Causal attributions of product failure: An exploratory investigation

The primary purpose of this exploratory study was to investigate whether consumers make different product failure attributions for different products. The study was conducted within the general framework of of attribution theory. Using four common household products, three classes of potential causes of product failure were examined for a sample of 211 adult consumers within the context of a mail survey.     

MP3

In this article the MP3 is described as a marketplace icon. The MP3 is a good proxy to understand digital virtual objects of consumption and market mediation in the digital economy. Using the concept of stewardship as a type of compromised possession reliant on devices, software, market mediators and consumers themselves coming together in a particular way, the article maps out some practices that define MP3 consumption today.     

Differences in work goals among regions of the Netherlands and Germany: functional,institutional and critical event influences

We use World Values Survey data from the Netherlands and Germany to compare the importance of within-nation region differences with nation differences in work goals. These two nations have historical relationships and internal differences that are especially useful for testing hypotheses about nation compared to within-nation region differences. We develop hypotheses about the implications of religious heritage and urbanization for work goals based on functional, institutional and critical event explanations for regional culture differences. A number of work goals (notably extrinsic goals like pay) show too little difference between either nations or within-nation regions to consider them. For those work goals that do show region differences, the largest differences, those for job security goals and goals for working with pleasant people, are associated with region differences between rather than within the two nations. Regional differences in some work goals are also related to religious heritage. Regional differences in work goals have implications for the kinds of HR programs that managers may wish to promote in different locations. For example, the results suggest that HR managers have reason to anticipate that policies promoting job security may receive especially positive responses in Germany, whereas programs promoting social relationships may be best received in the Netherlands. Similarly, organizations that operate in both the north and south of each country should be alert to a number of possible within-nation differences in local optimal HR policies, but the within-nation differences found here are small enough that they should be carefully checked in specific organizations.     

The Dynamic Response of Housing Values to a Forest Invasive Disease: Evidence from a Sudden Oak Death Infestation

“Sudden Oak Death” (Phytophthora ramorum) is a non-indigenous forest pathogen which causes substantial mortality of coast live oak (Quercus agrifolia) and several other oak tree species on the Pacific Coast of the United States. We estimated the time path of residential property values subject to oak mortality using a dataset that spans more than two decades—including a decade of transactions before-and-after the invasion. The findings suggest moderate, persistent property value discounts (3–6%) for homes located near infested oak woodlands subject to continuous post-invasion declines in forest health. The most severe discounts (8–15%) occurred where dying oaks were distributed both within residential neighborhoods and in nearby woodlands. Various hedonic modeling specifications were tested and compared to assess their ability to control for bias associated with unobserved spatial effects.     

Spring cleaning: rural water impacts, valuation, and property rights institutions

Using a randomized evaluation in Kenya, we measure health impacts of spring protection, an investment that improves source water quality. We also estimate households' valuation of spring protection and simulate the welfare impacts of alternatives to the current system of common property rights in water, which limits incentives for private investment. Spring infrastructure investments reduce fecal contamination by 66%, but household water quality improves less, due to recontamination. Child diarrhea falls by one quarter. Travel-cost based revealed preference estimates of households' valuations are much smaller than both stated preference valuations and health planners' valuations, and are consistent with models in which the demand for health is highly income elastic. We estimate that private property norms would generate little additional investment while imposing large static costs due to above-marginal-cost pricing, private property would function better at higher income levels or under water scarcity, and alternative institutions could yield Pareto improvements.     

Lessons from successful hospital consolidations

Today, more than ever, the nation's independent community hospitals are facing the critical decision of whether to remain independent or to align with a strategic partner. Hospital leaders should keep in mind that successful consolidations require a common vision and shared values, and that the most competitive parties within a market are often the best partners for alignment. They should not allow competing interests of independent physicians to influence the outcome of such transactions. The senior finance leader's goal, in particular, should be to uncover potential issues early to avoid surprises surfacing during the due diligence process.