When consumers switch brands

A proposed integrative approach measured consumer response to various incentives to switch brands. The response measure consisted of both actual behavior (i.e., switching behavior) and an evaluative measure, which underlies the behavior. Self-perception theory was utilized to assess consumer switching behavior in response to intrinsic versus extrinsic motives. The integrative approach was tested in the context of a multistage longitudinal field study concerning five product classes. Findings show that there is a difference depending upon whether switching behavior was induced by extrinsic (e.g., price, coupon) or intrinsic (e.g., a desire to try a new brand) incentives. Unlike intrinsically induced switching, extrinsic incentives motivated consumers to switch despite a high level of satisfaction with the last purchased brand. However, this switching behavior resulted in weaker intentions to repurchase the new brand.     

Financial Reporting in Europe: Future Challenges

Abstract

A roundtable at the 11th workshop of the European Financial Reporting Research Group (EUFIN) on Friday 4 September 2015 in Paris brought together leading participants in the development and enforcement of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) and the use of IFRS financial statements to debate the future challenges in European financial reporting. The panellists were Philippe Danjou, a board member of the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB), Roxana Damianov, team leader for corporate reporting at the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) and Jacques de Greling, senior equity analyst at Natixis, vice-chairman of the European Federation of Financial Analysts Societies (EFFAS) financial accounting commission, member of the IASB's capital markets advisory group and member of the user panel of the European Financial Reporting Advisory Group (EFRAG). The panel was chaired by David Cairns. None of the panellists presented formal papers but instead spoke and debated freely about a range of current and future challenges. Not surprisingly, they focussed on the challenges arising from the use of IFRS in the consolidated financial statements by EU companies listed on EU regulated markets rather than the challenges that might arise from the use of EU or national requirements in non-IFRS financial statements.

This paper provides a synthesis of the panel discussions in the context of the European Commission's evaluation of the International Accounting Standards (IAS) Regulation, the International Financial Reporting Standards Foundation's (IFRSF) review of its own and the IASB's structure and effectiveness, and the ongoing work of the IASB and ESMA.     

The rate and potential of capability development trajectories

This paper examines differences in the rate and potential of firms' capability development trajectories. Capability development trajectories are the paths over which firms' capabilities change with experience and other activities. While prior research focused on factors affecting capability development rate (the fraction of the gap between a firm's current and potential capability eliminated with each unit of activity), we argue that capability development trajectories also differ in potential (the maximum capability level a firm could achieve through repeating a given set of activities over time). We develop and estimate a formal model of capability development, showing that larger underwriting projects lead to a lower rate of improvement toward higher potential capabilities, and derive implications for research on industry dynamics and the nature of competitive advantage. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Technology roadmapping (TRM) and strategic alignment for an applied research centre: a case study with methodological contributions

Technology roadmapping provides a strategic tool to help companies develop an outside‐in view and challenge their current competitive perspectives. In this paper, the authors describe the roadmapping process, which is aligned, with the research and development (R&D) strategy of an applied research centre. This process is based in an adapted combination of state‐of‐the‐art methodologies, and as a result, the case study shows interesting findings in terms of R&D strategy, technology strategy and roadmapping processes and methodology.     

The Regressive Recovery: Distribution,Inequality and State Power in Britain's Post-Crisis Political Economy

This article interrogates the underlying mechanisms at the heart of Britain's post-crisis political economy. We argue that the contemporary economic recovery has been characterised by a dynamic of ‘regressive redistribution’: a socially regressive dynamic of state-led economic restructuring that has worked through two axes at the centre of the recovery. The first axis, a monetary policy framework centred upon Quantitative Easing, has driven asset-price inflation to the benefit of the wealthiest asset holders. The second axis centres upon the politics of regressive labour market restructuring which has provoked widespread wage deflation. In combination, these two axes have been central to defining the contours of the Britain's post-crisis political economy paradigm: characterised by rising asset wealth for the few, and falling living standards alongside increasing economic insecurity for wage earners. The opportunity to change path from the trends of deepening inequality that defined the pre-crisis era has not been taken. Instead, the prevailing policy paradigm of the post-crisis period – discursively unified and sustained by David Cameron's government – has intensified the regressively redistributive dynamics at the core of the neo-liberal project. Ultimately, this is likely to further entrench structural weaknesses in Britain's economy in the years ahead.     

The DNA of Enterprise: Jane Jacobs and Henry George on Innovation and Development Through Spin‐Offs

The main training grounds for entrepreneurial, technical, and business capacities are existing businesses. There are two ways that this training can lead to new growth—just as there are two ways that existing biological DNA can lead to the growth of bio‐mass, namely, (1) existing organisms getting bigger or (2) by spinning out offspring who in turn can spin out more offspring. Where growth has been vibrant, e.g., Silicon Valley, it has followed the second route, growth by offspring. This is also the biological principle of plenitude. Conventional ownership structures lessen the incentives for spin‐offs since managers do not want to reduce the “empire” under their control. The biological principle of plenitude is best implemented with employee‐owned or cooperative firms (e.g., as in the Mondragon cooperative group). Inspired by ideas first proposed by Henry George and Jane Jacobs, this article explores the social benefits of applying the biological principle of plenitude by encouraging the proliferation of enterprises. This poses a conundrum for societies organized around the private business model: How can the social benefits of spin‐offs be realized when managers do not have an incentive to foster new businesses? We conclude with ways to address this problem.