International business research and risky investments,an analysis of FDI in conflict zones

The purpose of this paper is to examine the determinants of a firm's strategy to invest in a conflict location. To the best of our knowledge, this has not been done before. We examine this using a standard model of international business, overlaid with the fundamental approach to corporate social responsibility. We start with the population of multinationals who have chosen to invest in low income countries with weak institutions. We then split this sample in order to distinguish between firms that have invested in conflict regions compared to those that have not. Our analysis then proceeds to explain the decision of those firms to invest in conflict locations using a simple Probit model. We find that countries with weaker institutions and less concern about corporate social responsibility (CSR) are more likely to invest in conflict regions. Finally, firms with more concentrated ownership are more likely to invest in such locations.     

Careers for Economists II

What careers are possible for people with ‘A’ Level economics? In this issue Nigel Tree looks at some of the careers open to those with a background in economics.     

‘Thatcherism’ without Thatcher?

Have Mrs Thatcher's more radicol policies prepared the ground for a substantial restructuring of the British economy? Or is she merely responding to fundamental economic changes that are stimulating a response in the political market? Nigel Ashford, Senior Lecturer in Politics of the North Staffordshire Polytechnic, contrasts the Government's timid policy response with the electorate's increasing desire for economic liberalism, and examines the gulf between Conservative economic policy and the more truly radical ideas Mrs Thatcher is sometimes thought to promulgate.     

Short reviews

Northern Ireland Economic Council, 1990: The Industrial Development Board for Northern Ireland: Selective Financial Assistance and Economic Development Policy. Report No 79. Belfast: NIEC (available on request).

Northern Ireland Economic Council, 1990: The Private Sector in the Northern Ireland Economy. Report No 82, Belfast: NIEC, free of charge.

Lewis, B. and Edge, J. (eds) 1990: That's My Business. Castleford: Yorkshire Art Circus, £6.50 paper.

Chauhan, V. 1989: Beyond Steel Bands 'n' Samosa: Black Young People in the Youth Service, Leicester: National Youth Bureau, £5.95 paper.

Gaffikin, F. and Morrissey, M. 1990: Northern Ireland: The Thatcher Years. London: Zed Press, no price stated.     

Negotiating with the chinese—A commercial long march

In this article I deal with marketing's historical ignorance, the importance of using history in marketing and the meaning of historical perspective, suggest how to operationalize and integrate historical perspective without giving detailed and comprehensive guidelines, and how to add historical perspective to the marketing curriculum.     

Drivers and impediments for innovation in Europe

Forum

Drivers and impediments for innovation in Europe     

Modelling and forecasting national introduction times for successive generations of mobile telephony

An accurate prediction of the timing of a country's introduction of a new generation of mobile telephony benefits numerous agents including suppliers of network and consumer equipment, regulators, and network planners. We consider the estimation and prediction of the time interval between the international introduction of a generation of mobile telephony and its introduction into a specific country when a decision maker judges the introduction of a newer technology a worthwhile investment. Using literature-based socio-economic and geographical variables, we examine how well variation in international introduction times of four generations of mobile telephony in 172 countries can be explained and forecast. We model and forecast introduction times at two levels of granularity: we use Cox's proportional hazards model for the introduction time; we partition countries into introduction time-based segments and model segment membership using multinomial logistic regression. Our modelling of each generation considers three subsets of explanatory variables: All variables, socio-economic Covariates only, Regional dummies only. Over successive generations, the Covariates only models reveal the changing relevance of each socio-economic covariate. Model-based forecasting of the introduction time of the next generation is performed under three hypotheses making different uses of the information available at the time the relevant generation is launched internationally. However, changing socio-economic environments coupled with changing models impair forecasting accuracy, the lower accuracy of modelled introduction times is concentrated in 20% of countries. We speculate about the nature of the unobserved factors affecting these countries' decision processes.     

Sales management control level and competencies: Antecedents and consequences

The pursuit of superior salesperson performance and higher levels of sales organization effectiveness is a growing management priority. Management control is an important antecedent to several aspects of salesperson performance and organizational effectiveness. However, prior research has neglected two important issues. First, the impact of market orientation on sales manager control approaches has not been previously considered. Second, sales manager competencies in behavior-based control have not been examined, as research has focused on the level and form of control. Market orientation and the critical sales skills required of salespeople have strong antecedent relationships with sales manager control. Also, sales manager control competencies play a significant role in shaping salesperson performance, and the impact of control competencies is larger than control level. Sales manager control competencies play an important mediating role between sales manager control level and salesperson performance and sales organization effectiveness. Our findings are based on a study of British companies in which five hundred sales managers were sent surveys and 300 usable responses (a response rate of 60%) were returned. Three important implications derived from this study include: (1) sales managers need to translate market orientation into sales force behaviors; (2) control strategy should be aligned with sales force priorities; and (3) time and resources should be invested in training sales managers.