The IT productivity paradox-evidence from the UK retail banking industry

This article addresses causes of the so-called 'information technology productivity paradox' in the context of UK retail banks. It investigates why massive investments by retail banks in information technology are not being translated into significant productivity gains, given that sucessful implementation of new technology is particularly important in increasingly competitive banking environments.     

Cartel sustainability in retail markets: Evidence from a health service sector

This paper studies the role of cost asymmetries and product differentiation on cartel sustainability by drawing data from a failed retail cartel. Unlike the extensive theoretical literature, little empirical evidence exists on these relationships. First, we analyze cartel compliance and find that players are more likely to comply when cost is symmetric and own cost is high. Next, based on a structural model and counterfactual experiments, we show that a cartel price that satisfies all cartel members does not exist. This result indicates an inherent difficulty of sustaining collusion in retail markets with heterogeneous players. We also show that firm heterogeneities, especially product differentiation rather than cost asymmetries, hinder collusion more. Finally, we derive the level of patience (or the discount factor) required for cartel sustainability when firms split profits based on the Shapley value.     

The strategic management of a large scale IT project in the financial services sector

This article explores theoretical and empirical work on IT strategy formulation. While the managerialist focus upon a structured rational text-book model is common in the literature, it is not supported by empirical research on IT projects in the financial services sector.     

Sustainability of mobile IT sector in industrially developing countries by supporting repairability

This article aims to provide a design intervention to support the repairability of mobile phones and, in turn, promote sustainability. Typically, mobile phones are designed with a view towards obsolescence for users in industrially developed countries, as the expected repair in these circumstances is minimal. In contrast, in developing countries, such as India, these phones are constantly repaired and are owned several times by different people before their final demise. Therefore, to support repairability, a field study based in Mumbai, India, was conducted to understand the cognitive basis of repair. The results were further analyzed using a cognitive work analysis framework that provides insight into the possibilities for informational requirements for design. The findings indicate that small-scale repair shops (3–4 repairmen) and the hole-in-the-wall shops (1 repairman) can benefit from the intervention in terms of informational support for the repair activity. If the cognitive dimension of repair is supported for these low-cost repair shops, we can expect an increase in the capability and efficacy of the repairmen, resulting in fewer phones ending up as e-waste. Thus, due to its low cost, informational diagrams that support the repair activity can be incorporated by the manufacturer without any radical changes in existing proprietary technology, resulting in the possibility for the long-term growth of the repair ecology in a country such as India.     

Knowledge work as occupational strategy: comparing IT and management consulting

Information technology and management consulting are two classic areas of knowledge work. Analysing them not in terms of 'essential traits' but occupational strategies addresses the problem of virtually all expert labour in the so-called information society being seen as 'knowledge work' of one sort or another.     

The impacts of marketing and operations capabilities on financial performance in the UK retail sector: A resource-based perspective

Drawing upon the resource-based view (RBV) of the firm, this study investigates the relationships among marketing capability, operations capability, and financial performance. Using archival data of 186 retail firms in the UK, we find that that marketing capability has a significant impact on operations capability, and that operations capability is significantly and positively related to retail efficiency. The results also suggest that operations capability fully mediates the relationship between marketing capability and financial performance. The findings of this study provide practical insights for practicing managers to consider when developing functional capabilities in order to achieve superior financial performance.     

An empirical analysis of inventory turnover behaviour in Greek retail sector: 2000-2005

In this study we investigate the determinants of inventory turnover. The study is based on an econometric analysis of inventory behaviour using an inventory turnover model. The empirical implementation of the model was conducted on a sample of financial data for 566 Greek retail firms for the period 2000-2005. By employing panel data techniques it was found that inventory turnover ratio is negatively correlated with gross margin and positively correlated with capital intensity and a measure of sales surprise.Decomposing the variance into its components associated with year, firm and retail segment effects, we found that a substantial amount of inventory turns variability is due to segment-wise effects. Moreover, the inventory turnover reaction to different sales changes was also studied. It was estimated that changes in sales bring on bigger changes when firms operate in sales-declined region. These results are useful in identifying methods and applications to improve inventory performance among firms and over time.     

