Changes in market concentration of manufacturing industries

The impact on concentration of advertising and other variables is examined in a multiple regression model. The findings indicate that the positive influence of advertising observed for earlier periods continued during 1972–1977. By testing hypotheses suggested by other researchers, this paper resolves most, if not all, of the seemingly conflicting findings of researchers examining changes in concentration since 1963. The findings also strongly suggest that lagged models provide little, if any, added insight into the causes of changes in concentration.     

Resource Scarcity and Agency Theory Predictions Concerning the Continued Use of Franchising in Multi-outlet Networks

A study of 439 franchisors was conducted to identify factors influencing changes in their propensity to franchise. Consistent with agency theory, franchisors with wide multinational scope were increasing their proportion of franchised outlets whereas franchisors with large outlets were emphasizing firm ownership. As predicted by resource scarcity theory, franchisors were decreasing their proportion franchised as they grew in size, although most of the decrease occurred while firms were relatively small. In contrast to resource scarcity theory, franchisors increased their proportion franchised over time. Key implications are that both agency and resource scarcity theories are needed to explain franchising, but perhaps future research should look beyond resource scarcities toward resource-based capabilities to better explain franchising decisions.     

Income instability,terms of trade,and the choice of exchange rate regime

In this article terms of trade fluctuations, which constitute an important source of income instability in many LDC's, are decomposed into three principal components: (a) shifts in world market conditions, (b) shifts in home market conditions and (c) changes in exchange rates. The appropriateness of a ‘basket peg’ is then analyzed in terms of a country's net export-side market power and a weighting formula is derived which would offset variations in third countries' exchange rates on the home country's terms of trade. Initial empirical results tend to support the hypothesis that basket pegs are usually adopted by countries with net export-side market power.     

Diversification and the failure of new foreign activities

The paper describes a quantitative investigation into the role of diversification in the failure of new foreign manufacturing activities based upon some of the results of the Harvard/CEI Comparative Multinational Enterprise Project. These results are related to the foreign subsidiaries of 69 of the largest continental European multinationals and show a considerable company-to-company spread in the rate of failure. Nearly half of this spread can be accounted for by the differing diversities of the companies when diversity is measured in relation to the marketing characteristics of the products manufactured and when the balance between the differing marketing categories is taken into account. The rate of foreign subsidiary expansion is also significant.     

Tourism and conservation

Assessing the impact of tourism on environment is notoriously difficult, and is often hindered by emotional factors or considerations of private interest. Further, data on tourist movements and volumes, particularly on internal tourist movements, and on impact itself, are scarce. It is thus difficult to provide any overview of the environmental impacts of tourists, whether in one country or worldwide. This article examines these relationships so far as data allow, largely within the framework of the UK experience.