When do we really need interpersonal trust in globally dispersed new product development teams?

Interpersonal trust refers to the willingness to make oneself vulnerable to the actions of another party. Trust is generally acknowledged as fostering knowledge exchange and thus contributing to new product development (NPD) team effectiveness. However, the conditions under which NPD teams come to rely more heavily on trust to facilitate effectiveness remain unclear. With burgeoning global collaboration on new product development, we analyze how the characteristics of global NPD teams, i.e., geographic dispersion, computer‐mediated communication (e.g., e‐mail, video‐conferencing), team membership flexibility, and national diversity moderate the trust–effectiveness relationship. Our results show that trust is more important under the condition of geographic dispersion, computer‐mediated communication, and national diversity. By specifying when trust influences NPD team effectiveness in globally dispersed teams, we discuss the theoretical implications and provide recommendations for management.     

Modeling hazardous materials risks for different train make-up plans

This paper is concerned with the problem of how to place hazardous material cars in the train assembly process so that the overall derailment risk can be minimized. The approach considers both the probability of railway cars derailing en route by position as well as the risk associated with additional operations in the rail yard using recent US FRA data. The merits of this car placement model are illustrated through a case study of a railway corridor that connects Los Angeles (CA) to Chicago (IL). The case study demonstrates that the proposed risk minimization strategy could be implemented with minimal rail yard operation cost.     

Arbitrage and the Law of One Price in the market for American depository receipts

Ours is the first paper to highlight pairs trading as the main price-correcting mechanism by which arbitrage can maintain stock–ADR parity. We show that arbitraging stock–ADR pairs extracts small per-trade profits which accumulate to a substantial aggregate return. The observed strong tendency of pricing disequilibria to mean-revert, along with the two-way convertibility between stocks and ADRs, mean that arbitrageurs face minimal risks toward price divergence. They do, however, face uncertainty about the duration of individual trades. The magnitude of this uncertainty relates directly to the profit target arbitrageurs set after a long/short position is established. This fact can explain why some disequilibria go unexploited. Overall, our work provides evidence against automatically efficient prices, and supports the view that mispricings incentivize arbitrageurs to enforce market efficiency.     

Value and risk in business-to-business e-banking

The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of risk in the formation of perceptions of value in the b2b domain, specifically within e-banking. The functional relationships between three types of risk (performance, financial and psychological) and the benefits and sacrifices components of value are tested within a broader nomological network that includes e-service quality (as an antecedent of value) and satisfaction, word-of-mouth and intention to switch (as outcomes of value). The hypothesised relationships are tested, using Partial Least Squares, on data collected through a postal survey from 167 UK-based SME organisations. The results confirm the significant but differential impact of the three types of risk on the two value components. Specifically performance risk and financial risk are found to be significant determinants of benefits, while psychological risk impacts on perceptions of sacrifices. We also provide evidence of the differential impact of the benefits and sacrifices components of value on satisfaction, and the existence of both direct and indirect (through satisfaction) impact of these components on word-of-mouth and intention to switch. This is the first documented empirical investigation of the impact of perceptions of risk in the study of perceptions of value within the domain of b2b marketing and consequently offers new insights into the subject matter. The theoretical and managerial implications of the findings are discussed and the manner in which the identified relationships can aid future research are explicated.     

Should the Good and the Selfish be Taxed Differently?*

In this paper, we consider an environment where individual actions have externalities and two types of agents exist: agents with social preferences (the good) and selfish agents. Selfish agents have pay‐off functions that do not take into account social welfare. The pay‐off of an agent is a linear combination of social welfare and the pay‐off of a selfish agent. We demonstrate that the corrective tax rates that maximize social welfare do not depend on the degree of social preferences. Hence, the good and the selfish should not be taxed differently.     

Does uncertainty matter for loan charge-offs?

Using a stylized real options model, we show that discretion over the timing of charging off a non-performing loan could be economically justified when collateral values are uncertain and there is a chance of loan recovery. The implied hypothesis of an “uncertainty dependence” aspect in loan charge-offs is empirically tested and validated using a panel of European banks. A welfare-maximizing regulator might want to let banks pursue such discretionary loan charge-off behavior, with the problem of distinguishing it from alternative capital management and income smoothing objectives, while transparency-seeking accounting standards setters would presumably not.     

A rejoinder to the commentaries on Professor Chambers' 1999 paper the poverty of accounting discourse

The resource presented in this paper introduces and contextualises the teaching of Customer Lifetime Valuation (CLV) to management accounting students. CLV is a relatively recent innovation. It involves calculating the present value of expected net cash flows generated over the lifetime of an organisation's relationship with a particular customer/customer segment and using this information better to manage returns derived from a customer base. The Teaching Resource provides an introduction to the topic, suggested learning objectives, suitable student reading, and an innovative case (OzInsure case) facilitating students' technical competence and evaluation of CLV. Also included are suggested solutions and further background information situating the use and development of the teaching resource. Feedback received from peers and students indicates the utility of the Teaching Resource, and provides guidance as to its future development. More generally, this resource illustrates the feasibility of using instructors' research experiences to inform learning in management accounting.     

A review of: “CAPACITY UTILIZATION AND BUSINESS INVESTMENT” By Donald C. Streever University of Illinois,Urbana, Ill., 1960 Bureau of Economic and Business Research Bulletin No. 86 76 pp. $1.50

This book is a collection of papers originally written, for the most part, during the period from 1954 through June 1957, and gathered from a variety of sources. One-third of the contributed material comes from sections of other books, and another third from Harvard publications, primarily the Harvard Business Review. The remaining third is about equally divided among other professional societies and corporate manuals.