Social Exclusion and Transgenic Technology: The Case of Brazilian Agriculture

Many argue that transgenic technology will have wide-ranging implications for farmers in developing nations. A key concern is that competencies may be destroyed by predominantly foreign multinational transgenic technologies, exacerbating problems of social exclusion in the case of subsistence farmers. Conversely, those that fail to adopt the technology may become uncompetitive, particularly in commodity-based export markets. Drawing on interview data conducted in Brazil and supporting data collected in North America, Europe and China, we found that the impact of transgenic technology varies. It has less impact on farmers that adapt the products to their crop systems and environment, and greater negative implications for less formally educated subsistence farmers in consequence of both complexity and compatibility. Earlier attempts at industrializing agriculture through technological innovation led to vastly improved agricultural output and exports, but the benefits of productivity was not equitably distributed [D. Lee: 2005, American Journal of Agricultural Economics 87(5), 1325–1334], nor was it designed to meet specific local environmental and socioeconomic farmer conditions, exacerbating social exclusion. Multinationals attempting to introduce transgenic technology without considering the broader social and ethical implications will invite resistance. We discuss the implications for policy makers, multinationals and small-scale farmers.     

The dynamics of responder behavior in ultimatum games: a meta-study

Using data aggregated from seven papers that study repeated play in standard ultimatum games with either stranger or absolute stranger matching, we show that the behavior of responders changes with experience. High offers are more likely to be accepted with experience and low offers are more likely to be rejected. At the individual level, there is a negative relationship between the likelihood that a given offer is accepted and the size of the preceding offer. We compare the results with predictions generated by static models of distributional preferences, implicitly dynamic models of preferences with reciprocity, and explicitly dynamic models of adaptive learning. The data is most consistent with models of preferences with reciprocity.     

Significant Issues for the Future of Product Innovation

What's happening in the world of product innovation? What are the tough issues that managers are facing? And what's going to happen in the remaining years of this decade? In this article, several members of the Editorial Board of The Journal of Product Innovation Management offer their ideas about where the important problems lie. This is the fodder for a good round table discussion and through the medium of this journal we'll engage in such a discussion in this and a subsequent issue.     

Estimating risk-return relationships: An analysis of measures

We show that the risk-return paradox can be partly explained by the choice of accounting risk and return measures. Returns computed with equity or assets from End-of-Period (EOP) annual reports produce negative risk-return associations, while measures calculated using Beginning-of-Period (BOP) equity or assets yield more positive relationships. The likelihood of reporting negative relationships using EOP methods is accentuated by dividing samples at median returns. Below-median firms suffer losses and may appear to have lower and more variable returns than above-median firms, simply because of EOP methods. Our results show that mean and variance measures are unstable and risk-return relationships vary inversely the number of firms reporting mean losses.     

Selecting Winning New Product Projects: Using the NewProd System

Separating probable winners from probable losers is the goal of the new product screening task, and Professor Robert G. Cooper has developed a model that does this with remarkable success. In this article, he reviews various approaches to new product screening and then presents the basics of the NewProd model. NewProd now has a history of use in industry that seems to be fulfilling its original research promise. Professor Cooper shows how managers can build their own screening models and outlines how such models can contribute in an important way to better new product selection decisions. Over the years, Professor Cooper has conducted a series of major research projects that have aimed at improvements in the new product process. Their hallmark has been managerial relevance and a sound theoretical foundation. This article, the third that Professor Cooper has published in JPIM , is in the same tradition.     

Intra-Industry trade and limited producer horizons: An empirical investigation

Intra-Industry Trade and Limited Producer Horizons: An Empirical Investigation. — Following three decades of growing integration, intra-European trade has expanded significantly. Much of the growth has been in intra-industry trade (ITT). ITT appears to be causally correlated with integration, one possible link being through the impact of market integration on producer horizons. This paper applies the limited producer horizons hypothesis as a possible explanation of movements in IIT in an important class of differentiated products. It finds evidence in support of the hypothesis for some, but not all, countries in the EC.