An experimental study of alternative preparation aids for international negotiations

We test the relative effectiveness of alternative preparation aids in the context of an international negotiation. We consider three forms of training: reading material, a course on negotiation, and an expert system (NEGOTEX) expressly designed to train negotiators. We conducted a laboratory experiment involving 66 pairs of negotiators—one of each pair being American and the other Chinese. Results suggest that in this context, the course had the greatest effect on performance, followed by NEGOTEX, and then followed by reading material. In addition, we found that training effects were additive: multiple forms of training lead to better results than individual forms of training, suggesting that (1) training forms complement and do not substitute for one another, and (2) multiple forms of training should be considered, especially when stakes are high.     

Why India Lags Behind China and How It Can Bridge the Gap

Though India has been growing at six per cent annually since the late 1980s, it trails behind China, which has been growing at ten per cent per annum since 1981. The single most important factor explaining this difference is the relatively poor performance of Indian industry. Whereas the share of industry in China's GDP rose from 42 per cent in 1991 to 51 per cent in 2001, it remained virtually stagnant in India. By contrast, services grew rapidly in India, expanding from 42 per cent in 1991 to 48 per cent in 2001. With the information technology sector less than two per cent of the GDP, services growth was largely in the informal sector. Approximately 77 per cent of India's workers live in rural areas. To bring a large chunk of this workforce into the modern sector, India must achieve a much higher growth in the traditional, unskilled‐labour‐intensive industry. Growth in the information technology sector gives India an extra lever but cannot be the main engine of transformation. Therefore, the right approach is to walk on two legs: traditional labour‐intensive industry and the modern IT industry. Both legs need strengthening through further reforms. The paper suggests four specific reforms, three for industry and one for IT, necessary to achieve the transformation to a modern economy.     

What contributes to the enhanced use of customer, competition and technology knowledge for product innovation performance? : A survey of multinational industrial companies' subsidiaries operating in China

This study extends an emerging research area in knowledge management to new product development by empirically examining the factors associated with the use of different types of knowledge flows from various sources and product innovation performance (i.e., market success of new products) in the multinational companies' subsidiaries in China. The findings seem to indicate the vitality of considering a broad spectrum of knowledge management related variables such as a subsidiary's product development strategy, market conditions it faces, its knowledge capacity and knowledge support structure. Furthermore, we found that subsidiaries with better performance are generally excel in the use of competition knowledge flow, the development of moderate innovative products, communication among different functional departments or product development groups, the codification of knowledge, and a supportive culture.     

Bus transportation crews planning by goal programming

In the present paper, an integer goal programming model formulation is presented for the bus transportation crews planning to find an optimal schedule in which each crew is assigned two days off (consecutive or non-consecutive) per week and several goals like upper and lower limits on the total number of crews having consecutive and/or non-consecutive days off on each day, lower limit on the number of crews having consecutive days off on the particular pairs of consecutive days, and minimization of the number of crews having non-consecutive days off, are taken into consideration. The model is demonstrated by a numerical example.     

A fixed point algorithm with economic applications

A new fixed point algorithm applicable to large scale economic problems is developed. Motivated by successive approximation the algorithm iterates on a convex combination of the traditional price to price map and the identity map. The actual combination used is determined from the convergence error of the previous iteration. The specified convex combination is guaranteed to be a contraction if the original map is Lipschitz continuous and antitonal. These sufficient conditions are shown to be weaker than the contraction requirement. A simple supply-demand example is presented to show the advantages of this algorithm over successive approximation.     

SHAREHOLDER WEALTH EFFECTS OF MANAGEMENT CHANGES

This paper analyzes the direction and magnitude of changes in stock prices resulting from the announcement of various types of changes in senior corporate management over a twelve-year period. We find support for the view that instability resulting from executive succession adversely affects organizational performance. Furthermore, our results imply a clear preference by the market for a change in composition of the previous management team over its further entrenchment and a perception by the market that senior corporate executives and the board of directors may not be solely motivated by considerations of shareholder wealth maximization.     

Quantitative restrictions in international trade under monopoly

This paper discusses the implications of quantitative restrictions in international trade for the terms of trade, domestic price ratio and outputs in the presence of monopoly in the domestic import-competing industry in a general equilibrium model. It is shown that a change in quotas has the same effects on the terms of trade and domestic price ratio under monopoly as under competition. Furthermore, the price-output relationship associated with a change in quota under monopoly may become perverse even though the production possibilities frontier is assumed to be strictly concave to the origin. The paper also derives the optimal and revenue maximizing quotas. It is demostrated that under monopoly, unlike under competition, the optimal and revenue maximizing quotas cannot be ranked uniquely.     

The Role of Resource Access, Market Considerations, and the Nature of Innovation in Pursuit of Standards in the New Product Development Process

Standards influence new product development (NPD) in high‐technology markets. However, existing work on standards has focused exclusively on one aspect of standards—compatibility standards. This article has the following goals. First, we delineate the concept of customer interface standards as distinct from compatibility standards. This distinction is important from a product development and technology adoption perspective. Second, we propose and show that antecedent factors may motivate a firm differently about the emphasis that the firm should put on a type of standard (compatibility or customer interface) that it follows. For example, we propose that appropriability regime affects pursuit of customer interface standards and compatibility standards differently. Finally, we illustrate how resource access and the nature of the innovation also influence a firm's decision to pursue a standard type. Finally, we propose that pursuit of different standards (customer interface or compatibility) affects the NPD process in terms of (1) sourcing and dissemination of technology and (2) the customer utility for the product, which influences adoption. We collected perceptual data from a sample of marketing and technology managers in high‐tech industries in the UK using both formative and reflective scales to measure the constructs. Analysis of the data using LISREL supports our contention that compatibility standards and customer interface standards are distinct constructs and that appropriability regime influences compatibility standards and customer interface standards differently. We also find that pursuit of compatibility standards helps a firm to create direct externalities pursuit of customer interface standards helps firms to develop indirect network externalities and technological advantage in the market. Our findings have the following implications. First, managers need to account explicitly for the difference between compatibility and customer interface standards, as resource allocation decisions during the NPD process will determine where a firm puts more focus. The choices made by the firm—as to whether it pursues compatibility standards or customer interface standards—will determine the type of advantage that it can gain in the market. Given a firm's situation at a point in time, a greater focus on one standard type rather than the other may be the right approach. Such choices will influence resource allocation in the product development process.     

India's pattern of development: What happened, what follows?

India has followed an idiosyncratic pattern of development, certainly compared with other fast-growing Asian economies. While the importance of services rather than manufacturing has been widely noted, within manufacturing India has emphasized skill-intensive rather than labor-intensive manufacturing, and industries with higher-than-average scale (though average firm size within industries is unusually small). Some of these distinctive patterns existed prior to the beginning of economic reforms in the 1980s, and stem from the idiosyncratic policies adopted after India's independence. These patterns have not changed despite reforms that have removed some policy impediments that contributed to India's distinctive path. We discuss the implications for India's future growth.