British export market selection and pricing

The existing literature favors key market concentration in exporting, but the results of a recent survey of industrial exporters in the north of England show that the key market argument is weak both on logical grounds and in empirical support. There is an alternative strategy—market spreading—supported by various company, product, market, and marketing factors. The need is for situational analysis, not general theories. This article also addresses the key issue of export pricing—the most highly rated marketing variable in exporting. It is seen that whereas many of the popular criticisms of exporters are apparently unfounded, there are some problems of policy consistency, particularly in responding to floating currencies. These are especially serious in view of the high emphasis placed on price competitiveness in exporting.     

A strategic approach to industrial product pricing: The pricing plan

Price planning is one of the most overlooked areas in industrial marketing. Traditionally, emphasis is placed on product development, advertising strategy, and distribution channel formation before any consideration is given to pricing. The result is that industrial pricing decisions are made quickly without the necessary market and cost factors included in the final decision. The pricing decision is at the core of every business plan and impacts directly on the critical components of a company's marketing strategy. In this article, the importance of price planning in industrial marketing is discussed including the major components needed to make an industrial pricing strategy successful.     

Factors facilitating and impeding the development of export market-oriented behavior: A study of Hong Kong manufacturing exporters

We test a model of the antecedents to market-oriented behavior in firms' export operations (i.e., export market-oriented [EMO] behavior). Using data from Hong Kong-based industrial manufacturing exporters, we explain 73% of the variance in EMO activity. Our findings confirm the importance of variables such as export coordination, export experience, and the export environment in determining EMO behavior levels. However, several hypotheses are refuted, contradicting previous research findings. For instance, in our sample, centralized decision-making generally is positively related to EMO activity—particularly under conditions of high environmental turbulence: this contradicts findings of studies in Western exporting businesses where centralization generally inhibits EMO behavior. Furthermore, unlike their Western counterparts, market-based reward and training systems and managers' export commitment and emphasis on market orientation do not predict EMO behavior. We suggest that these unexpected findings may be due to differences in culture between Asian and Western businesses.     

贸易自由化与企业内的产品质量调整

多产品出口企业是中国出口贸易的重要组成部分。在贸易自由化冲击下,该类企业如何调整其核心产品与非核心产品的生产,对于提升企业乃至整体产业的国际竞争力具有重要意义。本文在异质性企业模型基础上内生化产品质量构建理论模型,并使用中国工业企业数据和中国海关数据对模型进行实证检验。研究发现,中间产品进口关税的下降会促使多产品企业对出口产品的质量进行升级,从而提高出口产品定价,且企业的非核心产品质量提升的幅度相对更高,出口价格上升的幅度也更大,即中间品贸易自由化可以缩小多产品企业内的非核心产品和核心产品的质量和价格差距,从而优化企业内的资源配置。异质性分析发现,对于异质性商品而言,关税下降使企业出口产品质量和出口产品价格变化更大,而同质性产品的质量和价格变化则不明显。本文进行了一系列稳健性检验,结果均支持本文的基本结论。     

New product adoption and sales performance from the importer perspective

From an international business setting, this paper investigates how importers determine new product adoptions and how exporters diffuse new products to offshore markets through importers. Using the technology–environment–organization framework, we examine the effect of innovative characteristics of selected new products, importer-specific organizational capability, and exporter-specific environmental factors, on the adoption of new products by importers. Our sample included 585 new products from 152 local import firms nested in 34 foreign export firms. The results indicate that product meaningfulness, product superiority, and customer familiarity facilitate importer success in new product adoption. Importer host-market experience enhances new product adoption and moderates the relationship between adoption and sales performance. Exporter influence of market reputation in the host market and product-innovation capability is beneficial in promoting new products for enhanced sales performance. Instead of a single focus on new product adoption, we used a cross-level model to test the factors that foster new product adoption by importers.     

成都市金沙遗址博物馆对周边住宅价格影响分析

通过分析成都市金沙遗址博物馆周边一定区域内住宅到博物馆距离与住宅价格之间的关系,建立Hedonic模型,进一步研究影响城市住宅价格因素中旅游景区这一特征对住宅价格的影响。研究结果分为1)在影响住宅价格的因素中,显著性较强的是周边市政设施、物业费、建筑装修程度和到金沙遗址博物馆距离;2)成都市金沙遗址博物馆对城市住宅价格的影响可以用半对数模型表达式表示。进而得出结论:1)影响城市住宅价格因素中旅游景区特征对周边住宅价格的提升具有正作用;2)运用Hedonic模型可以有效地将旅游景区特征对住宅价格的影响作用进行量化;3)基于旅游景区的正向作用,国家应充分重视旅游房地产业。     

CEO championing of pricing,pricing capabilities and firm performance in industrial firms

CEOs uniquely shape activities within the firm. Among potential activities, pricing is unique: pricing has a direct and substantial effect on firm performance. In what may be the first quantitative study in industrial marketing polling exclusively CEOs globally we examine to which degree CEO championing of pricing influences pricing capabilities and firm performance. Our sample consists of 358 CEOs of industrial firms. Our results suggest that the level of championing of pricing by the CEO positively influences decision-making rationality, pricing capabilities, and collective mindfulness thereby leading to a significantly higher firm performance. This study also documents a relationship between decision making rationality and pricing capabilities (but not firm performance) thus suggesting that intuition in pricing decisions could drive firm performance.     

