Sampling Minority Business Owners and Their Families: The Understudied Entrepreneurial Experience*

We here review and critique prior research on minority entrepreneurship, paying particular attention to the contributions and limitations of deployed sampling techniques and research methodologies. As based on this review, we then introduce the 2003 and 2005 National Minority Business Owner Surveys—a comprehensive and primary data collection effort that used varied methodologies to secure in‐depth information about random national samples of African American, Korean American, and Mexican American populations as well as a comparison sample of nonminority business owners. We present the initial business ownership profiles developed with these recent data, in part, as a benchmark of the U.S. entrepreneurial experience, and compare the profiles with those presented in prior research. These profiles document similarities and differences across the four groups and provide an empirical foundation for understanding the origin of those similarities and differences. No longer can we ignore the in‐depth study of minority businesses and their owning families nor can we simply assume that all businesses are the same, regardless of minority status or ethnicity.     

Rank-size rule for rural settlements

A new rank-size rule for rural settlements is presented. It replaces the urban rank-size P_n = P₁/n by P_n = P₁ δⁿ⁻¹ where P_n is the population size of the nth settlement. A graphic presentation of this rule is the straight line on a semilogarithmic grid. The basis for checking the proposed rule is a case-study based on population records for Samarian villages for 1596, 1931, and 1975. The explanation for the rural rank-size rule is that there is a certain optimal size of a rural settlement. This optimum shows itself in the form of a concentration of settlements within a relatively narrow range of sizes. It is suggested that each region and each culture has its own specific range of preferred sizes. The optimum level is thus the major factor which accounts for the special case of the rural rank-size rule. But variations in the range of concentration reflect the relative importance of dynamic factors: the development of urban centers, at one end, and the establishment of new off-shoots in marginal areas, at the other.     

Syndication of European Buyouts and its Effects on Target‐Firm Performance

Using a unique dataset of 859 leveraged buyouts in Europe during the period 1999–2009, the authors' recent study reports that buyout financiers syndicate their transactions to other buyers to achieve benefits that include diversification of different types of target risk, the combination of complementary investor information and skillsets, and an increase in future deal flow. The authors also report that lead financiers structure their syndicates in ways designed to minimize syndication costs, in particular potential information and incentive problems with co‐investors in the syndicate, while also aiming to maximize the syndication benefits mentioned above. For example, through effective management of conflicts of interest with co‐investors within their syndicates, lead financiers are likely to acquire a reputation for looking out for the interests of their co‐investors that ends up increasing their own deal flow. As additional evidence in support of this claim, the authors also report finding that the post‐buyout profitability and growth of the target companies are higher when buyouts are syndicated (even after adjusting for the “endogeneity” of such decisions) and when the syndicates are structured to limit inter‐investor conflicts of interest within the syndicate. And as the authors point out, this finding, when viewed with the other main findings cited above, provides a more positive view of European buyout syndicates than the one projected by studies of Anglo‐American syndicates to date, whose findings have emphasized the potential for collusion among the buyout financiers.     

Priming a Cross‐Category Brand Alliance: The Moderating Role of Attribute Knowledge and Need for Cognition

Firms often enter cross‐category advertising brand alliance strategies with the goal to increase their market share by association with popular but noncompeting brand allies. However, firms are often not aware of the effects of these alliances on consumer perceptions of participating brands. This research explores the factors moderating brand attribute inferences following exposure to a cross‐category advertising brand alliance. It is proposed that attributes of a brand ally may serve as anchors that produce assimilation effects and move perceptions of a target brand toward the ally's attribute value, or as standards of comparison that produce contrast. This work provides evidence that attribute judgments in a cross‐category advertising brand alliance are moderated by attribute knowledge and individual differences in information processing motivation as reflected in self‐reported need for cognition (NFC) ratings.     

North American Free Trade and Changes in the Nativity of the Garment Industry Workforce in the United States

