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This is the first paper in a volume devoted exclusively to antitrust law and economics. It summarizes the other papers and addresses two issues. First, after showing that the federal courts generally view consumer welfare as the ultimate goal of antitrust law, it asks what they mean by that term. It concludes that recent decisions appear more likely to equate consumer welfare with the well-being of consumers in the relevant market than with economic efficiency. Second, it asks whether a buyer must possess monopsony power to induce a price discrimination that is not cost justified. It concludes that a buyer can often obtain an unjustified concession simply by wielding bargaining power, but the resulting concession may frequently – though not always – improve consumer welfare.

Merger review policy among countries varies according to the weight given to consumers relative to producers. When both receive their full welfare weight it is said that the efficiencies defense is fully realized. No well-developed economic rationale has been given for giving more weight to consumers. Such a rationale is given here by considering equity and efficiency both as goods for which there is a willingness to pay. The willingness to pay approach not only provides a rationale for giving consumers greater weight as with, e.g. a price standard, but also shows how in principle the weight is to be derived. The merger of Superior Propane and ICG Propane in Canada raises issues of the tradeoff of equity and efficiency. The willingness to pay approach is applied to this merger as an illustration.

Place branding and marketing are becoming key governance strategies that can increase governance legitimacy by meaningfully involving local stakeholder groups within the brand identity creation process. There remains a gap in knowledge regarding how place branding managers seek to involve stakeholders in the brand development, communication, and evaluation process. This research, based in three U.S. Deep South states and using Kavaratzis and Hatchʼs (2013) brand identity framework, finds that practitioners are doing well when it comes to expressing local beliefs within the brand identity, but can improve when it comes to analyzing and incorporating that feedback meaningfully. Without this, critical local stakeholders can feel alienated from local governance practices, thus decreasing legitimacy in branding and marketing processes and policies alike.

This cooperative alliance between a university and a nonprofit, private organization was initiated with the goal of developing capacity building measures for improving medical health and welfare in the rural village of Ocoroni in Northern Sinaloa, Mexico. Drawing from the literature on organization development and action research, it provides a detailed overview of the design and implementation of the work which was involved in this collaborative partnership. The outcomes are presented and with accomplishments noted, indicating that the initiative had a positive impact for the local community in Ocoroni, while simultaneously providing research opportunities and cross-cultural learning for faculty, graduate students, healthcare practitioners, volunteers, residents from the village and others who were involved the project.

Examines the demographic transformation of Orange County, Los Angeles, USA and the designation of districts known as Little Saigon and Koreatown. Contends that Orange County is fifth in the USA for fastest growing Asian communities. Uses a comparative social ecology approach to show how Koreans and Vietnamese have managed to establish their ethnic communities. Finally discusses the challenges faced in sustaining their communities, given the resistance from Anglo residents for “foreigners”.

This paper aims to understand how place brand managers in the US Deep South understand the brand images associated with their states and cities. The US South has its own unique identity – and the Deep South has its own differences from the rest of the country. Typically, the Deep South is seen as backwards, uneducated and the “buckle of the Bible Belt”. Given potentially negative brand associations, this research explores how destination marketing organization (DMO) managers in three Deep South states (Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama) think their places are perceived.

Miles et al.’s (2014) guidelines for qualitative content analysis are used to understand responses to open-ended questions regarding place brand associations. Surveys were sent to 104 DMO managers in each state, and 53 questionnaires were returned with usable responses. Deductive and inductive analyses were used to understand place brand associations, as well as how managers in the three states are promoting positive associations or correcting negative ones.

Managers reported both positive and negative brand associations but also detailed problems when promoting either: financial and political constraints, information sharing, and asset capitalization. Managers, then, face issues when trying to promote their cities and states, thus negatively influencing the economic and social returns on tourism investment into the region.

Not many studies examine this region of the USA when it comes to tourism-related brand associations. Usually studies focus more broadly on a Southern identity rather than specific associations DMO managers understand the state to maintain. The study also fills a gap regarding asking DMO managers how and why they do what they do. Finally, the study puts into action Gertner and Kotler’s (2004) framework for assessing corrective measures for a negative brand image.

Little research on the influence of external factors, such as weather and holiday periods, on retail sales on alcoholic beverages is available. This study aims to investigate how weekly retail sales of different alcoholic beverages vary in association with daily maximum temperatures and annual federal holidays across selected US counties in the years 2013 to 2015. The research provides information, which can contribute to better sales forecasts.

Secondary data of weekly retail sales (volume) of alcoholic beverages from 37,346 stores in 651 counties in the USA are analysed. The data cover on average 21% of all existing US counties and 12% of the total US off-trade retail sales of alcoholic beverages in the period studied (Euromonitor, 2017). Additional data of federal holidays and meteorological data are collated for each county in the sample. Seasonal autoregressive integrated moving average models with exogenous regressors (SARIMAX) are applied to develop forecasting models and to investigate possible relationships and effects.

The results indicate that off-trade retail sales of beer, liquor, red and white wine are temperature sensitive throughout the year, while contrary to expectations rosé, sparkling and other wines are not. Sales sensitivities to temperature also differ by geography. In the warmest regions, liquor and white wine sales do not respond to temperature changes, as opposed to the coolest regions, where they are responsive. Public holidays, particularly Easter, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year holidays, represent a constant influencing factor on short-term sales increases for all investigated alcoholic beverage categories.

This is the first large-scale study of weather and holiday-related sales variations over time, across geographies and different alcoholic beverage categories. Seasonal and non-seasonal short-term sales variations are important for retailers and manufacturers alike. Accounting for expected changes in demand accommodates efficiencies along the supply chain and has implications for retail management, as well as adjusting marketing efforts in competing categories.