Competition in business networks

Most of those who write about marketing or strategy appear to view competition as the overarching logic of business. Commentators have usually associated competition with improved economic efficiency and customer well-being: they have regarded it as “a good thing”, at least in the abstract or when it only affects others. In contrast to the widespread interest of other researchers and the preoccupations of managers with competition, researchers within the IMP tradition have devoted hardly any attention to the issue in over thirty years of research and the term occurs only infrequently in the IMP literature.     

Comparing Nonprofit Charter and Traditional Public School Board Member Perceptions of the Public,Conflict, and Financial Responsibility: Is there a difference and does it matter?

In this paper, survey data collected from nonprofit charter school board and elected public school board members in Minnesota is used to test three hypotheses relating to theories of New Public Management, democratic governance, and small group dynamics. We find that nonprofit charter school board members perceive lower levels of conflict, place less priority on the general public, and perceive a higher degree of governance responsibly in the area of financial management, than elected board members. We conclude that the increased use of nonprofit charter schools has potentially substantial implications on accountability and effectiveness in the delivery of public education.     

CPI revision provides more accuracy in the medical care services component.

This revision, as in the past, enabled the Bureau to update medical care service expenditure weights in the CPI, including a more complete allocation of health insurance premiums. Instead of keeping the portion of premiums that go to benefits under health insurance, the expenditure weight for each benefit category has been added to the appropriate out-of-pocket expense. The unpublished health insurance item represents only the retained earnings portion of premiums paid by households. The specific item categories included in medical care services have also been updated and expanded. A study conducted during the developmental phase of the revision indicated that the Bureau should expand the eligible priced rates for physicians in the CPI to include not only the "self-pay" rate, but also other categories of payment as well. Another study indicated that the direct pricing of health insurance is not feasible because of the difficulty of factoring out from premium changes the effect of utilization levels and modified coverage. In pricing medical care service items, as with other item categories in the CPI, BLS attempts to exclude from price movement the effect of quality changes. However, some quality changes are difficult to assess or are not readily identified, for example, a change in the ratio of nurses to patients, and such changes may be reflected as part of the price change movement in the CPI.     

Similarities in industrial procurement across four countries

This article reports on a cross-sectional, longitudinal, and comparative study of industrial buyer behavior. The study points to clear similarities in industrial purchasing between buyers in two industries in four countries. It also shows similarities in results using the same instrument taken in studies several years apart and points to generalizations about the involvement of different departments in the purchase of a variety of product types in different international markets.     

Retailing in the nonprofit sector: an exploratory analysis of church‐connected retailing ventures

American churches, like other nonprofits, are faced with diminishing financial support and have turned to alternative marketing strategies to raise needed funds. Retail stores form one of these alternative marketing strategies. This research explores the phenomenon of retail stores associated with Episcopal churches and provides dimensions to understanding the relationship of church membership, connection with history and/or tourist activities, and various marketing tools with performance. While the research offers managerial implications for those engaged in retailing associated with churches, this paper also offers additional insight into nonprofit marketing in general. Copyright © 2003 Henry Stewart Publications     

Title Assurance and Settlement Charges

The assurance that a seller of real estate has the right to transfer property free and clear of any encumbrances is important to potential purchasers and lenders. In the vast majority of cases in which real property is transferred, title insurance is used for this purpose. Consumer ignorance, coupled with a price structure based on the sales price of the property being insured, has led to an industry in which it is theoretically possible for the total charges by the primary supplier of the services to be indefinitely above a competitive level.     

Networking under uncertainty: Concepts and research agenda

This paper has two aims: Firstly, to develop the interpretation of business management as a process of ‘networking’ between companies by relating networking to the concepts of managerial uncertainties and abilities. Secondly, to suggest some areas of potential research that arise from the view of management as networking under uncertainty.The paper builds on the Activities, Actors, Resources (ARA) structure (Håkansson & Snehota 1995) and the Model of Managing in Business Networks (Håkansson et al., 2009) and interprets business interaction as a problem-coping process that involves a set of choices for interacting actors within particular business relationships that are unique in time and space. The paper then relates these choices to the uncertainties and abilities of interacting counterparts.     

Relationships among levels of government support,marketing activities,and financial health of nonprofit performing arts organizations

• This exploratory study researches and analyzes the empirical effects of financial levels of government support and marketing practices on the financial health of nonprofit performing arts organizations. Declining government subsidies and increasing competition from non-traditional sources have presented these organizations with unique opportunities and challenges that call for a market-centered, as well as an art-centered approach. Financial health is critical for the long-term success of a nonprofit performing arts organization. Few empirical studies have examined the interrelationships between these key variables. This study analyzes a sample of 63 American professional symphony orchestras employing 20 years of data. The correlations among financial levels of government support and marketing activities were positive and significant, the correlations among levels of government support and financial health were negative and significant, and the correlations between levels of marketing activity and financial health were negative and varied in significance. Causal analyses were less conclusive, but significant causal relationships were found for large symphony orchestras, indicating that segmentation research may be warranted. Implications and opportunities for future research are presented which have potential application for government agencies, academic researchers, and arts organization managers, boards of directors, and donors.

Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Primitive Uncertainty Construct: Possibility,Potential Surprise,Probability and Belief; Some Experimental Evidence

This paper investigates the nature of the primitive uncertainty measure by means of a laboratory experiment that consists of four uncertain situations. It considers the related pair of possibility and potential surprise associated with George Shackle; and the supposedly related pair, belief and probability. The assessment of the relative merits of potential measures of uncertainty is based upon modal responses and χ² tests. It is found that the dominant uncertainty concept is potential surprise, and the subjects' explanations of their choice of an uncertainty concept gave substantial weight to possibility where it is felt that there is vagueness or doubt about the outcomes in a given situation