The learning curve,technology barriers to entry,and competitive survival in the chemical processing industries

This paper evaluates entry and survival rates in a sample of 39 chemical product industries. The analysis focuses on learning-based cost advantages potentially held by incumbent firms. A logit model of entry gives no evidence that entry decisions were sensitive to the cumulative production lead held by incumbents. Entry was facilitated by the fact that for most products, technology was available from a range of sources. A hazard function model reveals that entrant survival rates were unrelated to order of entry or source of process technology. However, survival was adversely affected when the leading incumbent held a large cumulative output advantage or when entrants built plants of sub-optimal scale. Thus, a large incumbent lead in production experience did not deter new entry but did reduce the entrant'S probability of survival.     

Markets for Organs to Reinforce Altruism

The suggestion that a market in human organs should be allowed to enhance the supply of kidneys, corneasand other human parts given for transplant is likely to be met by outrage among economists and doctors alike. Marvin Brams, Professor of Economics at the University of Delaware, reveals how a market in organs can stimulate supply, relieve suffering and save lives.     

Innovating Beyond the Horizon: CEO Career Horizon,Top Management Composition,and R&D Intensity

Decreasing research and development (R&D) can impair the ability of firms to remain innovative in the long run. CEOs have been accused of curtailing R&D investments as they approach expected retirement, yet received findings on R&D investment behaviors of late‐career CEOs are mixed. We argue that one reason for these inconsistent findings could be that traditional approaches overlook the fact that CEOs are not isolated agents in making R&D decisions. We build on the premise that CEOs interact with their top management team (TMT) when shaping R&D strategy and advance a contextualized view of CEO dispositions in their late career stages as being constrained or enabled by their TMT. We hypothesize that some TMT attributes (e.g., tenure and age) may amplify, whereas others (e.g., functional experience and education) may mitigate inclinations to reduce R&D. Our findings, based on a longitudinal sample of 100 US manufacturing firms from 1998 to 2008, provide nuanced insights into how different TMT characteristics influence CEO‐TMT dynamics, with TMT age and TMT tenure playing particularly pronounced roles. We discuss implications of our CEO‐TMT interface approach for theory and practice. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Evolving Producer–Packer–Customer Linkages in the Beef and Pork Industries

The U.S. pork and beef sectors are rapidly moving from traditional cash markets to formal vertical linkages. In 1999, 27% of hogs and 65% of cattle were traded in the cash market and packers owned 18% of hogs and 5% of cattle; the rest were procured via marketing contracts. Contrary to popular opinion that plant efficiency is the impetus for the change, packers clearly identified quality concerns as the dominant reason for using marketing contracts or self-production. Quality standards and procurement systems to achieve them will increase in importance with the introduction of more branded pork and beef products.