Gender Differences in Ethics Judgment of Marketing Professionals in the United States

This empirical investigation reexamines the impact of gender on ethics judgment of marketing professionals in a cross-section of firms in the United States. In the study, gender differences in ethics judgment focus on decisions in the context of marketing-mix elements (product, promotion, pricing, and distribution). The results of statistical analyses indicate that men and women marketing professionals differ significantly in their ethics judgment. Overall, female marketing professionals evinced significantly higher ethics judgment than their male counterparts. Given the changing demographics of corporate America, it is conceivable that ethical decision-making in organizations stands to improve as the ratio of women in executive positions increases. The finding also bodes well with the recent emphasis of moving away from transaction-based in favor of relationship-focused conceptualization of marketing.     

Effects of Household Consumption Patterns on CO2 Requirements

In order to evaluate the relation between the consumption pattern of various household types and their CO₂ requirements, we combine input-output tables energy flow matrices, CO₂ emissions factors, and national consumer survey statistics into an integrated modelling framework, and relate differences in household types to differences in private consumption and again to differences in CO₂ emissions. We identify household characteristics with a significant influence on CO₂ emissions. Comparing our results with those of other studies reveals that national differences in climate and population density cause differences in the contribution to CO₂ emissions. Finally, national differences in income and expenditure elasticities of both energy and CO₂ are due to differences in the disparity in CO₂ intensities amongst commodities and to the model's assumptions on foreign technology.     

Forty years of Out-of-Stock research – and shelves are still empty

This article examines 40 years of research conducted in the area of Out-of-Stocks (OOS). Two research streams originating from the Progressive Grocer (1968 Progressive Grocer. 1968b. The out of stock study, Part 2, New York: The Nielsen Company. November: 17–32 [Google Scholar]) study are reviewed. The first stream dealt with demand side issues and analysed consumer responses to OOS. The other dealt with supply side issues and analysed the extent and root causes of OOS situations as well as how to improve OOS. Four paradoxes are derived from the review and are discussed: 1) OOS rates largely seem to fall into an average level at about 7 to 8% despite 40 years of research; 2) only sparse attempts have been made to integrate the two research streams; 3) there is an emphasis on minimizing OOS rather than relying on basic trade-offs as addressed by Economic-Order-Quantity theory to optimize OOS levels; and 4) despite clear evidence of the store as the major contributor to OOS situations, the store has largely remained a ‘black-box’ in OOS research. Finally, the study suggests that OOS research can integrate the notions of the two streams by showing how the conditions for consumer responses can be translated into different degrees for costs of understocking taken from Economic-Order-Quantity theory. This will have important implications for the management of OOS.     

Why Do Recent Graduates Enter into Flexible Jobs?

Flexible jobs make up a larger share of the Dutch labour market than in almost any other Western country. Recent graduates in the Netherlands are particularly likely to take flexible jobs. In this study we examine why recent graduates enter into temporary contracts and whether flexible jobs offer a poorer match for graduates’ qualifications than permanent jobs. We find that recent graduates that enter into flexible jobs face large wage penalties, a worse job match and less training participation than graduates who take permanent jobs, even after correcting for differences in ability. When the labour market situation for a particular field of education deteriorates, more recent graduates are forced into flexible jobs, threatening their position on the labour market in the long run. Flexible work among recent graduates is unrelated to their willingness to take risks. Only for university graduates is there any indication that flexible jobs may provide a stepping stone to permanent employment.     

Öffentliches Krisenmanagement und kollektive Meinungsbildung — empirische Befunde und theoretische Implikationen am Beispiel von AIDS

The diffusion of HIV and AIDS as an issue in the discourse of the mass media is an important example of the formation of public opinion in our time. Drawing on various models of public opinion formation, this comprehensive genealogic case study of the presentation of HIV and AIDS in Danish mass media documents that strategies for the solving of conflicts around HIV and AIDS, on the one hand, originated from narrative patterns known from the discourse on other diseases, and were, on the other hand, increasingly affected by news factors crucial for public crisis management, irregularity and personalization. On the basis of this case study, a balance is drawn of research and theory about the models of public opinion formation, of the methods available for its study, and of the metatheoretical explanatory approaches by Habermas, Foucault and Luhmann. This leads the authors to posit that any study of public opinion formation that heeds the totality of the phenomena needs a combination of various theoretical and methodological elements in order to account for the historical context, the actors’ behavior and the systemic structures of public opinion formation.     

