Do remedies affect the efficiency defense? An optimal merger-control analysis

This paper examines the optimal use of remedies and the efficiency defense for merger control. We develop a framework in which merger efficiency gains are endogenously determined and are not observed by the Competition Authority. The possibility of an efficiency defense can push firms to design the merger better, leading to greater efficiency gains. Firms can also submit remedies to the Competition Authority: they interact with the efficiency defense, by reducing the firm's incentive to enhance efficiency. At the same time remedies improve the assessment of the merger, in particular by signaling the true level of efficiency gains. We ask to what extent it may be optimal to make use of both instruments simultaneously, and thus discuss the possibility that the Competition Agency refrain from using one of the instruments to try to improve overall merger-control performance.     

Are EU regional digital strategies evidence-based? An analysis of the allocation of 2007–13 Structural Funds

The ambitious goals of the European “Digital Agenda” need active involvement by regional innovation systems. Effective regional “digital strategies” should be both consistent with the European framework and based on available evidence on the needs and opportunities of local contexts. Such evidence should be used to balance the different components of the Information Society development (e.g. eServices vs. infrastructures; ICT supply and demand), so as to ensure that they can all unleash their full potential. Therefore, EU regions should spend more money to overcome regional weaknesses than to improve existing assets. In this paper we explore the different strategies of the EU's lagging regions through the analysis of the allocation of 2007–13 Structural Funds. Then, we verify whether such strategies respond to territorial conditions by comparing strategic choices made with the actual characteristics of local contexts. Results show that EU regions tend to invest more resources in those aspects in which they already demonstrate good relative performances. Possible causes of this unbalanced strategic approach are discussed, including the lack of sound analysis of the regional context and the path dependence of policy choices.     

Does it pay to be different? An analysis of the relationship between corporate social and financial performance

This study explores the relationship between corporate social performance (CSP) and corporate financial performance (CFP) within the context of a specific component of CSP: corporate charitable giving. A model of the determinants of the extent of corporate charitable giving is estimated and used as the basis of a classification that groups firms according to the difference between their actual and their predicted intensity of gift giving. The financial performance attributes of the classification are explored. We found that firms with both unusually high and low CSP have higher financial performance than other firms, with unusually poor social performers doing best in the short run and unusually good social performers doing best over longer time horizons. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

How will telecommunications bundles impact competition and regulatory analysis?

In this article, one makes two points about the impact of bundles on competition and regulatory policy. First, one argues that the growing importance of bundles requires an adjustment in the current framework of relevant product markets for individual services, and that the traditional tools of competition policy, namely the SSNIP test, can be adjusted to deal with these new circumstances. Second, one argues that the technological and behavioral changes, underlying the emergence of bundles, call for a shift of emphasis in regulatory policy from ensuring access to the incumbent’s fixed telecommunications network services to ensuring access to television content.     

Britain and BrExit: Is the UK more attractive to supervisors? An analysis of the wage premium to supervision across the EU

We studied which European Union (EU) economy was more attractive prior to Brexit for employees in supervisory positions. We estimate the extra wage that supervisors earn relative to their subordinates—the wage premium to supervision (WPS)—at different quantiles of distribution of wages for 26 European economies. We find that the UK rewards supervisors more than other EU economies. Moreover, the WPS increases with wage and so increases wage inequality. Over 10% of the WPS depends on the national economic context. We discuss the implications for immigration and policymakers in relation to the post-Brexit process.     

Learning: What and How? An Empirical Study of Adjustments in Workplace Organization Structure

We seek to understand how firms learn about what adjustments they need to make in their organization structure at the workplace level. We define four organizational systems: traditional (the simplest system), high‐performance (the most complex system), decision‐making oriented, and financial‐incentives oriented (intermediate complexity). We analyze (1) learning‐by‐doing on adoption of more or less complex systems, (2) the performance–experience learning curves associated with different systems, (3) the match between perceived organizational capabilities and the choice of systems, the influence of (4) other firms’ systems and performance on a firm’s adjustment decisions, and of (5) a firm’s location on its decisions.     

How much of the labor in African agriculture is provided by women?

The contribution of women to labor in African agriculture is regularly quoted in the range of 60–80%. Using individual, plot-level labor input data from nationally representative household surveys across six Sub-Saharan African countries, this study estimates the average female labor share in crop production at 40%. It is slightly above 50% in Malawi, Tanzania, and Uganda, and substantially lower in Nigeria (37%), Ethiopia (29%), and Niger (24%). There are no systematic differences across crops and activities, but female labor shares tend to be higher in households where women own a larger share of the land and when they are more educated. Controlling for the gender and knowledge profile of the respondents does not meaningfully change the predicted female labor shares. The findings question prevailing assertions regarding substantial gains in aggregate crop output as a result of increasing female agricultural productivity.     

