The intellectual ecology of mainstream marketing research: an inquiry into the place of marketing in the family of business disciplines

Many inside mainstream academic marketing judge the discipline’s influence within the family of business disciplines (as well as in practice) to be in decline. Despite great research productivity, methodologies as sophisticated as any in the social sciences, and a large and rich literature, opinion and evidence suggest that academic marketing is the least influential of the mainstream academic business disciplines. Nevertheless, marketing’s decline is not inexorable. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate this perplexing situation by: (1) assembling and evaluating a number of expert opinions from within marketing; (2) exploring relations and patterns of influence among the leading academic journals in accounting, finance, management, and marketing and evaluating the position and influence of each field; (3) attempting to understand marketing’s problems; and (4) exploring avenues to move marketing back to its once prominent position among the business disciplines.     

Did the Federal Crop Insurance Reform Act Alter Farm Enterprise Diversification?

We estimate how much United States farms changed enterprise diversification in response to a marked increase in crop insurance coverage brought about by the 1994 Federal Crop Insurance Reform Act, which substantially increased insurance subsidies. The analysis exploits farm‐level panel census data to compare farm‐specific changes in enterprise diversification over time. By examining diversification decisions of the same farms over time, we control for time‐invariant unobserved individual heterogeneity. We then use pooled cross‐sectional data from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Agricultural Resource Management Survey to estimate the relationship between farm diversification and average returns. We find that the insurance subsidies caused a modest increase in enterprise specialisation and production efficiency. Estimated efficiency gains are far less than the subsidies.     

Teaching Managers to Respond Ethically to Organizational Crises: an inquiry into the case method

Many managers now routinely receive training in business ethics using the case method. However the efficacy of this training has not been studied. Organizational crises, in the form of cases which present managers with ethical dilemmas, are commonly used to illustrate principles in business ethics courses. As illustrated in the classroom, these organizational ethical crises often result in severe financial consequences for the organization involved such as litigation or bankruptcy. The present study assessed the potential of the case method for teaching managers to respond ethically to organizational crisis. The author also assessed the role of organizational and ideographic factors in determining which managers would choose to act. Managers who had received classroom training in ethical case analysis were compared to those who had not. The majority in both groups of managers chose to take action when confronted with ethical dilemmas. However, managers who had received ethical training were more likely to act in some ethical situations than managers who had not. The ethical culture of an organization and the gender of the managers was also found to influence managerial action in response to ethical dilemmas.     

Hamburg's Spaces of Danger: Race,Violence and Memory in a Contemporary Global City

Germany today is experiencing the strongest upsurge of right‐wing populism since the second world war, most notably with the rise of Pegida and Alternative für Deutschland. Yet wealthy global cities like Hamburg continue to present themselves as the gatekeepers of liberal progress and cosmopolitan openness. This article argues that Hamburg's urban boosterism relies on, while simultaneously obscuring, the same structures of racial violence that embolden reactionary movements. Drawing on the work of Walter Benjamin and Allan Pred, we present an archaeology of Hamburg's landscape, uncovering some of its ‘spaces of danger’—sites layered with histories of violence, many of which lie buried and forgotten. We find that these spaces, when they become visible, threaten to undermine Hamburg's cosmopolitan narrative. They must, as a result, be continually erased or downplayed in order to secure the city as an attractive site for capital investment. To illustrate this argument, we give three historical examples: Hamburg's role in the Hanseatic League during the medieval and early modern period; the city under the Nazi regime; and the recent treatment of Black African refugees. The article's main contribution is to better situate issues of historical landscape, collective memory and racialized violence within the political economy of today's global city.     

Country Market Sequential Order-of-Entry: A Learning Effects Approach

ABSTRACT

In this article, we identify and describe the sequential order-of-entry problem. The sequential order-of-entry problem arises when, after having identified a desirable set of country markets to enter, firms are unable (because of budgetary constraints), or unwilling (because of possible learning or strategic issues), to enter all at once. The question then arises whether some sequences to entering the desirable set of country markets are better than others? Answering this question is shown to be nontrivial. The article outlines a number of arguments for the existence of superior sequences to entering a set of desirable country markets, and develops normative and dynamic frameworks to aid in the identification and evaluation of sequences.     

Financial accounting choice and earnings management

This paper presents a case that exposes students in graduate accounting or MBA financial accounting classes to the concepts of accounting choice and earnings management. In the case, students role-play as a manager who, facing conflicting incentives, must make and defend three expense estimates for a hypothetical company. Students also read selected business press articles that introduce earnings management and that highlight the importance of the issue to the business community. The articles give students some background from which to approach the choices they will make with respect to the financial statements.     

How much do farmers value their independence?

A farmer's decision to contract or produce independently depends on the distribution of income and the nonpecuniary attributes associated with both business arrangements. The benefits to growers from contracting (such as risk reduction) may be overestimated if the nonpecuniary benefits enjoyed by independent producers (such as the right to make management decisions and own the commodity produced) are not accounted for. This study uses data from a U.S. national survey of hog producers to estimate (1) the difference in expected net returns between contracting and independent production, (2) the premium a representative farmer would pay for the risk reduction provided by a contract, and (3) the premium a farmer would pay for the nonpecuniary benefits associated with independent production. Results indicate that growers have a strong preference for autonomy—with moderately risk‐averse growers being willing to pay more for the attributes of independent production than they would for the risk‐reducing benefits of a contract.     

Actual and perceived consumer vigilance in the retail grocery industry

Economic theory suggests that price competition is in part driven by actively searching buyers. An exploratory study in a major midwestern grocery market revealed that executives responsible for pricing decisions overestimate the size of the price-driven shopping segment. The reasons behind this perception and its impact on pricing decisions are examined.