BOOK REVIEW

Abstract

FINANCIAL DECISIONS IN EMERGING MARKETS. Jaime Sabal. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002. 280 pp. $55.00 paper. ISBN 0-19-514459-7. Reviewed by Kofi A. Amoateng.     

BOOK REVIEWS

Abstract

CONSUMER PSYCHOLOGY OF TOURISM, HOSPITALITY, AND LEISURE. Geoffrey I. Crouch (Editor), Volume 3. Cambridge, Massachusetts: CABI Publishing, 2004. Reviewed by Kevin R. Fish.

SELLING BRITISH COLUMBIA: TOURISM AND CONSUMER CULTURE. Michael Dawson. 1890-1970, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada: University of British Columbia Press, 2004. Reviewed by Kevin R. Fish.     

Book Review

Kindleberger, Charles P., The International Economic Order: Essays on Financial Crisis and International Public Goods, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1988, xi + 235 pages.

Root, Franklin R., International Trade and Investment (6th ed.), Cincinnati, OH: South-Western Publishing Co., 1990, viii + 696 pages.

Krugman, Paul, Rethinking International Trade, Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 1990, viii + 282 pages.

Schmiegelow, Michele, and Henrik Schmiegelow, Strategic Pragmatism: Japanese Lessons in the Use of Economic Theory, New York: Praeger, 1989, 212 pages.

Lynn, Leonard H., and Timothy J. McKeown, Organizing Business: Trade Associations in America and Japan, Washington, DC: American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, 1988, xviii +191 pages.

Patterson, Seymour, The Microeconomics of Trade, Kirksville, MO: Thomas Jefferson University Press, 1989, vii + 223 pages.

Whalley, John, The Uruguay Round and Beyond—Final Report from the Ford Foundation Project on Developing Countries and the Global Trading System, Ann Arbor: MI: The University of Michigan Press, 1989, xi + 211 pages.

Baumol, William J., Edward N. Wolff, and Sue Anne Batey Blackman, Productivity and American Leadership: The Long View, Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 1989, x + 395 pages.

Carter, Barry E., International Economic Sanctions: Improving the Haphazard U.S. Legal Regime, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1988, xiv + 290 pages.

Dornbusch, Rudiger, The Road to Economic Recovery: Report of the Twentieth Century Fund Task Force on International Debt, Background Paper, New York: Priority Press, 1989, vi + 123 pages.

Edwards, Sebastian, Real Exchange Rates, Devaluation and Adjustment, Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 1989, xi + 371 pages.     

BOOK REVIEWS

Abstract

PRIVATIZATION IN CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE. Estrin, Saul (editor). London: Longman, 1994, 331 + xvipp. Reviewed by Lavinia Stan.

KREMLIN CAPITALISM; PRIVATIZING THE RUSSIAN ECONOMY. Blasi, Joseph R., Maya Kroumova, and Douglas Kruse. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 1997. Reviewed by Val Samonis.

WORLD INVESTMENT REPORT 1997: TRANSNATIONAL CORPORATIONS, MARKET STRUCTURE AND COMPETITION POLICY. Geneva: United Nations, 1997. Reviewed by Ambreen Mahmud.     

Book Reviews

Trade and Growth: New Dilemmas in Trade Policy by MANUEL R. AGOSIN and DIANA TUSSIE (eds.) (Basingstoke: Macmillan Press, 1994), pp. xvii & 296, ISBN 0 333 59918 7. Reviving the European Union by RANDALL C. HENNING, EDUARD HOCHREITER and GARY CLYDE HUFBAUER (Washington: Institute of International Economics and The Austrian National Bank, 1994), pp. 176, US $25.00, £14.99 softback, ISBN 0 88132 208 3. Policy Issues in the Operation of Currency Unions by PAUL R. MASON and MARK P. TAYLOR (eds.) (Cambridge, New York: Cambridge University Press, 1993), pp. xiv & 310, ISBN 0 521 43455 6. World Without End: Economics, Environment and Sustainable Development by DAVID W. PEARCE and JEREMY J. WARFORD (Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press, 1993), pp. xi & 440, ISBN 0 19 520881 1.     

