Migration and the welfare state: The economic power of the non-voter?

This paper investigates the impact of emigration on the political choice of the size of the welfare state. Mobility has two countervailing effects: the political participation effect and the tax base effect. With emigration, the composition of the constituency changes. This increases the political influence of the less mobile part of the population. But the new political majority then also has to take into account that emigration reduces tax revenues and thereby affects the feasible set of redistribution policies. We find that the direction of the total effect of migration depends on the initial income distribution in the economy. Our results also contribute to the empirical debate on the validity of the median-voter approach in cross-country studies for explaining the relation between income inequality and redistribution levels. JEL Classification F22 · H50 · D31 · D72     

Do consumers still believe what is said in online product reviews? A persuasion knowledge approach

The objective of this paper is to examine the effects of knowledge about manipulated online product reviews on the effectiveness of such reviews in influencing consumers' product evaluations. The results of two empirical studies show that consumers clearly differ with regard to their knowledge that product reviews can be manipulated and that consumers who have such knowledge are less influenced in their product evaluations by reviews, specifically by negative ones. Furthermore, the effects of negative reviews are even weaker when consumers acquire their knowledge through a highly credible source (compared to a less credible source).     

Consumer demand for healthy eating considering diversity – an economic approach for German individuals

Rising incidence and costs of diet‐related diseases have led to nutritionists' and economists' interest in factors determining the demand for healthy eating. The present study analyses the demand for healthy eating by the use of a new food‐based indicator, which combines the health value and diversity of a food basket. Although the diversity aspect gains in importance in recommendations for healthy eating it was not considered adequately in healthy eating indicators until now. Within the household production theory the new indicator is used to identify factors influencing the demand for healthy food diversity for 3220 German individuals. The results of regression analyses show that the demand for a healthy diet is influenced by age and mainly by knowledge, attitudinal and behavioural (proxy‐)variables as education level, participation in a health training course and sport activity. On the basis of these findings conclusions are drawn for health and nutrition policy in Germany and Europe.     

PUBLIC GOODS AND THE DISSOLUTION OF STATES

We present a simple model of the dissolution of states. We combine elements of the literature on the break‐up and integration of states based on models in the fiscal federalism tradition, with elements of the literature that explains the determination of a state's political institutions as a means to credibly promise redistributions in the face of costly, perhaps violent, redistributive conflict. We are able to characterize when the equilibrium involves the dissolution of a country, and when it involves continued unity. We are also able to explore some aspects of the linkages between political institutions and the determination of national boundaries.     

Strategic Orientation and Product Innovation: Exploring a Decompositional Approach

While a considerable body of research examines the strategic orientation–innovation relationship, findings in that literature have been mixed. This article calls attention to an underinvestigated problem: the composite, multidimensional conceptualization and measurement of most strategic orientations, which likely contribute to the mixed findings in the literature. To address this issue, the researchers explore a decompositional approach to the strategic orientation–product innovation relationship. The authors utilize the stimulus‐organism‐response framework to select, decompose, and recast a set of strategic orientation components previously identified to be essential to product innovation. To produce more nuanced insights, the authors also decompose product innovation outcomes into breakthrough versus incremental. Furthermore, the sample is decomposed by product type to assess the generalizability of the conceptual model across manufactured goods and services firms. The authors test the conceptual model with a sample of 222 executives of services and manufacturing firms in Germany and Switzerland using partial least squares. By decomposing the strategic orientation effects into direct, indirect, total, and specific components, the detailed empirical analysis yields several new insights. Overall, the results suggest that the relationship between strategic orientation and product innovation is more complex than previously identified in the literature. For example, the results demonstrate that technology orientation works to augment innovation differently in services versus manufacturing firms. More specifically, a focus on technology boosts only breakthrough innovation in manufacturing firms, and only indirectly by enhancing an organization's open‐mindedness. In contrast, services firms extract additional benefits from investing in technology directly (and for both incremental and breakthrough innovation), as well as indirectly by increasing open‐mindedness. The authors also identify complementary as well as suppressing effects on product innovation outcomes from different strategic orientation components. Based on the findings in this study, future research avenues are identified, and managers are advised to consider each component of alternative strategic orientations individually and evaluate the capabilities aligned with components to assess their interdependencies.     

Externally Directed and Internally Directed Market Launch Management: The Role of Organizational Factors in Influencing New Product Success

Introducing new products remains a critical challenge for managers. Consumer acceptance of new products is key to new product success and requires the effective implementation of market launch activities. The present study describes the relationship between different types of market launch activities and market‐related, time‐related, and financial market launch success. The study's framework extends previous work on launch management by complementing the view that launch activities are predominantly outwardly directed with the notion that launch management can also be inwardly directed. More specifically, launch activities can both target customers as the external audience, for example, via communication and pricing, and address an internal audience, such as management and sales personnel, for example, using departmental coordination or employee incentives. The study also sets out to investigate how situational factors impact the relative effectiveness of both externally directed and internally directed launch activities in engendering successful new product launches. In particular, product newness, technology drivers, and firm size are considered as relevant variables. Structural equation analysis of data on 178 new products across industries provide empirical evidence that market launch success depends on the intensity of both externally directed and internally directed market launch activities. With regard to the overall impact of internally directed activities, the findings confirm that organizational factors and antecedents indeed play a critical role in new product launch and its respective performance with internally directed activities having an even stronger impact on time‐related and financial success than outwardly directed instruments. Specifically, these internal activities are often viewed as idiosyncratic resources that are hard for competitors to observe and are therefore more difficult—if not impossible—to replicate compared to externally directed activities in market launch. The paper clearly pinpoints that the successful launch of new products is a complex task that also necessitates the implementation of internally directed launch activities. Fast market penetration requires coordination among the different internal players as well as support from top management. Furthermore, the financial objectives of the market launch can only be met if employees and executives both receive the necessary incentives and support to effectively execute the new product introduction. The study also demonstrates that moderators impact the strength of the effectiveness of these two different types of market launch activities. This research provides important implications for launch management by advocating that the two foci on external and internal constituencies should not be pursued in isolation but that instead, the opposite is true.