UK and German defence industry change: Some perspectives on strategic marketing

Over the past decade, the European defence industry has had to respond to increasing pressures of reduced defence spending, exacerbated more recently by removal of the immediate military threat from the former Soviet Union. Under the “Options for Change “, the UK has abandoned certain weapons programmes, while Germany has had the additional economic and social problems brought on by re‐unification. The industry's options comprise conversion, diversification or specialization, thus continuing to face structure change and competition from defence imports and “off‐the‐shelf” systems and equipment. Given the high exit barriers and past “cushioning” of the industry by governments, the presence of skills and know‐how to compete effectively is questionable. The case for strategic marketing approach for those suppliers remaining is clear; as buyer (monopsonistic) power strengthens, the threat of new entrants increases and the associated competitive rivalry intensifies. However, the ingrained “defence culture “ in many supplier organizations may be an impediment to change.     

Recent Developments at the CMA: 2017–2018

We describe three interesting cases that the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has dealt with over the past year: first, we discuss the merger of two online food ordering platforms—Just Eat and Hungryhouse—which required an assessment of competition in the presence of indirect network effects. Second, we discuss the vertical merger of a grocery retailer and wholesaler—Tesco and Booker—which posed the challenge of how to assess a firm’s incentives to foreclose its rivals when there are thousands of local markets. Finally, we discuss Open Banking, which lies at the heart of the package of remedies that came out of the CMA’s market investigation into personal banking, and sought to tackle issues of low customer engagement.     

MANAGERIALLY PERCEIVED INFLUENCE OVER INTRADEPARTMENTAL DECISIONS

The perceived importance of seven power factors to two types of intradepartmental decision are examined: those which a manager takes alone and those which are taken in a group composed of departmental members only. the major findings from this examination are that while formal authority is important in the former situation it is of lesser importance in the latter situation; the reverse is true for personality. We conclude that decision method has a pronounced effect upon the relative importance of power factors. Secondary analysis of the data suggests that group composition also has a marked effect but that issue domain has a negligible effect. Nevertheless, managerial expertise remains dominantly important throughout the whole range of decision-making situations; this finding also concurs with the results from our companion paper (Kenny and Wilson, 1984).     

André Gorz: Freedom,Time and Work in the Post-Industrial Economy

This article assesses the thinking behind what is perhaps the single most important attempt to depoliticise monetary policy making in postwar Britain prior to the Bank of England Act 1998 – the introduction of the minimum lending rate (MLR) in October 1972. Drawing on recently released primary sources it argues that the MLR was devised to ‘defuse’ the political implications of Bank Rate policy and thereby shield the government from the consequences of frequent upward shifts in interest rates. MLR is considered as an experiment in ‘governing through the market’ and it is argued this has implications for how postwar monetary policy is viewed and how state/market relations are analysed, empirically and theoretically, within IPE.     

Three levels of culture and firms’ entrepreneurial orientation: A research agenda

Numerous studies examining the linkage between corporate entrepreneurship and performance resort to the entrepreneurial orientation construct to assess a firm's degree of entrepreneurship. Little conceptual and empirical research has been devoted to understanding the factors and conditions that produce Entrepreneurial Orientation. Generic explanatory variables such as environment, organization, strategy and culture have been mentioned in past research, but though a number of hypotheses have been proposed, few have been thoroughly developed and tested. In this article, we focus on one explanatory variable – culture – that we develop along multiple axes. We propose a conceptual framework that aims to provide a better understanding of how three interdependent levels of culture – national, industry and corporate – influence Entrepreneurial Orientation.     

Imports versus Domestic Production: A Demand System Analysis of the U.S. Red Wine Market

The U.S. wine market experienced rapid growth in all facets—production, consumption, exports, and imports—over the past decade. Red wine imports more than tripled while consumption of domestically produced red wines doubled. This research estimates demand elasticities of U.S. red wine imports from five countries accounting for over 90% of imports—Italy, France, Spain, Australia, and Chile—using the first-difference version of the almost ideal demand system (AIDS). These elasticities are compared with those for domestically produced red wine. Results for conditional expenditure elasticities indicate that the U.S. red wine industry gains over imports when U.S. consumers' total expenditures on red wine increase. However, comparing own- and cross-price elasticities reveals an increase in the price of U.S. red wine results in a decline in quantity demanded six times greater than for French and Italian red wines and over 20 times greater than other import countries, thus harming the U.S. red wine industry. Empirical results suggest that U.S. red-wine producers could increase their total revenue by decreasing prices, while Italian and French producers can increase total revenues by increasing them.     

Sequential peak-load pricing: the case of airports and airlines

Abstract.  We investigate airport peak-load pricing using a vertical structure of airport and airlines. We find that a profit-maximizing airport would charge higher peak and off-peak runway prices and a higher peak/off-peak price differential than a public airport. Consequently, airport privatization would lead to both fewer total passengers and fewer passengers in the peak period. Although peak-travelling passengers benefit from fewer delays, this low level of peak congestion is not efficient, suggesting that airport privatization cannot be judged based on its effect on congestion alone. We also examine pricing behaviour of a public airport constrained to charge a time independent price.