Do adhocracy and market cultures facilitate firm-wide integrated marketing communication (IMC)?

The conceptualization of integrated marketing communication (IMC) has evolved from the marketing communications-centered approach (in the early 1990s) to a broader, firm-wide organizational perspective. The latter is adopted in this research to define IMC as a multidimensional concept. This study was conducted to develop a measurement instrument to assess IMC and examine the role of organizational culture in IMC implementation. Data were gathered via an online survey conducted among CEOs and other senior managers. The findings provide evidence of the reliability and validity of the proposed IMC scale and demonstrate that the dominance of an adhocracy (vs. market) culture contributes to building a more IMC-friendly organizational environment.     

Joint estimation using revealed and stated preference data: An application using a national forest

We combine contingent behaviour with travel cost data to estimate the change in the recreational use value of a National Forest due to quality and price changes. Instead of the usual improvement scenario, a hypothetical deterioration in the conditions of the forest due to a fire is considered. A dataset containing five observations for each respondent enabled the estimation of three models for which the number of scenarios differed. The results show that visitors are sensitive to price and quality changes and that in the forest fire scenario the intended number of trips would be reduced and that respondents would experience a welfare loss. Signs of inconsistency between preferences expressed by revealed and intended behaviour were found. This research also provides some indications that strategic bias affects answers to price changes.     

火热经济与忧伤的中国人

金钱能买来幸福吗？没人回答能，包括那些改革开放中出现的中国暴发户。 可以肯定的是，中国确实在很多方面值得夸耀：现在已经是世界第二大经济体，仅次于美国，人均收入从1980年的不足200美元增长到2010年的3700美元，约3亿农民摆脱了绝对贫困。公民的预期寿命延长了十年。     

El sistema financiero y su efecto en la dinámica sector privado

In the framework of a closed economy, identical agents, constant returns to scale and introducing a financial market, through a model of endogenous growth the macroeconomic equilibrium is characterized and it is shown that capital distribution is perfect with the existence of an efficient financial market. Nevertheless, the capital distribution is ineffective when the financial market is not efficient, which generates distortions that increase the cost of capital and hence rate of growth decreases. At the same time, a welfare analysis is carried out to verify the impact due to both types of financial markets, an efficient one and an inefficient one.     

Expectations, the business cycle and the Mexican peso crisis

The 1994–95 ‘peso’ crisis did not displaycharacteristics which allow it to be easily captured by traditionalcrisis models. Models based on Minsky's financial fragilityhypothesis offer more persuasive accounts but have been supportedby relatively little direct empirical evidence. This paper providessuch evidence, with particular attention being paid to the roleof domestic financial liberalisation in the process. Minsky'shypotheses about the evolution of expectations over the businesscycle are tracked using business survey data. In addition, crisisindicators are constructed, reflecting the changing vulnerabilityof the economy to shocks. The findings support a Minskyian interpretationof the crisis.     

Explaining Firms’ Export Behaviour: R&D,Spillovers and the Destination Market*

We examine the importance of a firm's own R&D activity and intra‐sectoral spillovers on the decision to export and the export intensity using firm level panel data for Spain for the period 1990–98. Own R&D activity is found to be an important determinant of export activity. There is little evidence to suggest that Spanish firms benefit from spillovers of the exporting activity of others. However, there is evidence that R&D spillovers exert positive effects on firms’ export ratios. We find a larger marginal impact of R&D spillovers on export intensity of firms exporting to other OECD countries than those exporting to non‐OECD nations.     

Supporting others and the evolution of influence

In this paper we study environments in which agents can transfer influence to others by supporting them. When planning whom to support, they should take into account the future effect of this, since the receiving agent might use this influence to support others in the future. We show that in the presence of a finite horizon there is an essentially unique optimal support behavior which can be characterized in terms of associated marginal value functions. The analysis of these marginal value functions allows us to derive qualitative properties of optimal support strategies under different specific environments and to explicitly compute the optimal support behavior in some numerical examples. We also investigate the case of an infinite horizon. Examples show that multiple equilibria may appear in this setting, some of which sustaining a degree of cooperation that would not be possible under a finite horizon.     

Corporate Social Responsibility and Family Business in Spain

Despite the economic relevance and distinctiveness of family firms, little attention has been devoted to researching their nature and functioning. Traditionally, family firms have been associated both to positive and negative features in their relationships with the stakeholders. This can be linked to different orientations toward corporate social responsibility. Thus, this research aims to identify the approaches that Spanish family firms maintain about social responsibility, based on the model developed by Quazi and O Brien Journal of Business Ethics 25, 33–51 (2000). An empirical study carried out for 112 Spanish family firms gives support to our initial assumption about these organizations not being a homogeneous group in terms of their orientation towards corporate social responsibility. The differences in perceptions do not seem to be associated to biographical characteristics. These results lead to some relevant academic and practical implications that suggest interesting lines for future research.María de la Cruz Déniz Déniz is professor in the Department of Management at Las Palmas de Gran Canaria University (Spain). She received her Ph.D. in the area of Management from that University in 1999. Her current research interests include the study of Corporate Social Performance and the Management of International Business.M^a Katiuska Cabrera Suárez is professor in the Department of Management at Las Palmas de Gran Canaria University (Spain). She received her Ph.D. in the area of Management from that University in 1998. Her current research interests include the study of Family Business Behaviour and Management.     

Separating uncertainty from heterogeneity in life cycle earnings

This paper develops and applies a method for decomposing crosssection variability of earnings into components that are forecastableat the time students decide to go to college (heterogeneity)and components that are unforecastable. About 60% of variabilityin returns to schooling is forecastable. This has importantimplications for using measured variability to price risk andpredict college attendance.     

When hedonic products help regulate my mood

This paper analyzes how affect mechanisms work when consumers form their attitude toward and intention to purchase a hedonic product. The first of two studies shows that when products have the potential to improve moods, affect regulation dominates affective evaluation in forming purchase intentions. In other words, the need to repair one??s mood overrides mood-congruent reviews. However, the affect regulation mechanism is not very stable, and study two shows that introducing a competing source of information, such as product reviews, overwhelms the effect. Results show that when consumers are in a bad mood, product reviews significantly influence their attitude and purchase intention regarding a hedonic product. However, this effect is not significant for consumers in a positive mood because they generate both arguments and counterarguments that compensate for the information received from a third party.