Integrating service and design: the influences of organizational and communication factors on relative product and service characteristics

The aim of this study is to identify the organizational and communication antecedents, and evaluate the consequences on relative product and service characteristics, of the use of service-sourced information by product designers during new product development. An empirical study of 121 product design managers demonstrates that a firm’s market orientation is improved by a healthy working relationship between product designers and service employees. Such a relationship motivates designers to use service-sourced information disseminated to them, enhancing both product and service characteristics of the new offering. The authors discuss how communication channels and information content affect the information use of product designers. Product designers value written information most. Information use does not relate to the frequency of receiving verbal or electronic information. Information about product ergonomics positively influences product designers’ perceptions of the information, whereas information on product aesthetics negatively influences their perceptions.

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The market value impact of indirect ties within technology alliances

Researchers have typically studied the relationship between technology alliances and market value from a direct tie or dyadic perspective. Yet any given technology alliance is typically embedded in a network of indirect ties created by the alliance partners’ relationships with other firms. We argue that whether an indirect tie enhances or detracts from the market value a firm creates in a technology alliance depends upon factors related to inter-firm competencies at both an alliance- and partner-level of analysis. Empirical analysis of abnormal stock returns reveals support for the hypothesized contingent relationship between indirect ties and value creation within technology alliances. Theoretically, the paper clarifies opposing perspectives in the literature regarding the performance implications of indirect ties and identifies market value as a hitherto unrecognized effect associated with this type of tie. Managerially, the findings improve marketers’ ability to leverage the complex interactions that occur between technology alliances in a value-creating manner.

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Institutional changes, wars and stock market risk in an emerging economy: evidence from the Israeli stock exchange, 1945–1960

In an effort to understand the determinants of economic growth in an emerging economy, we analyze the effects of institutional reforms, wars and political events on the risk level of the Israeli stock market between 1945 and 1960. We find that the anticipation of wars did not have any effect but the end of skirmishes actually raised the risk on the stock market. Domestic political instability also increased the stock market risk. Finally we find that most legal reforms did not matter much.

Understanding West German economic growth in the 1950s

We evaluate explanations for why Germany grew so quickly in the 1950s. The recent literature has emphasized convergence, structural change and institutional shake-up while minimizing the importance of the postwar shock. We show that this shock and its consequences were more important than neoclassical convergence and structural change in explaining the rapid growth of the West German economy in the 1950s. We find little support for the hypothesis of institutional shakeup. This suggests a different interpretation of post-World War II German economic growth than features in much of the literature.

Quantifying the relative importance of export industries in a small open economy during the great depression of the 1930s: an input–output approach

This paper provides a quantification of the relative importance of export industries in a small open economy using new data provided by input–output tables describing the Finnish economy in 1928. The Finnish analysis of the Great Depression of the 1930s has been particularly focused on the importance of foreign trade. Despite the lack of quantified evidence, it is commonly accepted that the export industries had a major role in the economic development. The basic input–output framework is extended into a production–consumption model to produce a more elaborate model that provides a quantification of changes in final demand of some key industries in the economy. Results suggest that even though the role of export industries was dominant, domestic market industries and private consumption also had a significant role in the depression.

Marketing with integrity: ethics and the service-dominant logic for marketing

This paper examines a tendency within existing marketing scholarship to compartmentalize ethical issues. It also shows how this tendency can cause ethical tensions and conflicts in marketing practice. The emerging service-dominant (S-D) logic for marketing, as proposed by Vargo and Lusch, is explored as an example of an approach to marketing that overcomes this tendency. The S-D logic is found to be a positive development for marketing ethics because it facilitates the seamless integration of ethical accountability into marketing decision-making. Specific recommendations are made for improving the ethical climate in marketing using marketing performance measurement theory and practice.

