构建基于三重底线的绿色供应链:欧盟与美国的环境规制比较

一方面,环境日益恶化、资源日益匮乏,解决环境问题的绿色供应链构建受到普遍关注;另一方面,产品质量安全和产品本身缺陷的大量曝光及其召回事件,严重威胁着消费者的健康收益。文中首先以三重底线原则(经济底线、社会底线和环境底线)和产品外部性为基础,将绿色供应链分为两类:以关注消费者健康收益为核心的社会底线供应链、以关注环境生态收益为核心的环境底线供应链。接着,比较了欧盟的延伸生产者责任和美国的产品安全监管策略。最后,从产品生命周期不同阶段,经济、社会与环境等视角,以生产者、消费者与政府为对象,分析并得出:构建社会底线供应链需要完善的内部揭发机制与召回机制相结合;构建环境底线供应链需要减缓产品引入速度,以及面向环境的产品设计与综合性回收网络相结合。     

Uncertain regulatory timing and market dynamics

Using a dynamic model of capacity accumulation, I examine the relationship between uncertainty about the timing of a new Pigouvian tax and oligopolistic competition. I find that for some market structures uncertainty about the timing of the regulatory change leads firms to increase investment. These results stem from the nature of the uncertainty and its interaction with firms' strategic incentive to engage in capacity races. They dramatize the importance of accounting for initial conditions when forecasting firms' reactions to anticipated regulatory changes. In addition, I find that more protracted uncertainty leads to greater welfare costs.     

When does guanxi bolster or damage firm profitability? The contingent effects of firm- and market-level characteristics

This paper advances that a nuanced approach is necessary to understand the effectiveness of managerial ties (guanxi) in improving firms' financial performance. We take a contingency approach to examine how the effects of managerial ties on performance may be moderated by firm-level factors (i.e., firm age and entrepreneurial orientation) and market-based forces (i.e., demand uncertainty and technological turbulence). Using a survey of 289 firms in China, we find that managerial ties are more salient with regard to enhancing performance for more entrepreneurial-oriented and younger firms. Managerial ties fail to provide performance benefits to firms when high demand uncertainty exists or when the level of technological turbulence is high, which suggests a performance limitation of established ties with government officials, buyers, suppliers, and competitors. The theoretical and managerial implications of the findings are further discussed.     

Procurement auctions with entry of bidders

In procurement auctions with a fixed number of bidders there is a tradeoff between cost efficiency and rent extraction. An optimal mechanism, therefore, entails distortions of effort (Laffont and Tirole, 1987). If potential suppliers must sink an entry investment before they can participate in the auction, then decreasing the firms' rent may imply reduced entry. We show that if potential bidders are uninformed before entry, commitment to a plain, nondistortive auction is optimal. In contrast, if potential bidders learn all their private information before entry, the optimal mechanism entails the same distortions as in Laffont and Tirole's static model.     

SELLING ONLINE VERSUS LIVE*

A seller choosing between auctioning online and live faces a tradeoff: lower transaction costs online against more rents left with the bidders. We model this tradeoff, and apply the theory to auctions of art. The crucial parameter for whether the seller does better online than live is not the expected price but the valuation uncertainty.     

Markov Perfect Equilibrium in the US digital camera market

This paper examines the model launch and withdrawal decisions of the major digital camera makers for the period 1996–1999. These manufacturers produce differentiated products and some have the experience of participating in a similar market—the film camera market. This paper investigates to what extent the following four factors affect firms' decisions to launch a new model of digital camera: the effects of competition with “within-brand” models; the effects of competition with “cross-brand” models; the level of experience in the film camera market; and market conditions. The empirical findings suggest that good market conditions can accommodate more products, which has a positive effect on product launches. On the other hand, existing cross-brand models have a negative effect on product launches, while within-brand models and experience in similar markets have an ambiguous effect on product launches.     

基于网络外部性的产品扩散模型分析

自巴斯模型问世以来,许多学者对其模型进行了大量的修正,但对具有网络外部性产品的扩散模型的研究却相对较少。本文在介绍巴斯模型和前人研究成果的基础上,建立消费者效用函数并引入愿付价格的概念,设定效用大于厂商定价的潜在需求者为实际需求者的总数,在此基础上建立了不具有网络外部性的修正扩散模型。然后依据消费者的实际感受价格随着累积采用者的增加而下降的网络外部性,提出了针对网络外部性产品的修正扩散模型。     

Strategy of firms in unstable institutional environments

Institutional instability as one of the most common characteristics of developing countries and its impacts on the strategy of firms is explored in this study. We conducted detailed field research based on 32 semi-structured interviews with top managers of textile firms in Iran. Results show that managers in developing countries engage in a political struggle to ensure that institutional uncertainty is balanced by a reasonable political give and take. It is argued that power and legitimacy are key resources for firms' survival in institutionally unstable environments. Some theoretical foundations for the strategy of firms in unstable institutional environments are developed.     

