Innovation and productivity in knowledge intensive business services

This paper studies empirically the relationship between the sources of knowledge, innovation and productivity in Knowledge Intensive Business Services using French micro data and sheds some new light on the production of knowledge and on effects of innovative output on firm productivity. Both an innovation function and a production function augmented with dummy endogenous innovation are estimated. Three estimators which control for endogeneity of the dummy innovation are employed: the first is a maximum likelihood estimator of the equations’ system while the other two are built in the instrumental variables framework. These estimators give useful complementary information because of the usual efficiency-robustness tradeoff comparing system-equations and single-equation estimators. We find that innovation is frequent in Knowledge Intensive Business Services and has a strong and positive effect on productivity. As in manufacturing, the main determinant of innovation is formal knowledge resulting from R&D or from acquisitions of equipment, patents or licenses.     

Private label brands: major perspective of two customer-based brand equity models

In recent years the retail industry has been characterized by the fast growth of private labels, with an increase of the offer of private labels and the enhancement of their value in the marketplace. This research focuses in private label brand equity to deepen the understanding of its origins, by analyzing two alternative customer-based conceptual models. The present study was developed in the large retailing industry, comprising different retailing formats that offer private labels to consumers. Our findings suggest a conceptual private label brand equity model, which is slightly different from the Aaker's brand equity model, considering store image as an antecedent and stressing its importance in building and enhancing private labels' brand equity. Additionally, retailers searching for successful ways to compete in the retail market need to examine in more detail the customer-based brand equity related to their private labels.     

Une comparaison entre divers établissements de services de première ligne en santé au Québec (Canada)

This paper presents an empirical and comparative investigation of four types of organizations providing primary health care services: private clinics, community centres, health coops and community associations. Case studies were done following a common design for data collecting and analysis, taking into account the organizations' context of creation, their institutional dimension (structure of power and political system), their organizational dimension (co-ordination and production of health care), and their main paths of development. Results show that organizations present many differences when it comes to delivering universal, accessible, and complete health care services. Non-profit organizations offer more promising perspectives for patients and health care workers by encouraging them to participate in their management. Health coops' openness depends on their nature: while consumer coops encourage patient participation, producer coops allow employees to make decisions. In this sense, patients and employees in collective health care organizations seem to have more political advantages than in private organizations.     

On the superneutrality of money in a stochastic dynamic macroeconomic model

This paper explores the robustness of the superneutrality of money result to the introduction of uncertainty. While, qualitatively, superneutrality fails to obtain in our model, quantitatively the observed Tobin effect is insignificant. The equilibrium time paths of real variables are nearly unaffected by changes in the money growth rule. We argue that our conclusions reinforce the theoretical case for superneutrality.     

How to serve sustainability performance in businesses? An appetizing recipe to link practices to performance in business sustainability research

Recent critiques claim that business sustainability scholarship offers little evidence on how to effectively address business unsustainability. In this article, we demonstrate why this problem exists. Specifically, we argue that the literatures on internal practices of business sustainability, and on the sustainability performance of businesses, do not speak to each other and that explanatory models also fail to bridge a corresponding gap in the field. We argue for the development of a subfield of sustainability performance in businesses and explain the types of inquiries that should be developed. Finally, we suggest how scholars in the business sustainability field could contribute to the development of better understanding of sustainability performance in businesses.     

Diversity and arbitrage in a regulatory breakup model

In 1999 Robert Fernholz observed an inconsistency between the normative assumption of existence of an equivalent martingale measure (EMM) and the empirical reality of diversity in equity markets. We explore a method of imposing diversity on market models by a type of antitrust regulation that is compatible with EMMs. The regulatory procedure breaks up companies that become too large, while holding the total number of companies constant by imposing a simultaneous merge of other companies. The regulatory events are assumed to have no impact on portfolio values. As an example, regulation is imposed on a market model in which diversity is maintained via a log-pole in the drift of the largest company. The result is the removal of arbitrage opportunities from this market while maintaining the market’s diversity.     

Recycling under a material balance constraint

In this paper we analyze the dynamic implications of recycling for resource use, the level of economic activity and the long-run development of the economy. In contrast to former approaches, we take explicit account of the circulation of matter in the economy. We consider virgin resources and recycled wastes as essential inputs to production. These material inputs either end up as waste after consumption or are bound in the capital stock—depending on the utilization of the produced output. As accumulating wastes can be recycled and again be employed in production, the waste stock serves as a source of valuable inputs in our model. We focus on the implications of recycling-related market failures and the integration of material balances on the dynamics of the economy. It is shown that a market for waste and subsidies to resource extractors and recycling firms can restore optimality in the decentralized economy.     

EU enlargement: External economic implications

The coming eastward enlargement of the EU has not prompted much debate about its external economic implications, quite in contrast to the fierce debates which accompanied previous enlargements. This article discusses the main economic effects of the CEECs' move from “association” to EU membership, and in particular the external impacts with respect to agriculture, industry and FDI. It also deals with the somewhat sensitive subject of US-CEEC bilateral investment treaties, as well as the prospects for catch-up growth by the accession countries.