Modeling Distribution Channel Dynamics of North American Cars in the Spanish Automobile Industry

Relations between manufacturers and distributors have been the center point of the distribution channel’s management. This study covers the effects of coercive, as well as non-coercive power on intermediary variables such as cooperation and conflict. It will also analyze the effects of cooperation and conflict on American car dealers’ satisfaction and performance in Spain. Due to the small sample size (46 dealers), the model based on causal modeling compelled us to use the optimization method based on the partial least squares (PLS) regression techniques coupled with a bootstrapping to enable some generalization of the results.

Implicit and explicit preferences for brand name sounds

This research shows that people implicitly and explicitly prefer sounds that are more common among top brand names (e.g., “S,” “M,” “L,” and “E”). Implicit preferences correlate with explicit willingness to pay more for hypothetical brands with preferred sounds. This suggests that the prevalence of certain sounds among top brands may be a reflection of people’s phonetic preferences. We examine possible processes underlying phonetic preferences, and offer evidence excluding phonetic embodiment, pronunciation-based fluency, and familiarity-based fluency. The results suggest a phonetic frequency process account. Substantively, these findings indicate that certain sounds should be given priority when crafting brand names.     

The role of credit ratings on capital structure and its speed of adjustment: an international study

Using an international dataset, we examine the role of issuers’ credit ratings in explaining corporate leverage and the speed with which firms adjust toward their optimal level of leverage. We find that, in countries with a more market-oriented financial system, the impact of credit ratings on firms’ capital structure is more significant and that firms with a poorer credit rating adjust more rapidly. Furthermore, our results show some striking differences in the speed of adjusting capital structure between firms rated as speculative and investment grade, with the former adjusting much more rapidly. As hypothesized, those differences are statistically significant only for firms based in a more market-oriented economy.     

Tax‐Time Savings among Low‐Income Households in the $aveNYC Program

This article explores savings outcomes for participants in the $aveNYC tax‐time matched savings program compared with a group of New York City tax filers who were not offered the program. $aveNYC was administered at Volunteer Income Tax Assistance sites during the 2008–2010 tax seasons. The program offered taxpayers the opportunity to open a savings account with their tax refund and receive a 50% match on their initial deposit. The study's primary outcome is savings held by respondents 6–11 months after receipt of matching funds. We compare participants in the 2009 program cohort to a comparison group on the following outcomes: level of savings, having nonzero savings, and having enough savings to cover one or two months of expenses at current consumption levels. We find significant differences on savings levels, the presence of any savings, and the likelihood of having savings to meet one month's expenses.     

Firm efficiency: Domestic owners,coalitions, and FDI

In this paper we analyze the evolution of firm efficiency in the Czech Republic. Using a large panel of more than 190,000 Czech firm/years we study whether firms fully utilize their resources, how firm efficiency evolves over time, and how firm efficiency is determined by ownership structure. We employ a panel version of a stochastic production frontier model for the period 1996–2007 with time-varying efficiency. We differentiate among various degrees of ownership concentration and domestic or foreign origin. In a two-stage set-up we first estimate the degree of firm inefficiency and then the effect of ownership structure on the distance from the efficiency frontier. Our results support the hypothesis that concentrated ownership is positively related to efficiency. FDI has beneficial effects at the microeconomic level. However, we show that a simple majority is not necessarily the best structure to improve efficiency. We further analyze the effects of ownership coalitions and shed light on many other subtleties of how ownership and the specific industry affect firm efficiency.     

INDIVIDUAL VERSUS AGGREGATE INCOME ELASTICITIES FOR HETEROGENEOUS POPULATIONS

This paper deals with different concepts of income elasticities of demand for a heterogeneous population and the relationship between individual and aggregate elasticities. In general, the aggregate elasticity is not equal to the mean of individual elasticities. The difference depends on the heterogeneity of the population and is quantified by a covariance term. Sign and magnitude of this term are determined by an empirical analysis based on the UK Family Expenditure Survey. It is shown that the relevant quantities can be identified from cross‐sectional data and, without imposing restrictive structural assumptions, can be estimated by nonparametric techniques. It turns out that the aggregate elasticity significantly overestimates the mean of individual elasticities for many commodity groups. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An Exploratory Approach to Evaluating Performance Measures: The Managers' Perspective

It is commonly agreed that firm performance is a multi-faceted construct. Lacking a single accepted method for performance, managers are often judged by a mechanism they do not know or understand. This paper utilises a bottom-up approach to investigate manager perceptions of the important dimensions of performance in the hotel industry, and their evaluations of achievements in these dimensions. The paper offers a qualitative technique that characterises the managers' profile in a two-dimensional space of performance. One dimension is a composite of production-oriented indicators of performance, and the other is a composite of service-oriented indicators of performance. The findings indicate that most managers lack a focus and do not differentiate between production and service indicators of performance. The qualitative technique can be utilised for gauging manager perceptions of performance and for evaluation and feedback for manager performance.     

Strong equilibrium in cost sharing connection games

We study network games in which each player wishes to connect his source and sink, and the cost of each edge is shared among its users either equally (in Fair Connection Games—FCG's) or arbitrarily (in General Connection Games—GCG's). We study the existence and quality of strong equilibria (SE)—strategy profiles from which no coalition can improve the cost of each of its members—in these settings. We show that SE always exist in the following games: (1) Single source and sink FCG's and GCG's. (2) Single source multiple sinks FCG's and GCG's on series parallel graphs. (3) Multi source and sink FCG's on extension parallel graphs. As for the quality of the SE, in any FCG with n players, the cost of any SE is bounded by H(n) (i.e., the harmonic sum), contrasted with the Θ(n) price of anarchy. For any GCG, any SE is optimal.     

The Role of Decision Importance and the Salience of Alternatives in Determining the Consistency between Consumers' Attitudes and Decisions

This research examines how the importance of a consumer decision influences attitude-decision consistency and choice in decision contexts that contain versus do not contain specified alternatives. Results demonstrate that decision importance moderates attitude-decision consistency when alternatives are not specified, but not when alternatives are specified. These results, in conjunction with the time participants devote to choice, suggest that importance plays a larger role in attitude-decision consistency when alternatives are unspecified versus specified because importance leads to greater effort in generation of alternatives when alternatives are unspecified (an unnecessary task when alternatives are specified in context). Implications for promotion are discussed.