Responding to Digital Transformation by External Corporate Venturing: An Enterprising Family Identity and Communication Patterns Perspective

Digital transformation increasingly requires activities located outside firm boundaries, for example via alliances with start‐up companies. Despite this, German Mittelstand firms, primarily owned and managed by enterprising families and seen as role models of innovation, appear reluctant to place strategic emphasis on venturing outside the firm’s boundaries when it comes to digital transformation. Drawing on the concepts of identity and communication patterns, we theorize on the mechanisms behind this behaviour. Applying structural equation modelling to a sample of 254 members of the next generation in enterprising families from Germany, we find that family communication patterns impact the strategic priority for or against external corporate venturing via identity‐related considerations.     

The pattern of changes in the long-term development of establishment size

Hypotheses and analyses dealing with the expansion of small businesses are usually carried out over relatively short periods of time. The patterns drawn from these examinations, e.g., on the question of specific differences in the growth of size, are usually influenced by configurations of the overall economy and limit the realization of regular processes to the phases they are based upon. A second disadvantage lies in most cases in the fact that data sources are used for the empirical analyses that do not cover the economic system as a whole nor for all sizes of establishments. This study attempts to present the development of the sizes of establishments in Germany over a period of more than one hundred years (1882 to 1987) and thus avoids the narrow perspective of previous examinations. It becomes evident that this development does not take a continuous course; instead, it follows a wave pattern. Since this discontinuous development pattern is common to almost all sectors, it appears to be a general phenomenon. This study reveals that the small establishments with more than five employees, contrary to most theoretical assumptions, are of utmost importance even when considered over a long period of time. The growth of small establishments in recent years, observable in all sectors, may not be a unique phenomenon; however, in view of an overall growth of employment and the simultaneous shrinking of large establishments, it occurs under a new constellation.     

Commitment and coordination in a dynamic game model of international economic policy-making

In this paper, we consider a dynamic game model of two identical countries. Policy-makers of both countries have quadratic intertemporal objective functions and want to stabilize domestic output, domestic inflation, and the real rate of exchange. We present different analytical and numerical solutions for this policy game. Noncooperative open-loop equilibria are interpreted as requiring unilateral commitment and policy-makers' credibility. Potential gains from cooperation are present, as the noncooperative equilibrium solutions are not Pareto-optimal. Under an information pattern that admits memory strategies, the possibility of obtaining cooperative results without coordination and commitment arises.     

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Strategic step-by-step negotiation

We analyze a specific type of negotiation process where parties proceed in stages taking into consideration that negotiation may end prematurely with an inefficient agreement. Parties negotiate only one increasing pie, thereby avoiding inefficiencies which are typical for issue-by-issue negotiations. For ann-stage game, we prove the existence of a unique subgame-perfect equilibrium. We then show that step-by-step negotiation can only improve players' expected payoffs if negotiation in stages reduces the difference between their equilibrium offers. For this to occur, however, the risk of negotiation must be affected by the agenda of the bargaining problem.     

Memory Effects of Different Relational Links between Brands and Sponsored Events

Sport sponsorship is an important marketing communication tool, and stakes in sponsorship deals are high. Therefore, sponsors strive to ensure that their investments are effective and protected from competitors—that is, ambusher marketers’ attacks. Still, little is known about how ambush marketing affects sponsor identification and misidentification of ambushers as sponsors. This study investigates levels of sponsor and ambusher identification in three experimental settings, controlling for the presence/absence of an ambusher, communication modality, and response formats. A field study in the context of a large sports event demonstrates the external validity of the findings. The results provide evidence of a nondestructive interference of ambush marketing, indicating that ambush marketing does not necessarily harm sponsor identification. Misidentification of nonsponsors as sponsors occurs because of the indirect link established between the event and the company through ambush marketing, but not as a consequence of other communication activities by a competitor with no link to the event. Finally, a combined sponsor–ambusher perspective indicates that sponsors do not necessarily have a consistent “official sponsor” advantage over ambushers. Findings are discussed with emphasis on implications for sponsors, ambushers, and marketing researchers.     

Bounded Rationality Modeling

This paper deals with bounded rationality as a way to describe behavior and focuses on the question of how to build such boundedly rational models. The first part is a discussion of the reasons why such models are needed and on the situations in which they can be regarded as more particularly useful. The second part examines three strategies of research towards bounded rationality modeling which have emerged in the last ten years and weights them. The concluding remarks offer a first link between the respective typologies of strategies and of situations and calls for additional experimental work by marketing scientists and economists together.     

What can Indonesia learn from China's industrial energy saving programs?

Even though Indonesia's CO₂ emissions are dominated by deforestation while China's are dominated by industry, Indonesia has much to learn from China's industrial energy saving programs. To begin with, it is only a matter of time before Indonesia's emissions from fossil fuels overtake those from deforestation. Given the long technological lock-in effects of energy systems and industries, Indonesia needs to think now about how it will tackle this problem. There are other reasons for believing that Indonesia might learn something from China – the CO₂ intensities of GDP, of industry and of cement production have been rising in Indonesia, while they are falling in China. China's better intensity performance is due to policies that Indonesia would do well to follow – adopting a technological catch-up industrial development strategy; raising energy prices to scarcity values; liberalising domestic markets and opening the economy to trade and investment; and mounting a massive energy saving program.