Search results
1 – 8 of 8Tony Willis, Rosemary Suttill, Andrea Swire, Pat Lipinski and Elisabeth Russell‐Taylor
WHEN A biography of Dante Gabriel Rossetti was returned to Kendal library by post from Oxford University with a stamp on the date label of 5 Feb 1916 no one considered this to be…
Abstract
WHEN A biography of Dante Gabriel Rossetti was returned to Kendal library by post from Oxford University with a stamp on the date label of 5 Feb 1916 no one considered this to be very startling news. There was a compliment slip inside apologising for the delay (‘It was lurking in one of our darker corners’). I sent them a brief note thanking them, and that I thought was that.
Many companies lack insights or fact-based support for the pricing decisions they make in an increasingly complex environment. In order to optimize their pricing process, managers…
Abstract
Purpose
Many companies lack insights or fact-based support for the pricing decisions they make in an increasingly complex environment. In order to optimize their pricing process, managers need to identify key indicators that may influence the performance of their decisions. The purpose of this paper is to report an investigation of pricing determinants in large companies manufacturing capital goods in France. First a conceptual framework is proposed, in order to fill several gaps identified in the literature on pricing practices and more precisely by operating a distinction between environmental variables (determinants), decision making (pricing strategy and price and product-line structures) and its consequence in terms of price level.
Design/methodology/approach
The author conducted an empirical research on the determinants of the pricing process. This study consistedof a questionnaire survey addressed to pricing managers (or executives in charge of pricing) in 98 of the largest manufacturing companies in France about their new-product pricing decision-making process.
Findings
The author studies environmental determinants and their influence on the pricing and describes the structure of pricing determinants as a five dimensions construct: market-based, value-based, position-based, competition-based and production-based. The results show that firms rely on environmental determinants as indicators of their pricing flexibility. These indicators operate as pricing levers: a good position on these variables gives firms more pricing power. But in the vast majority of the cases, companies extensively relied on competitive conditions instead of taking advantage of a favorable position, described as pricing myopia.
Originality/value
This paper describes current pricing practices in leading companies with key informants (mainly pricing managers) highly involved in the pricing decision process, and contrasts two pricing orientations, pricing power vs pricing myopia.
Details
Keywords
This chapter argues that the Americanisation of online policing has questionable impacts in Australian prosecutions involving drugs obtained and distributed through dark web…
Abstract
This chapter argues that the Americanisation of online policing has questionable impacts in Australian prosecutions involving drugs obtained and distributed through dark web cryptomarkets. The authors describe several Australian prosecutions of mid- and low-level dealers who have accessed drugs through the dark web and contrast these with the United States (US) case against the cryptomarket, AlphaBay. The discussion in this study emphasises how Australian police and courts view the relative weight of dark web activity associated with the domestic and transnational supply of illicit drugs that result in formal prosecutions. The authors suggest that large-scale forms of online and dark web police surveillance undertaken by US enforcement agencies reflect Ethan Nadelmann’s (Cops across borders: the internationalization of US criminal law enforcement, University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1993) thesis on the Americanisation of global policing through transnational communications networks. The authors then explain how key elements of transnational dark web drug supply appear to have a marginal bearing on criminal investigations into low- and mid-level traffickers in Australia, which rely on conventional surveillance tactics to identify clandestine mail pickups, physical distribution methods, and irregular money trails. However, the authors then illustrate how the Americanisation of online policing that targets high-level entrepreneurs and seeks to dismantle or eliminate dark web cryptomarkets has important implications on Australian reforms aimed at enhancing online surveillance powers to target a range of crimes that are often wrongly associated with illicit drug cryptomarkets. The authors conclude by demonstrating how intensive dark web surveillance has limited direct impact on routine drug policing in Australia, with dark web communications simply another medium for facilitating the physical detection of illicit transnational drug transactions.
