Factors influencing partner selection in strategic alliances: the moderating role of alliance context

The growth of alliances has generated considerable interest in this topic among both academics and practitioners. While multiple factors may affect alliance success, partner selection emerges as one of the most influential. Previous studies on alliances present general models that assume the factors (e.g., trust, commitment, complementarity, financial payoff) that drive partner attractiveness and, in turn, the likelihood of selection, are consistent across varying alliance projects and situations. In contrast, the present study proposes a contingency approach grounded in management control theory that suggests the criteria managers use in choosing alliance partners will vary by alliance project type. Specifically, it introduces a framework that addresses when and why managers select partners with certain, specific characteristics. The results of the present study strongly support hypotheses that the critical criteria for assessing alliance partner attractiveness and selection vary depending on the differential levels of process manageability and outcome interpretability inherent in a strategic alliance. Implications for theory and practice are discussed. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An Investigation of Market Orientation (MO) and Tourism Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises’ (SMEs) Performance in Developing Countries: A Review of the Literature

This paper aims to build a structured literature review of the field of market orientation and its impact on tourism small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) performance in developing countries. This literature review will present a comprehensive survey of market orientation (MO) published articles to facilitate good understanding of MO. It serves as an archive and aims to help the scholars and practitioners to explore, analyse, and develop a clear understanding about the different research points and methodologies implemented in previous studies related to MO and its impact on tourism SMEs’ performance. The paper systematically reviews and categorizes the published literature implementing a three-stage methodology, and thereafter analyzes and reviews this literature methodologically. The review covered many areas and identified some factors that drive/hinder market-oriented activities within tourism SMEs. Furthermore, suggestions have been made to understand more thoroughly how market orientation influences tourism SMEs performance in developing economies. A research gap in the area of market orientation and tourism SMEs performance in developing countries was identified. The study provides great benefits for owner-managers, government policy makers, scholars, and educators by clarifying the concept of market orientation and its relationship with performance in the context of tourism SMEs.     

Enrolment and Delayed Enrolment of Secondary School Age Children in Indonesia

We analyse the school participation decision of children between 13 and 18 years in Indonesia using the 1992 SUSENAS household survey. Our focus is on which household factors determine enrolment and delayed enrolment. We use the multinomial fixed effect model where the cluster-specific fixed effects correct for any regional-specific factors that may influence the demand for education. The model is estimated by conditional maximum likelihood. We find that parent's education has a positive effect on enrolment, where the effects are stronger for boys than for girls. On the other hand, literacy of parents has stronger effects on the girls education than on the boys'. The model without fixed effects is rejected against the model with fixed effects. Hence, omitting regional variation in the model would have led to biased estimates.     

Reversing the Logic: The Path to Profitability through Relationship Marketing

Many firms have experienced greater success through implementing relationship marketing strategies. This is achieved by gaining knowledge about their own customers through database marketing and about the general marketplace through marketing research. Over time, this has led firms to adopt a general framework which we call the conventional path to profitability. This conventional framework suggests that new product innovation leads to acquisition, acquisition combined with a rich experience leads to satisfaction, satisfaction leads to loyalty and customer retention, and loyalty/retention leads to profitability. However, we show that some of the links in the framework are weak based on both academic research and marketplace realities. Consequently, we reverse the logic of the conventional path to profitability. We introduce a new approach that starts the customer relationship management strategy with customer profitability and the notion that different customers should be rewarded and satisfied differently. In addition, we outline a strategy that relationship marketing firms can implement, leading to higher levels of customer profitability and offer directions for future research.     

INVARIANCE OF THE UNORDERED BEST ESTIMATOR IN THE T,–CLASS FOR MIDZUNO'S AND FOR IKEDA–SEN'S SAMPLING PROCEDURES

MIDZUNO'S sampling procedure is considered where the first (n – 1) draws are carried out with simple random sampling without replacement and the nth draw with varying probabilities. It is shown that for this scheme, the best estimator in the HORVITZ–THOMPSON (1952) T_t–class of linear estimators exists and rejects the last draw. When MURTHY'S technique of unordering of an ordered estimator is employed, the rejected draw is restored and the unordered estimator is obtained. Surprisingly, this unordered estimator is the same as the unordered best estimator in the T₁–class, derived for IKEDA–SEN'S sampling procedure.     

全球股市低迷 亚洲首当其冲

一年前，当信贷危机在美国和欧洲刚刚崭露头角时，许多投资者都将亚洲股票视为了天堂。时至今日，全球股市经历了6个多月的下跌，而亚洲市场的跌幅位居前列。