Environmental Valuation – To Use or Not to Use? A Comparative Study of the United States and Europe

Valuation methods have been used for five main purposes in environmental decision-making. Cost–benefit analysis (CBA) of projects, CBA of new regulations, natural resource damage assessment, environmental costing, and environmental accounting. The relatively lower importance attached to economic efficiency in environmental decision-making in most European countries compared to the U.S.A., both legally and in practice, might account for our general finding that there are very few valuation studies in Europe which have served as a decisive basis for environmental policy and regulations. However, with EU's goal to establish environmentally adjusted national accounts and to apply CBA to environmental policy and regulations, time seems ripe for an increased use of valuation techniques in Europe.     

Comparing Merger Policies in the European Union and the United States

We collect a sample of EU and US merger investigations, estimate models of the regulatory decisions, and use the models to compare merger policies. Our approach allows us to decompose observed differences into policy effects and case-mix effects. Focusing on dominance mergers, we find that the EU is tougher than the US on average, in particular for mergers resulting in moderate market shares. However, the US appears to be more aggressive for coordinated interaction and non-dominance unilateral effects cases. Overall, our analysis detects substantial differences in policies, but it does not classify one regime as being more aggressive than the other.     

Do brands matter? A comparison of branded and independent hotels’ performance during a full economic cycle

By analyzing longitudinal data of more than 51,000 hotels operating in the United States during the previous economic cycle, it is possible to draw conclusions regarding the performance of branded hotels compared to independent operations under various economic conditions. The results of the study indicate that while branded properties experience significantly higher occupancy rate during the different phases of the economic cycle, independent hotels experience significantly higher average daily rate (ADR) and rooms revenues per available room (RevPAR) during the same time period. While branded hotels are faced with various payments attributable to the brand, such as royalty payments and other franchise fees, those fees do not have a deleterious effect on net operating income (NOI) compared to NOI for independent hotels, suggesting that independent hotels are unable to bring their ADR and RevPAR premiums to the bottom line despite their savings in franchise expenses. Instead, the results indicate similar NOI for branded hotels and independent hotels during economic expansion, but significantly higher NOI for branded hotels during economic recession. The results of this study suggest that the intangible asset value of hotel brands may not be a static construct, but may vary by time. Sources of such intangible value of brands may include shared resources, guest loyalty programs, and yield management systems. These results contribute insight into the complex hotel owner decision of choosing between a brand affiliation and independent operation.     

Remodularization of a Product Line: Adding Complexity to Project Management

Faced with ever-tighter schedules, product development professionals employ various methods for staying at least one step ahead of the competition. In particular, an autonomous, cross-functional team offers an effective structure for meeting the sometimes conflicting objectives of timely delivery of a high-quality, easily manufactured product. To complicate matters, however, companies must manage not only individual projects, but also entire product lines. Changes in product and process technology eventually necessitate revamping of the product architecture—that is, the remodularization of a product line. Can an autonomous project team provide the long-term perspective necessary for such efforts? Or, does remodularization of a product line require centralized oversight by functional management? Mats Lundqvist, Niklas Sundgren, and Lars Trygg explore this issue by examining product development efforts at two Swedish manufacturing companies. Specifically, their study explores this research question: Does a high degree of project autonomy limit the possibility for effective remodularization of product architecture? Both companies were involved in remodularization projects with stringent requirements for project cost and duration, but the companies employed markedly different managerial models in these efforts. One company took a centralized approach, except that two design engineers worked full time on the project. The other company used the autonomous model, with two exceptions: functional managers worked closely with some project members during the task specification phase of the project; and the project leader, though a heavyweight in many respects, did not have formal decision-making power. The latter project demonstrated that an autonomous project team can maintain a long-term perspective during development of a product. In other words, this project team was able to meet challenging time and cost objectives while developing a product consisting of highly compatible modules and subsystems. Although a centralized management approach might be expected to offer greater efficiency, the company using that approach failed to meet project goals for development time, product cost, and long-term product line effectiveness. However, the shortcomings of that effort are more directly attributable to the management style of the project leader than to the management structure employed.     

Developing integration in a local industrial ecosystem – an explorative approach

The objective of this study is to develop and evaluate an approach for initiating development of a local industrial symbiosis network. By maintaining the broad perspective of industrial symbiosis, which includes both material and energy flow analysis, and also taking into account the internal energy use and possibilities for energy savings, we aim to achieve a better system view that avoids both sub‐optimizations and unhealthy dependencies. The approach is applied to a case based on the cooperation between the forest industry, municipality and energy service company in a small town in southern Sweden. Several possibilities for improving material and energy use by increasing integration were identified. It was concluded that it is important to have a genuine knowledge of the system studied and close contact with the actors involved, since a simple analysis of energy and material flows is not sufficient to decide which solutions might be more advantageous. It is also important to have a flexible system boundary looking at the system from different perspectives and at different levels to find the best uses for existing energy and material streams. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

The Relative Importance of Actual and Potential Competition: Empirical Evidence From the Pharmaceuticals Market

We study actual and potential competition and other factors that determine price paths of brand-name drugs in the Swedish pharmaceuticals market. The results indicate that the price of the incumbent product is lowered by potential competition, entry of (additional) generics, and the introduction of a so-called reference-price system. We also identify a 'ratchet' effect, through which price regulation makes entry-deterring limit-pricing credible.     

Economic discrimination in a two-good model

Conclusions The main conclusion of this study is that in the general case we cannot make any predictions regarding the effects of discrimination on the welfare of whites or blacks. To reach definite results special assumptions have to be made, and even then much depends on in terms of which good the effects are measured.Joseph E. Stiglitz has criticized the trade approach to discrimination on the grounds that once the step is taken from the simple Beckerian one-good model to the full-fledged two-by-two-by-two framework used in international trade theory this approach can no longer explainwage differences, since the factor equalization theorem will apply, at least as long as the two groups are not totally specialized in production⁸. This criticism can be extended in the light of the results of the present work. We have in the foregoing seen how even in a model that assumes total specialization in production we cannot reach any clear-cut conclusions regarding under which circumstances it pays for the majority group to discriminate against the minority. Maximization of majority welfare by means of economic discrimination simply requires too much information, at least when the trade approach is used. Other theories are likely to yield better explanations regarding the causes of discrimination, and future research is likely to become more fruitful if attention is concentrated more on alternative approaches.The research was financially supported by the Swedish Council for Social Science Research (Statens råd för samhällsforskning). Thanks are due to an anonymous referee for thorough and helpful comments on an earlier version of this paper.     

Kunden- oder Markenorientierung – Zwei Seiten einer Medaille oder alternative Routen?

Kundenorientierung bildet seit langem den Kern eines modernen Marketingverst?ndnisses. Allerdings ist fraglich, ob es nicht Alternativen zu einer Kundenorientierung gibt. Dieser Artikel pr?sentiert mit der Markenorientierung eine solche alternative strategische Orientierung und diskutiert die Unterschiede zwischen Kunden- und Markenorientierung auf einer theoretischen, kulturellen, verhaltens- und controllingorientierten Ebene.     

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