Your Call: eBay and Demand for the iPhone 4☆

The iPhone 4 was introduced into the UK market on 24^th June 2010 to significant consumer interest. Demand revealed itself exceeding supply through conventional channels, since there was very extensive activity in terms of bidding on eBay auctions for the product. We monitored all UK eBay transactions on the iPhone 4 for six weeks from introduction, with total transactions amounting to around £1.5m. We analyse determinants of winning bids in terms of characteristics of the phone, the seller, and the buyer. Our most notable and novel finding relative to previous studies is a very significant premium over list price being paid in almost all cases, with positive uplift factors including whether the phone was unlocked and whether it could be sold overseas. Demand fell over time, as evidenced by lower achieved prices, but the fall in price was relatively modest. A significant premium of 32GB over 16GB versions is revealed.     

The impact of environmental management systems on financial performance in fashion and textiles industries

With rising environmental concerns from consumers and stakeholder groups, environmental management has become an important responsibility for today's fashion and textiles manufacturers. The production of fashion and textiles related products often requires high levels of energy and water consumption, and emits large quantities of pollutants to the environment. Therefore, the adoption of environmental management systems (EMSs) is important and could have a significant impact on these firms' operational performance. This study presents empirical evidence on the performance impact of EMS adoption in the fashion and textiles related industries (FTIs). Although EMSs have emerged as a passport to business in the FTIs, their actual impacts on firms' financial performance have not been explored. We reveal that the adoption of ISO 14000, the most popular EMS, improves manufacturers' profitability in the FTIs over a three-year period as measured by return-on-assets (ROA). Based on our sample, we find that profitability improvement started during the implementation stage and continued at least one year after the firm obtained ISO 14000 certification. We also find that profitability improvement is mainly due to improvement in cost efficiency, measured by return-on-sales (ROS). Specifically, certified firms improved up to 2.9% in ROA and 3.3% in ROS over the three-year period since they implemented ISO 14000. We conclude that there is a positive impact of EMS adoption on firms' financial performance in the FTIs.     

Aggregate implications of micro asset market segmentation

An extensive empirical literature finds that micro asset markets are segmented from one another. We develop a consumption-based asset pricing model to quantify the aggregate implications of a financial system comprised of many such segmented micro asset markets. We specify exogenously the level of segmentation that determines how much idiosyncratic risk traders bear in their micro market and calibrate the segmentation to match facts about systematic and idiosyncratic return volatility. In our benchmark model traders bear 30% of their idiosyncratic risk, the unconditional aggregate equity premium is 2.4% annual, and the welfare costs of segmentation are substantial, 1.8% of lifetime consumption.     

Venture-backed Private Equity Valuation and Financial Statement Information

The relationship between (a) private and public equity market valuations and (b) financial statement information is examined for a sample of 502 venture capital backed companies from six different industries over the 1993–2003 period. Financial statement information explains a sizable component of the levels of and changes in valuation in both the Pre-IPO and Post-IPO periods. The findings support prior research for Post-IPO companies that revenues are value enhancing and costs are value diminishing. For the Pre-IPO period, we find that cost of sales; sales, marketing, general and administrative; and research and development are value enhancing—even when revenues are included in the analysis. This is consistent with costs incurred by early-stage, venture-backed companies having a strong “investment aspect” as the companies build a platform/infrastructure to grow revenue and validate their business model(s). We document the growth of early stage companies for revenues and costs in both calendar time (by round of private equity financing) and event time (relative to their eventual IPO).

Survey of recent developments

By June 2006, the government had largely completed the difficult tasks of stabilising macroeconomic conditions following the October 2005 fuel price increases, and of drawing up a blueprint to improve infrastructure and the investment climate. On the macroeconomic front, the main issues related to how, and how quickly, the economy could return to the growth rates of late 2004 and early 2005, given still low levels of private and public investment. Sound macroeconomic policies had delivered a stronger rupiah and reduced inflationary pressures, albeit with continued decelerating rates of growth. Private consumption and investment having slowed, government spending had become the key driver of growth, but major delays in public spending continued in the first four months of the year.

The reform agenda includes an impressive raft of new laws, or revisions to old ones, in investment, taxation, customs and labour, all of which were covered under a special Presidential Instruction. However, actual reform was slowed by substantial political obstacles. There was growing concern about divisions within the cabinet on the reform package, and about the capacity of the ministerial team to guide reforms quickly through the bureaucracy and the parliament. This included doubts about the resoluteness of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY) on reform initiatives in the face of vocal opposition (as in the case of labour reform), and about Vice President Jusuf Kalla's commitment when political or business interests close to him were opposed to change (as in the case of divestment of shares in Indonesia by the giant cement multinational, Cemex).

Given likely delays in the reform package's impact on output and employment, uncertainty persists about the level of support the ‘duumvirate’ is prepared to offer reformist ministers, and about the political clout of the reformers themselves, as the government moves into the middle period of the electoral cycle. Examples of weak policy making include watered-down investment reforms, the seemingly ‘quick-fix’ approach underlying a proposal to set up special economic zones, and unsatisfactory handling of continuing disputes in the mining sector. A backdown on labour market reforms, at least for the present, has probably been the biggest setback to date in the SBY–Kalla team's attempt to promote investment: a poorly managed reform effort in terms of both substance and political strategy.

Two other events shook Indonesia during the Survey period. A massive earthquake hit the Yogyakarta region on 27 May, killing nearly 6,000 people and leaving thousands homeless. And on the political front, the attorney general controversially dropped corruption charges against the ailing former president, Soeharto.     

Using Segmentation and Prototyping in Engaging Politically-Salient Climate-Change Household Segments

Targeting messages to the different segments of a population is necessary to achieve support for policy addressing climate change. Finer segmentation and archetypal prototyping may be advantageous to provide an in-depth understanding of the most politically-salient segments. The research, conducted in Australia, used quantitative analysis to identify subsegments and prototypical respondents, followed by Jungian-style in-depth interviews to reveal the responses of segment representatives to different marketing stimuli. The results suggest that there are challenges in achieving majority support for action against climate change, but there are archetypal words and images that may garner action.     

Destination product characteristics as useful predictors for repeat visiting and recommendation segmentation variables in tourism: a CHAID exhaustive analysis

The present paper constitutes a segmentation research with the use of the exhaustive chi‐squared automatic interaction detection tree analysis approach which, through the characteristics of a tourist destination, aims at the illustration of the English and German tourist groups and more specifically, (i) those who are repeat visitors of several tourist destinations and (ii) those who express a willingness to urge other people to visit geographic tourist destinations that the former have already visited. The results of the research help the tourism managers to apprehend the characteristics of the destination products that best describe the visitors. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.