Developing a brand performance measure for financial services brands

With no universal approach for measuring brand performance, we show how a consumer-based brand measure was developed for corporate financial services brands. Churchill's paradigm was adopted. A literature review and 20 depth interviews with experts suggested that brand loyalty, consumer satisfaction and reputation constitute the brand performance measure. Ten financial services organisations provided access to their consumers. Following a postal survey, 600 questionnaires were analysed through principal components analysis to identify the consumer-based measure. Further testing revealed this to be a valid and reliable brand performance measure.     

MAINTAINING MARKET POSITION: TEAM PERFORMANCE,REVENUE AND WAGE EXPENDITURE IN THE ENGLISH PREMIER LEAGUE

This paper investigates the relationship between playing success and commercial success in team sports. Utilizing a data set relating to the English Premier League that combines both financial measures and indicators of playing skills and performances, our empirical analysis is based on three behavioural equations. Our analysis indicates that on‐field success can be directly related to players’ skills and abilities and that revenue is positively related to on‐field success. Wage expenditure is also shown to systematically reflect player skills and performances. One interpretation of this evidence is that investment in players’ skills and ability buys on‐field success, with richer teams becoming ever richer and able to maintain or even build upon success by spending more on players than less successful clubs. To the extent that richer clubs are successful in their objective there is a causal link between revenue earned and competitive imbalance via investments in players. The implications of this tendency within a league are discussed in our conclusion, which also considers the potentially wider implications of our study as they relate to the evolution of firm size and issues of market share.     

The impact of vertical integration on the wage bargain: new evidence

This paper considers the impact of vertical integration on the bargaining power relationship between employers and workers. We argue that vertical integration may have either a positive or a negative effect on the employer's position. The relationship between vertical integration of the firm and wages remains, therefore, an empirical question which this paper sets out to resolve. We do this using regression analysis and by employing a new measure of vertical integration. Our results suggest that contrary to the evidence of some previous studies, vertical integration can enhance employer bargaining power.     

Technology acceptance: Not all organisations or workers may be the same

The Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) is widely accepted by researchers in the IT field as a reliable tool able to predict acceptance of new technology by individuals. The majority of these studies have used participants (both students and non-students) from within traditional businesses functions, e.g., accounting and finance. The ability of TAM to predict technology acceptance across all situations is not well documented. During the past decade there has been an increasing interest in research within Not-for-Profit (NFP) organisations. This paper considers whether people likely to pursue careers within the NFP sector have different attitudes to technology and whether such differences affect the measures used within technology acceptance models. A survey of business and social science undergraduate students, those most likely to enter careers in the Business vs. the NFP sector, indicated differences between the two groups that may impact on the technology acceptance models.     

Applying the Principles of Soccer Training to the Design and Delivery of Classes in Introductory Accounting Courses

Accounting instructors face numerous challenges in structuring and teaching accounting classes. This paper describes the experience of redesigning classes in an introductory accounting course to follow the format of team training sessions in the sport of soccer. The soccer format includes six sections: warm‐up, balance/agility/coordination, skill/technique, simplified small game, game, and cooldown. We explain how the activities in each of these sections can be translated into parts of a class session. While adopting this format requires instructors to invest time in preparation and to be flexible and responsive when facilitating classes, informal results indicate that this class format is rewarding for both instructor and students and that it enhances student performance and experience. We suggest that elements of this class format could be successfully adopted for courses in other business subjects, and in nonbusiness disciplines.     

Social Status,Entry and Predation: The Case of British Shipping Cartels 1879–1929

The authors incorporate social status and regional affiliation—two variables of central sociological interest—into an economic analysis of entry and predation. They build on Scott Morton’s [1997] examination of entry and predation in the merchant shipping industry and examine whether the social status of an entrant owner impacts on the predation behavior of the incumbent cartels. They find that high social status entrants are significantly less likely (40%) to be preyed upon than the low social status entrants. They discuss several interpretations of this result. Subsequent analysis supports the hypothesis that cartel members use social status as an indicator of an entrant’s propensity to be a cooperative cartel participant.     

A SURVEY OF MEASUREMENT BIASES IN PRICE INDEXES

Abstract. This paper reviews the literature on measurement error in the major US price indexes—the Consumer Price Index (CPI), the Producer Price Index (RPI), and the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) deflators. We take as our point of departure Triplett's, 1975, survey and focus on the studies of measurement error that have appeared since then. We review the problems of substitution bias, quality bias, new goods bias, and outlet substitution bias that are generally considered to be the main sources of error in price indexes. The bulk of the paper is devoted to problems in the CPI and PPI, as the GDP deflators tend to be based mainly on the components of these series. We find that there has been surprisingly little work on the problem of overall measurement error in any of these price indexes, and we conclude that there is very little scientific basis for the commonly accepted notion that measured inflation at 2 to 3 percent a year is consistent with price stability.