Book Reviews

Rail privatisation was a controversial, widely unpopular policy whose implementation was not inevitable. This article employs counterfactual history methodology to examine whether the move to rail privatisation in Britain might have failed. It places the privatisation proposals in context by examining opposition within the Conservative Party and British Rail. The paper then focuses on three key counterfactual questions, including the significance of New Labour's reversal of its commitment to renationalise rail under its ‘third way’ policy and the possible consequences had the move to privatise rail failed. Based on the historical evidence available, it concludes that the move to rail privatisation could have failed, and that performance would have been better had rail remained an integrated, nationalised industry.     

Book Reviews

While fashion piracy has been practised on an industrial scale for at least a century, the levels of intellectual property protection for fashion design have been low in most nations. This article gives a summary of the context of the lack of design protection for the Swedish textile and fashion industries, broadly defined, in the twentieth century, with comparisons to contemporary debates on fashion and creativity and to the historical French and US context. France, the US and Sweden have followed different paths in their approaches to intellectual property protection for fashion design. A study of the Swedish legislative debates 1916–70 shows that the different legislative approaches are connected to the local contexts of production. It is proposed that one way of understanding the levels of protection for fashion design is in terms of the differences in logic between ‘fashion’ and ‘clothing’.     

Law,politics and the governance of English and Scottish joint-stock companies, 1600–1850

This article examines the impact of law on corporate governance by means of a case study of joint-stock enterprise in England and Scotland before 1850. Based on a dataset of over 450 company constitutions together with qualitative information on governance practice, it finds little evidence to support the hypothesis that common-law regimes such as England were more supportive of economic growth than civil-law jurisdictions such as Scotland: indeed, levels of shareholder protection were slightly stronger in the civil-law zone. Other factors, such as local political institutions, played a bigger role in shaping organisational forms and business practice.     

Book Reviews

Today both Denmark and Sweden are successful fashion exporters due to the re-export of clothing designed in Scandinavia and produced in low-wage countries, while domestic clothing manufacturing has become almost non-existent over the past 20 years. This article compares the strategies of Danish and Swedish trade associations in clothing manufacturing and discusses whether or not the associations encouraged the abandonment of local manufacturing and adoption of global value chains. The analysis is carried out on the basis of interest group theory as developed by Mancur Olson and others, and the findings confirm that interest group influence can entail long-term negative effects, but also that variations in institutional settings are decisive.     

Book Reviews

The history of music in the workplace is a neglected area of study. This article explores the policies towards music in the paternalist Rowntree and Cadbury confectionery factories from the late nineteenth to the late twentieth century. We argue that the two firms were pioneering in their early use of music before becoming key players in the industrial welfare movement following the First World War. The broadcasting of music by Rowntree and Cadbury in the mid to late twentieth century is then placed in the context of a widespread adoption of tannoyed music in factories. We argue that music was employed as a means of easing the monotony of factory work whilst simultaneously aiming to improve productivity levels. However, as we demonstrate through oral history, women workers experienced music in ways not always in tune with management objectives.     

Book Reviews

When the Great Northern Telegraph Company in 1913 bought the exclusive rights to exploit the Valdemar Poulsen Arc Transmitter it was not because the company wanted to take advantage of wireless telegraphy. Instead the company decided not to develop or implement the arc transmitter – a decision that has been described as a ‘wasted opportunity’. This article, however, explores the behaviour of Great Northern and argues that there was little else the company could have done because of the structure of international telegraphy. Great Northern reacted as all other cable companies, and in this context the case of the Danish telegraph company is not just about the behaviour of one single firm. Rather, the case reveals important aspects of the business structures of international cable telegraphy and helps us to understand how one of the world's most powerful industries was brought to its knees by a new technology.     

Book Reviews

In-migrants played an important role within port-city merchant communities, but the contribution of German-born merchants to Liverpool's development in the nineteenth century has been largely ignored. This article has four interrelated objectives. First, it establishes the size and composition of the German merchant community in terms of the place of birth, occupational classification, length of residence, and relative wealth of German-born merchants. Secondly, it measures the degree of acculturation and integration based on a range of indicators including choice of bride, child- and house-naming practices, the employment of fellow nationals, and the acquisition of British citizenship. Thirdly, it analyses their role within Liverpool society, focusing on their involvement in the city's associational networks, their participation in voluntary and charitable associations, and their entertainment profile. Finally it assesses how the growth of German nationalism after 1871 and the institutional role of the German Protestant Church reinforced ethnic identity, influenced decisions relating to citizenship and settlement, and affected business networking.     

