Effect of purchase volume flexibility and purchase mix flexibility on e-procurement performance: An analysis of two perspectives

Despite the widespread adoption of e-procurement by firms in recent years, academic research examining the mechanisms through which e-procurement applications lead to performance has been scarce. Anecdotal evidence points to numerous situations where companies have failed to harness the potential of e-procurement. In this paper, we argue that online purchase volume and mix flexibilities facilitated by these applications play a significant role in the ability of firms to benefit from e-procurement. We examine this tenet from both an economic as well as a social perspective. We propose that increased online purchase volume flexibility as well as online purchase mix flexibility can be facilitated by two mechanisms – supplier customization as explained by transaction costs perspective, and information sharing between supply chain partners using a social exchange theoretical perspective. The increased purchase volume and mix flexibility in turn leads to better performance along the dimensions of cost, quality, and delivery. We present and test a nuanced perspective where we argue that (i) the effect of supplier customization on both purchase volume and mix flexibilities will be moderated by the frequency of transactions conducted online, and (ii) the effect of information sharing on both purchase volume and mix flexibilities will be moderated by trust in the supplier. We estimate our research model using survey data collected from 130 purchasing and procurement managers. We find strong support for our proposed research model with results indicating that purchase volume and mix flexibilities play a vital mediating role in impacting e-procurement performance. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed.     

Identifying multiple preference segments from own- and cross-price elasticities

The authors develop an approach to decompose a market-level matrix of own- and cross-price elasticities to reveal potentially overlapping preference segments. The approach is grounded on the premise that markets may be represented by a parsimonious number of relatively homogeneous segments. Market-level elasticities are expressed as functions of segment weights and within-segment market shares. These relationships permit segment weights and within-segment market shares to be estimated from the market-level elasticity matrix and patterns of brand substitutability to be analyzed. The approach is illustrated with data on the grocery coffee category.The authors wish to thank M/A/R/C Inc., Las Colinas, Texas and Information Resources, Inc., Chicago, Illinois for their assistance in collecting the data used in this study. This research was supported in part by the Dean's Fund for Faculty Research of the Owen School.     

Why are firms unlevered?

In this paper, we examine why firms have no debt in their capital structure. We reject the hypothesis that zero-leverage policies are driven by entrenched managers attempting to avoid the disciplinary pressures of debt. These firms do not have weaker internal or external governance mechanisms. The debt initiation decisions of these firms are not preceded by shocks to their entrenchment, such as takeover threats or the emergence of activist blockholders. Our evidence supports the hypothesis that these firms are financially constrained. Zero-debt firms are small, young, conserve cash from cash-flow, and are more likely to lease their assets. When they have access to a line of credit, they face stricter covenants and higher all-in costs than comparable control firms. They lose market share in economic downturns, consistent with the financial constraints explanation, but inconsistent with theories of predation which suggest that they may be voluntarily stockpiling debt capacity.     

Dynamics of endogenous growth

Summary We present an overlapping generations model of endogenous fertility and growth. The cost of child rearing and the effect of population size on total factor productivity determine the dynamics of competitive equilibrium path of our model. The non-linear dynamics of the model generates a plethora of outcomes (depending on the functional forms, parameters and initial conditions) that include not only the neo-classical steady state with exponential growth of population with constant per capita income and consumption, but also growth paths which do not converge to a steady state and are even chaotic. Exponential, and even super exponential, growth of per capita output are possible in some cases.We would like to thank Mukul Majumdar, Kazuo Nishimura and an anonymous referee for many comments.     

Do supervisory inputs matter in a capital-intensive industry? Some evidence from a Japanese car transplant

We estimate a translog production function based on data from a Japanese automobile plant in the Midwest where output is determined by capital and different supervisory time inputs. We fit a model which allows for heteroskedastic errors, where this heteroskedasticity is a function of various variables affecting perceived target severity. We find that while, as expected, capital inputs are important, each supervisory time input is also significant in this capital-intensive industry. Linear homogeneity in these inputs is rejected. We find evidence of asymmetry in substitution among different components of supervisory time. This asymmetry has implications for the design and allocation of supervisory tasks. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

So what do I get? The bank's view of lending relationships

While many empirical studies document borrower benefits of lending relationships, less is known about lender benefits. A relationship lender's informational advantage over a non-relationship lender may generate a higher probability of selling information-sensitive products to its borrowers. Our results show that the probability of a relationship lender providing a future loan is 42%, while for a non-relationship lender, this probability is 3%. Consistent with theory, we find that borrowers with greater information asymmetries are significantly likely to obtain future loans from their relationship lenders. Relationship lenders are likely to be chosen to provide debt/equity underwriting services, but this effect is economically small.     

Graphical analysis and financial classification: A case study

This paper illustrates the use of graphical analysis as a complementary diagnostic tool in financial classification problems. For more than two decades statistical models have been used frequently to understand the information content of multivariate data in the context of financial classification. These statistical classification models can be complemented by the use of computer-generated multidimensional data displays and graphical analysis. We illustrate the use of the scatterplot matrix, which is the simplest and very effective form of graphical analysis on a sample of bankrupt and non-bankrupt firms. The paper demonstrates the complementary nature of the scatterplot matrix for tree-structured classification models.