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In the last four years, since Volume I of this Bibliography first appeared, there has been an explosion of literature in all the main functional areas of business. This…
Abstract
In the last four years, since Volume I of this Bibliography first appeared, there has been an explosion of literature in all the main functional areas of business. This wealth of material poses problems for the researcher in management studies — and, of course, for the librarian: uncovering what has been written in any one area is not an easy task. This volume aims to help the librarian and the researcher overcome some of the immediate problems of identification of material. It is an annotated bibliography of management, drawing on the wide variety of literature produced by MCB University Press. Over the last four years, MCB University Press has produced an extensive range of books and serial publications covering most of the established and many of the developing areas of management. This volume, in conjunction with Volume I, provides a guide to all the material published so far.
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The Bureau of Economics in the Federal Trade Commission has a three-part role in the Agency and the strength of its functions changed over time depending on the…
Abstract
The Bureau of Economics in the Federal Trade Commission has a three-part role in the Agency and the strength of its functions changed over time depending on the preferences and ideology of the FTC’s leaders, developments in the field of economics, and the tenor of the times. The over-riding current role is to provide well considered, unbiased economic advice regarding antitrust and consumer protection law enforcement cases to the legal staff and the Commission. The second role, which long ago was primary, is to provide reports on investigations of various industries to the public and public officials. This role was more recently called research or “policy R&D”. A third role is to advocate for competition and markets both domestically and internationally. As a practical matter, the provision of economic advice to the FTC and to the legal staff has required that the economists wear “two hats,” helping the legal staff investigate cases and provide evidence to support law enforcement cases while also providing advice to the legal bureaus and to the Commission on which cases to pursue (thus providing “a second set of eyes” to evaluate cases). There is sometimes a tension in those functions because building a case is not the same as evaluating a case. Economists and the Bureau of Economics have provided such services to the FTC for over 100 years proving that a sub-organization can survive while playing roles that sometimes conflict. Such a life is not, however, always easy or fun.
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Muzaffar A. Shaikh and Behram J. Hansotia
With the advent of fierce international competition in today's industrial business environment, it has become imperative for companies to reevaluate the cost/price/value…
Abstract
With the advent of fierce international competition in today's industrial business environment, it has become imperative for companies to reevaluate the cost/price/value relationship of their products. In particular, highly competitive products require much closer attention to and control of the cost/price/value relationship to ensure continuing profitability. This paper examines one such product in an actual industrial setting (pseudonyms have been used to maintain data confidentiality) using a rather comprehensive conceptual framework based on Market Structure Analysis concepts. The proposed framework basically represents the industrial buying decision process which is both multiattribute and multiagent in nature. As pointed out by Sheth (1973) and Choffray and Lilien (1980), these industrial decision processes tend to become extremely complex due to heterogeneity among decision makers.
The primary objective of this paper is to understand the extent to which Australian industrial relations academics took up the different heuristic frameworks from USA and…
Abstract
The primary objective of this paper is to understand the extent to which Australian industrial relations academics took up the different heuristic frameworks from USA and U.K. from the 1960s to the 1980s. A second objective is to begin to understand why, and in what ways ideas are transmitted in academic disciplines drawing on a “market model” for ideas. It is shown that in the years between 1960s and 1980s a modified U.S. (Dunlopian) model of interpreting industrial relations became more influential in Australia than that of U.K. scholarship, as exemplified by the British Oxford School. In part this reflects the breadth, flexibility and absence of an overt normative tenor in Dunlop’s model which thus offered lower transaction costs for scholars in an emergent discipline seeking recognition and approval from academia, practitioners and policy-makers. Despite frequent and wide-ranging criticism of Dunlop’s model, it proved a far more enduring transfer to Australian academic industrial relations than the British model, albeit in a distorted form. The market model for the diffusion of ideas illuminates the ways in which a variety of local contextual factors influenced the choices taken by Australian industrial relations academics.
The purpose of this paper is to address the specific challenges with which resource‐based cities are faced when they begin along the path of industrial transformation and…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to address the specific challenges with which resource‐based cities are faced when they begin along the path of industrial transformation and to employ empirical studies to determine whether relevant reforms in resource‐based cities (taking Pingxiang, one of the first round of resource‐exhausted cities acting as pilot cities in the national sustainable development transformation program, as an example), promoted by local government in recent years, have brought significant changes to their development modes and facilitated the real transition.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper carried out some empirical studies from different angles: employing the “vertical table graph” method, to turn Pingxiang's statistical data (1997‐2010) into a graph that visually shows Pingxiang's economic and social development; comparing several major economic and social development indicators (especially the energy consumption per unit of GDP) of 11 cities within Jiangxi Province in order to learn Pingxiang's relative positions; based on time series data from 1997 to 2009, calculating the change rates, the variation coefficients and the shift‐share indexes of industrial structure so as to measure the quality of Pingxiang's structural transformation; comparing the above results with the cities of Jiaozuo, Benxi and Dalian; and comparing economic and social development state of 16 resource‐based cities (which are all among the list of 44 national resource‐exhausted cities) from the perspective of “green GDP”.
