A hedonic approach to estimating the supply of variety attributes of a subsistence crop

The article extends the household hedonic model by estimating a supply function for variety attributes of a subsistence crop in a developing economy. The model is applied to bananas in Uganda, making use of disaggregated data on variety‐specific farm‐gate banana bunch prices and attributes, while accounting for the semisubsistence nature of banana‐producing households. The article is motivated by the need to understand the attribute trade‐offs made by farmers at the farm gate in light of targeted variety improvement efforts and their impact on banana markets. Whether variety improvement will pay off at the market level requires a more detailed examination of the relative worth of banana attributes within the structure of consumer preferences and production technologies related to bananas in Uganda. The results confirm the importance of consumption and production attributes in selling behavior. Quality and bunch size are found to be complements at the farm gate. Banana bunches that capture a premium at the market will be those that provide bundles of desirable consumption and production attributes simultaneously. By revealing important price–attribute relationships, the findings provide guidance for crop improvement efforts and diversification choices, while taking into account implicit market signals for output attributes.     

Life after death? Analyzing post-defection consumer brand equity

The industry literature is full of the idea of winning back lapsed customers. Yet marketing practitioners and academics know very little about what happens to customers after they stop buying the brand. This research investigates the brand equity of lapsed customers of five major financial institutions. The analysis compares the propensity for positive and/or negative brand associations, overall brand evaluation, and the propensity to consider the brand in the future across the main segments of lapsed customers. The results show that the group of lapsed customers is not homogenous, but consists of distinct segments. Customers who defected for different reasons also differ in their post-defection brand equity. The paper concludes with implications for winback strategies for lapsed customers and brand equity measurement and management.     

Earnings management around founder CEO reappointments and successions in family firms

This paper studies reappointment of a chief executive officer (CEO) and succession events in listed family firms with an incumbent family CEO. We explore whether family firms with a founder CEO are more likely to engage in earnings management preevent than other family firms. We find evidence of preevent upward earnings management for firms that reappoint their founder CEO but no for other family firms. These findings suggest that the costs and benefits from earnings management change around founder CEO reappointments in family firms. Investors, auditors, policymakers and regulators should be aware of the temptation of founder CEOs to inflate earnings preceding their reappointment.     

CEO network centrality and corporate cash holdings

Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting - The social network centrality of Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) has received tremendous attention in recent research. This study examines how CEO...     

One Vs. Many: who wins? An empirical investigation of online product display

ABSTRACT

This study questions the unharmonious ways of product displays in online grocery retailing and aims to find if visual complexity of the product display has any impact on behavioral outcomes of online grocery shoppers. Our main finding was that visually complex images, i.e. images with a high number of elements have a negative effect on affective and cognitive states resulting in decreased behavioral intentions. However, when the number of elements in the product display was decreased, i.e. the visual complexity of the product display was reduced, shoppers’ cognitive and affective responses and intentions were similar to when they were exposed to noncomplex images. We also found that arousal and pleasure (parallel mediators) absorption, telepresence, utilitarian and hedonic values and perceived ease of use (serial mediators) mediate the effect that the product display has on behavioral intentions.     

Foreign Direct Investment Inflows,Economic Growth,and Trade Balances: The Experience of the New Members of the European Union

The study examines the role of foreign direct investment (FDI) on economic growth and trade balances of 10 emerging economies in Europe before they joined the European Union. This article uses the Granger causality test to investigate the link between FDI inflows and economic growth for the countries under study. The findings show that gross domestic product growth has a unilateral Granger-cause on FDI inflows for 9 of 10 emerging European economies. However, the results did not show FDI inflows Granger-causing the changes in economic growth of any of the 10 countries. Furthermore, FDI inflows had no or negative effects on trade balances of the majority of the emerging European nations. The policy implications of this study are that host governments in emerging economies must carefully evaluate spillover effects of FDI inflows on their economies before offering significant incentive packages to lure multinational enterprises into their countries.     

Cost-utility analysis of levodopa carbidopa intestinal gel (Duodopa) in the treatment of advanced Parkinson’s disease in patients in Scotland and Wales

Aims: To carry out a cost-utility analysis comparing the cost-effectiveness of levodopa carbidopa intestinal gel (LCIG) with standard of care (SOC) in patients with advanced Parkinson’s Disease (aPD) unsuitable for apomorphine or deep brain stimulation (DBS). LCIG is the only treatment option in this small, but clinically important, population.

Methods: A Markov model with 25 disease states based on disease stage and off-time status plus death. Patients enter the model with aPD spending >50% of their waking day in the off-state. Patients progress through the model in 6-monthly cycles for 20 years to approximate lifetime treatment and capture long-term costs and effects of therapy. Inputs are based on LCIG clinical trials for clinical outcomes and health state utilities, the literature for health state transitions and use UK-based input data wherever possible (drug costs, disease/adverse event management costs, discontinuation rates, mortality rates).

Limitations: Data collection can be challenging in this small, elderly population with advanced disease, therefore some model inputs were estimated, rather than collected directly. It was assumed that a reduction in off-time was the only benefit after the first year of treatment with LCIG; this is a conservative approach, since there may be additional clinical benefits.

Results: There is a considerable incremental gain in quality adjusted life years (QALYs) for patients treated with LCIG of 1.26 QALY with an associated incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) of £52,110. If the impact on caregivers is included, the ICER reduces to £47,266.

Conclusions: In cases where there is an orphan population, with no alternative treatment options, HTA assessments have a broader decision-making framework and the ICER is interpreted in this context. In the setting of a very small population, with considerable unmet need, LCIG represents value for money, as reflected by funding approval across the UK.     

Retraction Note: Prediction of economic growth by extreme learning approach based on science and technology transfer

Quality & Quantity - The Editor-in-Chief has retracted this article (Karaniki? et al. 2016) because validity of the content of this article cannot be verified. This article showed evidence...