Technological change and multinational growth in international telecommunications services

Revolutionary technological and institutional changes, introduced since mid-seventies, are drastically altering the quiet functioning of international telecommunications markets, traditionally characterized by a strong multilateral oligopoly. In such multilateral oligopoly firms had little scope and opportunity for any form of international growth. Since the early eighties the scope for international growth of telecommunications carriers is emerging as a critical issue in international telecommunications. The economics of multinational firms and international trade make it possible to assess the role of technology gaps in the modernization process, international telecommunications tariff asymmetries and global outsourcing as the determinants of multinational growth of telecommunications carriers and their international strategies.     

The economics of path-dependence in industrial organization

Path-dependence defines the set of dynamic processes where small events have long-lasting consequences that economic action at each moment can modify yet only to a limited extent. Path-dependence is analytically generated by the overlapping of irreversibility, indivisibility and structural actions of agents. It makes it possible to allow both for the effects of past behaviour of agents on the structure of the environment and the Lamarckian survival of agents by learning and adaptation to the character of the environment; hence it provides a framework to understand and to model the effects of historic time on the behaviour of agents which are able at each point in time to modify their evolution.     

Exploring the Antecedents of Brand Loyalty and Electronic Word of Mouth in Social-Media-Based Brand Communities: Do Gender Differences Matter?

ABSTRACT

Recently, social media have emerged as key marketing communication channels. In this context, consumers are increasingly gathering in online communities which have been identified as social-media-based brand communities (SMBBCs). However, notwithstanding scholars' attention towards SMBBCs, the role of consumers' gender in developing brand loyalty intention (BLI) has been scarcely explored by literature. Moreover, scant attention has been given to the analysis of whether gender is related to different propensities towards brand recommendation—identified as a proactive behavior towards a positive electronic word of-mouth diffusion (E-WOM)—in the social media context. Hence, this research aims to explore the antecedents of BLI and E-WOM by focusing on consumers' gender differences. A structural equation model has been created based on 250 surveys collected among SMBBCs of an American sportswear brand. The results showed that male consumers' BLI is influenced by engagement in SMBBCs. Instead, brand trust was the main antecedent of females' BLI.     

Modelling quality in replacement and inspection maintenance

Heterogeneity in component and maintenance quality is considered in the context of age-based inspection and replacement for a single component system. A three-state component failure model is assumed, with a defective state preceding the failed state. Heterogeneity in maintenance intervention is modelled by supposing that inspections may induce the defective state. Component heterogeneity is modelled by supposing that the population of components comprises a mixture of the weak and strong, and that the mixing proportion and cost of components vary between suppliers. Within this framework, the impact, on system reliability and cost, of switching component or maintenance supplier is determined. Broadly, our finding is that one is much more inclined to switch supplier in order to obtain higher quality maintenance than to obtain higher quality components. A gas pressure control valve is used to illustrate our ideas.     

Non‐compliance in Executive Compensation Disclosure: the Brazilian Experience

We examine the determinants and consequences of firms’ choice not to comply with a new executive compensation disclosure regulation. We exploit a unique feature of Brazilian markets, where a change in the regulation of executive compensation disclosure could arguably lead to personal security‐related costs for executives. This major reform in executive compensation disclosure in Brazil became effective in December 2009. While some firms complied with the change in regulation, other firms explicitly refused to comply fully with the regulation by using a court injunction. After controlling for firm‐specific characteristics and both social and economic inequality measures, we find that the degree of criminality in the state in which the firm is headquartered (a proxy for security‐related costs) and the level of CEO compensation are important determinants of a firm's decision not to fully disclose executive compensation information. We also show that firms which do not fully comply with the regulation face costs in the form of higher bid‐ask spreads, suggesting investors are leery of the decision not to comply with the regulation. We discuss the potential implications of our results in the context of executive compensation disclosure reform.     

A Fiscal Stimulus and Jobless Recovery

We analyze the effects of a government‐spending expansion in a dynamic stochastic general equilibrium model with Mortensen–Pissarides labor‐market frictions, deep habits in private and public consumption, investment adjustment costs, a constant elasticity of substitution (CES) production function, and adjustments in employment at both intensive and extensive margins. The combination of deep habits and CES technology is crucial. The presence of deep habits magnifies the responses of macroeconomic variables to a fiscal stimulus, while an elasticity of substitution between capital and labor in the range of available estimates allows the model to produce a scenario compatible with the observed jobless recovery.     

Speed and Sequencing of Transition Reforms and Income Inequality: A Panel Data Analysis

An extensive literature has analyzed the economic effects of transition patterns in Central and Eastern European and former Soviet Union countries. With few recent exceptions, analysis of the impacts of speed and sequencing of reforms has not concerned the dynamics of income inequality. In this paper we analyze the heterogeneous effects of transition reforms on inequality by explicitly considering their speed and sequencing. To this aim we identify eight transition models in which the 27 countries considered are classified. The dynamic panel‐data analysis for the period 1989–2009 reveals that balanced transition patterns, which favored a coordination of reforms especially in specific fields, were relatively less pro‐inequality.     

Localized knowledge percolation processes and information networks

Summary The development of knowledge within industries is strongly influenced by the network structure of relations among firms. Firms relying on localized knowledge can implement their technological capability not only by means of research and development expenditures and internal learning but also through the systematic absorption of technological and scientific externalities available in their environment. Percolation processes have been studied in physics as the outcome of two classes of forces termed as connectivity and receptivity. The former measures the number of connections in place among the agents in the network and the latter the capability of each agent to absorb the informations received. This paper applies the methodology of percolation processes to operationalize the implications for both the economics of innovation and for technology policy of the structural characteristics of innovation networks as communication systems.