A model to investigate the influence of marketing-mix efforts and corporate image on brand equity in the IT software sector

A model is developed to examine the relationships among marketing-mix efforts (channel performance, value-oriented price, promotion, and after-sales service), corporate image, three dimensions of brand equity (brand awareness with associations, perceived quality, and brand loyalty), and market performance. The model considers three distinctive aspects of business markets. After-sales service is taken as a key marketing-mix effort. Corporate image is placed as a mediator from the marketing-mix efforts to the dimensions of brand equity. Personal selling is defined as a main component of promotion. The model is tested in the context of a Korean IT software sector. The test results show that all the marketing-mix efforts positively affect the overall value of brand equity, which is a proxy of market performance, via the three dimensions of brand equity. Corporate image mediates the effect of the marketing-mix efforts on the three dimensions of brand equity.     

Job Gendering: Occupational Choice and the Marriage Market

Existing theories of occupational segregation appeal to family-related responsibilities, employer discrimination, and socialization to explain why women and men occupy such different jobs. We suggest that occupational segregation is perpetuated because women (and men) may be penalized in the marriage market for making nontraditional occupational choices. As an empirical test, we asked students to rate personal ad-like vignettes. Holding all else equal, having a gender-nonconforming occupation reduced the attractiveness of both men and women.     

Location and competition in retail banking

We investigate the impact of banking deregulation during the 1990s on consumer welfare. We estimate a spatial model of consumer demand for retail bank deposits that explicitly accounts for consumer disutility from distance traveled. This is important given the substantial changes in banks' branch networks observed in the data. Our model indicates that cross-price elasticities between banks whose branches are close to consumers (‘close’ banks) are larger than those between ‘far’ banks and more than double the cross-price elasticity of ‘close’ banks with respect to ‘far’ banks. We distinguish between thrifts and other banks and find that within-thrift competitive effects are stronger than within-bank effects or those between thrifts and banks. We use our estimates to predict the effect of changes in market structure on consumer welfare following the branching deregulation of the Riegle–Neal Act of 1994. Our results indicate that the median household gained around $60 per year from the changes. Approximately two thirds of the gains come from within-market changes in market structure. The gains were greater in markets with high initial numbers of banks than elsewhere.     

Market dynamics and investment in the electricity sector

A transition to a low carbon future will include a medium-to-long run period in which intermittent renewables co-exist with conventional fossil fuel electricity generators. Fossil fuel generators have frequent startups and shut-downs during the transition. A dynamic competition model is developed that allows for costly cycling of conventional generators. We analyze long run effects of renewable subsidies and carbon prices in the Electric Reliability Council of Texas system using the dynamic model. Accounting for costly generator cycling leads to large changes in equilibrium outcomes and changes policy predictions. The dynamic model predicts higher subsidies or carbon taxes are required to achieve CO2 reduction targets compared to a static model without costly generator cycling. The dynamic model predicts the cost of CO2 reduction is 40 - 80% greater than the static model prediction. The dynamic model predicts a much larger gap between CO2 reduction costs for carbon taxes and renewable subsidies; $303 million/year, compared to a static model prediction of $209 million/year.     

Capital investment and employment in the information sector

Estimation of the employment effects of changes in capital investment is a standard tool in public policy debates. Typically, such predictions are based on employment multipliers derived from Input–Output analysis. In this paper, we measure the employment effects of changes in capital investment in the U.S. information sector by econometrically estimating an “employment multiplier” from historical data. The estimated multiplier is 10 information sector jobs for each million dollars in expenditure, and perhaps 24 new jobs per million dollars invested across the entire economy. Employment multipliers derived from the Input–Output methodology average about 16 jobs per million, but the multiplier includes jobs outside the information sector. Including employment spillovers, our estimates suggest the multipliers from Input–Output models are plausible. We also note that information sector jobs have substantially higher median earnings than the private sector average, so the economic significance of changes in information sector employment are greater than might first appear. Our findings may be useful in debates over changes in industry regulation that could affect investment.     

UK policy and the agro-food sector

The accession of the UK to the European Community (EC) in 1973 occurred during a period of economic and political change that might have been expected to exert a profound effect on the agro-food sector. This article examines the extent of the recent developments in this sector and considers the influence of policy on those developments. Some conclusions are drawn with regard to future policy.     

