Australian consumer attitudes to health claim – food product compatibility for functional foods

This study with Australian consumers investigated how appealing different health claims combined with particular food carriers were to Australian consumers, and compared the results of a similar study with Dutch consumers. 149 shoppers considered up to 30 different food concepts, rating how ‘attractive’, ‘believable’, and ‘new and different’ they found each concept and their ‘intention to try’. Each variable was significantly related to intention to try (p < 0.001) and together explained 56% of the intention score. Claims and carriers independently had a significant effect on ratings of attractiveness and intention to try but, unlike the Dutch study, the carrier was a more important predictor of intention to purchase than the claim. Implications for regulation of health claims for food are discussed.     

Misuse of the ‘modified’ t statistic in regulatory telecommunications

Since the enactment of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 (1996), extensive expert testimony has justified use of the ‘modified’ t statistic (Brownie et al. Biometrics 46 (1990) 259–266) for performing two-sample hypothesis tests on Bell companies’ CLEC and ILEC performance measurement data. This paper demonstrates how key statistical claims made about the ‘modified’ t in this setting are false, leading not only to incorrect inferences as it currently is being used, but also to the possible undermining of the primary stated objective of the Act—the promotion of competition in the newly deregulated local telephone service markets. A simulation study provides strong evidence for the use of several other easily-implemented statistical procedures in this context; they should be useful in other settings as well.     

Communication technology transfer : Impact on economic development

International technology transfer is defined and described from the economics perspective, with emphasis on costs. Its role in economic development is discussed, including its impact on social values and the question of ‘appropriate’ technology for developing countries. Examples are provided for communications technology, particularly in the areas of telecommunications and satellite communications.     

Magic bullets and the nutrition agenda

This article is a rejoinder to Berg and Austin's paper. The authors have no quarrel with Berg and Austin's conclusion that ‘progress’ has been unspectacular and patchy, or that there is much worthwhile work to be done. However, the authors argue that what Berg and Austin have described is not a ‘new paradigm’, but more of the same — more magic bullets.     

The evolution of food aid : Towards a development first regime

The purpose of food aid has evolved over the past 30 years, shifting from surplus disposal to a ‘development first’ regime. This shift was accelerated by the World Food Conference, but even 10 years after the conference it is yet to be completed. There are inherent tensions between the older and new design principles. The author proposes a more coherent set of governing principles and norms.     

A mischievous attitude to African agriculture

The term ‘commercial agriculture’ has come to have two definitions: one for industrialized countries, and another for developing countries. Many academics and journalists imply that, for example, African agriculture is only ‘commercial agriculture’ when Africans are producing export crops such as coffee, cotton or tea for industrialized countries. Jossy Bibangambah disputes the logic and uses the case of Uganda to explain how food crops and cash crops compete when it comes to allocating resources.     

Quantifying the benefits of breaking bulk in retail operations

We explore the benefits of ‘breaking bulk’ in retail operations. Here, breaking bulk refers to delivering single units from distribution centers to retail outlets rather than the multiple units bundled together by manufacturers termed ‘case-packs’. The focus is largely on the benefits to space management at the retail level, rather than the more obvious reduction in inventory costs. Using data from the grocery industry, results indicate that retail unit profitability can be increased substantially by breaking bulk—but only if current inventory replenishment practices are changed. In essence, breaking bulk allows for either higher product variety within a store or identical variety in smaller stores. This work seeks to quantify the order of magnitude of that benefit.     

Quality infomediation in search markets

We examine the effects of informational intermediation by a third party ‘infomediary’ in a search model with heterogeneous seller qualities and asymmetric information. The infomediary earns revenue by selling a list of accredited sellers (a ‘guidebook’) to buyers and selling accreditations to sellers. We show that such information always improves welfare but can hurt informed buyers (as well as the uninformed) if it is not sufficiently informative about seller qualities. The model also provides a number of insights concerning the private and social incentives to create information, and the determinants and nature of demand for infomediation services by buyers and sellers.     

Autocorrelation in queuing network-type production systems—Revisited

In managing production systems, a strong emphasis is placed on the reduction of variance in specific transformation processes (e.g. for quality control purposes) and on controlling the level of variability in general, as for instance with the Bullwhip effect. However, the possible disturbing interference from autocorrelation (variability dependence over time) in otherwise level stable event streams has received little attention. From the literature, it is known that autocorrelation in queuing systems can lead to a large deterioration in performance compared to an event independent scenario. Thus, either production managers are missing important aspects in production planning, or the ‘realistic’ autocorrelation patterns inherent in actual production setups are not like those considered in the literature. In this paper, relevant and ‘realistic’ types of autocorrelation schemes are characterized and their levels discussed. The paper puts previous works on the impact of autocorrelation in queuing networks in perspective for production systems.     

