Rules, Policy and Rent Seeking: A Cross-border Comparison

The United States and Canada are similar in many ways, yet they have taken different approaches to agricultural policy. This paper discusses what affect the different constitutional arrangements have had on the development of agricultural policy. Constitutions can affect the policy bargaining process in several ways: they determine who has access to the bargaining process, what is the legal set of policy options and what is the admissible coalition. The two countries' Constitutions differ in where regions have access to the bargaining process, the use of the courts and the size of the admissible coalition. These differences have led to divergent policies, which are evidenced by the response to the recent drop in commodity prices.     

Who Adopts Total Quality Management (TQM): Theory and An Empirical Test

The recent emergence of total quality management (TQM) in the U.S. has spawned a great deal of interest in management circles as well as in the mass media. However, despite the growing number of firms that have adopted this management technique, few formal tests exist concerning the pattern of adoption as well as the changes that accompany the adoption of TQM. This paper contrasts models of production for TQM and non-TQM firms in order to explore reasons why some firms but not others have adopted the TQM approach to quality improvement. Predictions arising from such a comparison are tested using a unique data set that combines data on firms from three different sources. Our findings tend to support the proposed theory of systematic differences between firms that find it advantageous to adopt TQM and firms that do not. We also find evidence that firms adopting TQM experience greater growth in sales, employment, and capital stock.     

Measuring changes in multiproduct market structure: An application to U.S. airlines

The Entropy Index decomposition property is utilized to construct an aggregate index of route concentration that accounts for the multiple products, customer preferences and industry concentration. The Directed Divergence Statistic, an aggregate index which measures changes in market structure at the airline specific level, is similarly decomposed. We find that route concentration more closely resembles a duopoly than an industry with 16 major carriers. Further, the Directed Divergence Statistic decomposition reveals that while the industry seems to have absorbed the loss of national three carriers, those remaining engineered substantial changes in their product offerings to accommodate passengers.

     

Reactions of clients to referral requests

Referrals from existing clients are frequently used by organizations to obtain fresh prospects. The approach is commonly believed to be beneficial because the referred prospects are considered to be superior candidates relative to contacts gained from cold calling. However, the effect of the referral on the client is frequently ignored. Predictions of the Information Availability Explanation were used to develop a hypothesis concerning attitudinal effects among individuals who were asked for referrals. Clients who failed to provide a solicited referral developed a significantly less positive attitude than clients who were not asked for a referral. The results suggest that when considering the use of the referral method, the potential benefits of gaining superior prospects must be balanced against the potential undermining of clients' attitudes. Implications are discussed concerning referral technique implementation and suggestions for future research.The authors gratefully acknowledge the helpful comments provided by Alice M. Tybout of Northwestern University and Richard Yalch of the University of Washington. The authors also wish to thank Phillip Corless for his assistance during the data collection phase of the study.     

The Earnings Information Content of Dividend Initiations and Omissions

Previous studies have found that dividend initiations and omissions convey important information about subsequent earnings changes. However, this finding may be subject to a sample survival bias. We find that survivorship does not affect the positive relation between dividend changes and past earnings changes. Also, we find dividend omitting firms are able to generate significantly positive earnings one to two years after the omission. However, contrary to previous findings, firms' earnings are not significantly increased following the dividend initiation. The results suggest that survivorship tends to bias inference toward finding that dividends signal future earnings.     

An Exploratory Study of the Tourism,Migration–Immigration Nexus: Travel Experiences of Chinese Residents in New Zealand

This paper examines the hitherto undeveloped research area which examines the relationship between tourism and migration. Despite the emergence of a number of new studies in this area that have evolved from the interest in 'ethnic tourism', visiting friends and relatives and the relationship of tourism to migration, particularly immigration and emigration, many of these relationships remain tenuous and vague within existing conceptualisations of the area. As a result this paper explores the literature on tourism and migration, seeking to provide a cohesive synthesis of the field from publications within the realms of tourism studies, migration studies, sociology and the effect of globalisation of working lives and patterns of migration and tourism. The paper examines one specific ethnic group within New Zealand, Chinese immigrants, and establishes the travel patterns of the group, the principal motivating factors for travel, significant relationships with their recent immigration experiences and the effect of family and relatives on their travel patterns. The paper uses a hitherto neglected technique to assess the strength of these relationships - correspondence analysis.     

