Sabotaging Another: Priming Competition Increases Cheating Behavior in Tournaments

Trophy. Goal. Dominated . Does priming individuals with competitive concepts such as these influence the temptation to cheat? We utilize a standard laboratory cheating task in a tournament setting and test whether nonconscious priming impacts the nature of cheating behavior. The results demonstrate an asymmetry in a winner‐take‐all setting: a competitive prime does not increase cheating to improve one's own outcome, but does significantly increase the willingness of an individual to sabotage a competitor.     

Business Cycles and FDI: Evidence from German Sectoral Data

Globalization has affected business cycle developments in OECD countries and has increased activities of firms across national borders. This paper analyzes whether these two developments are linked. We use a new firm-level data set on the foreign activities of German firms to test whether foreign activities are affected by business cycle developments. We aggregate the data by the sector of the reporting firm, the sector of the foreign affiliate, and the host country. Data are annual and cover the period 1989–2002. We find that German outward FDI increases in response to positive cyclical developments abroad and in response to a real depreciation of the domestic currency. JEL no. E3, F23     

The impact of customer satisfaction and relationship quality on customer retention: A critical reassessment and model development

Customer satisfaction with a company's products or services is often seen as the key to a company's success and long-term competitiveness. In the context of relationship marketing, customer satisfaction is often viewed as a central determinant of customer retention. However, the few empirical investigations in this area indicate that a direct relationship between these constructs is weak or even nonexistent. The overall purpose of this article is to develop a conceptual foundation for investigating the customer retention process, with the use of the concepts of customer satisfaction and relationship quality. The article involves a critical examination of the satisfaction–retention relationship, and the development of a more comprehensive view of the customer's quality perception. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Mapping the university technology transfer process

Transfer of technologies from the universities to the private sector is increasingly regarded as playing a significant role in new business starts, growth of existing businesses, and new job creation. Further, there are monerous models describing the process of technology transfer. Some of the existing models represent this process as a linear progression of steps: from idea generation and technology development at the university, to patenting the technology and then establishing a university-private firm link through a formal search process. The process culminates in patent rights transfer. Other models describe technology transfer in terms of networking arrangements and emphasize not so much formal search as the role of long-term relationships between the two parties. Still other studies indicate that it is possible to combine the two approaches—formal search and informal networking arrangements—to ensure successful transfer.Business firms involved in transfer also may be classified into several groups. Transfer could occur between the university and an established firm, between the university and a recently created new venture, or transfer could result in the creation of a new company. Technology, for example, could be transferred to a large company that uses the transferred technology as a basis for just one of many product lines, or to a small firm that makes the transferred technology a cornerstone of its product strategy.Are there any differences among the transfer processes used when large or small firms are involved, or when technology is transferred to an existing company, or results in the creation of a new firm? To address these questions, we mapped the technology transfer processes of 23 different technologies developed at the University of Minnesota from 1983 to 1993.More than half of the technologies studied went to large companies and were used either to upgrade existing products or to extend existing product lines. In eight cases technologies were transferred to small firms. In three cases technologies were transferred to venture capital firms or intermediaries and had not been commercialized at the time the study was completed. In the rest of the cases new firms were created by the inventors/university scientists themselves and served as vehicles for marketing their inventions. None of the firms of the latter group have grown beyond a part-time employment opportunity for the inventors, and only one firm provided evidence that additional hiring would be necessary in the near future.Only four cases involved transfers of technologies that have been developed and patented by the university to firms that did not have any relationships with the university prior to the transfer. In these four cases the firms used some form of search strategy to find a needed technology. However, there is no evidence that any of the firms had a well-developed formal search procedure. In the overwhelming majority of cases some form of relationship existed between the university (or individual inventors) and the private firm prior to the transfer. These relationships ranged from long-term friendships and/or cooperation to such less involved forms as interaction at research seminars and university-sponsored events. Further, in four cases, the technologies were initially developed by private companies, whereas the university's role was to assist in refinement or testing of the technology.The research yielded a number of additional findings that deserve further investigation and discussion. Specifically, the study did not provide any evidence that the successfully completed technology transfers made any substantial contribution to either new business creation or the generation of new jobs. This finding suggests that scholars and policy makers should proceed with caution before accepting a notion that new or high technology firms will have any direct economic impact.The study findings hold specific implications for entrepreneurial behavior and public policy. The “formal search and shopping” for a technology model suggests that both business and academic/government laboratories publicize, respectively, their requirements and offerings, and that opportunities for creative brokerage ought to exist. We found that in the majority of cases technology was transferred not through formal search, but through some prior relationships among individuals. This observation suggests that the ability to build extended networks of relationships not only within the business world but also with the university community is an important skill that owners and managers of the technology-based businesses need to possess. Entrepreneurs seeking to start businesses based on new technologies may need to reevaluate how much of their limited time to allocate to build and maintain networks and cooperative relationships, and how much time to shop for new technologies through formal channels. Further, public policy and the efforts of the university transfer agencies intended to facilitate transfer may need to shift their emphasis from facilitating “shopping” by organizing and/or paying for “publicity” (which is currently the major emphasis) to providing assistance in network building and relationship marketing efforts.     