Book reviews

Successful Product Development: Management Practices in American and British Firms by Axel Johne and Patricia Snelson. (Basil Blackwell Ltd, Oxford, 1990). 240 pages. £29.50. ISBN 0 631 17448 6.

Customer Driven by Linda Silverman Goldzimer (Hutchinson Business Books, London, 1990). 233 pages. £14.95 hardback, ISBN 0 091 74442 3 (csd). £7.99 paperback, ISBN 0 091 74443 1 (ppr).

Marketing for the National Health Service by Rod Sheaff. (The Open University Press, Milton Keynes, 1991). £11.95 paperback. ISBN 0 335 15427 1.     

Book reviews

Marketing Strategies for Services edited by Michel Kostecki (Pergamon Press, 1994) £37.00. ISBN 0 08 042389 2

Emancipating the Professions—Marketing Opportunities from De‐regulation by Aubrey Wilson (John Wiley & Sons Ltd, 1994) £24.95. ISBN 0 471 94437 8     

REVIEWS

Abstract

PRIVATE CAPITAL FLOWS TO EMERGING MARKETS AFTER THE MEXICAN CRISIS. Calvo, Guillermo A., Morris Goldstein, and Eduard Hochreiter (Eds.). Washington, D.C.: Institute for International Economics, September 1996, Tables, Figures, 330 pp. Reviewed by Roberto J. Santillán Salgado.

INDUSTRIALIZATION AND POLITICAL AFFINITY: INDUSTRIAL POLICY IN BRAZIL. Nelson, Roy C. London and New York: Thunderbird/Routledge, 1995, 144 pp. Reviewed by Kurt Weyland.

PRIVATIZING MONOPOLIES: LESSONS FROM THE TELECOMMUNICATIONS AND TRANSPORT SECTORS IN LATIN AMERICA. Ramamurti, Ravi. (Ed.). Baltimore, Maryland: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996, vii + 401 pp. Reviewed by Alejandro Ibarra Yunez.     

Book review

Aliber, Robert Z., The Multinational Paradigm, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1993, 282 pages.

Jerome, Robert W. (Ed.), World Trade at the Crossroads, Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1992, 290 pages.

Walters, Robert S. (Ed.), Talking Trade: U.S. Policy in International Perspective, Boulder: Westview Press, 1993, 159 pages.

Murray, Geoffrey, Doing Business in China, New York: St. Martin's Press, 1994, 350 pages.

Schutte, Hellmut (Ed.), The Global Competitiveness of the Asian Firm, New York: St. Martin's Press, 1994, 379 pages.     

The Joint Effects of Formal Institutions and Business Characteristics on Interfirm Guanxi in China: A Fuzzy Set Analysis

ABSTRACT

Purpose: This research intends to investigate the effects of formal market institutions on managers’ willingness to use personal networks, such as guanxi in China, for business success.

Methodology: We collect data from a major cellular phone manufacturer and its 277 retailers across China. We employ Fuzzy set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (FsQCA) to identify necessary conditions and causal recipes (combinations of antecedent conditions) for three elements of guanxi between boundary spanners (i.e., ganqing, information favor, and business support) and a firm’s operational performance.

Findings: We find that formal market institutions are not the sole factor influencing managers’ decisions on exercising guanxi practices and, in turn, achieving interfirm collaboration. We also find that there exists more than one causal recipe leading to each key element of guanxi between boundary spanners. The results also suggest that well-established formal market institutions would never be able to completely eliminate guanxi practices in China.

Originality: This paper is among the first to examine the joint effects of formal market institutions and key characteristics of interfirm relationships on the use of guanxi practices.     

Exploring the Role of Product Development Capability for Transforming Marketing Intelligence into Firm Performance

ABSTRACT

Purpose: This study examines the role of product development capability for transforming marketing intelligence activities into firm performance on industrial markets.

