Sales demands on securities brokers

Measurement and prediction of salesmen's performance are perennial interests of marketing researchers [1, 5, 6]. The question of the criteria used to evaluate salesmen and the relationship between these criteria and the salesmen's career cycle, however, has yet to be systematically analyzed [4, 10]. The salesman's role includes several tasks, some of which impose conflicting demands upon him. This article explores the implications of conflicting demands on the performance of the role of a salesman, and considers their affect on his career path.     

China's wheat import programme

China is the world's largest foodgrain producer. It is also the world's major grain trader. China's participation in the world's grain market is unique because of its importance as both a grain importer and exporter, unlike other grain trading nations. This article considers the reasons for China's wheat import programme by following the controversy among Chinese academics, and attempts a more systematic appraisal by the application of regression analysis.     

THE ASSOCIATION BETWEEN THE USE OF SOPHISTICATED CAPITAL BUDGETING PRACTICES AND CORPORATE PERFORMANCE

Since the early 1950s, the academic community has tried lo convince corporate managers that there are sophisticated techniques that can improve the capital budgeting decision-making process. Over the years, many studies have documented a trend toward increasing business use of such sophisticated capital budgeting techniques. However, there is no clear evidence whether better performing companies are more likely to employ sophisticated capital budgeting processes than are lower performing companies. This study is an attempt to measure the relationship between capital budgeting sophistication and business performance. It advances upon earlier studies by utilizing a more comprehensive capital budgeting sophistication metric, incorporating industry-adjusted independent variables (firm size, risk, capital intensity, and degree of focus), and by focusing on United States corporations. The results are similar with those of earlier studies; there is no discernible relationship between capital budgeting sophistication and corporate performance.     

Duality Results for Discrete Capital Budgeting Models

The application of linear and non-linear programming duality theory to capital budgeting models had resulted in the identification of various properties of optimal solutions and has provided economic interpretations of the models. This paper illustrates that similar results may be obtained for discrete capital budgeting models by applying recent advances in duality theory for integer programming problems (1), (2), and (3).In addition, a dual solution method is developed that permits a degree of decentralization of a firm's capital budgeting decision.     

The information society in California: Social factors influencing its emergence

The authors identify three elements which will influence California's future. First, demographic shifts in the state's population have altered California's ethnic and cultural foundations. Second, the state educational system does not seem prepared to train larger numbers for information work, especially members of its growing ethnic population. Third, almost half the state's workforce is now employed in information-oriented work, whether in the industrial, service, or agricultural sectors. The authors demonstrate that the interaction of these elements has profound implications for California's development.     

A model of industrial satisfaction/complaining behavior

A model of the purchaser's satisfaction with supplier response to a formal buyer complaint is developed and tested. The authors answer two important questions: (1) what variables affect the purchasing agent's satisfaction with a supplier's response to a complaint? and (2) how can the supplier respond so as to keep that customer in the future?     

Effective selling approaches to buyers' objections

Approaches for responding to an industrial buyer's indecision and price objections were uncovered. When an industrial buyer refuses to make a purchase decision or objects to price, an effective salesperson will seek understanding of the buyer's indecision, consciously look for common underlying objections, address the buyer's specific concern, and establish a decision deadline for the buyer.     

Olive oil in the EC: Gift from the gods or Trojan Horse

The European Commission fears huge olive oil surpluses as a result of Spain's accession to the Community. It believes it can prevent this, at great cost, by increasing consumer aid for olive oil and adopting a protectionist policy towards other vegetable oils and fats. Thus, the burden would be shifted to consumers of other products and the outside world. Trade relations would suffer. The author considers that the Commission's analysis is unfounded and the Commission's remedies should be questioned. The author also points to possible budgetary savings in the Community's expenditure on olive oil.     

Has Europe missed the endgame of telecommunications policy?

The European Electronic Communications Code (EECC) is a major milestone in the EU's telecommunications policy. But is it such a step forward and are the technical and market developments such that the EECC is the endgame? An endgame would mean that sustainable competition is reached in all telecommunications markets. The current paper argues that the EECC's new policy goal of investment in very high capacity connectivity could actually lead to policies that end in sustainable infrastructure competition. The EECC's policies, however, are not courageous enough to reach this goal. This lack of courage also characterizes the EU's gatekeeper policies on call terminations and net neutrality. In both these areas an endgame with sustainable competition is possible.     