An analysis of multi-stakeholder initiatives to reduce food loss and waste in an emerging country – Brazil

This paper aims to investigate the roles adopted by the distinct stakeholders that are engaged in a voluntary initiative to reduce food loss and waste (FLW) in the context of an emerging country. Data were collected by way of participant observation in multi-stakeholder events, observation visits and interviews with 54 food sector stakeholders, and from secondary data. The theoretical contribution of this paper is that it provides a systemic and realistic perspective for tackling FLW, as research in the field usually only focuses on one supply chain agent, or on consumer behaviour. Another contribution that may be replicated in other countries has to do with the role of each stakeholder in identifying the processes with which they are involved for reducing FLW. Activities and actions in a multi-stakeholder initiative change according to their positioning at the institutional or value chain level of analysis. Future studies should consider the extensive interplay that exists between the institutional and value chain levels in the food sector, and how they interact     

When do they care to share? How manufacturers make contracted service partners share knowledge

Manufacturing firms that outsource customer-facing services, risk losing touch with their customers and thereby forfeit valuable market and customer-related knowledge. To maintain informed and competitive, the manufacturer's customer-facing service partners should engage in knowledge sharing and transfer their market knowledge and insight to the firm. Building on knowledge transfer and organizational learning theory, this study investigates how contractual and non-contractual (i.e., relationship) characteristics influence knowledge sharing behavior by service partners. The authors specifically distinguish between sharing exploitative knowledge (insights that help the manufacturing firm to refine current skills and procedures) and exploratory knowledge (insights that help the manufacturing firm to challenge prior approaches to interfacing with the market). Based on survey data from 70 relationship managers from a large multinational firm and partial least squares path modeling, results show that contractual incentives had a negative effect on exploratory knowledge sharing, but not on exploitative knowledge sharing. The level of contract specification and relationship quality positively related to both types of knowledge sharing. Relationship manager experience related positively to exploratory knowledge sharing, but not to exploitative knowledge sharing. These findings provide valuable insights on how (non-)contractual mechanisms can be used to manage knowledge sharing in outsourced services.     

What does it take to make the most of supplier relationships?

The supply context of companies has changed substantially during the past two decades because of outsourcing, globalisation and digitalisation, and through growing concern for sustainability and public procurement. These changes, combined with recognition of the potential benefits to be derived from more extensive involvement with suppliers, have made the task of purchasing and supply management broader and more complex. This paper's aim is to examine how the evolving supply context affects the scope of purchasing and supply management and what the consequences for management are. We argue that effective use of supplier relationships involves three main issues – interacting in supplier relationships, dealing with supply network interdependences and handling dynamic changes in the supply context. Coping with these matters requires: (i) conceptual tools that support monitoring and sense-making of what is on-going at the supply side of the firm; (ii) the individual and organisational skills and capabilities required to develop workable solutions; and (iii) organisational arrangements to support the development of these solutions.     

How Much of Barrier to Entry is Occupational Licensing?

We exploit state variation in licensing laws to study the effect of licensing on occupational choice using a boundary discontinuity design. We find that licensing reduces equilibrium labour supply by an average of 17–27 per cent.     

Co-management of purchasing and marketing: Why,when and how?

This article discusses the theoretical and conceptual foundations for the co-management of purchasing and marketing and thereby provides some answers to the questions, why, when and how purchasing and marketing should be co-managed. It develops a conceptual framework distinguishing between internal and external co-management of purchasing and marketing. Improving value creation and value capture is identified as a necessary “pull factor” driving the co-management of purchasing and marketing. Based on resource dependence theory (RDT), we argue that dependence on critical resources is another important “push factor” for the emergence of external co-management. We present a RDT-based typology of co-management constellations showing that co-management is not a one-size-fits-all approach and summarize our findings in five propositions on the co-management of purchasing and marketing. In sum, we conceptualize co-management of marketing and purchasing as a bridging strategy that allows a focal firm to accommodate dependence on critical upstream and/or downstream resources and improves value creation within the supply chain.     

How much are sellers willing to pay for the features offered by their e-commerce platform?

The success of an e-commerce platform is significantly dependent on the number of sellers and their quality. Thus, it is important to understand the factors that influence a seller's platform choice. This paper investigates features of an e-commerce platform on which sellers place high value when choosing a platform to sell their products, using a conjoint analysis. The data was collected by online survey from 1,796 sellers who are using Naver Smart Store (https://sell.smartstore.naver.com), which is one of the largest e-commerce platform in South Korea. After analyzing the willingness to pay for each combination of functions by separating six functions of Naver Smart Store, it was estimated that the MWTP ranged 3.05 to 4.48 for the main process related functions and 2.61–5.3 for the sub process related functions. MWTP can be considered as a benefits for the sellers since Naver does not require monetary commissions from sellers. This paper also shows that the higher technical understanding of the functions provides the more value to platform to sellers.     

An empirical study of manufacturing flexibility of exporting firms in China: How do strategic and organizational contexts matter?

