Market orientation and organizational performance: A comparison of industrial versus consumer companies in mainland China using market orientation scale (MARKOR)

Although not conclusive, past empirical marketing strategy studies conducted in the United States and western European countries suggested a strong positive relationship between market orientation and a company's performance. The objective of this study is to investigate the reliability and validity of the market orientation construct in a very different socioeconomic, cultural, and business environment of Asia. Specifically, using the Kohli and Jaworski [J. Mark. 54 (1990) 1] MARKOR scale, this study investigates the market orientations of Chinese business managers who operate in a select number of industrial and consumer goods industries in urban China. Previous research has predicted a positive relationship between market orientation and performance, on the assumption that market orientation provides a firm with a better understanding of its environment and customers, which ultimately leads to enhanced customer satisfaction. Study results indicated that there were statistically significant differences between market-oriented and non-market-oriented Chinese managers in terms of their responses to market orientation scale statements. As well, a higher level of market orientation of Chinese companies operating in the Beijing area was discovered. This is rather encouraging because there is a large body of marketing literature that supports the argument that higher levels of market orientation would lead to better organizational performance. The managerial and public policy implications of the study are also discussed.     

Hierarchical multimodal hub location problem with time-definite deliveries

Hierarchical multimodal hub location problem is a cost-minimizing hub covering problem where two types of hubs and hub links, accounting for ground and air transportation, are to be established, while ensuring time-definite deliveries. We propose a mixed-integer programming formulation and perform a comprehensive sensitivity analysis on the Turkish network. We show that the locations of airport hubs are less sensitive to the cost parameters compared to the locations of ground hubs and it is possible to improve the service quality at not much additional cost in the resulting multimodal networks. Our methodology provides the means for a detailed trade-off analysis.     

Adapting to succeed? Leveraging the brand equity of best sellers to succeed at the box office

Many movies are based on best-selling novels. While book adaptation is an often used strategy in the motion picture industry, it has received little academic attention. Using a multi-method approach, this research investigates the drivers behind the success of book-based movies. In Study 1, we analyze over 700 movies and find that book-based movies perform better at the box office on the opening weekend than non-book movies. However, this superior performance dissipates after the opening weekend. Further, the opening weekend performance of book-based movies is positively driven by book equity, book-movie similarity, and recency between the book??s peak equity and movie release. After the opening weekend, many of these book-related variables cease to have an impact, and the effect of movie-related variables (e.g., reviews) increases. Because Study 1 documents that book-movie similarity positively impacts the movie??s performance, contrary to prior findings that content similarity has negative or null impact on performance of a movie sequel, we undertake a second study to reconcile the discrepancy. Study 2 finds that content similarity results in satiation and therefore hampers the movie success for sequels; however, when a movie is adapted from a book, due to experiential modality change (i.e., from book format to film format rather than film to film), content similarity increases the movie??s chance of success.     

What Do We Know about Trade Promotions? Contributions,Limitations, and Further Research

The trade promotion area remains seriously under-researched compared with its share of the overall marketing mix budget. This review attempts to provide an up-to-date account of what we know about trade promotions. For eight major topics we elaborate on what that topic means in the context of trade promotions, why it has been deemed important, what empirical findings have emerged in that area, and proposeareas for future research.     

Indian economy and Indian private equity

India's gross domestic product has been growing at more than 8% in the past few years, making it the fourth‐largest economy in terms of purchasing power parity. According to a Goldman Sachs report, India could become the second‐largest economy in the world by 2050. The key growth drivers are investments in infrastructure, domestic consumption, and a hub for global outsourcing. This is further supported by growth‐oriented policies by the government. The favorable environment has led to the growth of the private equity market. India received approximately U.S. $17.5 billion of investments in private equity in 2007, making it the number‐one destination in Asia. Indian private equity has been mainly focused on providing growth/expansion capital to the company as compared to buyouts in the developed markets. © 2008 ICICI Bank Limited. Printed with permission.     

The Spread of Antidumping Regimes and the Role of Retaliation in Filings

Over the past decade, the worldwide use of antidumping has become very widespread—41 WTO-member countries initiated antidumping cases over the 1995-2003 period. From another perspective, U.S. exporters were subjected to 139 antidumping cases during this period, by enforcement agencies representing 20 countries. In this context, it is natural to consider whether antidumping filings may be motivated as retaliation against similar measures imposed on a country's exporters. This is the focus of our study, though we also control for the bilateral export flows involved and nonretaliatory impacts of past cases, with other motivations—macroeconomic, industry-specific, and political considerations—dealt with through fixed effects. Applying probit analysis to a WTO database on reported filings, we find strong evidence that retaliation was a significant motive in explaining the rise of antidumping filings over the past decade, though interesting differences emerge in the reactions to traditional and new users of antidumping.     

An exploratory study of characteristics and attributes of Turkish entrepreneurs: A cross-country comparison to Irish entrepreneurs

There has been limited research on entrepreneurship in Turkey. Given the fact that globalization has rapidly been increasing, that foreign direct investment is spreading throughout the world, and that more and more foreign investors are seeking partners in emergent markets such as Turkey. One important reason for the interest in Turkish entrepreneurs is because they have many characteristics that are similar to entrepreneurs in Western markets. Even if there are many differences between Western entrepreneurs and Turkish entrepreneurs, it would be valuable to compare the characteristics of Turkish entrepreneurs with others. Moreover, a few cross-cultural studies have examined the similarities among entrepreneurs in various nations. Ireland and Turkey have many striking similarities despite varying cultural backgrounds. Hence, this empirical research was undertaken to investigate the characteristics and attributes of Turkish entrepreneurs and compare them to Irish entrepreneurs. The research design in this study focused on 161 Turkish entrepreneurs who were randomly selected from a list (obtained from local Chamber of Commerce) and interviewed using a structured questionnaire. The questions assessed relevant areas, such as demographic and business information, motivations, entrepreneurial characteristics, business problems, personality characteristics, and management skills. Information on the Irish entrepreneurs was incorporated from a published study. Overall, in terms of entrepreneurial characteristics, Turkish entrepreneurs displayed surprisingly similar characteristics to the Irish. The implications of this study are discussed along with some recommendations.     

Idiosyncratic Risk Matters!

This paper takes a new look at the predictability of stock market returns with risk measures. We find a significant positive relation between average stock variance (largely idiosyncratic) and the return on the market. In contrast, the variance of the market has no forecasting power for the market return. These relations persist after we control for macroeconomic variables known to forecast the stock market. The evidence is consistent with models of time‐varying risk premia based on background risk and investor heterogeneity. Alternatively, our findings can be justified by the option value of equity in the capital structure of the firms.     

Stability and Largeness of the Core

In general, there are examples of TU games where the core is stable but is not large. In this paper, we show that the extendability condition introduced by Kikuta and Shapley (1986, “Core Stability in n-Person Games,” Mimeo) is sufficient for the core to be stable as well as large, for TU games with five or fewer players. We provide a counter example when the number of players is six. We then introduce a stronger extendability condition and show that it is necessary and sufficient for the core to be large. Our proof makes use of a well-known result from the theory of convex sets. Journal of Economic Literature Classification Number: C71.