Optimal Capacity,Product Substitution,Linear Demand Models,and Uncertainty

We study the capacity, pricing, and production decisions of a monopolist producing two substitutable products with flexible capacity. Although the capacity decision needs to be made ex ante, under demand uncertainty, pricing and production decisions can be postponed until after uncertainty is resolved. We show how key demand parameters (the nature of uncertainty, market size, and market risk) impact the optimal capacity decision under the linear demand function. In particular, we show that if the demand shock is multiplicative, then in terms of the “invest or not” decision, the firm will be immune to forecast errors in parameters of the underlying demand distribution. Furthermore, incorrectly modeling the demand shock as additive, when, in fact, it is multiplicative, may lead to overinvestment. On the other hand, although the concept of a growth in market size leads to similar conclusions under both additive and multiplicative demand shocks, how market risk affects the optimal capacity decision depends critically on the form of the demand shock as well as its correlation structure. Our analysis provides insights and principles on the optimal capacity investment decision under various demand settings.     

On the anti-competitive effects of quantity discounts

We analyze the competitive effects of quantity discounts in an asymmetric duopoly. We find that for a sizeable set of parameter values, quantity discounts harm the smaller firm and reduce consumers' surplus. They can even decrease social welfare, i.e. the sum of producers' and consumers' surpluses. However, the circumstances in which quantity discounts may decrease social welfare are limited and difficult to identify in practice.     

Inventory management in a multi-echelon spare parts supply chain

In many industrial sectors, firms are dealing with a demand which is more and more uncertain often due to the supply chain structure. One of the most critical effects of demand uncertainty is the simultaneous increase of inventories and decrease of customer service. This work describes an integrated system for managing inventories in a multi-echelon spare parts supply chain, in which customers of different size lay at the same level of the supply chain. The differences in size generate demand peaks and thus a very variable and lumpy demand pattern. The analysis presented in the paper stems from a case study in the field of durable goods spare parts. The paper contributes in three ways: on the one hand, it shows that consistency between managerial solutions and supply chain structure enables to enhance operative performances. On the other hand, it provides a new solution to a problem that characterises several different industrial contexts. Eventually, it highlights that the exploitation of a larger and more reliable set of information dramatically improves performance.     

品牌社群影响品牌忠诚的作用机理研究——基于超然消费体验的分析视角

传统观点认为满意和价值是驱动品牌忠诚的前置变量。然而,在当今与消费者联系的时代,这种观点有些滞后。本文在已有研究的基础上,探索并提出了超越满意—忠诚模式的新路径。本研究在品牌社群情境下,基于超然消费体验的分析视角,采用实地调研、文献研究和实证研究相结合的方法,揭示出品牌社群影响品牌忠诚的作用机理。结果表明:超然消费体验对品牌忠诚具有显著的正向影响作用,而品牌依恋和品牌成瘾性在二者间起到正向媒介作用。其中,品牌依恋在超然消费体验和品牌成瘾性之间起媒介作用;品牌依恋对品牌忠诚具有直接和间接的影响作用。品牌成瘾性在品牌依恋和品牌忠诚之间起到了部分媒介作用。最后,作者探讨了本研究的理论意义和实践价值。     

Endogenous horizontal mergers under cost uncertainty

This paper presents a study of endogenous horizontal mergers under cost uncertainty. Before knowing the exact values of their costs, firms decide sequentially whether or not to join a merger. After the merger decision is made, uncertainty is resolved and firms engage in Cournot competition with incomplete information about one another's costs. Due to production rationalization, the merged firms enjoy an advantage over non-merged firms in the sense that the merged firms' expected cost is lower. I show that mergers occur if and only if the uncertainty is large and that the larger the uncertainty, the greater the number of firms that will merge. Although a merger reduces competition and therefore hurts consumers, it improves productivity under cost uncertainty. I find that a merger increases social welfare whenever there are at least four firms in the industry before the merger.     

The Effects of Brand Strategy and Technological Uncertainty on Pioneering Advantage in the Multigenerational Product Market

This research investigates how brand strategy and technological uncertainty influence the order‐of‐entry effects for a previous generation pioneer in the successive generation. The findings of our longitudinal experiment reemphasize the importance of continuous pioneering, demonstrating that consumers exhibit a strong preference for a previous generation pioneer's product when it continues to pioneer the successive generation. More importantly, the findings indicate that continuous pioneering with a new brand leads to greater brand preferences when technological uncertainty is high. This is because in that condition, consumers perceive greater innovativeness with a new brand than with the extant one. On the other hand, an extant brand increases consumer brand preferences for a previous generation pioneer's product in the successive generation when technological uncertainty is low. The theoretical and practical implications of the results for understanding and managing pioneering advantage and brand strategy in the multigenerational product markets are discussed.     