Financial market reactions to the overthrow and annexation of the Hawaiian Kingdom: evidence from London, Honolulu and New York

This paper investigates how financial market participants reacted to the US annexation of Hawaii in 1898 as well as prior events like the overthrow of the monarchy in 1893 and US tariff moves affecting Hawaii's sugar industry. The empirical work covers the trading of the Kingdom of Hawaii's major 1886 loan in both London and Honolulu as well as sugar company stock price reactions to annexation. The economic implications of US tariff policy moves, and the unfettered US market access promised by annexation, may well explain the continued uptrend in debt prices after the overthrow.

Assessing response styles across modes of data collection

Cross-mode surveys are on the rise. The current study compares levels of response styles across three modes of data collection: paper-and-pencil questionnaires, telephone interviews, and online questionnaires. The authors make the comparison in terms of acquiescence, disacquiescence, and extreme and midpoint response styles. To do this, they propose a new method, namely, the representative indicators response style means and covariance structure (RIRSMACS) method. This method contributes to the literature in important ways. First, it offers a simultaneous operationalization of multiple response styles. The model accounts for dependencies among response style indicators due to their reliance on common item sets. Second, it accounts for random error in the response style measures. As a consequence, random error in response style measures is not passed on to corrected measures. The method can detect and correct cross-mode response style differences in cases where measurement invariance testing and multitrait multimethod designs are inadequate. The authors demonstrate and discuss the practical and theoretical advantages of the RIRSMACS approach over traditional methods. Electronic supplementary material  The online version of this article (doi:) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

The effect of superstitious beliefs on performance expectations

We explore superstitious beliefs as a basis of product performance expectations and their impact on initial purchase likelihood and subsequent satisfaction. In doing so, we demonstrate instances when superstition-driven expectations cause consumers to make purchase decisions that run counter to economic rationality. In the first set of studies we find that Taiwanese consumers are relatively more likely to purchase a product with positive superstitious associations based on its “lucky” color, and are more likely to purchase and are willing to pay more money for a product with a smaller but “lucky” number of units contained in the package (e.g., eight tennis balls compared to ten). In contrast, consumers who do not hold such superstitious beliefs adhere to the more rational choice paradigm. Next, we show that the differences in purchase likelihood are driven by superstition-based performance expectations. We further generalize these findings to product satisfaction, and find support for expectation disconfirmation sensitivity as a moderator of the effect.

The effects of mid-career military enlistment on civilian career prospects: evidence from the Australian banking industry during World War II

This paper uses personnel records of employees from an Australian bank to analyse the labour market consequences of career interruptions due to voluntary military service during the Second World War. The records contain the employees’ career position and pay histories, and pre-war outcomes are used to control for selection bias caused by non-random enlistment. It is shown that, despite losing human capital during the War, upon their return veterans did not face a wage penalty relative to non-volunteers. Finally, evidence from non-wage outcomes suggests that the absence of a wage penalty was a form of positive discrimination by the Bank.

Panic in the plains: agricultural markets and the panic of 1893

Nearly every previous study of the 1893 bank panic acknowledges its regional concentration in the Western states yet few provide any in-depth study of what caused such a distinct regional pattern. Here, I recast the 1893 crisis as having its origins in agricultural markets and then spreading to Western banks that were highly exposed to agricultural shocks. Negative shocks to agricultural yields and the relative importance of the wheat crop for specific states emerge as important explanations for the regional pattern of bank closures and thus for the panic itself.

The effect of market orientation and its components on innovation consequences: a meta-analysis

While there is a rich body of research on market orientation’s effect on business performance, much little attention has been given to its effect on innovation consequences. This is the first meta-analytic effort to study the independent effects of market orientation components (customer orientation, competitor orientation, interfunctional coordination) on innovation consequences. Also, it is the first meta-analysis to study the impact of contextual characteristics on the way market orientation affects innovation consequences. The study finds that market orientation components positively affect innovation consequences but that competitor orientation’s effect depends on a minimum level of customer orientation. The study also suggests that the relationship between market orientation and innovation consequences is stronger in highly competitive environments but weaker in technology turbulent ones. Finally, findings suggest that the relationship is stronger in large firms, service companies, and in countries characterized by high individualism and high power distance national cultures.

