Inter-Firm and Intra-Firm Efficiency Measures

Intra-firm efficiencyinvolves computing a particular firm's efficiency degree overtime relative to the firm-specific production frontier. Inter-firmefficiency reveals a particular firm's performance over timerelative to the ``best practice frontier' among the set of comparablefirms. These efficiency measures are related by an inter-firmcatch-up component reflecting differences in technology acrossfirms. Those measures are estimated for Dutch pot-plant firmsusing the Generalized Maximum Entropy formalism. The empiricalresults suggest the inter-firm catch-up component is the majordeterminant of inter-firm efficiency.     

Learning, experience, and firm size

The process of producer's learning by experience is characterized as a parameter-adaptive process, rather than an ad hoc specification, that includes the accumulated volume of output in the firm's cost function. Deviations from the neoclassical optimization conditions can be decomposed into learning and production variation components. In a given time period, the production level may be greater or less than the level associated with price equals marginal cost, depending on the learning value and the direction of the marginal risk of production. The uncertainty-based measure of elasticity of scale is presented and indicates that the traditional view that the presence of uncertainty can discourage the managerial decision to expand is restrictive.     

INFORMATION IN AGRICULTURAL PEST CONTROL

This paper develops a decision aid for agricultural producers regarding their pest scouting and spraying activities. The basic issue is how estimates of pest populations are computed and when the operator should act using that information. Scouting for pests, essentially a search operation, can lead to a change in the strategy for applying pesticide. An adaptive-scouting process is developed to unify the spraying and scouting activities. Some results, for the cotton-lygus bug system, are presented.     

Examining the Impact of Public Engagement and Presidential Leadership Communication on Social Media in China: Implications for Government-Public Relationship Cultivation

This study examined how public positive and negative social media (i.e., WeChat) discussion about President Xi Jinping in China, along with Xi’s leadership communication styles of assertiveness, responsiveness, and authenticity on social media influence publics’ evaluation of his leadership effectiveness, which in turn, influences public trust and satisfaction with the government. Through a quantitative online survey of 396 WeChat users in China, randomly selected via an international sampling firm and a structural equation modeling analysis, the results show that publics’ political discussion about Xi on social media in China significantly influences the perceived leadership effectiveness of the president. Specifically, the more the publics engage in positive discussion about the president on social media, the more they perceive him to be a better political leader, and vice-versa. The president’s leadership communication attributes of responsiveness and authenticity strongly and positively influenced perceived leadership effectiveness and the quality of government-public relationships. Publics’ evaluation of the president’s leadership effectiveness directly contributed to public trust and satisfaction toward the government. The theoretical and practical implications of the study are discussed.     

Attributions and behavioral intentions of inexperienced salespersons to failure: An empirical investigation

The goal of this research was to determine how inexperienced sales representatives (rookies) interpret and respond to their sales failure situations. The authors studied 296 rookie financial services sales representatives'performance attributions for a previous unsuccessful sales interaction and their intended behaviors for a future, similar selling situation. This provided the authors the opportunity to compare their results with Dixon, Spiro and Jamil's (2001) findings for experienced sales representatives (veterans). In the event of a sales failure, rookies'responses do not parallel those of veterans. The results suggest that rookies are likely to engage in several inappropriate behaviors in response to failed sales encounters. Implications for managers and directions for future research are discussed. Andrea L. Dixon (Andrea. Dixon@uc.edu) (Ph.D., Indiana University) is an assistant professor of marketing at the University of Cincinnati. Her research focuses on selling behaviors, team selling, integrating technology and personal selling, and the role of developmental relationships in enhancing creativity and productivity in the sales division. The primary focus of her research is improving the performance of sales representatives and the sales organization or unit. She has published in theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, theJournal of Marketing, and theJournal of Personal Selling and Sales Management. She currently serves on the editorial review boards of theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science and theJournal of Personal Selling and Sales Management. Dixon is the vice chair for conference programming of the Selling and Sales Management Special Interest Group of the American Marketing Association. Rosann L. Spiro (spiro@ indiana.edu), Ph. D., is a professor of marketing and chairperson of the Marketing Department at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana, where she teaches Sales Management, Personal Selling, International Marketing, Business-to-Business Marketing Strategy, and Managerial Research in Marketing. Her research interests focus on sales strategy, sales management, and personal selling. Her work has appeared in numerous publications, including theJournal of Marketing Research, theJournal of Marketing, theJournal of Consumer Research, theJournal of Business, and theJournal of Personal Selling and Sales Management. She currently serves on the editorial review boards of theJournal of Personal Selling and Sales Management andMarketing Management. She is also a coauthor of a leading sales management text,Management of a Sales Force (11 th ed.). She formerly served as the chairperson of the Board of the American Marketing Association. Curtently she serves on an Advisory Board for the Univted States Bureau of Census and is the chair of the Selling and Sales Management Special Interest Group of the American Marketing Association. Lukas P. Forbes (Lukas.Forbes@wku.edu) is an assistant professor of marketing in the Gordon Ford College of Business at Western Kentucky University. He received his B.S. from the United States Military Academy at West Point, his M.B.A. from worcester Polytechnic Institute, and is completing his Ph.D. at the University of Kentucky. His research interests include personal selling, services, and product development. He has previously published in the American Marketing Association Educators and Frontiers in Services conference proceedings.     

