bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
A deterministic profit attribution model: The postal service, a case study
Authors: Guy Charles E. , Brown George F. , O'hara Donald J. 
Published: May 2007

AbstractThis paper derives a positive model relating changes in profitability to output levels, price, input quantities, and costs. The model involves decomposition of profit changes to define contributions associated with changes in the product market and production input variables. It can be derived from basic profit concepts without additional assumptions regarding the organization's behavioral decisions or about the shapes of the demand or production functions. It therefore avoids all normative underpinnings and is based strictly on measurable changes in the environment. The model is applied to results obtained from the United States Postal Service income statement. Changes in the Service's productivity and its components (e.g., labor, materials, and capital) are fully reconciled in an accounting sense with reported changes in net income. This reconciliation permits the identification of the sources of net income change.
Princing flexibility in British Manufacturing Industry
Authors: Shipley David D. 
Published: May 2007

AbstractThis article explores pricing flexibility among a sample of 728 manufacturing firms surveyed during a period of severe business adversity. It addresses attention to the nature and prevalence of alternative pricing techniques, the temporal frequency of mark‐up adjustments, the application of marginalist principles in pricing and price discount practices. Three general conclusions emerge. Pricing flexibility is widespread and probably more so than hitherto. The degree of flexibility is not influenced significantly by the extent of commitment to cost‐plus pricing techniques. Pricing flexibility varies substantially and systematically with firm size but not with numbers of ‘serious’ competitors.
International big business revisited: On the size and growth of the world's largest firms
Authors: Droucopoulos Vassilis 
Published: May 2007

AbstractThis paper explores the association between the growth of sales and the size of the world's largest industrial firms for the period 1967–77. The tests follow the methodology introduced by Rowthorn and Hymer (1971) who, for an earlier period, had remarked that although there was slight evidence amongst smaller firms of a negative relationship between growth and size, at no time, and in no area, were there signs of a positive relationship. Our results are, in general, similar to those of Rowthorn and Hymer. The main difference being the large numbers of firms (mostly American) exhibiting a positive relationship between size and growth for 1972–7.
The construction of an international investors' perception model for corporate published forecasted financial reports for the USA, the UK and New Zealand
Authors: Rushinek Avi , Rushinek Sara F. , Chang Lucia S. , Most Kenneth S. 
Published: May 2007

AbstractAlthough the utility of corporate published forecasted financial reports to investors has been investigated, the findings are inconclusive. These inconclusive findings may have resulted from the ambiguity of defining the forecasted financial reports or its components. The clarification of the definition of forecasted financial reports or its components is the main objective of the present study. In addition, an investor's utility function is used to measure the utility of such reports for investors regarding the entire forecasted financial reports or their components.
Energy consumption and economic growth
Authors: Nguyen The‐Hiep 
Published: May 2007

AbstractThe present paper discusses methods originally proposed by Adams and Miovic in 1968 (then refined and used later by many other authors) for calculating the output elasticity of useful energy consumption (ϵ). We first show that this methodological approach is quite dubious. Better alternative methods of estimation are then proposed. We also stress that, since the marginal rate of interfuel substitution depends on the GDP functional form, the simulataneous use of several functional forms of GDP in energy studies leads obviously to misleading interpretations. Using thermal efficiency coefficients and OECD countries figures for the 1959–73 period, we finally found that ϵ did steadily fall from high values to values which are still higher than one.
Slack and strain in efficient budgeting and resource allocation by organizations
Authors: Tisdell Clem 
Published: May 2007

AbstractOutlines conditions under which the interest of a whole organization is best served by its central management allocating more funds or resources to a sub‐unit or sub‐centre than is optimal (on average) under certainty, or budgeting fewer funds or resoruces than this. Slack is efficient in the former case and organizational strain in the latter one, a possibility neglected by Leibenstein in his theory of organizational slack and X‐efficiency. The solution to the problem is simplified, in comparison to Hart's and Theil's approach, by using random net benefit functions. Optimal budget bias is shown to depend on rates of change of marginal net benefit.
Returns to corporate diversification in the 1970s
Authors: Ciscel David H. , Evans Richard D. 
Published: May 2007

AbstractThis research analyzes the performance of large corporations during the business cycles of the 1970s. The analysis identifies the level of diversification preferred by a risk‐averse investor at different stages of the business cycle. The data base is a group of 222 large industrial corporations for which the number of four‐digit SIC production areas has been determined for each firm. The analytical method used is that of second‐degree stochastic dominance, a method that is sensitive not only to mean differences in corporate performance but also to the skewness of profitability distributions. The findings indicate that risk‐averters would prefer the ten‐year performance of moderately diversified firms to the performance of firms with low levels of diversification. In addition, moderately diversified firms were preferred to highly diversified firms. Finally, the experience of the 1970s suggest that there are serious managerial diseconomies of diversification in recessions.
Drug innovation and price competition
Authors: Dao Thi D. 
Published: May 2007