Methodology/Approach: The authors apply structural equation modeling to analyze survey data from 342 industrial manufacturing companies.

Findings: Results reveal that sales integration and holistic macroeconomic view are particularly important features of the marketing intelligence capability on industrial markets to gain additional insights in order to develop products successfully. Results also reveal that product development capability transforms the marketing intelligence activities into firm performance on industrial markets.

Research Implications: This study offers new insights on marketing theory by extending and concretizing the concept of market orientation to a broader concept of the marketing intelligence capability for industrial markets. Further, this research reveals that the product development capability serves as a mediator to business performance.

Practical Implications: This study’s systematic and tangible outline of the dimensions of marketing intelligence and its link to the product development capability helps firms to better understand how to capitalize on market orientation’s potential values.

Originality/Value/Contribution: This research (a) reveals the relevant dimensions of marketing intelligence on industrial markets and (b) shows how the product development capability tranforms marketing intelligence activities into firm performance on industrial markets.     

SOFTWARE AND BOOK REVIEWS

Abstract

MENU PRO 4.0. Softcafe, LLC. P. 0. Box 759, Silver Springs, MD 20918 USA, 1-800-747-3690 (e-mail: sofcafe@mazupro.com) (World Mde Web: http://www menupro.com). Reviewed by H. G. Parsa.     

Book reviews

The Internationalization of the Firm edited by Peter J. Buckley and Pervez Ghauri (Academic Press, London, 1993). 371 pages. £16.95. ISBN 0 566 02516 7.

Practical Marketing Research by Neil B. Holbert and Mark W. Speece (Prentice‐Hall, Í993). 302 pages. Paperback £16.95. ISBN 0 13 145954 6.     

Still enamoured of the glocal: A comment on ‘From local to grobal,and back’

This is a comment on M. Hoogenboom, D. Bannink, & W. Trommel (2010), ‘From local to grobal, and back’ (Business History, 52(6), 932–954). While great appreciation is expressed for the authors’ effort to test empirically the theoretical ideas developed by G. Ritzer (2007) in The globalization of nothing (2nd ed., Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge Press), a number of reservations are expressed about the way his ideas are interpreted. The article has the unfortunate tendency to support the idea of glocalisation rather than the broader model developed by Ritzer.     

Social Contracting in a Pluralist Process of Moral Sense Making: A Dialogic Twist on the ISCT

This paper applies Wempe’s (2005, Business Ethics Quarterly 15(1), 113–135) boundary conditions that define the external and internal logics for contractarian business ethics theory, as a system of argumentation for evaluating current or prospective institutional arrangements for arriving at the “good life,” based on the principles and practices of social justice. It does so by showing that a more dynamic, process-oriented, and pluralist ‘dialogic twist’ to Donaldson and Dunfee’s (2003, ‘Social Contracts: sic et non’, in P. Heugens, H. van Oosterhout and J. Vromen (eds.), The Social Institutions of Capitalism: Evolution and Design of Social Contracts (Cheltenham, UK, Edward Elgar Publishing, Ltd.) pp. 109–126; 1999, Ties that Bind: A Social Contracts Approach to Business Ethics (Boston, MA, Harvard Business School Press); 1995, Economics and Philosophy 11(1), 85–112; 1994, Academy of Management Review 19(2), 252–284.) integrated social contracting theory (ISCT) of economic ethics will further develop this promising and influential approach to moral reasoning, ethical decision-making, and stakeholder governance. This evolutionary, interactive learning-based model of ethical norm generation via dialogic stakeholder engagement is particularly appropriate within economic communities that are experiencing value conflict and pressures for institutional change.Jerry M. Calton is Professor of Management at the University of Hawaii at Hilo. His research interests encompass multi-stakeholder learning dialogue, trust-based network governance, and the social contracting approach to ethical decision-making. His publications have appeared in the Journal of Business Ethics, Business & Society, Business Ethics Quarterly, the Journal of Corporate Citizenship, and elsewhere.     

