E-commerce transactions,the installed base of credit cards,and the potential mobile E-commerce adoption

Mobile e-commerce (m-commerce) relaxes consumers’ temporal and geographic purchasing constraints and encourage the establishment of omnichannel markets. It is often argued that rapid increase in smartphone penetration is the primary driver of m-commerce adoption, whereas others contend that early adoption of m-commerce applications are mostly by “relatively heavy” Internet commerce users. Brynjolfsson et al. (2013) argue that rapid increase in smartphone penetration is the primary driver of m-commerce adoption, whereas Einav et al. (2014) contend that early adoption of m-commerce applications are mostly by ‘relatively heavy’ Internet commerce users. This article explores strength of the influences within a nested multiple-service framework, where the reduced-form econometric analysis allows for interdependency between m-commerce and e-commerce services, and the installed base of credit cards. The results reveal a complex situation in which credit cards facilitate e-commerce services, whereas m-commerce adoptions are driven by prior e-commerce and online transaction activity. Also, higher respondent incomes are negatively associated with proposed m-commerce adoption. Surprisingly, privacy concerns do not affect proposed adoption independently; however, an interaction term suggests privacy remains an adoption barrier for the older persons.     

A contribution on the nature and treatment of missing data in large market surveys

Nonresponse (or missing data) is often encountered in large-scale surveys. To enable the behavioural analysis of these data sets, statistical treatments are commonly applied to complete or remove these data. However, the correctness of such procedures critically depends on the nature of the underlying missingness generation process. Clearly, the efficacy of applying either case deletion or imputation procedures rests on the unknown missingness generation mechanism. The contribution of this article is twofold. The study is the first to propose a simple sequential method to attempt to identify the form of missingness. Second, the effectiveness of the tests is assessed by generating (experimentally) nine missing data sets by imposed missing completely at random, missing at random and not missing at random processes, with data removed.     

Economic Properties of Statistical Indices: The Case of a Multidimensional Gini Index: A Correction and an Addition

Journal of Quantitative Economics - This note corrects an error in a paper published recently in this journal and also shows that the index proposed there satisfies an important additional property.     

The Role of Hybrid Organizations in Scaling Social Innovations in Bottom‐of‐the‐Pyramid Markets: Insights from Microfinance in India

While social innovations that solve financial exclusion have gained increasing attention as a means of helping the poor in developing markets, little research has empirically investigated the types of organizations that drive these innovations to achieve scale. Hybrids, a type of organization that exist in between traditional organizational forms, are said to have rapidly gained prevalence, especially in bottom‐of‐the‐pyramid markets. Some scholars claim that hybrids are largely responsible for the spread of established social innovations, yet hybrids do not constitute a homogenous group; instead each hybrid form exists on a spectrum between pure for‐profit and not‐for‐profit organizational forms. It is important that empirical research investigates the role that various hybrid forms play in scaling established social innovations, especially under various bottom‐of‐the‐pyramid market conditions. To this end, using two market‐level outcome measures of scale achieved (prevalence and usage), the authors pursue two research objectives: to study (1) the extent to which, alternative hybrid forms (not‐for‐profit, quasi‐profit, and for‐profit hybrids) drive social innovation; and (2) the relative propensity of these hybrid forms to drive social innovation under varying bottom‐of‐the‐pyramid market conditions, specifically varying levels of development and social diversity. By theorizing how different organizational forms act given their degree of hybridity, the authors develop and test six hypotheses using data sets on microfinance organizations in India. Accordingly, they find that (1) compared with not‐for‐profit and for‐profit hybrids, quasi‐profit hybrids have a propensity to become more prevalent and achieve greater usage in bottom‐of‐the‐pyramid markets overall. Yet, within the spectrum of hybrid forms, (2) not‐for‐profit hybrids are more likely to become more prevalent and achieve greater usage in markets with lower development levels, whereas (3) for‐profit hybrids are more likely to become more prevalent and achieve greater usage in markets with lower social diversity when compared with other hybrid forms.     

A question of (mis)alignment: innovation mandates and absorptive capacity routines

Research suggests that effective R&D requires the right combination of inward-looking and outward-looking absorptive capacity routines. However, we do not have an adequate understanding of how these routines influence innovative output in R&D units with different mandates. In this paper, we argue that adopting an absorptive capacity routine would positively or negatively influence the R&D subsidiary’s innovative output, depending on whether the routine is aligned or misaligned with the subsidiary’s innovation mandate to ‘exploit’ existing knowledge or ‘explore’ new knowledge. We test this using data collected from a global packaged-software firm with 14 international R&D subsidiaries that implemented six major absorptive capacity routines in the period 2000–2010. Our research provides new insights for both scholars and practitioners in R&D management, by showing that balancing of absorptive capacity routines should be considered in light of innovation mandates of subsidiaries as well as the firm. Our analysis also provides insights on why decision makers may still adopt misaligned routines.     

Investing in irrigation development in North West Queensland,Australia

This study uses a dynamic multi‐regional Computable General Equilibrium model of the Australian economy to examine the impacts of developing irrigated agriculture in remote North West Queensland. A potential investment and operational scenario is implemented using three alternative forecast baselines. In the first run using a business‐as‐usual baseline, there is a welfare loss from irrigation development, even with an optimistic shift in farm productivity and factor endowments in North West Queensland. In the second run, baseline demand for Australia's exports is assumed to grow at a faster rate and there is a small welfare gain. Simulating climate change impacts on crop yields, the forecast baseline of the third run includes a gradual reduction in farmland productivity in southern Australia. The simulations show the impacts of both supply and demand shifts on the welfare outcome, but on balance, clear welfare gains do not arise from the potential irrigation development.     

The determinants of migrating with a pre-arranged job and of the initial duration of urban unemployment: an analysis based on Indian data on rural-to-urban migrants

"Based on survey data on 1,400 rural migrants in Delhi, this paper examines within a multivariate context the determinants of migrating with a pre-arranged job and of the initial duration of urban unemployment. The results show that the probability of moving with a pre-arranged job increases with education and with age, and is higher for those who seek non-manual jobs. For migrants who arrive in the city without a pre-arranged job, unemployment duration depends on marital status, premigration information on urban employment opportunities, and on the reliance on contacts for job search."