Entrepreneurial branding: measuring consumer preferences through choice-based conjoint analysis

Start-ups face branding challenges. Not only are they confronted with the task of building brands from scratch, their newness also leads to a particularly high amount of customer uncertainty. This paper contributes to the emerging field of entrepreneurial branding by investigating start-up characteristics that signal trustworthy information to potential customers. An extended choice-based conjoint approach for modeling brand equity is used to explore the impact of different signals as initiated by established and new firms in the field of tablet computers. An empirical study reveals brand signals that have significant effects on purchase probabilities and are appropriate to overcome information asymmetries between start-ups and prospective customers.     

The logo matters: the effect of the logo type on the attitude towards co-products

ABSTRACT

This study investigates the effect of the type of logo used to promote co-products. In the case of an added logo, the logos of the constituent brands are lined up next to each other. An integrative logo is composed of the elements of both original brand logos. A novel logo does not contain any elements of the original brand logos. We found that the use of an integrative logo results in more favourable perceptions of brand cooperation, higher perceptions of co-product quality, more positive feelings and a more favourable attitude towards the co-product compared to the use of an added or novel logo. For a novel logo of co-products, consumers reported feelings of irritation and frustration and a less favourable attitude compared to an added logo.     

The different roles of product originality and usefulness in generating word-of-mouth

This paper explores how the dimensions of new products, specifically, the originality and usefulness of the products, influence word-of-mouth (WOM). In four studies, using lab and field setups, we find that originality and usefulness have different effects on WOM. We show that consumers spread more WOM about original products, but the valence of what they say depends on the usefulness of the product. Therefore, originality enhances the effect of usefulness such that consumers spread relatively more and more positively valenced WOM about original and useful products compared to less original but equally useful products. Conversely, consumers spread more and more negatively valenced WOM about original products that are not useful compared to less original products with the same level of low usefulness. The results indicate that product originality should be managed carefully when developing and positioning new products. Although originality increases buzz, it might lead to negatively valenced WOM when the usefulness of the product is perceived to be low.     

Multilevel marketing: optimizing marketing effectiveness for high-involvement goods in the automotive industry

International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal - With a surge in communication channels increasing the complexity of today’s media landscape, companies face new challenges concerning...     

Peking raises the statistical veil

The veil which hid the statistical records of the People’s Republic of China for two decades was raised at the second session of the Vth National People’s Congress. In the following article Prof. Kraus presents the most important official data on the country’s economic development and considers them in context with hitherto available western estimates.     

A cross-national comparison and taxonomy of DEA-based hospital efficiency studies

This paper provides the first taxonomy of hospital efficiency studies that uses data envelopment analysis (DEA) and related techniques. We provide a systematic review of 79 such studies published from 1984–2004 that represent 12 countries. Only studies written in English are considered. A cross-national comparison reveals significant differences with respect to important study characteristics such as type of DEA model selected and choice of input and output categories. Compared with US studies, European efforts are more likely to measure allocative rather than technical efficiency, use longitudinal data, and use fewer observations. We take a longitudinal perspective that illustrates the life cycle of this research, as well as its diffusion across disciplines. Our taxonomy can be used by policy makers and researchers to review past, and assemble new, DEA models.     

The effect of working time preferences and fair wage perceptions on entrepreneurial intentions among employees

To date, little is known about how working time preferences and fair wage perceptions affect employees’ entrepreneurial intentions. Using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study, we provide first evidence that the difference between the actual and desired amount of working hours in paid employment is positively related to the propensity to switch to self-employment. Furthermore, our analysis supports the hypothesis that employees who perceive their current wage level as very unfair are more likely to have higher entrepreneurial intentions. However, the closer actual wages get to the wage levels perceived as fair, the more employees are likely to remain in their current employment situation. We also tested the interaction effect of working time preferences and fair wage perceptions. In line with our theoretical considerations, we find that employees who perceive their wages as unfair and, simultaneously, prefer different work hours have the strongest entrepreneurial intentions.     

Power and Size of Firms as Reflected in Cleaning Subcontractors’ Practices of Social Responsibility

Recent discussions in the area of corporate social responsibility suggest that organizational size has complex meanings and thus requires more scholarly attention. This article explores organizational size in the context of relative power in inter-organizational networks. To shed light on the ways relative power interacts with size we studied social responsibility practices among cleaning subcontractors in three firms of different sizes. Our focus on the network differentiates these firms on the basis of their size and sector. Semi-structured interviews were used to trace cleaning subcontractors’ CSR-related practices. We analyzed subjective reports and discursive practices involved in subcontractors’ self-presentations. While the economic and philanthropic dimensions of social responsibility were presented by the cleaning subcontractors as independent of network constraints, the findings show that the legal and ethical dimensions were subject to large client–firm pressures. What we learn from our data is that the four dimensions of Carroll’s model, the economic, legal, ethical, and philanthropic, should all develop from and be evaluated against a fifth root dimension of inter-personal commitment.     

Heterogeneous beliefs and the effect of replicatable options on asset prices

We present two ways in which trading in a replicatable optioncan affect the price process of the underlying asset. In thefirst situation, trading an option that each investor viewsas pay off redundant breaks a non-fully revealing equilibriumthat exists when the option market is absent. The second situationinvolves a market that is dynamically complete without options,but in which introducing an option market allows self-confirmingconjectures of additional uncertainty about the future priceof the underlying asset. Heterogeneous beliefs play importantthough different roles in both situations.     

Land use in a circular city

This paper is concerned with optimal allocation of urban land to transportation. It attempts to extend the work of Solow and Vickrey, who posed this problem in an operationally one-dimensional long narrow city, to a two-dimensional circular city with a network of radial and circumferential roads. An interesting new problem arises, namely that travelers now have a choice of routes. Rules for optimal resource allocation are developed and analyzed. Assuming travel costs to be a strictly convex function of traffic density, it is shown that there is no travel through the center of an optimal city.