Book Reviews: C. John Miller &; Richard S. Goldberg: Product liability, 2nd ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004. 971 pp. ISBN 0-19-825678-7. GBP 145.00.

Book Review

Book Reviews: C. John Miller &; Richard S. Goldberg: Product liability, 2nd ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004. 971 pp. ISBN 0-19-825678-7. GBP 145.00.     

Book Reviews

Caves, Richard E., and Associates, Industrial Efficiency in Six Nations, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1992, xii + 492 pages.

National Research Council, Panel on Foreign Trade Statistics, Behind the Numbers: U.S. Trade in the World Economy, Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press, 1992, xi + 297 pages.

Fischer, Klaus, and George J. Papaioannou (eds.), Business Finance in Less Developed Capital Markets, Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1992, xi + 391 pages.

Krugman, Paul R., Currencies and Crises, Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 1992, xix + 219 pages.

Howell, Thomas R., Alan Wm. Wolff, Brent L. Bartlett, and R. Michael Gadbaw, Conflict Among Nations: Trade Policies in the 1990s, Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1992, xiv + 633 pages.

Starr, Martin K., Global Corporate Alliances and the Competitive Edge: Strategies and Tactics for Management, New York: Quorum Books, 1991, xiii + 236 pages.

Liesch, Peter W., Government Mandated Countertrade, Aldershot, England: Avebury, 1991, xv + 172 pages.

Kotabe, Masaaki, Global Sourcing Strategy: R&D, Manufacturing, and Marketing Interfaces, New York: Quorum Books, 1992, xviii + 237 pages.     

An Investigation on Incentive Strategies in Community Building in Business-to-Business Electronic Markets

ABSTRACT

Purpose: Community building is recognized as an important governance mechanism in business-to-business (B-to-B) electronic markets by enhancing firms’ participation in these platform markets. However, little research has been done regarding the role of incentive strategies in community building. The main purpose of this paper is to understand how to motivate merchants to participate in a merchant community with incentive strategies.

Methodology: Data were collected in a community of a large B-to-B electronic platform market in China. We randomly chose a sample of 605 participants from among all merchant firms registered in this community, and track their behaviors for 2 weeks. Their behaviors are recorded based on our research design.

Findings: With the empirical analysis from a community of a large B-to-B electronic platform market in China, our results show that (1) both platform and peer incentive strategies can significantly enhance community participation, while platform incentives is more effective in general; (2) platform incentive strategy is a more effective strategy as seller firm uncertainty increases; (3) peer incentive strategy is a more effective strategy as buyer firm uncertainty increases.

Originality: This paper is among the first to investigate two types of incentive strategies in community building, platform level and peer level. We also investigate the moderating role of market uncertainties due to market participants from seller and buyer when examining the effectiveness of these two incentive strategies.     

The Ethics of Insider Trading Revisited

Following Manne (1966, Insider Trading and the Stock Market (New York, Free Press)) we introduce a distinction between insider trading and market manipulation on the one hand and corporate insiders versus misappropriators on the other hand. This gives rise to four types of alleged inside transactions. We argue that the literature on insider trading has often targeted inside transactions type II, III and IV but that these arguments do not necessarily hold for type I transactions. We look for consequentionalist as well as non-consequentionalist arguments against type I transactions and demonstrate that these are hard to find. Throughout the article we refer extensively to the economic literature on insider trading in order to overcome a relative divide between the economic, legal, and philosophical discussion on insider trading.

Customer Lifetime Value and Firm Valuation

SUMMARY

Unlike most marketing metrics, CLV provides information which is directly relevant to marketing decision makers, non-marketing executives such as CFOs, and financial analysts. This paper highlights why and how CLV is financially relevant. It explicitly compares CLV-based valuation with four finance-oriented methods (DCF, P/E ratio, customer counting, and extrapolation). We also discuss implications for marketing managers, financial executives as well as educators.