Sabotage in dynamic tournaments

This paper studies sabotage in a dynamic tournament. Three players compete in two rounds. In the final round, a player who is leading in the race, but not yet beyond the reach of his competitors, is sabotaged more heavily. As a consequence, if all players start off at the same position, they do not work productively or sabotage at all in the first round. Thus sabotage is not only directly destructive, but also depresses incentives to work productively. If players are heterogeneous ex ante, sabotage activities in the first round may be concentrated against an underdog, contrary to findings from static tournaments.     

Obfuscation and Rational Inattention*

We study the behavior of duopolistic firms that can obfuscate their prices before competing on price. Obfuscation affects the rational inattentive consumers' optimal information strategy, which determines the probabilistic demand. Our model advances related models by allowing consumers to update their unrestricted prior beliefs with an informative signal of any form. We show that the game may result in an obfuscation equilibrium with high prices or a transparency equilibrium with low prices and no obfuscation, providing an argument for market regulation. Obfuscation equilibria cease to exist for low information costs and if one firm seems a priori considerably more attractive.     

A Relational Typology of Project Management Offices

This explorative article develops a relational typology of PMOs based on their roles with stakeholders. A multi‐case study was used to identify the roles of PMOs in multiple‐PMO settings. A three‐dimensional role space allows locating the complex relational profiles that PMOs take on with respect to their stakeholders in practice. Superordinate, subordinate, and coequal roles were identified in a framework of servicing, controlling, and partnering in organizations. While servicing (subordinate role profile) and controlling (superordinate role profile) support organizational effectiveness and exploitation of knowledge, partnering (coequal role profile) creates the slack necessary for potential exploration of new knowledge.     

Marketing,cooperatives and price heterogeneity: evidence from the CIS dairy sector

Drawing on survey data, this article identifies the determinants of variations in farm gate milk prices for three CIS countries (Armenia, Moldova, and Ukraine). We apply a multi‐level modeling approach, specifically a bootstrapped mixed‐effects linear regression model. The analysis suggests three main strategies to improve the price received by farmers for their output: consolidation, competition for output, and stable supply chain relationships. In Armenia and Ukraine selling through a marketing cooperative has a significant, positive, albeit modest, effect on farm gate milk prices. In all three countries studied, the size of dairy operations, trust, and contracting also affect positively the prices received by farmers.     

Business Ethics Curriculum Design: Suggestions and Illustrations

Designing business ethics teaching as anintegrated part of business school curriculashould start with a school-wide dialogue aboutgoals and working conditions. This articlesuggests different premises that can serve asnext steps to follow the school-widedialogue about goals and working conditions. The paper also provides several experienceswith offering business ethics modules withinother courses. Since the article is written asan invitation to a dialogue, assumptions andsuggestions are formulated in a discussionthesis format.     

How Fundamental are Fundamental Values? Valuation Methods and their Impact on the Performance of German Venture Capitalists

This paper studies how the use of alternative valuation methodologies affects investment performance for a sample of 53 German venture capitalists. We measure investment performance by the amount of investments they need to write off and by the number of companies they take public. We find that a significant number of investment managers use discounted cash flow (DCF) techniques, but only a minority appears to use a discount rate related to the cost of capital. The majority applies DCF using subjective discount rates. We present evidence that the use of DCF is correlated with superior investment performance only if applied in conjunction with an objectifiable discount rate. Also, funds that invest with a longer horizon perform better. The use of multiples is not significantly correlated with investment performance. We conclude that a focus on fundamental values confers an advantage.     

Predicting the money multiplier

This paper develops a component approach to forecasting the money multiplier. It is found that time-series models of the individual money multiplier components yield forecasts of the multiplier which are more accurate than those produced by other regression methods or time series methods applied to the multiplier itself.     

PUBLIC ENTERPRISES AND LABOR MARKET PERFORMANCE*

This article shows that state control of some industries may have contributed to the increase in European unemployment from the 1970s to the early 1990s. We develop a simple two‐sector model, one privately run and one publicly run, that has risk‐averse workers directing their search into one of the sectors. Assuming that the privately run sector is less able to insure its employees against uncertainty, we show that aggregate unemployment in this economy increases in response to an increase in economic turbulence.     

How Relevant Is Government Championing Behavior in Technology Development?

Many studies emphasize the importance of government support in technology development. However, this study is among the first to provide empirical findings of the relevance of government roles for the performance of technology development projects. Based on earlier research and the strategic management literature, a theoretical model and hypotheses are developed to study the relevance of government roles and project teams' strategic behavior for technology development projects. Our results show that government championship is an important positive factor for the performance of technology development projects. Government championing behavior overcomes regulatory barriers, enthusiastically promotes the technology's advantages, and gets key decision makers involved. As such, government championship has more impact than government financial/technical assistance on both project performance and benefits to customers. The findings also show that both the proactiveness and defensiveness dimensions of project teams' strategic behavior contribute positively to project performance and benefits to customers. The paper concludes with implications for practice: From a policy perspective, government should extend its technology policies by taking on the role as a champion, while companies should invest in building professional relations with champions in government.