Simulating the adoption of fuel cell vehicles

Supply security and environmental concerns associated with oil call for an introduction of hydrogen as a transport fuel. To date, scenario studies of infrastructure build-up and sales of fuel cell vehicles (FCVs) are driven by cost estimates and technological feasibility assumptions, indicating that there is a “chicken and egg problem”: Car producers do not offer FCVs as long as there are no hydrogen filling stations, and infrastructure will not be set up unless there is a significant number of FCVs on the road. This diffusion barrier is often used as an argument for a major (public) infrastructure program, neglecting the fact that the automobile market is highly competitive and car producers, consumers, and filling station operators form an interdependent dynamic system, where taxes influence technology choice. In this paper, an agent-based model is used that captures the main interdependencies to simulate possible diffusion paths of FCVs. The results suggest that a tax on conventional cars can successfully promote diffusion even without a major infrastructure program. However, consumers and individual producers are affected differently by the tax, indicating that differently strong resistance towards such a policy can be anticipated. Moreover, there is evidence that some producers might benefit from cooperation with filling station operators to generate a faster build-up of infrastructure.

Assessing cross-cultural marketing theory and research: Reply to Craig and Douglas' commentary

This article responds to the major concerns Craig and Douglas (2011) raise in their commentary essay on the content analysis of cross-cultural marketing research from Engelen and Brettel (2011). Based upon theoretical arguments and empirical findings in the extant literature, this reply argues that national borders are an appropriate major level at which to study the culture construct. This reply also shows that empirical research on consumer acculturation supports the idea that “whiteness” is present in cross-cultural marketing research.     

How information processing and mobile channel choice influence product returns: An empirical analysis

The mobile internet is starting to overtake the desktop device‐based internet as a purchase channel. Its impact on consumer behavior is therefore increasingly important to understand. This study seeks to understand and measure, if usage of mobile devices for online purchases leads to a lower decision quality and, in effect, to more product returns. In doing so, the impact of information environments on the end‐to‐end consumer purchase decision‐making process is better understood and it is investigated, if the information environment of mobile devices leads consumers to take more error‐prone purchase decisions. An exclusive data set spanning more than 140 million transactions of a European online retailer is used to empirically analyze changes in product return behavior after mobile channel adoption. The results show that mobile channel usage is positively related to product returns, overall and for both, purchases made with mobile devices and purchases made with desktop devices, although prior literature predicts that returns from desktop purchases should not increase. These findings suggest that through new channels, consumers’ information environment is altered sufficiently to affect their decision accuracy. Moreover, the results indicate that previous research may be overestimating the positive effect of mobile channel adoption on sales by disregarding changes in product return behavior.     

Investment and financing decisions of private and public firms

We examine differences in the allocation of cash flow between Western European private and public firms. Public firms have a higher investment‐cash flow sensitivity than comparable private firms. This difference is not attributable to more severe financing constraints of public firms. Instead, because differences in investment‐cash flow sensitivities are only observed for the unexpected portion of firms’ cash flow, the empirical evidence supports an agency‐based explanation. Similar patterns are observable for the expected and unexpected portion of firms’ shareholder distributions. Our results are driven by firms from countries with low ownership concentration and more liquid stock markets, where shareholders have lower incentives to monitor. The results are also more pronounced for public firms with low industry Tobin's q and high free cash flow, which are more prone to suffer from agency problems.     

Entrepreneurs' perceived exit performance: Conceptualization and scale development

Recently, research on entrepreneurs who exit their firms has intensified. Scholars agree that the outcome of such entrepreneurial exits needs to be assessed based on the individual entrepreneur's perception and on multiple dimensions. Yet, to date we lack theory and measures that capture this outcome, which we define as entrepreneurs' perceived exit performance (PEP). This study introduces a theoretical framework for the PEP construct and develops a scale to measure it along four dimensions: personal financial benefits, personal reputation, employee benefits, and firm mission persistence. We discuss the wide applicability of the scale and a variety of research opportunities.     

Letting Go to Grow—Empirical Findings on a Hearsay

Research to date has largely neglected the role of management style in new entrepreneurial ventures. We address this gap by investigating the impact of management style on company performance and how the impact is different contingent on the life cycle stage of new entrepreneurial ventures. By employing the concept of microinvolvement, our study demonstrates that management style significantly impacts company performance and that the merits of a highly involved management style are less in later‐stage new entrepreneurial ventures. This finding provides support for the saying “letting go to grow” and raises important implications for management.     

Five reasons for the use of network analysis in the history of economics

ABSTRACT

Network analysis is increasingly appreciated as a methodology in the social sciences. In recent years, it is also receiving attention among historians of science. History of economics is no exception in that researchers have begun to use network analysis to study a variety of topics, including collaborations and interactions in scientific communities, the spread of economic theories within and across fields, or the formation of new specialties in the discipline of economics. Against this backdrop, a debate is emerging about how network analysis can help address questions that are pertinent to the history of economics. With this paper, we want to push this debate one step forward by offering and discussing five reasons why network analysis should have a future in the history of economics.     

Content Strategies for Digital Consumer Engagement in Social Networks: Why Advertising Is an Antecedent of Engagement

Advertisers need to optimize their efforts on social networks to engage consumers effectively. Existing literature on this topic has not yet explained how social network advertising (SNA) can be categorized into different content types and how to conceptualize and operationalize digital consumer engagement (DCE) in social networks. Thus, we derive seven content categories for social network advertising and a four-level model for DCE based on consumers' intermediate mind-set responses. We propose the impact of different SNA categories as an antecedent of DCE. Our results confirm a significant but unequal impact of at least four content categories on various engagement metrics. We therefore distill the successful content strategies and content attributes for specific types of engagement and confirm intermediate responses to advertising in a real market situation.