An examination of temporal patterns in meta-analysis

Meta-analysis has become increasingly popular as a technique for generalizing and exploring the moderators of a relationship between variables. However, few meta-analyses have explored the possibility that the relationships being studied change over time. In this study, we explore the possible theoretical reasons to expect a temporal change in a relationship under study. In addition, some methodological issues related to detecting these effects are discussed and illustrated using a sample of past studies. The paper shows that the temporal effects are easy to incorporate in the analytical plan and can add to the overall utility of meta-analysis.The authors thank Dr. Robert Peterson, University of Texas at Austin, for providing data used in the study. Dr. Naveen Donthu, Georgia State University, the editor, Dr. Donald Lehmann, and two anonymous reviewers for helpful comments.     

Advertising productivity: developing an agenda for research

Despite its importance, research on advertising productivity is limited and fragmentary. This article consolidates the major research streams on different facets of productivity. This consolidation allows us to identify and prioritise various issues that need to be addressed, and thereby develop a comprehensive research agenda for this area.     

Having Arrived: The Homogeneity of High‐Growth Small Firms*

This study explores the homogeneity of small firms that have achieved and sustained high growth. Using a recent population of the 50 “Best Managed” Canadian firms identified as achieving high business growth for three or more consecutive years, firm homogeneity in terms of current management challenges is analyzed. In contrast to the rich body of literature available regarding the heterogeneity of managerial challenges and patterns during small business growth and development, this study finds that once small businesses begin to sustain high growth, their reported management challenges converge. We find that, controlling for location and performance, the high‐growth small firms in our population experience similar management challenges regardless of the specific firm size, revenue level, or industry. Our results challenge the “received wisdom” that suggests the managerial challenges faced by small firms during their business growth and development always vary. Management implications and future research directions are discussed.     

Market Segmentation Research: Beyond Within and Across Group Differences

Market segmentation research is currently focused too narrowly on the task of segment identification as opposed to its strategic relevance within a firm. In this paper we distinguish an ex ante approach to market segmentation research, which begins with studying the motivating conditions that lead people to the tasks and interests in their lives, from an ex post approach which begins with an individual's reaction to marketplace offerings. We argue that the marketing task of guiding managements to make what people will want to buy will be more successful in light of a deep understanding of behavior in the context of everyday life and work, rather than a detailed understanding of preferences in the marketplace. Directions for future research are discussed.     

Board structure and role of monitoring committees

Regulators and researchers alike have focused significant attention on the structure of the corporate board. In general, the results of prior empirical studies suggest that larger boards are costly to firms because of communication and co-ordination problems. How firms use committees to mitigate these costs, however, has not received as much attention. Since boards delegate authority for specific tasks to monitoring committees with independent directors, we re-examine the impact of board structure on firm performance by specifically focusing on the number of monitoring committees. Using ROA and EVA, we find that board size is positively associated with firm performance when firms use more than three monitoring committees. We also find that the previously documented negative association between board size and Tobin's Q disappears when a firm uses more than three monitoring committees. Overall, the results suggest that firms use monitoring committees to mitigate the costs associated with larger boards.     

A non-homogeneous non-uniform influence model of innovation diffusion

A model of innovation diffusion which gives unequal weightage to the adopters of different temporal stages and captures commonly observed ups and downs in new product diffusion is proposed. It is shown that our model possesses features of the existing flexible diffusion models and shows better fit which is indicated by the values of R²_adj, mean absolute deviation, and mean percentage error and estimates a larger market potential, M. It has an interesting feature of conversion factors, first increasing then vanishing, much before we approach market saturation, implying that there is a scope of new thrust in converting remaining potential adopters.     

Information dynamics effects from major world markets to SAARC nations

This paper investigates the impact of major world equity markets on four founding countries of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC). With a population of 1.47 billion, SAARC is the largest regional organization in the world. However, the issue of global integration of equity markets of the SAARC nations has largely been ignored. This study fills this important gap, adding results towards the ongoing debate concerning the issue of global market integration. After the onset of the financial crises of 2008, this issue is imperative. VAR analysis is used to determine whether there is any dependency of SAARC return on the performance of world equity markets. Further, GARCH-in-mean modeling is used to determine whether there is any evidence of Volatility spillover. It is found that volatility in major world markets do not impact returns in SAARC nation, but ample evidence of volatility spillover is found for India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. Similar results are not obtained for Pakistan.     

History of offshoring knowledge services

The offshoring of knowledge services has become the stuff of newspaper headlines and U.S. presidential debates. Here, we view the antecedents of the current state of affairs. In the 1980s services offshoring was a trivial portion of the economy, but the seeds of today's situation were planted then. A combination of U.S. government neglect, foreign government activism, a culture change among business people concerning service processes, technological advances, and cultural relationships among countries have created the specific services offshoring configuration of today.