A NOTE ON QUALITY, MARKET STRUCTURE AND THE IMPORTANCE OF THE 'INTEGER CONSTRAINT'

Faced with the integer constraint brought about by quality-related fixed costs, a socially-managed industry is more flexible than a free-entry oligopoly, for it can adjust the integer-constrained number of firms either upwards or downwards. As a result, and contrary to conventional wisdom, product quality may be identical under the two regimes.     

International Marketing Ethics: A Literature Review and Research Agenda

Globalization has changed the nature of business in the twenty-first century (Doh et al. in Bus Ethics Q 20(3):481–502, 2010). With the increased internationalization of multinational corporations, the need to address international marketing ethics arises (Carrigan et al. in Int Market Rev 22(5):481–493, 2005). Given the diversity of environments and cultures, ethical issues are numerous and complicated (Iyer in J Bus Ethics 31(1):3–24, 2001). The understanding of international marketing ethics is critical to academics as well as practitioners. This paper is a literature review (1960s through 2013) of the study of ethics in international marketing. In order to develop a comprehensive review of articles, we review topics such as ethical problems, moral philosophies, and culture and ethics. We also discuss the methodological procedures that are used in international marketing ethics. Researchers and practitioners alike can use this research on international marketing ethics to discuss the phenomena and subsequently lead to future work research.     

Pitfalls in the modeling of labor market flows: a reappraisal

ABSTRACT

We discuss the relevance of the internationally adopted methodology for modelling labour market flows and comparing labour market flexibility. This is based on a two-state labour market model that neglects inactivity and uses aggregate stock data to derive transition rates. Traditionally, the results suggest that continental European labour markets are inflexible and unable to adjust quickly to aggregate demand or supply shocks compared with their Anglo-Saxon counterparts. This evidence has driven us to gain a better understanding of the relevance of such a modelling approach and critically discuss its main methodological hypothesis. We relax its assumptions by including inactivity and by using flow data for the period 2010–2017. We compare the results thus obtained with transition rates derived using a three-state labour market model for France, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom. These countries represent the institutional settings of continental Europe on the one hand and Anglo-Saxon nations on the other. The implied transition rates are much higher, even in continental Europe, when inactivity is considered, thus suggesting that conclusions derived using an incomplete representation of the labour market are misleading. Inactivity therefore plays a crucial role and its inclusion provides a more exhaustive picture of labour mobility.