Building the foundation of a Firm’s market competence

Many firms are experiencing difficult times regarding their turnover and profits. What started as a financial crisis soon became a sales crisis. This article offers a definition of market competence — what areas a firm needs to master in order to drive sales — and a model offering a stable foundation for knowledge sharing, strategizing and executing regarding customers.     

Beyond the WTO? An Anatomy of EU and US Preferential Trade Agreements

It is often alleged that PTAs involving the EC and the US include a significant number of obligations in areas not currently covered by the WTO Agreement, such as investment protection, competition policy, labour standards and environmental protection. The primary purpose of this study is to highlight the extent to which these claims are true. The study divides the contents of all PTAs involving the EC and the US currently notified to the WTO, into 14 ‘WTO+’ and 38 ‘WTO‐X’ areas, where WTO+ provisions come under the current mandate of the WTO, and WTO‐X provisions deal with issues lying outside the current WTO mandate. As a second step, the legal enforceability of each obligation is evaluated, and judged on the extent to which the text specifies clear obligations. Among the findings are: (i) EC agreements contain almost four times as many instances of WTO‐X provisions as do US agreements; (ii) but EC agreements evidence a very significant amount of ‘legal inflation’ (i.e. non‐legally enforceable provisions) in the WTO‐X category, and US agreements actually contain more enforceable WTO‐X provisions than do the EC agreements; (iii) US agreements tend to emphasise regulatory areas more compared to EC agreements.     

Willingness to Pay and QALYs: What Can We Learn about Valuing Foodborne Risk?

This paper examines the value of reducing foodborne risk. Previous research on the valuation of health risk has been dominated by the study of mortality risk. However, in most cases foodborne illnesses are non‐fatal, so we focus on individuals' preferences for reducing morbidity risk, while also including a realistic, if remote, chance of death. We use a contingent valuation method on a Swedish sample and we estimate a value of a statistical illness consistent with previous findings in the literature. We also examine how willingness to pay (WTP) varies with the expected change in quality‐adjusted life years (QALYs) and estimate the WTP per QALY. We find that WTP increases with, though less than proportionally to, a change in QALYs. However, our results also suggest that respondents may have found it difficult to evaluate compound risks of both morbidity and mortality simultaneously.     

Reallocating sugar beet contracts: can sugar production survive in Denmark?

The reform of the EU sugar regime involves significant pricereductions for sugar and sugar beet. We examine whether theDanish sugar industry can maintain production and profit levelsby reallocating production from less to more efficient farmers.The impact of alternative reallocation mechanisms is estimatedusing a DEA model of sugar beet production, together with informationabout processing capacity at the three Danish plants, beet transportationcosts and alternative crop options. The analysis shows thatthe present allocation is far from efficient. With the new reformfully implemented and the quota efficiently reallocated, actualproduction will fall by only 25 per cent, although profit willbe substantially lower.     

Toward the Physical Internet—Logistics Service Modularity and Design Implications

The Physical Internet (PI) is a modularization of logistics services: standardized protocols, full interoperability and standardized packaging, PI‐containers, and encapsulated freight. The PI‐containers are a core component of the PI; however, previous PI studies have not addressed those containers’ repositioning, despite its importance and effect on the PI network efficiency. In this paper, we analyze how the PI‐containers’ design and characteristics will determine the containers’ flows in a domestic network context. The flows are studied strategically using a linear programming model minimizing flow imbalances between hubs and simulating the effect of PI‐container compatibility. The model is tested using inter‐regional freight data from Sweden, and the results are framed using modularity theory. Our analysis reveals that PI‐container compatibility in terms of forward and reverse flows determines whether PI presents increased or decreased empty runs compared with the existing conventional logistics system. Departing from modularization theory, we discuss our results, emphasizing not only the importance of keeping synergistic specificity low but also how the characteristics will affect the urgency of technology use. Our implications are important to supply chain managers and policymakers for the future research on the Physical Internet, PI‐container repositioning and routing, and packaging design.     

A series of persuasive events. Sequencing effects of negative and positive messages on party evaluations and perceptions of negativity

We test how party evaluations and perceptions of negativity are affected by sequences of positive/negative persuasive messages. In an experimental survey collected in Denmark, respondents were exposed to either a positive or a negative message on three issues in a random order; this creates a setting where we can test for the effects of eight different sequences of positive and/or negative messages. We find consistent effects. Being exposed to a higher volume of negative messages often depresses evaluations of the target, whereas being exposed to a higher volume of positive messages enhances evaluation of the sponsor. These effects are nuanced by recency effects: when a sequence ends on a negative message, regardless of its overall valence, evaluation of the target is depressed; similarly, negatively valenced sequences harm the target except when the sequence ends on a positive message. Backlash effects are unlikely, and no sequence simultaneously harms the target and promotes a positive evaluation of the sponsor. Finally, negatively valenced sequences of messages enhance perceptions of negativity, whereas positively valenced sequences do not reduce it; this trend is also nuanced by recency effects.     

Trends in Service Sourcing Practices

This paper identifies 12 current trends in sourcing practices in general and explores whether these trends are relevant for service sourcing in particular. Based on interviews with sourcing managers, it is, for example, concluded that service sourcing is becoming more systematic, formalized, and globalized with greater demands for trained staff, high-tech tools and focus on CSR. The authors have contributed equally to the article and appear in alphabetical order. The authors would like to express their gratitude to the respondents who made the study possible.     

From dollarisation to euroisation

In the past the dollar has been so dominant as an international currency that the term ‘dollarisation’ has become a synonym for currency substitution, i.e. the voluntary use of a foreign currency instead of the respective country's own legal tender. This article addresses the question as to whether the euro may be expected to partly replace the US currency in this function, focusing on the former's use as a substitution currency in countries on the periphery of the euro zone. Some policy conclusions are drawn for both the ‘euroised’ economies and Euroland.     

Fit among Competitive Strategy, Administrative Mechanisms, and Performance: A Comparative Study of Small Firms in Mature and New Industries

At least two different administrative mechanisms are available for the small business manager to develop and to pursue a competitive strategy. One refers to managerial skills needed to implement and to follow the competitive strategy chosen by the firm. The other refers to the design of organization structure—that is, how job tasks are divided, grouped, and coordinated. This paper argues that the fit among the competitive strategy followed by a firm, the utilization of the administrative mechanisms, and the performance of the firm is related to industry maturity.