The same old song: The power of familiarity in music choice

Does "familiarity breed contempt" or is "to know you is to love you"? In this research, we explore the role of familiarity in music choice. We show that although consumers say they would prefer to listen to unfamiliar music, in actuality familiarity with music positively predicts preference for songs, play lists, and radio stations. Familiarity with music is at least as good, if not a better, predictor of choice as are liking, satiation (which actually positively predicts choice), and regret. We suggest that the need for familiarity is driven by consumers' low need for stimulation in the music domain, and show that when the need for stimulation decreases, the power of familiarity significantly increases. In addition to their theoretical contribution, these results are informative for music managers determining playlists, for the promotion of music events and products, and for advertisers selecting the most potentially lucrative music venues.     

Optimal borrowing constraints and growth in a small open economy

Chinese high growth has been accompanied by government restrictions on international borrowing (capital controls). In this paper, we ask: are such restrictions a useful policy tool to facilitate growth? We provide a theory of borrowing constraints on households as a tool to correct a learning-by-doing externality. Borrowing constraints operate as a policy tool through two channels: (i) increasing labor supply and (ii) reallocating labor towards traded goods. We find that welfare gains are closest to that of the First-Best Planner allocation when the externality is not too large. We compute the sequence of optimal constraints along the growth path and show how the use of this policy tool contributes to repressed wages, current account balance, and slow real exchange rate appreciation.     

Entrepreneurial global franchise ventures: US and European franchisee failure strategic and empirical perspectives

Rapid United States and European franchise growth offers potential benefits for stakeholders and host counties, as well as the potential for failure. Franchisee failure research is a complex area confounded by varying failure definitions, approaches, an event-focus, and single-year data. This paper includes a strategic franchisee failure perspective that views franchisee failure as a multi-stage process rather than an event; new longitudinal data from the United States for over 780 franchise systems and 292,000 franchise units and United Kingdom franchisee failure data for over 700 franchise systems and 31,000 franchisee units; and estimates of current European business-format franchise market size, including selected Central and Eastern European countries. Understanding and mitigating franchisee failure provide potential lessons for franchisors and franchisees. Franchisee failure and the strategic implications for franchise entrepreneurial ventures is a significant research area that merits further study and analysis.     

Social Entrepreneurship: The Role of Institutions

A relatively small segment of business, known as social entrepreneurship (SE), is increasingly being acknowledged as an effective source of solutions for a variety of social problems. Because society tends to view “new” solutions as “the” solution, we are concerned that SE will soon be expected to provide answers to our most pressing social ills. In this paper we call into question the ability of SE, by itself, to provide solutions on a scope necessary to address large-scale social issues. SE cannot reasonably be expected to solve social problems on a large scale for a variety of reasons. The first we label the organizational legitimacy argument. This argument leads to our second argument, the isomorphism argument. We also advance three other claims, the moral, political, and structural arguments. After making our arguments, we explore ways in which SE, in concert with other social institutions, can effectively address social ills. We also present two examples of successful ventures in which SEs partnered with governments and other institutions.     

Interactions between marketing and quality at the SBU level: Influences and outcomes

The management of quality and development of effective cross-functional cooperation have assumed a new strategic importance over the past decade. However, many companies have reported that quality strategies have failed to deliver anticipated performance benefits and that ineffective interfunctional relationships may be to blame. This study explores marketing-quality interfunctional relationships as a potential source of quality strategy implementation failure at the strategic business unit (SBU) level. This study focuses on interdepartmental connectedness, communication and conflict between marketing and quality, and the antecedents and consequences of these dimensions of interfunctional interaction. Using data from a pooled response mail survey, the results suggest that marketing-quality interactions are associated with senior management quality leadership, strategic quality planning process, and control system characteristics. Interfunctional interactions between marketing and quality are found to be only weakly related to relative quality, market performance, and financial performance outcomes. Neil A. Morgan is a university lecturer in marketing and strategy at the Judge Institute of Management Studies, University of Cambridge, England. His research interests focus on strategic issues concerning marketing strategy formulation, marketing implementation processes, and business performance. His work has appeared in theJournal of Business Research, Industrial Marketing Management, British Journal of Management, and other journals. Nigel F. Piercy is Sir Julian Hodge professor of marketing and strategy and chair of Marketing and Strategy at the Cardiff Business School, Cardiff University, United Kingdom. His research interests focus on the organizational context of marketing management, market-led strategic change, and the role of process in marketing strategy implementation. His work has appeared in theJournal of Marketing, theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, theJournal of Advertising, and other journals.     

GROWTH,COMMODITY PRICES,INFLATION AND THE DISTRIBUTION OF INCOME

A primary commodity price boom is underway. Given the role of internationally traded primary commodities as inputs into the productive process in the industrialized world, an important question arises: namely what effects will this price‐boom exert upon wage and price inflation in industrialized countries? In order to address this question, we specify and estimate a system of equations in which the key dependent variables are world commodity prices, the domestic inflation rate for finished goods and the rate of domestic industrial wage inflation. This model is estimated against data for each of three major industrialized countries: Japan, the UK and the USA and the implications of the results thus obtained are explored.     

The economic burden of psoriasis with high comorbidity among privately insured patients in the United States

Objective: To evaluate the impact of comorbidities on healthcare resource use (HRU), and direct and indirect work-loss-related costs in psoriasis patients.

Methods: Adults with psoriasis (≥2 diagnoses, the first designated as the index date) and non-psoriasis controls (no psoriasis diagnoses, randomly generated index date) were identified in a US healthcare claims database of privately-insured patients (data between January 2010 and March 2017 were used). Psoriasis patients were stratified based on the number of psoriasis-related comorbidities (0, 1–2, or ≥3) developed during the 12?months post-index. All outcomes were evaluated during the follow-up period, spanning the index date until the end of continuous health plan eligibility or data cut-off. HRU and costs per-patient-per-year (PPPY) were compared in psoriasis and non-psoriasis patients with ≥12?months of follow-up.

Results: A total of 9,078 psoriasis (mean age?=?44?years, 51% female) and 48,704 non-psoriasis (mean age?=?41?years, 50% female) patients were selected. During the 12?months post-index, among psoriasis vs non-psoriasis patients, 71.0% vs 83.0% developed no psoriasis-related comorbidities, 26.3% vs 16.0% developed 1–2, and 2.6% vs 1.0% developed ≥3 psoriasis-related comorbidities. Compared to non-psoriasis patients, psoriasis patients had more HRU including outpatient visits (incidence rate ratios [IRRs]?=?1.52, 2.03, and 2.66 for 0, 1–2, and ≥3 comorbidities, respectively [all p?p?p?p?Conclusions: HRU and cost burden of psoriasis are substantial, and increase with the development of psoriasis-related comorbidities.