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This paper aims to consider the effects of a merger on technology adoption and welfare in the presence of passive cross ownership. Merger increases investments in process technology and may increase welfare. The results are important for antitrust policies and suggest that the antitrust authorities may not need to be too concerned about mergers in industries with cross ownership.

Game-theoretic analysis.

Merger increases investments in process technology and may increase welfare.

To the best of the author’s knowledge, this study is original.

This article presents an application of survey non-response theory to a specific population with disabilities. From 1994 to 1997 the U.S. National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) did a special, two-phase study of disability. This survey format allowed for response patterns of the disabled population to be operationalized into contact, cooperation and proxy/assisted versus self-response categories. Using these data, the authors investigated the effects of severity of activity limitation at first interview on response patterns at second interview, with statistical controls for other characteristics related to the response outcome. The statistical results of the study show that respondents with moderate or severe activity limitation are more likely than those with mild activity limitation to be contacted and to cooperate, yielding higher response rates. However, respondents with a higher degree of activity limitation are also more likely to have proxy/assisted responses at re-interview. Barriers to self-response in household surveys are discussed in the concluding remarks.

After receiving advertising messages, most consumers rarely purchase the advertised products at once, which results in a delay between advertising exposure and its effect. This paper is devoted to exploring the advertising decision and coordination issues for a supply chain system subject to advertising immediate and delayed effects.

By applying the game theory, the differential game models with delay are constructed for the supply chain to examine the equilibrium advertising efforts, brand goodwill and the optimal profits under the different cooperation situations. A class of transfer payment contracts is designed to achieve the best outcome of the supply chain. Illustrative examples are given to demonstrate the effectiveness of addressed results and provide some managerial perspectives.

It can be found that the complete cooperation situation can stimulate the advertising investment, drive the product demand and improve the economic profit. Also, a class of transfer payment contracts is designed in this paper, such that the supply chain can perfectly realize the profit maximization, and each member can achieve the Pareto improvement.

This work does not address the random market environment, which can be filled in the future. Furthermore, this paper has been done in a single supply chain structure. It is an interesting future line of research when taking competitive behavior (e.g. competition among manufacturers, retailers or supply chains) into account.

This study will help managers make advertising strategies, advise an optimal cooperation way and design the coordination contracts to ensure the economic development of the supply chain. These obtained conclusions may provide a valuable decision-support for marketing management.

For a supply chain, the most previous literature about dynamic advertising models focused on a single advertising effect-immediate effect. This work explores advertising strategy with double advertising effects and investigates the coordinating power of new transfer payment contracts.

This paper attempts to analyze the relationship between the complementarity degrees of imperfect complementary products and sales strategies and give appropriate sales strategies for a two-stage supply chain.

With respect to two-stage supply chain consisting of two manufacturers who produce imperfect complementary products and one retailer who sells the products, aiming at bundling sales strategy, the authors define complementarity elasticity of products and use it to measure the degree of complementary between two products. Based on Stackelberg game and cooperation, the authors analyze the relationship between the complementarity degrees of imperfect complementary products and appropriate sales strategies.

As the impact of complementarity degree on sales strategy decision-making is better, the authors can pinpoint out which sales decision-making is optimal and which bundling sales strategy is the best for a two-stage supply chain. Considering that the degree of complementarity has a significant impact on the product sales strategy, the authors can point out which sales decision-making is optimal, that is, which bundled sales strategy is the optimal in the secondary supply chain of selling complementary products.

An innovative bundling can expand the sales of existing products and new products. It helps a retailer transcend and defeat competitors by reducing marketing expenses while increasing profits. Proper use of bundling can improve consumers utility and create an overall positive effect for both the enterprises and consumer.

The research can help some retailers to make many appropriate bundling sales strategies.

The purpose of this paper is to employ an emerging phenomenon in China concerning collaborative carbon emission reduction (CCER) to investigate: first, the coordination of suppliers and manufacturers within supply chains to reduce carbon emissions, and second, the role of governmental policy in facilitating this process.

This paper draws upon evolutionary game theory to develop an evolutionary game model for CCER for suppliers and manufacturers within supply chains. This includes a detailed analysis of the evolutionary direction and process in different areas, both with, and in the absence of, governmental subsidies.

The results demonstrate that CCER is path dependent and that its evolutionary process is influenced by the following four factors: the initial status within supply chains; the cost; the additional benefit; and the investment risk related to CCER. The research also reveals that the reward provided by manufacturers is rational over the long term, due to the excessive cost of incentives potentially preventing the implementation of CCER.

This study represents the first attempt to investigate CCER within supply chains through the application of an evolutionary game-theoretic model. The investigation of multiple factors in the model will deepen understanding of the collaborative role required for the carbon emission reduction.

The purpose of this paper is to study the influence of different trade modes on the electricity market.

