Profits and perils in the antiques and collectibles market: the influence of product knowledge structures on dealer exchange outcomes

The secondary market for antiques and collectibles represents a disorganized market channel characterized by competition for supply of rare goods and retail sales arising from non-traditional channels, loose ties among channel members, and largely unregulated transactions between buyers and sellers. This study explores how knowledge structures affect dealers' abilities to turn a profit in the antiques and collectibles market. Data were obtained from in-depth interviews with eight professional antiques and collectibles dealers operating in different regions of the United States. Findings indicate that while information is widespread, its credibility can be difficult to assess without some degree of product and market knowledge. Furthermore, the findings show knowledge plays a critical and somewhat differential role in the ability of professional dealers to turn a profit. Knowledge asymmetries that create favorable conditions for profits when dealers hold the balance of informational power in the upstream acquisition of antiques and collectibles ironically reduce dealers' ability to earn profits in downstream resale of these goods. Findings support a multidimensional view of knowledge as a broader concept, based on information and product and market expertise, but deepened by experiences that lead to tacit knowledge, which can be difficult to transmit.     

中美经贸摩擦如何影响了大豆进口——基于贸易转移与创造效应视角

中美经贸摩擦背景下,中国对美国大豆进行反制,加征25%关税,那么,中国对美豆加征关税,会对中国大豆来源布局和产业产生怎样影响。文章利用寡头竞争理论,使用2002年1月~2020年3月中国海关数据,利用进口需求模型(AIDS),分析了加征关税对农产品贸易可能发生的贸易损害、贸易转移和贸易创造效应。实证结果表明,中国对美国大豆并不存在刚性依赖,对美加征关税将发生显著贸易转移效应和创造效应。即对美关税每增加1%,将会导致其对中国大豆出口下降1.29%,对巴西大豆进口上涨0.67%,对阿根廷大豆进口上涨0.66%,对其他国家进口上涨1.03%。中国市场增长和加征关税,将会造成国际大豆贸易创造效应,并激发非传统国家进入大豆贸易市场。     

Globalization and the U.S.Defense Industrial Base: The Competition for a New Aerial Refueling Tanker

The growth in the global economy and the trend toward outsourcing have given rise to concerns over the composition and strength of the U.S. industrial base and the degree of U.S. dependence on other countries for certain goods. The purpose of this article is to examine the concerns surrounding the alleged inroads of foreign manufacturers into the U.S. defense industrial base, as well as the background behind the concerns, with a specific focus on the recent competition over what may be one of the largest defense contracts in U.S. history to supply the United States Air Force with a new fleet of aerial refueling tankers. The article discusses the importance of imports and national defense spending in the U.S. economy, explores the dependence (or lack thereof) of the United States on foreign imports in the defense sector, explores strategies that have previously been deployed to reduce the role of foreign manufacturers in the U.S. defense industrial base, and examines in detail the recent tanker competition. The article argues that this competition required the deployment of innovative strategies on the part of the incumbent in the industry (Boeing) and the potential entrant (Northrop/EADS) in order to balance conflicting economic, political, and military procurement objectives.     

Duopoly Pricing Under ‘Private Knowledge’ of Product Differentiation

This note studies price decisions in a duopoly industry where firms have private information over the degree of product differentiation (product-type). A Bayesian-Nash price solution is derived assuming firms maximize their ??certainty-equivalent?? profit levels. The comparative-statics indicate that increased risk aversion over the rival??s product triggers price competition. Consequently, the results of the study suggest revealing information is a higher reward strategy than concealing information in situations where rivals have asymmetric information over product type. These findings contribute to the industrial economic literature by generalizing the Bertrand equilibrium in an asymmetric information game model.     

An Empirical Study of Business-to-Business Electronic Marketplace Usage: The Impact of Buyers' E-Readiness

This study addresses critical questions regarding the extent of business-to-business electronic marketplace usage for purchasing, and the degree and impact of buyers' e-readiness on the range of electronic marketplace usage. The data from a Web-based survey of 359 purchasing professionals in the United States suggests that buyers with more experience in using information technology, the Internet to facilitate purchasing, and information systems for enhancing supply chain management would more likely use electronic marketplaces for purchasing. This study has significant theoretical implications because it confirms the important role of e-readiness in the electronic marketplace usage model. The practical implications of this study are also discussed.     

Reinforcing Lessons for Business from the Marketing Revolution in U.S. Presidential Politics: A Strategic Triad

The role of marketing in presidential politics in the United States has introduced lessons for marketing executives on how to more effectively build up brand loyalty and fend off competition. The same technological breakthroughs in marketing that have powered corporate America were used by the Obama presidential campaigns in both 2008 and 2012 to microtarget potential donors and voters, carry out massive fund‐raising campaigns, and energize a base of citizens through newly minted movements at a level of sophistication not witnessed previously in other sectors. The same techniques continued to be used in the 2016 presidential campaign, and the paradigm shift in marketing put forward in this article is represented with the introduction of a Strategic Triad that integrates the use of Big Data, microtargeting, and social media by organizations in the political, for‐profit, and nonprofit sectors.     

