ASSET DEMANDS AND SLUTSKY EQUATIONS WHEN ALL ASSETS ARE RISKY

This paper exploits the properties of the indirect expected utility function to explore the testable implications of a portfolio model in which all assets are risky. An uncertainty analogue of Roy's Identity and extremely simple derivations of Slutsky equations for risk and return are used in the analysis. Substitutability/complementarity relations between asset pairs are also explored. The one-riskless-asset case emerges as a special case of the present model, and it is shown that (since inflation uncertainty makes all real returns uncertain) the inclusion of a riskless asset would lead to misleading over-simplifications.     

The composite cost function and efficiency in giant Japanese banks

This study provides further empirical investigation, in the context of giant Japanese banks, of the recent claim by Pulley and Braunstein (1992, A composite cost function for multiproduct firms with an application to economies of scope in banking, Review of Economics and Statistics 74, 221–230), that their new composite model for the multiproduct cost function has important advantages over the separable quadratic, generalized translog and standard translog models. In addition to assessing the composite model's relative ability in measuring global scope and scale economies, the study also extends the P-B analysis to assess measurement of product-specific scope and scale economies, pairwise cost complementarities between outputs, changes in the marginal costs of outputs and technological change. The results appear to confirm P-B's chain. The persistent finding of scale economies for large Japanese banks is also investigated and confirmed.     

Identifying New Product Successes in China

To examine the generalizability of the work of Cooper regarding the correlates of new product success and failure, Mark Parry and Michael Song surveyed new product development managers at 129 state-owned enterprises in the People's Republic of China. Their analysis of 258 reported product successes and failures indicated that relative product advantage and the acquisition of marketing information were highly correlated with new product success, just as in Canada. In addition, several factors not significantly correlated with success in Canadian firms emerged as significant correlates of success in the PRC. These included the level of competitive activity, the timing of the product launch, and the level of proficiency in executing activities in the early stages of the product development process.     

The R&D Effectiveness Index: A Metric for Product Development Performance

Measuring the overall success of product development efforts has been frustrating because there is no generally recognized metric to measure effectiveness. The R&D Effectiveness Index is introduced to address this need. It measures effectiveness by comparing the profit from new products to the investment in new product development. The article provides the details for calculating the index along with alternative interpretations. Michael McGrath and Michael Romeri report that this index was validated through a study of 45 electronic systems companies. They found a strong relationship between the R&D Effectiveness Index and other performance factors and believe that the R&D Effectiveness Index can be used to compare performance, measure improvement, and evaluate business units. Its application is illustrated in a case study.     

The Marketing Concept and New High-Tech Products: Is There a Fit?

This article defines the marketing concept in a traditional way, but extends its application to high-technology products. Dennis Cahill, Sharon Thach, and Robert Warshawsky present two case studies of high-technology products. Both products were ultimately market failures; however, the analysis presents one as a successful application of the marketing concept, contrasting sharply with the other.     

Integrating Customer Requirements into Product Designs

Despite all best efforts, the design process often leads to the introduction of products that do not meet customer expectations. Although the design team typically applies customer-related information from several sources, the product design somehow fails to satisfy customer requirements. Clearly, we need to develop a better understanding of the process by which designers in large development organizations transform information about customer requirements into the final design specification. To improve our understanding of this process, Antonio J. Bailetti and Paul F. Litva examine design managers' perspectives on the sources of customer requirement information. During the evolution of a product design, the design team applies information that is endorsed by marketing and product management. Common sources of such information include commercial specifications, inferences from existing products and services, deployment studies, and external standards. When this management-endorsed information is deemed inadequate, designers supplement it by creating and sharing their own customer-related information. This local information includes the results of benchmarking function and performance, the designers' perceptions of a service provider's installed base of equipment, and validations of intermediate designs. Marketing and product management cannot easily review the local information that designers create and share in evolving a final design. This article highlights the importance of creating mechanisms for ensuring that customer requirement information from various sources is internally consistent. To meet this goal of consistency, organizations must ensure that customer requirements information produced by marketing satisfies the information processing requirements of the design community. In addition, the knowledge that designers actually apply to produce a design must incorporate customer requirement information endorsed by marketing and product management at all stages of product development.     

What are the antecedents of women’s entrepreneurial orientation?

This study seeks to identify the antecedents of women’s entrepreneurial orientation (EO) and exploring what possible relationships that may exist between them. The research focuses on women entrepreneurs and non-entrepreneurs in a quantitative perspective whose methodology consisted of the collection of primary data through a survey distributed to women in Portugal. After structural equation modelling was applied, the results suggested that recognition of opportunities influences EO. This influence is expressed both directly and indirectly through training in management and entrepreneurial skills. These findings led to the conclusion that policies promoting training for community members, in general, need to be rethought and policies need to emphasise training in management that enhances entrepreneurial skills, thereby increasing the proliferation of entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship education and training should be promoted from basic education onwards in order to develop entrepreneurial skills from an early age. Prior to this study, the relationships between opportunity recognition, management training and entrepreneurial skills have never been studied in relation to women.