Book Reviews

Books reviewed: Alan Deardorff and Robert Stern, Social Dimensions of US Trade Policies D. Wellisch, Theory of Public Finance in a Federal State Angela Redish, Bimetallism: An Economic and Historical Analysis John Williamson, Exchange Rate Regimes for Emerging Markets: Reviving the Intermediate Option     

Book Reviews

In a world of limited resources, marketing managers tasked to deliver shareholder value face decisions about how to maximise the returns on their marketing portfolio. Risk is less often considered. In finance the picture is very different; financial portfolio management is concerned with both risk and returns. The central innovation in this paper is the application of modern portfolio theory (MPT) to the management of marketing portfolios in food retailing and in drinks manufacturing. The authors develop a model that calculates an efficient frontier of marketing portfolios that maximise overall return within certain risk constraints, first for a simple two-segment marketing world and then for a more realistic multi-segment portfolio. However, marketing portfolios differ from financial ones in the sense that the allocation of marketing spend affects the returns from the portfolio. Therefore, a second innovation, an extension of MPT to take account of marketing spend allocation decisions, has been developed. Using this model, marketers can determine the risk and the returns of marketing investments, helping them select an optimal portfolio. This would go some way to ensuring that marketing contributes to shareholder value creation, currently one of its major challenges.     

Regulatory valuation of public utilities: A case study of the twentieth century

This paper analyses the regulatory attitudes to asset valuation in the twentieth century. It focuses in particular on the US experience from Smith v Ames 169 US 466 (1898) to Federal Power Commission v Hope Natural Gas 320 US 591 (1944 Federal Power Commission v. Hope Natural Gas Co. 320 U.S. 591 (1944). [Google Scholar]) and on the experience in the UK in last two decades of the century. It is shown that movements in capital goods prices in the US had a significant impact on regulatory decisions, e.g., regulators were more likely to choose original cost as the regulatory valuation when replacement cost was high. In the UK regulatory agencies moved through valuations increasingly less favourable to the companies from a traditional historic cost model to an ‘original cost’ model based on flotation value. Far from displaying regulatory capture, the evidence is consistent with robust regulation against ‘monopoly’ incumbents.     

Path dependence,change and the emergence of the first joint-stock companies

This paper presents a model of path dependence and change and focuses on the gaining of new institutional knowledge. The main thesis is that in ‘extraordinary’ historical situations the possibility of change increases as a result of external pressure and successful adaptation to it. The model is tested applying it to the case study of seventeenth-century United Provinces (Dutch Republic). Such a situation existed in the sixteenth–seventeenth-century United Provinces, due to their uprising against Spanish rule. Because there existed no strong central authority, the decision-makers had to develop new institutions in order to successfully capture the lucrative spice trade from their enemies. The solution was the joint-stock company, which, through the phases of a continuous decision-making procedure, developed into the ‘permanent’ Dutch East India Company (VOC) in parallel also to the development of the Amsterdam Stock Exchange.     

‘A highly successful model’? The rail franchising business in Britain

A crucial feature of rail privatisation in Britain was franchising. Passenger services were franchised in competitive bidding processes to train operators which were meant to function with declining subsidy. The article adopts the framework of social cost-benefit analysis to examine rail privatisation’s impact on three key groups; consumers, producers and the government. It establishes that privatisation did not achieve all the supposed benefits. Further, franchising only appears to be profitable through the use of calculative accounting practices, whereby franchised train operators are portrayed as discrete business entities, whereas they are supported by very substantial, ongoing direct and indirect government subsidies.     

A Survey of Capital Budgeting Techniques in the Public and Private Sectors of a Less Developed Country (LDC)

ABSTRACT

This study surveys the capital budgeting practice in private and commercially-oriented public sector enterprises in the Sudan, an African Less Developed Country (LDC). The study attempts to fill a gap in the existing literature by documenting the capital budgeting practice in an LDC where the economic environment is different than the developed and developing counterparts and where public sector still plays a major role in the economy.

The study found a sizable number of commercially-oriented public corporations that do not use capital budgeting techniques in their capital investment decisions while the majority of private sector companies use these methods. Among the corporations that use capital budgeting methods, both in the public and private sector, the payback method (PB) is the most widely used method, followed by the Internal Rate of Return (IRR) and Net Present Value (NPV) in the private sector and the public sector respectively.

The study also revealed additional factors such as cost, size, quality, experience and hard currency requirements that affect the capital budgeting process in both sectors. However, there are differences in the level of importance of these factors between the two sectors.     

Call for Book Reviews and Review Essays

ABSTRACT

The Journal of Business to Business Marketing, an important thematic journal within the field of marketing, serves as a vital venue for both academicians and practitioners interested in business-to-business marketing phenomena. Articles cover a broad spectrum of topics related to business marketing management.

A subject-based listing classifies these articles into 16 categories according to their key research issues. Those categories are: Advertising and Communication, Brand Management, Buyer-Seller Dyad and Relationships, Channels, Customer Relationships, Education, International Issues, Literature Reviews, Methodology, Networks and Strategic Alliances, Organizational Buying Behavior, Pricing and Value, Product Development, Segmentation, Selling and Salesforce Management, Technology.

After the subject listing, titles and abstracts of all articles appearing in the first ten volumes of JBBM are listed in volume/issue order. We hope that this index will provide a useful tool for academicians and practitioners who are interested in business-to-business marketing research.     

