The Effectiveness of Branded Mobile Phone Apps

Mobile phone applications (“apps”) have generated substantial interest among marketers, primarily because of their high level of user engagement and the positive impact this presumably has on a user's attitude toward the sponsoring brand. This study utilized a pre-test/post-test experimental design to determine whether using popular mobile phone apps affects brand attitude and brand purchase intention. The results show that using these apps has a positive persuasive impact, increasing interest in the brand and also the brand's product category. The relevance of the product category makes no difference, but apps with an informational/user-centered style were more effective at shifting purchase intention, most likely because this style focuses attention on the user, and therefore encourages making personal connections with the brand. Experiential game-like apps were less successful, because they focus attention on the phone. These results suggest that understanding how to maximize the impact of mobile phone apps will be a key topic for future research.     

Help or Hindrance? Causal Ambiguity and Supplier Involvement in New Product Development Teams

Suppliers are increasingly being involved in interorganizational new product development (NPD) teams. Successful management of this involvement is critical both to the performance of the new product and to meeting the project's goals. Yet the transfer of knowledge between buyer and supplier may be subject to varying degrees of causal ambiguity, potentially limiting the effect of supplier involvement on performance. Understanding the dynamics of causal ambiguity within interorganizational product development is thus an important unanswered empirical question. A theoretical model is developed exploring the effect of supplier involvement practices (supplier involvement orientation, relationship commitment, and involvement depth) on the level of causal ambiguity experienced within interorganizational NPD teams, and the subsequent impact on time to competitor imitation, new product advantage, and project performance. The model also serves as a test of the paradox that causal ambiguity both inhibits imitation by competitors, but adversely affects organizational outcomes. Survey data collected from 119 research and development‐intensive manufacturing firms in the United Kingdom largely support these hypotheses. Results from structural equation modeling show that supplier involvement orientation and long‐term relationship commitment lower causal ambiguity within interorganizational NPD teams. The results also shed light on the causal ambiguity paradox showing that causal ambiguity during interorganizational NPD decreases both product and project performance, but has no significant effect on time to competitor imitation. Instead, competitor imitation is delayed by the extent to which the firm develops a new product advantage within the market. A product development strategy based upon maintaining interfirm causal ambiguity to delay competitor imitation is thus unlikely to result in a sustainable competitive advantage. Instead, managers are encouraged to undertake supplier involvement practices aimed at minimizing the level of knowledge ambiguity in the NPD project, and in doing so, improve product and project‐related performance.     

Impact of on-field football success on the off-field financial performance of AFL football clubs

In this study, we examine the factors that contribute to the financial performance of clubs in the Australian Football League over the period from 1993 to 2002. Primarily, we examine the association between the on‐field football success of clubs and their level of off‐field financial performance. We find that match attendance is positively related to both short‐term and long‐term success of football clubs and also to the uncertainty as to the match outcome (i.e. the expected closeness of the match). We also find that club membership is highly persistent and is positively related to both the past football success of the club and the marketing expense incurred. Finally, we find that there is a significant association between the level of marketing revenue and the level of on‐field success in the prior 2 years.     

Cattle and Wildlife Competition for Forage: Budget Versus Bioeconomic Analyses of Public Range Improvements in British Columbia

We analyze the gains of public investments in range productivity when cattle compete for forage with wildlife herbivores. Ignoring extra-market values by applying conventional budget analyses leads to higher cattle stocking rates and lower overall social benefits of public range improvements. This is demonstrated numerically for public forage in British Columbia, where privately profitable cattle stocking rates on newly seeded range exceed those that are socially optimal, perhaps by as much as double depending on the assumptions one makes about marginal preservation benefits. This highlights the importance of applying dynamic optimization, bioeconomic models to analyze investments in public range.
Les auteurs analysent quel gain on tire des sommes publiques investies dans la productivité des grands parcours quand les bovins et les herbivores sauvages se livrent concurrence pour les fourrages. Ne pas tenir compte des valeurs extérieures au marché en recourant à des analyses budgétaires ordinaires entraîne une hausse du taux de chargement et une réduction des avantages sociaux globaux issus de la bonification des grands parcours. Il est possible d'en faire la preuve numérique avec les pâturages publics de la Colombie-Britannique, où les parcours nouvellement ensemencés supportent une population de bovins lucrative pour l'éleveur mais supérieure au taux de chargement optimal socialement, parfois même du double, selon les hypothèses qu'on formule sur les avantages d'une préservation marginale. l'étude souligne bien qu'il est important de recourir à une optimisation dynamique, soit d'utiliser les modèles bio-économiques pour analyser les sommes investies dans l'amélioration des pâturages publics.     

Managing design projects in small and medium-sized firms

This paper presents initial results of a major study of the benejits and costs of investment in design i n small and medium-sized manufacturers. It shows that UK manufacturers which received a government subsidy to employ a professional design consultant for product, engineering, packaging and graphic design projects recovered their total investment i n an average of 15 months, as well as gaining other indirect benefits. However, problems i n using and managing the design consultants was a factor i n a quarter of the projects that were not implemented or produced disappointing commercial results. The problems most associated with project failure were inadequate briefing of the consultant and internal disagreements about the aims or value of the projects. Severe design management problems were most common i n firms with under 50 employees and especially affected firms with under 10 employees. Thus, while small firms often lack in-house specialist skills such as design, such firms require additional help and advice qthey are to use external resources effectively.     

Markov Switching Dynamics in REIT Returns: Univariate and Multivariate Evidence on Forecasting Performance

We document the presence of Markov switching regimes in expected returns, variances and the implied reward‐to‐risk ratio of real estate investment trust (REIT) returns and compare them to properties of stocks and bonds. Our evidence suggests that regime switching techniques are more successful over the period 1972–2008 than other time‐series models are. When the analysis is extended to a multivariate setting in which REIT, stock and bond returns are modeled jointly, we find that the data call for the specification of four separate regimes. These result from the absence of synchronicity among the regimes that characterize univariate REIT, stock and bond returns.     

Do social exclusion and remoteness explain the digital divide in Australia? Evidence from a panel data estimation approach

ABSTRACT

Despite rapid digital development in the past two decades, the remote parts of Australia still experience disadvantages with the adoption and diffusion of digital technology. As the adoption of information and communication technology continues to increase at a significant rate, investigating the underlying factors of the digital divide in general and also in the context of social exclusion in Australia is pertinent. The current study fills the gap in the existing body of knowledge by exploring the effect of socio-demographic factors and remoteness on the digital divide landscape with a country-specific focus on Australia. Using state-wide longitudinal data covering the 1998–2015 period within the panel data estimation framework, this study finds that digital divide is significantly associated with socio-demographic factors and remoteness in Australia. Moreover, the findings affirm that in addition to telecommunication infrastructure development, policymakers should also underscore socio-demographic factors in shaping digital inclusion strategies.     

Network externalities in consumer spending on lottery games: evidence from Spain

We use data from two nationally representative Spanish surveys in 2005 and 2006 to investigate spending on lottery games. Estimates from Tobit and double hurdle models of participation in lottery markets and spending on lottery tickets find that frequent participation in one game is not associated with an increased or decreased probability of participating in other games, but is associated with increased spending on other games. Consumer spending on different lottery games exhibits inter-related consumption decisions. Also, the assumptions underlying the double hurdle model, but not the Tobit model, better describe consumer spending on lottery tickets in Spain.