Distinguishing market segments to assess price responsiveness

Economists and marketers have developed theoretical constructs which suggest that effective market segmentation can be used to identify differences in price sensitivity among market theory in the industrial marketing literature by using marketing research to distinguish market segments that are useful in industrial pricing decisions. Both macrosegmentation, using characteristics of customers (that is, end-use and usage level), as well as microsegmentation (using behavioral variables) were utilized in a survey of natural gas customers to determine if segments of the industrial market differ in price sensitivity.     

Changes in equal employment enforcement: What enforcement statistics tell us

The Reagan administration has been accused of setting back civil rights enforcement.This article reviews available data on the administration’s enforcement efforts and discusses changes in emphasis, tone, and types of cases pursued.An emphasis on identifiable victims and a movement away from more punitive measures is apparent.Moreover, the large budget cuts and the administration’s antipathy to goals and timetables raise questions concerning the “quality” of enforcement.     

Europe,Germany and “The German Model”: Economic Links and Implications for China

Abstract

In this paper, I examine the economic links first between the European Union (EU) and China and then I focus on the economic relationships between Germany and China. The links I will consider include international trade and direct investment. Lastly I highlight some elements of the so-called “German Model” or the “Berlin Way” and examine if they can be of policy relevance to China. There are four main results: first, EU-China trade and investment relationships are strong, deepening rapidly but they are somewhat unbalanced and asymmetric. Second, the economic relationships between Europe and China are focused on manufacturing. Third, the EU-China relationships are primarily Deutschland-centric. Lastly, elements of the “German Model” such as Mitbestimmung, Mittelstand and the German apprenticeship system can have important structural and policy implications as China continues to grow and experiment with reforms aiming at combining stability, harmony and competitiveness.     

Choice and the Internet: From Clickstream to Research Stream

The authors discuss research progress and future opportunities for modeling consumer choice on the Internet using clickstream data (the electronic records of Internet usage recorded by company web servers and syndicated data services). The authors compare the nature of Internet choice (as captured by clickstream data) with supermarket choice (as captured by UPC scanner panel data), highlighting the differences relevant to choice modelers. Though the application of choice models to clickstream data is relatively new, the authors review existing early work and provide a two-by-two categorization of the applications studied to date (delineating search versus purchase on the one hand and within-site versus across-site choices on the other). The paper offers directions for further research in these areas and discusses additional opportunities afforded by clickstream information, including personalization, data mining, automation, and customer valuation. Notwithstanding the numerous challenges associated with clickstream data research, the authors conclude that the detailed nature of the information tracked about Internet usage and e-commerce transactions presents an enormous opportunity for empirical modelers to enhance the understanding and prediction of choice behavior.     

Strategies to prevent economic recessions from causing business failure

An average of more than 500,000 businesses failed in the United States during each of the 10 recessions that have occurred since the end of World War II. Yet, scholar and practitioner understanding of how to prepare for and respond to the challenges of an economic downturn remains extremely limited. This article analyzes and synthesizes the information from academic theory and business experience on managing through an economic recession. To assist firms in successfully navigating economic recessions, we suggest a program that involves positioning by investing in multiple markets and geographies, planning by developing a turnaround plan for facing sharply declining sales, promoting by maintaining marketing initiatives, and preparing by acting in anticipation of economic recovery.     

Fast growing small entrepreneurial firms and their venture capital backers: An applied principal-agent analysis

First the empirical background of the U.K. venture capital industry is developed using a panel of major U.K. venture capital funds over the period 1988–92. Then a framework for applied principal agent analysis is developed, focusing on risk management and information. Under risk management it explores attitude to risk, risk sharing and bearing, and the effects of risk bearing on effort. Under information handling, it explores information systems, information asymmetries between investor (venture capitalist) and investee (entrepreneur), and ways of attenuating them, and information variance and costs. Finally, the contract between investor and investee is seen as a device for trading risk and information. The implications of this trading for risk bearing, effort and efficiency are explored. The whole analysis is supported by a detailed case study which reflects current practice in the U.K. venture capital industry. The evidence provides striking confirmation of the applicability of the principal-agent model to the venture capital financing of hightech ventures.