R&D projects in the science sector

The purpose of this research was to determine and analyse diversity in various features of R&D projects implemented in the science sector in Poland, financed mostly from public funds. More exactly, the following aspects of R&D projects implemented in the science sector in Poland were examined: the relation between the actually achieved and the initially set goal, the project management methodologies and project time management methods used, features of the project team, the relation between the plan and the actual project realisation and management difficulties encountered in practice. These aspects and their diversity were examined in the context of the whole country, of various fields of science and various research units implementing pure research (the ‘R’ area) or applied research and experimental development (the ‘D’ area). The research was conducted by means of survey methodology covering a sample of participants of R&D projects in the science sector in Poland. The results were analysed by means of statistical methods (which constitutes a clear novelty with respect to the existing literature on R&D projects) and statistically significant phenomena gave rise to several important conclusions on how R&D projects implemented in the science sector are managed and what their realisation looks like in various fields of science and various institutions, in a relatively new EU members state and a former communist country like Poland. These conclusions may be the basis for important hypotheses (which require further research) on the project management quality in the science sector in Poland and in similar countries, which is closely linked to the problem of public money allocation, its efficient spending and control. Also, practical suggestions on improvement measures in the science sector with respect to R&D projects, limited not only to countries like Poland, but of a more general nature, are formulated.     

Flex cars and competition in fuel retail markets

We study how the diffusion of flex (bi-fuel) cars affected competition on ethanol and gasoline retail markets. We propose a model of price competition in which the two fuels become closer substitutes as flex cars penetration grows. We use a large panel of weekly prices at the station level to show that fuel prices and margins have fallen in response to this change. This finding is evidence of market power in fuel retail and indicates that innovations that increase consumer choice benefit even those who choose not to adopt them.     

Quantifying the benefits of breaking bulk in retail operations

We explore the benefits of ‘breaking bulk’ in retail operations. Here, breaking bulk refers to delivering single units from distribution centers to retail outlets rather than the multiple units bundled together by manufacturers termed ‘case-packs’. The focus is largely on the benefits to space management at the retail level, rather than the more obvious reduction in inventory costs. Using data from the grocery industry, results indicate that retail unit profitability can be increased substantially by breaking bulk—but only if current inventory replenishment practices are changed. In essence, breaking bulk allows for either higher product variety within a store or identical variety in smaller stores. This work seeks to quantify the order of magnitude of that benefit.     

Tyre price dispersion across retail outlets in the UK

We investigate price dispersion in a retail market (car tyres) characterised by outlets each selling a range of products, some of which are manufactured by their owners. Consumers face substantial price dispersion across outlets even for very tightly defined products. We show that this price dispersion has systematic components relating to retailer-manufacturer interactions. One specific result is that chains owned by manufacturers sell other manufacturers' tyres on average nearly 20% more expensively than do independent stores and over 11% more expensively than their own equivalent branded product.     

Productive efficiency and firm exit in the food sector

This work examines the effects of productive efficiency on the survival of firms in the Greek food sector. Technical and scale efficiency scores are computed within a data envelopment analysis (DEA) framework and are used as explanatory variables in a parametric (Weibull) survival model. High technical efficiency increases the median survival time and lowers the hazard rate of exit. As the scale efficiency of a firm operating either at increasing or decreasing returns to scale approaches one (1), its theoretically maximum value, the expected median survival time, is maximized for all types of exits. Developments in biotechnology, the evolution of alternative food supply networks, innovations in the food sector and competition policy are likely to affect technical and scale efficiency of food manufacturing firms. Results unraveling the effects of technical and scale efficiency on the survival of firms in the food sector are of particular relevance to food policy makers.     

Gender and teleworking identities in the risk society: a research agenda

This paper discusses the potential implications of a risk society on identities due to alterations in work practices. The promise of 'flexibility' via at-home telework entails a renegotiation of the home–work boundary. This brings into play the gendered identities and roles attached to these different spheres of life. After deconstructing promises made on behalf of telework, we construct an alternative research agenda engaging with writings on changing work identities in the risk society where traditional sureties are called into question.     

Technology domains and manpower choice in the restaurant sector

Five principal technology domains are identified: 1: Technlogies that change the concept of time. 2: Technologies that change the flow of materials. 3: Technologies that change the geographical mobility. 4: Technologies that enhance planning, and 5: Technologies that shift processes to and from suppliers. All occupational groups in the restaurant sector are likely to be affected. Most technologies are found to enhance the deskilling of the staff, leaving empowerment opportunities for management levels only.