An Introduction to the Symposium on the Use of Simulation in Applied Industrial Organization

Simulation offers a rigorous methodology for addressing policy or litigation issues that require a comparison of an observed state of the world with an unobserved one. Simulation employs a calibrated, structural oligopoly model to describe the unobserved state of the world. Calibration involves reliance on real-world observations to set the key parameter values in the model. Simulation is an increasingly important tool of the industrial organization economist, particularly in analyzing the competitive effects of mergers. Papers in this symposium illustrate merger simulations in a variety of contexts and one other application of simulation.     

企业并购品牌整合对品牌资产的影响

全球金融风暴引起新一轮的企业并购浪潮。在品牌并购中,品牌整合是企业要解决的核心问题。在梳理相关文献的基础上,分析品牌整合对品牌资产的影响过程,构建基于消费者的品牌整合对品牌资产影响的理论模型,并提出加强并购品牌整合的对策建议。     

可转债设计变量对赎回条款价值的影响

运用障碍期权定价的思想和首次通过时间风险中性概率分布,就可转债赎回条款建立价值评估模型,并以模型为基础,定量分析设计变量对赎回条款价值的影响,得到:面值越大,赎回权价值越大;回购价格越大赎回权价值越小。触发比率越大赎回权价值越大;触发价格越高,赎回权价值越小。在触发比率不变前提下,转换价格越大,赎回权价值越小。硬回购保护期不变条件下,赎回权价值随转换期或者到期时间的延长而升高,达到一个高点后,赎回权价值又随到期时间的继续延长而下降等结论。同时澄清了人们长期以来对转换期(或到期时间)影响赎回权价值的错误认识。     

创意的网络广告给促销带来的影响

世界已经进入信息时代,以国际互联网络为基础的信息技术正在改变着我们的生活方式、工作方式和商务方式。从万维网到电子邮件,正逐渐成为广告媒体用以接触消费者,向消费者传递信息的强有力的工具。互联网络的前景正在以前所未有的速度在全球范围内普及开来。在适当的时间向人们传递适当的广告,能给商家带来不可预测的促销影响,能产生更大的经济效益。     

江苏省专利制度对战略性新兴产业的影响分析

在追求高效的当今世界经济体系中,大力发展技术密集型产业是大势所趋。专利作为技术密集型产业的关键因素,无疑是发展战略性新兴产业的核心。完善而有效的专利制度成为战略性新兴产业发展的保障。本文希望通过实证分析获得专利制度是否对战略性新型产业的发展产生影响、呈何种影响方向、影响力度大小的有力证据,并基于专利制度提出发展战略性新型产业的有效措施和建议。希望能给全国的专利制度和战略性新兴产业发展起到示范作用。     

The Impact of Organizational and Environmental Variables on Strategic Market Orientation

Abstract

This paper offers a new look at market orientation by conceptualizing it from a strategic perspective. It differs from the current literature in that it develops a measure that emphasizes managerial attitudes and strategic intent. The new measure is empirically scrutinized by an investigation of its relationship with pertinent organizational and environmental variables, as well as company performance. Based on a survey of nearly 400 companies operating in the U.S., significant relationships emerged between Strategic Market Orientation and three organizational variables, namely strategic priorities, inter-departmental coordination and ownership nationality. Two of the environmental variables, namely intensity of competition and rate of technological change were also significantly related to Strategic Market Orientation. The relationship between Strategic Market Orientation and company performance remained inconclusive.     

The Impact of Market Environment on Excess Capacity and the Cost of an Empty Hospital Bed

The health economics literature contains contradictory empirical findings regarding the cost of an empty hospital bed. Recent empirical studies which account for the endogeneity of reserve capacity produce high estimates of these costs, while earlier studies and industry experts maintain that empty beds are cheap. This paper provides evidence which helps to reconcile the controversy. The cost of excess bed capacity will depend upon staffing levels of different types of labor in the hospital. We provide a relationship between capacity utilization, productive efficiency, and the cost of empty beds, and then compare the utilization of bed capacity in four very different market environments. These are the highly regulated, public Norwegian hospitals, who face very little competitive pressure, and the unregulated, private California hospitals, divided into three groups with variation in ownership and competitive environment. We find considerable variation in input utilization and excess capacity, with different implications for the cost of empty beds across the hospital groups and their respective market environments. Our findings suggest that the cost of an empty bed varies with market conditions, hence the seemingly contradictory findings in the literature are to be expected. Our findings also suggest an interesting area of future research: the impact of managed care on reserve capacity in hospitals.     

The Impact of Personality Variables,Prior Experience,and Training on Sales Agents' Internet Utilization and Performance

ABSTRACT

Emerging literature on the impact of the Internet on business-to-business (B2B) marketing has primarily focused on examining this issue from the perspective of manufacturers and buyers. This study focuses on the sales agent, a third prominent actor in B2B markets, and tests a conceptual model that relates a sales agent's personality, demographic, and user-situational constructs to that sales agent's Internet utilization for selling activities. Further, the model tested in this study relates a sales agent's Internet utilization to perceived sales performance. Findings in this study indicate that internal locus of control, learning orientation, and sales related Internet training relate positively to a sales agent's Internet utilization, and that a sales agent's age relates negatively to Internet utilization. Further, the results support a positive relationship between a sales agent's Internet utilization and sales performance. This study emphasizes that the Internet can be a productive tool for sales agents. The implications of the results of this study for sales agents with respect to training and recruitment are discussed and avenues for future research are suggested.