The European Community's food aid programme : An integration of ideology, strategy, technology and surpluses

The European Community's food aid programme has come to be an unanticipated spillover from its Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). Policy-making within the institutions of the EEC consistently takes place in an environment of ideological differences, characterized by the ‘Europeans’ and the ‘nationalists’; the CAP is a front-line example. Its price-support features have enabled the Community's agriculture to be gradually and safely modernized. In turn, food surpluses, especially of dairy products, have become evident and costly. This mixture of ideology (including a strong dose of humanitarianism), strategy, technology and surpluses have played a major role in the development and construction of an EEC food aid policy, which has grown incrementally into a programme of significant proportions.     

Fish protein concentrate: Lessons for future food supplementation

Fish protein concentrate (FPC) was widely publicized during the late 1960s as the most promising of a number of ‘technological fixes’, to eliminate worldwide malnutrition. On the basis of their deep involvement in a study on the fate of FPC projects in over 40 countries, the authors speculate in this paper what lessons should be learned from the FPC experience for future food supplementation endeavours.     

Research in West Germany

In early 1976, the West German Federal Commission for Development of the Telecommunication System (Kommission fuer den Ausbau des technischen Kommunikationssystems) published its study on the future development of telecommunications. The main recommendation of the federal commission was the extension of ‘conventional’ services (ie telephone, telex). Three and a half years later, one can argue that nothing has changed fundamentally in the telecommunication sector in West Germany.     

Predatory investment U.S. vs. IBM

This paper examines the most likely example of anticompetitive behavior uncovered in the U.S. vs. IBM antitrust suit: the introduction by IBM of its 360/90 ‘super computer’ in response to the introduction of a similar machine by a competitor. The two leading competing hypotheses are examined — that IBM introduced its system as a weapon of predation, and that IBM expected the system to be profitable — and both are found wanting. The paper concludes that IBM almost certainly knew that the system would be unprofitable, but that the hypothesis of predation is less appealing than that of product-market signaling.     

From TDF to international data services

TDF is a live subject, constrained by old confusions and worn out issues. Under a suggested new term ‘international data services’, which applies itself directly to the problems involved, this paper examines the current environment and addresses the pressing issues. The author discards matters that are no longer applicable to examine those that are neglected, and he stresses the need for a broad international agreement on pressing issues.     

UK Carter committee report— far-reaching implications

As the second largest employer in the UK — second only to the government itself — and as an organization whose services are used by virtually every inhabitant of the UK, the Post Office (PO) periodically finds itself the subject of an anlytical review. The latest such review of the PO's activities, organizational structure and relationship to the public it serves is by most tokens the most far-reaching. This article analyses the findings relating to telecommunications of the Report of the Post Office Review Committee (‘Carter Committee’).     

Telematics, teleconferencing and education

‘Telematics’ refers to the transmission of information over a distance. In the context of three theoretical perspectives - technological determinism, symbolic interactionism and information theory - the author discusses the impact of telematics in education on the learner, the content learned, and the learning process.     

Sunk costs, windows of profit opportunities, and the dynamics of entry

This article adds two elements to a standard model of monopolistic competition: First, the number of potential entrants is limited in each period and increases only over time. Second, the potential entrants differ with respect to the consumers’ valuation of the variant they could offer. The resulting simple model exhibits a rich dynamic structure covering the product life cycle, a path dependent equilibrium and the traditional textbook case of entry. The welfare analysis confirms the view that there cannot be too much entry. Even entry of ‘inefficient’ firms improves welfare.     

Restructuring the US telecommunications industry: Impact on innovation

Plans for restructuring the US telecommunications corporation, AT & T have been discussed recently. The fear has been expressed that such restructuring would be harmful to innovation and technical progress in the industry, and hence ultimately harmful to the USA. This article addresses that question in the context of proposed legislative changes to the 1934 Communications Act. Existing economic evidence suggests that these fears are unfounded. Arguments relating to firm size (the ‘Schumpeterian hypothesis’), concentrated industry structure, and regulation suggest that the proposed changes would increase rather than decrease innovative activity.     

Third generation new entrants in the European mobile telecommunications industry

This paper focuses on new entrants within the European mobile telecommunications industry. More particularly, the paper identifies those new entrants that emerged from the third-generation (3G) licensing process across Europe before examining how they have fared. Four operators seeking to become new entrants across a range of countries are identified, although only one of them—Hutchison Whampoa trading as ‘3’—is considered to be fully active as a 3G new entrant. It is argued that the success of Hutchison Whampoa to date has been patchy, and that a supportive parent company has significantly contributed to its ability to remain active.