To Trust or to Control: Informal Value Transfer Systems and Computational Analysis in Institutional Economics

This article illustrates the usefulness of computational methods for the investigation of institutions. As an example, we use a computational agent-based model to study the role of general trust and social control in informal value transfer systems (IVTS). We find that the terms of interaction between general trust and social control have an impact on how IVTS work, become stable, and prove highly effective. The case shows how computational models may help (i) to operationalize institutional theory and to clarify the functioning of institutions; (ii) to test the logical consistency of alternative hypotheses about institutions; and (iii) to relate institutionalist theory with other paradigms and to practice an interested pluralism.     

Varieties of Industrial Relations Research: Take‐over,Convergence or Divergence?

Industrial relations (IR) research faces various pressures of internationalization. Not only do global economic forces increasingly shape the subject of the discipline, employment relations, but also the academic community itself is becoming more international. The article discusses whether and in what ways IR research is affected by these trends. It is based on a comparative, longitudinal study of journal publications in the USA, Britain and Germany. The findings reveal significantly different patterns of IR research across the three countries. In particular, the strong variation between US and British research patterns challenges the common notion of a homogeneous Anglo‐Saxon style in conducting social science research. The analysis suggests that despite growing internationalization, IR research continues to be strongly embedded in nationally specific research cultures and traditions.     

Defaults and advice in self-customization procedures of insurance

The customization of insurance products is a crucial factor for the success of many insurance companies because it allows customers to tailor the insurance according to their specific needs. Customization can lead to increased customer satisfaction and loyalty. Focusing on two vertical customization methods, by-attribute and by-alternative customization, we experimentally analyze the influence of defaults. Moreover, we compare the effect of defaults to the influence of stated advice. Our results demonstrate that defaults enhance the likelihood of choosing premium insurance compared to a situation without defaults for both the by-attribute customization and the by-alternative customization. However, the customization process itself has no influence on default acceptance. If insurance companies combine a default with extensive advice (i.?e., advice that provides an explanation for why the advice is given), customers are most likely to choose the premium insurance.     

A Simple Empirical Measure of Central Banks' Conservatism

In this article we suggest a simple empirical and model‐independent measure of Central Banks' Conservatism based on the Taylor curve. This new indicator can easily be extended in time and space, whatever the underlying monetary regime of the countries considered. We demonstrate that our measure evolves in accordance with the monetary experiences of 32 OECD member countries from 1980 and is largely equivalent to the model‐based measure provided by 2005 for the post‐1985 period. We finally present the relevance of such an indicator for further empirical analysis addressing the preferences of Central Banks.     

Relationship marketing: The strategy continuum

Conclusion Few service firms will apply a pure transaction marketing strategy. Even highly standardized service operations include direct contacts with customers, and the customers do perceive the production and delivery process. Hence there are part-time marketers and functional quality effects, so we cannot talk about a pure transaction marketing situation. However, the more standardized the process is, the more dominating is the core service and the technical quality of the outcome of the production and delivery process and the less difficult it is to manage the personnel from a marketing point of view. Firms can position their strategic approach along the strategy continuum, and the more a relationship-type strategy is called for, the more has to be invested in interactive marketing, the functional quality impact, and internal marketing. In such a situation, it is at the same time more important to create information systems where the firm is managing its customer base directly and not relying on market share statistics and ad hoc customer surveys. Christian Gr?nroos, a former visiting professor at Arizona State University and a research fellow at the First Interstate Center for Services Marketing there, is currently a professor of marketing at the Swedish School of Economics and Business Administration in Finland, where he also is head of the marketing department. He has published extensively within the areas of service management and marketing and relationship marketing. He has published seven books and numerous articles in English, German, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Chinese, Dutch, Finnish, Swedish, Danish, and Norwegian.     

