Deregulation without apology: A truncated survivor analysis of long-run efficiency gains in the U.S. trucking industry

Deregulation of the U.S. trucking industry is found to have promoted long-run technical efficiency among less-than-truckload carriers of general commodity freight. It did so by exposing all carriers to competition which caused the very largest group, hauling more than five billion ton-miles annually, to lose output share to smaller carrier groups. Their inability to survive in-full implies that efficiency gains were achieved by reducing the extent of operation under decreasing returns to scale. This conclusion conflicts with other recent findings that deregulation promoted long-run efficiency by creating new ways for all carriers, even the very largest, to achieve economies of scale. The discrepancy in conclusions is significant in that previous findings of continuous scale economies, post-deregulation, leave open the possibility of rising industry concentration with all due repercussions on consumer welfare. A more encouraging outlook emerges from the present survivor analysis which finds the minimum efficient size to be below one billion ton-miles annually. This finding strongly supports a prediction of vigorous competition in the future, at least for this one segment of the trucking industry.This study was funded by a Faculty Summer Research Grant from Villanova University. The author acknowledges and appreciates the Office of Research and Sponsored Projects at Villanova for its support.     

Changing network pictures: Evidence from mergers and acquisitions

A merger or acquisition may cause dramatic changes in a business network, which in turn affect managerial cognition as well as managerial activities. We use the concepts of ‘network pictures’ and ‘networking’ to illustrate and analyse changes in managerial sense-making and networking activities following a merger or acquisition. The paper focuses on acquiring, acquired or merging parties and those companies with which they have direct customer relationships. Based on three case studies comprising seven acquisitions and one merger, we show that following a merger or acquisition managers may need to adapt their previous network pictures in a radical way; these adaptations are, however, not always realized as shifts in network pictures and adjustments in networking activities by all the managers involved. Whereas the merging parties' network pictures and networking activities are largely driven by their perception of customers' needs and developments, it is not certain that the merger or acquisition is enacted accordingly. The paper contributes to a clearer view on the conceptual interdependence of the constructs of network pictures and networking in multi-actor situations and thus it develops a network perspective on mergers and acquisitions.     

Leveraging brand equity in business-to-business mergers and acquisitions

Every acquisition provokes a branding decision—should the acquirer absorb the acquired business by renaming it under its own name to convey to the market that ownership and the way of doing business has changed, or should it allow the acquired company to continue trading under its old name so as to avoid damage to its existing customer franchise? This is a complex management decision but one which apparently receives little attention. This paper draws on the B2B branding and M&A literatures to create a model of brand equity transfer. The model assumes that rebranding of an acquired company under the name of the new parent can yield positive benefits if the new parent has higher brand equity than the acquired company. A case study of an acquisition of a national construction materials company by a larger international group provides an illustration of the transfer process.     

Inventive efficiency: How the U.S. compares with Japan

This study argues that inventive (R&D) efficiency may be an important factor in the competition for global market shares and goods and services. The authors compare R&D efficiency for 14 industrial groups in the United States and Japan using multiple indices of inventive efficiency. Findings show interesting differences in inventive efficiency across industrial groups and between the United States and Japan. United States food, textile, chemical, rubber, metals, fabricated metals, and other miscellaneous manufacturing industries appear to be relatively more efficient in inventive efficiency than their Japanese counterparts. In contrast, Japanese paper, petroleum, machinery, and scientific equipment industries display greater inventive efficiency than their United States counterparts. The electrical equipment, transportation, and stone industries in the two countries appear to be equally efficient. The implications of these differences are discussed.     

Competition and Service Quality in the U.S. Airline Industry

The U.S. government, media, and flying public have expressedgreat concern in recent years over both airline market concentration and flightdelays. This study explores potential connections between the two by examining whetherthe lack of competition on a particular route results in worse on-time performance.Analysis of data from the U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics in 2000 indicatesthat both the prevalence and duration of flight delays are significantly greater onroutes where only one airline provides direct service. Additional competition iscorrelated with better on-time performance. Weather, congestion, and schedulingdecisions also contribute significantly to explaining flight delays.     

Survivors of industry shake-outs: The case of the U.S. color television set industry

In this article survivors and non-survivors of the ‘shake-out’ in the U.S. color television set industry are compared to determine how and along what dimensions these two classes of businesses differ. Two types of strategy variables are used in 18 hypotheses to probe similarities and differences at both the ‘corporate level’ and ‘business level’ of strategy. Significant differences are found, particularly at the business level. The findings are consistent with those of previous strategy research, but suggest that traditional wisdom regarding size, low costs and market share did not necessarily hold in this industry.     

The value of knowledge spillovers in the U.S. semiconductor industry

This paper aims at quantifying the economic value of knowledge spillovers by exploring information contained in patent citations. We estimate a market valuation equation of the U.S. semiconductor firms during the 1980s and 1990s, and find an average value of $0.6 to 1.2 million “R&D-equivalent” dollars for knowledge spillovers embodied in one patent citation. For an average semiconductor firm, such an estimate implies that the total value of knowledge spillovers the firm received during the sample period can be as high as half of its actual total R&D expenditures in the same period. This provides a direct measure of the economic value of social returns or externalities of relevant technological innovations. We also find that the value of knowledge spillovers declines as the size of firm's patent portfolio increases, and that self citations are more valuable than external citations, indicating a significant amount of tacit knowledge or know-how spillovers that occur within the firm.     

