Socio-economic Determinants of Multidimensional Poverty in Rural West Bengal: A Household Level Analysis

The present study tries to estimate the incidence, depth and severity of multidimensional poverty (MDP) along with the contributions of dimensions to MDP among the rural households using multi-stage random sampling method in West Bengal. We decompose the inequality of deprivation scores between and within different socio-economic, religious and ethnic groups. The factors affecting the probability of falling in multidimensional poverty is also explored here using logistic regression, and the regression results suggest that public infrastructure plays an essential role towards explaining the variations of MDP. The present study is expected to be helpful to the development planners for better understanding of the root causes of MDP among the rural households in West Bengal.

     

Stakeholder Engagement in Sustainable Enterprise: Evolving a Conceptual Framework,and a Case Study of ITC

An intensive debate has been occurring among academics, consultants and corporate executives, resulting in many definitions of a more humane, more ethical and more transparent manner of conducting business. They have created, supported or criticized related concepts such as sustainable development, corporate citizenship, sustainable entrepreneurship, the triple bottom line, business ethics and corporate social responsibility (Van Marrewijk, 2003 ). In the midst of LPG (liberalization, privatization and globalization), with market expansion occurring and the customer base needing to be widened for long‐term profitability, can enterprise opt for sustainability through the stakeholder approach? Interestingly, the ITC (Imperial Tobacco Company) is a firm committed to the core values of sustainable development in agrobusiness and in other activities, which has made the corporation well known for its stand on sustainability. Hence, this study begins with a brief literature review on sustainable enterprise and an introduction to familiarize the reader with the case organization, to examine what has made the ITC remain a stalwart in sustainable development and to identify the factors that drive the ITC's vision of sustainability. Based on the identified factors, total interpretive structural modeling (TISM) has been used to evolve a framework of sustainable enterprises on the star model (Sushil, 2010 ), which explains the customer and the government as driving factors for sustainability along with the triple bottom line. To validate our study, data on surrogate measures of some of the variables have been taken from the annual reports of the ITC and the validation is performed using linear regression analysis. Finally, the future research scope and limitations of the study are discussed. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment     

AUTOFLEX: marketing flexibility measurement scale for automobile companies

Undergirded by theoretical foundation of extant literature, this article conceives, conceptualizes, constructs, develops and validates marketing flexibility measurement scale (AUTOFLEX) for automobile companies. Study uses two stages of empirical data analysis in order to first develop and then validate AUTOFLEX scale. AUTOFLEX scale developed in this research is 26-item scale of six different dimensions: Price, Customer Orientation, Product, Place, Promotion and Structural Hierarchy. Scale confirms to various tests of reliability and validity as shown by exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. Study discusses direction of future research on marketing flexibility in addition to listing its limitations. Academic as well as managerial implications of AUTOFLEX scale are also mentioned in final section of study.     

Mavericks and free trade: Chile's pivotal role in the formation of the FTAA

Bilateral and regional trade agreements are gaining importance as the World Trade Organization's negotiations sputter. The future of regional integration agreements (RIAs) depends not only on large countries such as the United States and Brazil, but also on small mavericks like Chile. This article examines the generic roles played by different players in the game to form the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), including Chile's pivotal role in helping the United States advance its objective of creating the FTAA in the face of Brazilian resistance. Managers need to understand the effect of realignment of trade arrangements on their sources of competitive advantage and adopt strategies to preempt their erosion. Other small countries that exist in the shadows of large hegemons that dominate developing‐country RIAs might benefit from lessons provided by Chile. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Are less-favored environments over-invested? The case of rice research in India

Allocation of research resources between favorable and unfavorable rice-growing environments is analyzed in this paper using the case of India. The resource allocation in rice research for all ecosystems of India is approximated by the full-time equivalent (FTE) of scientist time spent in research. This was estimated through a survey of all major public research organizations involved in rice research. The FTEs were adjusted for any cost differences per scientist time across the rice growing environments. Unadjusted FTEs indicated a high congruence in resource allocation while adjusted FTEs showed slight under investment in rainfed environment. The use of equity weights amplified the extent of under investment in rainfed environments. It is concluded that, in the case of rice research, rainfed environments in India remain under-invested moderately. Options for addressing this imbalance and the overall implications for resource allocation are discussed.     

Intermediated surge pricing

Although Uber and Lyft are known for their flexible “surge pricing,” they are surprisingly rigid in another way: each firm takes a constant percentage of passenger fare whether or not there is a surge. In this paper, I investigate the possible reasons for, and the impact of, this rigidity. I study a market in which a profit‐maximizing intermediary facilitates trade between buyers and sellers. The intermediary sets prices for buyers and sellers, and keeps the difference as her fee. Optimal prices increase when demand increases, that is, shifts right. If a demand increase is due to an increase in the number of ex ante symmetric buyers, then the intermediary's optimal percent fee decreases. If, instead, a demand increase is due to a reduction in the elasticity of demand, then the intermediary's optimal percent fee increases. In either case, if the intermediary keeps a constant percent fee regardless of shifts in demand, as is the case with Uber and Lyft, then surge pricing (i.e., the ratio of price during high demand to price during low demand) is amplified on one side of the market and diminished on the other side.     

Assessing the Impact of Agricultural Technology Adoption on Farmers' Well‐being Using Propensity‐Score Matching Analysis in Rural China

The present paper assesses the impact of improved upland rice technology on farmers' well‐being. The study uses propensity‐score matching to address the problem of ‘self‐selection,’ because technology adoption is not randomly assigned. It applies this procedure to household survey data collected in Yunnan, China in 2000, 2002 and 2004. The findings indicate that improved upland rice technology has a robust and positive effect on farmers' well‐being, as measured by income levels and the incidence of poverty. The effect of technology on well‐being shows a diminishing impact on producers' incomes. This implies that newer innovations are continuously needed to replace older technologies that have reached their saturation points.     

The Package Assignment Model

We study assignment problems where individuals trade packages consisting of several, rather than single, objects. Although buyers' reservations values are non-additive, efficient assignments can be formulated as a linear programming problem in which the pricing functions expressing duality may be non-linear in the objects constituting the packages. The interconnections among the linear programming formulation, Walrasian equilibrium, and the core are established. In the single seller (auction) version, a necessary and sufficient condition is given for the Vickrey payoff point to be implementable by a pricing equilibrium. Journal of Economic Literature Classification Numbers: C62, D44, D51.     

A stochastic dynamic programming framework for weed control decision making: an application to Avena fatua L.

This paper develops a stochastic multi-period decision model to analyse a continuous wheat cropping system infested by wild oats (Avena fatua L.), in southern Australia. The multi-period solutions is obtained by employing a dynamic programming model in conjunction with a bioeconomic simulation model. An empirically estimated dose response function is used to derive the optimal herbicide rate. Uncertainties due to environmental effects on the performance of herbicide and crop yields are modelled and optimal decision rules derived. The results indicate that substantial economic gains can be realised if herbicide dose decisions are taken by considering future profit effects of current decisions, as opposed to the more common approach of only considering the current-period effect.