Freedom Net

As the Internet becomes ubiquitous, there is widespread anxiety that it is either a source of moral corruption or a threat to business. This anxiety stems from the fact that the Internet calls the most restrictive aspects of legislation into question. Because the Internet is intrinsically orientated towards freedom, it should be championed, but there is a danger of celebrating new technology as an end in itself rather than the uses to which it can be put. Those commentators who most zealously promote the Internet are often as deluded as those who are afraid of it.     

Marketing communications implications of children's new electronic media use: a survey of parental opinions and perceptions

Currently new electronic media, the Internet in particular, are poised to become a major part of the marketing and communications mix, not only for adults but also children. This poses challenges and heralds a new debate on both protection of the young vis‐à‐vis more equitable access and the need, nature and forms of regulation warranted. This paper reviews the literature on this debate and related issues. It reports on a New Zealand empirical study of parental perceptions of their children's electronic media use and examines the findings and the insights obtained on the use of the Internet and its role as a marketing communications medium. It also reports on what these parents consider to be the key concerns in this area and their Internet site preferences. The issues relating to children, the Internet and the link between violence and video games are examined and implications for marketing communications are discussed.     

A dynamic analysis of the impact of uncertainty on import- and/or export-led growth: The experience of Japan and the Asian Tigers

Increasing integration of the Asian Tigers with the world economy through trade has exposed their income and trade to greater uncertainty and volatility. This paper models uncertainty in trade and income and re-examines the stability of the trade-growth nexus for Japan and the Asian Tigers in a dynamic framework. We find that in a volatile environment Japan's GDP growth is only import-led while Hong Kong's GDP growth is both export and import growth-led. On the other hand, incorporating uncertainty breaks the causal link between Korea's GDP growth and trade but it does not affect Taiwan's mutually causative relationship between GDP growth, with exports and imports. Lastly, the varied qualitative and quantitative impact of volatility in imports and exports on income growth among the Asian Tigers provides further thought for policy making.     

SOURCES OF ECONOMIC GROWTH AND TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER IN SUB‐SAHARAN AFRICA1

This paper provides some empirical evidence on the sources of growth in sub‐Saharan Africa (SSA). Within the classical convergence framework, several macroeconomic, socio and political factors are identified as affecting the steady state growth paths of the SSA countries. The rejection of the constant technology growth rate assumption implied by the linearised Solow‐Swan growth specification suggests differences in the economies' technology growth rates. An endogenous technology growth model is estimated to measure contributions of diminishing returns and technology transfer to the rate of conditional convergence in the region. The results carry important policy implications for improving the standard of living and economic growth rate of African countries.     

Competition between auctions

Even though auctions are capturing an increasing share of commerce, they are typically treated in the theoretical economics literature as isolated. That is, an auction is typically treated as a single seller facing multiple buyers or as a single buyer facing multiple sellers. In this paper, we review the state of the art of competition between auctions. We consider three different types of competition: competition between auctions, competition between formats, and competition between auctioneers vying for auction traffic. We highlight the newest experimental, statistical, and analytical methods in the analysis of competition between auctions.     

Does PIN affect equity prices around the world?

This study examines the empirical controversy over the pricing effect of the Easley, Hvidkjaer, and O?Hara (2002) probability of information-based trading, PIN, on a sample of 30,095 firms from 47 countries worldwide. Contrary to the empirical evidence of Easley, Hvidkjaer, and O?Hara, but consistent with that of Duarte and Young (2009), we do not find that PIN exhibits a positive effect on a cross section of expected stock returns in international markets. Alternative information-based trading measures also display no effect on expected stock returns, corroborating our finding that information risk proxied by PIN, in general, has no pricing effect in world markets.     

Relationship marketing and distribution channels

The interest of practitioners and academics in channel relationship management has shifted from corporate channel structures and relationships in conventional channels governed by use of power to relationships between independent firms involving contractual and normative control mechanisms. In this article, we identify several factors leading to this change of interest, propose a scheme for classifying channel relationship research based on control mechanisms, and suggest areas for future research involving the use of contractual and normative control mechanisms in conventional channel relationships. He is the former editor of theJournal of Marketing Research, an academic trustee of the Marketing Science Institute, and a member of the Direct Selling Education Foundation Board of Directors. His research on channel and sales management issues and personal selling effectiveness has been published in theJournal of Marketing Research, Journal of Marketing, Journal of Consumer Research, Marketing Science, andAdministrative Science Quarterly. He is the co-author of three textbooks,Retailing Management, Essentials of Retailing, andPersonal Selling: Building Partnerships. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Florida. Her research interests are in the area of channel relationship management, particularly decision-making processes, coordination, and relationship dynamics.     

The Effects of Cultural Diversity in Virtual Teams Versus Face-to-Face Teams

Diversity in the national background and culture of team members is common in virtual teams. An experimental study, with short term teams, was undertaken to examine the effect of cultural diversity on team effectiveness and to examine if this effect changes depending if the team worked face-to-face (F2F) or virtually. Heterogeneous teams were created that had greater diversity than homogeneous teams of individualism/collectivism values, different languages spoken, country of birth, and nationality. The teams worked on a desert survival task either F2F or virtually (via audioconference and electronic chat tools). The overall results indicated that heterogeneous teams were less satisfied and cohesive and had more conflict than the homogeneous teams, although there were no statistical differences in team performance levels. However, examining just the heterogeneous teams found that the performance of the virtual heterogeneous teams was superior to that of the F2F heterogeneous teams. The results support Carte and Chidambaram's (2004) theory that the reductive capabilities of collaborative technologies are beneficial for newly-formed diverse teams.