Industry,corporate, and segment effects and business performance: a non‐parametric approach

The literature investigating the degree to which firm performance is associated with industry or corporate factors has recently been subject to criticism on the grounds of both methodological shortcomings and incomplete interpretation of results. Our research goes beyond these critiques to raise more basic issues concerning the assumptions underlying variance decomposition, the methodology dominating the antecedent literature. Performance data and categorizations from a sample consistent with those employed in the recent literature are analyzed via a new non‐parametric methodology. Results here indicate that corporate factors were over an order of magnitude better predictors of business unit profit position than were industry factors—which were found not to have been significant predictors. Further, underlying performance relationships were seen to have shifted over time. A key implication of these results for researchers is that they provide additional evidence that managers can have a strategic influence on business performance. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Staples and Office Depot: An Event-Probability Case Study

Investors in financial markets bet their dollars on whether amerger will raise or lower prices. Below, we apply an event-probability methodology to the proposed merger between Staples and Office Depot, which was challenged by the FTC and eventually withdrawn. In addition to a time-series regression,we also look at the effect of the merger in specific event windows. We find highlysignificant returns to the only rival firm in the relevant market. We estimate theprice effect of the merger and find it highly consistent with independent estimates.     

Ownership,organization, and private firms' efficient use of resources

The principal–agent theory asserts that public firms' performance is driven by efficient capital and labor markets but is silent about non‐listed private companies, which are less permeable to market forces (both capital and labor) than are public companies. We propose and test a 2 × 2 framework distinguishing owner‐controlled vs. agent‐led firms from firms with a flat vs. multilayer organization. Our findings provide highly contrasted results and raise important issues for further study of private firms. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

中国上市公司可转债发行动因:“后门权益”VS“代理成本”

本文以中国上市公司2002—2008年发行的可转债为研究样本进行实证研究,发现可转债发行公告的财富效应与该可转债实现转股可能性的预期正相关,具体而言,与发行公司的成长机会、财务困境风险水平正相关,并且与整体股市的状况也紧密相关。进一步结合可转债退市的分析表明,中国上市公司可转债融资是一种典型的后门权益融资。实证研究的结果不支持基于代理成本的动因假说。     

The U.S. industrial marketer's position in international trade

The purpose of this article is to examine some of the interests served by international trade and several of the factors that will affect the environment in which the marketing manager will operate in the next decade. The diverse forces that influence foreign trade are of increasing importance to marketing strategy. Although salesmen are still counseled to “sell-like-hell”, senior marketing people need to have a perspective that permits them to anticipate the threats and oppurtunities these forces create. We will suggest some of the trends and issues to which the marketer must be alert. While our analysis will be most appropriate for American companies, this approach is also applicable for firms based in other countries.The article is divided into five parts. In the first part we examine the importance and motives for U.S. international trade. We then explore U.S. patterns of imports and exports. In the third section we consider the role of technology in trade. Next we consider some of the trends that seem to apply for the next decade. Finally we raise some issues that will probably demand the marketer's attention in the future.     

Unpaid crowd complementors: The platform network effect mirage

Platforms have evolved beyond just being organized as multi‐sided markets with complementors selling to users. Complementors are often unpaid, working outside of a price system and driven by heterogeneous sources of motivation—which should affect how they respond to platform growth. Does reliance on network effects and strategies to attract large numbers of complementors remain advisable in such contexts? We test hypotheses related to these issues using data from 85 online multi‐player game platforms with unpaid complementors. We find that complementor development responds to platform growth even without sales incentives, but that attracting complementors has a net zero effect on on‐going development and fails to stimulate network effects. We discuss conditions under which a strategy of using unpaid crowd complementors remains advantageous. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Fiber vs. vectoring: Limiting technology choices in broadband expansion

The upgrade of legacy infrastructure is a challenging undertaking in general. The underlying issues are especially prominent for telecommunications networks outside of urban areas. Using German micro-level data, we identify the structural determinants for fiber optics deployment and its extent. We also measure the role of technology competition from the existing infrastructures, VDSL-Vectoring and TV-Cable. In this setting and exploiting a natural experiment, a technologically restrictive policy as proposed by the European Commission is found to be ineffective in promoting fiber deployment. Policy interventions in the form of subsidies targeted at specific local infrastructure projects, however, raise the likelihood of fiber deployment by a substantial margin. A targeted, proactive policy approach is therefore needed to overcome structural and geographical disadvantages.     

