several ways in which the private sector and government could work together to solve many of the challenges facing the industry.