Details
Keywords
Patrick Lo, Robert Sutherland, Wei-En Hsu and Russ Girsberger
De-Graft Owusu-Manu, David John Edwards, Michael Adesi, Edward Badu and Peter E.D. Love
Price fairness is important amongst construction and engineering consultants because a perceived lack of it engenders unwillingness to pay amongst clients. This can create…
Abstract
Purpose
Price fairness is important amongst construction and engineering consultants because a perceived lack of it engenders unwillingness to pay amongst clients. This can create contractual disputes that negatively impact upon a consultant’s ability to generate sufficient revenue to ensure business continuity and survival. With this in mind, this research aims to analyse the pricing measurement forces needed to attain pricing fairness within a Ghanaian construction cost consultancy practice. Specific objectives are to identify the key variables responsible for price fairness within cost consultant services and to establish any interrelationships between them.
Design/methodology/approach
This study leans towards the positivist methodological tradition by adopting a quantitative approach. A survey questionnaire was distributed to a random sample of 79 construction cost consultancies, drawn from a population of 372, who were registered with the Ghana Institution of Surveyors. Hypotheses developed from the literature review were then tested on data collected.
Findings
The analysis revealed that fairness of construction cost consultancy services pricing is significantly related to value and affordability, pricing objectives, pricing strategies, taxes and international trade and its effects on inputs for construction cost consultancy services.
Originality/value
The paper advances knowledge by providing a basis for the consideration of pricing forces in the valuing of construction cost consultancy services which hitherto has not been the case.
Details
Keywords
Andrea Ko, Péter Fehér, Tibor Kovacs, Ariel Mitev and Zoltán Szabó
This research aims to discuss the success of digital transformation focusing on the role of IT and management commitment in digitalization together with sectorial relevance as…
Abstract
Purpose
This research aims to discuss the success of digital transformation focusing on the role of IT and management commitment in digitalization together with sectorial relevance as influencing factors. According to the literature, these dimensions are key elements of digitalization, and there is no consensus on their decisiveness. The authors measure the success of digital transformation with the digital innovation. The research is part of ongoing work, in which the IT-related practice of Hungarian organizations has been explored on an annual basis since 2009.
Design/methodology/approach
The research methodology is a combined one; both qualitative and quantitative methods were applied including surveying digital transformation literature, interviews with key representatives of Hungarian organizations, developing a survey to collect quantitative data, data collection and processing with PLS-SEM.
Findings
The results revealed that the digital innovations are strongly determined by business, management commitment and, to a far lesser extent, by strategy. In the case of digital transformation, the role of IT departments and the services they provide are less relevant.
Research limitations/implications
The most important limitation of the research is the size and composition of the sample. Results do not present the situation of a specific industrial sector.
Originality/value
Digital technologies influence and disrupt practically every industry; the development of information and communication technology has changed economies all over the world. Decisive factors of digital transformations are widely researched, but there is no consensus about them. This research contributes to understanding the role of IT department and their services in this process together with leadership, sectorial relevance as influencing factors.
Details
Keywords
The purpose of this paper is to report on research undertaken within a European‐based airline services firm. As a result of pressures within the airline industry the firm embarked…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to report on research undertaken within a European‐based airline services firm. As a result of pressures within the airline industry the firm embarked on a cost reduction programme, recognising the need to achieve more synergy from its procurement spend, located in semi‐autonomous business units (BUs). The paper describes sequentially the two stages of the author's involvement in the project and the outputs and results realised.
Design/methodology/approach
The aim was to design a practical tool, based on academic inputs, which could be used by the business to achieve purchasing synergy. The research is reported in a case study format and develops an original mixed method approach. This approach combines interviews, a focus group, cognitive mapping and portfolio analysis and leads to the production of a decision‐making framework for implementing purchasing pooling.
Findings
The results illustrate that prior to the study, procurement was highly fragmented with little co‐ordination between BUs. The company needed to standardise many of its item specifications to facilitate purchasing pooling. A hierarchy is created as a valuable tool for understanding the various and conflicting factors in item selection for pooling initiatives. In addition, four purchasing strategies are identified, to support synergy in the firm.
Practical implications
The decision‐making framework developed for the business is used to illustrate how the firm achieved purchasing synergy across its BUs. The approach can similarly be adopted in organisations with a high level of fragmentation in their spend.
Originality/value
The research demonstrates the value of applying academic knowledge and multiple methods in creating practical solutions for managers. It also addresses some of the weaknesses identified in using single methods of analysis such as portfolios.
Details