Supply function equilibria with capacity constraints and pivotal suppliers

The concept of a supply function equilibrium (SFE) has been widely used to model generators' bidding behavior and market power issues in wholesale electricity markets. Observers of electricity markets have noted how generation capacity constraints may contribute to market power of generation firms. If a generation firm's rivals are capacity constrained then the firm may be pivotal; that is, the firm could substantially raise the market price by unilaterally withholding output. However the SFE literature has not fully considered the impact of capacity constraints and pivotal firms on equilibrium predictions. We characterize the set of symmetric supply function equilibria for uniform-price auctions when firms are capacity constrained and show that this set is increasing as capacity per firm rises. We provide conditions under which asymmetric equilibria exist and characterize these equilibria. In addition, we compare results for uniform-price auctions to those for discriminatory auctions, and we compare our SFE predictions to equilibrium predictions of models in which bidders are constrained to bid on discrete units of output.     

Regulating the BBC

The BBC is active in an increasing number of markets. In some cases the BBC enters the market using licence fee income; in others its commercial operations have linkages with licence-fee activities—for example, by provision of resources for programme making, joint funding of programmes, trailing of commercial products, and so on. These situations raise serious competition issues. The authors conclude that theory and evidence suggest exceptional risks that anticompetitive practices by the BBC will discourage private sector initiative and investment in broadcasting and related markets and recommend strengthened ex ante regulation of the BBC by OFCOM.     

Fighting for Other Folks' Wages: The Logic and Illogic of Living Wage Campaigns

Living wage campaigns have enacted ordinances/policies to raise low wages in over 100 localities. The campaigns galvanize citizens more than national economic issues and allow for pay increases fine-tuned to local realities, but cover relatively few workers. To help the low-paid broadly, the coalitions in living wage campaigns have to scale up to the state or national level while unions and national groups work to devolve labor issues from the gridlock at the federal level to states and localities.     

The Productivity-Enhancing Impacts of the Minimum Wage: Lessons from Denmark and New Zealand

This article adds an international comparative perspective to the reflection on 100 years of minimum wage legislation in Britain by exploring the impact of minimum wage regulations and institutions in Denmark and New Zealand. In particular, it looks at the question of whether minimum wages can raise productivity through the 'shock effect'. It argues that while they will play a role, a supportive institutional framework is more important in providing coordinated solutions to issues of market failure, such as inadequate levels of training. The article suggests that sectoral bargaining institutions in low-paid sectors may have the potential to facilitate such coordination and enable the high-productivity model to emerge.     

我国螺杆泵标准化现状与国际标准化探讨

从螺杆泵标准化工作的角度,讨论了如何进一步提高螺杆泵产品质量,提升我国螺杆泵在国际市场竞争力的问题。论述了国内外螺杆泵标准的现状,对我国国家标准GB/T 21411-2008与ISO 15136-2009标准进行了比较分析,最后根据国外螺杆泵标准的启示提出了相应的建议。     

MARKET POWER,VERTICAL INTEGRATION AND THE WHOLESALE PRICE OF GASOLINE*

This paper examines empirically the relationship between vertical integration and wholesale gasoline prices. We use discrete and differential changes in the extent of vertical integration generated by mergers in West Coast gasoline refining and retailing markets to test for incentives to raise rivals' costs. The research design allows us to test for a relationship between vertical integration and wholesale prices, controlling for horizontal market structure, cost shocks and trends. We find evidence consistent with the strategic incentive to raise competitors' input costs. This suggests that vertical integration can have a significant impact on wholesale prices.     

