Monitoring and sanctioning in the commons: An application to forestry

We examine theoretical determinants of monitoring and sanctioning at both the local community level and from external government agents using the Institutional Analysis and Development (IAD) framework. We then estimate a bivariate probit statistical model to test the theory using data from 100 forests in 14 countries collected by the International Forestry Resources and Institutions (IFRI) research program. Among other things, we find that a right to harvest some portion of the resource is an important determinant of local monitoring and sanctioning. The number of external aid agencies and NGOs is an important determinant of external monitoring and sanctioning.     

Green segmentation and environmental certification: insights from forest products

Firms engage in environmental marketing in order to appeal to environmentally conscious consumers. Within the context of the forest product industry, this research uses data from two studies to empirically test whether a relationship exists between demographic/psychographic characteristics and reported environmentally conscious intentions. In both studies, the results indicate that the environmental marketing of certified/ecolabeled forest products appeals to a segment of environmentally conscious consumers. This appeal occurs for both a value‐added product (furniture) and a non‐value‐added product (plywood). Thus, there is support for the argument that environmental marketing to environmentally conscious consumers can result in ‘green segmentation’. Key findings from this study suggest that those consumers reporting the strongest preferences for environmentally certified forest products were more willing to pay a premium for certified products, more likely to display environmentally conscious behavior and more likely to perceive that green consumer purchases effectively benefit the environment. These characteristics were most common among females and those familiar with the concept of environmental certification. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and EPR Environment.     

Leadership,sourcing modes and IT project management

Information technology (IT) project management has always been a major concern for firms. Researchers have demonstrated that the different characteristics of a project directly affect project management practices and have suggested that different leadership profiles are better suited to different project conditions. The aim of the proposed model is to aid in the understanding of the relationship between the type of IT project (represented by its sourcing mode) and the leadership profile adopted by a project manager. Using a case approach, we studied four successful IT projects. Our results suggest that projects using a partnership or recuperation sourcing mode require a more flexible profile of management than projects characterized by internal governance or outsourcing, which require a more control‐oriented profile of management. Copyright © 2010 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Optimal replenishment order for uncertain demand in three layer supply chain

The authors study the well-known order quantity model in a three-player context, using a framework of newsboy problem. An expected average cost function of the chain by trading off inventory cost and shortage costs is formulated which is minimized to obtain optimal order sizes of the supplier, manufacturer and retailer. Our theoretical analysis of both cases; (i) when demand per unit time of each member of the chain is uncertain, (ii) when uncertain demand is distributed uniformly over finite time horizon; suggests the determining of optimal order sizes of the members so that the expected average channel cost is minimum. Numerical examples for different distributions are illustrated to justify our model.     

Do Customs Union Members Engage in More Bilateral Trade than Free‐Trade Agreement Members?

This paper provides the first empirical analysis directly comparing the effects of customs unions (CUs) and free‐trade agreements (FTAs) on members’ bilateral trade, while addressing the biases arising from log‐linearization of the gravity model and crucial time‐invariant unobservables. Since Fiorentino et al. (2007 ) question the popularity of CUs relative to FTAs, considering the latter to be more practical in the current trading climate, such a comparison seems especially relevant. While Baier and Bergstrand (2007 ) find an FTA to approximately double members’ bilateral trade after 10 years, the results of this paper find CUs to have had a much larger impact than FTAs.     

Whale shark tourism at Ningaloo Marine Park: A longitudinal study of wildlife tourism

This article demonstrates the changes that occur due to the maturation of a wildlife tourism industry through the application of a Wildlife Tourism Framework. Specifically, in 2005 survey data was collect from participants of whale shark tourism at Ningaloo Marine Park in Western Australia, facilitating a direct comparison with a study conducted a decade earlier. The results conformed with predictions by the Framework, in particular, a shift in the industry towards the mainstream from the periphery. In comparison with the past, whale shark tourism at Ningaloo now attracts more generalist tourists who place different preferences on the whale shark tourism experience. There is now a greater distribution of age groups; less skilled individuals; a higher tolerance to crowding; and a larger focus on the non-wildlife components of the experience. Furthermore, this article, discusses the pertinent management implications associated with this shift.     

Too little too late: welfare impacts of rainfall shocks in rural Indonesia

We use regression analysis to assess the potential welfare impacts in rural Indonesia of two types of shock: a delay in monsoon onset; and a significant shortfall in rain during the 90-day post-onset period. Focusing on households with family farm businesses, we find that a delay in monsoon onset does not have a significant effect on the welfare of rice farmers. However, rice farm households located in areas exposed to low rainfall following the monsoon are negatively affected. Such households appear to be able to protect their food expenditure in the face of weather shocks, but at the expense of their non-food expenditure. We also use propensity score matching to identify community programs that might moderate the impact of this type of shock. We find that access to credit and public works projects has the strongest moderating effect. This is an important consideration for the design and implementation of adaptation strategies.     

Global Outsourcing Relationships and Innovation: A Conceptual Framework and Research Propositions

Increasing globalization and the rapid growth of information technologies, including the Internet, have resulted in drastic changes in international activities of companies. Once limited to manufactured goods, currently, global outsourcing encompasses a wide variety of knowledge‐based services, such as accounting, financial services, taxation, customer service, information technology, engineering drawings, human resources, research and development (R&D), data processing, and sales. The domain of outsourcing knowledge‐based services is the focus of this paper. Moving beyond the inevitability of global outsourcing, this research takes the perspective of the outsourcer and focuses on managing its transition to providers in the context of innovation. In addition to delivering projected cost benefits to outsourcers, effective transition management can facilitate the generation of innovations. This research attempts to extend the current academic research on global outsourcing in three ways: (1) It offers a framework for understanding the transition process in outsourcing and its relationship to innovation; (2) it takes a broader perspective of outsourcing, including globalization, knowledge‐based services, and core activities of the firm; and (3) using a parsimonious set of theoretical concepts based on control theory, it develops several research propositions to clarify the linkages between variables. Based on our theorizing, outsourcing top management should ask two questions when planning outsourcing of knowledge‐based services to generate innovations in a globalized world. These two questions are: (1) How close is the task to our core competence? And (2) how much tacit knowledge is involved in doing the outsourced task? Next, managers must identify global providers and then spend considerable thought in operational execution of the transition of the task for that is the only time that both complete teams will work together. For tasks that are close to core competence, rigid‐explicit behavioral controls should be put in place; however, for tasks that have high tacit knowledge content, high norms‐based relational control would be more effective. These different types of controls would lead to different innovation outcomes. Rigid‐explicit behavioral controls would produce incremental innovation while relational norms‐based controls would encourage radical innovation.     

Global innovation generation and financial performance in business-to-business relationships: the case of cross-border alliances in the pharmaceutical industry

The past few decades have witnessed a significant increase in the number of cross-border strategic alliances among firms. We focus on the role of alliance expertise (alliance experience and diversity of partners) and alliance governance (horizontal vs. vertical alliances and joint venture vs. other alliances) in global innovation generation. We also examine the effect of these variables on the financial performance of the focal firm. The conceptual model is tested using an empirical analysis of cross-border alliances formed by U.S. pharmaceutical companies from 1985 to 2008. We find that while prior alliance experience has a positive association with global innovation generation, diversity of partners has a negative relationship. In addition, whether the alliance is horizontal or vertical has no bearing on the innovation generation, but joint ventures are associated with more global innovation generation than other types of alliances. Finally, as global innovation generation increases, financial performance increases up to a point but thereafter exhibits a negative relationship.