LOGISTICS OUTSOURCING RELATIONSHIPS: CUSTOMER PERSPECTIVES

This study attempts to infuse relationship marketing theory into the study of logistics outsourcing relationships. In particular, the study demonstrates that not all of the partnerships between customers and providers of third‐party logistics services are the same in terms of their level of development. The existence of distinct levels of partnership established previously in the logistics literature is partially supported and a relationship between level of partnership development and the customer perceptions of key relationship marketing elements and outcomes is established. While exploratory in nature, these findings suggest there are benefits for the increased costs of developing closer partnerships.     

The Gendered Nature of Poverty in the EU: Individualized versus Collective Poverty Measures

Due to the adoption of the household as a unit of analysis, researchers have failed to identify accurate measures of women's income poverty. This study proposes an individualized measure of European poverty to highlight gender differences in the economic crisis. Employing data from the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) for the period 2007–12, it compares the household-based at-risk-of-poverty rate (ARPR) and the individualized financial dependency rate (FDR). The study shows that the gender gap in poverty in Europe is considerably higher when computed through FDR. Indeed, since the ARPR constitutes a proxy of the household's average conditions, it levels down gender inequalities within the household and also variations in individuals’ incomes over time. Only more detailed data collection on intrahousehold resource sharing will possibly allow the development of more precise and realistic indicators of women's and men's risks of poverty and financial dependency.     

A Typology of Reverse Innovation

Reverse innovation commonly refers to an innovation initially launched in a developing country and later introduced to an advanced country. Adopting a linear innovation model with the four sequential phases of concept ideation, product development, primary target market introduction, and subsequent secondary market introduction, this study expands the espoused definition of reverse innovation beyond its market‐introduction focus with reversals in the flow of innovation in the ideation and product development phases. Recognizing that each phase can take place in different geographical locations, the paper then introduces a typology of global innovation with 16 different types of innovation flows between advanced and emerging countries, 10 of which are reverse innovation flows. The latter are further differentiated into weak and strong reverse innovation, depending on the number of innovation phases taking place in an emerging country. This analytical framework allows recasting of current research at the intersection between innovation and international business. Of the 10 reverse innovation flows, six are new and have not been covered in the literature to date. The study addresses questions of ethnocentrism and the continuity of the flow of innovation, and discusses possible extensions of the model with respect to the number of geographical categories and phases of innovation. Four research propositions highlight areas for future investigation, especially in the context of optimizing a firm's portfolio of global innovation competence and capability. The implications for management are concerned with internal and external resistance to reverse innovation. Most significantly, while greater recognition and power of innovation in formerly subordinate organizational units is inconvenient to some, the ability to leverage the potential of reverse innovation makes a firm more likely to succeed in global innovation overall.     

Threshold bipower variation and the impact of jumps on volatility forecasting

This study reconsiders the role of jumps for volatility forecasting by showing that jumps have a positive and mostly significant impact on future volatility. This result becomes apparent once volatility is separated into its continuous and discontinuous components using estimators which are not only consistent, but also scarcely plagued by small sample bias. With the aim of achieving this, we introduce the concept of threshold bipower variation, which is based on the joint use of bipower variation and threshold estimation. We show that its generalization (threshold multipower variation) admits a feasible central limit theorem in the presence of jumps and provides less biased estimates, with respect to the standard multipower variation, of the continuous quadratic variation in finite samples. We further provide a new test for jump detection which has substantially more power than tests based on multipower variation. Empirical analysis (on the S&P500 index, individual stocks and US bond yields) shows that the proposed techniques improve significantly the accuracy of volatility forecasts especially in periods following the occurrence of a jump.     

Income concentration and market demand

We analyze the effects of income concentration and income dispersionon market demand and its elasticity. We show that, followingan increase in income concentration towards the middle (measuredby variations in mean preserving spread), the increase in demandfaced by firms which serve at the margin middle income consumers,is associated with an increase in price elasticity—accordingly,the positive effects of the size of the market becoming widerare amplified by a higher degree of competition. Our resultshold for a large number of possible income distributions.     

SPATIAL DISCRIMINATION,PRODUCT SUBSTITUTABILITY AND WELFARE

The paper examines a quantity–location duopoly game in a spatial discrimination model in which the delivered goods are assumed to be imperfect substitutes or complements. By extending the range of the unit transportation cost analysed in the existing literature, it is shown that a dispersed equilibrium arises in which the choice of the optimal locations is affected by the degree of product substitutability. The interaction between the latter and the size of the transportation cost is also discussed in order to verify its welfare implications. In particular, it is shown that in this spatial framework imperfect substitutability may increase welfare.     

Ambiguity of measured WTP for quality improvements when quantity is unconstrained: a note

This paper addresses the issue of how to estimate by contingentvaluation methods the maximum price consumers are willing topay when a new quality is available for a market good for whichquantity adjustments are possible. We argue that current practice,which typically does not specify a quantity when asking consumersthe price they are willing to pay for a new quality product,fails to identify prospective consumers' behaviour when theyare free to adjust the quantity purchased. Theoretical modelsare discussed for assessing the maximum price consumers arewilling to pay in these cases, and econometric approaches toaddress these situations are discussed.     

Optimal manipulation rules in a mixed oligopoly

We study the optimal manipulation rules of a public firm’s objective function in a mixed oligopoly with imperfect product substitutability. We start with a baseline duopoly model and compare the solutions under quantity and price competition, and the way they are affected by product substitutability. This allows us to show that partial privatization, strategic delegation and other specific government’s commitments on the objective function of the public management can be looked at as special cases of these optimal rules, and to evaluate the viability of these policies under the two modes of competition. In this framework, we also discuss the equivalence between manipulation of the objective function and Stackelberg leadership. Since optimal manipulation rules change as new dimensions are added, we also derive the optimal rules under oligopoly, quadratic costs, and competition of international firms. This fairly general unified framework allows to discuss the impact of these factors on the government’s implementation policies of the optimal manipulation rules.     

Exploring the role of charitable ethnocentrism and donation motives in international giving: Empirical evidence from Germany

The purpose of this study is to contribute to a better understanding of the drivers of international giving intention by examining the joint effect of ethnocentrism and donation motives. More specifically, this study analyzes the direct effect of charitable ethnocentrism on the intention to give to international causes. Additionally, the study investigates the moderating effect of charitable ethnocentrism on the relationships between donation motives and the intention to donate to international causes. This study's findings indicate that ethnocentric donors are less willing to donate to international causes. Moreover, the study results show that the effects of egoistic and tax-saving donation motives vary across different levels of charitable ethnocentrism: charitable ethnocentrism enhances the effect of the egoism motive on international donation intention, whereas the effect of the tax-saving motive on international giving intention is mitigated. Based on the empirical findings, this study discusses implications for theory and practice along with study limitations and avenues for future research.