Market microstructure in a global B2B network

On‐line marketplaces raise several interesting issues, among them the relevance of location when content is digitized, and the assessment of a supplier's capabilities when buyers worldwide only have electronic contact with sellers. In global B2B on‐line marketplaces, market microstructures, i.e. which firms compete for the same customers, are thus likely to be influenced by how customers value location and firm capabilities in their decisions to do business with different suppliers on‐line. We suggest that both these sets of attributes will continue to matter on‐line—firms possessing similar capabilities, as well as firms that are similar in location by country, time zones or clusters, will compete for business from the same customers. We model the similarity in competitive positions between pairs of firms based on the overlap in their customer networks, using data on actual interactions between supplier and customer banks on an electronic trading system. Using QAP network regression techniques on the 100 largest banks in this industry, we find that similarity in capabilities influences who competes with whom, and that location still matters in a global B2B exchange. Interestingly, location influences who a firm's competitors are, but not where its customers are from. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

对会计学专业开展诚信教育的研究

中国会计面临诚信危机的严峻挑战,加强会计诚信教育已迫在眉睫。高校应在会计诚信教育中发挥主导作用。开展会计诚信教育,有利于提高会计诚信认识、树立会计诚信信念、锻炼会计诚信意志、培养会计诚信习惯。会计诚信教育应从以下方面着手:第一,构建完善的诚信教育体系;第二,提高教育工作者的自身素质;第三,形成诚信的校园氛围;第四,建立诚信奖惩与约束监督机制;最后,开设会计诚信教育的相关课程。     

The Determinants of Pricing in the Mexican Domestic Airline Sector: The Impact of Competition and Airport Congestion

Low-cost airlines in Mexico affect the lowest-quoted fares of one of the two principal incumbent carriers, but have no effect on the lowest-quoted fares of the other incumbent carrier. The same conclusion holds for competition between incumbent carriers where the lowest-quoted fares of one of the incumbent carriers is lower when incumbents compete. Congestion at the Mexico City airport is limiting potential competition, with carriers being able to charge a significant price premium. This suggests that the societal costs of airport congestion can go well beyond the negative congestion externality and should also include the effects of reduced competition. These findings raise important public policy issues.     

Bribery and investment: Firm‐level evidence from Africa and Latin America

Research summary : Using a unique database that measures firm‐level bribery in Africa and Latin America, we corroborate extant results in the literature that paying bribes deters firm investments in fixed assets. Our contribution is to explore four mechanisms. By adopting a reverse causality approach (Gelman and Imbens, 2013), we find evidence consistent with one of them: short‐term oriented firms prefer to bribe rather than invest in fixed assets, while the opposite is true for firms with a long‐term orientation. We rule out that bribe payments drain financial resources for investment, that firms that invest do not bribe because fixed assets make them less flexible and more vulnerable to future bribes, and that less efficient firms bribe rather than invest. Managerial summary : We ask whether, along with ethical issues, bribing affects the behavior and performance of firms in Africa and Latin America. Our statistical analysis shows that bribe payments do not reduce the short‐term performance of firms, but frustrate investments in fixed assets, which is the foundation of firms' long‐term growth. It is like seeking a job via nepotism or education. Nepotism makes it likely to find a job in the short term. However, the solid skills generated by education raise the odds of finding better jobs in the future. We rule out some common explanations for the trade‐off between bribing and investment (e.g., bribes drain resources to invest or that less efficient firms bribe and do not invest). Our analysis suggests that firms with short‐term orientations are more likely to bribe and firms with long‐term orientation are more likely to invest. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The political economy of satellite business

Satellite communications systems are the outcome of the fusion of big governments, high technology and big business, whose needs they meet. As a major growth sector they are becoming extremely important in economic terms. But satellite communications raise wider issues of the relationships between rich and poor countries and within rich countries. They will crucially influence the location of economic activity and the future prospects for countries in terms of access to information, decision making and income. The article discusses these questions and suggests how Europe might improve its position. It also argues that participation in public policy on satellite communications should be opened to a wider range of parties.     

Competitive strategies of religious organizations

In recent years, sociologists and economists have given increased attention to studying religious organizations. Their writings raise unresolved issues related to topics within strategic management. This study brings theoretical perspectives from strategic management together with those of sociology and economics to understand the organizational and competitive aspects of religion. The initial portion of this article examines the nature of religious production, competition, and organization. Subsequent sections elaborate specific strategic management issues arising in religious organizations. Resource‐based and institutional perspectives provide a foundation for analyzing the sources of sustainable competitive advantage among religious organizations. The latter portion of this article shifts to the industry level of analysis and examines the roles of political strategies and strategic alliances in shaping religious competition. This theoretical discussion generates testable propositions regarding the competitive strategies of religious organizations and opens opportunities for future research. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.