Range and Number-of-Levels Effects in Derived and Stated Measures of Attribute Importance

We study how the range of variation and the number of attribute levels affect five measures of attribute importance: full profile conjoint estimates, ranges in attribute level attractiveness ratings, regression coefficients, graded paired comparisons, and self-reported ratings. We find that all importance measures are affected by the range manipulation. The number of attribute levels affects only two measures. The results allow us to benchmark the magnitude of the number-of-levels effect against the range effect: conjoint importance estimates were approximately equally affected by a threefold increase in the range of attribute variation and by the insertion of two intermediate attribute levels. Our findings show that the number-of-levels effect is most likely due to respondents' tendencies to distribute their mental stimulus representations and their responses uniformly over the corresponding continua.     

Benefits and Disadvantages of Individuals’ Multiple Team Membership: The Moderating Role of Organizational Tenure

Many employees in today’s organizations are involved in more than one team at the same time. Building on the challenge-hindrance stressor framework, this study investigates potential benefits and disadvantages of such multiple team membership (MTM) for individual employees. Furthermore, we extend this framework with insights from the job demands-resources model to propose that, depending on an employee’s organizational tenure, individual MTM will differentially shape his or her perceptions of work challenge and role ambiguity, subsequently influencing the employee’s job performance and absenteeism. We tested our conceptual model using time-lagged multi-source data from a large organization of applied research (N = 1211). Our results demonstrate that, for employees with relatively low organizational tenure, MTM was negatively associated with perceived work challenge and positively associated with perceived role ambiguity, which in turn associated with lower job performance and higher absenteeism. For employees with higher organizational tenure, by contrast, MTM associated positively with their work challenge perceptions and subsequent performance outcomes, whereas MTM was unrelated to perceived role ambiguity as well as absenteeism. These findings identify relevant psychological mechanisms and a key contingency factor that explain when and why MTM may have positive or negative individual-level consequences.     

Fraternal twins—Should investors be careful?*

After analyzing portfolio differences between separate account-mutual fund twins, we find that dissimilar “fraternal twins” show significantly lower joint performance than “identical twins.” This finding is consistent with fraternal twins competing for the limited attention of a manager while identical twins mutually profit. Furthermore, the effect is stronger for separate accounts, which is probably due to investors having the opportunity to influence managers’ investment decisions according to their preferences. These results are independent of differences in known investment constraints. However, the findings may be driven by separate account investors’ preferences for higher liquidity and lower idiosyncratic risk.     

The role of operational flexibility in the expansion of international production networks

Volatile factor cost developments urge manufacturing firms to increase production efficiency by building up facilities in multiple countries. Differing from previous work that examines the quality of individual locations for investment, the study evaluates the net present value, the growth option value, and the operational flexibility value of the existing production network to predict the establishment of a new site. The results on a sample of 352 German manufacturing firms suggest that the direction, uncertainty, and diversity of labor cost movements in the extant locations influence the propensity to set up a new production subsidiary. Analyzing the international production network after the expansion shows that the new location increases the value of the network regarding these dimensions. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The impact of the market transparency unit for fuels on gasoline prices in Germany

Increasing horizontal as well as vertical transparency in oligopolistic markets can be advantageous for consumers, due to reduced search costs. However, market transparency can also affect incentives to deviate from collusive agreements and the punishment by rival firms in the market. Using a panel of 27 European countries, we analyse the impact of increased market transparency via the introduction of a market transparency unit for fuels in Germany. Applying a difference-in-differences approach, we find evidence that both gasoline and diesel prices have increased. While consumers may be better off using a retail price app for fuels, gas stations are also able to compare prices at almost no cost.     

Die Kalkulation ausfallrisikobedrohter Finanztitel mit Rating-Übergangsmatrizen

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Multi-channel-retailing und kundenbezogene erfolgsrechnung

Die Kombination von Online-Shops, station?ren Gesch?ften und Versandkatalogen versetzt den Einzelh?ndler in die Lage, seine Kunden an unterschiedlichen Orten zu unterschiedlichen Zeiten zu erreichen. Die Bearbeitung des Marktes mit m?glichst vielen Kan?len kann der Schlüssel zum Erfolg sein. Wissen die Multi-Channel-Retailer aber tats?chlich, welche Kan?le ihre Kunden nutzen und welche Kunden welchen Deckungsbeitrag liefern? Kann es sein, dass bestimmte Kunden nur oder überwiegend den elektronischen Kanal nutzen und mehr Handlungskosten als Rohertr?ge verursachen? Antworten hierauf bietet die kundenbezogene Erfolgsrechnung.     

Macro-logistics and externality cost trends in South Africa – underscoring the sustainability imperative

The challenges facing the logistics industry in a fossil fuel-challenged global economy are highlighted by transportation's rising contribution to logistics costs, as evidenced in the USA's and South Africa's logistics costs time series, the two longest-running such series available globally. The anticipated persistence of rising, volatile oil prices and mounting pressure to account for externalities will exacerbate the increase in transport costs (TCs). The results of South Africa's externality cost model show that transport externalities add an additional 18% to already high TCs. In the South African context, the equally largest contributors to freight transport externalities are accidents involving road freight vehicles and road freight emissions. The visibility of these costs is the first step towards internalisation and illustrates the desirability of a fundamental shift in the structure of the South African freight transport industry through the introduction of long-distance intermodal solutions.