The evolution of Coca-Cola Australia’s soft drink reformulation strategy 2003–2017: A thematic analysis of corporate documents

Governments around the world are pressuring the soft drink industry to reformulate sugary drinks, in particular through taxes on sugar content or front-of-pack labels identifying products high in sugar. Even in countries with no sugary drink tax, such as Australia, the soft drink industry has a reformulation policy. While reformulation is often framed as a “win-win” solution for business and public health, many public health experts consider it to be a political strategy to improve corporate reputations and minimise the threat of regulation. We use a case study of Australia’s largest soft drink company, Coca-Cola Australia, to examine the evolution of corporate reformulation policies. We analysed a dataset of 144 corporate documents published between 2003 and 2017 to analyse how Coca-Cola’s policies changed and how it described and justified its reformulation initiatives. Between 2003 and 2017, Coca-Cola Australia shifted its reformulation strategy from “offering choice” to “systematic” sugar reformulation. It also presented two predominant rationales for reformulation: that it would grow its business and that it was “part of the solution” to obesity. We discuss these findings in relation to market and regulatory challenges facing the soft drink industry globally, including the spread of sugary drink taxes as well as consumer rejection of artificial sweeteners. This paper examines how a regional branch of the world’s largest soft drink company is adapting to pressures to reduce the sugar in its products as well as the tensions and barriers it faces in negotiating different consumer and public health interpretations of healthy beverages.     

The effect of air traffic delays on airline prices

A legislative change in takeoff and landing restrictions at LaGuardia Airport provides an opportunity to study the effect of an exogenous shock to product quality on prices in the airline industry. I test how the price response varies with the degree of competition in the market. I find that prices fall by $1.42 on average for each additional minute of flight delay, and that the price response is substantially larger in more competitive markets.     

Specific customer knowledge and operational performance in apparel manufacturing

Customer knowledge is an important organizational asset that can be exploited to yield competitive advantage to a firm. However, empirical research on the application of customer knowledge to improve operational performance has been lacking in operations management. In this study we explore how customer knowledge can be used to improve operational performance under a supply chain environment in the clothing industry. We first conceptualize the relationship between customer knowledge and operational performance and delineate their attributes based on a review of the pertinent literature. We then formulate several hypotheses based on past studies and interviews with experienced industry personnel. We develop a self-reported questionnaire to collect data to test the hypotheses. Finally, we conduct a number of regression analyses to identify the key attributes (constructs) of customer knowledge that have a significant impact on operational performance. This paper contributes to research by demonstrating that there are relationships between specific customer knowledge and different facets of operational performance, and provides practitioners in clothing manufacturing with managerial insights on how to leverage customer knowledge for operational performance improvement.     

Are strategy-performance relationships contingent on macroeconomic environments? Evidence from Japan’s textile industry

This study examines the dynamic relationships between product and international diversification, keiretsu financing, and economic performance of the listed firms in Japan’s textile industry. Panel data analysis shows that the performance effects of those strategic factors are contingent on macroeconomic environments, rather than showing consistent relationships. The potentially positive or negative effects of particular diversification strategies and keiretsu financing are neutralized in the munificent environments, as exogenous macroeconomic factors overwhelm endogenous decision-making by the management. In the scarce setting, by contrast, it is those strategic factors that influence financial outcomes. Keiretsu financing moderates the relationship between international diversification strategy and profitability positively only during times of economic scarcity.

Quality certification vs. product traceability: Consumer preferences for informational attributes of pork in Georgia

Consumer willingness-to-pay for informational attributes of food products is important information for food producers and supply chain participants and policy makers. We examine consumer demand in the pork sector of the Republic of Georgia. Results of conditional and mixed logit estimation, conducted on choice experiment data, reveal that Georgian consumers treat quality certification and product traceability attributes as substitutes. We also find that producers and other supply chain participants should be concerned primarily with maintaining the appearance of pork products. Retailer specific factors such as location and type of outlet can also substitute for product traceability. Store location and product appearance, however, are complementary attributes. In light of the recent turbulence in Georgia these consideration may be of paramount importance as participants in the supply chain seek to rebuild damaged infrastructure.     

