SOUTH–SOUTH TRADE: BEYOND GEOGRAPHY

Starting from a low base, south–south trade has picked up momentum over the last two decades. It is emerging as a new dimension of the global economy and can potentially usher in several benefits for developing economies. The emerging economies of the dynamic south (EEDS) not only provided a striking impetus to south–south trade but also contributed to the changing mise-en-scène of the global economy. However, given the moribund state of the Doha Round, additional policy measures need to be taken by the EEDS.     

On a property of orthogonal arrays and optimal blocking of fractional factorial plans

It is shown that fractional factorial plans represented by orthogonal arrays of strength three are universally optimal under a model that includes the mean, all main effects and all two-factor interactions between a specified factor and each of the other factors. Thus, such plans exhibit a kind of model robustness in being universally optimal under two different models. Procedures for obtaining universally optimal block designs for fractional factorial plans represented by orthogonal arrays are also discussed. Acknowledgements. The authors wish to thank the referees for making several useful comments on a previous version.     

Integration of South Asian Economies: an exercise in frustration?

This paper examines the factors underlying the slow progress towards economic integration between the countries of the South Asian region, and discusses the worth and likelihood of an effective agreement. It is argued that substantial integration will only take place after further economic growth leads to increased complementarity in their economic structures.     

The Firm's Management of Social Interactions

Consumer choice is influenced in a direct and meaningful way by the actions taken by others. These “actions” range from face-to-face recommendations from a friend to the passive observation of what a stranger is wearing. We refer to the set of such contexts as “social interactions” (SI). We believe that at least some of the SI effects are partially within the firm's control and that this represents an exciting research opportunity. We present an agenda that identifies a list of unanswered questions of potential interest to both researchers and managers. In order to appreciate the firm's choices with respect to its management of SI, it is important to first evaluate where we are in terms of understanding the phenomena themselves. We highlight five questions in this regard: (1) What are the antecedents of word of mouth (WOM)? (2) How does the transmission of positive WOM differ from that of negative WOM? (3) How does online WOM differ from offline WOM? (4) What is the impact of WOM? (5) How can we measure WOM? Finally, we identify and discuss four principal, non-mutually exclusive, roles that the firm might play: (1) observer, (2) moderator, (3) mediator, and (4) participant.