Mixed duopoly, inefficiency, and public ownership

If a publicly-owned firm has a higher marginal cost than a private firm, partial public ownership may be welfare-improving, if the public firm acts is Stackelberg leader. If the private firm's marginal cost is private information a simple transfer function is truth-eliciting. If the stock market is efficient, the cost of renationalization is “small”.     

Surveillance of interpersonal violence in Kingston,Jamaica: an evaluation

Injuries are among the leading causes of death in Jamaica. Homicide rates have been sharply increasing since 1991. In 1997, the rate of homicide (45/100 000) in Jamaica was over five times the US rate in 1997 (7.9/100 000). In response to this problem and the alarming increase in non-fatal assaultive injuries, the Jamaican Ministry of Health together with the CDC established a Violence-Related Injury Surveillance System (VRISS) using patient registration data from Kingston Public Hospital. The VRISS was evaluated for usefulness, and for system attributes: system acceptability, simplicity, flexibility, sensitivity, and predictive value positive (PVP). System-identified cases were compared with clinical records and data from direct patient interviews. The surveillance system was flexible, acceptable to clinical staff and Ministry officials, and moderately sensitive, detecting 62% to 69% of violent injuries identified from clinical records and a patient survey. The system's predictive value positive was high, with 86% of potential cases confirmed as actual cases. Although adequate, system sensitivity was reduced by incomplete or no registration of patients during periods of staff shortage. In conclusion, despite some logistic shortcomings, the system appeared promising for collecting limited information on non-fatal interpersonal violent injuries. With modification and expansion, the system may be capable of collecting unintentional-injury data also.     

Transferring Ownership-specific Advantages to a Joint Venture in China

In 1994, a Sino-Italian joint venture was established in Foshan (China) to manufacture and sell motorcycles. The Italian parent company perceived important ownership-specific advantages in investing directly in China. These included its state-of-the-art production process, its marketing and distribution network, and its organizational and work concept. Indeed, it was intended to virtually ‘replicate’ these features of the parent company in China. This study explores problems experienced in attempting to reproduce these features of the parent company's European operation during the start-up phase of its Chinese affiliate. One problem was that core suppliers were reluctant to relocate part of their operations to China, making it difficult for the parent company to ‘replicate’ its production process abroad. There were also major difficulties in transferring the principles of its marketing and distribution network and its organization structure and work concept to China. While it is possible that many of these preliminary problems would be overcome and the parent company would realize its vision for its Chinese affiliate over time, this case-study not only highlights the complexity of harnessing ownership-specific advantages of foreign direct investment (FDI) in China, but also raises important issues about the expansion of FDI from low technology to medium technology enterprises in the circumstances prevailing in China.     

The Moderating Role of Confidence in Expectations and the Asymmetric Influence of Disconfirmation on Customer Satisfaction

This article examines the way in which confidence in expectations moderates the process of customer satisfaction formation, and whether positive disconfirmation and negative disconfirmation have asymmetric influences on satisfaction. Using structural equation analysis, the proposed model was tested with 256 Korean customers of family restaurants. The results indicate that confidence in expectations plays a significant role in the customer satisfaction formation process. The indirect effects of expectations via performance on customer satisfaction are stronger for customers with high confidence in expectations. The results also indicate that the influence of disconfirmation on customer satisfaction can be asymmetric. The asymmetric influence occurs especially when customers have high confidence in expectations.     

What is the role of consensus statements in a risk society?

Abstract

This paper explores the role of consensus statements in a risk society. It uses Beck’s theory of risk to show that scientists have employed consensus statements in order to re-establish faith in science. Through analysing the goals of participants in consensus fora and comparing them to the fora processes, this paper considers how consensus statements and guidelines in public health can be viewed as remedies for the decline in expert trust experienced in the current risk society. To collect data, 25 interviews were undertaken with consensus panel participants from the USA, UK and Australia. Interviewees were from peak national agencies/commissioning agencies and were categorised as policymaker, practitioner and consumer stakeholders. Participants made recommendations for improving consensus processes in order to mitigate perceptions of risk. These were: (1) clearly stated goals; (2) robust, evidence-based and transparent processes of methodological development and participation/deliberation/decision-making; (3) diverse stakeholder representation, including increased consumer participation; (4) transparency about conflicts of interest; and, (5) robust, carefully worded recommendations. Poor-quality consensus statements can further entrench scepticism about the scientific enterprise. While consensus statements can be seen as a tool for moderating perceptions of risk, policymakers and scientists must ensure the integrity, strength and transparency of their research methods. This has the potential to facilitate policy, improve scientific accountability to the public and legitimise processes. While fostering greater trust is not a primary objective for scientists, an increase in legitimacy of process can be an important unintended consequence of improved quality consensus statements and an important antidote to the risk society.     

Saving Behavior Messaging: Gain/Loss Framing,Self/Family Orientations,and Individual Differences in Collectivism

As the United States faces low savings rates and an aging population, examining messages that encourage saving behavior is critical. Adding to this need is growth in ethnic minority groups (e.g., Hispanic Americans) that tend to experience greater saving challenges. The current study tested framing effects (i.e., loss/gain), in tandem with message orientation (i.e., self/family) and the moderating role of collectivism, on ad response variables after exposure to public service advertisements about saving. Results across three experiments confirm that matching the level of collectivism with orientation impacted the effect of framing on the outcome measures but that individual differences in collectivism impacted the results more than membership in an ethnic group. Loss framing for both low and high collectivistic individuals, when matched with a self-oriented appeal in the former and a family-oriented appeal in the latter, were most effective. Gain framing was more effective when level of individual collectivism was not matched with self/family message orientation. Important theoretical issues are addressed as well as implications for advertisers who engage in saving behavior messaging.