AbstractThis study is designed to examine the relationship between drug innovation and price competition. The empirical results presented here support the hypothesis that new drugs‐as measured by new chemical entities‐exert downward pressure on the prices of existing competitors within the same therapeutic class. The implication of this finding for public policy is that drug innovation not only provides new therapy but also stimulates price competition.
Managerial utility‐maximizing operating decisions under compound demand risk
Authors: Harris Frederick H. Deb. , Dennis Richard L. 
Published: May 2007

AbstractThis paper examines the demand and cost conditions under which utility maximizing pricing‐risk and advertising‐risk relationships are determinate. The structure of the firm's demand uncertainty captures both uncertain customer arrivals and uncertain individual customer demand. In addition to standard demand restrictions and constant marginal cost, determinate results depend upon the degree of managerial risk‐aversion, the correlation between individual demand and customer arrival disturbances, the firm's cost fixity, and bounded product differentiation effects of advertising. The symmetry between price‐cuts and advertising as demand‐increasing costs is extensively examined; firm equilibrium requires that price‐cuts not be an inferior input for increasing demand.
Tax incentives and investment policy: A survey report on the United Kingdom manufacturing industry
Authors: Alam K. F. , Stafford L. W. T. 
Published: May 2007

AbstractThis paper is concerned with the effects of tax incentives on the investment policies of companies. The issue is examined on the basis of a questionnaire survey conducted among a large sample of firms in the United Kingdom manufacturing industry. The main findings from the survey are that taxation and tax incentives are not major factors in the investment decisions of companies. Although taxation does not appear to be a major factor in companies' investment decisions, it does emerge as a subordinate element in a complex decision situation and large companies are shown to be more alert and responsive to tax advantages than medium‐sized or small companies.
Environmental quality standards: A general equilibrium analysis
Authors: Willett Keith 
Published: May 2007

AbstractThe increasing importance of pollution controls as a part of government regulatory activities has motivated considerable concern about the economic impact of these activities. This question is of considerable importance, because environmental quality goals are sometimes in conflict with other objectives such as full employment and economic growth. Policy‐makers are thus faced with the task of identifying and measuring the trade‐offs between these various objectives. But the measurement of these objectives requires information on their economic impacts. This paper develops a general equilibrium model with pollution specifications which can be used to identify the economic impacts of pollution‐control policies. The particular pollution‐control policy addressed is an environmental standards approach. The model is based on a technique that combines an explicit representation of consumer demand behaviour vis‐à‐vis linear aggregate demand functions with activity analysis.
The joint determination of ‘Quality’ and price in standardized products: A comparative dynamic analysis
Authors: Aislabie Colin 
Published: May 2007

AbstractEvery supermarket provides many examples of attempts lo develop more economical standardized products which will attract additional customers while guaranteeing the user that the quantity will be acceptable. We assume this process involves development costs incurred in reducing the amount incorporated in a monopoly product of its dominant product‐characteristic. A comparative dynamic analysis is used to explore the search for lower prices and higher output. The heightened vulnerability of the firm to market forces and some policy implications of the analysis are brought out.
Conglomerate mergers, mutual forbearance behavior and price competition
Authors: Strickland Allyn D. 
Published: May 2007

AbstractThis paper tests the hypothesis that conglomerate mergers lessen price competition through the creation of mutual forbearance behavior. This hypothesis is tested by estimating the impact of multi‐market contacts on price competition in manufacturing industries. Potential interfirm contacts are computed for 195 of the top 200 American manufacturers in 1963. Measures of multi‐market contacts are then constructed and introduced as additional explanatory variables in a three‐equation model of the determinants of industry price‐cost margins. The empirical results do not support the mutual forbearance hypothesis, and suggest that conglomerate mergers should not be proscribed on that basis.
The emergence of shop‐floor trade union power in South Africa
Authors: Jones Robert A. 
Published: May 2007

AbstractThis is the first of two papers dealing with the emergence of black shop floor union power and the changing structure of industrial relations in South Africa. This paper examines the evolution of black and white trade unions and their attitudes towards the officially sanctioned system of industrial relations. The observation is made that black unions are placing greater emphasis on shop‐floor organization, leading to the development of an additional, but unofficial, tier in the negotiation structure in the form of work pi ace‐level union recognition and bargaining.
A note on an application of the trade‐off method in evaluating a utility function
Authors: Mehrez Abraham , Gafni Amiram 
Published: May 2007

