Inference on vertical contracts between manufacturers and retailers allowing for nonlinear pricing and resale price maintenance

We present a model of vertical contracts between manufacturers and retailers with nonlinear pricing strategies. Using home‐scan data on bottled water produced by manufacturers and sold by retail chains in France, we estimate a structural demand and supply model allowing for two‐part tariff contracts between manufacturers and retailers. Using price‐cost margins recovered from estimates of demand parameters, we select the best supply model by performing nonnested tests, and find that manufacturers use two‐part tariff contracts with resale price maintenance. We then perform counterfactual policy simulations that restrict the use of these vertical contracts and assess welfare effects under alternative scenarios.     

Strategy convergence

In fast-changing industries like communications, having the right strategy is critical to success. Didier Bonnet and George Yip explain why business models and strategic planning must converge into strategic formulation.     

Nature of the R&D/Marketing co-operation in the design of technologically advanced new industrial products

Many studies have consistently reported that success in industrial new product innovation is linked with the degree of interfacing between R&D and Marketing in the early stages of the product development process. However, very little evidence of such an interface has been reported in advanced technology firms and the relevant literature provides little empirical material on the matter.
Based on a pilot study of 23 new product projects in ten firms in the U.K. it is argued that, in many instances, firms are missing a fundamental issue in the R&D/Marketing cooperation. Too often, the interface is limited to the identification of general market need for a particular new product idea.
The paper emphasises the fact that the interface should provide the means for an efficient product design procedure between R&D and Marketing. This design link should, in turn, profit both the engineering design of the product and its future marketability. The paper also outlines the advantages and the problems inherent in the exercise and proposes a framework for implementation.     

The aftermath of France's last moral panic and its sociology

Stéphane Beaud and Michel Pialoux Violences urbaines, violence sociale. Genèse des nouvelles classes dangereuses Robert Castel L'insécurité sociale. Qu'est‐ce qu'être protégé? David Garland The culture of control. Crime and social order in contemporary society Hugues Lagrange Demandes de sécurité. France, Europe, Etats‐Unis     

The effect of widowhood on housing and location choices

The number of elderly persons living alone is increasing and their influence on the housing market is getting larger. This paper investigates the effect of the loss of a spouse on housing and location choices. A partner’s death induces a decrease in income which may lead to downsizing. Widowhood may also reveal new preferences, such as the need to be close to care givers and health services. We estimate the effect of a transition to widowhood on housing consumption and location choices using the French Housing Surveys. Widowhood significantly increases residential mobility, especially at older ages and for those who have children. Mobile widows tend to live closer to their relatives but do not move to co-reside with a child. Housing and location adjustments are consistent with new widows moving to dwellings that are smaller, more often apartments and in the rental sector, and on average located in larger municipalities where services are more accessible. The housing demand of widows will be significant in the next 20 years, especially the demand for small dwellings.     

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms and academic entrepreneurial preference: is there an association?

Small Business Economics - Although commercialization of research activities has drawn some research attention, more studies are warranted to clearly understand the drivers behind academic...     

An Explanation of the Life Span of New French Firms

In contrast to previous studies on firm survival which tend to focus on features related to the structure of the firms and their area of activity, our aim here is to widen the perspective usually adopted in the field, taking into account a larger and more qualitative set of variables. Among these variables, features related to the individual characteristics of the entrepreneur, to the context of entrepreneurship and to the insertion in entrepreneurial networks are significant to explain the life span of new firms. The empirical material is drawn from two surveys, which provide detailed data about a group of new firms created in France in 1994 and closed down before 1997 or still running in 1997. Our empirical approach on qualitative data is based on data analysis methods (linear discriminant analysis, barycentric discriminant analysis, analysis of variance). According to the characteristics of the entrepreneur, the main explanatory factors for the survival of new firms are the fact that they are entrepreneurs who have taken over firms, that they have acquired during their previous occupational activity an experience in the same branch of activity and that they experience a successful integration into the entrepreneurial networks. These three factors show that the survival of young firms is indirectly conditioned by the existence of an initial custom, by the mastery of a job and by the know-how in the entrepreneurial function.