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Preface The functions of business divide into several areas and the general focus of this book is on one of the most important although least understood of these—DISTRIBUTION. The particular focus is on reviewing current practice in distribution costing and on attempting to push the frontiers back a little by suggesting some new approaches to overcome previously defined shortcomings.

This paper aims to draw on Adler and Borys’ (1996) concept of an enabling use of bureaucracy to examine how the integration of a single-book tax-compliant transfer pricing system into the management control system is related to the perceived success of that transfer pricing system.

Based on survey data from Swiss multinational firms, the authors test a structural equation model. In addition, the authors conduct interviews with executives from three multinational enterprises.

The authors find that the integration of a tax-compliant transfer pricing system into the management control system may be perceived to be successful in achieving both tax compliance and internal (control) purposes. This is particularly true when the transfer pricing system is transparent and can be amended in the case of fundamental management control problems.

The typical shortcomings of a survey-based research apply to this study. Future research could build on this model and more closely investigate the relationship between transfer pricing system integration and an enabling use of the transfer pricing system.

Based on this study’s findings, the authors recommend that a strong integration of tax-compliant transfer prices into the management control system should be accompanied by internal transparency and the ability to repair the transfer pricing system.

Prior research on the integration between transfer pricing and management control systems has either been analytical or based on case studies. This cross-sectional analysis provides reliable insights into different levels of integration, use and the success of transfer pricing systems.

The purpose of this paper is to model the Chinese unique regulation changes with the supply-and-demand analytical framework and structure the relationship between initial public offerings (IPO) underpricing and institutional changes with the comparative static method. A well-functioning stock market is crucial to the transition into a market economy, but the Chinese stock market is somehow twisted with frequent government interventions, particularly the IPO market. Can the underpricing issue be mitigated in the changing institutional settings? Can the market-orientated incremental reform of regulations succeed in the Chinese stock market?

The theoretical analysis confirms that IPO underpricing becomes relatively better with dynamic changes of relaxation of the approval and pricing systems. Collecting and examining the data of newly listed firms from 1993 to 2010, the influence of institutional changes on IPO underpricing with regressions, such as ordinary least square (OLS), bootstrap and two stage least square (2SLS) estimation methods was further empirically examined.

The magnitude of the Chinese IPO underpricing during the past two decades is as high as 181.6 per cent on the average. The sizes of IPO underpricing significantly reduce with an increase in the issuing sizes and the ratios of price-earnings ratios. The dummy variables of government-approved regulations are negatively associated with IPO underpricing. The dummy variables of pricing regulations are positively related to IPO underpricing and the coefficients become smaller with newer regulations. Generally, the magnitude of the Chinese IPO underpricing decreases over time.

This paper enriches the IPO literature by dynamically examining the effect of institutional changes on IPO underpricing in Chinese primary markets. We argue that institutional changes characterized by incremental marketization can help to alleviate extreme IPO underpricing and to promote financial development. The Chinese transition from the planning system to the market system in the IPO market will be a long and strenuous process, but it works.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze price decision-making through a practice-based approach. The paper investigates the micro-level practices used to arrive at sales price decisions.

In this study, a qualitative study approach is used to develop findings abductively. The data are gathered through an in-depth case study at two firms: semi-structured interviews, meeting observations, shadowing and pricing documents.

This paper finds that pricing is a collective decision-making process involving multiple actors across the organization. The case firms work on solving information, coordination and control problems to arrive at sales prices by enacting interlinked practices. Pricing is therefore neither a structure nor a single decision but a process consisting of multiple micro-level practices that enable firms to make pricing decisions.

This paper develops a practice-based approach to pricing that conceptualize the micro-level practices used to to make pricing decisions in the face of information, coordination and control problems. The paper is interdisciplinary and adds to the accounting literature and the market literature, which have tended to study pricing as a decision made by one decision maker, and not as an organizational process where multiple actors share, evaluate, interpret and coordinate information and decisions.

The study aims to investigate how attribution theory in the context of pricing strategies can help tourism destinations recover from the negative impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The study adopted a qualitative research design using semi-structured interviews to address the lack of research in this area. Interview participants included tourists and tourism customers. The interview responses were then analyzed using “Nvivo” qualitative data analysis software to identify critical themes regarding applying attribution theory to pricing strategies.

The findings revealed that tourists prefer bundled and hedonic pricing strategies that integrate the service providers' pricing strategies' locus of control, stability and controllability. Tourists do not favor dual pricing strategies unless the reasons for price controllability or stability are justified. Tourists also prefer the controllable pay-what-you-want pricing strategy. Although tourists accept dynamic pricing, certain conditions related to price locus, stability and controllability must be met.

The research shows tourists prefer pricing strategies that give them control and flexibility, like bundled packages and pay-what-you-want models. Service providers should integrate pricing strategies that transparent costs and justify price fluctuations. While dynamic pricing is accepted if necessitated by external factors, tourists are wary of unnecessary price changes. Providers can build trust and satisfaction by explaining pricing rationale and offering controllable options like bundles.

The study contributes to the theory by applying attribution theory to the context of pricing strategies in tourism. It also provides innovative recommendations for tourism managers on how to use pricing strategies after the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings offer new insights that extend beyond previous research.

Owing to the fact that the over-the-counter (OTC) market has no organized exchange, the options traded in the OTC market are more likely to be exposed to credit risk, Asian options being one of them. In this chapter we first discuss the pricing of geometric Asian options and the Black–Scholes options model subject to credit risk. We then combine the two models to derive a closed-form formula for pricing a geometric Asian option subject to the credit risk. The numerical analysis reveals that other pricing formulae existing in the literature can cause serious pricing errors when there is a possibility of default in reality.

Revenue management (RM) is a significant technique to improve revenue with limited resources. With the macro environment of dramatically increasing transit capacity and rapid railway transport development in China, it is necessary to involve the theory of RM into the operation and decision of railway passenger transport.

This paper proposes the theory and framework of generalized RM of railway passenger transport (RMRPT), and the thoughts and methods of the main techniques in RMRPT, involving demand forecasting, line planning, inventory control, pricing strategies and information systems, are all studied and elaborated. The involved methods and techniques provide a sequential process to help with the decision-making for each stage of RMRPT. The corresponding techniques are integrated into the information system to support practical businesses in railway passenger transport.

The combination of the whole techniques devotes to railway benefit improvement and transit resource utilization and has been applied into the practical operation and organization of railway passenger transport.

The development of RMRPT would provide theoretical and technical support for the improvement of service quality as well as railway benefits and efficiency.

Purpose – Pharmaceutical expenditures have an important role in Europe. The attempts to control expenditure have used a wide range of policy measures. We reviewed the main measures adopted by the European Union countries, especially in countries where governments are the largest third-party payers.

Methodology – To complement a literature review on the topic, data was gathered from national reviews of health systems and direct inquiries to several government bodies.

Findings – Almost all countries regulate prices of pharmaceutical products. Popular policy measures include international referencing to set prices (using as benchmark countries that have set lower prices), internal reference pricing systems to promote price competition in domestic markets, and positive lists for reimbursement to promote consumption of generics (including in some cases substitution by pharmacists of drugs prescribed by physicians). Despite the wide range of policy measures, it is not possible to identify a “silver bullet” to control pharmaceutical expenditures. We also identified two main policy challenges: policy coordination among countries within the European Union to maintain incentives for R&D at the global level, and the development of new relationships with the pharmaceutical industry; namely, the so-called risk-sharing agreements between the pharmaceutical industry and governments/regulators (or large third-party payers).