Forecasting business needs in the telephone market

The last decade has seen substantial changes in the environment in which U.S. telephone companies operate. As regulated monopolies, telephone companies are experiencing effective competition in several areas of their operations. Additionally the consumerist movement has made regulatory agencies more aware of the requirements of the numerous markets served by the utilities. With “good” telephone service available at reasonable cost throughout the United States, users and telephone companies are more aware of secondary product attributes such as style (decorator sets) and auxiliary features (the ability to place one caller on hold and answer another call). These changes reflect the evolution of the marketing function within the telephone companies and the increasing use of marketing research for product line expansion and sales forecasting. What has caused this shifting perspective on the function of marketing? How have the utilities responded? The following discussion deals with these questions as well as the ways in which marketing research has aided the telephone company in forecasting sales to business customers.     

Bertrand equilibrium with differentiated products considering fixed costs: Korean price regulation in the mobile telephone industry

In some industries such as telecommunications and electricity, the fixed costs are so high that competition is not sustainable without considering the fixed cost in pricing. The sustainability of competition is as important as enhancing competition when an industry is in the transitional period from being a monopoly owned or managed by the government to a competitive market structure driven by the market. A price competition model with asymmetric firms and product differentiation is considered in which firms compete with a normal profit constraint. The constraint is related to the sustainability of competition and can be realized through price regulation. With this constraint, firms gain only normal profit in equilibrium despite the asymmetry, and consumer surplus is maximized. The equilibrium is meaningful in defining the industry performance intended through the regulation. Moreover, the price regulation of the Korean mobile telephone market is considered to discuss any implications of this equilibrium.     

The US telecommunications industry in transition: Bypass,regulation and the public interest

Since the AT&T divestiture, the Federal Communications Commission has been attempting to introduce competition into the telecommunications industry in the USA. This article discusses the problems of the transition period, particularly the contradictions between the policy of widespread availability of affordable basic telephone service, and the short-run burdens on most subscribers as competition erodes the toll-to-local subsidy. The authors discuss welfare economics in the telecommunications industry, and propose an interim and self-terminating plan for gradual deregulation. The proposal includes an empirical test of economic or uneconomic local exchange bypass, and a social compensation option which meets the requirements of Pareto superiority.     

The US fashion industry: A supply chain review

The fashion industry has short product life cycles, tremendous product variety, volatile and unpredictable demand, and long and inflexible supply processes. These characteristics, a complex supply chain and wide availability of data make the industry a suitable avenue for efficient supply chain management practices. The industry has also been in a transition over the last 20 years: significant consolidation in retail, majority of apparel manufacturing operations moving overseas and, more recently, increasing use of electronic commerce in retail and wholesale trade. This paper aims to review the current state of operations and recent trends across the fashion supply chain in the US. We use industry-wide data, articles from business journals, industry reviews and extensive interviews with an apparel manufacturer in California, and a major US department store chain to describe the current operational practices and how the industry is restructuring itself during the transition, focusing at the apparel manufacture and retail segments of the supply chain.     

Information systems in fast cycle development: identifying user needs in integrated automotive component development

Product development literature strongly emphasizes the need for open communication between suppliers and Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs). There is a widespread expectation that computer-aided communication networks will enable organizational members to work more flexibly, to share knowledge and competencies, and to span functional and company boundaries. However, few studies merge the possibilities of new information technologies and the operational needs of specific groups of users, for example product development engineers. The research reported in this paper aims to fill that gap. Through in-depth case studies of two development projects involving one auto OEM, one of its systems suppliers (working directly with the OEM) and five medium-sized expert suppliers (working either directly with the OEM or through the systems supplier), we identify three groups of user needs that are not currently satisfied by existing information system solutions: improvement of coordination and communication; enhancement of the access to new technological information; and support for the development of an organizational memory. We then explore what kind of information systems might help satisfy the above-mentioned needs. Potential barriers to efficient implementation of information systems in terms of the motivation of people using the systems, the reliability of the information, and the willingness to render information more transparent are discussed. It is concluded that when implementing information systems to support operational development work, it is essential to ground the system specification in clearly identified user needs that reflect the double nature of product engineering, namely the continuous interplay between routines and cognitive processes.     

Identifying leaders and laggards—A method and application to US local telephone companies

Performance attributes of public utilities vary in definition according to the stakeholder: service provider, customer or regulator. A framework is provided for defining, measuring and ranking service quality from multiple perspectives by developing a “quadrant analysis” method. This method is applied and US local telephone companies are ranked over time as leaders and laggards or biased according to one, two and three stakeholder perspectives. Application of the method to 1994–2001 data for the US local telephone industry suggests that some local companies hold their position consistently as leaders among their peers in the industry and some continue to lag behind. While the leaders could be studied for best practices the analysis of the laggards’ practices would also yield valuable insights regarding good practice as perceived by the different stakeholders.     

US telecommunications regulation: Will technology decide?