Rezensionen

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Consumer power: Enabling and limiting factors

A conceptual framework is developed for the study of factors that enable consumers to exert power, or prevent them from doing so, at different levels of aggregation and organization. The framework has four main categories: Constellation of Actors and Interests, Context of Interaction, Process of Interaction, and Outcomes. It is hoped that by means of such a framework, it will be possible to systematize and compare various cases in which attempts have been made — successfully or not so successfully — at exercising consumer influence. Such comparisons can provide the basis for hypotheses and generalizations as to factors that determine the outcomes of uses of consumer power or influence. The application of the framework is illustrated by means of a case study from Finland: that of a conflict between consumers and banks. Advantages and limitations of the approach are outlined in the final section.

---

Die Macht der Verbraucher: förderliche und hinderliche Einflußfaktoren

Zusammenfassung Die Autoren entwickeln einen begrifflichen Bezugsrahmen zur Analyse der Faktoren, die Konsumenten auf verschiedenen Ebenen der Aggregation und der Organisation positiv oder negativ darin beeinflussen, Macht auszuüben. Der Bezugsrahmen hat vier Hauptkategorien: die Konstellation der Akteure und Interessen, der Zusammenhang der Interaktion zwischen den Akteuren, der Prozeß der Interaktion und die Ergebnisse.Die Autoren erhoffen sich von dem Bezugsrahmen die Möglichkeit einer Systematisierung und eines Vergleiches verschiedener Fälle, in denen die Ausübung von Konsumenteneinfluß versucht wurde — sei es mit oder ohne Erfolg. Solche Vergleiche können bei der Ableitung von Hypothesen und Verallgemeinerungen im Hinblick auf Faktoren nützlich sein, die den Erfolg der Ausübung von Konsumentenmacht beeinflussen. Die Anwendung des Bezugsrahmens wird beispielhaft an einer Fallstudie aus Finnland demonstriert, an einem Konflikt zwischen Konsumenten und Banken. Abschließend versucht der Beitrag die Vorteile und Grenzen des Ansatzes abzuschätzen.

---

---

Sigmund Grønmo is Professor of Sociology, Department of Sociology, University of Bergen, Hans Holmboes gate 22, N-5007 Bergen, Norway. Folke Ölander is Professor of Economic Psychology, The Aarhus School of Business, Ryhavevej 8, DK-8210 Aarhus V, Denmark.This paper is part of the output from a research project sponsored by the Consumer Policy Committee of the Nordic Council of Ministers. The project was carried out by the authors in collaboration with Arild Danielsen, Department of Sociology, University of Oslo, and we have drawn heavily on his erudition and insights in preparing this paper.The paper first appeared in Enhancing Consumer Choice, Proceedings of the Second International Conference on Research in the Consumer Interest, Robert N. Mayer, Ed., American Council on Consumer Interests, Columbia, MO, 1991, and is published here with the permission of the ACCI and the Editor of the Proceedings.     

Creditworthiness and thresholds in a credit market model with multiple equilibria

Summary. The paper studies creditworthiness in a model with endogenous credit cost and debt constraints. Such a model can give rise to multiple candidates for steady state equilibria. We use new analytical techniques such as dynamic programming (DP) with flexible grid size to find solutions and to locate thresholds that separate different domains of attraction. More specifically, we (1) compute present value borrowing constraints and thus creditworthiness, (2) locate thresholds where the dynamics separate to different domains of attraction, (3) show jumps in the decision variable, (4) distinguish between optimal and non-optimal steady states, (5) demonstrate how creditworthiness and thresholds change with change of the credit cost function of the debtor and (6) explore the impact of debt ceilings and consumption paths on creditworthiness.JEL Classification Numbers: C61, C63, D91, D92, E51, G12, G32.An earlier version of this paper has been prepared for the 1998 North American Winter Meeting of the Econometric Society, January 1998, Chicago. We want to thank Jess Benhabib, Buz Brock, Gustav Feichtinger, Franz Wirl, Michael Woodford, Wolf-Jürgen Beyn and Thorsten Pampel for helpful discussions and comments on various versions of the paper. We also want to thank participants in a workshop at the University of Technology, Vienna, the Macroeconomic Workshop at Columbia University, and the SCE conference, at Yale University, June 2001. We are also grateful for comments from a referee of the journal.