Abstracts

Quality & Quantity -     

Residential choice,hedonic prices,and the demand for urban air quality

This paper uses a two-step estimation procedure suggested by Sherwin Rosen to estimate structural demand and supply equations for urban air quality. In the first step, a hedonic price equation is estimated for residential property values for the Washington, D. C., SMSA for 1970. In the second step, a set of marginal hedonic prices is generated. These prices and the quantity of clean air (reciprocal of air pollution) are used as endogenous variables in a simultaneous equation model. Empirical results indicate a price elasticity of demand between ?1.2 and ?1.4 and a unitary income elasticity.     

A note on an intertemporal cost function for a class of dynamic problems

Some properties of an intertemporal cost function for isoperimetric problems are analyzed. It is demonstrated that the cost function will be strictly decreasing in the length of the horizon T, and under certain conditions, strictly convex in T.     

To Do Well by Doing Good: Improving Corporate Image Through Cause-Related Marketing

As part of their corporate social responsibility, many organizations practice cause-related marketing, in which organizations donate to a chosen cause with every consumer purchase. The extant literature has identified the importance of the fit between the organization and the nature of the cause in influencing corporate image, as well as the influence of a connection between the cause and consumer preferences on brand attitudes and brand choice. However, prior research has not addressed which cause composition most appeals to consumers or the impact of cause choice on corporate image. A between-subjects field experiment in the Netherlands examines the influence of three core cause attributes??cause type, cause scope, and cause acuteness??on consumers?? perceptions of corporate image. Furthermore, this experiment examines the extent to which consumer identification with the cause mediates the influence of the cause attributes on corporate image. The findings indicate that identification with the cause leads to more positive evaluations of marketing campaigns for cause type and cause scope. Also, however, our results uncover a negative direct relationship between cause scope and corporate image. Cause acuteness is only marginally influential in corporate image perceptions. By proposing and testing a comprehensive model of the influence of cause attributes on corporate image in cause-related marketing, this article provides important implications and suggests avenues for further research.     

Eviction policy in postwar Angola

Angola's four decades of civil war continue to have a profound effect on the country's recovery and development. While the end to the war in 2002 and the subsequent extraction of natural resources has fueled the country's economic recovery for a minority, for the majority recovery depends less on natural resource extraction than it does on acquiring and maintaining secure access to land and property upon which viable livelihoods can be rebuilt. However the current large scale evictions in urban and peri-urban areas of the country and the resulting acute tenure insecurity is significantly worrying, and is the single most acute land rights, land policy, and political problem in the country. Aspects of the country's constitution and the development of the postwar land law facilitate eviction, and an important opportunity to upgrade postwar informal land rights has been missed. Land and property rights problems have played a significant role in the country's armed conflicts and social problems, and current trends are constructing a difficult future.     

Are freelancers a breed apart? The role of protean and boundaryless career attitudes in employability and career success

Recent economic and organisational changes have fostered an increasing diversification of the workforce, among whom freelancers are an under‐represented population in the literature. This study aimed at examining the role of protean and boundaryless career, professional commitment, and employability activities in fostering freelancers' subjective career success. Data were collected via an online survey among a sample of 425 Italian freelancers and analysed through structural equation modelling. Results partially confirmed several hypotheses: higher self‐directed career management and boundaryless mindset predicted higher employability activities and professional commitment; moreover, employability and professional commitment acted as mediators between career attitudes and subjective career success. The study provides support for the importance of such variables to freelancers' career success, as well as for the significance of protean and boundaryless careers among nontraditional occupational groups. Interventions aimed at fostering such attitudes could support freelancers in improving their attainment of professional progress and perception of career success.     

Endogeneity in survey research

Endogeneity is a crucial problem in survey-based empirical research on marketing strategy (MS) and inter-organizational relationships (IORs); if not addressed, it can cause researchers to arrive at flawed conclusions and to offer poor advice to practitioners. Although the field is increasingly cognizant of endogeneity-related issues, many authors fail to properly address it, particularly in survey-based research. Emphasizing the role of essential heterogeneity, this article develops an overarching framework to help improve the understanding of endogeneity problems and how to tackle them when researchers use cross-sectional survey-based data. The authors provide explanations of and advice for how MS and IOR researchers can address six “painful” and sometimes hidden decisions: 1) Do you have an endogeneity problem? 2) What technique/estimator is appropriate? 3) What instrumental variables (IVs) should be chosen? 4) How should IVs be evaluated empirically? 5) How should the results be interpreted and evaluated? and 6) What results should you report? The authors provide a practical flowchart to guide researchers in their efforts to address endogeneity-related concerns.