The Evolution of Marks and Spencer

Financial data drawn from Marks and Spencer's archives and annual reports is used to identify five phases in the Company' sales growth. Early, rather erratic, growth, often through acquisition, gave way to a second phase of store development funded by the Company's floatation in the 1920s. Sales growth in the third phase came substanriveljl through an increase in store size. A fourth phase involved irnprovernerzts in labour and space productivity. The final and current phase of evolution emphasises divers(fication. The pattern of evolution is compared with two theories of retail change, the Wheel of Retailing and the Retail Accordion. Neither is compatible with the sustained growth exhibited, indeed both theories could be said to predict the failure of the Company's overall strategy.     

Firm Heterogeneity and Export Pricing in India

We examine export pricing by Indian manufacturing firms in the early 2000s using a unique data set that matches firm characteristics with product and destination‐level trade data. We find that, in contrast to China and other countries, firm productivity is negatively associated with export prices, and export prices are negatively associated with distance while positively associated with remoteness. Our conjecture is that Indian innovation costs, which are higher than China's, drive down the scope for quality differentiation causing a negative association between productivity and prices. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first empirical evidence consistent with heterogenous goods and short quality ladders, a theoretical possibility noted in the study by Antoniades (2012), an outcome that arises here because of domestic Indian economic and regulatory features.     

Strategic tariffs, tariff jumping, and heterogeneous firms

The majority of research to date investigating strategic tariffs in the presence of multinationals finds a knife-edge result where, in equilibrium, all foreign firms are either multinationals or exporters. Utilizing a model of heterogeneous firms, we find equilibria in which both pure exporters and multinationals coexist. We utilize this model to study the case of endogenously chosen tariffs. As is standard, Nash equilibrium tariffs are higher than the socially optimal tariffs. Unlike existing models with homogeneous firms, we find that non-cooperative tariffs promote the existence of low-productivity firms relative to the socially optimal tariffs. This highlights a new source of inefficiency from tariff competition not found in models of homogeneous firms. In addition, we find that in many cases the Nash equilibrium tariff when FDI is a potential firm structure is lower than when it is not. As a result, FDI improves welfare by mitigating tariff competition.     

Effectiveness and Efficiency in Privatization Advertising

The privatization of a number of British nationalized industries during the 1980s involved the use of substantial marketing and, in particular, advertising expenditure. When the same or similar activities are repeated, some experience or learning curve effect can be expected, such that the relative efficiency of performing that activity rises. From an examination of the objectives for and the process of privatization, a learning curve effect might be expected that would result in a progressive lowering of privatization marketing and advertising costs.

The data on privatization from 1981 to 1989 shows the expected learning curve effect for total marketing cost, the total cost reducing over subsequent privatizations. However, the relative cost of advertising first rose and then failed to fall, even when the objectives for privatization changed from widening share ownership to deepening it. The expected learning curve is not then observable, leading to the conclusion that inefficiency existed in the advertising of privatizations, particularly in the late 1980s, and that considerable sums could have been saved if a different strategy had been followed.     

International Activity of Japanese Department Stores

Japanese retailers have embarked on a number of overseas developments. Department store operators have instituted wide networks of representative oflces in locations chosen primarily as sources of luxury goods. Additionally, they have developed overseas branches to service Japanese tourists and, increasingly, local populations, particularly in the Far East. The location and nature of these operations are identified. Consideration is given to the stated globalisation policies of some firms, and the implication of new competitors for occidental companies highlighted. The internationalis     

R and D tactics: applications of RPD decision analysis

Abstract: The application of RPD decision analysis to R & D tactics is discussed and the role of the technique as an aid to self-consistent decision making is enaphasized. RPD decision analysis is used to define limits to its own cost effectiveness.
Two example problems are analysed in detail. Simple priority ratings are defined for two special cases: the sequence of independent tests all of which must succeed, and the sequence of independent problem solving attempts, any of which may succeed. The compromise between project duration and project cost is analysed in terms of time dependence of the value of success.
The discrimination study is defined as an investigation which aims to provide information for an improved assessment of project success probability.
It is shown that such a study is never worth more than one quarter of the total expected benefits of the project.     

Financial Times Business School Rankings: A Nontraditional Assurance Case in Three Parts*

The Financial Times of London (FT) is a business newspaper, with daily editions published in the United Kingdom, continental Europe, the United States, and Asia, and an estimated daily readership of 10 million people. In 1999 the FT began to publish a ranking of what it considered to be the top business schools in the world. Since their inception, these rankings have become increasingly relied upon by potential students and business school administrators worldwide. The FT's ranking is unique compared with other rankings because of its special international focus. Given the prominence of these rankings and the FT's position as a well‐respected business newspaper, the question of providing assurance over the business school rankings that the FT provides is particularly challenging.     

The Information Content of Bank Examinations

We identify three types of information from bank examinations—auditing information from verifying the honesty and accuracy of the bank's books, regulatory discipline information about the treatment of the bank by regulators, and private information about bank condition. We estimate these information effects by comparing the cumulative abnormal market returns associated with examinations in which the CAMEL rating remained unchanged, improved, and worsened. All three information effects are found to be greater for banks entering the examination process with unsatisfactory ratings from prior examinations. The only consistently strong effect found is that examination downgrades appear to reveal unfavorable private information about bank condition. The evidence also suggests that the information may reach the market in part through loan quality data released in quarterly financial statements.     

New directions in local accountability: Can the people be trusted?

Everyone is talking about accountability but it is a hard concept to pin down. The Audit Commission commends some of the Governments’ reforms, but believes that ultimately it will be people who will determine whether a better system of accountability emerges.