Exploring Users' Appropriateness as a Proxy for Experts When Screening New Product/Service Ideas

Despite the popularity and extensive use of engaging users in crowdvoting, very little research has been conducted into the appropriateness of users as substitutes for experts when judging ideas. Accordingly, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the appropriateness of using users as a proxy for professional experts during the initial idea screening of new product/service ideas. In other words, are users' assessments during idea screening conformant with professional experts' assessments and are they reliable as a proxy for experts during idea screening? In a comparative study, two different approaches to outsourcing the screening of wireless ideas to users are examined, including assessment by two different user panels: (1) technically skilled users and (2) technically naïve users. These two approaches were compared with the assessments made by professional experts. The results showed no conformance between users and experts when comparing their absolute scores. However, during a relative comparison (the ranking of ideas), both user panels were conformant with the professional experts. A test of the user panels' ability to select the same top ideas as the professional experts was successful, indicating good conformance between the user panels and the professional experts. This paper's contribution is knowledge of how conformant external users are compared with professional expert judges during idea screening. The results indicate that companies can employ users during the initial screening process using criteria assessment to select the best ideas for further elaboration, something that would significantly reduce the number of ideas. The paper suggests an alternative design to crowdvoting, whereby the users assess the relevant criteria.     

OECD unbundled local loop pricing

This study examines OECD fully unbundled and line sharing monthly wholesale prices for 2002–2008. The results are informative with economic analysis appearing to inform regulator decision making. However, with the cost proxy (viz., copper-wage relative price, population density, urbanisation and business line penetration), regulator costing methods (long run incremental and fully allocated cost), and time trend arguments only explaining approximately 40% of the price variation there remains ample unexplained variation, and political and institutional variables may help reduce this. Finally, both price series are subject to increasingly rapid value declines, although the patterns are somewhat distinct. This suggests that initial prices are truly transitory.     

A New Paradigm in Guiding: The Madrich as a Role Model

The “role model” guides encountered in the counselors of Israel Experience youth study tours, contrast traditional concepts of pathfinder and mentor. This model type is proposed as more appropriate for tours providing informal education and quest for identity. Not drawing authority from official recognition but from a personal guide–tourist relationship, madrichs rated characteristics essential to guides leading these trips. A multi-dimensional analysis uncovered the structure of these characteristics to create a structure of an “excellent” Israel Experience madrich. This structural analysis confirms an earlier typology and helps to uncover another kind of approach towards youth guiding.     

Does Venture Capital Syndication Spur Employment Growth and Shareholder Value? Evidence from German IPO Data

This study empirically examines the syndication of equity by multiple venture capitalists in Germany. Following the literature, there are mainly two competing views as to why venture capitalists syndicate investments. First, syndication can be viewed as a means of risk-sharing. Second, venture capitalists may provide important productive resources to firms: capital and information. I test hypotheses based on these two aspects. The results show that the syndication of equity and the number of venture capitalists involved cannot be fully explained by firm characteristics like size, age, or industry affiliation. Although syndicated investments do not differ significantly in stock-market performance, they do show significantly higher growth rates.     

The politics of Europe 1999: spring cleaning

The European Union (EU) finished off the twentieth century with more action than vision. A large number of issues were raised—often with surprising energy and enthusiasm—and yet we are no closer to understanding the nature of Europe’s future at the start of the new millennium than we were at the end of the last. Indeed, the temptation is to write off the year 1999 as a period of great expectations and modest accomplishments. Early rhetoric about the impact of EMU on world financial markets, about Europe’s progress toward resolving the jobs crisis, about efforts to tackle corruption, and about the inevitability of enlargement seem hyperbolic to say the least. The prolonged depreciation of the euro‐dollar exchange rate, the allegations linking François Mitterrand and Helmut Kohl in illegal campaign financing, the smoldering violence in Kosovo, the persistence of European unemployment, and the resounding electoral achievements of the right‐wing Austrian Freedom Party, all conspire to suggest that Europe is defined more by the shadow of the past than by any vision of the future. The argument in this essay is that such an assessment would be in error. Europe may not have come close to achieving any of the grand objectives suggested by the flurry of activity in 1999. However, by placing too much emphasis on the work that remains we risk discounting unnecessarily the achievements that have been made. The politics of 1999 was more a ‘spring cleaning’ than a pivotal moment in European affairs. As with any spring cleaning, what is important is to focus on is what was discarded and what was retained. Such reordering of the past often involves uncomfortable confrontations. It usually also sets the stage for more constructive activity in the future. Thus where 1999 offered more action than vision, perhaps more time can be devoted to vision than action in the years to come. This argument is made in four sections. Three of these provide a functional overview of developments during the course of the year. The first section deals with institutional matters, specifically as these relate to the Commission and the Parliament. The second turns to economic issues, and focuses on economic and monetary union (EMU) and employment. The third examines the area of foreign affairs, and draws attention to the development of a European security identity and the acceleration of enlargement. Building on this overview, the fourth section provides an assessment of what has been achieved and what remains to be accomplished.     

Public Employment and Regional Risk Sharing*

We provide an empirical analysis of regional risk sharing in Norway over the period 1977–90. The approach of Asdrubali, Sørensen and Yosha (1996) is extended to take public employment into account as a possible shock absorber. The other channels of risk sharing are capital markets and commuting, taxes and transfers, and credit markets. The estimated degree of regional consumption insurance is very high. We cannot reject the hypothesis that there is full interregional risk sharing in the short term. Public employment absorbs up to 25 percent of private sector output shocks in our analyses. Generally, central government insurance against regional shocks is relatively more important, the more permanent the shocks are, and vice versa for market‐based risk‐sharing channels.     

The politics of Europe 2002: flexibility and adjustment

The European Union entered a new phase of integration in 2002. The single currency, the European Convention, and enlargement signalled progress. The conflict over the Stability and Growth Pact, the tensions between the member states, and the political turmoil in a number of core countries suggested retreat. This paper examines the resulting pattern of integration. It argues that the European Union is becoming more legalistic than leader‐oriented, and that it rests on common principles rather than accepting the imposition of some grand design. Such a European Union cannot challenge the United States for global leadership. But it is likely to prove stable nonetheless.