Are We Getting There? Evidence of Decentralized Forest Management from the Tanzanian Miombo Woodlands

Based on a village study in Tanzania, the effects of decentralized forest management on forest conservation, rural livelihoods and good governance are evaluated. Tree growth is estimated to exceed harvest, and forest utilization appears effectively controlled. Forest revenues cover the costs of management and finance local public services, but the underlying taxes and regulations have made the poorest worse off. Governance outcomes are also ambiguous. Revenues are administered transparently, but village leaders are coercive toward forest dependent minorities. The case provides a rare example of how decentralized forest management works in Africa when meaningful powers are devolved to local communities.     

Research Strategies in Science-based Start-ups: Effects on Performance in Danish and Swedish Biotechnology

Although biotech start-ups fail or succeed based on their research, few attempts have been made to examine if and how they strategise in this core activity. Using a unique comprehensive dataset on Danish and Swedish biotech start-ups in drug discovery this paper adopts a Simonean approach to analysing the research strategies of small dedicated biotech firms (DBFs), focusing on three interrelated issues: (i) characterising the problem architectures addressed by different types of DBFs; (ii) testing and confirming that DBFs form requisite research strategies, by which we refer to problem-solving approaches developed as congruent responses to problem architectures; and (iii) testing and confirming that financial valuation of firms is driven by achievements conforming to requisite research strategies. These strategies, in turn, require a careful combination of multiple dimensions of research. The findings demonstrate that Schoonhoven's argument that 'strategy matters' is valid not only for the larger high-tech firms covered by her study, but also for small research-based start-ups operating at the very well-springs of knowledge where science directly interacts with technologies. Although more research is needed along these lines, these findings offer new implications for the understanding, management and financing of these firms.     

CO2 Multipliers in Multi-region Input-Output Models

In order to achieve equitable reduction targets, international trade has to be taken into account when assessing nations' responsibility for abating climate change. Especially for open economies such as Denmark, greenhouse gases embodied in internationally traded commodities can have a considerable influence on the national 'greenhouse gas responsibility'. We set up a five-region input-output model including Denmark, Germany, Sweden and Norway in order to calculate CO₂ multipliers and trade balances. We investigate multidirectional feedback between these countries, and hence the error inherent in a single-region input-output model. We also examine the effect of aggregation on the model results. In the case of Denmark, an 11 Mt CO₂ trade surplus resulting from a single-region model turns into balance when multidirectional trade is considered. Moreover, aggregated models are likely to result in significant errors. Therefore, both the type and the degree of aggregation used for modelling CO₂ responsibilities could have a major bearing in international negotiations.     

Cream Skimming, Dregs Skimming, and Pooling: On the Dynamics of Competitive Screening

We discuss the existence of a pooling equilibrium in a two-period model of an insurance market with asymmetric information. We solve the model numerically. We pay particular attention to the reasons for non-existence in cases where no pooling equilibrium exists. In addition to the phenomenon of cream skimming emphasized in earlier literature, we here point to the importance of the opposite: dregs skimming, whereby high-risk consumers are profitably detracted from the candidate pooling contract.     

The role of implied volatility in forecasting future realized volatility and jumps in foreign exchange,stock, and bond markets

We study the forecasting of future realized volatility in the foreign exchange, stock, and bond markets from variables in our information set, including implied volatility backed out from option prices. Realized volatility is separated into its continuous and jump components, and the heterogeneous autoregressive (HAR) model is applied with implied volatility as an additional forecasting variable. A vector HAR (VecHAR) model for the resulting simultaneous system is introduced, controlling for possible endogeneity issues. We find that implied volatility contains incremental information about future volatility in all three markets, relative to past continuous and jump components, and it is an unbiased forecast in the foreign exchange and stock markets. Out-of-sample forecasting experiments confirm that implied volatility is important in forecasting future realized volatility components in all three markets. Perhaps surprisingly, the jump component is, to some extent, predictable, and options appear calibrated to incorporate information about future jumps in all three markets.