A policy for UK sugar supplies

A substantial shift in the balance of UK sugar supplies has taken place since entry into the European Economic Community (EEC) as a result of an increase in the production of domestic beet sugar, a fall in consumption, and a reduction in cane sugar imports. This shift in favour of beet sugar would have been greater had the domestic beet sugar industry been able to take full advantage of the increase in production quotas since 1975 under the Community's common sugar policy. A further increase in domestic beet sugar production might yet take place now that the Community's new sugar regulation, which was to have come into force in July 1980, has had to be deferred to 1981. The European Commission has proposed that under the new sugar regulation production quotas should be cut to reduce the size of the Community's structural sugar surplus. The UK government has issued a statement which welcomes the Commission's proposal to reduce the Community's sugar surplus but rejects any cuts in production quotas which would restrict the expansion of its own beet sugar industry.¹     

SAM — a baby with many faces

In the last issue of Food Policy, two articles appeared on the subject of the Mexican Food System, or the Sistema Alimenticio Mexicano (SAM). The first article by Frank Meissner¹ reviewed the background to SAM, the proposed strategies, intended targets, its funding and put forward a strong case for considering SAM as a constructive policy for alleviating Mexico's food and nutrition problems. However, Michael Redclift commented in his article that:² ‘There are three principal points to be made of Dr Meissner's article: its interpretation of Mexico's recent agrarian development is questionable; it does not distinguish between the analysis provided in the SAM documents and the policy measures to which they give rise; and, it glosses over serious problems of implementation, giving too little weight to the participatory element without which SAM is doomed to failure’. This rejoinder is Frank Meissner's response to Michael Redclift's comments.     

Telecommunications in China

Recently, a ten-man delegation of the United States' IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) visited the People's Republic of China, at the invitation of the Chinese Electronics Society. It was the first formal visit arranged under the auspices of these two organizations. The delegation represented wide-ranging interests in telecommunications, computer technology and engineering education. This report reflects one delegation member's observations in the field of telecommunications.     

A simulation model of R&D budgeting

Abstract
A simple simulation model is developed that allows the testing of alternative heuristic rules for R&D budgeting. Sales-dependent budgeting, all-you-can-afford budgeting, and budgeting tied to a target rate of product innovativeness are studied. It can be shown that the choice, of the budgeting rules as well as their parameters interact with market diffusion of new products as well as with R&D returns to scale. Thus, budgeting to achieve certain growth or profit objectives has to keep these interactions in mind.     

Satellite TV programming

The German TV viewer catches CBS news by satellite. The Italian farmer watches a dubbed British documentary on a Dorset farming community. Harrods' shoppers see Soviet sports on TV screens on offer in this London store. A Parisian opera lover tunes into a Vienna Opera production, brought to him live via broadcast satellite and his Left Bank flat's earth station. Many of Europe's viewers stimultaneously take in a Coca-Cola ad specially conceived for the international satellite market.     

A diagnostic study of sales managers' efficiency

The importance of the sales manager to industrial marketing organizations has long been recognized. Consequently, much attention has been directed to alternative approaches for evaluating his performance. Yet, effective evaluation requires being able to suggest approaches to improve one's performance. In order to recommend corrective actions and diagnose performance problems, an understanding of the operating environment is necessary. Little understanding exists, however, on how variables in the sales manager's environment are interrelated. The focus of this study is an empirical identification of the interrelationships of variables in the sales manager's environment. This approach leads to diagnostic models of the sales manager's role along three dimensions: (1) Over-all performance; (2) administrative responsibilities; and (3) personal selling. Data from one division of a large industrial chemical company are utilized in this investigation. Information was gathered from internal records and questionnaires to the sales managers. Significant empirical results are found along the three dimensions of the sales manager's job. The managerial implications of the findings are reviewed in depth.     

Market planning for government procurement

Marketing can be profitable to governments. As for all marketing efforts, a knowledge of what, when, and why the government customer buys is mandatory to corporate success. These can be learned by studying the customer's planning, programming, and budgeting activities. This article presents a schematic of the federal planning and budgeting system and recommends that the industrial marketer invest in an effort to determine the specific system for the government agency of interest.     

Developing and using a customer profile data bank

This article proposes the implementation of a customer profile system to aid the industrial marketer in: making daily sales decisions involving the firm's customers; the development of the vendor's “buyer mix”; and the production of marketing analysis reports used by the firm. The components of the customer profile are presented and the procedures by which these elements can be incorporated into the firm's decision making are explained. Working examples are also provided to reinforce the concepts. Unfortunately the names of the actual corporations had to be deleted or changed for reasons of confidentiality.     

The learning curve,demand growth,and market concentration

This paper explores the relationship among an industry's levels of learning, expected demand growth, and concentration. The analysis uses comparative statics and simulations to explain how the incentives associated with learning can result in a positive relationship between the industry's expected demand growth and its equilibrium level of concentration.     

Increased output in Yugoslavia

Yugoslavia's agriculture is an intriguing mixture of large-scale social sector enterprises and small-scale private farming. For a number of reasons, productivity in the social sector is much higher than in the private sector. The social sector employs only 10% of the country's workforce and yet produces a third of the food.