Technology changes market boundaries

In the future, the microelectronics driven coalescence of product features and the blurring of market boundaries will lead to growing competition from products and technologies outside the firm's traditional realm of competitors. Further, this “Blindside Competition” can be expected to grow both in scope and impact during the 1980s. Nonetheless, firms which are able to identify the nature of blindside threats can reposition themselves to exploit the ever growing array of market opportunities created by technology. In this article, we identify the forces of microelectronics which are driving blindside competition, and suggest that as a result, adjustments in market orientation will be required.     

Code of ethics: The professional catch 22

In October of 1981, a jury in Ohio found an accountant guilty of negligence and breach of contract for violating the obligation of confidentiality mandated in the accountant's code of ethics and awarded the plaintiffs approximately $1,000,000. At approximately the same time, a jury in New York awarded a plaintiff in excess of $80,000,000 based in part on the failure of an accountant to disclose confidential information.     

Do brand names differentiate identical industrial products?

Many industrial marketing companies manufacture goods that are intrinsically identical to goods made by their competitors. When faced with this problem, an increasing number of companies attempt to use branding at the ultimate consumer level to pull their product through intermediate manufacturers and distribution channels. This paper analyses the validity of this strategy by looking at the U.K. man-made fibre market, where it has been used extensively. The conclusions are that branding alone is unlikely to be of value in the market. This hypothesis is supported by the results of a survey of industrial experts and consumers. It is suggested that the key to controlling the market in question is branding with rigid control of product end use.     

The growth of knowledge: Testing a theory of scientific revolutions with a formal model

Modern theories of science emphasize scientific revolutions rather than the traditional cumulative view of scientific progress. Thomas Kuhn, in particular, has formulated a theory of science based on the lifecycle of paradigms. Though Kuhn's theory is attractive, no calculus is offered by which the theory can be tested. This study tests the dynamic consistency of Kuhn's theory by formalizing the theory and testing it with a computer simulation model. The model plays the roles of the actors, tracing out the consequences of their day-to-day actions. Sensitivity tests are used to explore the importance of various hypotheses. Results show the theory to be dynamically consistent: The lifecycle of paradigms described by Kuhn can be accounted for by Kuhn's theory. Kuhn's theory thus passes a test to which few other theories of science have been subjected. The study shows how modeling can provide a method for testing theories even when those theories are stated entirely in qualitative terms, at a high level of abstraction, and in a context divorced from explicit dynamic analysis.     

Statistics and the Wealth of Nations

The relationship of statistics and national prosperity is not a simple causal one, but some historical examples suggest a persistent association. A number of examples are considered, from the political arithmetic of the seventeenth century to the quality assurance methods of the 1950s, and a few speculative conclusions are offered.     

罗尔斯公共理性所彰显的公民精神

罗尔斯公共理性是民主国家的政治理想,是公民的政治理性。罗尔斯公共理性所孕育的公民精神是极具理想性和批判性的公民精神,是为公平正义的社会理想进行谋划的公民精神。     

Governmental Control of Externalities,or the Prey Eats the Predator

This paper argues that Gunnar Myrdal's theory of the state fruitfully elucidates which set of factors contributed to the transformation of the Welfare State into what James K. Galbraith has described as the modern Predator State. Myrdal employs the circular cumulative causation hypothesis (Berger forthcoming; 2008; Berger and Eisner 2007) to explain the evolution of the state as the result of multiple interrelated factors. Myrdal's evolutionary-institutional analysis of the state is found to be compatible with Galbraith's (2008) recent Veblenian approach in that it highlights the role of corruption (pecuniary considerations) in the relationship between big business (the "organized sector") and government.     

Consumer power and market control: Exploring consumer behaviour in affluent contexts (1946–1980)

Abstract

The aim of this essay is to present and explain the emergence and decay of two unorthodox views of consumer behaviour that developed from the mid-1940s to the mid-1970s: the view of the powerful consumer and the view of market control by producers. It begins by presenting their common origins in empirical studies that opposed the Keynesian-type analysis of consumption. While the first developed into the program of behavioural economics defended by George Katona of the Michigan Survey Research Center, the second nourished the contributions of authors like Galbraith (1958, 1967, 1977), Scitovsky (1954, 1962, 1976) and Mishan (1960, 1967).     

The Role of the Proximate Principle in the Emergence of Urban Parks in the United Kingdom and in the United States

Abstract

Residences located close to urban parks frequently sell at a premium. The increased home values represent a ‘capitalization’ of a park’s value to proximate homeowners and this phenomenon has been termed ‘the proximate principle’. The evolution of the principle from squares and gardens in small private estates to large park areas occurred with the development of Regent’s Park in London. The proximate principle’s dissemination into the new industrial cities of the UK first emerged at Prince’s Park in Liverpool, but it was still confined to private developments. Its transition into the public sector occurred with the development of Birkenhead Park. The data showing that Birkenhead Park was potentially a self‐financing venture funded by the enhanced value of proximate profits were widely disseminated and provided the financial rationale for many subsequent urban parks in other UK cities. This principle was absorbed by Frederick Law Olmsted on two early visits to Birkenhead Park and incorporated into the design of Central Park in New York City, the first large urban park in the US. Olmsted meticulously documented the impact of Central Park on adjacent property values and demonstrated that the park made a ‘profit’. These data were crucial in verifying the legitimacy of the proximate principle and in providing the justification for large urban parks in a host of other US cities. Although these data are naïve when viewed through the lens of modern social science, recent studies using sophisticated techniques have confirmed the fundamental legitimacy of the proximate principle.     

Public sector use of the Delphi technique

The Delphi Technique is gaining extensive use as a multipurpose tool by government planners and policy makers. This paper begins by briefly discussing the historical development of Delphi and some of its advantages and disadvantages. A considerable number of Delphis conducted in the public sector for the purposes of forecasting, communication, budgeting, and goal setting are then reviewed. Additionally, three prior reviews of Delphi use in the field of education are discussed. In reviewing these studies every attempt was made to detail the research intentions, special features and modifications, cautions, and benefits of each study. These characteristics are provided in tabular form in the summary section as a ready reference for the potential Delphi user. It is recommended that one should take full advantage of what has been learned from earlier research before undertaking a new Delphi.