Infrastructure, Geographical Disadvantage, Transport Costs, and Trade

The authors use different data sets to investigate the dependenceof transport costs on geography and infrastructure. Infrastructureis an important determinant of transport costs, especially forlandlocked countries. Analysis of bilateral trade data confirmsthe importance of infrastructure and gives an estimate of theelasticity of trade flows with respect to the trade cost factorof around –3. A deterioration of infrastructure from themedian to the 75th percentile raises transport costs by 12 percentagepoints and reduces trade volumes by 28 percent. Analysis ofAfrican trade flows indicates that their relatively low levelis largely due to poor infrastructure.     

Alliance networks and firm performance: The impact of repeated partnerships

A phenomenon that has become the focus of recent research on interorganizational alliance network growth is that firms often enter into repeated relationships with prior partners. The implications of this tendency on corporate performance, however, are not well understood. From transaction cost and network perspectives, I test competing hypotheses on a large sample of multinational corporations. My results indicate clearly that firms not only often do enter into repeated equity‐based partnerships but also that those with a greater propensity to do so experience inferior economic performance. Further, statistical tests indicate that the negative effect of repeated partnerships on performance is particularly strong in environments of greater technological uncertainty. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An Integrative Model of the New Product Development Process

Previous studies of new product development have identified a series of variables that are important determinants of new product success. The goal of this article is to demonstrate the nature of the complex interrelationships that exist among these variables. Roger Calantone and Anthony di Benedetto propose an integrative model of the new product decision process. They examine data gathered from a sample of industrial manufacturing companies and test their model empirically using three-stage least squares analysis. The article concludes with a discussion of implications for new product managers.     

Government Underpricing of Share‐Issue Privatizations

Abstract *** :  The purposes of the paper are to determine whether governments underprice shares in fixed‐price share‐issue privatizations (SIPs) and, if so, what their motivations are for doing so. This paper develops three models of SIP underpricing: one based on revenue goals, one based on political goals and an inclusive model which supposes that the level of underpricing depends on both government revenue goals and political goals. These models are estimated using an international sample of 104 SIPs from 25 countries. We find that, on average, SIPs are underpriced by approximately the same amount as private sector initial public offerings (IPOs). This is not consistent with the sole goal of revenue maximization because SIPs should not require the same degree of underpricing as IPOs. The inclusive regression fits the data well and indicates that both revenue and political goals affect the level of SIP underpricing .     

Towards a political economy of accounting: An empirical illustration of the cambridge controversies

For over a century economics has been dominated by two theoretical positions: classical political economy and the neo-classical economics of marginalism. From these two paradigms have come the major theories of value: the labor theory and the marginalists theory of value. Until recently marginalism has held the center of the stage, however since the Cambridge Controversies and Piero Sraffa's critique of marginalism there has been a revival of interest in classical political economy. One outcome is clear from the Cambridge debates: in so far as accounting relies on marginalism for its theoretical foundations then those foundations are fallacious. This paper reviews some of the controversies and illustrates how accounting ideas are affected by the critique of marginalism. An alternative approach to accounting (based on ideas from political economy) is then explored using evidence from an empirical study of a multinational enterprise.     

Unit cost studies in French Universities

This paper sets out: (1) to outline the methodology for and (2) to compare the results of research into unit costs at a number of French Universities.Techniques of output budgeting are used by teams in seven universities. The methodology is original in a number of respects and the article shows how teaching staff costs non-teaching staff costs and building and equipment costs are presented, so as to give the cost of each Licence granted in a number of disciplines.It seems that in non-scientific courses, French costs per graduate are a good deal lower than in most other countries and much may be learned from French Universities where resource use efficiency is concerned.