AbstractIn this note we suggest a possible use for the trade‐off technique to exclude possible forms of the utility function that are common to the same set of assumptions. Out discussion is focused on the specific case of two attributes. This case is becoming more common in coping with practical problems in the healthcare field, where the two attributes are life years and health status.
A rationale for planning: Implications from the economic theory of the firm
Authors: Morgan George Emir , Martin John D. 
Published: May 2007

AbstractThis paper undertakes the development of a foundation for a theory of why firms plan. The theory of the firm literature provides a useful starting‐point and provides insight into the factors which have an effect on the planning function of the firm. Those factors include transactions costs, uncertainty and asset‐specificity. The fact that some firms should not plan even in the face of uncertainty and transactions costs emphasizes the importance of the relative magnitudes of various costs and demonstrates the relevance of standard economic analysis for the study and practice of business planning. Examples illustrate the role of planning for human, financial and physical resources.
Declining prices and optimality when costs follow an experience curve
Authors: Hodder James E. , Ilan Yael A. 
Published: May 2007

AbstractThere is a widely held notion that as production costs decline with experience, prices should follow more or less in parallel. Although this notion has been an important factor in estimating experience curves and in formulating corporate strategies, we show that it is generally inconsistent with published multiperiod optimal pricing models. The paper then goes on to demonstrate that this apparent conflict can be reconciled by allowing the demand process to exhibit increasing price elasticity over time. Since this demand characteristic is very plausible for innovative products, we suggest it be incorporated into optimal pricing models.
International dissemination of new drugs: A comparative study of six countries
Authors: Berlin Hans , Jönsson Bengt 
Published: May 2007

AbstractThe times at which new drugs were licensed since 1960 have been compared for Sweden and five other countries, and the differences in licensing time between these countries have been evaluated statistically. Also, the time required for the Swedish authorities to process the licence applications has been studied and compared with the small number of similar studies available from other countries. A relationship between the delay in licensing and the processing time is discussed.
Adimpact—a multi‐media advertising effectiveness‐measurement method
Authors: Corder Clive 
Published: May 2007

AbstractRecall and recognition are the methods which are usually used to establish if a person has been exposed to advertising or not. Recall tends to greatly underestimate exposure. Recognition, though coming much closer to actual exposure, has severe practical limitations, especially for radio commercials and in terms of the number of advertisements that can be tested at a time. Adimpact is a method offering an alternative way of establishing probable exposure to advertising, which is independent of the respondents' ability to recall or recognize the advertisements they have seen or heard.
Can export performance be explained by attitudinal differences?
Authors: Schlegelmilch B. B. 
Published: May 2007

AbstractThere are striking differences in the performances of the UK and West German mechanical engineering industries. This paper suggests that attitudes of senior management of both countries can explain a large proportion of these differences. Focusing primarily on export performance, 81 variables collected from 210 companies are analysed. In seven major areas the attitudes of both groups of executives are significantly apart. Based on these results, it is possible to correctly classify 89 of the companies as belonging to the UK or West German mechanical engineering industries.
Managerial objectives of symphony orchestras
Authors: Lange Mark , Luksetich William , Jacobs Philip 
Published: May 2007

AbstractThis paper considers the managerial objectives of not‐for‐profit symphony orchestras in the United States. Using data compiled by the American Symphony Orchestra League, an empirical analysis reveals dual attendance (quantity) and performance quality concerns for Major and Urban Community orchestras; and quality‐only concerns for Metropolitan orchestras.
Reflections on a siege economy
Authors: Jenkins Simon 
Published: May 2007

AbstractThe paper examines the political and economic effects for South Africa of living in a state of economic siege. It points out that most economies already exist in partial isolation, often self‐imposed. The most serious consequence of sanctions will be the granting to the government of a moral licence to react repressively, thus shutting off existing political and economic ‘safety valves’. The net result will be even more stringent political repression, and further resistance to change. The government will find it hard to retreat from this situation, and relax the repression. The result is a society without the flexibility to change.
Privatization: The thatcher case
Authors: Burton John 
Published: May 2007

AbstractThis paper reviews the process of privatization under successive British governments. It concludes that the Thatcher experiment has had an effect in reversing the previous trend towards nationalization. This has been part of a continuing worldwide swing away from government enterprise. The major result has been an increase in internal efficiency (as distinct from allocative efficiency) of the enterprises concerned. Purchases of shares by management and workers of privatized firms has created an important lobby which will oppose renationalization by a future government.
Business strategy and the internationalization of business: Recent approaches
Authors: Young Stephen 
Published: May 2007