Barriers to real-time electricity pricing: Evidence from New Zealand

This paper studies the introduction of real-time electricity pricing in the New Zealand residential retail market to understand why its market share remained below 1.25%. We use rich panel data of all retail switches between 2014 and 2018 and an unexpected wholesale price spike to study adoption and attrition. Exploiting the staggered roll-out of real-time pricing in different locations we find that attrition decreases with experience. We also find that prospective adopters are present biased. The combination of these findings explains why adoption stalled and shows that wholesale price spikes pose a serious threat to widespread adoption of real-time pricing.     

论综合单价的合理准确确定

工程量清单计价模式在我国当前的工程项目中得到普遍应用，综合单价作为工程量清单计价的重要组成部分，如何准确合理确定综合单价成为投标人投标报价时需要解决的关键问题。文章主要研究分析了综合单价的具体构成，阐述了综合单价中所包含的风险因素，提出了综合单价所含风险量化分析的基本思想和方法，综合考虑了投标人可能采取的不平衡报价策略对综合单价的影响。这为投标人更加准确合理的确定综合单价提供了一定参考依据，从而有助于投标人总体报价水平的提高。     

广东、广西天然气价格形成机制改革试点方案剖析

2011年底,国家发展改革委发出通知,决定自2011年12月26日起,在广东省、广西自治区开展天然气价格形成机制改革试点(简称天然气定价试点方案).天然气定价通常包括成本加成法、市场净回值法以及成本加成与市场净回值混合定价三种方法,国家发改委推出的天然气定价试点方案采用的是市场净回值法.天然气定价试点方案在定价方法、价格与市场的关系、价格与供需关系等方面取得突破,同时在省级管网定价、区域价格、LNG销售等方面面临挑战.为了促进我国天然气价格形成机制的不断完善,建议:1)坚定不移地推进我国天然气价格形成机制的市场化进程;2)在定价公式中设置“天花板价”和“地板价”,即形成S型价格曲线;3)未来适时增加一个或者两个市场中心;4)适时考虑将非常规气纳入天然气价格形成机制中;5)2015年前全面实施新的价格机制,2015-2020年进一步完善天然气价格形成机制.     

Pricing strategy, quality signaling, and entry deterrence

I investigate a pricing strategy that is aimed at deterring entry by applying a two-period model of a durable-goods monopolist. There exists an incumbent that is of two types, that is, high and low quality types. They differ in terms of their R&D capabilities, and the incumbent's type is assumed to be unknown to an entrant. If the entrant decided to enter the market, Nash–Bertrand price competition ensues between the incumbent and the entrant. I show that not only limit pricing but also prestige pricing signals the incumbent's quality type, which serves to discourage entry. In the prestige pricing, the high-quality type sells the products at an intentionally higher price. I also show that although limit pricing is more desirable than prestige pricing from a social welfare viewpoint, the incumbent can still choose prestige pricing.     

Are pricing policies an impediment to the success of customer solutions?

In an era of declining pricing power and increased global competition, customized solutions appear to be an effective way to build competitive advantages without the debilitating effects of price competition. Solutions involve provision of an integrated combination of goods and services that are designed to meet a business customer's specific needs. Premium prices and higher margins can be extracted by solution providers, who now have considerable incentives to design and market innovative solutions for their customers. We examine the applicability of various pricing frameworks and pricing practices in the context of two industries — business process outsourcing and power generation equipments. Our interviews suggest that firms predominantly use traditional pricing strategies; new strategies for solution pricing are only emerging; and, successful firms are currently using hybrid pricing models. We find that the solutions that we observed among practitioners are not what theory would suggest as true solutions but what would be described by theory as bundled products. We also find that solutions are in the eye of the beholder, i.e., if customers can de-bundle offerings, they are not true solutions. We extend our findings to academic theory and to the practice of developing and pricing solutions.     

