Knowledge Management and Customer Relationship Management for Accounting Services Companies

By combining the abilities to respond directly to customer requests and to provide the customer with a highly interactive, customized experience, companies have a greater ability today to establish nurture and sustain long-term customer relationships than ever before. The ultimate goal is to transform these relationships into greater profitability by increasing repeat purchase rates and reducing customer acquisition costs. Customer relationship management （CRM） has a significant potential to leverage an organization＇s performance, but it does not come without a clear sense of destination and typically without pain. For the research methodology we use the database of customers of a Romanian accounting services company Vulpoi ＆ Toader Management SRL, which is an important player in this market. The goal of our paper is to find out the link between knowledge management （KM） and CRM for this company and how these ＂innovations＂ contribute to increasing the value of the business.     

Fixed investment and economic growth: new results on causality

This study re-examines the issue of causality between investment shares and economic growth. A methodology is applied based on Arellano and Bond (1991), and Holtz-Eakin, Newey and Rosen (1988) to quinquennial panel data on growth and investment shares for the post war period and shows that, contrary to previous results in the literature, causality between fixed investment and growth runs in both directions. Investment shares Granger-cause growth rates and growth rates Granger-cause investment shares. Granger causality from investment shares to growth rates is found to be negative. The result is in contrast with a capital fundamentalist view which sees fixed investment as the key to long run growth, but is fully consistent with the predictions of Solow-type growth models.     

Does Ethnic Discrimination Vary Across Minority Groups? Evidence from a Field Experiment*

We conduct a large‐scale field experiment to measure labour market discrimination in Australia, one quarter of whose population was born overseas. To denote ethnicity, we use distinctively Anglo‐Saxon, Indigenous, Italian, Chinese and Middle Eastern names. We compare multiple ethnic groups, rather than a single minority as in most other studies. In all cases we applied for entry‐level jobs and submitted a CV indicating that the candidate attended high school in Australia. We find significant differences in callback rates: ethnic minority candidates would need to apply for more jobs in order to receive the same number of interviews. These differences vary systematically across ethnic groups.     

The future of technology and marketing: a multidisciplinary perspective

Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science -     

Short- and long-run heterogeneous investment dynamics

In this paper, we model the dynamics of business investment taking into account asset-specific characteristics potentially affecting the reactivity of aggregate and disaggregate capital accumulation over the business cycle. We estimate Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) and traditional investment (non-ICT) determinants within a Vector Error Correction Model testing the assumptions of the flexible accelerator and neoclassical model as well as the role of financial constraints and uncertainty. We evaluate our model on Italian data over the period 1980–2012, and we check our results also with Spanish and UK data. Our findings support the assumption that capital is heterogeneous since short- and long-run determinants are significantly different across the assets. Traditional assets experience stock adjustment costs while ICT investment incurs flow adjustment cost. In the short run, liquidity is a key determinant of investment independently of the asset type. In the long run, uncertainty significantly affects ICT. Finally, the results of the counterfactual exercises support the idea that ICT is a key policy variable to foster economic growth.     

Altruistic, egoistic and biospheric values in willingness to pay (WTP) for wildlife

We attempt to measure general attitudes and ethical beliefs towards preservation, as well as the importance of each of the three considered value orientations (biospheric, egoistic and altruistic) in WTP estimates. In the present study, we apply the GAC scale to a contingent valuation exercise for the recovery of the common murre (Uria aalge) in Galicia (Spain). Up to now, only a few studies in the field of environmental and ecological economics have analyzed value orientations under the Environmental Concern (EC) framework, obtaining mixed results. In the present work, we conclude that ethical aspects affect the individuals decision making process, and that value orientations play an important role in the pro-environmental attitude formation. These value orientations affect willingness to pay (WTP) estimates for environmental goods.     

Identifying the scope effect on a meta-analysis of biodiversity valuation studies

Insensitivity to scope is an issue of much debate in contingent valuation (CV) even today. Although the literature about insensitivity to scope is abundant, the reasons for it are not yet well known. Through a meta-analysis of CV studies of biodiversity, the treatment of the different possible measures of the quantity of the good is explored in relation to scope sensitivity. Overall, the findings suggest that CV results are sensitive to the amount of the good being valued, although the result depends on how the environmental change is measured. Results support the use of absolute sizes when conducting CV studies.     

Congestion effects in a public-good economy

This paper considers a public-good economy with congestion, where participants jointly produce a public good from input of a private good. This economic model gives rise to a transferable-utility game, the profit game, that depends on consumer preferences and a congestion parameter. The simplicity of the game allows the maximum level of congestion that guarantees the nonemptiness of the core of the economy to be determined. It is known that the sustainability of the Lindahl equilibrium in the core of the economy depends on the distribution of profits. In this paper two distributions of profits are compared: the Lindahl solution and the marginal-contribution solution. The latter is more often in the core than the Lindahl solution which in turn Lorenz-dominates the marginal-contribution solution.     

Euro vs Dollar: An Improbable Threat

Ever since the setting up of the EMU, many scholars have argued that the Euro will take its place alongside the dollar and perhaps even replace it as international money. The theory behind this point of view is represented by search-theoretic models. The fundamental shortcoming of the traditional version of these models is that they fail to make a distinction between different types of money, in particular between commodity money and fiduciary money. In the international context a fiduciary money can be accepted only when a political exchange is possible between a leading country which has an interest in producing trust in the future value of its currency and other countries which attach no importance to the relative gains the issuing country acquires by exploiting the privilege of seigniorage. The Bretton Woods system and the dollar standard, although based on fiduciary monies, have worked thanks to the institutional framework maintained by the United States and accepted by other countries. Unlike the United States, the euro area is not in a position to exercise any form of political leadership on the international scene. As things stand the euro does not represent a threat to the dollar and it is bound to remain a regional money.