Who Is My Peer? A Valuation‐Based Approach to the Selection of Comparable Firms

This study presents a general approach for selecting comparable firms in market-based research and equity valuation. Guided by valuation theory, we develop a "warranted multiple" for each firm, and identify peer firms as those having the closest warranted multiple. We test this approach by examining the efficacy of the selected comparable firms in predicting future (one- to three-year-ahead) enterprise-value-to-sales and price-to-book ratios. Our tests encompass the general universe of stocks as well as a sub-population of so-called "new economy" stocks. We conclude that comparable firms selected in this manner offer sharp improvements over comparable firms selected on the basis of other techniques.     

Multiunit Auctions in Which Almost Every Bid Wins

We consider multiunit auctions in which there are enough units so that each bidder but one wins every unit on which he bids. We characterize the equilibrium bidding strategy for three different payment rules: the pay-your-bid auction, the uniform-price auction in which the price equals the lowest winning bid, and the uniform-price auction in which the price equals the highest losing bid. We also consider the Vickrey pricing rule. In the case we examine, the auctions are all efficient and thus are revenue equivalent. The equilibria illustrate several phenomona that cannot arise in single-unit auctions. Even though the auctions are expected-revenue equivalent, different bidders may end up paying very different amounts. Also, in contrast to single-unit auctions, changing the seller's reservation price affects revenues, even if it remains below the lowest possible value to bidders.     

Fortune 500 manufacturer web sites: Innovative marketing strategies or cyberbrochures?

Forecasts for business-to-business electronic commerce over the next few years are in the trillions. Manufacturers represent a significant portion of business-to-business activity and their web sites an integral component of business-to-business electronic commerce. Should they choose to, manufacturers can use their web sites not only to conduct electronic commerce but also to engage in a wide range of marketing communications. Marketing communication activities include advertising, sales promotion, public relations, and direct marketing. The results of our content analysis of 188 Fortune 500 manufacturer web sites indicated that few manufacturers use a broad range of marketing communications activities. Analysis of differences in the use of marketing communications on web sites suggests that some aspects of web site marketing communications differ based on manufacturer characteristics such as sales, R&D to sales ratio, and net income.     

How to give and receive: An exploratory study of charitable hybrids

Most charitable organizations can only rely on appeals to purely philanthropic motivations in attempting to solicit donor contributions. The decision processes exhibited by the targets of charitable solicitations are very different from those the same individuals use in making daily purchase decisions. Although both charitable giving and purchase contexts have been studied extensively, there are numerous organizations that require targeted customers to use a decision process that merges elements of both domains. Charitable hybrids, such as museums and universities, are such organizations, supplementing traditional revenue streams by soliciting charitable contributions, thus evoking a complex consumer decision process. For these firms, giving good service may yield an added benefit of maximizing charitable contributions received. Drawing on both the services and charitable giving literatures, a model of the consumer decision process is developed in this hybrid situation. In an exploratory test of the model, initial evidence is found that both classes of effects have significant influence on donors' intentions to give. However, in charitable giving contexts, organizational identification appears to fill a central role in influencing decision outcomes, which diminishes the role of satisfaction. The findings provide provocative evidence that further research in this setting is warranted. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Using Trade Incentives to Promote Customer Relationships in a Retail Setting

Suppliers and retailers use a variety of techniques designed to motivate salespeople to engage in specific selling behaviors that will provide results that will assist in achieving either the supplier's or retailer's goals. One method that is commonly applied is the sales incentive. This research examines popular forms of incentives to assess the relationships that exist between the incentives offered and salesperson behaviors. The study also examines the types of incentives commonly used by both suppliers and retailers and salesperson perceptions of these incentives. To accomplish this, 95 salespeople working for a major automotive parts company responded to questions designed to assess their attitudes and behaviors toward incentives. The results provide information which may be valuable to manufacturers, retailers, and academicians as they investigate the use of incentive based compensation programs and sales force behavior.     

Identification and estimation of statistical functionals using incomplete data

Incomplete data, due to missing observations or interval measurement of variables, usually cause parameters of interest in applications to be unidentified except under untestable and often controversial assumptions. However, it is often possible to identify sharp bounds on parameters without making untestable assumptions about the process through which data become incomplete. The bounds contain all logically possible values of the parameters and can be estimated consistently by replacing the population distribution of the data with the empirical distribution. This is straightforward in some circumstances but computationally burdensome in others. This paper describes the general problem and presents an empirical illustration.     

Consumer Demand and Cost Factors Shape the Global Trade Network in Commodity and Manufactured Foods

Multiple forces operate throughout the global economy and influence the direction, composition, and volume of agri-food trade. The fundamental determinants that impede and foster bilateral trade in two food types, namely staple commodities and manufactured products, are identified using generalized gravity equations. Empirical evidence verified the importance of relative resource endowments and similarities in the structure of partner demand. Other socio-geo-political factors were also found to influence food trade, including the ability of governments to control corruption and curtail disequilibrium in financial markets.
L'économie mondiale est soumise à des forces multiples qui influencent l'orientation, la composition et le volume du commerce agroalimentaire. Les principaux facteurs qui entravent et favorisent le commerce bilatéral de deux types d'aliments, à savoir les matières de base et les produits manufacturés, ont été déterminés à l'aide d'équations de gravité généralisées. L'évidence empirique a vérifié l'importance des dotations relatives en ressources et des similarités dans la structure de la demande d'un partenaire commercial. D'autres facteurs sociaux et géopolitiques, y compris la capacité des gouvernements à combattre la corruption et à réduire le déséquilibre sur les marchés des capitaux, influenceraient aussi le commerce alimentaire.