Strategic Versus Tactical Nature of Sales Promotions

Sales promotions (SP) are short‐term instruments usually designed to yield an immediate sales effect. Previous research has suggested that SP can be seen as detrimental to a brand's consumer franchise/equity as, in the long term, SP deteriorates brand value. In this paper, we theoretically broaden the scope of SP research relation to the following topics: strategy concept, marketing strategy, the Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) concept, the specific nature of each SP instruments and the underlying processes associated with consumer uptake of SP. We present findings that illustrate managers' perceptions of the positioning of SP instruments. We argue that the strategic nature of SP needs to be incorporated into marketers' research agendas.     

Case Study in the Evolution of Sustainability: Baxter International Inc.

Baxter International Inc. (Baxter) is a global, diversified healthcare company based in Deerfield, IL. In 2011, Baxter had sales of $13.9 billion and employed approximately 48,500 people worldwide (Baxter’s 2011 Sustainability Report). Baxter is also recognized for its efforts toward environmental/sustainability performance and reporting. The company defines sustainability as ‘a long-term approach to including our social, economic and environmental responsibilities among our business priorities. Baxter’s efforts in this area align with and support our mission of saving and sustaining lives.’ This case study attempts to analyze the progress of the company on its journey along the path toward sustainability. The formal environmental initiatives at Baxter were started in the 1970s. The acquisition of American Hospital Supply Corporation intensified the environmental challenges for the company. A new environmental course was set in the 1990s that led to the development of the State-of-the-Art (SOA) Environmental Standards. At this time, the company started measuring its efforts and began publishing an Environmental Financial Statement in its annual public Environmental Report. In 2005, an executive level Sustainability Steering Committee was proposed and subsequently created in 2006 to accelerate the integration of sustainability within all facets of the organization. This case study articulates the evolution of Sustainability at Baxter Inc. As a result of its efforts, Baxter has received numerous awards and accolades for its efforts in sustainability performance and reporting. For example, in 2011 Newsweek Magazine ranked Baxter the 4th greenest company in the United States (Newsweek Magazine, October 17, 2011, accessed online at http://www.baxter.com/press_room/features/2011/newsweek_green_rankings.html). Going forward, it would be noteworthy to see whether Baxter can keep up its momentum and continue to be a sustainability leader.     

The young and the clueless

It's natural to promote your best and brightest, especially when you think they may leave for greener pastures if you don't continually offer them new challenges and rewards. But promoting smart, ambitious young managers too quickly often robs them of the chance to develop the emotional competencies that come with time and experience--competencies like the ability to negotiate with peers, regulate emotions in times of crisis, and win support for change. Indeed, at some point in a manager's career--usually at the vice president level--raw talent and ambition become less important than the ability to influence and persuade, and that's the point at which the emotionally immature manager will lose his effectiveness. This article argues that delaying a promotion can sometimes be the best thing a senior executive can do for a junior manager. The inexperienced manager who is given time to develop his emotional competencies may be better prepared for the interpersonal demands of top-level leadership. The authors recommend that senior executives employ these strategies to help boost their protégés' people skills: sharpen the 360-degree feedback process, give managers cross-functional assignments to improve their negotiation skills, make the development of emotional competencies mandatory, make emotional competencies a performance measure, and encourage managers to develop informal learning partnerships with peers and mentors. Delaying a promotion can be difficult given the steadfast ambitions of many junior executives and the hectic pace of organizational life. It may mean going against the norm of promoting people almost exclusively on smarts and business results. It may also mean contending with the disappointment of an esteemed subordinate. But taking the time to build people's emotional competencies isn't an extravagance; it's critical to developing effective leaders.     

Is Airline Price Dispersion the Result of Careful Planning or Competitive Forces?

We develop a model of price dispersion to distinguish the impact of price discrimination from that of peak load pricing schemes or atypical competition resulting from the financial difficulties of the early 1990s. By utilizing three alternative measures of dispersion and appealing to economic theory for our specification, we find robust results suggesting an estrangement between price dispersion and price discrimination. While some discrimination continues to persist at monopolized endpoints, most dispersion is associated with fare wars and peak load pricing schemes.