Self-Selection and Optimal Nonlinear Effluent Charges

This paper proposes an optimal nonlinear effluent-charge system forenvironmental pollution control. This system achieves the first-bestoptimum through a self-selecting mechanism under asymmetric information.The proposed system can also control the level of revenues so as to reducethe excess burden of environmental taxation, and discriminate among thepolluters. The paper also compares this system with the conventional lineareffluent-charge system and discusses some economic implications ofimplementing the system.     

基于信息共享的供应链定价策略及利润增值研究

基于单一制造商和单一零售商构成的供应链系统,在非线性市场需求的前提下,应用博弈理论对供应链系统的定价策略进行了分析,分别得出信息共享时的博弈均衡解和信息不共享时的博弈均衡解;进一步分析了信息共享程度的大小与批发价、零售价以及双方利润之间的关系,得出信息共享程度越高,制造商和零售商的利润越大,信息共享实现了帕累托改进。最后,通过实例对结论进行了验证。     

Nonlinearities in CDS-Bond Basis

Theoretically, the risk premium captured by credit default swap (CDS) and bond yield spreads should be equal. However, data reveals a significant difference between the two spreads. The authors explore the presence of mean-reverting behavior in this difference (CDS-bond basis) in selected emerging markets, employing alternative threshold models (TAR, TAR-GARCH, and ESTAR). Their results indicate a positive relationship between the speed of adjustment and the trading frequency of sovereign CDSs and bonds.     

NO MARGINAL ARBITRAGE OF THE SECOND KIND FOR HIGH PRODUCTION REGIMES IN DISCRETE TIME PRODUCTION–INVESTMENT MODELS WITH PROPORTIONAL TRANSACTION COSTS

We consider a class of production–investment models in discrete time with proportional transaction costs. For linear production functions, we study a natural extension of the no‐arbitrage of the second kind condition introduced by Rásonyi. We show that this condition implies the closedness of the set of attainable claims and is equivalent to the existence of a strictly consistent price system under which the evaluation of future production profits is strictly negative. This allows us to discuss the closedness of the set of terminal wealth in models with nonlinear production, functions which may admit arbitrages of the second kind for low production regimes but not marginally for high production regimes.     

A two-dimensional model of trust–value–loyalty in service relationships

The study examines the relationships between consumer trust (cognitive and affective), perceived value (utilitarian and hedonic), and loyalty behavioral intentions (repurchase and advocacy) in a two-dimensional (affect- and rational-based) consumer–service provider model. It provides an alternative theoretical representation of consumer behavior in service relationships and implications for service providers about consumers' loyalty intentions. A mail survey analyzed by SEM supports the model of loyalty as a function of consumers' expressive and instrumental responses resulting from intrinsic and extrinsic perceptions of trust and heuristic and rational-based perceived value. Implications for designing loyalty programs are explored and future research opportunities recommended.     

The service triad: modelling dialectic tensions in service encounters

Models of service encounters are often fraught with reductionism, describing business relationships as mathematical combinations of dyadic constellations. Metaphors of ideal social relationships (marriages or friendships) are highlighted to stress normative aspects of equal, balanced and long-term business partnerships. However, these approaches are limited in their analytical sensitivity, as they cannot address the complexity of multipart relationships, where meanings, roles and relationships are continuously constructed and reconstructed. In order to understand the ambivalent quality of business interactions, this article analyses the corporate travel market by applying Simmel's depiction of the triad as a specific social form. Triadic constellations and more complex service networks involve dialectic tensions, simultaneously exhibiting loyalty and disloyalty, trust and distrust, empowerment and disempowerment. It is argued that a qualitative methodology is a more adequate approach to grasp such dynamic and contextual social realities, because (opposed to a quantitative approach) it is not confined to operate with mutually exclusive analytical categories.     

Customer Involvement in Product Development: An Industrial Network Perspective

Purpose: In business markets, working with customers and users has become increasingly important to get knowledge about customer needs and to develop new products. The purpose of this article is twofold: (1) to develop a framework for analyzing customer involvement in product development in a business market context, and (2) to apply this framework to a particular company to describe and analyze how it practices customer involvement.

Methodology/approach: The article takes its main theoretical starting point in the industrial network approach, but also uses other literature from the innovation and product development field. The empirical study applies a qualitative case study approach and focuses on one company in the truck business.

Findings: The suggested framework deals with four key aspects of customer involvement: Why, when, how, and who. The observed pattern of the truck manufacturer shows how dealers, hauliers, and truck drivers are all part of the overall understanding of the customer. These actors are involved for different, typically very clear, purposes at different points in time through surveys, product clinics, and field testing. The pattern, referred to as mixed facilitative, is not one of close collaboration with individual customers, but one of broad involvement of several customers through business intelligence and direct involvement.

Research implications: First, the article provides researchers with a framework and method for studying customer involvement in product development. Second, the case study provides an illustrative example of the customer involvement pattern pursued by a leading company in a major industry. This enhances the understanding of the focal phenomenon, leads to managerial implications, and gives ideas for future research.

Practical implications: There are several managerial implications related to the why, when, how, and who questions. For example, it is pointed out that managers should consider involving customers more extensively than what seems to be common today—for example, by using customers as codevelopers, working with them throughout the entire development process (i.e., not only early and late), and including different types of users (with different requirements and wishes).

Originality/value/contribution of the article: The contribution lies in the development of a framework centered on the four key questions of customer involvement in

product development and using this framework for observing a pattern, and finding explanations and relating this pattern to how other firms are doing.     

Correspondence Analysis

No abstract available for this article.     

The Nurturing of Relationships in Commercial and Retail Banking

ABSTRACT

The objective of this paper is to develop a better understanding of the factors associated with nurturing relationships between relationship managers and their clients in the banking industry. The Nominal Group Technique and a content analytical approach were both used to respectively collect and interpret the data. Results found the nurturing of relationships to be endogenous and asymmetrical in nature. The consequence is a personal, individualistic process maintained on behalf of the bank. The complexity associated with managing commercial portfolios requires commercial account managers to be more involved with their clients in the nurturing process than retail branch managers.     

Transactional and Value Creational Sources of Dependence

ABSTRACT

This paper critically reviews the nature and the role of the dependence construct in buyer-seller relationships. A distinction is made between transactional sources and value creational sources of dependence, and five different variables: goals, exchange partner actions mediating goals, motivational investments in goals, the availability of alternative exchange partners and switching costs are found to account for what we refer to as “dependence.” The proposed framework adds potential clarity to discussions and disagreements regarding the dependence concept in buyer-seller relationships by providing a unifying frame of reference that permits us to compare the insights generated by different theories. One important implication is that contradictory recommendations of different governance theories are not contradictory after all since they consider different dependence situations. Accordingly, governance choices should be based on assessments of how firms depend on each other, and not only on assessments of how high this dependence is.