Do Retail Foreign Direct Investment Restrictions Affect Retail Channel Structure?

The purpose of this study is to contribute to the existing retail channel structure research by investigating the impact of retail foreign direct investment (FDI) restrictions on retail channel structure as well as the moderating impact of a country's level of economic development on this relationship. Using a panel data set of 79 countries over the period 1999–2012, we show that retail FDI restrictions can influence retail channel structure development and that the relationship between retail FDI restrictions and retail channel structure is moderated by a country's level of economic development.     

The impact of cultural differences in U.S. business-to-business export marketing channel strategic alliances

Given slower growth and fierce competition in the domestic market, combined with increasing opportunities in many overseas markets, more and more U.S. companies are going international. While many doing so may initially use a direct exporting approach that relies on foreign channel members to distribute the product in the host country, over time, strategic alliances among distribution partners may form based on trust, commitment, and cooperation. For these alliances to succeed, the partners' perceptions of these variables need to be congruent so that expectations on each side of the dyad are reasonably similar. However, what happens when the cultural backgrounds of each channel partner are substantially different? This study empirically examines whether cultural differences do affect trust, commitment, and cooperation in international marketing channel alliances between U.S. exporters and their foreign distribution partners. Based on the survey responses from 149 U.S. exporters with marketing alliances abroad, cultural differences do affect trust, commitment, and cooperation. The greater the cultural differences between channel partners, the lower the levels of trust, commitment, and cooperation. Managerial implications are discussed, and study limitations are identified.     

Channel management and sales management: Some key interfaces

Channel management and sales management have traditionally been treated as different “animals” in the literature on these two areas of the marketing discipline. But there are several important interfaces between these two fields which have been ignored in the literature. This article identifies and discusses the significance of five of the most basic and important of these previously ignored interfaces: 1) channel design, 2) motivation of channel members, 3) education and training of channel members, 4) selling through channel members, and 5) evaluation of the performance of channel members. By recognizing these interfaces, the relationships between channel management and sales management become clearer from both the academic and practitioner points of view.     

Williamson’s Welfare Trade-Off Around the World

Review of Industrial Organization - Fifty years ago, Williamson (Am Econ Rev 58:23, 1968) argued that an efficiency-enhancing merger that reduces production costs but increases market power could...     

Improving consumption measurement and other survey data through CAPI: Evidence from a randomized experiment

This paper reports on a randomized survey experiment among 1840 households, designed to compare pen-and-paper interviewing (PAPI) to computer-assisted personal interviewing (CAPI). We find that PAPI data contain a large number of errors, which can be avoided in CAPI. Error counts are not randomly distributed across the sample, but are correlated with household characteristics, potentially introducing sample bias if dubious observations need to be dropped. We demonstrate a tendency for the spread of total measured consumption to be higher on paper compared to CAPI, translating into significantly higher measured inequality. Investigating further the nature of PAPI's measurement error for consumption, we fail to reject the hypothesis that it is classical: it attenuates the coefficient on consumption when used as explanatory variable and we find no evidence of bias when consumption is used as dependent variable. Finally, CAPI and PAPI are compared in terms of interview length, costs and respondents' perceptions.     

Asymmetric control limits for small samples

When designing control charts, it is usually assumed that the measurement in the subgroups are normally distributed. The assumption of normality implies that the control limits for a chart for sample averages will be symmetrical about the centerline of the chart. However, the assumption of an underlying normal distribution of the data may not hold in some processes. If the measurements are asymmetrically distributed then the decision maker may choose different actions. One thing that can be done is to consider the degree of skewness. If the nature of the underlying distribution is skewed, then the traditional Shewhart individuals chart may not be valid. This paper presents a technique for constructing appropriate asymmetric control limits when the distribution of data cannot be assumed to be a normal distribution. Meanwhile, it proposes a skewness correction method for the generated Burr, lognormal and exponential distributions. Some numerical calculations are generated for n  =  2, 3, 4 by using MATLAB.     

Buying into Europe

Danger may lurk for the U.S. companies that simply think, “Well, here comes 1992. I guess we had better get a foothold somewhere in Europe.” A company that doesn't make sound choices based on the many complex factors involved will find only trouble—not more profits.     

Wholesalers as Global Marketers

ABSTRACT

The notion of wholesalers as global marketers is almost an oxymoron in marketing thought. Yet, in fact, wholesalers as an institutional type have for thousands of years been involved in what today we refer to as global marketing. Wholesalers of many types have performed numerous activities or functions that have always been necessary for connecting distant buyers and sellers so that transactions can be consummated across international boundaries. In fact, by performing many distribution tasks or functions, wholesaling intermediaries of all types create the channel flows that link buyers and sellers together on a global scale. These flows, of which there are eight (product, ownership, promotion, negotiation, financing, risking, ordering, and payment), do not automatically appear out of thin air. Rather, the eight flows are created and sustained by many types of organizations that perform all of the myriad distribution tasks needed to connect sellers and buyers. Wholesale distributive institutions of all kinds, from the traditional so-called full-function merchant wholesaler to the more narrowly focused wholesaling intermediaries such as freight forwarders and export desk jobbers, all make a contribution by creating and sustaining channel flows. In recent years, as these flows increasingly extend to an international or global level, wholesaling intermediaries will likely play an even larger role in global marketing.     

Retail internationalization: A review and directions for future research

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to provide a review of scholarly articles that have examined retail internationalization issues. We identify three core areas within RI research: (1) RI drivers and impediments, (2) RI strategy, and (3) RI performance. We also discuss four RI strategy issues that have been examined: (1) RI speed, (2) Foreign market selection, (3) Foreign entry mode, and (4) Strategy employed. Based on the review, we point to multiple areas where RI research is lacking and can contribute to the advancement of the field as well as offer insightful implications for international retail managers.     

What benefit specialists think about medical savings account options for large firms

Currently, tax-preferred medical savings accounts (MSAs) are being offered on a trial basis to employees of small companies. This article reports results of a survey investigating the potential impact of adding an MSA to a medium- or large-sized firm's employee benefit offerings. The variables examined fall into the categories of attitudes toward views on employee benefits in general, the MSA option and issues associated with risk segmentation.