Analysis of the Service Dominant Logic network,authors, and articles

The present study analyses research conducted in Service Dominant Logic (S-D logic), providing an overview of its intellectual structure. For that purpose, a structured approach was adopted through the implementation of bibliometric methods, using co-citation analysis combined with performance analysis and an integrative science mapping approach, which considered a timeline, a graph, and a distance-based perspective. This allowed the identification of the leading authors and of six clusters of articles based on bibliographic coupling, along with the most prominent research themes clustered in five subdomains of research based on co-occurrence of terms. The networks extracted show the associations between the main articles and concepts treated by the S-D logic community, unveiling the salient challenges and prospective expansion facing its future theoretical and practical context.     

Entry,trade costs,and international business cycles

Are firm entry and fixed exporting costs relevant for understanding the international transmission of business cycles? We revisit this question using a model that includes entry, selection to exporting activity, physical capital accumulation and endogenous labor supply. We determine that once the stochastic process for exogenous productivity is calibrated to consider the endogenous dynamics in TFP created by the number of firms and the time series volatility of entry is calibrated to the data, our model yields minimal departures from the Backus et al. (1992) benchmark. The richer model shares all of the successes of the previous model in terms of the volatilities of aggregate quantities, as well as its failures, in terms of replicating patterns of international co-movement and the volatility of international relative prices.     

Social expertise: a new view to explain spatial divergences in personal consumer loan prices

The objective of this paper is to explain geographical divergences in interest rates on personal loans to households using aggregated consumer knowledge-related metrics as predictors. The researchers quantitatively test their approach in countries in the Eurozone and in the Italian and Spanish regions. Social expertise explains between 69% and 84% of variance in household loan market prices at an international and inter-regional level. The approach taken is tested using real market data established after real service encounters and not published or recommended prices.     

An International Carbon Tax to Combat Global Warming: An Economic and Political Analysis of the European Union Proposal

A bstract An international carbon tax has been the subject of considerable recent discussion as an economic incentive instrument to combat the perceived threat of global warming lesuking, primarily, from the use of the carbon emitting fossils–coal, oil, and natural gas–in the production of energy. During 1991, the European Union proposed the adoption of such a tax to be imposed by each member nation. The economic merits as well as the problems associated with the proposed European carbon tax are discussed along with the political prospects for its adoption. It is concluded that even though early adoption of the tax is unlikely, the economic merits of this tax instrument for the alleviation of global warming accompanied by changing political parameters may lead to its adoption in the long run.     

Leakage,entrepreneurship, and satisfaction in hospitality

Tourism is a very important tool for economic development. However, its economic effects are mainly conditioned by the level of leakage. This work defines leakage, provides an original evaluation of the entrepreneurial environment in showing that it is the one with the lowest level of leakage, and creates a new framework. It also measures leakage in an innovative way using a quantitative approach. In addition, the paper explores and shows how leakage can affect critical business factors, such as customer and employee satisfaction. The empirical study uses structural equations and data from hotels in the Valencian Region (Spain) to show how important leakage is in making businesses more competitive. The results confirm the new model and are of interest for company managers and public organizations.     

Semi‐nonparametric competing risks analysis of recidivism

In this paper we specify a semi‐nonparametric competing risks (SNP‐CR) model of recidivism, for misdemeanors and felonies. The model is a bivariate mixed proportional hazard model with Weibull baseline hazards and common unobserved heterogeneity. The distribution of the latter is modeled semi‐nonparametrically, using orthonormal Legendre polynomials on the unit interval, and integrated out to make the two durations dependent, conditional on the covariates. The SNP‐CR model involved corresponds to a Logit model for felony arrest; hence the validity of the SNP‐CR model can be tested by testing the validity of the implied Logit model. The latter will be done by using the integrated conditional moment (ICM) test. In the first instance we have estimated and tested two versions of the SNP‐CR model, without and with fixed state effects. However, the ICM test rejects these models. Therefore, we have estimated and tested the model for each state separately. These state models are not rejected by the ICM test. Indeed, the estimation results vary substantially per state. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An Evaluation of ASEAN Port Performance and Efficiency*

The overall objective of this paper is to evaluate the performance and efficiency of ASEAN ports. Specifically, it first identifies overseas ports similar to ASEAN ports in terms of nature and roles, port management policies, and infrastructure and operations, using the statistical technique of cluster analysis. Having identified the groupings of similar ports, the paper compares the ASEAN port performances and efficiency with their (similar) overseas counterparts. The results of the ‘like for like’comparison show that the ASEAN ports have achieved higher levels of efficiency in the utilization of cranes, berths and storage areas, with the port of Singapore as the top performer. However, they are generally less efficient in terms of timeliness, labour and tug utilization. Charges in ASEAN ports are also significantly higher than those of their (similar) overseas counterparts. Thus, we can say that, although the ASEAN ports are efficient from the port authorities’viewpoint, there is much scope for improving their services to port users, particularly in terms of timeliness and port charges.     

PRODUCT MARKET STRUCTURE,CAPITAL INTENSITY,AND SYSTEMATIC RISK: EMPIRICAL RESULTS FROM THE THEORY OF THE FIRM

Product market concepts from industrial organization economics are integrated with financial valuation models of the firm to investigate relationships among systematic risk, capital intensity, and product market power. The theory of the firm facing uncertain input and output prices is extended to provide empirical models. Empirical results coincide with hypotheses derived from the theoretical model and pose questions about traditional single period hypotheses found in the finance literature.