Technology and structures: Man and machine

The increasing size of the telecommunications machine poses a threat to its flexibility and adaptive capacity. The author examines this problem from the point of view of telecommunication organizations, taking account of the degree of government regulation and methods of raising capital. He offers a critical view of the unwieldiness and inertia in the telecommunication systems.     

Measures and measurement: Process and practise

Even although case studies remain one of the most widely utilised approaches in the study of industrial markets, debate continues about the apparent lack of any consistency in the way the case study method is applied. While acknowledging the shortcomings, this paper highlights the strengths and celebrates the diversity of the case study approach in developing and testing theory. Seven outstanding cases, selected from the Fourth Meeting of the IMP Group in Asia are presented.     

Divestment: Motives and gains

A follow-up to earlier study, this research demonstrates that the stock market's positive revaluation of divesting firms is unlikely to be due to changes in short-term performance.     

Electricity: Changes and Issues

This paper surveys recent developments in therestructuring and deregulation of the electric utilityindustry. New federal and state legislation isreviewed together with commission actions designed to carry out restructuring. The Department of Energy's highly controversial attempt to measure the netbenefits of electricity deregulation is noted, alongwith the response of DOE's critics. Five major factorsthat will affect the success or failure ofrestructuring and deregulation are examined at length. These include: growing industry concentration, theincreased risk premium attached to the market trading of electricity, the transition costs that will beincurred, the organization and governance of thetransmission network, and the adequacy of consumer and environmental protection in the new setting.     

Turnaround: Retrenchment and recovery

Empirical research was conducted to investigate retrenchment as an integral component of the overall turnaround process. An industry study provided an anchored operational definition of a turnaround situation, indications of its internal and external causes, and an application of an absolute measure of its severity. The research further produced an empirical discrimination between retrenchment as a stand-alone response to financial decline and retrenchment as an initial phase of a turnaround strategy, and an identification of activities that can be used to classify entrepreneurial vs. efficiency emphases in a turnaround firm's recovery response.     

Viewpoint: Beyond carrots and sticks: Europeans support health nudges

All over the world, nations are using “health nudges” to promote healthier food choices and to reduce the health care costs of obesity and non-communicable diseases. In some circles, the relevant reforms are controversial. On the basis of nationally representative online surveys, we examine whether Europeans favour such nudges. The simplest answer is that majorities in six European nations (Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, and the UK) do so. We find majority approval for a series of nudges, including educational messages in movie theaters, calorie and warning labels, store placement promoting healthier food, sweet-free supermarket cashiers and meat-free days in cafeterias. At the same time, we find somewhat lower approval rates in Hungary and Denmark. An implication for policymakers is that citizens are highly likely to support health nudges. An implication for further research is the importance of identifying the reasons for cross-national differences, where they exist.     

Introduction: Antitrust and Regulatory Update

Review of Industrial Organization -     

Outside-in marketing: Renaissance and future

Marketing is an applied discipline. As new generations of technology affecting marketing practice develop, marketing theories have to be re-visited, adjusted, and sometimes scrapped and replaced with new theory as new phenomenon emerge in the increasingly dynamic world of marketing practice. This technology-enabled aspect of why and how some firms may be more successful in becoming and maintaining strong OI marketers is clearly worthy of scholarly exploration. This research commentary extends Quach et al.'s review paper that synthesizes and consolidates what is known as outside-in marketing, recognizes some key changes in relevant aspects of the business context, and extends thinking in new directions for outside-in marketing to consider important unanswered questions regarding the OI construct and its relationship with other constructs and performance outcomes. For example, can OI marketing activities such as leveraging customer data for segmentation and targeting be undertaken in more or less OI ways? When and how might IO marketing potentially lead to better firm performance outcomes? Should OI marketing and performance relationship be hypothesized and tested in terms of OI alone or OI vs. IO or O-I + I-O? How should firms measure OI performance?     

Reply: Famine and Mr Bowbrick

This is a response to Peter Bowbrick's Rejoinder. Professor Sen argues that Mr Bowbrick's Rejoinder continues in the same tradition of empirical and conceptual confusions as his earlier article, but in addition he distorts or ignores Sen's replies to Bowbrick's earlier points.