Regional aid for telecommunications in Europe: A force for economic development

This article reviews research work on telecommunications and economic development which can be applied to the problems faced in the less favoured regions of Europe. The authors draw on work carried out under the auspices of the Commission of the European Communities into the disadvantages these regions face in telecommunications supply and use, and the benefits which would accrue from investment. The priorities for regional aid and recommended actions for a European programme are also discussed. The authors conclude that the emphasis should be on the provision of advanced business services and the stimulation of demand for those services, in order to encourage economic growth. General network infrastructure digitalization should be left to PTTs to undertake as part of their normal investment programme.     

Multilevel governance and broadband infrastructure development: Evidence from Canada

This paper investigates the contributions of digital infrastructure policies of provincial governments in Canada to the development of broadband networks. Using measurements of broadband network speeds between 2007 and 2011, the paper analyzes potential causes for observed differences in network performance growth across the provinces, including geography, Internet use intensity, platform competition, and provincial broadband policies. The analysis suggests provincial policies that employed public sector procurement power to open access to essential facilities and channeled public investments in Internet backbone infrastructure were associated with the emergence of relatively high quality broadband networks. However, a weak essential facilities regime and regulatory barriers to entry at the national level limit the scope for decentralized policy solutions.     

Local exchange competition in early US network development: considerations for developing countries

This paper examines the claim that competition between the Bell system and independent telephone companies, and not AT&T's regulated monopoly, was responsible for the rapid growth in telephone penetration in the United States. A mathematical model is developed to test if competition contributed to network expansion, when alternative explanations such as diffusion and economic growth are also taken into account. The model is estimated with time series data on telephone penetration in the US from 1876 to 1982, using both Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) and Feasible Generalized Least Squares (FGLS). The results indicate that local exchange competition is indeed a significant influence on increase in telephone penetration, even in the early stages of network development. This has clear policy implications for the current transition to competition in developing countries.     

中国纸包装市场:在竞争和变革中求发展

英国人发明“瓦楞”已有百年历史；美国人发明“蜂窝”，也近半个世纪；中国人发明的“凹凸”才一年有余；这是我国现代纸包装的“三大门类”。由此派生出来的纸包装千姿百态：纸浆模塑、纸板桶、纸管、纸角、纸托盘、纸板家具、纸板玩具、纸板衬垫、纸餐具、纸杯、纸袋及纸芯等多和复合制品，，与纸包装相关的还有纸包装技术、设计、标准、制造等专业，加上众多派生产品，成为纸包装的支持群体。大宅门要重视，小户也不能小觑。中国纸包装市场必须在竞争和变革中求发展。[编者按]     

Managing Conflict in Software Development Teams: A Multilevel Analysis

For a new product development (NPD) organization, a little conflict can be a good thing. Healthy disagreements can push project team members or different functional groups in an organization to pursue more in-depth, insightful analysis. This type of creative tension can help to engender an environment that encourages innovation and thus keeps NPD efforts free from the business-as-usual doldrums. However, management must ensure that conflict remains on a healthy level. David H. Gobeli, Harold F. Koenig, and Iris Bechinger note that conflict must be managed not only to increase the satisfaction of project team members, but also to achieve strategic project success. To provide better understanding of the important issues in conflict management, they examine the effects of three conflict factors on software development project success: context, conflict intensity, and conflict management style. Using survey responses from 117 software professionals and managers, they develop a multi-level framework of success versus conflict for team-based, software development projects. Within this framework, they examine context, conflict intensity, and conflict management approaches at the team and organization levels. For the participants in this study, unresolved conflict has a strong, negative effect on overall software product success and customer satisfaction. Project team member satisfaction decreases substantially with higher intensity conflict at the organization level, and even more strongly at the project level. For the respondents to this study, the combined effects of conflict intensity and conflict management style on project success are significant, but they are not as great as the combined effects of such context variables as company goals, group dynamics, and management support. Two conflict management styles—confronting and give and take—have beneficial effects on success at the organization level for the firms in this study. Smoothing, withdrawal, and forcing all have negative effects, although only forcing has a statistically significant negative effect. In general terms, the results suggest that management should guard against frequent use of the dysfunctional management styles—withdrawal, smoothing, and forcing. The results suggest that emphasis on confrontation—that is, true problem solving—is essential at the project level, even if a give-and-take style is better tolerated at the organization level.     

