CASE: Mozilla vs. Godzilla — The Launch of the Mozilla Firefox Browser

The case describes an interactive marketing campaign used to launch the open source, Mozilla Firefox browser. The case highlights key features of the campaign and the facilitating conditions that enabled product success. The sustainability of the community marketing effort in light of product maturation is the central marketing challenge that the organization now faces.     

Queues with hyper-poisson arrivals and bulk exponential service

Summary In this paper the time-dependent solution of a queueing system is discussed under the conditions (i) the units arrive according to Hyper-Poisson distribution withl branches (ii) the queue-discipline is ‘first come first served’ (iii) the Service-time distribution is exponential with maximum capacity ofM units being served at one instant. Some results have been obtained when the waiting space is finite; in particular the probability for service to be idle has been obtained. Also for infinite queueing-space case, the expressions for the state probabilities and the mean queuelength under steady state conditions have been found.     

A Simulation Approach to Dynamic Portfolio Choice with an Application to Learning About Return Predictability

We present a simulation-based method for solving discrete-timeportfolio choice problems involving non-standard preferences,a large number of assets with arbitrary return distribution,and, most importantly, a large number of state variables withpotentially path-dependent or non-stationary dynamics. The methodis flexible enough to accommodate intermediate consumption,portfolio constraints, parameter and model uncertainty, andlearning. We first establish the properties of the method forthe portfolio choice between a stock index and cash when thestock returns are either iid or predictable by the dividendyield. We then explore the problem of an investor who takesinto account the predictability of returns but is uncertainabout the parameters of the data generating process. The investorchooses the portfolio anticipating that future data realizationswill contain useful information to learn about the true parametervalues.     

Corporate Social Responsibility as a Signalling Device for Foreign Direct Investment

A rise in CSR (corporate social responsibility) has accompanied rise in foreign direct investment (FDI) to developing countries in the 1990s. CSR may be serving a signalling function when the entering firm is of an unknown type. Although countries are now competing keenly to attract foreign firms, even so, excessive tax or excess transfers by firms can still cause a Prisoner’s Dilemma structure to the payoffs resulting in an inefficient Nash equilibrium. CSR allows the accommodating firm to reveal its type, making cooperation the equilibrium outcome. The game differs from standard models since signalling changes the payoffs. A unique separating equilibrium exists where only the accommodating firms signal. But, under certain parameter values, a pooling equilibrium where all firms signal, becomes possible. A number of results are derived including the size of CSR expenditure required as a fraction of profits. An example demonstrates their relevance in practical situations.     

The Effect of Provision Points on Generic Advertising Funding

Marketing Letters - Generic advertising promotes the general qualities of a product category and, therefore, benefits all firms in the category. Recent examples of such campaigns organized through...     

The Emergence and Persistence of the Anglo-Saxon and German Financial Systems

We use a moral hazard model to compare monitored (nontraded)bank loans and traded (nonmonitored) bonds as sources of externalfunds for industry. We contrast the theoretical conditions thatfavor each system with the historical conditions prevailingwhen these financial systems evolved during the British andGerman industrial revolutions. To study persistence, we consideran entry model where financiers take the industrial structureas given when they lend and firms take the financial systemas given when they borrow. We show multiple equilibria can exist,compare equilibria in welfare terms, and discuss their robustnessto coordination between lenders and borrowers.     

The Washington State combined fund drive: a case study

The Washington combined fund drive is a large employee workplace giving programme in the state of Washington, USA. This programme provides individuals with a large choice of charities and payment options. Promotion for the programme is conducted entirely through a volunteer organisation. It has grown steadily, but contributions are now levelling off, so the director of the programme is trying to identify the most effective way to improve it. Copyright © 2002 Henry Stewart Publications     

So what do I get? The bank's view of lending relationships

While many empirical studies document borrower benefits of lending relationships, less is known about lender benefits. A relationship lender's informational advantage over a non-relationship lender may generate a higher probability of selling information-sensitive products to its borrowers. Our results show that the probability of a relationship lender providing a future loan is 42%, while for a non-relationship lender, this probability is 3%. Consistent with theory, we find that borrowers with greater information asymmetries are significantly likely to obtain future loans from their relationship lenders. Relationship lenders are likely to be chosen to provide debt/equity underwriting services, but this effect is economically small.     

On the possibility of efficient bilateral trade

I study a sequential process in which different pairs of traders bargain over the terms of trade of an indivisible good. I consider bothone-sided andtwo-sided offers based bargaining at the stage-game level. The sequential process is modelled as an infinite stage-game of incomplete information and the paper studies the efficiency properties of its equilibria. It is shown: With one-sided offers, all equilibria are long-run ex post efficient; with two-sided offers, examples of equilibria are constructed with widely varying efficiency properties. This paper is based on Chapter 1 of my Ph.D thesis.