A linear model between power units' output and their bidding prices is presented and optimal models to minimize the purchase power cost of power grid companies are presented, applying static games and dynamic games, respectively. Then the relation between power generation amount and units' bidding price is settled by using difference methods. In addition, optimization models are established to optimize profits of units at discriminatory bidding or uniform marginal price applying static game and dynamic game. Finally, the economic benefits and fair competition are compared and analyzed.

If impartiality is emphasized, the detailed history bidding information should not be opened. Also, it is fairer but difficult to control units' speculative behavior at uniform marginal price.

A supposition has been made that all participants are rational.

The paper presents useful advice for improving the trade mode of the electricity market.

Power units' bidding models and strategies are presented at discriminatory bidding price or at uniform marginal price applying non‐cooperation static game and dynamic game, respectively.

The purpose of this paper is to present a mathematical model that illustrates the trade‐offs between sustainability, demand, costs, and profit in a supply chain with a single supplier and a single manufacturer.

It is assumed that a single product is produced and sold on a market where demand is sensitive to price and quality. Sustainability is treated as a quality attribute and is measured in terms of the levels of scrap and emissions generated in the supply chain. It is assumed that the emissions and scrap can be controlled by varying production rates or by investing in production processes. The impact of cooperative and non‐cooperative behaviour between the supplier and the manufacturer is explored. Numerical studies are used to illustrate the behaviour of the model.

The analysis shows that the supplier and the manufacturer can attract additional customers by controlling scrap and emissions. The behaviour of the supplier and the manufacturer are dictated by the decision criteria, such as changes in the level of sustainability, used by customers to evaluate the product. It is shown that the profit of the system is higher and that the level of quality is lower in the case of cooperation than in the case of non‐cooperation.

Several areas for future work are highlighted. The study of alternative demand functions, linking sustainability to a monetary component, including additional players, and incorporating additional sustainability indicators all offer possibilities for extending the model.

There is an identified need for analytical models that consider sustainability in the supply chain. The results are especially important for companies operating in markets where customers perceive the sustainability of a product as a quality criterion.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the influence of clients' trust, opportunism and adaptation on contractual (non)cooperation with a mediating role of coordination in the construction industry.

A questionnaire was used to collect data from employees of the Pakistani construction industry. Smart partial least square (SmartPLS) has been used for analyzing the data of 270 respondents from construction projects.

The results of the SmartPLS indicate that (1) Trust and contract coordination positively while opportunism negatively influence contractor's contractual cooperation. (2) Contract adaptation and contract coordination positively influence the noncontractual cooperation of the contractor. (3) Moreover, contract coordination positively mediates the relationship between trust and noncontractual cooperation, but negatively mediates the relationship between opportunism and contract adaptation and noncontractual cooperation.

The findings of this research suggest several policy implications for administrative authorities, project managers and policymakers. These authorities need to focus on clients' trust, opportunism and adaptation because these factors significantly influence contract coordination and cooperation in the construction industry. Emphasizing these factors will enable project managers to gain economies of scale and mitigate project failure.

To the best of the authors’ search and knowledge, they did not find any study examining the mediating role of coordination between trust, opportunism, adaptation and cooperation in the construction industry. Hence, the present study advances their understanding in the field of project management and construction business.

This study aims to explore the awareness status of Web 2.0 tools among library and information science (LIS) professionals in the University Libraries of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The study used quantitative method to collect data from 73 LIS professionals in 18 public sector university libraries of the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. Inferential and descriptive statistical techniques were used to analyze data using SPSS.

It was observed from the findings that majority of LIS professional s possess good knowledge of MS Office; however, some senior librarians were less acquainted. Internet facility was available to 60 participants out of 66. Librarians were not familiar with many services of Web 2.0; however, Facebook, YouTube and Skype were most familiar among the librarians. Majority of the respondents had no experience of using podcasting, RSS feeds, LinkedIn, LibraryThing, Flickr and MySpace. On the other hand, e-mail services, Facebook and YouTube were founded to be the most commonly used Web 2.0 tools among respondents. Problems faced by majority of the respondents were power failure, lack of training, non-cooperation from higher authorities, low speed of internet and financial problems.

These research results can be very beneficial for the interested librarians in universities, when they plan to use Web 2.0 applications in their libraries.

This study presents an overall picture of Web 2.0 applications in university libraries of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and attempts to provide the readers with helpful information to better understand how their colleagues elsewhere are utilizing Web 2.0 tools in execution of library services.

We examine the mode of international expansion as an equilibrium governance contract between home country and host country factor owner. The focus is on agency costs, a form of transactions costs. Two phenomena are shown to be related to the agency costs imposed by factor owners: (i) the choice of different modes of international expansion by one firm in different locations, and (ii) the simultaneous occurrence of several forms of foreign involvement in the same location. We attempt to characterize the dynamic relationship between the mode of an offshore operation and changes in factor market conditions that affect agency costs.