Twenty years ago, the telecommunications industry was an established regulated monopoly. But improvements in technology and reductions in costs have ripped apart the premises of natural monopoly and the economic rationale for public utility regulation. The authors review past US telecommunications policy and question the assumptions of the current search for a policy for the future. They believe that, for the industry to develop, institutions and restraints need to be removed.     

Restructuring the US telecommunications industry: Impact on innovation

Plans for restructuring the US telecommunications corporation, AT & T have been discussed recently. The fear has been expressed that such restructuring would be harmful to innovation and technical progress in the industry, and hence ultimately harmful to the USA. This article addresses that question in the context of proposed legislative changes to the 1934 Communications Act. Existing economic evidence suggests that these fears are unfounded. Arguments relating to firm size (the ‘Schumpeterian hypothesis’), concentrated industry structure, and regulation suggest that the proposed changes would increase rather than decrease innovative activity.     

The 3G transition: Changes in the US wireless industry

The transition of the wireless industry from second generation (2G) to third generation (3G) is more than a simple technology upgrade. The industry's service profile will move far beyond telephony and services will converge with the computing and content sectors. This will bring many more players into this already huge industry. Thus the transition to 3G needs to be regarded as a major economic transformation as it requires a major reconfiguration of the existing value networks. Standards have traditionally been essential in the success of wireless services and will play an increasingly critical role in the future.Due to the on-going transition, wireless standardization has changed considerably—reflecting changes in the configuration of the value network. While the number of major air-interface standards has been reduced to just two, the overall number of standards bodies has increased by almost an order of magnitude while the number and scope of interfaces being standardized has grown at a breathtaking pace. This growth reflects the need to support the industry's new coordination requirements at critical interfaces in the value network. At the same time, the importance of the traditional standards development organizations (SDOs) has diminished as more nimble industry consortia have taken over the main responsibilities for standardization. The major standardization battlegrounds have shifted up the protocol stack to the service enabler level. In addition, the manufacture of handsets and other mobile communication devices is transitioning to a more horizontal industry structure. These changes, along with changes in the way value is extracted from new services and their influence on the reconfiguration of the industry are discussed.     

A dynamics-based approach to solutions typology: A case from the aerospace industry

The process of servitization for manufacturing firms has been studied to help improve understanding as to how manufacturing firms can combine products and services in order to provide business solutions for their customers. Several proposals as to a typology for business solutions have been made. Typologies proposed are static in nature rather than dynamic. The aim of this paper is to propose a typology of the dynamic solution process, taking the aerospace industry as an appropriate context of analysis. A qualitative and exploratory research is adopted, using a case study approach. A triadic approach is applied in the selection of cases in order to capture the multi-actor base element of the network and solution dynamics. The data reveals four different time-based categories of business solution: 1) solutions before manufacturing; 2) solutions for manufacturing; 3) solutions for product performance and 4) solutions for innovation. This paper has theoretical and managerial contributions by presenting a typology for business solutions as a variable combination of products, services and developments over time.     

Collusive pricing patterns in the US airline industry

We formulate two empirical tests for collusive behavior based on the theoretical insights of Werden and Froeb (1994) and Athey, Bagwell, and Sanchirico (2004). The first predicts that colluding firms will reduce pair-wise differences in prices within a market if demand satisfies certain properties. The second predicts that colluding firms will sacrifice efficiency in production by increasing price rigidity to avoid informational costs. Using panel data from the US airline industry and fixed-effects estimation, we find that greater multimarket contact between carriers leads to pricing patterns consistent with both theoretical predictions, while code-share agreements are consistent with the second prediction.     

Investments in tracking and tracing systems in the food industry: A PLS analysis

Traceability and related concepts, such as trust and transparency have gained greatly in relevance in food supply chains. This study seeks to answer what exactly determines firms’ investments in traceability systems by developing and testing a theoretical framework using partial least squares methodology and empirical data from 234 companies of the German food industry.The results reveal that high external pressure to implement improves the image of tracking and tracing systems in the sense that their use enhances a firm’s status, increases the intention to use those systems and fosters their perceived usefulness in the eyes of agribusiness executives. The hypothesized negative effect of costs on perceived usefulness and the intention to invest could not be verified.     

Organizational factors and technology-intensive industry: the US and Japan

High technology industry in the US and Japan can be thought of as distinct organizational models. Here the authors examine the historical evolution, major characteristics, and benefits and costs of these different models. This leads to the conclusion that organizational factors exert a powerful influence on the ability of firms, industries and nations to adapt to new technology-intensive industries.     

