Experimental analysis of choice

Experimental choice analysis continues to attract academic and applied attention. We review what is known about the design, conduct, analysis, and use of data from choice experiments, and indicate gaps in current knowledge that should be addressed in future research. Design strategies consistent with probabilistic models of choice process and the parallels between choice experiments and real markets are considered. Additionally, we address the issues of reliability and validity. Progress has been made in accounting for differences in reliability, but more research is needed to determine which experiments and response procedures will consistently produce more reliable data for various problems.Sawtooth SoftwareDecision Research     

Economic Stagnation and Crisis in Korea during the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries

In contrast to rapid economic growth in the twentieth century, Korea suffered a long economic decline in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, with the failure accelerating from 1850 to 1890. According to 36 different harvest records, rice productivity continuously declined from the early eighteenth to the late nineteenth centuries due to deforestation and increase in natural disasters. Contraction of rural markets after the interruption of trade with Japan also contributed to the decrease in rice production. The third reason for the nineteenth‐century crisis was the dissolution of the government‐led grain storage and redistribution system. Finally, the ultimate culprit for the crisis could be found in Confucianism with which the Joseon Dynasty was unable to properly understand and respond to the crisis.     

Effects of the matching fund program on IPO and bankruptcy of SMEs in Korea

Most small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Korea struggle in financing R&D. Thus, the Korea Core Industrial Technology Investment Association (KITIA) was established to implement a matching fund program (MFP) to help SMEs with this undertaking. Applicant firms to the MFP are reviewed first based on their technology levels and are required to attract financing from venture capitalists (VCs), before receiving funds from the MFP. This paper, based on KITIAs MFP applicant data from 2001 to 2004, evaluates the performance of the MFP in terms of the success rate of funded SMEs’ initial public offerings (IPOs) and bankruptcy rates in relation to those SMEs that could not attract matching funds. Propensity score matching was used to eliminate selection bias from the data in order to assess the actual treatment effect of the MFP. According to the result of logistic regression applied to the matched data, MFP apparently did not have significant effects on IPO success and bankruptcy. This implies that MFP needs to allow VCs more time to evaluate SMEs covering qualitative aspects as well. It is expected that this change of structure can provide better performance of MFP in terms of IPO success and bankruptcy of matched SMEs.     

How Online Product Reviews Affect Retail Sales: A Meta-analysis

A growing body of research has emerged on online product reviews and their ability to elicit performance outcomes desired by retailers; yet, a common understanding of the performance implications of online product reviews has eluded us. Scholars continue to navigate an array of studies assessing different design elements of online product reviews, and various research settings and data sources. We undertake a meta-analysis of 26 empirical studies yielding 443 sales elasticities to examine how these variables relate to retail sales. Building on well-established meta-analytical methods, we address the following questions: How does review valence influence the elasticity of retailer sales? What about review volume? For which product types and usage situations do online product reviews have a greater impact on retailer sales elasticity? Which types of online reviewers and websites exert the greatest influence on retailer sales elasticity? Our study answers these important questions and provides a much needed quantitative synthesis of this burgeoning stream of research.     

Co-innovation in networks of resources — A case study in the Chinese exhibition industry

This work explores how network partners collaborate to innovate and innovate to collaborate and thereby achieve value. The innovation processes analyzed are within an IJV in the Chinese exhibition industry. The findings highlight that the IJV's development of a successful trade show resulted from effective co-innovation by partners which enabled the exploitation of opportunities in an industry characterized by rapid growth and continuing structural change. Partner co-innovation enabled evolving strategic and operational capabilities which has led to continued and growing market success. This co-innovation involved the targeted co-mingling of partner resources which creates value that motivated continued cooperation. The effectiveness of the partners' activities is evidenced by the growing size and prestige of their large-scale trade show as well as the expansion of the IJV into other endeavors. The paper concludes by considering the way these innovative processes can be applied in other contexts.     

Interplay between internal investment and alliance specialization in R&D and marketing

A firm's efforts to build its technological and marketing capabilities are not limited to internal investments but can be extended to include external knowledge acquisitions. We examine the interaction between a firm's specialization in R&D or marketing through its internal investments and its alliances in two different industrial contexts. Our results, based on secondary data sources such as Compustat and SDC Platinum from 1985 to 2009, show that the interaction effects of internal specialization and alliance specialization are contingent on the types of tasks (i.e., R&D and marketing) and the industrial context (i.e., high- and low-tech industries). Our findings indicate that a firm in a high-tech industry is able to achieve greater gains by complementing its internal focus on R&D with its external focus on marketing or by focusing on R&D both internally and externally. In contrast, a firm in a low-tech industry is able to achieve greater performance when R&D and marketing complement each other, without regard for how they are aligned through internal investments and alliances. The firm is also able to improve its performance by focusing on marketing both internally and externally. These findings provide new insights into the complementarity between internal investments and alliances.