Environment–strategy co‐evolution and co‐alignment: a staged model of Chinese SOEs under transition

Economic reform in China has attracted growing attention from around the world owing to its significance for theory and practice. What has been largely missing in the literature is the temporal dimension, i.e., the changes over time in key variables such as organizational environment, firm strategic adaptations, and the performance implications. In this study, we investigate environment and strategic adaptations 12 years after Tan and Litschert examined these issues in 1990. Following a staged model, the study found that (1) organizational environment and firm strategic adaptations have co‐evolved over time, (2) a new configuration has emerged and is related to improved performance, and (3) such a relationship is moderated by the stage during transition in which firms were founded. Specifically, firms founded since 1990 are more proactive and innovative than firms that had existed in the previous stage. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Secondary markets with changing preferences

If consumer valuations change over time, then secondary‐market frictions may raise monopoly profits and cause durability to be distorted away from the cost‐minimizing level. A monopolist who favors such frictions overinvests in durability, but planned obsolescence instead may be preferred when market frictions exist but a monopolist wishes they did not. Evidence from the book market is presented.     

When it pays to have a friend on the inside: contingent effects of buyer advocacy on B2B suppliers

As organizational buying systems grow more complex and sophisticated, suppliers increasingly rely on buyer advocacy: an individual buyer’s efforts to influence his/her colleagues such that the supplier’s standing is improved. Drawing from cognitive response theory, the authors hypothesize an inverted U-shaped relationship between a buyer’s advocacy for a supplier and the customer’s purchases from that supplier. They theorize that this effect is moderated by the advocate’s industry experience and customer–supplier relationship characteristics. An analysis of multisource data from a B2B service provider (Study 1) supports the predicted inverted U-shaped relationship, while a unique dataset from a large industrial supplier (Study 2) provides broad support for the hypothesized moderators. Finally, a randomized experiment (Study 3) replicates key findings and corroborates the theorized cognitive response mechanisms. Findings contribute to the limited literature on buyer advocacy within the organizational buying domain and offer practical implications for suppliers and buyers.

     

Inference for large financial systems

We treat the parameter estimation problem for mean‐field models of large interacting financial systems such as the banking system and a pool of assets held by an institution or backing a security. We develop an asymptotic inference approach that addresses the scale and complexity of such systems. Harnessing the weak convergence results developed for mean‐field financial systems in the literature, we construct an approximate likelihood for large systems. The approximate likelihood has a conditionally Gaussian structure, enabling us to design an efficient numerical method for its evaluation. We provide a representation of the corresponding approximate estimator in terms of a weighted least‐squares estimator, and use it to analyze the large‐system and large‐sample behavior of the estimator. Numerical results for a mean‐field model of systemic financial risk highlight the efficiency and accuracy of our estimator.     

An analysis of media violence in commercials aired during the telecasts of sports events

The violence contained in television commercials has received less attention than other areas of media violence research. This study analyzed violent content in the Super Bowl commercials that aired between 2001 and 2009. Twenty-two percent of the Super Bowl commercials appearing from 2001 to 2009 contained some type of violence. A number of quantifications related to types of violence, targets and perpetrators of violent acts, and reasons for violence, among others, are reported. Subsequently, the relationships between the contextual factors of the violence and commercial likeability were examined.     

Social Networking the Brand—An Exploration of the Drivers of Brand Image in the South African Beer Market

Social network marketing has risen to the fore as an innovative and cost effective method of reaching a target audience. However, owing to the recentness of this marketing technique, there is little scholarly research in this area, especially in emerging markets. This study considered the impact of interactivity and media richness on brand attitude and brand image in the South African beer market. It also tested whether brand involvement has a moderating effect in this regard. The empirical work was conducted through an electronic survey of Facebook fan page users. The results revealed that interactivity had a positive effect on brand attitude, whilst media richness did not. Brand involvement, tested for a moderating effect on the above relationships, was not found to be significant. As expected, brand attitude was found to be strongly linked to brand image in this context. The findings stress the importance of bidirectional communication in favor of media rich design. This suggests that marketers of beer would be well advised to engage with customers on fan pages in routinely responding to their comments and allowing them to upload suitable content. If consumers feel that they have ‘ownership’ of these pages and are able to have a positive influence on brand evolution, fan pages are likely to yield positive results in social media campaigns.     

The interdisciplinarity of evolutionary approaches to human behavior: A key to survival in the Ivory Archipelago

This paper explores the degree of interdisciplinarity of evolutionary approaches to the study of human behavior, and the implications that any such interdisciplinarity may have for the future of evolutionary psychology (EP) as a field of scholarship. To gauge the extent of interdisciplinarity of EP, the departmental affiliation of first-authors from 1000 journal articles evenly distributed across ten leading peer-reviewed psychology journals was assessed. Findings show that journals that are evolutionary-based have more first-authors from outside of psychology, and also include a wider variety of represented disciplines. These findings are discussed in terms of their influence on the future of EP, as a model for interdisciplinary research. EP's future will be successful if it continues to promote interdisciplinarity as well as recognize the epistemological worth of multiple evolutionary paradigms and frameworks. Evolutionary principles have been successfully applied to a broad range of topics, suggesting there is great utility in evolution serving as a common language for interdisciplinary pursuits within the behavioral and social sciences. As such, academic programs such as Evolutionary Studies (EvoS) programs, whose presence continues to increase across academic institutions worldwide, epitomize the future of successful interdisciplinary scholarly training.     

How managerial attitudes toward the natural environment affect market orientation and innovation

This study investigates natural environmental attitude linkages held by strategic decision makers and hypothesizes that the interaction between market orientation and managerial natural environmental attitudes serves to enhance the effect of market orientation on firm innovativeness. Using questionnaire responses from 284 owners or chief executive officers residing in the food processing industry, the findings establish evidence of (1) a positive linkage between market orientation and firm innovativeness, and (2) the moderating effect of managerial attitudes of top managers toward the natural environmental in the market orientation to firm innovativeness relationship. The results provide insight into the nature of the cultural values on which a market orientation is based in relation to the natural environment.     

Natural Environment,Market Orientation,and Firm Innovativeness: An Organizational Life Cycle Perspective

Drawing upon the corporate social responsibility literature, we investigate the moderating effects of the natural environment and the stage of an organization's life cycle on the market orientation to firm innovativeness relationship. Through 229 owners or chief executive officer respondents, our results establish evidence of (1) a positive linkage between market orientation and firm innovativeness; (2) natural environmental policy positively moderating the market orientation to firm innovativeness relationship; and (3) organizational life cycle negatively moderating market orientation to innovativeness. Our findings suggest ventures characterized as being early in the organizational life cycle are more likely to have a positive environmental policy toward the natural environment leading to a competitive advantage through firm innovativeness.