A framework of E-SCM multi-agent systems in the fashion industry

The fashion industry's supply chain is full of uncertainty and unpredictability. Thus, building an intelligent system to effectively capture the requirements of customers and help manage the supply chain is very important. Typical quick response (QR) systems have been broadly used in the fashion industry to serve as a way of maintaining an efficient supply chain management (SCM). The original functions of a QR system cannot, however, completely overcome the challenge of quickly satisfying the requirements of customers with effective customer relationship and quality of service. In this paper, we have integrated the typical management information system (MIS) development procedure with that of an e-fashion SCM multi-agent system. Some related research and reports from different countries have been thoroughly surveyed in order to find possible IT and non-IT methods for use in the SCM of fashion retailers. This paper thus provides an electronic fashion SCM system by adopting the techniques of the Semantic Web and multiple agents. The proposed system can integrate different information technologies to make its behavior more intelligent and to catch more useful information from customers. Its implementation also considers some practical issues in the fashion retailing SCM.     

US national dietary goals: Food industry threat or opportunity?

The authors discuss the recent controversial promulgation of a set of national dietary goals for the USA, in the context of their effect on the food industry. A report is described which surveyed reactions to the goals. Several suggestions are made for food industry, consumer and government responses to changes in the food policy environment in the USA.     

A practical approach to quality-adjusted price cap regulation

Price cap regulation is often combined with service quality regulation since price caps may create incentives for quality degradation. A service quality adjustment factor (the Q-Factor) in the price cap formula ensures that allowed prices fall as quality declines. This paper discusses some considerations in determining the appropriate form of the Q-Factor. The paper examines the difficulties involved in exploiting the price/quality tradeoff. In addition, the paper presents a quality-corrected price cap procedure—possessing desirable properties—that can be implemented with reasonable informational requirements.     

Switching costs in the US seed industry: Technology adoption and welfare impacts

We evaluate the role of brand and technology switching costs in the US soybean seed industry using a unique dataset of actual seed purchases by about 28,000 farmers from 1996 to 2016. Using a random coefficients logit model of demand, we estimate brand and technology switching costs, characterize the distributions of buyers’ willingness to pay for seed brands and the glyphosate tolerance (GT) trait, and assess the implications of brand and technology switching costs for farmers’ welfare, technology adoption, firm profits, and firm market shares. We find that farmers are willing to pay large premiums for brand labels, and even larger premiums for the GT trait, although there is considerable heterogeneity in these values. Switching costs play an important role in the soybean seed industry. Eliminating these costs would significantly increase buyers’ welfare, reduce seed prices and firm profits, decrease adoption of the GT trait, and impact industry consolidation by expanding smaller firms’ market shares.     

Social media and value co-creation in multi-stakeholder systems: A resource integration approach

This paper provides a theoretical framework of multi-stakeholder systems to explain value co-creation through the contextual means of actor-to-actor (A2A) interactions. In applying the A2A model, we explicate the resources provided by three actors in particular – customer, firm and social media platform in co-creating value via resource integration. The resources afforded by social media platforms positions these actors as “systems resource integrators” in both B2B (business-to-business) and B2C (business-to-consumer) contexts. The role of social media platforms as systems resource integrators is to provide a technological platform that exposes its modular resources to facilitate higher order resource formations through the active participation of non-intermediary actors (i.e. customers and firms); which otherwise limits the ability of firms and customers to realize their optimal value co-creation potential.Six propositions are derived from the conceptual framework provided in this paper. Through the higher order resource formation analogy underpinning the discussion in this paper, we argue the significance of understanding the qualities of social media resources for managers to facilitate more efficient resource configurations in the creation, transformation and renewal of resources via resource integration in actor interactions. The paper concludes with the strategic implications of the conceptual framework provided and future research directions.     

Survival duration of plants: Evidence from the US petroleum refining industry

This paper presents a duration analysis on the survival of US petroleum refining plants for the 1981–1986 period, when the industry as a whole declines in response to the decontrol of crude oil markets. The purpose is to examine the duration dependence and determinants of post-deregulation plant lifetimes. The Weibull model with the correction for unobserved individual heterogeneity provides a better fit to the data. Empirical results show that plant size, age, regulatory subsidies, technology use, and multiplant coordination are key determinants of refinery life duration after deregulation. In addition, major integrated oil companies tend to make timely restructuring via refinery closures and sales. The interactive effects of size and technology use and of multiplant coordination and integrated organization are also important to the refinery survival.     

Government regulation and quality in the US beef market

We show how government regulation played a critical role in shaping the beef industry over the past century. Technological developments in the late 19th century led to a highly concentrated meatpacking industry and fostered a national market for beef in the US, and the development of a national market for beef led to regulations to ensure quality uniformity, especially USDA grading. We explain the problems with beef quality created by USDA grading using tools from information economics. Because USDA’s fairly coarse grading system failed to measure significant aspects of beef quality, beef production suffered from the multi-tasking problem, which led producers to focus on producing larger quantities of beef while ignoring quality issues. We show that producing high quality beef requires either ex ante input controls or ex post sorting. In turn, we show how newly developed programs such as USDA quality certification and branding are incentivizing production of higher beef quality and dealing with information problems arising under USDA grading. We conclude with the implications of the regulatory history for current regulation of beef markets.