Greening the balanced scorecard

Environmental management issues have received an increased amount of attention in recent years, as have various performance measurement systems (PMS) such as the balanced scorecard (BSC). However, implementation of these systems is challenging due to the differences found amongst the companies and users of PMS. This study investigates how the presence of particular supporting factors served to facilitate a PMS change that incorporated environmental measures. Utilization of extant change models enables us to investigate different change factors like advancing and hindering forces, momentum, and the leaders of change. We found two models appropriate for investigating environmental management accounting change, even though the change factors can be either dynamic or static. The study also proposes that company culture should be carefully taken into account when companies are changing their PMS. Technical changes to PMS are far easier to accomplish than are changes to a dominant culture. Finally, we suggest that utilizing the BSC for the purposes of environmental management is a worthwhile pursuit.     

Value orientations and consumer expectations of Corporate Social Responsibility

This paper explores how personal and situational factors impact consumer expectations of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Consumer expectations are known to motivate marketers to incorporate social considerations into their marketing practices and to communicate about those actions. A study was conducted in order to examine the effect of values and issue involvement on consumer CSR expectations, categorised as economic, legal, ethical, and philanthropic. The study's findings demonstrated that consumers generally have high expectations of CSR, especially in the legal and ethical‐philanthropic domains. Expectations for the ethical‐philanthropic dimension of CSR are higher amongst consumers holding high self‐transcendent values and practicing high involvement. The main implications of the study are the potential for positioning companies as socially responsible and incorporating CSR in strategic marketing and communications decisions.     

DYNAMIC TRADING VOLUME

We derive the process followed by trading volume, in a market with finite depth and constant investment opportunities, where a large investor, with a long horizon and constant relative risk aversion, trades a safe and a risky asset. Trading volume approximately follows a Gaussian, mean‐reverting diffusion, and increases with depth, volatility, and risk aversion. Unlike the frictionless theory, finite depth excludes leverage and short sales because such positions may not be solvent even with continuous trading.     

Guidelines for choosing between multi-item and single-item scales for construct measurement: a predictive validity perspective

Establishing predictive validity of measures is a major concern in marketing research. This paper investigates the conditions favoring the use of single items versus multi-item scales in terms of predictive validity. A series of complementary studies reveals that the predictive validity of single items varies considerably across different (concrete) constructs and stimuli objects. In an attempt to explain the observed instability, a comprehensive simulation study is conducted aimed at identifying the influence of different factors on the predictive validity of single versus multi-item measures. These include the average inter-item correlations in the predictor and criterion constructs, the number of items measuring these constructs, as well as the correlation patterns of multiple and single items between the predictor and criterion constructs. The simulation results show that, under most conditions typically encountered in practical applications, multi-item scales clearly outperform single items in terms of predictive validity. Only under very specific conditions do single items perform equally well as multi-item scales. Therefore, the use of single-item measures in empirical research should be approached with caution, and the use of such measures should be limited to special circumstances.     

How Advergame Content Influences Explicit and Implicit Brand Attitudes: When Violence Spills Over

Well-liked advergames foster favorable brand attitudes. Research has been conducted on games where the content offers positive associations (e.g., racing: speed) that may transfer to the brand. Yet games may offer negative associations (e.g., combat: violence). Using the affect transfer and associative-propositional evaluation models, we test the influence of game content (combat, racing) on implicit and explicit brand attitudes. Results of an experiment showed that negative content resulted in less favorable attitudes toward the game and the implicit (unfamiliar) brand attitudes. The relationship between content and explicit attitude toward the brand was mediated by attitude toward the game.     