The Laspeyres-Paradox: tax overshifting in nineteenth century Prussia

Following the seminal work of the late nineteenth century economist Etienne Laspeyres I analyse the incidence of the Prussian milling and slaughter tax shortly before its repeal in 1875. A comparison of flour prices in cities which levied this tax with those that did not reveals unusually strong tax overshifting. Modern theories explain overshifting of a specific tax with quality improvements or imperfect competition. In pursuing these ideas I find that it was rather large surplus costs induced by tax collection and monitoring that caused unusually large excess burdens. The reason why the tax remained basically unchanged for more than half a century is that the urban bourgeoisie successfully prevented its repeal, as the alternative would have been the introduction of municipal direct taxes (rent-seeking behaviour).

The quest for a fiscal rule: Italy, 1861–1998

The Italian fiscal history is characterised by a number of fiscal consolidations. In this study, we characterise fiscal policy in terms of non-linear deterministic processes. We find that government spending and taxes can be described as being non-linear trend stationary processes instead of unit roots. A long run equilibrium relationship—a non-linear co-trend—does exist between the two series, fulfilling the intertemporal government budget constraint. We interpret this result as evidence of a long run fiscal rule that different policy makers have adopted, putting public finance in balance.

The moderating role of institutional networking in the customer orientation–trust/commitment–performance causal chain in China

This study uncovers the ignored role of institutional environment for marketing strategy and customer relationship management. Hypothesis tests in a sample of Chinese firms find support that channel networking strengthens the customer orientation–customer trust/commitment–firm performance (CTP) causal chain. In addition, the results show that government networking moderates this chain in a non-linear fashion. The CTP linkages are most salient when the firm develops a moderate level, rather than a high or low level of networking ties with government agencies.

The Crash of 1882 and the Bailout of the Paris Bourse

The crash of the French stock market in 1882 presented the Paris Bourse with its worst crisis of the nineteenth century. Its structure was similar in key respects to today’s futures markets, with a dominant forward market leading the Bourse to adopt a common fund to guarantee transactions and liquidity. While this mutualization of risk protects clients and brokers from idiosyncratic shocks, it is generally assumed that it also provides considerable protection against systemic shocks, as no twentieth century exchange has been forced to shut down. Using new archival data, this paper shows how a stock market crash overwhelmed the Bourse’s common fund. Only an emergency loan from the Bank of France, intermediated by the largest banks, prevented a closure of the Bourse.

Modelling trends and cycles in economic time series: historical perspective and future developments

This paper provides a retrospective on the modelling of trends and cycles in economic time series and considers where the research agenda currently stands and where future developments might lie. A brief survey of the early empirical research on trends and cycles is first provided before attention is focused on four papers published in 1961—our ‘annus mirabilis’ of trend and cycle modelling—which we argue have been ‘prime movers’ in various aspects of research in this area. The links from these papers to current research issues are then teased out before the likely future directions of research in both theoretical and applied aspects of the modelling of trends and cycles are considered.

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.

On the road to industrialization: nutritional status in Saxony, 1690–1850

Saxony was one of the pioneer regions in the German modern economic growth. We analyze the Saxon nutritional status to infer the effects of early industrialization on the population standard of living. We find that the nutritional status in the eighteenth century was relatively high and heights fluctuated mainly because of wars. From the 1770s the average nutritional status declined steadily, with the exception of the Napoleonic period, until the mid of the nineteenth century. The decline, particularly accentuated after 1815, is related to the high share of urbanization, the increase in the relative price of food, and the strong dependence on food imports.

Product intelligence: its conceptualization,measurement and impact on consumer satisfaction

In the last decade, companies have developed a large number of intelligent products. Due to the use of information technology, these products operate somewhat autonomously, cooperate with other products, or adapt to changing circumstances. Based on a literature review and interviews with practitioners, the present article conceptualizes product intelligence and describes a procedure to measure the construct. The article also explores the link of product intelligence to consumer satisfaction through the innovation attributes of relative advantage, compatibility, and complexity. The article considers practical and theoretical implications and identifies future research directions.