On Lumpiness in the Replacement and Expansion of Capital*

We estimate a model of homogeneous capital investment with two installation possibilities – replacement and expansion using observations at the establishment level. We find that regime switches identified by ad hoc measures of lumpy investment do not adequately distinguish expansionary from replacement activities. In fact, during periods of expansion, firms spend just as much on replacement capital. Also, using the common 20% rule would not assign a spike to almost 65% of all observations that include expansionary investment in this dataset. Finally, replacement although less responsive to fundamentals than expansions cannot be regarded as an autonomous part of investment.     

Arts Sponsorship Versus Sports Sponsorship: Which Is Better for Marketing Strategy?

This paper identifies the distinctive features of nonprofit arts sponsorship relative to profit driven sports sponsorship and shows that although arts sponsorship has been little researched, it is a potentially important means of marketing. The methodology employed was a literature review on sponsorship that attempted to distinguish arts sponsorship from sports sponsorship. Then, we present the findings from 23 in-depth interviews with arts sponsee managers, to reveal how they see themselves (as sponsees) being differentiated from sports sponsees. The literature and interview findings are brought together in a discussion that highlights the differences between arts sponsorship and sports sponsorship in terms of target audience, the relationship cost/benefit, range of emotions elicited, awareness, marketing metrics, goodwill, and learning potential. Finally, suggestions are made for future research.     

Combining research techniques to improve quality service in hospitality

Hospitality research includes many studies that combine and revisit the quantitative–qualitative debate, and review the arguments for and against using mixed-methods. The aim of this paper is to demonstrate the application of qualitative methodologies based on the combination of techniques which also include quantitative elements in addition to those pertaining to qualitative techniques. The research aims to specifically identify the most important managerial factors which, from the point of view of hotel chain executives, serve to improve the quality of the service they provide. The techniques used are concept mapping and qualitative optimization, both of which are qualitative methodologies though they include quantitative elements to overcome the subjectivity deficits typically found in qualitative methodologies. In addition, the combination of both techniques leads to greater precision of the results obtained. Our methodological proposal combines concept mapping with qualitative optimisation, thereby improving the prioritisation and hierarchical ordering of the ideas obtained and structured. Instead of working with each cluster’s average score in terms of importance (as defined within the concept mapping model), our contribution is based on prioritising these based on their distance to the optimal reference. This allows for experts’ evaluations of each idea in terms of its importance to not be strictly quantitative, that is, the experts are not obligated to assign numbers to their evaluations; rather, they can assess ideas based on qualitative labels.     

The Olympic 500‐m speed skating; the inner–outer lane difference

In 1998, the International Skating Union and the International Olympic Committee decided to skate the 500‐m twice during World Single Distances Championships, Olympic Games, and World Cups. The decision was based on a study by the Norwegian statistician N. L. Hjort, who showed that in the period 1984–1994, there was a significant difference between 500‐m times skated with a start in the inner and outer lanes. Since the introduction of the clap skate in the season 1997–1998, however, there has been a general feeling that this difference is no longer significant. In this article we show that this is, in fact, the case.     

Getting the most from MBA internships: Promoting intern learning and job acceptance

MBA internships are commonly used for training and recruiting management talent. Yet, research overlooks what makes them effective. A longitudinal study investigates the relationships that goal clarity, autonomy, and prior experience have with MBA intern learning and job acceptance intentions. Results show learning partially mediates the relationship of goal clarity to job acceptance intentions, and that less experienced MBA interns learn more under conditions of high goal clarity and low autonomy (i.e., when their roles are more structured). We discuss how role structures and learning can inform effective training and recruiting of interns, and management of short‐term workers in general. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

A New Application of Sustainable Growth: A Multi‐Dimensional Framework for Evaluating the Long Run Performance of Bank Mergers

Abstract:   We study the mergers of US publicly traded bank holding companies during 1987–2000 and find that the acquiring firm's sustainable growth rate is an important determinant of the cross‐sectional variation in the merged entity's long‐term operating and stock performance. The most economically significant determinants of the merged bank's abnormal stock return performance are the acquiring bank's estimated sustainable growth rate prior to the acquisition, as well as post‐acquisition changes in this growth rate, and the bank's dividend payout ratio. Our findings are robust even after controlling for several potentially confounding factors.     

Coworker Perceptions of Outcome Fairness of Breastfeeding Accommodation in the Workplace

The effect of workplace accommodation on perceptions of fairness was investigated. Vignettes describing an organization that did or did not accommodate the needs of a breastfeeding employee were used to test the hypotheses. Accommodation had a positive effect on perceptions of fairness. This effect was stronger for participants with children. Perceived personal cost of the accommodation had a negative effect on fairness. Evidence was also obtained indicating that need-based concerns affect perceptions of fairness. For example, participants who believed that breastfeeding is a private issue that does not belong in the workplace reported the accommodation as less fair.     

The Timing of Investment Episodes in the Netherlands

Summary We investigate the timing of large investment episodes at the micro level. On examination of a large sample of Dutch firms we find considerable lumpiness in the accumulation of fixed capital. We therefore define investment spikes and estimate the probability of these spikes, conditional on time since the last spike. We also control for unobserved heterogeneity. Our first result is that the probability of a spike is very high the year following an investment spike. We also find some evidence the hazard rate does increase as time since the previous spike passes by. Therefore, our results indicate the presence of convex adjustment costs or time to build lags. In addition, a tentative conclusion is that fixed adjustment costs are relevant.We like to thank two referees of this journal for their helpful and stimulating comments. The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support of METEOR at Maastricht University and the PIONIER program (grant number 400-10-041) of the Netherlands Foundation for Scientific Research (NWO). This work was carried out at the Centre for Research of Economic Microdata (CEREM) and we would like to thank Bert Balk, Ellen Hoogenboom-Spijker and Hans Pijpers for their help with the data. The views herein expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the policies of Statistics Netherlands. All errors remain our own.