住宅建设项目可持续发展的多层次灰色评价模型

基于可持续发展的视角建立了我国住宅建设项目综合评价的指标体系,该指标体系涵盖经济、环境、社会、项目技术及管理等4个方面.以所建立的指标体系为依托,利用多层次灰色评价法构建了综合评价模型,并用一个实例对评价模型进行了验证.结果显示,所建立的评价指标体系是合理的,所构建的多层次灰色评价模型在住宅建设项目可持续发展评价方面,具有较好的可行性和实用性.     

Compensation Policy and Quit Rates: A Multilevel Approach Using Benchmarking Data

Using unique linked employee–employer benchmarking data, the paper estimates the impact of compensation policy on quit rates using multilevel models. The analysis examines several aspects of an organization’s compensation policy with a focus on the effect of pay dispersion between employees at the same level in the firm hierarchy, as well as pay dispersion throughout the hierarchy. Overall, the results indicate that firms with egalitarian pay structures have lower quit rates, a finding that is robust to a large set of empirical specifications.     

The influence of competition from informal firms on new product development

Research summary : Existing research describes a broad range of determinants of new product development (NPD), a fundamental competitive activity of firms. A considerable share of this work has occurred in the context of developed economies, raising a concern that some important determinants may remain unexamined. We suggest that one such determinant is competition from informal (unregistered) firms. Drawing from the attention‐based view, we investigate the effects of informal competition on NPD in a large sample of firms located across Eastern Europe and Central Asia. We examine not only the direct effect but also how this effect is moderated by characteristics of the competitive and institutional context. Managerial summary : The purpose of this research is to examine the relationship between competition from informal (unregistered) firms and new product development (NPD) by formal firms. We argue that NPD is an effective response to differentiate from informal firms, and our analyses of over 9,000 firms located in emerging economies across Eastern Europe and Central Asia indicate that NPD activities are more likely in formal firms who rate informal competition as a greater obstacle. The strength of this direct relationship depends on aspects of the competitive and institutional environment: it is weakened when levels of competition from other formal firms are higher, when alternative responses such as corruption are more available, and when managers are more optimistic about the regulatory environment. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Understanding sales force automation outcomes: A managerial perspective

Despite the growing importance and potential of sales force automation (SFA), failure rates for SFA implementations have been reported to be as high as 55-80%. Given the growth of SFA programs, the potential effectiveness and efficiency SFA can bring to the sales force, and the magnitude of SFA failures, it is surprising that relatively few studies have addressed this important and timely topic. Many of the early studies have focused on the adoption and diffusion/infusion of SFA programs from an information technology perspective. The results of these studies have been inconclusive in explaining SFA implementation failures. The purpose of this study is to add to our understanding of SFA failures by investigating a broader set of implementation factors than those typically included in acceptance of technology studies. We conducted in-depth personal interviews with executives from three global organizations who were responsible for SFA initiatives in their firm. Results from the in-depth analyses yield recommendations and a proposed model to assist managers in the implementation of their SFA as well as getting their salespeople to “buy-in” to the SFA, and ultimately reduce SFA failures.     

Broadband business by utilities infrastructure exploitation: A multistage competition model

A promising broadband business opportunity is the exploitation of the physical resources owned by municipalities and utility-based firms. In this study, the new broadband business opportunities owned by these authorities are analyzed through the development of a decision analysis model. The proposed model analyzes the broadband business into stages, integrates real options and game theory and provides business equilibrium in terms of the time of entry in the market, quantity offer and price definition. Finally, a real world case study is discussed showing how the model can be applied.     

Divestiture requirements as a tool for competition policy: A case from the Swedish beer market

We investigate the effect of divestitures on prices and welfare following the Carlsberg–Pripps merger in the Swedish beer market. Both difference-in-difference estimation and simulations using a random coefficients logit model suggest that divestitures are important for dampening price increases. Prices of divested brands fall by around 3% and the predicted price increase for Carlsberg falls from 3 to 1.6% as a result of the divestitures. To guide practice on divestitures, we investigate the role of the recipient and the number and characteristics of the divested products by simulating post-merger outcomes for all relevant cases. We find that in this setting with large multiproduct firms, the competition authority's most effective means to dampen adverse post-merger outcomes are to aim for a small recipient firm and attain a large number of divested products. Enforcing larger divestitures in terms of market share and raising the average cross-price elasticity between the merging parties' divested and retained products strengthen the dampening effect further.     

