Investment in Africa's Manufacturing Sector: A Four Country Panel Data Analysis

Firm level data for the manufacturing sector in Africa, presented in this paper, shows very low levels of investment. The importance of profit effects on investment is investigated using a flexible accelerator, a specification based on the Euler equation and a simple generalisation of these specificiations. There are controls for firm fixed effects. It is shown that the profit effect is very similar for both the accelerator and Euler equation specifications. A comparison with other studies shows that, for small firms, the effect is much smaller in Africa than for other countries. Reasons for the relative insensitivity of investment to profits in African firms are suggested. For the most general specification tested there are no significant differences in the size of the profit effect across the four countries in the study.     

Reconfiguration of the conceptual landscape: a tribute to the service logic of Richard Normann

This article is a tribute to the late Richard Normann, whose call for a “service logic” (Normann, Reframing Business: When the Map Changes the Landscape, Wiley, Chichester, p. 99, 2001) both parallels and enriches service-dominant (S-D) logic (Vargo and Lusch, J. Mark, 68:1–17, 2004a). Like Vargo and Lusch, Normann shifted the focus of the offering from an output to a process of value creation and perceived the firm as an organizer of this process, with the customer as a co-producer, rather than a receiver of value. He also argued that offerings are “frozen knowledge,” similar to Vargo and Lusch’s contention that the basis of exchange is applied operant resources (service) and suggested that the ‘dematerialization’ of resources increases their ‘liquidity’, which allows increased “density” for value creation. Thus, he suggested that firms need to “reframe business”—rethink the logic of value creation—to reveal opportunities in reconfiguring the value constellations of which they are part. This tribute explores these and other similarities and differences between Normann’s work and the evolving S-D logic.     

Michel Gutsatz中国会有自己的奢侈品吗?

一个品牌要30年我深信,奢侈品是有业务模式的。今天,我想和读者分享一下打造奢侈品牌的可行性战略,尤其是中国的战略选择。首先,大家千万不要忘记,经典——并不是奢侈品唯一的来源。如果分析一下,除了腕表、化妆品外,还有很多其他的领域。比如科技、食品、饮料、酒店、家居装潢、水疗、俱乐部等,很多     

Estimation of physical intensity models for default risk

The estimation of physical intensity processes in the context of default risk is investigated here. Using data from Moody's Corporate Bond Default Database, a term structure of default probabilities for different rating classes is constructed each year from 1970 to 2001. Two specifications used for modeling the dynamics of the (risk‐neutral) intensity process in the bond‐pricing literature are then examined empirically: the Ornstein–Uhlenbeck and square‐root cases. The results reveal that the Ornstein–Uhlenbeck case is not an adequate modeling alternative with a rejection of this specification in five out of seven credit classes and nonsignificant mean reverting behavior for all credit classes. The square‐root case obtains better results with four credit classes out of seven for which this specification cannot be rejected and significant mean reversion parameters in many cases. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Jrl Fut Mark 29:95–113, 2009     

An Integrated DSS for Groundwater Management Based on Remote Sensing. The Case of a Semi-arid Aquifer in Morocco

A Decision Support System has been set up as the result of a fruitful cooperation between several public and research institutions in the framework of a large cooperation program. The DSS aims to compare spatially and temporally sectorial water demands of the Haouz-Mejjate plain (Morocco) in regard to available surface and groundwater resources. It is composed of a tool for satellite estimation of Agricultural Water Demand (SAMIR), a tool for integrated water resources planning (WEAP) and a groundwater model (MODFLOW) each of them relying on a common Geographical Information System not described here. The DSS is operating on a monthly time scale. Agricultural water demand accounts for about 80?% of the total demand. In areas where groundwater abstraction is difficult to quantify by direct methods, multitemporal remote sensing associated to the FAO methodology is a simple and efficient alternative to estimate Evapotranspiration (ET). In this work, a monthly estimate of ET from irrigated areas is derived from freely available MODIS NDVI for the 2001?C2009 period. An important part of the paper deals with the validation of these estimates with eddy covariance flux measurements installed on different irrigated crops of the region. Results are satisfactory with a minus 6.5?% error per year on the monthly time scale. This preprocessing allows to dichotomize irrigated versus non-irrigated areas, and then, to estimate groundwater abstraction in subareas distinguishing by their operating modes: traditional, dam or privately irrigated. A dynamic linkage between MODFLOW and WEAP transfers the results of one model as input data to the other. The model restitutes both spatial and temporal variations in head charges and allows the calculation of the ground water balance. After calibration, piezometric validation is acceptable for the majority of the 21 head control points.     

Boarding the Aircraft: Trust Development Amongst Negotiators of a Complex Merger

We explore trust development in the context of an international merger negotiation. Based on in‐depth interviews with chief negotiators of the Air France–KLM merger, we contribute to existing theory by showing that trust develops in three interrelated domains: personal, process, and outcome. Progressively, trust develops in all domains on the basis of antecedents that differ between phases and domains. Distinguishing between different domains facilitates analysis of trust asymmetry and the coexistence of trust and distrust, as well as the influence of trust in interorganizational relationships.     

The Role of Knowhow Acquisition in the Formation and Duration of Joint Ventures

We analyze the role of knowhow acquisition in the formationand duration of joint ventures. Two parties become partnersin a joint venture to benefit from each other’s knowhow.Joint operations provide each party with the opportunity toacquire part of its partner’s knowhow. A party’sincreased knowhow provides the impetus for the dissolution ofthe joint venture. We characterize the conditions under whichdissolution takes place, identify the party that buys out itspartner, determine the time to dissolution, establish its comparativestatics, and examine the implications of knowledge acquisitionfor the desirability of joint venture formation. (JEL code:G34)     

A new perturbation solution of groundwater table fluctuations in tidal beaches

This paper modeled tide-induced groundwater flow in a vertical beach with a thin submarine outlet-capping. By implementing a perturbation method based on the Boussinesq’s equation, a new approximate solution was derived for the model. Then the solution was compared with previous analytical solutions derived from the linearized Boussinesq’s equation. The results showed that the error between the present and previous solutions increases with the value of the ratio of tidal amplitude to the aquifer’s depth below the mean sea level and the leakage of the submarine outlet-capping.

     

Sustainable development. With or without mankind?

The author challenges the conventional wisdom that the main risk to Western development is environmental degradation caused by mankind. Concern over the greenhouse effect and global warming have more to do with millenium fever than reality. There is still very little evidence to suggest that these environmental phenomena result from human activity. What we do know is that there have been major cyclical fluctuations throughout history. The author cautions against implementing ‘scientistic’ policies in the face of such doubts, just because it is trendy to do so.