Entry into Swedish Retail and Wholesale Trade Markets

This paper examines, using a zero-inflated negative binomial regression model, what determined entry into the Swedish retail and wholesale trade markets between 1990 and 1996. According to the results, high returns on equity and low sunk costs seemed to attract more entry into retail trade industries, while recent entry and higher total industry sales were associated with more entry into both retail and wholesale trade local markets.     

Net value created: measuring a non-life insurer’s performance

The measure Net Value Created (NVC) captures periodic deviations of planned for and realized net present values at a specific reporting date. Therefore, NVC provides control-related signals about the company’s performance additional to economic value added/residual income measures. In this paper we adopt the NVC to the Flow to Equity approach, commonly used in non-life insurance company valuation. In a multi-period context the NVC allows for an update of information over time regarding planned for and realized values and, it further allows for a separation of value contributions of the main insurer’s business units and value contributions due to a change in cost of capital. Thus, NVC is useful for value-based performance measurement in the retrospect and for strategic (investment-) decision support in the prospect for non-life insurance companies.     

Remodularization of a Product Line: Adding Complexity to Project Management

Faced with ever-tighter schedules, product development professionals employ various methods for staying at least one step ahead of the competition. In particular, an autonomous, cross-functional team offers an effective structure for meeting the sometimes conflicting objectives of timely delivery of a high-quality, easily manufactured product. To complicate matters, however, companies must manage not only individual projects, but also entire product lines. Changes in product and process technology eventually necessitate revamping of the product architecture—that is, the remodularization of a product line. Can an autonomous project team provide the long-term perspective necessary for such efforts? Or, does remodularization of a product line require centralized oversight by functional management? Mats Lundqvist, Niklas Sundgren, and Lars Trygg explore this issue by examining product development efforts at two Swedish manufacturing companies. Specifically, their study explores this research question: Does a high degree of project autonomy limit the possibility for effective remodularization of product architecture? Both companies were involved in remodularization projects with stringent requirements for project cost and duration, but the companies employed markedly different managerial models in these efforts. One company took a centralized approach, except that two design engineers worked full time on the project. The other company used the autonomous model, with two exceptions: functional managers worked closely with some project members during the task specification phase of the project; and the project leader, though a heavyweight in many respects, did not have formal decision-making power. The latter project demonstrated that an autonomous project team can maintain a long-term perspective during development of a product. In other words, this project team was able to meet challenging time and cost objectives while developing a product consisting of highly compatible modules and subsystems. Although a centralized management approach might be expected to offer greater efficiency, the company using that approach failed to meet project goals for development time, product cost, and long-term product line effectiveness. However, the shortcomings of that effort are more directly attributable to the management style of the project leader than to the management structure employed.     

The impact of strengthening agricultural extension services on women farmers: Evidence from Ethiopia

This paper evaluates the effect of the Rural Capacity Building Project (RCBP), which aimed at promoting growth by strengthening the agricultural service systems in Ethiopia, and by making them more responsive to smallholders’ needs, in particular women farmers. We examine the gender‐differentiated impact of the RCBP using panel data on 1,485 geographically dispersed households in project and control kebeles. We find that women farmers’ access and satisfaction with extension services increased significantly immediately after the start of the project, but that effect did not last into the medium term. The project led to an increase in the adoption of high‐value crop farming, area of land cultivated, and economic participation of household members, benefiting male‐ and female‐headed households equally. Results point to the positive impact of incorporating women's needs and constraints in the design of the agricultural extension system. However, the project was not able to reduce the preexisting gender gap in agricultural outcomes.     

How to Handle the Fiscal Crisis in Greece: Empirical Evidence Based on a Survey of Economic Experts

We asked economic experts polled by the CESifo World Economic Survey how to handle the fiscal crisis in Greece in the year 2015. The sample includes about 850 experts from 110 countries. We find systematic differences in experts’ recommendations. Our results suggest that policy advice is related to an expert's personal and country‐level attributes. Country‐level characteristics, especially credit default swaps as a measure of fiscal stability, predict views on whether Greece should exit the eurozone. An expert's educational background, age and professional affiliation predict opinions on the credit programmes of the International Monetary Fund. We propose that policymakers who seek balanced policy advice should consult experts from different countries and personal backgrounds.     

Introducing Interface Management in New Product Family Development

Creating product platforms from which many products can easily be leveraged is an issue of increasing concern for many companies. This article introduces and explores the concept of interface management (IM) in new product platform development. IM is the distinct process of developing and defining the physical platform interfaces. The concept of IM is empirically explored in two product family development projects in the Swedish manufacturing industry that have been longitudinally studied for more than 3 years. It is proposed that firms which have a product family development approach that is associated with an extensive IM process enjoy a high degree of freedom in deciding how to balance its time to market for individual products with the beneficial utilization of design familiarities across all products. Moreover, if product managers understand and explicitly focus on the IM process, the often challenging shift from a single product development approach to a product family development approach is likely to be facilitated. © 1999 Elsevier Science Inc.     

Time-varying moments, idiosyncratic risk, and an application to hot-issue IPO aftermarket returns

This paper proposes time-varying idiosyncratic risk as a component driving conditional abnormal returns and outlines a corresponding Engle et al. [Econometrica 55 (1987) 391] ARCH-M market model. An application is given to initial public offering (IPO) aftermarket stock returns, where a positive relation between idiosyncratic risk and returns is consistent with young issues’ equity as a contingent claim on firm assets. The empirical results for an illustrative sample of German Neuer Markt stocks traded during the first two years after initial listing indicate pronounced skewness as well as a positive relation between conditional idiosyncratic risk and expected returns. Conditioning aftermarket performance on risk yields much lower levels of abnormal return significance than a standard approach.     

Mehrwert durch Transparenz kommunizieren

Die zunehmende Discountausbreitung fordert Hersteller und Detailh?ndler heraus, den Mehrwert ihrer Produkte besser aufzuzeigen. Es braucht Argumente jenseits des Preises. Stellt die Kommunikation transparenzf?rdernde Informationen zur Lieferkette der Produkte in den Vordergrund, werden bislang kaum evidente, aber aus Konsumentensicht entscheidende, Unterschiede aufgezeigt, die Konsumenten helfen, beim Einkauf nicht nur einseitig auf den Preis zu achten.