In Search of the Divide Between the Private and Public Sector in Ecuador

ABSTRACT

The divide between the private and public sector is one of the underlying assumptions of economic policy making, political debates and economic reforms; so much so, that we take for granted its predictions from a theoretical as well as empirical point of view. This paper is an attempt to confront these predictions with Ecuadorian data using a wide range of statistical and econometric techniques. Its findings challenge conventional wisdom: the private sector is not necessarily more profitable and efficient than its public counterpart; both sectors have more behavioural commonalities than dissimilarities; the macro-economic impulse responses to both sectors dismiss the rationale for privatisation. Its conclusion calls for the deconstruction of welfare economics and management theory to capture non-paretian or second best environments.

RESUMEN. Una de las suposiciones subyacentes de la formación de la política económica, así como de los debates políticos y las reformas económicas yace en la separación entre el sector público y privado. A tal punto, que damos por sentado sus pronósticos tanto desde el punto de vista teórico como del empírico. Este estudio representa una tentativa de colocar frente a frente estos pronósticos con los datos ecuatorianos, utilizando una vasta gama de técnicas estadísticas y econométricas. Los hallazgos representan un desafío a la sabiduría convencional: el sector privado no es, necesariamente, más rentable y eficiente que su contraparte, el sector público; ambos sectores tienen más comunalidades comportamentales que diferencias; las respuestas a los impulsos macro-económicos para ambos sectores descartan las razones en pro de la privatización. Su conclusión aboga a favor de la deconstrucción de las economías asistecialistas y la teoría de la gestión usada para capturar entornos no paretianos o vengan en segundo lugar.

RESUMO. O divisor de águas entre o setor público e o privado é um dos pressupostos fundamentais das decis[otilde]es de política econômica, dos debates políticos e das reformas econômicas; tanto é que aceitamos seus prognósticos tanto do ponto de vista teórico quanto empírico. Este trabalho tenta confrontar tais previs[otilde]es com base em dados do Equador, utilizando uma vasta gama de técnicas estatísticas e econométricas. As descobertas desafiam o conhecimento convencional: o setor privado não é necessariamente mais lucrativo e eficiente do que o seu correspondente público; ambos os setores possuem mais semelhanças comportamentais do que diferenças; as reaç[otilde]es ao estímulo macro- econômico em ambos os setores descartam os fundamentos da privatização. A sua conclusão requer a desconstrução da economia do bem-estar e da teoria de administração para capturar os ambientes não-paretianos ou os melhores da segunda classe.     

公共选择视角:中小公司内部相互委托-代理模式——湖南省中小企业公司治理调查

运用新制度经济学观点,从公共选择视角,对中小公司在内外部因素约束下,自组织选择的三会合一、三权合一的内部相互委托-代理制衡机制进行分析,该模式较好的融合了中小公司在规模约束下,有效的降低监督、激励治理成本以及与市场机制制度化形式的要求,针对该模式所具有的自我保障、自我激励、自我监督的“三自”效率特征,提出了相应的政策和建议。     

Journal of Business-to-Business Marketing Part III: JBBM Book Reviews

A total of 143 books were reviewed over the period 1993–2008 in the Book Review section of the Journal of Business-to-Business Marketing. The books encompassed a broad array of topics, including the basic marketing mix elements of business-to-business marketing, purchasing, buyer-seller relationships, global marketing, Internet and e-commerce, organization studies, research methodology, strategy and general management, and education. During this period, five review essays provided thematic and comparative evaluations of a set of books.

This cumulative index is divided into two sections. The first provides a subject listing of books reviewed and the second is a chronological listing. All book reviews are located at the end of each issue of the journal.     

以现代化流通化解通货膨胀压力

文章指出,近两年我国资源类商品如石油、煤炭、电力、天然气等价格明显上涨,消费类商品如农副产品等价格大幅上涨,再加之房地产价格上涨,我国经济面临着较大的价格上涨压力,这既影响了我国向制造强国发展的速度,也影响了国民经济的整体运行质量,必须稳定物价,避免价格过快上涨。文章提出,提高流通效率,发展现代化流通是化解通货膨胀压力的一个切实可行的办法,应着力培育大型流通企业集团,发挥规模经济效益;组建规范的股份公司,对接资本市场;建立专业化的品牌流通企业,减少交易成本;加强信用建设,创新交易方式。     

企业家背景特征对企业国际化战略选择的影响研究——来自中国上市公司国际化的证据

文章采用高价理论研究视角,选取沪深上市公司2003～2007年的数据作为研究样本,实证检验了企业家背景特征对企业国际化战略选择的影响。研究结果揭示:(1)企业家年龄对国际化战略选择的影响呈现复杂的U型曲线关系;(2)企业家受教育程度对企业国际化战略选择的负面影响非常显著;(3)企业家教育专业、职业背景与企业国际化程度显著正相关。鉴于中国企业家所处独特的文化与制度环境,文章也对实证结果作了讨论与解释。     

国有股流通方案研究

当前，国有股不流通已成为我国国有企业发展、整体资本市场健全和国民经济结构调整的一大障碍，国有股流通势在必行。真正实现国有股流通还得分清上市介司不同情况，采取相应策略，分步实施：配合国有股流通方案，建立各项基金，增加资金供给；实现国有股流通资金有效回收和再运行；理清国有资产管理邯门和证券管理部门的业务职能，加大管理力度。