Reconciling culturalist and rationalist approaches: leadership in the United States and Turkey

This article empirically investigated the invariance and discriminant validity of a six-factor leadership model across two very divergent cultures: the United States and Turkey. In conjunction with the rationalist approach to international management, it was hypothesized that the same range of six leadership styles would appear in both cultures. However, coinciding with the culturalist approach to international management, it was also hypothesized that managers would emphasize different styles in each culture. Turkish and US managers each completed the Leadership Effectiveness Questionnaire measuring degree of emphasis placed on six leadership styles. Results of the test of model invariance indicated that the six styles existed in both cultures; however, discriminant analysis demonstrated that the Autocratic and Consensus styles differentiated managers best. Turkish managers emphasized the Autocratic style to a greater extent and the Consensus style to a lesser extent than did US managers. Implications for international management are discussed. ©1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Competition and the cost of liquidity to investors

The Congressional mandate to develop competitive securities markets in the United States has focused attention on the cost of liquidity to investors. Prior studies have emphasized the impact of external competition in the form of competing markets and/ or competing dealers on the bid-ask spread of the dealer. However, the spread of the specialist (dealer) on the NYSE may or may not be observable because of the interaction between public limit orders and the specialist's quotes. Our study develops a model of this interaction, and empirically verifies that internal competition in the form of limit orders has an important impact on the cost of liquidity to investors.     

中国发电行业有效竞争状况实证分析

本文采用ISCP分析框架对发电行业的竞争活力进行分析,发现电力体制改革后发电市场集中度大大降低,但发电行业仍处于高度管制状态,垄断现象依然存在,竞争活力不足;对31家发电上市企业的实证分析后发现,大型发电集团由于产能扩张呈现规模报酬递减趋势,多数发电企业是规模不经济的。     

International Linkages among Stock Markets of Malaysia and Its Major Trading Partners

This study empirically examines the short- and long-run dynamic causal linkages between Malaysia and its major trading partners (the United States, Japan, Singapore, China, and Thailand) based on a two-step estimation, Autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) and Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) during the period 1992–2008. The study documents that the stronger the trade ties among the countries, the higher the degree of comovements among their stock markets. The Japanese stock market, to some extent, is found to be more important than the United States over these markets. In designing stock market policies, each country should take into consideration of any shocks in its major trading partners.     

Computational Analysis of the US FTAs with Central America,Australia and Morocco

We use the Michigan Model of World Production and Trade to assess the economic effects of the US bilateral FTAs negotiated with Central America, Australia and Morocco. The model covers 18 economic sectors in each of 22 countries/regions and is based on version 5.4 of the GTAP database for 1997 together with specially constructed estimates of services barriers and other data on sectoral employment and numbers of firms. The distinguishing feature of the model is that it incorporates imperfect competition in the manufacturing and services sectors, including monopolistic competition, increasing returns and product variety. The modelling focus is on the effects of the bilateral removal of tariffs on agriculture and manufactures and services barriers. Rules of origin and other restrictive measures and the non‐trade aspects of the FTAs are not taken into account due to data constraints. The computational results indicate that the benefits of bilateral FTAs for the United States and partner countries are rather small in both absolute and relative terms, and that far greater benefits could be realised if the United States and its FTA partners adopted unilateral free trade and especially if multilateral free trade was adopted by all countries/regions in the global trading system.     

Integrating Ethical Issues with Managerial Decision Making in the Classroom: Product Support Program Decisions

Literature on the teaching of ethics points to the need for realistic business problems in which students deal with ethical dilemmas. This paper presents the results of an experiment in which students take on the role of a Brand Manager who must decide on the level of support to allocate to four distinct business problems. The problems were presented as business problems including realistic profit and cost considerations, rather than being posed as "ethics cases". Students were able to select from a range of product support levels for each problem. The experiment isolated the factor effects which included level of realism, degree of competition, company situation in terms of fault and profit level, and problem type relative to damage and visibility. Company fault was the most important factor in determining the level of product support allocations. Allocations generally increased when there was an increase in profit level from low to medium. However, there was no additional increase in allocations above the medium profit level. The paper concludes with suggestions on how the results can be used as a springboard for discussion of the integration of ethical considerations in managerial decision making.     

