Modeling structural change using early Soviet data

This paper describes a multi-sector, multi-period, economy-wide model constructed by applying linear programming techniques to an input-output system. The model is designed to provide a flexible, cost-effective tool for testing the impact of alternative development policies on consumption levels, capital stocks, output growth rates, and rate of technological change. Early Soviet data are used to show how the model can generate a problem-free expansion path as a reference. The model and reference solution are then used to decompose historical experience, measuring the intersectoral and intertemporal impact of major historical events on the economy's performance.     

Interface of marketing and R&D personnel in the product innovation stream

A questionnaire was sent to over 550 different Canadian firms engaged in R&D activity as of the Fall of 1973. One portion of the questionnaire was designed to provide specific information about marketing involvement in the product development stream in Canadian organizations engaged in R&D. Analysis of the resulting data pertaining to: when marketing personnel are and should be brought into the product innovation stream; what level of marketing management is and should be brought into the product innovation stream; and the degree of influence of marketing personnel in product innovation is presented in this paper.     

Internet e-ethics in Confrontation with an Activists' Agenda: Yahoo! on Trial

A prolonged confrontation between Yahoo! Inc. and French activists who demand the removal of Nazi items from auction sites as well as restricted access to neo-Nazis sites is described and analyzed. We present the case up to the decision of Yahoo! Inc. to remove the items from yahoo.com following a French court's verdict against the firm. Using a business ethics approach, we distinguish legal, technical, philosophical and managerial issues involved in the case and their management by Yahoo! We conclude on the difficulty of governing relations with society from corporate and legal affairs departments at the headquarters level, and on the clash of two visions over the regulation of social freedom.