Target pricing: Demand-side versus supply-side approaches

The practice of target pricing has been a key factor in the success of Japanese manufacturers. In the more commonly known demand-side approach, the target price for the supplier equals the manufacturer's market price less a percent margin for the manufacturer but no cost-improvement expenses are shared. In the supply-side approach, cost-improvement expenses are shared and the target price equals the supplier's cost plus a percent margin for the supplier. Using a general oligopoly and Cournot duopoly models, we characterize the equilibrium and optimal policy for each approach under various conditions. We find that sharing cost-reduction expenses allows the manufacturer using the supply-side approach to attain competitive advantage in the form of increased market share and higher profit, particularly in industrial conditions where margins are thin and price sensitivities are high.     

International cattle ID and traceability: Competitive implications for the US

Global standards for animal identification and traceability are evolving rapidly. Major world animal health, trade, and food safety organizations have formally recognized the importance of, and actively promoted, animal identification and traceability system development. Advanced animal traceability systems have been deployed by major beef exporters and are increasingly being adopted by important beef importing countries. This study summarizes and compares animal identification systems across major export and import countries. Results reveal that the United States lags behind both major export and import countries in development and adoption of cattle identification and tracing systems. As such, the United States has placed itself in a vulnerable position relative to competing export countries with respect to demonstrated animal traceability. This status could adversely affect market access in the future for US beef exports.     

Monopoly Rents and Price Fixing in Betting Markets

Betting markets provide an ideal environment in which to examinemonopoly power due to the availability of detailed information on product pricing. In this paper we argue that the pricing strategies of companies in the U.K. betting industry are likely to be an important source of monopoly rents, particularly in the market for forecast bets. Pricing in these markets are shown to be explicitly coordinated. Further, price information is asymmetrically biased in favor of producers. We find evidence, based on U.K. data, that pricing of CSF bets is characterized by a significantly higher markup than pricing of single bets. Although this differential can in part be explained by the preferences of bettors, it is reasonable to attribute a significant part of the differential as being due to monopoly power.     

Export intensity,scope, and destinations: Evidence from Brazil

How do the three dimensions of geographic export diversification—namely, (1) export intensity, (2) export scope, and (3) export destinations—interact in determining firm performance? How does the export intensity–performance relationship change considering export scope and destinations? Drawing on institution-based and resource-based lenses, we argue that differences between home and destination country institutional environments are amplified by the scope or variety of export destinations. As firm resources nurtured in the home country may not fit an increasing number of different foreign institutional environments, the export intensity–firm performance relationship turns negative. Conversely, our panel data analysis suggests a positive relationship between export intensity and performance when exporters from an emerging economy increase their exports to a limited number of other emerging economies. Thus, our findings extend conventional wisdom on the export intensity–firm performance relationship and suggest that the international marketing strategy literature needs to simultaneously incorporate three dimensions (including export destinations) into the geographic export diversification construct.     

Developing a model of reciprocity in the importer-exporter relationship: The relative efficacy of economic versus social factors

This study develops and tests empirically a model of reciprocity in the importer-exporter relationship from an importer's perspective. A conceptual model with two distinct paths to reciprocity is proposed with a set of economic and social factors that influence an importer's reciprocity in its relationship with foreign exporters. The model is tested with a sample of 200 importers who have purchased industrial products from foreign exporters. The results indicate that reciprocity in the importer-exporter relationship is more heavily influenced by economic factors than by social factors. Theoretical and managerial implications of this study are discussed.     

Pricing Network Interconnection: Advantages Held by Integrated Telecom Carriers

A recurring telecommunications policy debate centers on whether incumbent, vertically integrated local exchange carriers have an incentive to discriminate in price against down-stage service rivals who interconnect to their network (a price squeeze). The concern is typically voiced in one of two claims: (1) there is an incentive for an incumbent to use a price squeeze when access prices are set above long-run incremental cost; or (2) prices set at that cost are preferred for interconnection because they eliminate incentives for a price squeeze. In principle, form (1) is generally true (Proposition 1), but form (2) is generally not (Proposition 2), The proof of these Propositions reveals why pricing access at long-run incremental cost coupled with appropriate price floors in the down-stage market does eliminate the incentive to squeeze.     

国际输配电价形成机制综述及对我国的启示

从最优输电定价原则出发,通过对一些主要西方国家和地区的输电电价结构和定价机制的介绍比较,提出对我国输配电定价机制和电价结构的设想。     

关于输配电价几个重要问题的探讨

我国电力企业将要由传统的垂直垄断的模式转变为网厂分开、竞价上网的模式。电网公司作为一个独立的经营实体分离开来,有着独立的收益需求。在市场运营过程中,通过输配电价取得收益就成了电网公司取得收益的主要手段。在输配电价的制订过程之中,管制方式、输配电成本、输电定价方法、价格水平及电网投资、输配电价价区、电网提供的辅助服务等六个问题十分重要。文中就这六个问题的解决作了一些有价值的探讨。