Interfirm Rivalry between Small Hardware Stores and “Big Box” Retailers: Market Commonality and Product Mix Similarity as Antecedents to Competitive Response

We examined market commonality and product mix similarity as predictors of competitive response by small retail hardware stores to their nearest “Big Box” competitor. Data from 314 small retail hardware stores revealed a consistent relationship between greater market commonality and small firm responsiveness. However, no consistent relationship was observed between resource similarity and responsiveness. Tests for interactions between these two predictors were inconsistent—two (of five) specific product categories (i.e., hardware and tools, seasonal goods) were significant but in divergent patterns. We discuss what these findings suggest concerning the competitive interaction between small retailers and their Big Box rivals.     

The impact of Hurricanes on the value of commercial real estate

Business Economics - Commercial real estate investors prefer coastal, gateway, markets for liquidity, demand density, and durable returns. Yet, these areas are more vulnerable to the effects of...     

The Volatility of Return Revisions and Financial Statement Literacy in Emerging Markets: The Case of Cross‐listed Chinese Firms

Are foreign investors in emerging markets more financial statement literate than domestic investors? If so, this conjecture implies that foreign (domestic) investors are more likely to revise their return expectations to cash flow (discount rate) news. It also implies that cash flow news and discount rate news are likely to be uncorrelated when evaluating return revisions by domestic investors, whereas cash flow news and discount rate news are likely to be negatively correlated when evaluating return revisions by foreign investors. The Chinese equity markets yield robust empirical results that are consistent with both hypotheses.     

The impact attenuation performance of materials used under indoor playground equipment at child care centers

In this article, we have investigated the pattern of road fatality in Brunei. It is seen from this analysis that road fatality in Brunei was one of the highest in the world in the early 1990s, but has been significantly reduced over the years, and is now one of the lowest in the world. Preliminary investigation shows that young male drivers are responsible for most road fatalities in Brunei. We have also fitted a linear regression model and found that road fatality is significantly positively related to people aged 18–24 years and new registered vehicles, both of which are expected to grow with the growth of population and economic development. Hence, road fatality in Brunei is also expected to grow unless additional effective road safety countermeasures are introduced and implemented to reduce road toll. Negative coefficient is observed for trend variable, indicating the reduction of road fatality due to the combined effects of improvements of vehicle safety, road design, medical facilities and road safety awareness among road user groups. However, short-term road fatality analysis based on monthly data indicates that the coefficient of the trend variable is positive, implying that in recent months road fatalities are increasing in Brunei, which is supported by media reports. We have compared Brunei's road fatality data with Australia, Singapore and Malaysia and found that Brunei's road fatality rate is lower than Singapore and Malaysia, but higher than Australia. This indicates that there are still opportunities to reduce road fatalities in Brunei if additional effective road safety strategies are implemented like in Australia without interfering in the economic and social development of Brunei.     

Solving the startup problem in Western mobile Internet markets

This paper describes the evolution of the mobile Internet in terms of three concepts: the startup problem, standard setting, and mental models. Products in which there is little or no value to the first users due to the existence of strong direct (e.g., telephone) or indirect (complementary products) network effects face a large startup problem. This paper divides the startup problem for the mobile Internet into two stages. Japanese and later other service providers solved the first startup problem with entertainment content that was supported by a micro-payment system (service providers collect and pass on content fees to content providers) and custom phones that displayed this content in a consistent manner.     

Stakeholders,reciprocity, and firm performance

The assumption that economic actors behave in a boundedly self‐interested manner promises fruitful new insights for strategic management. A growing literature spanning multiple disciplines indicates most actors' selfish utility maximizing behaviors are bounded by norms of fairness. Rather than being purely self‐interested, people behave reciprocally by rewarding others whose actions they deem fair and willingly incurring costs to punish those they deem unfair. Economists show that employers who are perceived as distributionally fair by their employees generate comparatively more value due to the positively reciprocal behavior of those employees. The organizational justice literature distinguishes two additional types of fairness assessed by employees. Drawing from both these bodies of work, we employ stakeholder theory to propose how perceptions of fairness result in reciprocity (1) extending to all stakeholders of the firm and (2) affecting firm performance. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Occupation-specific human capital and local labour markets

Most skills acquired through on-the-job training may be specificto an occupation and therefore transferable to some but notall firms. This paper explores the relationship between thesize of the local market for an occupation-specific skill andjob-training outcomes. The Stevens (1994) model of trainingpredicts that as market size increases, job turnover increasesand training becomes more general. I test these predictionsusing data on blue-collar workers and variation in market sizeacross US metropolitan areas. The empirical results supportthe theoretical predictions and the impacts are most relevantat low levels of market size.