Market Cycles: Bicycles,Riders, Industries,and Environments in France and the United States, 1865–1914

Issues of supply and demand are basic to markets, but economic sociologists ignore consumers, while sociologists of consumption rarely treat consumption as demand. I conceptualize markets as cyclic interactions of producers and consumers around a product, each group embedded in different types of macrosocial patterns, with different purposes and structures. I apply this conceptualization to the French and U.S. bicycle markets from 1865 to 1914. The model helps explain differing market trajectories in these cases.     

Labour intelligence and industrial relations policy 1886–1914*

This article examines the contribution of labour intelligence to the policy-making process during a formative period of modern British industrial relations. It concludes that the experience of 1886–1914 has important lessons for current policy-makers in the use of labour intelligence.     

Returns to Skills and the Distribution of Wages: Spain 1995–2010

In contrast to the pattern observed in other developed countries, the Spanish wage distribution compressed between 1995 and 2006 and became more disperse afterwards, so that in 2010 wage inequality was roughly similar to 1995. In this paper, we analyze the role of supply and demand factors when accounting for these facts. We start by decomposing observed wage changes into changes in the composition of the labour force and changes in the returns of workers' and jobs' characteristics. The results indicate that the compression of the wage distribution between 1995 and 2006 is largely explained by changes in returns, and particularly, by a decrease in the returns to education. We show that both the increase in the supply of high‐skilled workers and the increasing weight of low‐skilled occupations are related to the decreasing trend in the skill premium over this period. In contrast, the widening of the wage distribution after 2006 is largely explained by an increase in the relative demand for high‐skilled workers generating an increase in the school premium.     

Controlling Mobility and Regulation in Urban Space: Muslim Pilgrims to Mecca in Colonial Bombay, 1880–1914

The meanings and practices of space shape how cities are understood and governed. This article argues that space is central to understandings of mobility and practices of regulation in the city. Undertaking an analysis of the regulation of Muslim pilgrims (Hajis) in colonial Bombay (Mumbai) from 1880 to 1914, this article explores urban governance discourses around race, religion and public health at a variety of scales. It investigates the way that Hajis were problematized through these discourses, and targeted as threats to elite power and prosperity in the specific context of Bombay as a global shipping and economic hub. I conclude that elite conceptions of the city shape the governance of problematized bodies in ways which reinforce the meanings and politics of mobility and space. Elite understandings of movement and the city itself shape the practices and targets of urban regulation and control.     

Emerging Multinationals from Mid‐Range Economies: The Influence of Institutions and Factor Markets

This paper revisits and extends our earlier work (in 2005) in the pages of this journal. We argue that there is a need for more fine‐grained understanding of the country context along two dimensions: (1) institutional development and (2) infrastructure and factor market development. Specifically, we propose an enriched typology of emerging economies with a focus on mid‐range emerging economies, which are positioned between traditional emerging economies and newly developed economies. Then we examine new multinationals from these mid‐range emerging economies that have internationalized both regionally and globally. We outline directions for further research based on this typology in terms of (1) government influence, (2) resource orchestration, (3) market entry, and (4) corporate governance regarding the internationalization strategy of these emerging multinationals from mid‐range economies.     

The Construction of a Low‐Cost Airline Network – Facing Competition and Exploring New Markets

The paper investigates the construction of a low‐cost airline network by analyzing JetBlue Airways' entry decisions into non‐stop domestic US airport‐pair markets. Adopting duration models, we find that JetBlue consistently avoided concentrated airports and targeted concentrated routes; network economies also affected entry positively. For non‐stop entry into routes that have not been served directly before, our analysis reveals that the carrier focused on thicker routes and secondary airports. Non‐stop entry into existing non‐stop markets, however, shows that JetBlue concentrated on longer‐haul markets and avoided routes already operated by either other low‐cost carriers or network carriers under bankruptcy protection. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Social Structure and Intermediation: Market‐making Strategies in International Exchange*

ABSTRACT Information gaps between markets create opportunities for international trade intermediaries to negotiate cross‐border exchanges. Faced with the prospect of eventually being eliminated from these exchanges, intermediaries must continually search for new opportunities to mediate international exchange. In this paper an original explanation is derived from the core principles of structural hole theory to explain how these market‐making firms operate in the tension found between the inevitable decay of existing exchange relationships and the uncertainty of finding replacement sources of income.     

The Context of Entrepreneurial Judgment: Organizations,Markets, and Institutions

The economics and management literatures pay increasing attention to the technological, competitive, and institutional environment for entrepreneurship. However, less is known about how context influences the judgment of entrepreneurs. Focusing on the emerging judgment‐based approach to entrepreneurship, we argue that economics can say much about how the organizational, market, and institutional context shapes entrepreneurial judgment. We describe entrepreneurs as individuals who deploy scarce, heterogeneous resources to service customer preferences at a profit. Because of uncertainty, this process is essentially experimental, and context influences the experimental process. Thus, entrepreneurs will seek to design the internal organization of the firm so that it facilitates internal experimentation. Moreover, the market or task environment determines the need for experimentation (e.g., how fast do consumer preferences change, how does technology evolve, which assets are available at which terms, etc.). Finally, the institutional environment influences, for example, the transaction costs of acquiring and divesting assets as firms adjust their boundaries through ongoing commercial experimentation.