Winning through innovation and marketing: Lessons from Australia and Vietnam

We examine the role of innovation and marketing, two functional capabilities that have the capacity to play a major role in creating superior marketplace performance in firms. Our study of the two capabilities and firms' marketplace performance also takes into account the contribution of entrepreneurial orientation (EO) and market orientation (MO) to our focal functional capabilities and marketplace performance. The results of a study of firms in Australia and Vietnam show innovation capability, marketing capability mediate the effects of the firm's MO on its marketplace performance. The results also show that the interaction of innovation and marketing capabilities significantly influences firms' marketplace performance more than they do individually. Finally, our results show that MO partially mediates the relationship between EO and innovation and marketing capabilities.     

异质性企业出口行为的实证研究——基于中国企业面板数据

在近年兴起的新—新贸易理论中,出口行为与企业生产率之间的双向因果关系的实证研究逐渐成为主要的热点领域。许多学者用不同国家企业数据验证了自我选择效应和出口学习效应两个逻辑相反的假设。我们利用中国企业的微观层面数据对该命题进行验证。结果表明,自我选择效应显著,而出口学习效应不显著。最后在分析中国企业国际化行为特征的基础上,给出政策建议。     

Team composition,worker effort and welfare

A successful organization needs the right team. We explore the optimal mix of familiar workers (who we call incumbents) and less familiar workers (newcomers) when production is group-based. If incumbents have a lower marginal return of effort, they will have less incentive to invest relative to newcomers. This is true, even when incumbents produce more for any given level of effort. This creates a tradeoff: less familiar agents will invest more whereas a more familiar team is inherently more productive. In our setup, the non-investing principal (weakly) prefers less familiar agents than the team that maximizes second-best surplus. On the other hand (symmetric) agents prefer a more familiar teammate compared with the second-best option. These insights have implications for team composition, job rotation and worker tenure.     

Money secrets: How does trade secret legal protection affect firm market value? Evidence from the uniform trade secret act

Research summary : We investigate the impact of trade secret legal protection on firm market value in the context of acquisitions. On one hand, market value may increase because trade secret assets become better protected from rivals. On the other hand, market value may decrease because trade secret protection reduces information about the target and its competitors available to potential buyers, increasing uncertainty about its value. Buyers will discount their offers in expectation of being compensated for riskier deals. Using a sample of private equity investments in the United States, we find that trade secret protection has a positive effect in industries with high mobility of knowledge workers, but a negative effect in industries with (1) high resource–value uncertainty and (2) high poor‐investment risk. Managerial summary : We argue that an increase in trade secret legal protection might not unequivocally benefit firm owners when selling their business. A stronger trade secret protection increases the market value of firms in industries with high workers' mobility, but it decreases the market value of firms in industries with uncertain resource value and/or high risk of poor‐acquisition investments. Based on the contingent effect of trade secret protection, companies may want to adjust their strategic decisions, including where to locate or relocate, based in part on whether they will derive benefits or suffer losses when trade secrets are better protected. Finally, our study should help policymakers understand more fully the economic impact of government policies associated with trade secrets. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Distributional assumptions in the theory of oligopoly information exchange

We analyze the profitability of information sharing among Cournot oligopolists receiving private information about random demand. In this setting, previous authors showed information exchange to be unprofitable when firms' marginal costs are constant and outputs are perfect substitutes. We introduce a measure of the increase in the accuracy of firms' demand forecasts when information is shared. We provide two examples showing when this measure is large, information exchange is profitable, even though firms' marginal costs are constant and outputs are perfect substitutes. Moreover, we show that in the linear-conditional-expectations framework, which has been standard in the literature, this measure reveals these accuracy gains to be severely limited.     

Distributional assumptions in the theory of oligopoly information exchange

We analyze the profitability of information sharing among Cournot oligopolists receiving private information about random demand. In this setting, previous authors showed information exchange to be unprofitable when firms' marginal costs are constant and outputs are perfect substitutes. We introduce a measure of the increase in the accuracy of firms' demand forecasts when information is shared. We provide two examples showing when this measure is large, information exchange is profitable, even though firms' marginal costs are constant and outputs are perfect substitutes. Moreover, we show that in the linear-conditional-expectations framework, which has been standard in the literature, this measure reveals these accuracy gains to be severely limited.