CATALOG RETAILER IN‐STOCK PERFORMANCE: AN ASSESSMENT OF CUSTOMER SERVICE LEVELS

The purpose of this article is to study the level of “in‐stock” customer service performance being offered in the catalog channel of distribution. The article provides benchmark information for the catalog industry. More importantly, the article serves as one test of the effectiveness of the modern supply chain, where the expectation is for near perfect orders. Customer service levels are studied by using an empirical observation methodology in which catalog retailer's in‐stock performance was measured. Comparisons are made across item type, season, retailer type, and days from catalog receipt. Overall, items were out‐of‐stock during 15.9% of all checkpoints, compared to an 11.8% stock‐out rate in an earlier study of bricks and mortar retailers.     

The Economics of Exchange‐Rate Regimes: A Review Essay

The exchange‐rate regime issue has taken centre‐stage in discussions of international economic policy. Much of the profession appears to have been converted to ‘the hypothesis of the vanishing middle regime’; for countries well‐integrated into world capital markets, there is little, if any, middle ground between floating exchange rates and monetary unification. This paper considers the exchange‐rate‐regime issue in the context of recent books on the subject by W. Max Corden and Morris Goldstein. Both authors prescribe managed floating exchange rates, supplemented with inflation targeting, for emerging‐market economies. Under managed floating, and with a credible monetary policy, the public finances in order, and strengthened debt management and prudential regulation, the exchange rate is free to act as a market gauge for assessing policies and as a mode of conflict resolution. Both authors also argue, however, that no exchange‐rate regime is a Holy Grail. Ultimately, a credible exchange‐rate regime depends upon the trust evoked by governments. There is no exchange‐rate regime, whether of the managed‐floating or hard‐fix variety, that can eradicate a history of failed stabilisation attempts.     

Business Ethics in the Former Soviet Union: A Report

Transition from a planned command economy to a market economy means tearing down a socio-economic setting where everybody follows orders and nobody bears individual responsibility for anything. The absence of personal responsibility does not promote ethical behavior in any walk of life. Today, the malnourished business ethics in the former Soviet Union creates a critical obstacle to economic development. The paucity of new official rules governing the conduct of business makes the transition process painful and difficult to people habituated to numberless rules and regulations. The first part of this paper surveys the most visible unethical business practices that have been reported by the Western media and those that are causing the largest number of complaints by the local governments and businessmen. The second part of the paper looks at ethical problems that have been under-reported.     

Strategies for sales force management

Far too few companies with a personal selling force utilize a scientific framework to aid in solving their tactical selling problems. While this approach is used somewhat in other functional areas of the business, personal selling is by-passed. The purpose of this article is to investigate the major decision-making areas a sales manager must act upon and to provide tools to enable him to make rational decisions through the framework of models. Hopefully, the following models will provide the sales manager with more effectiveness in 1) dealing with sales force problems, and 2) attainment of the company's sales objectives. At the very least, exposure to this framework will motivate the sales manager and salesmen to think of the various factors and their functional relationship as they affect the selling effort of the company.     

Global Strategy in the Internet Era

This article examines the joint effects on business strategy of the Internet and globalization. It develops a framework for evaluating how the Internet affects the globalization potential of individual industries and the global strategies that companies should adopt. The impact of the Internet will not be uniform. Not only do its direct effects vary from one industry to another, but also it speeds up globalization at different rates in different industries. The article shows how to use the Internet to support five types of global strategy: market participation, products and services, activity location, marketing, and competitive moves.     

Limited paternalism and the salesperson: A reconsideration

Any paternalistic obligation a salesperson might have toward a client isnot, as was previously argued, determined or grounded in his/her being in a position of superior knowledge. Rather, the obligation stems first and most basically from the principle of non-maleficence. Beyond that, however, the particulars of any such obligation: who is vulnerable to being harmed, the harm(s) that might occur and even the kinds of actions that can reasonably be taken to protect a client from such harm, all flow from the fact that the salesperson-client relationship is fundamentally one of dependency and trust.Various reasons are given to support this view and to indicate both the comprehensiveness and the fruitfulness of this way of perceiving the sales situation. In particular, the argument rules out of consideration what would, on analysis, be self-defeating or contradictory behavior on the part of the client and it helps explain why a salesperson is not obligated to certain behaviors.George Brockway combines two quite distinct tracks in his background: the academic and business. On the academic side, he has a Ph.D. in Philosophy as well as two masters degrees. His emphasis within Philosophy was in applied ethics. Subsequent to earning his degree, Dr. Brockway held teaching positions at both the University of Richmond and the University of Wisconsin. More recently, Dr. Brockway was the co-owner and operating manager of a medium sized financial consulting firm in the U.S., where the emphasis was on planning for individual client goals, investment analysis and implementation. Currently, Dr. Brockway is on sabbatical in Europe, taking the time to reflect back on and combine these two tracks by teaching and writing in the area of business ethics. Prior publications include articles inThe Hastings Center Report and theFinancial Planning Magazine. Dr. Brockway was recently quoted inNewsweek Magazine on an area of investment analysis.