Die Prognose von Serviceintervallen mit?der?Hazard-Raten-Analyse – Ergebnisse einer empirischen Studie im Automobilmarkt

Mit dem After Sales-Gesch?ft generieren die deutschen Automobilbauer etwa die H?lfte ihrer Gewinne. Gerade vor dem Hintergrund der aktuellen gesamtwirtschaftlichen Entwicklungen, wovon insbesondere das Neuwagengesch?ft betroffen ist, erscheinen Anstrengungen zur Optimierung der kundenindividuellen Ansprache im Service-, Teile- und Wartungsgesch?ft aussichtsreich zu sein. Als Voraussetzung dafür kann das Wissen über die kundenindividuellen Serviceintervalle als entscheidender Wettbewerbsvorteil gesehen werden, denn nur hiermit lassen sich Kunden auch zielgerichtet ansprechen und potenzielle Abwanderungen vermeiden. Genau an diesem Punkt knüpft dieser Beitrag an, indem mit der Hazard-Raten-Analyse ein wissenschaftlich fundiertes und praktikables Verfahren zur Prognose kundenindividueller Serviceintervalle illustriert wird. Da dieses im betriebswirtschaftlichen Kontext ohnehin sehr junge Analyseverfahren bislang überwiegend im FMCG (Fast Moving Consumer Goods)-Bereich auf Scannerdaten zum Einsatz kam, kann dieser Beitrag als Leitfaden für eine Erweiterung im Bereich langlebiger Konsum- und Investitionsgüter gesehen werden. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass der Anteil korrekt gesch?tzter Serviceintervalle die einfache lineare Fortschreibung, die bis dato das Standardverfahren zur Prognose von Serviceintervallen darstellt, um über 20% übertrifft bzw. die Prognosegenauigkeit von ±73 Tagen auf ±38 Tage gesteigert werden kann. Das Erfolgspotenzial einer kundenindividuellen Direktansprache l?sst sich mit dieser substanziellen Verbesserung der zugrunde liegenden Informationsbasis erheblich steigern. Aus der Verbesserung der Prognosegenauigkeit auf kundenindividueller Ebene (Mikroebene) resultiert schlie?lich auch auf der Makroebene (Unternehmensplanung- und steuerung) eine erh?hte Planungssicherheit.     

Does trade raise income?: Evidence from the twentieth century

Efforts to estimate the effects of international trade on a country’s real income have been hampered by the failure to account for the endogeneity of trade. Frankel and Romer recently use a country’s geographic attributes — notably its distance from potential trading partners — to construct an instrument to identify the effects of trade on income in 1985. Using data from the pre-World War I, the interwar, and the post-war periods, we find that the main result of Frankel and Romer is confirmed throughout the whole century: countries that trade more as a proportion of their GDP have higher incomes even after controlling for the endogeneity of trade. We also find that the OLS estimate of trade’s effect on income is biased downwards in almost every sample year. However, this result is not robust to the inclusion of distance from equator (latitude).     

International Management of North-Sea Herring

North-Sea herring is a transboundary resource,shared by the EU and Norway. The purpose ofthis paper is to investigate how the harvestsor total allowable catch quotas (TACs) for thisspecies should be divided between these twojurisdictions so that both parties aresatisfied. We apply a discrete-timegame-theoretic model in which we show that theEU should be allocated more than half of theTAC even if the EU has higher harvesting costs.This result is due to the distribution patternof the herring, with a larger share of herringlocated in the EU zone. However, we find thataccording to the Nash bargaining solution, thecurrent sharing allocates too large a share tothe EU.     

PIP Transactions,Price Improvement,Informed Trades and Order Execution Quality

This study focuses on innovations in order execution processes within the context of the Boston Option Exchange (BOX). More specifically, it examines the impact of the Price Improvement Process (PIP) on options quoted, effective and realised proportional spreads. We consider the PIP as a mechanism that allows the market maker to ‘internalise’ the transaction. We show that PIP transactions are associated with wider bid/ask proportional quoted spreads than non‐PIP transactions, in spite of the temporary narrowing of the effective proportional spread during PIP. We identify informed traders by focusing on the direction of trade. Using an original data set, we show that PIP transactions follow signals in the form of buy/sell orders by informed traders. We also show that PIP is a mechanism that allows the market maker to internalise a position in the same direction as that of the informed trader. We conclude that PIP does not improve the efficiency of the market but simply allows the market maker to benefit at the expense of uninformed traders.