Findings
Although Pingxiang has gained great progress in economic development, its industrial structure is not rational enough, and shows great dependence on mining industry with a too high share of the secondary industry and a too small proportion of the tertiary industry. Its heavy dependence on resources and investment does not suggest a fundamental change in development modes. Accordingly, the city's development idea should be switched from GDP‐orientation to sustainable development. It should proceed with the optimization of the industrial structure adjustment, increase manpower capital investment and develop new green substitutable industries, so as to catalyze the success of transition.
Originality/value
This integration of empirical analysis methods from three angles in multivariate statistical analysis, environmental economics, and industrial economics is novel in the field of research on resource‐city and industry change. It not only could be of some help in decision making for Pingxiang municipal government, but also could provide reference for other cities dependent on resource exploitation.
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Thomas F. Stafford and Marla Royne Stafford
There are many anecdotal accounts about industrial buyers’ perceptions of sellers, but little research exists empirically to determine these perceptions. This research…
Abstract
There are many anecdotal accounts about industrial buyers’ perceptions of sellers, but little research exists empirically to determine these perceptions. This research generates a profile of industrial buyer perceptions of salespeople developed from a perceptual inventory gathered from a national sample of purchasing professionals. Both positive and negative profiles are identified, but means analysis generally supports the contention that industrial buyers have largely positive perceptions of salespeople. These profiles can be useful to both researchers and industry professionals in assessing the effects of buyer perceptions in industrial, business‐to‐business, and relationship marketing situations.
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Chao Ren, Xiaoxing Liu and Zongqing Zhang
The purpose of this paper is to develop a risk evaluation method for the industrial network under high uncertain environment.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to develop a risk evaluation method for the industrial network under high uncertain environment.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper introduces an extended safety and critical effect analysis (SCEA) method, which takes the weight of each industry in a network into risk assessment. Furthermore, expert experience and fuzzy logic are introduced for the evaluation of other parameters.
Findings
The proposed approach not only develops weight as the fifth parameter in quantitative risk assessment but also applies the interval type-2 fuzzy sets to depict the uncertainty in the risk evaluation process. The risk rating of each parameter excluding weight is determined by using the interval type-2 fuzzy numbers. The risk magnitude of each industry in the network is quantified by the extended SCEA method.
Research limitations/implications
There is less study in quantitative risk assessment in the industrial network. Additionally, fuzzy logic and expert experience are expressed in the presented approach. Moreover, different parameters can be determined by different weights in network risk assessment in the future study.
Originality/value
The extended SCEA method presents a new way to measure risk magnitude for industrial networks. The industrial network is developed in risk quantification by assessing weights of nodes as a parameter into the extended SCEA. The interval type-2 fuzzy number is introduced to model the uncertainty of risk assessment and to express the risk evaluation information from experts.
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John W. Wilkinson, Giang Trinh, Richard Lee and Neil Brown
This paper aims to extend the known boundary conditions of the negative binomial distribution (NBD) model, and to test the applicability of conditional trend analysis…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to extend the known boundary conditions of the negative binomial distribution (NBD) model, and to test the applicability of conditional trend analysis (CTA) – a key method to identify whether changes in overall sales are accounted for by previous non-buyers, light buyers or heavy buyers – in industrial purchasing situations.
Design/methodology/approach
The study tested the NBD model and CTA in an industrial marketing context using a 12-month data set of purchases from an Australian supplier of a range of industrial plastic resins.
Findings
The purchase data displayed a good NBD fit; the study therefore extends the known boundary conditions of the model. The application of CTA provided second-period purchasing frequency estimates showing no significant difference from actual data, indicating the applicability of this method to industrial purchasing.
Research limitations/implications
Data relate to just one supplier. Further research across several industries is required to confirm the generalizability and robustness of NBD and CTA to industrial markets.
Practical implications
Marketing decisions can be improved through appropriate analysis of customer purchasing data. However, without access to equivalent competitor data, industrial marketers are constrained in benchmarking the purchasing patterns of their own customers. The results indicate that use of the NBD model enables valid benchmarking for industrial products, while CTA would enable appropriate analysis of purchases by different classes of customer.
Originality/value
This paper extends the known boundary conditions of the NBD model and provides the first published results, indicating the appropriateness of CTA to predict purchasing frequencies of different industrial customer classes.
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Based on an analysis of Mexican industrial history, the objective of this study was to identify the historical events and factors which shaped the international business…
Abstract
Based on an analysis of Mexican industrial history, the objective of this study was to identify the historical events and factors which shaped the international business perspectives and management strategies of Mexican industrial groups (MIGs). To this end, the evolution of MIGs is traced over the course of 170 years and through three distinct phases of Mexican political and economic history: pre‐industrial era (1821‐1940); industrial boom (1940‐1970); and economic crisis and reform (1970‐1990). The subsequent analysis indicates a combination of historical factors resulting in two conditions ‐ domestic orientation and dependent development ‐ which caused MIGs to focus almost exclusively on the Mexican market and to shun international markets and competition.