Megamarketing expanded by neo-institutional theory

This work aims at extending the boundaries of marketing to address the process of emerging consumption practices. This point of view is in line with the concept of megamarketing introduced by Kotler (1986, Harvard Business Review, 64, 117–124) and with the assumption that consumption practices depend heavily on supra individual and institutional structures that can take a cognitive, normative and regulatory form. Drawing from the recent insights of institutional theory, we propose marketing strategies that companies can use to shape the institutional structure underlying new consumptions practices. We extend the concept of megamarketing by collating it with that of institutional work, and thus identify the cognitive, symbolic, cultural and legal levers used by firms to shape the institutional conditions needed for consumption.     

UK regional airport commercialisation and privatisation: 25 years on

It has been 25 years since the UK was the first country to begin the process of commercialising and privatising its airports. The purpose of this paper is to revisit the UK Government’s stated aims with respect to commercialisation and privatisation, namely to “encourage enterprise and efficiency in the operation of major airports … [and that] … air transport facilities should not in general be subsidised by the taxpayer … [and they] should normally operate as commercial undertakings.” The authors of this paper consider the success of commercialisation and privatisation against these aims with respect to the 16 UK regional airports commercialised by the 1986 Airports Act part II. In addition, this paper considers the policy ramifications that have eventuated. The authors argue that many of the benefits may have been achievable by commercialisation alone.     

The impact of contextual factors on the efficacy of ISO 9000 adoption

This study investigates the importance of contextual factors on the efficacy of ISO 9000 adoption. We explore the role of various contextual factors at the firm-level (i.e., technology intensity, labor productivity, and labor intensity) and industry-level (i.e., industry efficiency level, industry competitiveness, industry sales growth, and industry ISO 9000 adoption level) that potentially impact the efficacy of ISO 9000 adoption. We carry out a hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) analysis based on objective financial data from 438 U.S. manufacturing firms. The results show that firms with low technology intensity, low labor productivity and high labor intensity reap more benefit from ISO 9000 adoption. Firms in industries with low efficiency levels, high competition, high sales growth and low ISO 9000 adoption levels also obtain more benefit from the adoption. Our research provides supporting evidence for the context-dependent proposition of ISO 9000 adoption. Given the significant costs and resources involved, it is crucial for operations managers to assess to what extent ISO 9000 might benefit their performance before embarking on the implementation process.     

Accounting for output fluctuations in manufacturing

There is a substantial body of evidence to the effect that output is more volatile than sales among manufacturing industries. Numerous explanations have been advanced to account for this excess output volatility. Some examples are pro-cyclical inventory movements induced by a stockout-avoidance motive, cost and technology shocks and decreasing marginal costs. This article assesses the contribution of these different motives to output volatility for six different manufacturing industries. Linear–quadratic models are estimated for each of the industries and then dynamic simulations are employed to determine the volatility of output when one or more of the factors are removed from the model. Technology shocks provide the most significant contribution to output volatility. The stockout-avoidance motive is also important. Cost shocks provide a very small contribution and marginal production costs are increasing at the margin and thus stabilize output. It is also shown that output volatility declines when current values of sales and material costs are assumed known rather than forecasted from prior periods’ values.     

Do Business Cycles Affect State Appropriations to Higher Education?

Spending on higher education constitutes an important and increasing portion of state government spending and a major source of operating funds at public institutions of higher education. Anecdotal evidence suggests that state appropriations are subject to cyclical variation. An analysis of state appropriations to higher education, enrollment in two- and four-year public colleges and universities, and state-specific measures of the business cycle for all 50 states over the period 1969-1994 shows that state appropriations to higher education are highly sensitive to changes in the business cycle. A 1% change in real per capita income was, on average, associated with a 1.39% change in real state appropriations per full-time equivalent student enrolled. This implied decline in state government funding, coupled with the increase in enrollment in higher education during recessions reported by Betts and McFarland (1995), suggest that public institutions of higher education may experience fiscal stress during economic downturns. These results also suggest that state legislators and education policymakers should reconsider their higher education funding policies during recessions in order to allow public colleges and universities to provide dislocated workers with access to quality education and training during these periods.     

More evidence that university administrators are utility maximizing bureaucrats

Coates and Humphreys (2000) found evidence that administrators affect enrollment supply and faculty demand using a panel of eleven public colleges and universities in Maryland, implying that institutions have enough market power to permit the preferences of administrators to influence these variables. We extend this framework to include political constraints on administrators behavior and add data from public higher education in Virginia. The results from these extensions are consistent with the earlier findings. However, we find that political considerations and differences in the governance of higher education in the two states have relatively little influence on enrollment supply and faculty demand decisions of university administrators.JEL Classification: I21, I28Paper prepared for the Research Conference Its Better to Rely on Well-designed Institutions Than on Well-behaved People held at UCLA, May 18/19, 2001. We thank Bob Lowry for comments on an earlier draft of this paper and Nicole Myers and Ryan Mutter for able research assistance.     

Economic Freedom and Exercise: Evidence from State Outcomes

Exercise is an important part of a healthy lifestyle and influences a variety of health outcomes. Regions vary in their levels of exercise due to geography, climate, culture, and policy. The extent to which a country's policies are consistent with economic freedom has been found to be positively associated with greater participation in physical activity. We empirically investigate the relationship between economic freedom and exercise across U.S. states. Contrary to the cross-country results, we find that states with higher levels of economic freedom have lower rates of participation in exercise.     

A test of monopoly price dispersion under demand uncertainty

A test of the predictions of Dana’s (2001) model of monopoly price dispersion under demand uncertainty using ticket price data from Major League Baseball shows that ticket price dispersion changes systematically with demand uncertainty, verifying the predictions of the model.     

Uncertainty and communication strategy formation

Managers may affect the consumer information search and acquisition process and, thus, consumer preference by designing communications and selecting information channels that are responsive to consumers' uncertainty-associated information needs. However, measures of uncertainty that would be appropriate for general use in measuring product-attribute associated uncertainty have not been developed and assessed. In this paper, two methodologies that may be appropriate are presented and evaluated. Comparison of the methods shows both approaches to be about equal when evaluated with respect to convergent and face validity, test-retest reliability, and the ability of each measure to predict preference. Possible uses of product-attribute uncertainty measures in assisting managers to formulate communications strategy are discussed.     

The evolution of business incubation centres:a Delphi forecast

Small business incubators are spreading rapidly across the US and Western Europe. The newness of the incubator concept and the pace at which new incubators are being brought on-line suggest that incubators are presendy undergoing a critical period of evolution in function, form, and purpose. This paper provides, via a Delphi survey of US incubator centre directors and managers, a mid-term forecast of incubator evolution. Predictions concerning assistance and services, client restrictions, equity positions, seed capital, and subsidization are provided. Additionally, we report the comments of incubator managers concerning pitfalls to be avoided when starting an incubator.