Distribution and Market Share

This paper presents findings from a census of more than 79,000 stock-keeping units (SKUs) in 37 consumer packaged goods categories totaling $55 billion in annual revenue. It shows that, in 86 percent of product categories, the relationship between market share and retail distribution is increasing and convex at the SKU level. The degree of convexity is greater in categories with higher revenues and more concentration in market shares. The relationship is also typically convex within leading brands’ SKU portfolios, showing that the “double jeopardy” phenomenon of low share and distribution not only affects small brands competing against market leaders, it also affects low-share SKUs within a category leader's product line. Holdout evidence shows that the distribution/share relationship within a brand's portfolio of existing SKUs usually holds for new SKUs as well. We explain how knowledge of the distribution/share relationship can help to improve a brand's go-to-market decisions for new SKUs.     

Does the New Keynesian Phillips curve need countercyclical markups?

This paper examines the behavior of four types of markup measures and its implications for the new Keynesian Phillips curve (NKPC). The four types of measures are a procyclical measure, a weakly procyclical measure, an acyclical measure and a countercyclical measure. Motivated by the fact that the U.S. markup has shifted up dramatically since the early 2000s, the paper also presents both empirical dynamics and a new Keynesian model featuring nonstationary markups. After inspecting empirical dynamics of key macroeconomic variables and the performance of the model, it points out that weakly procyclical or acyclical markups are more consistent with the purely forward-looking NKPC. Moreover, a major shortcoming of standard new Keynesian models is their inability to trace the actual behavior of the markup in response to a demand shock.     

Ten years after: The rise and fall of managerial autonomy in Pompeii

In September 1997, an ad hoc law (Law no. 352/1997) gave the archaeological site of Pompeii a new status. Its previous status as a local branch of the Ministry of Culture (the Soprintendenza) was reconfigured as an autonomous entity (Soprintendenza autonoma). In July 2008, the Italian Prime Minister declared a one year state of emergency in Pompeii, appointing a special Commissioner (Commissario straordinario) in order to cope with “the serious critical situation of the archeological area” (OPCM 3692/2008). The aim of the paper is to review the process of change in Pompeii over ten years, observing major institutional transformations and analyzing the evolution of activities and human and financial resources management. Beyond the substantive elements of interest (the mis-management of one of the most important archaeological sites in the world), the paper sheds lights on the role of accountability in the cultural sector and on the distinctive features of Italian public administration, questioning the existence of a path of international convergence in public sector change.     

Communicating Corporate Social Responsibility to Internal Stakeholders: Walking the Walk or Just Talking the Talk?

As organizations recognize the need to engage in CSR and sustainability initiatives, it is integral to success to communicate that they are doing so. However, the research focus is more often on communicating with external stakeholders to draw attention to corporate responsibility initiatives. Internal stakeholders as employees are not researched as often, despite their integral role in communicating the organization's CSR vision and sustainability as they interact with external stakeholders. In order to explore employee perceptions of CSR communication, a two‐phase mixed‐method study was undertaken, including semi‐structured interviews with 20 CSR managers in NZ organizations to provide content to inform an online questionnaire survey to seek feedback from employees in these same organizations. This paper contributes to research on internal stakeholders in revealing the influence of the perceived value congruence between managers and employees in influencing internal stakeholder perceptions of CSR and sustainability initiatives. The findings have implications for public policy, enhancing organizational communication, the need for authenticity and managerial recognition of their role in facilitating employee commitment to CSR initiatives. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment     

Agreement based land consolidation – In perspective of new modes of governance

A comparative study on the performance of new modes of governance in selected Central and Eastern European countries stated the problem that the emergence of new modes of governance in environmental policy is impaired by weak governance capacities in state and civil society and lack of mutual trust among stakeholders (Börzel, 2009a). The purpose of this article is to draw attention to agreement based land consolidation for implementation of area based environmental policies. The article contends that land consolidation exclusively based on agreements can cope with capacity constraints in state and civil society and at the same time apply the principles of new modes of governance. The research questions are: (i) how are principles of new modes of governance applied in agreement based land consolidation? (ii) what are the incentives and the technique in agreement based land consolidation? and (iii) what are the capacity building requirements for an agreement based land consolidation approach? The Danish land consolidation procedure is used as an example of an agreement based approach. Transaction technique, planning technique, and incentives are exposed with reference to transaction cost theory. The impact on trust is illuminated with reference to theory on social capital. The wetland projects serve as an example of area based environmental projects and is illustrated by a case. Data, however incomplete, indicate that agreement based land consolidation has been and is used as an important implementation tool in land related environmental policies in Denmark. The article concludes that the agreement based approach displays key features of new modes of governance. The principle of voluntary agreements grants the affected non-state actors a strong position to influence the final policy outcome and they contribute with local knowledge and mediation. The approach avoids conventional enforcement. Agreement based land consolidation is possible but relies on demanding preconditions. The investment in incentives and capacity building can be justified by a broad range of benefits.     

