Marketing journal hierarchies: Faculty perceptions, 1986-87

This article reviews the latest perceptions among AACSB school professionals in the field of marketing regarding journal hierarchies. With the proliferation of marketing journals during the past few years comes the need to address the relative position of all marketing journals. This study lists journal rankings using prestige and importance indices. The paper concludes with a discussion on the relative importance of journal rankings in the consideration of promotion and tenure among faculty members.     

Bimodality in diversification: An efficiency and effectiveness rationale

Various researchers have observed that the frequency distribution of firm diversification is bimodal. The two modes are created by a majority of firms employing either very little or substantial amounts of diversification. Only a minority of firms opt for medium amounts of diversification. From theoretical discussion of the forces of efficiency and effectiveness in diversification, this work provides a rationale for the bimodality phenomenon. In turn, research implications arise regarding optimum degrees of diversification, what the impact of optimization is upon firm performance, and why the measurement of both type and degree of diversification is important.     

Decentralized international exchange

Abstract.  We utilize a random‐matching model to examine the relationships between market frictions and international trade. In our setting, an individual may choose to search abroad where she may have a cost advantage, but is less likely to meet potential trading partners, owing to higher market frictions. Interestingly, we find that international trade may be associated with lower welfare than autarky. We show how this is due to price distortions resulting from bargaining when there are opportunities for exchange across countries. JEL classification F10, C78, D83     

Strategic Interaction and Trade Policymaking: Formal Analysis and Simulation

This paper introduces a simple game‐theoretic model and a Monte Carlo simulation of trade negotiations with the aim of identifying the nature of the selection bias that may threaten valid inference from empirical tests relying on data from trade disputes. Insights from the formal model are used to critically engage recent empirical analyses. This model is applied more specifically to the American use of Section 301 as an instrument to prise open foreign markets. The results of the game‐theoretical model and the Monte Carlo simulation demonstrate that, despite significant statistical results, models of trade negotiations might potentially suffer from misspecification due to non‐random selection effects.     

Can Short Restrictions Actually Increase Informed Short Selling?

We use the 2008 short selling regulations to test whether short sale restrictions can increase informed short selling. For the preborrow requirement, we find more negative price reactions to short interest announcements though no reliable increase in the price impact of short sales volume. For the stocks with banned short sales, we find an increase in the price impact of short sale volume though no reliable change in the price reaction to short interest announcements. Both restrictions, however, are associated with increased informed trading. Our results suggest that short restrictions will not reduce informed short selling and may actually result in an increase by increasing the proportion of informed short sellers..     

Strategic Choice and Performance in Late Movers: Influence of the Top Management Team's External Ties

This work examines how the strategic choice and performance of late movers are influenced by the top management team's external ties, inside and outside the firm's industry. Using a multiyear sample of firms from the computer industry, we found that intra-industry trade-association ties of top managers led to the adoption of a resource-imitation strategy by late movers while extra-industry importation and professional-association ties led to the adoption of a resource-substitution strategy. We also found that trade association ties had a negative effect on the performance of late movers using resource-substitution, while top managers' service on other firms' boards had a positive influence on the performance of those firms. Our findings not only confirm the importance of the role of fit in strategy and performance, but they also highlight the importance of the management and control of boundary-spanning activities.     

Perceptions of national AAA meetings

Professional conferences, such as those conducted by the American Accounting Association, are vehicles that can provide new information to people who share common interests. There has been little formal study of what should be the purpose of such gatherings. This paper uses questionnaire responses to focus specific attention on the perceptions tenure track faculty members have about paper sessions and other activities at both national and regional meetings. Particular attention is given to how different backgrounds and interest areas appear to influence impressions.     

Dynamic simulations on overshooting of flexible commodity prices with a modified arbitrage condition

Applying a Neo‐Keynesian approach, this study investigates whether in the short run flexible commodity prices overshoot their long‐run equilibrium whenever there is a monetary change. Two differential equations are generated depicting the adjustment paths for commodity prices and prices of manufactures. With a modified arbitrage condition that incorporates convenience yield, flexible commodity prices are shown to overshoot their long‐run equilibrium when compared with less‐flexible prices of manufactured goods. Simulation results support the breakdown of money neutrality in the short run. Inflation rate and degree of rigidity of prices of manufactures are shown to have a significant effect on the adjustment paths. Convenience yield did not influence the adjustment mechanism.     

Matching the characteristics of a service to the preferences of customers

The central task of any market-oriented firm is to ensure that its product provides a mix of attributes that is consistent with the preferences of its customers. Attempts to measure the extent to which products meet consumer needs are often fraught with difficulties associated with eliciting and analysing the responses. We propose a simple index that can be applied to ordinal or cardinal data and will provide a convenient summary of the extent to which a product meets consumer expectations. The index, though simple, is shown to be robust, and is applied to the problem of analyzing the quality of banking services provided to small firms in the UK.