AbstractThis paper reviews recent writings on the topic of the internationalization of business, chiefly from the viewpoint of business strategy. A distinction is made between the emerging multinational, the global multinational and ‘in‐between’ MNEs in terms of types of strategies to be pursued. Uncertainty exists over the role of the newer forms of international involvement such as licensing and management contracts, and the paper concludes that these types of contractual arrangements represent only a second level of defensive, short‐ to medium‐term supply strategy.
Regulation and health: The case of mandatory prescriptions and an extension
Authors: Peltzman Sam 
Published: May 2007

AbstractThe effect of requiring consumers to obtain prescriptions for pharmaceuticals on mortality is examined for a sample of middle‐income countries. In countries enforcing the requirement, infectious disease mortality is no lower and poisoning mortality is higher than in those not enforcing the requirement. A broader measure of government intervention—public expenditures on health relative to GDP—is shown to have moderately adverse effects on overall life expectancy.
Labor relations at the shop floor level
Authors: Reynolds Morgan 
Published: May 2007

AbstractThe tenacious myth that a free economy and free society impoverish working people undergirds modern government interference in labor markets and legal privilege for adversarial labor unions. Managers are concerned about harmony and productivity at the shop floor level. The opposite characteristics of conflict, disco‐ordination and inefficiency are anathema. Most of the union difficulties managers must cope with at the shop floor level stem from a fundamental source, namely the philosophy of collectivism. This paper analyzes the fable of labor's disadvantage, wage determination under personal and impersonal conditions, public policy toward labor contracts and the role of businessmen in making labor markets operate more efficiently.
Seasonality in asset returns: Evidence from the gold market
Authors: Tschoegl Adrian E. 
Published: May 2007

AbstractIn this paper we test monthly mean daily returns to gold over the period January 1975 to December 1984 against three definitions of seasonality. Weak evidence exists for seasonality under the second of the three definitions. However, this is not prima facie evidence of market inefficiency, as the pattern is consistent with seasonality in Eurodollar interest rates reported by other authors. Differences in the time pattern of returns between on‐ and off‐shore rates raises further questions.
A computable market equilibrium model with markets for transferable discharge permits
Authors: Shortle James S. , Willett Keith 
Published: May 2007

AbstractThis paper presents a mathematical programming model for numerically analyzing the impacts of a transferable discharge permit (TDP) system on resource allocation and the distribution of income in a competitive equilibrium setting. Key assumptions of the model are linear household commodity demands, Leontief production functions requiring both primary and produced factors, fixed primary factor supplies and linear pollution dispersion processes. A basic model is presented with discussion of how it may be modified to examine alternative TDP configurations. In addition, there is also a discussion of relationships between key primal and dual variables and of issues involved in actual numerical implementation of the model.
Trade barriers and japanese foreign direct investment in the colour television industry
Authors: Burton F. N. , Saelens F. H. 
Published: May 2007

AbstractThis paper examines the penetration by Japanese firms of the US and West European colour television markets, initially by exports and then, predominantly, by local production. It is demonstrated that Japanese foreign direct investment was basically a defensive response to trade barriers erected in these markets to re‐locate Japanese plant from Japan and other Asian locations. A strategic oligopolistic imitative behaviour, rather than an orchestrated strategy, is identified, and a comparison is made of the effect of trade barriers in each region on industry structure and plant size.
The assessment of the expected value of information in the binary decision model
Authors: Lawrence David B. 
Published: May 2007

AbstractThe expected value of information represents the maximum amount the decision maker should spend on inquiry before making a decision. This amount depends upon the accuracy of the information. In many cases of inquiry, prior objective knowledge of the accuracy is not available. This paper presents and compares two methods of subjectively assessing the value of imperfect information in the binary decision model. In the first method, the decision maker provides a likelihood function for the inquiry and hence the probabilities of error. The second method is the preposterior approach, in which the decision maker provides the prior distribution for the posterior probability.
Foreign direct investment, political conflict and co‐operation: The asymmetric response hypothesis
Authors: Nigh Douglas , Schollhammer Hans 
Published: May 2007

AbstractPrevious empirical research has demonstrated that political factors do affect the foreign direct investment decisions of multinational enterprises. This study explores the nature of this relationship in more depth. Specifically, it examines the extent to which investors response to political conflict and co‐operation is asymmetric, i.e. investors respond differently depending on whether the political conflict or cooperation is increasing or decreasing. The asymmetric response hypothesis is tested through regression analysis of pooled time‐series (13 years) and cross‐sectional (62 countries) data on Japanese investors. The study finds evidence of asymmetry for intra‐nation conflict and co‐operation but not for inter‐nation conflict and co‐operation.