Strategic intent and performance: The role of resource allocation decisions

The notion that a firm's strategic intent can affect its performance through managerial actions has become prominent in the organization literature. In this research, we propose that strategic aggressive firms will foster decisions that favor holding low levels of slack and low levels of R&D investments, resulting in increased firm ROI, and that a firm's risk preference will moderate the indirect effect of strategic intent on performance. Findings from moderated mediation analyses on data from 130 firms in manufacturing industries support our hypotheses. Specifically, the indirect effect of a firm's strategic intent on a firm's performance is moderated by its risk aversion, such that when risk aversion is high, the indirect effect of strategic intent on performance through slack is strengthened. Similarly, the indirect effect of strategic intent on firm performance through R&D investments is strengthened, when risk aversion is high.     

Targeting Miss Daisy: Using age and gender to target unethical sales tactics

Marketers often advocate the use of targeted promotional strategies because they are presumed more effective. However, common targeting variables (gender and age) can also serve to stereotype some consumers (female or older) as more vulnerable to sales pressure. The current research shows that this can cause sales agents to target these stigmatized groups with inferior products. In contrast, encouraging sales agents to empathize with target customers was effective in reducing the targeting of these groups with substandard items. Implications are discussed.     

A Critique of Critical Geopolitics

Comparisons between classical and critical geopolitics are made with the suggestion that both versions, although different in most respects, are equally legitimate for study and perhaps may be brought closer together, at least in ways that may complement each other, after inspection of their comparative approaches. The classical version deserves consideration as a contribution to international relations theory and to foreign policy making. The critical approach provides a needed and necessary critique of the classical, exposing its weaknesses and suggesting an emancipatory alternative. Accordingly, the author has selected a variety of associated characteristics that show the primary variations between the classical and the critical, illustrated by appropriate quotations and examples, with again the conclusion that both versions of geopolitics, the classical and the critical, merit credibility, and that a possibility exists where certain connections may be located between the two that could mutually clarify and strengthen their unique contributions to geopolitics as a whole.     

American Dual Containment in Asia

US grand strategy after 9/11 turned from post-containment drift to preemption. But the costs are high – suspicion of American power, hedging by traditional allies, expensive, go-it-alone ventures like Iraq. Tried-and-true containment better reflects American values. While forward in the world, containment is also defensive. It reassures skittish partners and reflects liberal, anti-imperial US preferences. In Asia, containment would deter the primary contemporary challengers of US power – radical Islam and Chinese nationalism – without encouraging a Bush-style global backlash. In a reductive analysis of US alliance choices, this article predicts a medium-term Indo-American alliance. India uniquely shares both US liberal democratic values and the same two challengers; it is the likely pivot in a US-backed neo-containment architecture in Asia.     

Microsoft in Southeast Europe: A Conversation with Goran Radman

Goran Radman (GR) joined Microsoft in 1996 and served until Fall 2008 as Microsoft Chairman, Southeast Europe (SEE) and Chairman, East and Central Europe (ECEE). Based in Croatia, where he enjoys sailing the Adriatic coast and islands, he spoke with the authors during 2008 and 2009 about his experience launching Microsoft's commercial presence in the region. His conversation ranged widely and incisively among such topics as Microsoft's business model, its market entry strategy, the role of partnerships, the structure and process of Microsoft's business operations, national business environments in the region, the role of country managers, and Microsoft's practice of knowledge management. This article captures highlights of these conversations. Goran Radman is currently founder and director of NAUTAR consultancy in Zagreb.     

Community assessment of Indigenous language-based tourism projects in Haida Gwaii (British Columbia,Canada)

Abstract

Research into language-based tourism programming is rare. Aside from a few studies that consider the language/tourism nexus broadly, research has failed to examine the community context in which development takes place or the impact of communities on the choice of suitable projects. This study assessed the relative merits of 12 proposed language-based tourism projects to support the development and revitalization of Haida language. This research was conducted in two phases: initially, informal focus groups were used to identify key criteria affecting development, which were then used as a means of reflecting on the proposed projects from the perspective of the community. The results show that the two projects with the greatest potential include Impromptu Cultural Performances and Increased Signage in Haida Language. The level of community support contingent upon their ability to (1) find suitable partnerships, (2) secure adequate approvals, (3) hold long term industry potential, (4) deepen speaker opportunities, and (5) moderate high level political concerns. This research fills a gap in the literature by offering evidence to support projects best suited to the needs and aspirations of the community and introduces a necessary distinction between language use in tourism settings versus language planning in tourism settings.     

Do sell-side analysts exhibit differential target price forecasting ability?

We examine the overall and individual analyst performance of 12-month-ahead target price forecasts over the 10 years from 2000 through 2009. Implied target price-based returns exceed actual returns by an average of 15 %, and absolute target price forecast errors average 45 %. At the end of the 12-month forecast horizon, only 38 % of target prices are met, but 64 % are met at some time during the forecast horizon. We find statistically significant but economically weak evidence of persistent differential abilities by sell-side analysts to forecast target prices. Target price announcement period return analyses indicate no differential market reactions to analysts’ target price revisions conditional on their recent target price forecast performance. This finding is consistent with the market understanding that analysts have, at best, limited abilities to persistently provide accurate target price forecasts.     

Error correction modelling and dynamic specifications as a conduit to outperforming the random walk in exchange rate forecasting

The proposition that dynamic exchange rate models can outperform the random walk in out-of-sample forecasting, in the sense that they produce lower mean square errors, is examined and disputed. By using several dynamic versions of three macroeconomic exchange rate models, it is demonstrated that dynamic specifications outperform the corresponding static models but improvement in the forecasting power may not be sufficient for the dynamic models to perform better than the random walk. The results are explained by suggesting that any dynamic specification or transformation of the static model leads to the introduction of a lagged dependent variable, which in effect is a random walk component. The analysis leads to the conclusion that it is implausible to aim at beating the random walk by augmenting a static model with a random walk component.     

Multidimensional welfare distributions: empirical application to household panel data from Vietnam

This article explores the empirical application of theoretical multidimensional welfare distribution analysis techniques to real household welfare distributions. The article operationalizes recent conceptual developments in multidimensional distribution theory and assesses their usefulness for the measurement of multidimensional household inequality. The results strongly highlight the importance of bringing nonmonetary aspects of household welfare into the forefront of inequality analysis. Agreement over the various approaches to the measurement of multidimensional inequality entails, however, nontrivial decisions that may limit the practical usefulness of these measures. We suggest that the use of multidimensional inequality ranges and the application of restrictive dominance criteria to multidimensional welfare distributions may open significant scope for further developments in the empirical analysis of multidimensional inequality.