‘Invisible’ constraints on 3D innovation in land administration: A case study on the city of Melbourne

Excitement about the potential of 3D technologies to support production and management of complex building information has extended to the land administration sector. Structural characteristics of high-rise buildings are compounding complexity in the design and layout of private, public and communal ownership rights, restrictions and responsibilities, leaving a legacy of ongoing management issues for urban communities. Despite the premise of 3D innovations and significant technical progress, widespread adoption remains elusive. Attention is turning to understanding the social and cultural influences – the ‘invisible’ constraints, otherwise regarded as institutional aspects, to explain deeply embedded attitudes and behaviours that are posing resistant to current change strategies. An interpretive case study in the city of Melbourne provides context for exploring institutional issues within the land administration sector regarding high-rise developments. The plan of subdivision is used to trace institutional influences, conceptualising these as regulative, normative and cultural-cognitive elements. These elements constrain stakeholders to current 2D ways of behaving, limiting movement towards 3D innovation. The findings suggest clear institutional ‘gaps’ that deliberate strategies will need to address, but also highlight the importance of understanding the interdependency between all elements for strategic response. Finally, the findings indicate that a new focal actor that is in a position to generate the required intention for change has not emerged and therefore, an industry-wide strategic response is not apparent.     

Collectively created opportunities in emerging ecosystems: The case of solar service ventures

This study suggests that in the entrepreneurial communities of emerging industries, individual entrepreneurs may simultaneously create opportunities that spill over to others and discover opportunities already created by others. Extant opportunity literature, focused on single actors and their personal networks or on the information function of market prices, is largely mute on the role of opportunities in value networks with distributed entrepreneurial efforts. Ecosystem theory, a literature stream that seldom intersects opportunity literature, contributes with a conceptual framework to study the question. The paper seeks to shed light on how opportunities are created or discovered by new ventures as they are involved in the interlinked endeavor of forming a new ecosystem.The study examines five case studies of US ventures in the early phase of the solar service industry, an industry in which entrepreneurs offer customers access to solar panels as a service rather than as a product. These ventures inadvertently created an industry ecosystem together, as they could not protect the value created by their business partners׳ new knowledge, or by the emerging social webs between partners. They shaped opportunities together, passing value back and forth amongst themselves. This paper offers fundamental observations on how opportunity creation and discovery is distributed among a community of entrepreneurs as a business ecosystem grows.     

Evaluating foreign market entry mode theories from a hotel industry perspective

This is a qualitative examination of the theories of new institutional economics (NIE) in the context of choosing between franchising and management contracts in the international hotel industry. In-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with eight high-level hotel executives. The primary objective of this study is to empirically examine which of the predominant theories of NIE are the most appropriate for examining the specific choice between franchising and management contracts when internationalising a hotel or hotel chain. Transaction cost economics and the resource-based view emerged as the most appropriate theories, according to the executives interviewed. Moreover, several other important considerations were suggested by the respondents, including the size of the organisation, the importance of intangible assets and the level of investment into these assets. Finally, host country factors, such as legal and political risk, as well as the availability of capable local partners, were suggested as important considerations.     

The U.S. listing gap

Relative to other countries, the U.S. now has abnormally few listed firms. This “U.S. listing gap” is consistent with a decrease in the net benefit of a listing for U.S. firms. Since the listing peak in 1996, the propensity to be listed is lower for all firm size categories and industries, the new list rate is low, and the delist rate is high. The high delist rate accounts for 46% of the listing gap and the low new list rate for 54%. The high delist rate is explained by an unusually high rate of acquisitions of publicly listed firms.     

Agglomeration,city size and crime

This paper analyzes the relationship between crime and agglomeration where the land, labor, product, and crime markets are endogenously determined. Our main theoretical findings are the following: (i) better accessibility to jobs decreases crime in the short run but may increase crime in the long run; (ii) the per-capita crime rate increases with city size; (iii) when allowing for endogenous policing, lower commuting costs make the impact of police on crime more efficient.