An empirical analysis of multivariate copula models

Since the pioneering work of Embrechts and co-authors in 1999, copula models have enjoyed steadily increasing popularity in finance. Whereas copulas are well studied in the bivariate case, the higher-dimensional case still offers several open issues and it is far from clear how to construct copulas which sufficiently capture the characteristics of financial returns. For this reason, elliptical copulas (i.e. Gaussian and Student-t copula) still dominate both empirical and practical applications. On the other hand, several attractive construction schemes have appeared in the recent literature promising flexible but still manageable dependence models. The aim of this work is to empirically investigate whether these models are really capable of outperforming its benchmark, i.e. the Student-t copula and, in addition, to compare the fit of these different copula classes among themselves.     

产品责任法的国际冲突及法律适用问题

随着国际交往的日益密切和国际贸易的不断发展．产品生产和销售日益国际化。由于各国产品责任法规定不一．全球化致使产品责任案件大量发生。文中从世界各国处理涉外产品责任问题的方法为依托,阐述了产品责任法的国际冲突及法律适用问题。     

Second wind for exploitation: Pursuing high degrees of product and process innovativeness in mature industries

This paper investigates to what extent and how an exploitation-oriented innovation logic can enable innovations characterised by a high degree of newness. The paper is based on an embedded case study of 11 innovation initiatives by the Swedish pulp and paper companies and uses a multi-dimensional framework that takes into account both product and process innovation dimensions as well as multiple stages in the value chain. The results show that the studied initiatives are characterised by new to the companies or new to the industry products and processes in the primary or final steps in the value chain (or both). It is also shown that such high degrees of novelty can be the result of an exploitation innovation logic, where novelty is enabled and facilitated by unchanged or slightly modified products and processes in other parts of the value chain. It can therefore be concluded that exploitation strategies can contribute to more than incremental innovation outcomes and, consequently, that mature industries hold considerably higher innovation potential than the previous literature assumes.     

Budgeting for research and development: a dynamic financial simulation approach

The research and development (R&D) budgeting decision is crucial for at least two reasons: if too much is spent, short-term financial stability is at risk, while, if the budget is too small, long-term competitiveness is threatened. Nevertheless, many enterprises simply extrapolate the past without further reflection.This paper presents a computer-based dynamic stochastic simulation model that allows one to assess the impact of alternative R&D budgeting policies on corporate development. The core decisions to be evaluated concern timing and funding of investments in R&D. Our approach substantially expands earlier work by Brockhoff (R&D Manage. 19 (1989) 265). In particular, it distinguishes between product and process innovation, considers market dynamics related to technical progress via a modifiable S-curve, integrates marketing, and takes into account essential financial aspects. As a result, our model is closer to reality than previous ones. A sample application with real company data illustrates its potential usage.     

中美产品特征对产业升级作用机制的比较研究

基于产品空间理论视角,选取1962-2013年中美出口贸易数据,从微观产品特征视角对比分析了中美两国产品特征对产业升级的作用机制。研究表明：产品特征在产业升级与发展过程中发挥双重作用机制,即产业升级与发展不仅取决于现有产品积累的要素禀赋,还受到产品本身技术复杂性的影响。在产业升级与发展过程中,中国主要依赖产品密度（DEN）,即依赖于既有产品积累的要素禀赋实现渐进式发展,很难实现跨越式发展,而美国在产业升级与发展过程中,产品密度（DEN）与产品技术复杂性（PCI）同时发挥了积极的双重作用并促进新竞争优势形成。进一步研究表明,密度（DEN）和产品复杂度指数（PCI）在不同产业升级过程中的作用机制存在差异。通过对比研究中国改革开放前后两个阶段发现,随着生产要素禀赋积累以及产品技术复杂性提高,产业升级的支撑作用增强,抑制作用减弱,但是引领作用不足。