What's next in key account management research? Building the bridge between the academic literature and the practitioners' priorities

This research contrasts the academic literature on key account management (KAM) with the topics in this subject that are most critical to practitioners. Sixty four academic articles published in 17 journals, and ninety practitioners' articles appearing in the Velocity Magazine — published by the Strategic Account Management Association — were content analyzed and classified under ten ‘topic’ categories. Similarities and differences in the results for academics and practitioners are discussed. In addition, two specific topics were identified as being extremely important to managers but still under-researched by academics: the role of senior management in KAM, and the importance of internal alignment in determining KAM success.     

Is cognitive bias really present in analyst forecasts? The role of investor sentiment

This paper analyses four key markets within the European context. In this context, where the level of analyst coverage is lower than in the US setting, we aim to ascertain whether the origin of optimism in analyst forecasts in these markets is mainly strategic or whether it also contains an element of cognitive bias. Despite the fact that forecast errors lack the explanatory power to account for a significant percentage of the relationship between market sentiment and future stock returns, our new tests based on selection bias (SB1 and SB2), in conjunction with an analysis of abnormal trading volume, confirm the presence of both cognitive bias and strategic behaviour in analyst forecasts. This shows that, although regulation can reduce analyst optimism bias, the benefits are constrained by the fact that optimism bias is partly associated with cognitive bias.     

Impact of growth strategy on mode of governance in alliances

The aim of this study is to analyse the way in which growth strategies influence the choice of governance mode in corporate alliances. Specifically, the study looks at how expansion, diversification and internationalisation strategies determine choice of joint ventures rather than other types of alliances. To that end, we analysed a sample of 918 alliances among companies from the European Union-15 between 2000 and 2004. The results suggest that companies prefer to set up joint ventures when their strategies are based on expansion and related diversification, whereas they prefer other types of alliances when they follow a strategy of unrelated diversification. Furthermore, in international alliances, it appears that the impact of growth strategy on alliance governance mode is similar for the entire range of companies employed in the sample.     

Macroforces driving change into the new millennium — major challenges for the hospitality professional

The fast pace of change will present many challenges in the new millennium. The success of the leader of tomorrow will depend on how well he or she is able to identify the forces that will drive change, invest in industry leading competitive methods that will take advantage of the opportunities presented by these forces and consistently allocate resources to these methods. Identifying the forces driving change is the most challenging aspect of this co-alignment concept. This paper explores the macroforces, which can be expected to drive change, and possible impact they will have on the hospitality organization. These forces include: globalization and economic change, a knowledge-based environment, the future of labor and quality in service delivery systems, and the growing consumer desire for improved well-being. These forces are presented along with the key variables making them up with the goal of understanding their complexities and interdependencies.     

境外战略投资者持股比例对中国商业银行绩效影响研究

本文选取28家国内银行1995-2008年的面板数据,研究引入境外战略投资者持股比例对我国银行盈利能力、资产质量、稳定性、资产配置能力、创新能力、公司治理等经营层面的影响。研究结果显示,境外战略投资者的持股比例提高有助于提升银行贷款质量和改善公司治理,但境外战略投资者持股比例对银行盈利能力、稳定性、资产配置能力、创新能力影响并不显著。境外战略投资者持股比例对不良贷款率和存贷比的影响呈U型,该比例在达到一定水平(拐点)后会增加银行的贷款投放,而在增加银行贷款投放的同时不良贷款率也会增加。     

The hidden value of air transportation infrastructure

Air transportation is a key strategic asset in that it provides access to markets and thereby enables the economic development of nations. Thus, in order to maintain their competitiveness in a global economy, countries must invest in air transportation infrastructure to ensure their ability to meet current and future demand for aviation services. The objective of this paper is to develop and illustrate a methodology for evaluating the strategic value of air transportation infrastructure, in particular the benefits associated with the ability to react quickly to changes in the market. The hypothesis is that by recognizing and taking advantage of this strategic value, it may be possible to design better policies for aviation infrastructure delivery.The methodology developed here uses system dynamics to model different strategies for infrastructure delivery. These strategies are defined by three variables: the amount of capacity increase, the time to deliver the capacity and the congestion threshold that triggers the need for capacity delivery. Monte Carlo simulation is used to take into account multiple sources of uncertainty. The model shows that a strategy of capacity delivery based on small increments and short response times can yield more benefits than strategies that consider large capacity increases and long response times. Furthermore, in the specific airport example considered here, it was found that a congestion threshold of 75% should be the trigger for capacity enlargements if strategies based on small capacity increments and 1 or 5 years to increase capacity are considered. The lesson for decision-makers is that congestion delays must be addressed with foresight.     

战略性新兴产业培育与发展的金融支持

金融是现代经济的核心,是引导经济资源配置的重要动力机制。"十二五"期间,培育和发展战略性新兴产业已成为我国经济社会发展的重要战略目标,而金融体系在培育和发展战略性新兴产业过程中具有核心的支持作用。文章提出了战略性新兴产业演进的金融支持过程及体系,在此基础上,以上海为例,设计了战略性新兴产业培育与发展的金融支持政策。     

An optimization approach to strategic sourcing: A case study of the United States Air Force

The DoD annually procures billions of dollars worth of systems, supplies, and services in support of the national military strategy. Faced with budget cuts and other resource constraints, the DoD must transform its procurement process to ensure cost-effective sourcing of critical supplies and services. One aspect of current transformation in the DoD is the use of a strategic sourcing approach for the procurement of services at military installations. Using the Air Force's strategic sourcing process as our context, we developed an optimization model for selecting a set of proposals from among multiple offerors for services to be performed at multiple installations. The selection achieves the most favorable objective by balancing the confidence level in an offeror's past performance with the cost of services to the Air Force. The research findings, which are based on a realistic scenario, demonstrate improvements over the current sourcing process in both overall performance and cost.     

Strategic behavior in financial markets

We describe a financial market as a noncooperative game in strategic form. Agents may borrow or deposit money at a central bank and use the cash available to them in order to purchase a commodity for immediate consumption. They derive positive utility from consumption and from having cash reserves at the end of the day, whereas being bankrupt entails negative utility. The bank fixes interest rates. The existence of Nash equilibria (both mixed and pure) of the ensuing game is proved under various assumptions. In particular, no agent is bankrupt at equilibrium. Asymptotic behavior of replica markets is discussed, and it is shown that given appropriate assumptions, the difference between a strategic player and a price taker is negligible in a large economy.     

焦点企业知识存量对联盟组合分裂断层的影响：知识转移效率的中介作用

运用断层理论,从知识获取和关系治理角度,分析焦点企业知识存量如何影响联盟组合分裂断层及分裂断层形成机理。基于焦点企业知识存量、分裂断层、知识转移效率、情景嵌入性之间的关系理论模型框架,认为焦点企业知识存量能够影响联盟组合分裂断层,其中,知识转移效率在这一过程中发挥中介效应,情景嵌入性发挥调节效应。结果发现：焦点企业知识存量与分裂断层之间存在显著负相关关系;知识转移效率能够部分中介焦点企业知识存量与分裂断层之间的关系;情景嵌入性能够正向调节焦点企业知识存量与知识转移效率之间的关系。