Large market games with demand uncertainty

We consider a market game with a continuum of consumers, where the measure of each type is stochastic. Nature selects the set of active consumers, who make bids and offers on ?−1 spot market trading posts. Existence of type-symmetric Nash equilibrium is proven. When facing price uncertainty, best responses are unique, and a Nash equilibrium to the sell-all game is typically not a Nash equilibrium to the original game. Under plausible circumstances, consumers strictly prefer to be on one side of the market.     

A qualitative analysis of factors associated with user acceptance and rejection of a new workplace information system in the public sector: a conceptual model

This study examines the factors that lead employees to endorse or resist the introduction of a new information system (IS). Findings suggest that attitudes toward adopting IS are related to psychological characteristics of the potential adopters, including, open‐mindedness, self‐efficacy, interest in the information and communication technology, and time remaining before retirement. Also figuring prominently in influencing attitudes are the end‐users' perceptions and expectations with respect to project management, IS quality, IS usefulness, and its effects on organizational positions, work organization, performance, skills, jobs, and worker health. Finally, user attitudes also relate to features of change management practices, including leadership, training, support, recognition, communication, and participation. An integrative conceptual model of IS user adoption is proposed and suggestions for future research are offered. Copyright © 2008 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Risk compensation in wages – a replication

We use data from Germany, The Netherlands, Portugal and Spain to test for the effect of earnings variation on individual earnings. We replicate estimates for the USA and find that the variance of earnings in an occupation affects individual wages positively while the skewness of earnings has a negative effect. Both results are in conformity with wage compensation for risk averse workers. First version received: March 2001/Final version received: July 2002 We are grateful to two anonymous referees for valuable comments.     

Segmenting high technology adopters

This article highlights a link between the innovative behavior of high technology firms and their buying. An empirical indepth study of 16 firms manufacturing electrical and electronic measuring instruments shows how components are bought by different types of firms. The findings suggest a useful basis for segmenting high technology industrial markets.     

Participants' response to the Delphi method: An attitudinal perspective

The processes involved in an individual's response to the Delphi method are conditioned by a number of psychological affects. This paper examines aspects of two of these processes: the basis for changing opinions, and the factors related to continued participation in subsequent Delphi rounds. The attitudinal perspective is shown to be promising in explaining an individual panelist's response in the Delphi method. Cognitive dissonance apparently has a significant role to play in bolstering the assimilation of nonconforming respondents. This is, however, complicated by the respondents' perception of the credibility of the feedback received. Careful choice of panels may reduce dropouts, presumably by selecting those with a high degree of ego involvement. Nonetheless, elements of cognitive dissonance apparently lead certain panelists to abandon the Delphi process. It is evident that numerous parallels exist between psychological explanations of attitude change and the behavior of Delphi panelists.     

Observability and incentive in organizations

The paper shows that producer-owned firms are more efficient in quality provision than investor-owned firms if input quality is observable, while they are less efficient when the input quality is unobservable and the size of the organization is large.     

Matching auction with winner’s curse and imperfect financial markets

This paper explains how and why the Matching Auctions work better with Imperfect Financial Markets. We show that an efficient outsider can obtain a “good” project even if the insider has informational advantage.     

Prices vs. Quantities with fiscal cushioning

Enforcement of international environmental quantity regulations (e.g. tradable pollution permits) is often expected to be stricter than that of price regulations (e.g. emission taxes). While both instruments provide opportunities for misrepresenting actual pollution, enforcement of international price-based instruments is additionally hampered by potential fiscal cushioning, i.e. an adjustment of domestic fiscal policies offsetting the tax incentive to reduce emission reductions. The present paper extends the formal debate on Prices vs. Quantities by including the risk of fiscal cushioning. We find the level of the marginal benefit curve and the variance of costs become key elements for instrument choice and can render quantity regulations strictly preferable. Remarkably, in the latter case, the slopes of the marginal curves do not affect optimal instrument choice. Numerical calculations, using data taken from the international climate policy context, support the potential dominance of quantity regulations found in our formal analysis.     

The Effects of Strategy–Management Control System Misfits on Firm Performance

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of misfits between business strategy and management control systems on performance. We address the following research question: Do firms that align their management control systems with the specific requirements of their business strategy perform significantly better than those that do not achieve the required match? We define a misfit as the degree to which management control systems deviate from empirically derived optimal configurations for a given type of business strategy. We use the two‐stage approach proposed by Ittner and Larcker (2001) to measure misfit and to investigate the impacts of misfit on performance. Based on a questionnaire survey of executives from 109 banks, we hypothesize and find that the strategy–control systems misfit has a significantly negative correlation with both self‐rated and publicly available performance measures.     

商务英语需求和商务英语教学调查研究

本文尝试使用问卷这一实证调查的方式全面分析目前商务英语人才社会需求以及商务英语专业学生需求。统计结果发现用人单位需要具备问题解决,团队协作,环境适应和自我调节等综合能力,具备商务英语沟通和谈判能力以及具备英语竞争优势的实用性人才。针对调查结果,论文认为有效的商务英语教学应在不断的需求分析的基础上,适应市场需求和学习者需求,使得商务英语教学具有时代性和实用性。