Investment rigidity and policy measures

This paper assesses the impacts of decoupled government transferson production decisions of a sample of Kansas farms. Our empiricalanalysis is based on a reduced-form application of the dualmodel of investment under uncertainty developed by Sckokai,which is extended to a consideration of irregularities in thecapital stock adjustment cost function. To do so we adopt thethreshold regression methods proposed by Hansen. The econometricresults support the existence of three regimes characterisedby different economic behaviour. Our analysis suggests thatin a dynamic setting that allows for irregularities in the capitaladjustment cost function, decoupled transfers can have a powerfulinfluence on production decisions. The dynamics of the stockof capital cause this influence to grow over time.     

Ownership Structure as a Determinant of Firm Value: Evidence from Newly Privatized Czech Firms

Using a sample of 988 newly privatized Czech firms, with part of the ownership structure exogenously determined prior to voucher privatization, we find that share values are positively related with the ownership stakes of foreigners, insiders, and restituents. While the findings for foreigners and insiders can be attributed to their superior ability to identify more profitable firms, we interpret the findings on restituents as evidence of the beneficial effect of blockholdings. On the other hand, we find that the ownership of the fund with the largest stake is not significantly related with share value, suggesting that the value of external blocks depends on the identity of the owner. However, when the fund is also the largest blockholder in the firm, it has an adverse effect on share value. The negative effect of the dominant block owned by a fund is mitigated when a bank sponsors the fund. Although funds are legally separated from their sponsoring institutions, bank‐sponsored funds may nevertheless have inherited a better access to the innards of these firms, and may be in a better position to monitor them.     

Capacity utilization under dynamic profit maximization

Empirically implementable measures of optimal capacity utilization are developed from the dynamic profit maximization perspective. The primal measure is based on behavior of the firm's supply along an optimal path to the steady state. The dual measure is based on the behavior of the dynamic value function in the stock of the quasi-fixed input. Rates of optimal capacity utilization are estimated for the U.S. food processing and distribution sector over the period 1948–1991.     

The Dynamics of Efficiency Improving Input Allocation

A dynamic theory of efficiency improving input reallocations is presented which relaxes the assumption that decision-making units have the ability to reorganize their activities instantaneously to achieve efficient input allocations. Explicit account is taken of the decision-making unit’s gradual transition to an efficient input allocation. A balanced panel data set covering 906 U.S. agricultural banks is constructed for the period 1996–2000 and we find that these banks are allocatively efficient but technically inefficient. The explicit solution for the optimal input use finds evidence of gradual transitions for two of the three inputs, with the labor input transition being the slowest. The efficiency improving path finds the firm transitions toward an efficient allocation by simultaneously improving on technical efficiency instantaneously and on allocative efficiency intertemporally, which suggests a non-linear path toward the most efficient allocation.     

The personal selling process: A critical review and model

Although personal selling is a critical element in the marketing mix of most industrial firms, research progress in this area has been hindered by the lack of a comprehensive and integrative conceptual model of the personal selling process. This article proposes such a model.