Using evidence from exporting firms in China, this research aims to determine the conditions that foster manufacturing flexibility and the way in which firms support it. The contingency perspective and the competence and capability theory are utilized to develop a framework to enhance the knowledge of internal competence, external flexibility, and manufacturing performance, and the understanding of the moderating roles of strategic and organizational choice on the competence-flexibility and flexibility-performance relationships. Empirical evidence from a sample of 222 export product/market ventures confirmed the main effect that manufacturing, assembly outsourcing, and marketing competencies support a firm's manufacturing flexibility and in turn enhance manufacturing performance. Several notable moderating effects were also identified. Although a strategic emphasis on low-cost manufacturing and long-term contracting weakens a firm's transformation of core competencies into flexible capabilities, specific organizational choices regarding private ownership and direct exporting strengthen the conversion of manufacturing flexibility to superior manufacturing performance.     

Are OTT messaging and mobile telecommunication an interrelated market? An empirical analysis

OTT messengers such as Facebook and WhatsApp have gained wide popularity among mobile users while the traffic of text messaging is in strong decline. As such, there is a debate over whether both services are interrelated and constitute a joint product market, which has important implications for the current wave of mergers in the mobile industry and regulation policy. To the best of our knowledge, this work is the first to provide an empirical analysis of how the consumption of OTT messengers affects demand for text messaging and mobile voice services. We make use of an innovative dataset which includes very detailed information on smartphone usage in Norway and consider a novel approach to address this question which is embedded in the complexity of two-sided markets. Interestingly, our findings suggest that OTT messengers complement demand for traditional mobile telecommunication services for this context. Consequently, both markets are interrelated but do not constitute a joint market from the perspective of competition policy in Norway. Moreover, we find an explanation for why reductions of text messaging usage have been so drastic in some countries and an analogous development for mobile voice is rather unlikely. Finally, our empirical results provide a new perspective on the modelling of consumer utility in communication networks in the theoretical literature.     

Transmitters and receivers' investment to avoid interference: Is there an optimal regime?

The management of interference has been, and still is, the main concern in spectrum policy. Historically, interference has been dealt with by heavy regulation under an administrative control regime. Over the last decades, a new approach has been put forward based on users' property rights, better able to cope with a rapidly changing technological environment. The issue of dealing with interference across bands, however, remains crucial: What obligations should be put on users so as to keep interference at a socially acceptable level? Also, given that some unwanted emissions are bound to occur, how can private parties be provided with the right incentives to invest in high-quality reception technology? This paper assesses how well different regulatory regimes can lead to efficient outcomes. It develops an economic model of spectrum interference and identifies the efficient solution. A regime where spectrum users have the power to enjoin intruding emissions beyond a predefined level (property rights protection) is compared with a regime where users are forced to bear with intruding emissions, but are entitled to economic compensation for the harm suffered (liability rules protection). The analysis suggests that different regimes may perform differently under different circumstances depending on the cause of interference and, critically, on whether the services are organised as an open- or a close-architecture system. This suggests that regulators should pay more attention to the specific features of the different bands, and that the appropriate spectrum management regime should be designed to recognise these differences.     

How do standards committees affect the success of a standard? Comparative analysis of RCS and VoLTE and proposed hybrid standards development model of open and bandwagon approaches

Standards have become enablers of complex digital systems that provide a foundation for the present-day digital economy. While existing literature analyzes the factors behind the dominance of one standard over another, there has been little focus on the standards committees that define the standards. This study comparatively analyzes the case of the Rich Communication Services (RCS) and Voice over LTE (VoLTE) standards to examine the characteristics of standards committees. The findings provide lessons learned for standards committees, including non-tiered open membership, and sufficient depth of specifications. Most importantly, a new model is proposed for standards development, based on which the standards committee focuses on technical specifications with open membership, while industry consortia focus on commercial profiling of the technical specifications with the lead of influential players. The new model is expected to resolve the tradeoff between the development speed and stability of communications standards.     

How can the EU climate targets be met? A combined analysis of technological and demand-side changes in food and agriculture

To meet the 2 °C climate target, deep cuts in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions will be required for carbon dioxide from fossil fuels but, most likely, also for methane and nitrous oxide from agriculture and other sources. However, relatively little is known about the GHG mitigation potential in agriculture, in particular with respect to the combined effects of technological advancements and dietary changes. Here, we estimate the extent to which changes in technology and demand can reduce Swedish food-related GHG emissions necessary for meeting EU climate targets. This analysis is based on a detailed representation of the food and agriculture system, using 30 different food items.We find that food-related methane and nitrous oxide emissions can be reduced enough to meet the EU 2050 climate targets. Technologically, agriculture can improve in productivity and through implementation of specific mitigation measures. Under optimistic assumptions, these developments could cut current food-related methane and nitrous oxide emissions by nearly 50%. However, also dietary changes will almost certainly be necessary. Large reductions, by 50% or more, in ruminant meat (beef and mutton) consumption are, most likely, unavoidable if the EU targets are to be met. In contrast, continued high per-capita consumption of pork and poultry meat or dairy products might be accommodated within the climate targets. High dairy consumption, however, is only compatible with the targets if there are substantial advances in technology. Reducing food waste plays a minor role for meeting the climate targets, lowering emissions only by an additional 1–3%.