Science and industry evolution: evidence from the first 50 years of the German laser industry

Small Business Economics - Industry evolution is driven by innovation. Scientific research is an important source of innovation-relevant knowledge. To trace its impact on industry evolution, we...     

Cost-effectiveness of golimumab for the treatment of patients with moderate-to-severe ulcerative colitis in Quebec using a patient level state transition microsimulation

Objective: To conduct cost-effectiveness analyses comparing the addition of golimumab to the standard of care (SoC) for treatment of patients with moderate-to-severe ulcerative colitis (UC) who are refractory to conventional therapies in Quebec (Canada).

Methods: An individual patient state transition microsimulation model was developed to project health outcomes and costs over 10 years, using a payer perspective. The incremental benefit estimates for golimumab were driven by induction response and risk of a flare. Flare risks post-induction were derived for golimumab from the PURSUIT maintenance trial and extension study, while those for SoC were derived from the placebo arms of the Active Ulcerative Colitis Trials (ACT) 1 and 2. Other inputs were derived from multiple sources, including retrospective claims analyses and literature. Costs are reported in 2014 Canadian dollars. A 5% annual discount rate was applied to costs and quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs).

Results: Compared with SoC, golimumab was projected to increase the time spent in mild disease or remission states, decrease flare rates, and increase QALYs. These gains were achieved with higher direct medical costs. The incremental cost-effectiveness ratio for golimumab vs SoC was $63,487 per QALY.

Limitations: The long-term flare projections for SoC were based on the data available from the ACT 1 and 2 placebo arms, as data were not available from the PURSUIT maintenance or extension trial. Additionally, the study was limited to only SoC and golimumab, due to the availability of individual patient data to analyze.

Conclusion: This economic analysis concluded that treatment with golimumab is likely more cost-effective vs SoC when considering cost-effectiveness acceptability thresholds from $50,000–$100,000 per QALY.     

Customer equity management as formative second-order construct

Despite intensive discussions about customer equity, little research addresses how to manage customer equity from a firm's perspective. Recent literature proposes various concepts of customer equity management but does not feature an empirical study that identifies and quantifies activities that aim explicitly to maximize customer equity. In the current study, the authors develop a formative measurement instrument for customer equity management as a second-order construct that indicates how intensively firms orient their customer management toward customer value and equity. The study presents a complete process for conceptualizing and operationalizing a formative second-order construct, including a thorough literature review, intensive qualitative research, and a quantitative study with 92 customer equity managers. On the basis of this process, the authors model customer equity management as a function of three formative dimensions - customer equity analysis, customer equity strategy, and customer equity actions - measured by several formative indicators. The resulting formative operationalization satisfies the criteria for evaluating formative indexes.     

主要经济区域中的货币错位和贸易不平衡

本文论及在世界主要经济区城货币错位和贸易不平衡、货币错位产生的原因及其解决的方法，介绍了现行国际货币体系及其缺陷和改革建议。文中主要涉及到美国、欧盟、日本和中国的经济发展水平和相应的货币政策。     

Progressive Lending as an Enforcement Mechanism in Microfinance Programs

Microfinance programs are often characterized by progressive lending. A typical borrower receives at first very small amounts, which increase with good repayment conduct. The author rationalizes this feature of microfinance. It is shown that there is a strong tendency to split up projects into subprojects, and that it might be necessary to perform less productive projects first in order to keep pressure on the borrower to repay.     

R&D INTENSITY AND THE EFFECTIVE TAX RATE: A META-REGRESSION ANALYSIS

We apply meta-regression techniques to provide a quantitative review of the empirical literature on how research and development (R&D) expenses affect the effective tax rate (ETR). R&D expenses relate to a well-accepted profit shifting channel, strategic placement of intellectual property within a multinational entity. Using a unique hand-collected data set, we add a new perspective to the current base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS) state of research and debate, in three ways: First, observing that primary studies report mixed evidence on how R&D expenses affect ETR, we provide a consensus estimate for this effect. Second, we consider this effect in more detail by separating a tax accounting effect and a profit shifting effect, which to our knowledge has not yet been investigated. We detect that one-third of the R&D effect on the ETR is due to the tax accounting effect and could be mitigated via book-tax conformity. We further find that 10% of the profit shifting effect can be traced back to R&D tax credits. Third, our meta-regression reveals factors that are possible sources of variation and bias in previous empirical studies.     

Marktorientiertes Sportmanagement: Empirische Analyse des Einflusses der Marketinginstrumente auf die Markenstärke eines Sportevents

During the last two decades, sponsorship as a management and marketing tool has grown remarkably. This enormous economic potential, e.g. in form of sponsoring packages, makes it necessary for the organizers of sporting events to implement a systematic marketing strategy. The present study therefore attempts to measure the effectiveness of the marketing of sporting events using brand equity as an indicator. The theoretical modeling of the brand equity and the empirical examination are case-specifically conducted for the FIFA World Cup 2006 in Germany. The elements of the marketing mix are used as drivers of the brand equity. The empirical examination identifies the product of the World Cup 2006 as the most effective driver of brand equity. Based on these results implications for the management are developed.     

Same place,same knowledge – same people? The geography of non-patent citations in Dutch polymer patents

It has long been argued that geographic co-location supports knowledge spillovers. More recently, this argument has been challenged by showing that knowledge spillovers mainly flow through social networks, which may or may not be localized at various geographic scales. We further scrutinize the conjecture of geographically bounded knowledge spillovers by focusing on knowledge flows between academia and industry. Looking into citations to non-patent literature (NPL) in 2385 Dutch polymer patents, we find that citation lags are shorter on average if Dutch rather than foreign NPLs are cited. However, when excluding individual and organizational self-citations, geographically proximate NPLs no longer diffuse faster than foreign NPLs. This suggests that knowledge is not ‘in the air’ but transferred by mobile individuals and/or direct university–industry collaboration. Our findings moreover suggest an important role of international conferences in the diffusion of recent scientific knowledge.