Independent Retail and Grocery Shops in Zimbabwe: Survival and Demise in a Crisis and Post-Crisis Era

Research on independent retail and grocery shops has largely been confined to more advanced markets such as those of the United States and the United Kingdom, ignoring trends in this sector in other markets such as Africa. Findings from these previous studies have established increasing pressure for survival faced by these independent retailers due to the dominance of big local supermarket chains and increased foreign competition. This research investigates the impact of increased local and foreign supermarket retail competition on independent retailers in Zimbabwe during the turbulent hyperinflation crisis era and the post-crisis recovery dollarization era. Key findings from the study focus on the impact of the changing retail landscape on growth and demise of these retailers. The study outlines constraints faced by the retailers and coping strategies that are being used to address the changing landscape and constraints. Implications for marketing practice and policy are then outlined.     

中美经贸摩擦背景下维系中美科创合作关系的对策建议

自2018年以来,持续升级的中美经贸摩擦给中美科创合作带来了严重冲击。本文首先从当前中美科创合作形势出发,全面总结了当前中美科创合作面临的直接冲击。其次通过剖析中美两国在未来大国竞争格局下的战略利益,分析了两国科创产业的长期合作趋势。最后,本文提出了中国在当前形势下维系中美科创合作关系的可行性对策建议,以期为中国制定对美科技、经济和外交等方面的竞合战略提供有益的借鉴和参考。     

Duopolists’ Retail Pricing Behavior in Multiple Markets

The law of one price asserts that, with costless trade, prices for identical goods in different countries should be equal after accounting for the exchange rate. The empirical literature suggests that exchange rate pass-through to prices is low and that the law of one price fails; instead, firms are more likely to price to market. This study adds to the literature by examining the pricing strategy of comic book firms within the context of the competition’s pricing behavior in a duopoly industry. Comic books, uniquely, display their retail prices in multiple countries on their cover giving us detailed information about the pricing behavior of each individual firm and their competition which allows us to test a pricing-to-market model. We find that an empirical model of an imperfectly applied law of one price outperforms a simple competitive, pricing-to-market model of pricing. Retail exchange rate pass-through rates between Canada and the United States average 76.8 %. This high exchange rate pass-through rate for comic books exists despite the existence of sticky prices and convenience pricing.     

Competition and Market Structure Reconsidered

A number of models of oligopoly in which long-run equilibrium is given by zero profit are extended to examine further the extent to which the number of firms increases indefinitely with market size. The limitations of the modelling framework are critically assessed with particular emphasis on the neglect of competition through vertically integrated economic processes. As an alternative, it is suggested that competition and industrial structure would be better studied by differentiating vertically between the different “systems of provision” through which particular goods are supplied, taking account of the integral connections between chains of economic activity, rather than generalizing across sectors and the competition within them.     

Examining the Relationship Between Advertising Expenditures and Sales of Quick-Service Restaurants in the United States

The United States fast-food industry represents an important business sector with respect to national and international economics. Due to the low levels of product differentiation and high industry competition, fast-food companies heavily engage in advertising and branding activities. Quick-service restaurants (QSR) are the largest and growing segment of the fast-food industry. The current study examined the longitudinal relationship between advertising expenditures and sales revenues for the QSR industry and leading QSR brands in the United States from 1986 to 2007. Hypotheses were tested using a time-series regression analysis. Managerial, research, and policy implications of the results are provided.     

Market reactions to export subsidies

This paper analyzes the economic impact of export subsidies by investigating stock price reactions to a critical event in 1997. On November 18, 1997, the European Union announced its intention to file a complaint before the World Trade Organization (WTO), arguing that the United States provided American exporters illegal subsidies by permitting them to use Foreign Sales Corporations to exempt a fraction of export profits from taxation. Share prices of American exporters fell sharply on this news, and its implication that the WTO might force the United States to eliminate the subsidy, which happened in 2004. The share price declines were largest for exporters with high profit margins and those whose tax situations made the threatened export subsidy particularly valuable. This evidence suggests that export subsidies do not merely benefit foreign consumers, but also improve the profitability of exporters, particularly those earning rents in imperfectly competitive markets.     

美国制造业重振与中国的应对策略

祸起于虚拟经济的2008年金融海啸给美国实体经济带来毁灭性的破坏，出于全球经济格局衍变和解决国内现实问题的需要，美国制定和实施了一系列重振制造业的政策，并且取得了较好的效果。我国应在借鉴主要发达国家应对美国重振制造业的经验的基础上，结合本国的实际情况从制造业规划制定、转变经济发展方式、人才培育、税收和融资、竞争方向、国际规则利用等方面采取措施积极应对。     

Export variety and country productivity: Estimating the monopolistic competition model with endogenous productivity

This paper provides evidence on the monopolistic competition model with heterogeneous firms and endogenous productivity. We show that this model has a well-defined GDP function where relative export variety enters positively, and estimate this function over 48 countries from 1980 to 2000. Average export variety to the United States increases by 3.3% per year, so it nearly doubles over these two decades. The total increase in export variety is associated with a 3.3% average productivity improvement for exporters over the two decades. Overall, the model can explain 31% of the within-country variation in productivity (or 52% for the OECD countries), but only a very small fraction of the between-country variation in productivity.