In this article, we address the question of the extent to which US producers’ reliance on cheap immigrant labor can continue to retard the march of apparel manufacturing out of the country as garments produced by even cheaper labor overseas flood the US market in the post‐NAFTA period. The article is divided into five sections. In the first, we introduce concepts that are key to our discussion, including the new international division of labor thesis, dual labor market theory, the state’s role in boundary management and the implications of these with regard to industrial development and migration in Mexico and the United States. In the next section, we examine changes in the regulatory regime governing international trade in garments and the subsequent shifts that have occurred in Mexican apparel exports to the United States on the one hand, and in Mexican and US garment employment on the other. In the third section, we review the role immigrants play in the US garment industry and the debates about if and how immigrant workers and entrepreneurs contribute to its international competitiveness. We then turn our attention to a case study of garment production in El Paso, Texas, where thousands of Mexican‐immigrant and Mexican‐American women have lost their jobs as seamstresses since the implementation of NAFTA began in 1994. In the fourth section of the article, we analyze data from US County Business Patterns, the decennial US Census of Population and Housing, the annual March US Current Population Surveys and the US Department of Labor’s records of certified NAFTA‐related layoffs to ascertain the extent to which El Paso’s experience of heavy immigrant garment job losses is typical of the rest of the country. In the concluding section we discuss the implications of our analysis for the future of the US garment workforce. Dans quelle mesure le recours des producteurs américains à un personnel bon marché d’immigrants peut‐il continuer à freiner la confection d’habillement hors du pays, tandis que des v? tements fabriqués par une main‐d’uvre étrangère encore moins chère envahissent le marché américain depuis l’ALENA? Cet article se compose de cinq parties. La première présente les concepts‐clés de notre argument, notamment la nouvelle thèse sur la division internationale du travail, la théorie du double marché de la main‐d’uvre, le rôle de l’État dans la gestion des frontières, ainsi que l’incidence de ces aspects sur l’essor industriel et la migration au Mexique et aux États‐Unis. La deuxième partie étudie les évolutions du régime qui régule le marché international de l’habillement, ainsi que les mutations subséquentes qu’ont connues à la fois les exportations de v? tements mexicaines vers les États‐Unis, et l’emploi de ce secteur dans les deux pays. En examinant le rôle des immigrants dans la confection amééricaine, la troisième partie reprend le débat sur la possibilité que les travailleurs et entrepreneurs immigrants contribuent à la compétitivité internationale de ce secteur. L’article s’attache ensuiteà une étude de cas de fabrication de v? tements à El Paso, au Texas, où des milliers d’immigrantes mexicaines et de femmes américano‐mexicaines ont perdu leur emploi de couturière depuis la mise en place de l’ALENA en 1994. La quatrième partie analyse des données émanant de plusieurs sources statistiques américaines (profils locaux de l’emploi par secteur d’activité, recensement décennal de la population et de l’habitat, enqu? tes démographiques annuelles), ainsi que de dossiers du ministère du Travail américain attestant de licenciements liés à l’ALENA, afin de démontrer que l’ampleur considérable des pertes d’emploi d’immigrants à El Paso est caractéristique du reste du pays. La conclusion déduit les implications de notre analyse pour l’avenir de la main‐d’uvre dans la confection aux États‐Unis.     

如何在世贸组织规则下选择有效的国内农业保护政策?

美国是国际农产品市场的主要生产者和消费者,美国农业政策对国际市场具有重要影响.农业保护政策是美国农业法案的一个重要组成部分,作为世界贸易组织成员方,美国农业保护政策要符合世界贸易组织出台的《农业协定》《补贴与反补贴措施协定》和《关于争端解决规则与程序的谅解》等关于农业保护政策的基本规定.其中,《农业协定》根据农业补贴政策对市场的扭曲程度由轻到重依次分为绿箱、蓝箱、黄箱、红箱政策.绿箱、蓝箱政策不受规则限制,黄箱政策受到严格的总支出限制,红箱政策被禁止.截至2017年,美国黄箱政策方面补贴没有超过总支出限额,符合对世界贸易组织的承诺.     

Consumer Behavior in a Multichannel,Multimedia Retailing Environment

Over the past decade, multichannel, multimedia retailing environments have grown in variety, scope, and sophistication. However, research regarding the implications of this trend for consumer behavior is rather scarce. We seek to address this need by providing a comprehensive yet flexible approach for formulating promising consumer behavior-related research questions based in multichannel, multimedia retailing environments. This approach adopts a consumer-centric view of multichannel, multimedia retailing and identifies a number of important dimensions of this environment. We then illustrate how this approach could be applied via specific examples involving consumer memory, product assortment, and information acquisition. We conclude by considering the managerial implications of our proposed approach.     

ASSESSING DAMAGES: THE 1983 ISRAELI BANK SHARES CRISIS

In 1983, Israeli bank shares collapsed following several years during which the banks had actively intervened to promote share prices and thereby contributed to a 300% rise in real terms. During the crisis the government assumed control of the banks, which they did not begin to sell back to the public until 1993. We compare 1993 bank share prices after the banks were partially relisted on the Stock Exchange with 1983 precrisis values. The 1993 time-adjusted market values were $10 billion lower than in 1983, a decline borne by precrisis shareholders ($4 billion) and by taxpayers ($6 billion). Of this latter amount, two-thirds represents a transfer from the government to shareholders, while approximately one-third represents an efficiency loss - and hence a direct cost - resulting from government ownership of the banks for 10 years following the crisis. The results highlight the risk inherent in a banking system that is both concentrated and universal and illustrates the costs associated with sustained government ownership.