Local competition for telephone services

A policy discussion and overview of the development and scope of local exchange competition in U.S. Telecommunications markets is presented. The primary focus is on access and cable competition. In the future, we will see policies which encourage cable to enter telephone services, telephone companies to develop a video dialtone, and transportation networks which allow interexchange carriers to bypass the access charges of the local network. Regulatory policy needs to manage these competitive changes so that there is parity between the various service providers.     

Unbundling and infrastructure competition for broadband adoption: Implications for NGA regulation

The common idea of open access policy is that it refers to the sharing of particular elements, such as wholesale access networks, backhaul, under-sea cable and internet exchange points in fixed and mobile networks. In broadband networks, the use of open access policy usually refers to the infrastructure parts, which are considered a bottleneck. Many regulators have generally focused open access policy on fixed broadband networks, especially digital subscriber line (DSL) technology, in the last decade. Local loop unbundling (LLU) regulation is one of the main strategies for the regulator to open access to an incumbent’s bottleneck network in order to soften its monopoly power and encourage competition in the DSL broadband market. The OECD countries have different strategies regarding unbundling local loop and infrastructure competition, as the characteristics and infrastructure networks of countries vary. There are currently more choices of next generation network (NGN) technologies to develop. While local loop unbundling may not be applied fully to NGN development (the cost is not sunk, more technologies are available to implement, incentive of investment by operator), it can indicate benefits and drawbacks of open access policy in the past decade that can be adapted to NGN.The empirical results of this study show that during 2002–2008, LLU regulation was one of the strategies used to increase broadband adoption in countries that had difficulty encouraging infrastructure competition. Unbundling regulation can therefore be implemented carefully and differently in each country that has inefficiency that is harmful to consumers in its market from a monopoly incumbent. Infrastructure competition, on the other hand, is introduced as another strategy to increase broadband adoption. The empirical results of this study indicate that infrastructure competition can be used as a strategy when there are already enough infrastructures in the area or country. These results support the idea of using open access and infrastructure competition policy depending on the existing competition of broadband infrastructure in each country.     

以科学的发展观 推进建设具有国际竞争力的大集团

山西焦煤集团是我国煤炭行业第一家以资产为纽带实行紧密型母子公司体制的大集团。大集团的组建为企业带来了什么？从山西焦煤集团三年来的运行可以找到答案。     

Telecommunications infrastructure competition in Greece: Potential scenarios for future debates

In the light of the forthcoming liberalization in the provision of public voice telephony services and infrastructure in the European Union (EU), particular concerns have been expressed with regard to the realization of these competition principles in the less favoured regions. This article discusses the case of Greece, the country which has traditionally lagged behind other member states in both network infrastructure and institutional reorganization of the sector. Evidence from documentary and interview-based research shows that, although little progress has been made in liberalization policy and practice, underlying trends expressed by domestic and foreign actors could lead to a situation where signs of infrastructure competition may appear.     

Korean telecom policy in global competition: implications for developing countries

United States efforts to open the Korean telecommunications market have been incessant and tenacious, to the extent that Korea is the only country to be twice designated by the US as a priority foreign country (PFC). Through major restructuring driven by the Korean government, the telecommunications infrastructure of Korea has been strengthened and expanded, and in the process has posed a threat to the US telecommunications industry. Thus, since the late 1980s, the Korean telecommunications industry has been monitored and threatened with trade sanctions by the United States Trade Representative, and all internal restructuring has been closely related to bilateral negotiations with the US, and multilateral negotiations in the Uruguay Round. Based on interviews with key Korean telecommunications personnel and analyses of public documents, this research examines the Korean telecommunications market, telecommunications policies relative to the US and WTO, and the recent economic crisis that has affected the stability of the industry. The paper also offers five major recommendations to government and industry policymakers, including a more active and positive stance toward liberalisation, the relinquishing by bureaucrats of their monopolistic power over policymaking, the securing of an open and transparent policymaking process, and, in relations with the US, and the mobilisation of regional and multilateral organisations to ensure fair competition in telecommunications.     

A note on price cap regulation and competition

This paper examines the properties of a price-cap regulatory regime similar in design to a plan recently proposed by AGT Ltd. in hearings on Alternative Forms of Regulation before the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission. The price-cap plan incorporates a number of novel features which include (i) quantity weights that evolve through time rather than remaining fixed; (ii) adjustments for productivity that incorporate yardstick competition; and (iii) allowing the weights to reflect the firm's market power or absence thereof in the presence of competition. Hence, should competitive circumstances permit, the regulatory regime allows for its own sunset.