Animation attracts: The attraction effect in an on‐line shopping environment

Two studies examine the attraction effect—an inconsistent choice behavior typically observed when consumers are presented with two products (target and competitor), both good for different reasons, and a worse “decoy”—in the context of online consumer decisions with different product displays (animated or static). The experiments, with different participant populations, show that the attraction effect in an online shopping environment depends on the animation format of the products. Experiment 1 (with Italian participants) suggests that the attraction effect is eliminated when target and competitor are both animated and is accentuated when the target is animated and the competitor is static, regardless of whether the decoy is animated or static. Experiment 2 replicates this animation/attraction effect in the United States, where on line shopping is more common than in Italy. The paper concludes with theoretical and practical implications for on line shopping. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Deliberate learning in corporate acquisitions: post‐acquisition strategies and integration capability in U.S. bank mergers

This paper introduces a knowledge‐based view of corporate acquisitions and tests the post‐acquisition consequences on performance of integration decisions and capability‐building mechanisms. In our model, the acquiring firm decides both how much to integrate the acquired firm and the extent to which it replaces this firm's top management team. It can also learn to manage the post‐acquisition integration process by tacitly accumulating acquisition experience and explicitly codifying it in manuals, systems, and other acquisition‐specific tools. Using a sample of 228 acquisitions in the U.S. banking industry, we find that knowledge codification strongly and positively influences acquisition performance, while experience accumulation does not. Furthermore, increasing levels of post‐acquisition integration strengthen the positive effect of codification. Finally, the level of integration between the two merged firms significantly enhances performance, while replacing top managers in the acquired firm negatively impacts performance, all else being equal. Implications are drawn for both organizational learning theory and a knowledge‐based approach to corporate strategy research. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Development Policy Lending, Conditionality, and Ownership: A Dynamic Agency Model Perspective

Is the World Bank's Development Policy Lending likely to enhance ownership and have greater effectiveness than structural adjustment? We specify a dynamic common agency model in which a government considering economic reform faces domestic opposition from interest groups. The dynamic specification, which is original in the context of policy reforms supported by the International Financial Institutions (IFIs), is essential to allow the strength of special interest groups to arise endogenously during the reform process. We show that conditionality may alter the country's political equilibrium and lead to higher social welfare. However, under certain circumstances which depend on country‐specific circumstances, conditional assistance could lead to lower social welfare. Thus, for conditionality not to be inconsistent with ownership, its design must be appropriate to the country circumstances and directly affect the domestic political constraint.     

Does technological innovation undertaken alone have a real pivotal role? Product and marketing innovation in manufacturing firms

This paper investigates the role of non-technological innovation on firms' innovation propensity and performance. We note that emphasis on technological innovation alone is misleading, as a firm's decision to undertake technological innovation brings about a more complex and general process which may involve new attitudes regarding organization and market orientation. We analyse the relationship between product and marketing innovation in manufacturing, focusing specifically on the food industry. We propose a bivariate probit model in which product and marketing innovation are estimated taking into account their reciprocal interactions. This enables us to provide more efficient and realistic estimates of a firm's probability of introducing either a new or improved product or a new marketing technique. In addition, the proposed model provides the determinants of such probabilities.     

The First Review of European Union Antidumping Reviews

The literature on antidumping (AD) has documented various aspects of this protectionist tool. However, a peculiar feature of AD has not received much attention: these measures are endogenous to the behaviour of the exporting firms, which can adjust the dumping margin by changing their export price and ask the authority to amend the AD measures accordingly. The objective of this paper is to fill part of this gap in the literature by analysing the AD reviews conducted by the European Union for affirmative petitions initiated in 1980–2009. To this end, a novel data set of all such reviews has been assembled. Summary statistics reveal that more than a third of all petitions concluded with the imposition of AD measures are reviewed at least once before their expiration, and most reviews lead to lower AD duties (although, almost 20 per cent of the firms investigated through interim reviews see their duties increase). There are significant differences in the outcome of the reviews depending on the party requesting them (i.e. reviews lodged by European producers are less likely to lead to lower duties). These conclusions are confirmed by the econometric analysis, which also shows that Chinese firms see their duties reduced significantly less than those of firms from other countries.     

Uncertainty and the market valuation of R&D within a real options logic

The aim of this study is to provide new theoretical insights and empirical evidence on the effect of market and technological uncertainty on the market valuation of a firm's R&D capital. A set of hypotheses is developed adopting a real options logic and tested on a panel dataset of 290 manufacturing firms traded in the UK. Consistently with our theoretical model, we show that market and technological uncertainty have distinct effects on the valuation of R&D investments. The results have several important implications for resource allocation to R&D under uncertainty, which we discuss in the concluding section. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Sensory Experiences and Expectations of Italian and German Organic Consumers

We explore sensory experiences and expectations of Italian and German organic consumers when purchasing and eating organic food. Ten focus group interviews were performed and the results were analyzed using qualitative content analysis. Outcomes indicated that although sensory attributes are not the main purchase drivers, flavor and odor are the most important in driving consumers' choice. Findings also suggested that training consumers' sensory abilities offers new market opportunities to organic marketers. From a marketing perspective, Italian consumers seem to equally appreciate nonsubjective as well as subjective marketing information about organic products, whereas in Germany non subjective aspects appear to be predominant.     

Antidumping law as a collusive device

Abstract. In the United States many antidumping petitions are withdrawn before the investigations are completed. Prusa (1992) argues that petitions are used by domestic industries to induce foreign industries into collusive agreements. In his model, all antidumping petitions should be withdrawn, which is not the case. This paper provides a model in which only some petitions are withdrawn. Withdrawal depends on two key parameters: coordination cost and bargaining power of domestic and foreign industries. A new data set is constructed to test the model on the U.S. experience for the period 1980–97. The econometric analysis supports the theoretical conclusions of the model. JEL classification: F13; D43     

Rowing along the computable general equilibrium modelling mainstream

Theoretical, empirical, and technical principles of computable general equilibrium models (CGE models) development have been presented. It is commented how to model the economical processes using this approach. many economists develop the CGE mosels in order to solve the problems of economical forecast. But the resonable criticism of this method is ignored. By analyzing the approaches to CGE models development in the paper it is concluded that the majority of CGE models are not able to describe properly the operation of real economics losing to the method of interindustry forecast. In the recent time the CGE models have been widely used in economics. The presented paper explain why such attractive methods can lose its popularity.     

Value stream mapping in project management: A case study

This article describes the application of value stream mapping to analyze and redesign the way of managing the materials procurement stage of a project. A framework based on integrated definition (IDEF) methodology, the stream analysis approach, activity‐based costing, and discrete event simulation is presented. The stream analysis approach is used to analyze, diagnose, and manage process changes represented using an IDEF model. A dynamic simulation is used to evaluate the impact of the changes considered, to support the analysis of the process, and to model the performance of the proposed process. The overall methodology is demonstrated by applying it to a company whose core business is the design and construction of offshore oil rigs. The company specializes in engineering, procurement, and construction projects and has an annual portfolio of about six projects. Many of these projects have common features in terms of design and components, and they are all also characterized by a short “time to delivery.” For this reason, this study was aimed at assessing the possible effects that the application of new materials management policies could have on reducing both project completion time and the resources required.