The Effect of Real Exchange Rate Uncertainty on Exports: Empirical Evidence

Unless very specific assumptions are made, theory alone cannotdetermine the sign of the relation between real exchange rateuncertainty and exports. On the one hand, convexity of the profitfunction with respect to prices implies that an increase inprice uncertainty raises the expected returns in the exportsector. On the other, potential asymmetries in the cost of adjustingfactors of production (for example, investment irreversibility)and risk aversion tend to make the uncertainty-exports relationnegative. This article examines these issues using a simplerisk-aversion model. Export equations allowing for uncertaintyare then estimated for six developing countries. Contrary tothe ambiguity of the theory, the empirical relation is stronglynegative. Our estimates indicate that a 5 percent increase inthe annual standard deviation of the real exchange rate canreduce exports by 2 to 30 percent in the short run. These effectsare substantially magnified in the long run.     

Team member experiences in new product development: views from the trenches

Although cross-functional teams are often used for new product development (NPD), many companies struggle to implement them successfully. Through in-depth interviews with 71 team members from 18 companies in a variety of technology-based industries, this study focuses on the experiences of the people who actually do much of the work of NPD (team members) and explores their perceptions and attitudes about cross-functional team assignments. The purpose of our study is to identify the factors that influence and shape NPD team member experiences. Our results suggest that although NPD work can be rewarding and productive, NPD team members are often neglected by other team members, project leaders, and senior management. This sense of neglect has important implications for all of these constituencies, but particularly for senior management.     

Do upscale restaurant owners use wine lists as a differentiation strategy?

The present paper studies various criteria used by upscale restaurant owners to differentiate their restaurants and to define their positioning. In particular, we studied several wine list attributes. Through a cluster analysis and a correspondence factor analysis based on different objective wine list characteristics, we obtain two main differentiated profiles of restaurants according to the relative importance of their wine list in comparison with food menu: wine selection and complementarity. Upscale restaurants need to define their positioning strategy and elaborate their wine lists according to their strategy.     

Determinants of IT Usage and New Product Performance*

Explosive growth of information technologies (IT) has prompted interest in examining the role of IT in new product development (NPD). Through desktop software and Web‐based tools, IT has been used to aid idea generation and product testing as well as for NPD activities such as process and portfolio management. Recent research suggests, however, that a gap exists between IT availability and usage. Given the importance of IT in creating business value through the development of new products and services, the present study seeks to identify factors that affect IT usage. Further, anecdotal evidence and conceptual studies intimate that the usage of IT tools for NPD can shorten time to market, can improve product quality, and can increase productivity. However, empirical substantiation of this impact is mostly nonexistent. The current study investigates the relationship between IT usage and two measures of new product performance: speed to market and market performance. Employing a mail‐survey methodology, the study uses data from a sample of practitioner members from the Product Development & Management Association to examine the effect of project risk, existence of a champion, autonomy, innovative climate, IT infrastructure, and IT embeddedness on the extent of IT usage. These data are also used to explore the impact of IT usage on speed to market and market performance. The results indicate that project risk, existence of a champion, and IT embeddedness positively affect the extent of IT usage for NPD. Additionally, IT usage positively and significantly influences the performance of the new product in the marketplace. Surprisingly, and contrary to popular belief, IT usage does not have any impact on speed to market. An important implication of this study is that IT usage influences performance but not in the way managers expect. Specifically, IT usage does not seem to affect speed to market but rather positively impacts the performance of the new product in the marketplace. This result suggests that IT usage in NPD provides far more value to firms than previously thought and provides evidence to support greater investments in IT for product development efforts. Other implications of the study are that unless IT is embedded into the NPD process and champions for IT tools exist, chances are that IT will not be used and its benefits will not be realized.     

The attraction paradigm in dyadic exchange

Although the marketing literature alludes to the influence of interpersonal attraction in dyadic exchange, the composition of attraction, as well as its relationship to other elements in the exchange process, has not been given adequate attention. Since substantial empirical evidence supports the impact of attraction on a variety of human responses, this article examines how attraction impacts on marketing dyads and presents a model of interpersonal attraction as a framework for empirical testing. The implications of the model are discussed, and suggestions for further research are given.     

Modeling weekly Canary tomato exports

The European tomato market is characterized by a constant process of dynamic adjustment towards equilibrium. Furthermore, Canary Island tomato exports cause a high seasonal impact on market prices in the winter period. In these circumstances, an adequate distribution of weekly shipments throughout the year could contribute to maximize producers' profits. Moreover, Canary export levels show some degree of instability, clearly related to the changes in the EU trade rules and there is a long period, in the summer, without exports. The aim of this article is to analyze the long‐term movements and, particularly, the seasonal pattern of Canary Island tomato exports throughout the last two decades. To observe more clearly the exporter's decisions, weekly data have been used. The instabilities in the long‐term behavior of the series and the specific nature of the seasonal pattern should be taken into account, to capture the performance of exports accurately. Thus, this analysis is carried out using the structural approach to time series analysis, and the usefulness of spline functions as a tool capable of modeling seasonal variations for which the period does not remain the same over time is shown.     

Speeding Up New Product Development: The Effects of Leadership Style and Source of Technology

This article reports the results of a study whose purpose was to investigate factors that contribute to the faster development of new products. Edward McDonough and Gloria Barczak collected data from 30 new product development projects in 12 British companies. They investigated the impact of leadership style and the source of the technologies employed in the project (i.e., internally developed or externally acquired) on speed of development. Their results suggest that leadership style influences speed of development. Moreover, the source of the technologies used in the project moderates the relationship between leadership style and speed of development.     

The land cost of agrarian sustainability. An assessment

Improving the sustainability of farms often incurs additional costs for farmers. These costs come from allocating land to the maintenance of the ecological processes (energy and material flows, natural population regulation) required for the agroecosystem to function. Since these costs are not recovered on the markets, farmers see a fall in profits, the financial viability of their farms is compromised, and they suffer the consequences of the environmental services they are providing. All this makes it essential to implement government policies designed to compensate farmers for their efforts. The issue of how to assess sustainability has generated widespread debate within ecological economics, specifically as to whether it is possible to place a monetary value on it and if so, how this should be done. In a previous article we showed that agrarian sustainability involves a land cost, therefore this cost can be translated into monetary values. The purpose of this study is to develop this concept in practical terms by applying it to organic farming. We calculated the land cost of agrarian sustainability (LACAS) in order to compare organic versus conventional management in olive farming, as this crop is grown extensively in Spain and other Mediterranean countries. The results show that the agro-environmental subsidy is not enough to encourage olive growers to make the conversion from conventional to organic methods, because the land cost of sustainability is not adequately offset. They also show that improving agroecosystems can allow the land to take on more functions without increasing the land cost. In our case, encouraging the multifunctionality of the land has permitted a reduction in this cost. The LACAS could be a useful tool, not only for drawing up government policies designed to support organic farming, but also for improving the sustainability of the agrarian sector.