Vertical integration, market foreclosure and quality investment

We study incentives to vertically integrate in an industry with vertically differentiated downstream firms. Vertical integration by one of the firms increases production costs for the rival. Increased production costs negatively affects quality investment both by the integrated firm and the unintegrated rival. Quality investment by both firms decreases under any (vertical integration) scenario. The decrease in quality invesment by both firms softens competition among downstream firms. By integrating first, a firm always produces the high quality good and earns higher profits. A fully integrated industry, with increased product differentiation, is observed in equilibrium. Due to increase in firm profits, social welfare under this structure is greater than under no integration.     

Fuzzy Negotiation Solutions of n-Person Cooperative Games by Knowledge Engineering in Bargaining

A model for negotiation is developed upon the basis of a previous model called Fuzzy Negotiation Solution by Knowledge Engineering. The new model, called Compensatory Negotiation Solution by Knowledge Engineering and FNSKE are based on the combination of knowledge of experts in negotiation, rather than on classical notions of rationality. The experts in negotiation present four propositions in a non-mathematical way and with a natural language, according to the theory of Knowledge Engineering. In the CNSKE model, knowledge is represented through logic predicates, and the calculations are made using the Compensatory Fuzzy Logic system. CFL is a system whose operators satisfy the axioms of Utility. The CFL operators, especially because of the compensation property, are more adequate than the norm and co-norm’s operators to model human decision-making, according to empirical results. The Good Deal Index in CNSKE is statistically estimated from the GDI in FNSKE. This is a quantitative index, which provides the solution concept. The fuzzy function f(C) represents the likelihood the players of a coalition C to reach an agreement into this coalition. Counterpart Convenience Indexes 1, 2 allow each player to select the best coalition for negotiation. The advantage of CNSKE over FNSKE is that the idempotency of conjunction and disjunction operators give every membership function -obtained from the predicates- the possibility to be interpreted by itself. Hence, the truth-values of the CNSKE membership functions can be semantically interpreted. In addition, CNSKE can be easily applied to solve real negotiation problems.     

‘Don't Waste a Crisis’: Opening up the City Yet Again for Neoliberal Experimentation

This essay calls for a systematic investigation of the financial‐economic crisis as a source of new urban governance rationalities across Europe. We propose combining an understanding of neoliberalization as a variegated social phenomenon with a cultural political economy approach sensitive to the discursive dimension of variegation and the evolutionary mechanisms through which discursive variation is translated into geo‐institutional differentiation. We illustrate how this theoretical framework may help to analyse the impact of the crisis on urban governmental rationalities. Rather than offering a complete cultural political economy account of the responses of European cities to the financial‐economic crisis, we analyse how the crisis and the responses to it have been represented in discourses on urban policies and development by focusing on two discursive sites that are of strategic importance, namely OECD LEED and URBACT. Our preliminary findings suggest a re‐assemblage of existing discourses rather than the emergence of a new post‐neoliberal urban government rationality.     

Evolving research on expatriates: what is ‘known’ after four decades (1970–2012)

The purpose of this paper was to provide a comprehensive review of the evolving research on a still key challenge for human resource management (HRM) in the globalized business of today: the expatriates and their impact on business performance. Research of four decades was reviewed to show what was known and what was not yet known. A bibliometric analysis was conducted to build a conceptual map of the evolving research. Up to 438 papers published in 104 different journals by 233 authors were analyzed. Most of the literature studies and research does not show a systematic approach, so this review may be useful for scholars and practitioners in the field of HRM and International Business Management in order to advance into the next stage of development on how to deal with and take advantage of hiring expatriates. Even after more than four decades of intensive research, the literature on expatriation is still nascent and requires higher order content. New contexts and organizations should be included in the research agenda, while an effort must be made in systematic approaches and in building higher order content in the international HRM field.     

The influence of individual characteristics on getting involved in an entrepreneurial team: The contingent role of individualism

International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal - A traditional stereotype of the entrepreneur is that of a lone hero. However, many entrepreneurs engage in new businesses as members of...     

The influence of countries' climate change-related institutional profile on voluntary environmental disclosures

This paper analyzes how the regulative, normative, and cultural dimensions of institutions exert pressure both on companies' decisions to voluntarily disclose environmental information and on the quality of the information disclosed. Prior research has focused on the influence of economic, disclosure, and generic institutional determinants, although little attention has been paid to the analysis of the influence exerted by climate change-related institutional pillars. The results show that the three institutional pillars have different effects as regards both the decision to respond and the quality of disclosure. The regulative pillar positively influences the response decision but does not influence disclosure quality. The normative pillar positively affects both the propensity of companies to disclose and the quality of the information reported. Meanwhile, the cultural pillar positively influences disclosure quality, but it has no effect on firms' decisions to disclose environmental information. This paper is the first to analyze whether the institutional profile of climate change in different countries influences voluntary environmental disclosures.     

Brand promotions as a lottery

This paper shows that imprecisely stated discounts in brand promotions offered in the form of a low-probability lottery can lead to higher sales (purchase intentions) and consequently profits than equally costly conventional promotions offering a precise discount on the entire stock. Results from two different experimental studies support our findings. For high-probability lottery-like promotions, imprecise discounts lead to a lower performance for the brand than conventional promotions. We attempt to explain the findings by drawing on the behavioral decision theory literature.     

A Predictive Estimator of the Mean with Missing Data

One of the most difficult problems confronting investigators who analyze data from surveys is how treat missing data. Many statistical procedures can not be used immediately if any values are missing. This paper considers the problem of estimating the population mean using auxiliary information when some observations on the sample are missing and the population mean of the auxiliary variable is not available. We use tools of classical statistical estimation theory to find a suitable estimator. We study the model and design properties of the proposed estimator. We also report the results of a broad-based simulation study of the efficiency of the estimator, which reveals very promising results.     

Negotiation Based on Fuzzy Logic and Knowledge Engineering: Some Case Studies

One of the most recent mathematical models for negotiation is the Compensatory Negotiation Solution by Knowledge Engineering (CNSKE). In this model a logic system called Compensatory Fuzzy Logic was used, which is more adequate to solve problems of decision making than the classical one probabilistic fuzzy logic system. The idempotency axiom of this system and the continuity of the operators allow the truth-values of the membership function to have a cardinal and not exclusively ordinal semantic meaning. On the other hand, continuity also makes ‘sensible’ the truth-values of the predicates. The aim of this paper is to illustrate the advantages of the CNSKE over other approaches in Game Theory. To show these advantages, some case studies are analyzed, consisting on the solution of three problems in which CNSKE is applied in economic and politic cases of negotiation, and compared with other alternative approaches.