Testing for market power in the U.S. motor carrier industry

During the 1980's, researchers noted a trend towards increased concentration in the general freight, less-than-truckload (LTL) portion of the U.S. motor carrier industry. The purpose of this study is to employ new empirical industrial organization techniques to determine whether the more concentrated, post-1980, LTL industry exerted monopoly pricing behavior and to compare the nature of pricing behavior before and after regulation reform. The results suggest that the trend toward increased industry concentration does not imply anti-competitive performance. Also, the results indicate the presence of regulation-induced market power several years prior to regulation reform in 1980.     

美国的敏捷零售模式对中国服装零售业的借鉴

70年代末到80年代初美国服装业陷入了市场需求变幻不定;服装总体消费连续下降的困难境地,促使美国服装业建立了快速反应机制。与此同时,美国服装零售商也深刻认识到:在纺织这条长产业链上,建立快速反应机制不仅仅是制造商的事,零售业作为联结制造商与最终消费者的关键环节和服装产业价值链的末端,建立对市场变化快速有效的反应新机制更为重要。于是一种以现代信息技术为条件,以零售商与制造商之间新型的行业关系为基础的敏捷零售模式出现了。本文分析对比了美国传统服装零售与敏捷服装零售的特点,以期为中国服装零售的发展提供一些思路。     

The U.S. Motion Pictures Industry: An Empirical Approach

We hypothesize that the U.S. motion pictures industry is structured so that star presence increases box office receipts and (less so) admissions, but places Ricardian limits on the output of blockbusters. The few dominant studios (majors) rely on a modified star system to generate supra-normal box office by stimulating admissions at exhibitors. Rising costs (from stars and their promotion) are required for rising revenues; that is, the majors gain revenue only at higher costs. Although the industry has unique features, the empirical results are surprisingly relevant to other industries.     

The impact of firm cost and market size asymmetries on national mergers in a three-country model

This paper studies the impact of firm cost and market size asymmetries on merger decisions. I consider a model where a small and a large country compete in a third (world) market. Each of the two countries has two firms (with potentially different costs) that supply the domestic market and export to the third market. Merger decisions in the two countries are modeled as a simultaneously move game. The paper finds that firms in the large country have more incentives to merge than firms in the small country. In contrast, the government of the large country has more incentives to block a merger than the government of the small country. Thus, the model predicts that conflicts of interest between governments and firms concerning national mergers are more likely in large countries than in small ones.     

美国纺织工业的兼并浪潮

1998年是美国纺织工业企业兼并重组活动创纪录的一年,并且兼并的步伐似乎不会停止。面对强大的竞争压力,越来越多的公司选择合并或购并其它公司以努力改善其命运。本文透过1998年企业兼并活动,探讨推动     

Profitability, productivity and price recovery patterns in the U.S. telecommunications industry

We undertake a study where we examine changes in the profitability, productivity and price recovery of firms in the U.S. telecommunications industry over a sixteen-year period. We assess the performance of thirty-three major companies in the local-exchange sector over six time periods 1975, 1978, 1981, 1984, 1987 and 1990, using a performance analysis model which disaggregates the profitability measure into two components: productivity and price recovery. We demonstrate the computation of performance using this technique. Our study indicates that the opening up of markets has had a significant impact on different dimensions of performance in the telecommunications industry, also validating a number of theoretical assumptions about the impact that industry changes are expected to have on firms.     

Japanese/U.S. technological competitiveness and strategic alliances in the biotechnology industry

This paper analyzes the reasons for Japanese/U.S. collaborations in the biotechnology industry, and considers the question of whether such alliances pose a threat to the North American industry. Japan's technological competitiveness in biotechnology is examined in terms of its strengths and perceived weaknesses. Ways in which Japan is attempting to overcome these weaknesses are identified. As well, the strengths and weaknesses of the North American biotechnology industry are assessed. The paper concludes with recommendations for government and R&D managers on how to preserve U.S. competitiveness. R&D managers must keep abreast of their techno-global competitive environments. While organizations can enter into alliances to improve their competitiveness they must be aware of the dangers of collaboration, and to benefit from their alliances they must enhance their organizational learning. Organizations must be aware of the pitfalls of alliance formation, and any alliance must be viewed in its national context. Last, but not least, managers must be more effective in their management of the processes of technological innovation.     

Measuring Market Power in the U.S. Aluminum Industry: A Residual Demand Approach

This paper applies a refined market power test to examine market power in the U.S. aluminum industry. The study conducts a two-step analysis in which the inverse residual demand facing the industry is first estimated to generate the associate elasticity to infer market power, and then the inverse partial residual demand facing the industry is estimated to produce the elasticity to measure the potential effect of inter-industry coordination. The results suggest that only the primary industry attains market power, and the market power can exert even without collusion between the primary and secondary industries.     

Performance implications of delayed competitive responses: evidence from the U.S. retail industry

The timing of competitive actions and responses is a key management concern that has important performance consequences. This study focuses on the timing and consequences of competitive responses. Theory predicts a negative linear relationship between response delay and responder performance mirrored by an opposing positive linear relationship between response delay and first mover performance. In contrast, our study suggests that response delay has a curvilinear relationship with responder performance, and a linear relationship with first mover performance. We test our propositions using retail industry data and discuss the implications. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.