Internet impacts on supply chain management

The traditional way of managing supply chains has changed dramatically over the last 5 years. Face-to-face management, manual tracking systems, paper-dominated order processing systems, and wired communication links were the primary management tools available to logistics managers. Today, they are obsolete. The article provides an overview of some of the new tools and trends discussed in this issue, including website structure, e-purchasing, electronic marketplaces, building vendor relationships, and the use of the Internet in managing supply chains in China.     

Strategic Internet application trends in supply chain management

The Internet is evolving as a powerful force in the new marketplace where the nexus of competition has changed from individual firms to efficient supply chain networks both between firms and within industries. This study explores Internet adoption patterns and operational applications in US supply chain networks. The data reveal that the integration of the Internet into supply chain management applications has increased and has moved away from indiscriminate application of novel Internet technologies towards becoming a focused endeavor with precise expectations and measurable goals. Specifically, the study finds that Internet usage within supply chains is maturing as evidenced by enhanced and increased productivity, reduced costs and increased profit for participating firms.     

Designing sales force satisfying selling positions: a conjoint measurement approach

To design selling positions that appeal to both new and incumbent salespersons, management needs to understand salespersons' preferences for job characteristics. The study reported here exemplifies an effort to operationalize salespersons' preferences for job and task characteristics that takes account of both career stage and gender. Findings indicate that salespeople in the sample prefer salary-based compensation and that female salespeople prefer sales jobs that are fixed in location.     

Strategizing in industrial networks

This paper provides an overview of the implications for strategizing offered by an industrial network perspective and a comparison of this view with strategic management thinking. We argue that it is crucial for a company to relate its activities to those of other firms in order to enhance its performance, and it is through the continuous combining and recombining of existing resources that new resource dimensions are identified and further developed within business relationships. From the standpoint of a single company, strategizing from an industrial network perspective implies that the heterogeneity of resources and interdependencies between activities across company boundaries, as well as the organized collaboration among the companies involved, must be considered simultaneously.     

The coexistence of transaction and relational marketing: Insights from the Chinese business context

Transaction and relational approaches to marketing have been promoted as alternative forms but recent evidence suggests that they may coexist. We explore this in the context of China. If firms operating in a highly relational society, such as China, exhibit transactional behavior, these two approaches must be compatible. We argue that Chinese values give rise to business practices consistent with both transactional and relational perspectives. These are summarized in six propositions for research. Theory building and managerial practice could benefit from thinking in terms of how elements from the two perspectives can be brought together rather than remain as alternatives.     

Calibrating an algorithm for estimating transactions from FXFX exchange rate quotes

In this paper we investigate the efficiency of a class of transaction-generating algorithms, originally suggested in Bollerslev and Domowitz (1993). Our comparison utilizes real transaction data recorded over Reuters D2000-2 electronic broking system for 7 h in June 1993 and transaction data generated from FXFX quotations over an identical period. Results suggest that, at this high-frequency data sampling, the performance of these transaction-generating algorithms is poor, with the most likely explanation of this outcome due to the high-frequency characteristics of FXFX spreads and quotation intensity.     

发达国家金融结构演变的新趋势及其借鉴意义

本文使用全部私人市场资本化总量与全部私人信贷总量之比和股票市场资本化总量与存款货币银行信贷总量之比两大指标,来描述发达国家的金融结构;用金融发展总水平这一指标来描述发达国家金融发展的水平。无论从对23个样本国家时间序列数据的分析还是从结合金融发展的分析来看,发达国家金融结构演变都显示出了股票市场主导的金融市场融资比重增加和银行主导的金融中介融资比重下降的趋势。其中,少数发达国家出现了由中介为主体到由市场为主体逆转的趋势,和／或者出现了由银行为主导到由股票市场为主导逆转的趋势。作者还提出了这一新趋势对我国金融结构转变的借鉴意义。     

Valuation of vulnerable American options with correlated credit risk

This article evaluates vulnerable American options based on the two-point Geske and Johnson method. In accordance with the Martingale approach, we provide analytical pricing formulas for European and multi-exercisable options under risk-neutral measures. Employing Richardson’s extrapolation gets the values of vulnerable American options. To demonstrate the accuracy of our proposed method, we use numerical examples to compare the values of vulnerable American options from our proposed method with the benchmark values from the least-square Monte Carlo simulation method. We also perform sensitivity analyses for vulnerable American options and show how the prices of vulnerable American options vary with the correlation between the underlying assets and the option writer’s assets.      

Determinants of economic and social satisfaction in manufacturer-distributor relationships

The aim of this work is to examine the dimensions of satisfaction in manufacturer-distributor relationships as well as identifying the antecedents of both the economic and the non-economic dimensions of satisfaction. A literature review about satisfaction in marketing channels is followed by quantitative research into how this interchange process is perceived by food product distributors in their relationships with manufacturers. The results provide strong support for the impact of communication, trust and commitment on satisfaction, as well as the interrelationships among the economic and the non-economic dimensions of satisfaction. Theoretical and managerial implications are extracted from these findings.     

Relationship equity and switching behavior in the adoption of new telecommunication services

This paper first defines and then presents a model of “relationship equity” for business markets. It points out that the potential benefits of managing relationship equity have been largely ignored and that a general model and stream of relevant research questions could be useful to marketing and relationship practitioners. The model developed considers the special case of key account management as antecedent, two different types of moderator variables, relationship equity as a perception by the buyer, and switching behavior via adoption of new telecommunication services as a result of this perception. The model is used as a basis for developing a number of working propositions.