Investment project efficiency forecasting when considering buffering factors for negative external effects

A modification of the classical method for assessing net present value is offered in the paper as a method to assess investment project efficiency. This modification of the project realization efficiency includes a contractor company’s financial position indicator and other factors to buffer negative external effects.     

A measure of alienation from the marketplace

For the purpose of equipping researchers in marketing with a more sophisticated method to measure alienation in a marketing context, the authors have constructed and initially tested an alienation from the marketplace index. Alienation is defined in terms of Melvin Seeman's (1959) five basic variants of alienation: powerlessness, meaninglessness, normlessness, social isolation, and self-estrangement. After pretesting, two questions per variant of alienation remained as the operational measures of alienation from the marketplace. These questions focused specifically on marketing phenomenon. Test-retest reliability was tested with 35 paired observations. Validity was checked with survey data from 140 households. In terms of face or content validity, the questions met the criterion of “looking as if” they should indicate the corresponding dimensions of alienation. Correlations between the marketplace alienation items and a measure of general alienation established concurrent validity. The authors propose that the use of the marketplace alienation index in studies involving those who are affected by our country's business climate may prove useful. For example, one would hypothesize that increasing alienation from the marketplace would be associated with support of consumerist goals, or even of additional government legislation to control problems that the individual feels is uncontrollable by him because of the bigness and indifference of modern day enterprise. Pepsico, Inc.     

Recovering from bond market distress: Good luck and good policy

This paper focuses on the resolution of bond market crises. Episodes of bond market distress are identified using secondary market sovereign bond spreads. Duration models are used to assess the role of the global environment, domestic policy, IMF programs and political events in explaining the length of distress episodes. We find a rich set of interactions between favourable external conditions, sound macroeconomic policies and the presence of an IMF program which contribute to shorter bond market crises.     

Senior expatriate leadership's effects on innovation and the role of cultural intelligence

We propose that senior expatriates’ visionary–transformational leadership influences the rate of innovation adoption in the organizations or units they head, but cultural intelligence moderates this relationship. Our hypotheses were tested with data from 153 senior expatriate managers and 695 subordinates from companies in all 27 countries of the European Union. We found a direct influence of senior expatriates’ visionary–transformational leadership on the rate of innovation adoption. Cultural intelligence moderates the effect of senior expatriates’ leadership on organizational innovation, but not on product-market innovation. Implications for academic research and business practice are discussed.     

Human resource management in developing economies: a comparison of India and Thailand

This paper reports the results of surveys of firms that were conducted both in India and Thailand. The surveys centred on a wide range of human resource management practices (staffing, training, compensation and evaluation). The sample consisted of both the subsidiaries of multinational corporations and locally owned companies. Statistical analysis suggests pronounced differences in employment practices between India and Thailand in some areas, while considerable similarities in other areas. The study controls for a variety of organizational factors (e.g., firm size, ownership (foreign versus domestic), union status).     

The future of the uplands

Upland areas provide UK society with many important functions, goods and services, but have experienced a number of disturbing trends and face an uncertain future. This paper outlines historic, current and future drivers of environmental, economic, socio-cultural and policy change in UK uplands, and assesses how these have affected or are likely to affect ways in which land is used and the provision of ecosystem services. Information is synthesised into scenarios summarising a range of possible futures anticipated for UK uplands to 2060 and beyond. Finally, innovations in science, technology, governance and policy are evaluated that could enable uplands to continue providing key ecosystem services under a range of scenarios. The paper concludes that many upland areas will need to be prepared for significant reductions in grazing and prescribed burning. Conversely, other areas could experience agricultural intensification, for example significant increases in grazing or an expansion of arable or bioenergy crops into upland valleys, due to anticipated increases in global demand for food and energy. These scenarios will take place in the context of climate change. Many may take place together and may interact with each other, with complex and unpredictable implications for the upland environment, economy and society. In this context, a number of advances are needed in science, technology and policy to maintain viable upland communities and the future provision of ecosystem services. These may include funding for ecological and hydrological restoration via carbon offsetting or other means. It may also involve advances in ecosystem service modelling, mapping and valuation, which through stakeholder participation could facilitate more integrated rural planning. New forms of environmental governance need to be explored that can empower those interested in developing upland economies to maintain thriving upland communities, while managing the ecosystem services they provide as efficiently as possible.     

Private and Givernment Investment: A Study of Three OECD Countries

This paper examines the relationship between private investment and government spending in Australia, Britain and the United States. Since all time series data are stationary in first difference and cointegrated, these series are represented by an error correction model. Variance decomposition and impulse response functions are employed to investigate the effects of government spending on private investment. Generally the empirical results provide limited support for "crowding out" effects of government investment on private investment. The rate of interest and the corporate profit ability showed significant effects on private investment in two out of three cases. [E62, E63]     

The price effects of cross‐market mergers: theory and evidence from the hospital industry

We consider the effect of mergers between firms whose products are not viewed as direct substitutes for the same good or service, but are bundled by a common intermediary. Focusing on hospital mergers across distinct geographic markets, we show that such combinations can reduce competition among merging hospitals for inclusion in insurers' networks, leading to higher prices (or lower‐quality care). Using data on hospital mergers from 1996–2012, we find support that this mechanism operates within state boundaries: cross‐market, within‐state hospital mergers yield price increases of 7%–9 % for acquiring hospitals, whereas out‐of‐state acquisitions do not yield significant increases.     

On price equilibrium with multi-product firms

In this paper, we provide a result that shows existence and uniqueness of Nash equilibrium in cases in which existing methods are problematic. This result is based on a theorem by Kellogg (Proc Am Math Soc 60:207–210, 1976) that provides conditions for the existence of a unique fixed point. We apply it to the simple logit discrete choice model and the CES representative consumer model, where asymmetric cost firms produce multiple vertically and horizontally differentiated products and compete in prices.