Managerial,organizational, and external drivers of sales effectiveness in export market ventures

The authors extend sales management theory by considering the role of export sales management in small- and medium-sized firms, and they develop an integrated model of export sales organization effectiveness. Specifically, the authors test 16 hypotheses that examine the relationships among export sales management control, export territory, psychic distance, export sales performance, and export sales organization effectiveness. Using a mail-survey approach, data were collected from U.K.-based export sales managers in 146 direct exporters of industrial products. Though certain anomalies are observed, the research findings support many of the hypothesized associations, confirming the robustness of existing sales management concepts and theories in an export-marketing context.

Valuation effects of mergers and acquisitions in freight transportation

This study investigates valuation effects of mergers and acquisitions in the freight transportation industry. It is found that mergers and acquisitions create synergistic gains, especially tender offers, consistent with the view that freight transportation mergers and acquisitions occur for synergistic reasons rather than management’s desire for empire building or perk consumption. Both target’s and bidder’s shareholders are better-off, but most of the synergistic gains accrue to the target’s shareholders. Targets’ valuation effects are greater for vertical rather than horizontal mergers, indicating a positive valuation for firms that control and manage a more extensive supply chain. The bidders’ wealth effects are greater for friendly mergers. Overall, the findings have important implications for professional practice and the development of the theoretical literature.     

How management control and job-related characteristics influence the performance of export sales managers

Despite the plethora of studies examining the influence of behavior-based sales management control on salesperson characteristics and performance, limited empirical evidence exists with respect to its relevance and importance in an export sales context. This study expands the existing literature by investigating the influence of behavior-based control and job-related characteristics on the performance of export sales managers. The article offers a conceptual model and an empirical test using data from 210 UK exporters. The findings support the positive influence of behavior-based control on certain export sales managers' characteristics and behavioral performance. The results also indicate that: specific export sales managers' characteristics enhance behavioral performance; behavioral performance is positively related to outcome performance; psychic distance moderates the relationship between behavior-based control and behavioral performance. The article concludes with a discussion of implications for export executives and suggestions for future research in the field.     

Determinants of FDI and their Impact on Economic Growth in Uganda

Uganda, in an attempt to accelerate growth and development, has been encouraging foreign direct investment (FDI) through privatization programmes and generous incentive packages such as tax holidays and exemptions. However, the Ugandan experience shows that to attract FDI, macroeconomic and political stability and policy consistency are much more important than such incentive schemes. The paper discusses infrastructure and institutional bottlenecks that act as deterrents to FDI. The paper uses time series data to investigate the FDI‐growth linkage. The empirical results indicate that FDI has a positive impact on GDP growth in Uganda. L'Ouganda s'efforce d'accélérer la croissance et le développement en encourageant les IFD par le biais de programmes de privatisation et de généreuses mesures d'incitation, notamment des tréves et exonérations fiscales. Cependant, l'expérience ougandaise montre que pour attirer les IFD, la stabilité macroéconomique et politique et des orientations cohérentes sont bien plus importantes que de telles mesures. Le document examine les obstacles au niveau des infrastructures et des institutions qui limitent l'expansion des IFD. Il utilise les données de séries chronologiques pour déterminer les liens entre ces institutions et la croissance. Il ressort des résultats empiriques que les IFD ont un impact positif sur la croissance du PIB en Ouganda.     

An empirical investigation of the antecedents and performance outcomes of export innovativeness

The present study develops and empirically tests a conceptual model of the organizational, strategic, and environmental drivers of export innovativeness. The relationship between export innovativeness and export performance is also examined. Using data collected from 168 small- and medium-sized direct exporters, we find that decentralization in decision making, export market orientation, information exchange and export market dynamism have a significant influence on exporting firms’ degree of innovativeness. Furthermore, export innovativeness has a significant positive effect on export performance. Several theoretical and managerial implications are derived from these findings. Directions for future research are also provided.     

R&D, innovation, and technological progress: a test of the Schumpeterian framework without scale effects

Abstract.  I use U.S. manufacturing industry data to estimate a system of three equations implied by a model of R&D‐induced growth in steady state. These equations relate R&D intensity to patenting, patenting to technological progress, and technological progress to economic growth. In each case, I find evidence of positive impact. Thus, I reject the null hypothesis that growth is not induced by R&D in favour of the Schumpeterian endogenous growth framework without scale effects. I also find strong support for technological spillovers from aggregate research intensity to industry‐level innovation success. JEL Classification: O40, O30     

Hidden liquidity: An analysis of order exposure strategies in electronic stock markets

Many stock exchanges choose to reduce market transparency by allowing traders to hide some or all of their order size. We study the costs and benefits of order exposure and test hypotheses regarding hidden order usage using a sample of Euronext-Paris stocks, where hidden orders represent 44% of the sample order volume. Our results support the hypothesis that hidden orders are associated with a decreased probability of full execution and increased average time to completion, and fail to support the alternate hypothesis that order exposure causes defensive traders to withdraw from the market. However, exposing rather than hiding order size increases average execution costs. We assess the extent to which non-displayed size is truly hidden and document that the presence and magnitude of hidden orders can be predicted to a significant, but imperfect, degree based on observable order attributes, firm characteristics, and market conditions. Overall, the results indicate that the option to hide order size is valuable, in particular, to patient traders.     

Affirmative obligations and market making with inventory

Existing empirical studies provide little support for the theoretical prediction that market makers rebalance their inventory through revisions of quoted prices. This study provides evidence that the NYSE's specialist does engage in significant inventory rebalancing, but only when not constrained by the affirmative obligation to provide liquidity imposed by the Price Continuity rule. The evidence also suggests that such obligations are associated with better market quality, but impose significant costs on the specialist. The specialist mitigates these costs through discretionary trading when the rule is not binding. These findings shed light on how exchange rules affect market makers’ behavior and market quality.     

Inflation Expectations and Monetary Policy Surprises*

We estimate monetary policy surprises for European consumers over time, based on monetary policy changes that were unanticipated according to consumers’ stated beliefs. We find that such monetary policy surprises have the opposite impact on inflation expectations from the impact found when assuming that consumers are well informed. Relaxing the latter assumption by focusing on consumers’ stated beliefs, unanticipated increases in the interest rate raise inflation expectations before the 2008 financial crisis. This is consistent with imperfect information theoretical settings where interest rate hikes are interpreted as positive news about the state of the economy by consumers who know that policymakers have relatively more information.     

Common ownership and competition in product markets

We investigate the relation between common institutional ownership of the firms in an industry and product market competition. We find that common ownership is neither robustly positively related with industry profitability or output prices nor is it robustly negatively related with measures of nonprice competition, as would be expected if common ownership reduces competition. This conclusion holds regardless of industry classification choice, common ownership measure, profitability measure, nonprice competition proxy, or model specification. Our point estimates are close to zero with tight bounds, rejecting even modestly sized economic effects. We conclude that antitrust restrictions seeking to limit intra-industry common ownership are not currently warranted.