A simple macro model of Original Sin based on optimal price setting under incomplete information

This paper analyses the consequences of “original sin” (the fact that the currency of an emerging market economy usually cannot be used to borrow abroad) for macroeconomic stability. The approach is based on third-generation models of currency crises, but differs from alternative versions by explicitly modeling the price setting behavior of firms if prices are sticky and there is incomplete information about the future exchange rate. It is shown that a small depreciation is beneficial, but a large one is detrimental.     

Money and banking in a mature Walrasian economy

All financial transactions in the original Walrasian economy, as written in the édition définitive of the éléments, occur in the markets for short-term money services (the short-term bond market) and commodity E (the equity market). However, introduction of the long-term bond and the deposit markets requires only minor surgery to the original and they are now supplied, inspiring the name mature Walrasian economy. Transactions in numeraire then entail all institutions of the banking system and provide completely for money and credit. Into this economy the condition of inconvertibility, a discretionary numeraire with reserve requirements, and a central bank are introduced and clarified. Finally, multiple monetary subsystems in the same global economy are recognized and reconciled, thus establishing a global economy with a single numeraire commodity.     

The transfer of Tax Increment Financing (TIF) as an urban policy for spatially targeted economic development

Urban policy transfer between the US and UK has long been of interest to researchers and practitioners. Given the recent wider context of reduced direct funding and the absence of a coherent regeneration policy, this paper considers the introduction of Tax Increment Financing (TIF) to the UK as a method of stimulating spatially targeted economic development initiatives. The paper explores whether TIF could be considered a form of policy transfer, and in doing so uncovers whether the transfer of TIF could – (a) be successful and unsuccessful under certain circumstances; (b) require the actions of certain stakeholders; and (c) be enabled via prescribed frameworks and negotiation. The results are evidenced using qualitative approaches and find that TIF is more of a modified policy ‘idea’ rather than transfer. Further discussion argues that TIF can be successful, if it considers flexible but local elements and has the capacity to balance stakeholders for development brokerage.     

Challenges for land system science

While considerable progress has been made in understanding land use change, land system science continues to face a number of grand challenges. This paper discusses these challenges with a focus on empirical land system studies, land system modelling and the analysis of future visions of land system change. Contemporary landscapes are contingent outcomes of past and present patterns, processes and decisions. Thus, empirical analysis of past and present land-use change has an important role in providing insights into the socio-economic and ecological processes that shape land use transitions. This is especially important with respect to gradual versus rapid land system dynamics and in understanding changes in land use intensity. Combining the strengths of empirical analysis with multi-scale modelling will lead to new insights into the processes driving land system change. New modelling methods that combine complex systems thinking at a local level with macro-level economic analysis of the land system would reconcile the multi-scale dynamics currently encapsulated in bottom-up and top-down modelling approaches. Developments in land use futures analysis could focus on integrating explorative scenarios that reflect possible outcomes with normative visions that identify desired outcomes. Such an approach would benefit from the broad and in-depth involvement of stakeholders in order to link scientific findings to political and societal decision-making culminating in a set of key choices and consequences. Land system models have an important role in supporting future land use policy, but model outputs require scientific interpretation rather than being presented as predictions. The future of land system science is strongly dependent on the research community's capacity to bring together the elements of research discussed in the paper, via empirical data collection and analysis of observed processes, computer simulation across scale levels and futures analysis of alternative, normative visions through stakeholder engagement.     

Trade policy substitution: theory and evidence

Review of World Economics - With the help of a political economy model, we show that the extent of ‘trade policy substitution’—namely, substitution of tariffs with non-tariff...     

Technology transfer via foreign patents in Germany, 1843–77

This article analyses the spread of innovation in mid‐nineteenth‐century Germany using foreign patents as an indicator for technology transfer. It introduces a new dataset of over 1,400 patents granted in the Grand Duchy of Baden between 1843 and 1877. The data show that Baden's technology import via foreign patents from German and non‐German inventors was important. This technology transfer was broadly based, although technologies related to the textile and machine‐building industries are prominent in the data. The decision to file a patent in Baden was driven by competition and the risk of imitation. Using a gravity model with city‐level data, we find evidence that technology transfer through patents reflected existing trade links. The strong correlation between technologies filed by foreigners and domestic inventors provides further evidence that the risk of imitation fostered patent‐based technology transfer during the mid‐nineteenth century. Furthermore, we show that foreigners filed patents predominantly in industries that accounted for a high share of the workforce in Baden.