Dispersion of influence between Marketing and Sales: Its effects on superior customer value and market performance

In this study the authors investigate how dispersion of influence between Marketing and Sales (DIMS) affects the creation of superior customer value and the firm's market performance. Hypotheses are tested on a sample of 326 strategic business units using structural equation modelling analysis. Three main results emerge which contribute to the understanding of the consequences of DIMS within companies. First, DIMS increases interaction and collaboration between Marketing and Sales, without blurring their respective goals, roles and responsibilities. Second, DIMS contributes to the diffusion of a customer oriented-culture across the organization. Third, the findings of this study clarify how and why DIMS affects organizational performance by showing simultaneously that superior customer value mediates the effects of DIMS on market performance, and that Marketing–Sales interface and customer-oriented culture mediate the effects of DIMS on superior customer value. The authors discuss the study's theoretical contributions and offer directions for future research. Overall, this study provides a new and broader perspective to managers responsible for the allocation of decision making influence between Marketing and Sales over a range of market-related issues.     

Zur Energienachfrage privater Haushalte

Summary This paper analyzes the private demand for energy (coal, heating oil, natural gas and electricity) for the period 1958–1974, using yearly data.The energy demand of private households is supposed to be dependent on household incomes, prices of the respective energy sources and yearly temperature levels. The special aim of this paper is to get hold of the influence of the relative prices of the 11 sub-groups of private consumption. The impact of these relativ prices is analyzed through the method of principal components, where upon the first three principal components are introduced as additional independent variables into the regression.Although the principal components do not have any interpretation beyond that of an index, the fit of the estimated demand questions has been improved and the elasticities are more close to the expected values.     

Multi-channel-retailing und kundenbezogene erfolgsrechnung

Die Kombination von Online-Shops, station?ren Gesch?ften und Versandkatalogen versetzt den Einzelh?ndler in die Lage, seine Kunden an unterschiedlichen Orten zu unterschiedlichen Zeiten zu erreichen. Die Bearbeitung des Marktes mit m?glichst vielen Kan?len kann der Schlüssel zum Erfolg sein. Wissen die Multi-Channel-Retailer aber tats?chlich, welche Kan?le ihre Kunden nutzen und welche Kunden welchen Deckungsbeitrag liefern? Kann es sein, dass bestimmte Kunden nur oder überwiegend den elektronischen Kanal nutzen und mehr Handlungskosten als Rohertr?ge verursachen? Antworten hierauf bietet die kundenbezogene Erfolgsrechnung.     

Currency competition in a fundamental model of money

We study how two fiat monies, one safe and one risky, compete in a decentralized trading environment. The currencies' equilibrium values, their transaction velocities and agents' spending patterns are endogenously determined. We derive conditions under which agents holding diversified currency portfolios spend the safe currency first and hold the risky one for later purchases. We also examine when the reverse spending pattern is optimal. Traders generally favor dealing in the safe currency, unless trade frictions and the currency risk is low. As risk increases or trading becomes more difficult, the transaction velocity and value of the safe money increases.     

Spatial disaggregation patterns and structural determinants of job flows: an empirical analysis

The paper investigates the changes in job creation and destruction flows at a very disaggregated level of analysis. We analyse whether job flows at lower levels of spatial aggregation display regularities that are in line with national ones in a bid to disentangle the role of labour market institutions. Using a unique database of the population of firms in Trentino (a north‐eastern province of Italy) from 1991 to 2001, we find that: (1) job flows show a ‘fractal’ tendency, i.e. many regularities appear to be scale invariant (magnitude of flow and persistence) and that job flow magnitude is in line with the average values for Italy; (2) there are some qualifications to their ‘fractality’: the contribution of entrant firms to the job creation process is lower than the corresponding contribution at national level, as is the share of job destruction accounted for by exiting firms; and (3) firm size and age influence job flows.     

The Impact of Middle Manager Training on Productivity: A Test on Italian Companies

This paper presents panel evidence on the productivity effects of middle managers’ off‐the‐job formal training in Italy. It is based on a rich and reliable panel dataset covering all sectors of the Italian economy over the period 2006–2011. We employ panel data techniques and self‐selection models to show that off‐the‐job formal training for middle management has a significant nonlinear exogenous effect on total factor productivity. Moreover, results indicate that middle managers’ off‐the‐job formal training is more effective in larger firms and that different training methods have heterogeneous effects on productivity.     

Money and Price Dispersion

We relax restrictions on the storage technology in a prototypical monetary search model to study price dispersion. In this case, buyers and sellers enter matches with potentially different willingness to trade. Across the distribution of possible bilateral matches, prices generally will differ even though agents have identical preferences and technologies. We provide existence conditions for a particularly simple equilibrium pattern of exchange. We prove that in the limiting case where search frictions are eliminated, equilibrium prices are uniform. We also show that a higher initial money stock can raise the average price level and increase price dispersion.