How warm is the corporate response to climate change? Evidence from Pakistan and the UK

In response to growing consensus among scientists and governments to act fast to avoid dangerous impacts of climate change, many industries have started to prepare for a carbon‐constrained world. However, this response is far from being uniform. Often action is predicated on economic, technological, organizational and institutional drivers and barriers, which vary between countries and across industrial sectors. In order to understand the effectiveness of industry response, it is therefore important to analyse corporate response across different sectors in different countries. Focusing on the nine most energy‐intensive and greenhouse gas (GHG) emitting industrial sectors, this paper compares corporate responses to climate change in Pakistan and the UK. By analysing the divergence of strategies adopted by industries across different sectors in two countries, the paper examines the key factors influencing corporate adoption and implementation of GHG reduction and energy‐efficiency strategies in Pakistan and the UK. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

Toward Closing the Loop between Infrastructure Investments and Societal and Economic Impacts

The long-term value proposition of transportation infrastructure investments can be significantly distorted if the short-term effects of spatial externalities on land use patterns, economic expansions, and migration patterns are not properly included in the analysis. Some of these effects occur over a short period of time and soon after the investment materializes, whereas others take longer and follow more steady patterns. In this article, we develop a novel dynamical model of a primal society with constructs that are specifically geared toward transportation infrastructure expansions and investments. The model quantifies the impact of these expansions on some key performance indicators and on the overall utility and production capacity of the society. We argue that traditional analytical models that work on the premises of stationary behavior and a static response of society to changes in infrastructure do not correctly capture these effects. The land use patterns and spatial expansion computed from the model are validated against existing theory on land use. Preliminary results on how to use the model for value proposition analysis are also presented using simple case studies.     

A Tale of Two Anomalies: Higher Returns of Low‐Risk Stocks and Return Seasonality

Prior studies have shown that low beta and low volatility stocks earn higher average returns than high beta and high volatility stocks, contradicting the prediction of the capital asset pricing model and the fundamental relationship between risk and return. In this paper, we demonstrate that this phenomenon is driven by the seasonality of stock returns. We show that the risk‐return tradeoff does hold in the nonsummer months, and that switching to a portfolio of low‐risk stocks in summer outperforms—both in terms of absolute and in risk‐adjusted returns—buy and hold strategies as well as the Sell in May strategy of switching to treasury bills in summer.     

Impact of Online Reviews on Consumer’s Hotel Booking Intentions: Does Brand Image Mediate?

Abstract

The recent trend suggests that people are more inclined to online hotel reviews to take online hotel booking decisions. The present study argues that when consumers are exposed to online hotel reviews, it draws an impression of the hotel brand in the mind of consumers, resulting in influence their hotel booking intentions. The current study determines the mediation effects of brand image between credible online hotel reviews and consumers’ hotel booking intentions. To ascertain the uni-dimensionality of the scales, the present study executes exploratory factor analysis. The ensure the internal consistency of the variable scales, the study determines Cronbach’s alpha. To measure the mediation effects, the present study performs structural equation modeling bootstrapping method. Data analysis reveals that marketers should look at hedonic brand image, which ultimately influences consumers’ hotel booking intentions. This is a unique study that ascertains the type of brand image that actually mediates between the impact of online hotel reviews and consumers’ hotel booking intentions. In addition, the paper furnishes theoretical background on how people interpret online hotel reviews and its effects.     

When Shopbots Meet Emails: Implications for Price Competition on the Internet

Quantitative Marketing and Economics - The Internet has dramatically reduced search costs for customers by using such technologies as shopbots. Email based targeting is relatively inexpensive; the...     

Market Justification for Policy on Small Enterprise Development

The process of liberalization in developing economies and the increasing competition faced by Small Enterprises raise crucial policy issues on small enterprise development. The policy maker in developing economies like India are faced with the option of supporting small enterprises through steps like reserving certain industries or by developing their ability to compete in niche markets. Enterprise level decisions are also critical for survival of these organisations. Selecting from these options require an understanding of the advantages that small enterprises have over the large enterprises. The advantage of flexibility and responsiveness to consumer needs of small enterprise is expected to result in customer satisfaction in a market with differing consumer needs. The hypothesis relates customer satisfaction to market share in a heterogeneous market. A field study is carried out among consumers of packaged butter in a state in India. The results do not indicate customer satisfaction with lower market share in a heterogeneous market.     

Mixed Market Competition in a Quality Differentiated Duopoly Model An Approach to Banking Sector

This paper attempts to develop a theoretical framework to investigate the competitive implications of quality choices of financial institutions whereby they charge prices to consumers based on their willingness to pay for the service qualities in the mixed market scenario under vertical product differentiation model. Initially, it analyzes benchmark equilibrium solutions of monopoly and duopoly to establish the degree of quality differentiation between two private banks in an uncover market configuration. Further, it estimates the quality differentiation between private and public banks, and examines the interaction between two market structures keeping public bank as both leader and follower, and then measures the social welfare from different prospectives. The explicit operation of two stages Nash equilibrium game forecasted that public banks＇ monopoly seems to be still better than a private banking, and it is socially optimal. The outcome demonstrates a significant importance of vertical quality differentiation for policy implication in banking industry and provides an insight on the reasons of particular co-existence of public and private banking services in the specified location. In this context, it is concluded that the presence of public banks in banking industries is a crucial condition for obtaining the higher range of social welfare.     

Psychological Oil Price Barrier and Firm Returns

In this paper, we investigate the psychological barrier effect induced by the oil price on firm returns when the oil price reaches US$100 or more per barrel. We find evidence of the negative effect of the US$100 oil price barrier for: (a) the entire sample of 1559 firms listed on the American stock exchanges; (b) both foreign and domestic firms, with domestic firms significantly more affected; (c) the 10 different sizes of firms, with the smaller firms less affected compared to the larger firms; and (d) 17 sectors of firms, with firms in the utilities, mining, and administration sectors being the least affected.     

Structural models of complementary choices

This article reviews the rapidly growing literature on structural models of complementary choices. It discusses recent modeling developments and identifies promising areas for future research.     

Impact of Genetically Engineered Varieties on the Cost Structure of Corn and Soybean Production in Canada

This paper investigates the impact of genetically engineered (GE) varieties on the cost structure of corn and soybean production in Canada. Employing an adoption index for each farm and a time trend with farm‐level data on production costs of grain corn and soybeans from 2000 to 2007, a translog cost function and the associated input‐share equations are estimated. The use of the adoption index improves the estimates of technological change and multifactor productivity (MFP) growth. The results demonstrate that the adoption of GE corn and soybean reduced the variable costs of production by 0.62% per year. The MFP of corn and soybean grew by 2.0% per year during the study period, and 31% of this growth is attributable to GE varieties of these crops. The results also reveal that the adoption of GE varieties reduced the cost shares of fertilizer, herbicides and pesticides, and machinery in corn and soybean production. While the adoption of GE varieties increased the cost shares of seeds and custom works including labor, only the former was statistically significant.