Multimarket contact and target size: The moderating effect of market concentration and location

Acquisitions are competitive moves that disrupt an industry’s competitive structure. As a result, firms are often not passive observers of their rival’s acquisitions, but actively retaliate against such competitive moves. In this study, we explore these dynamics by analyzing one way in which multimarket contact may influence acquisition strategies, namely, the type of targets acquired. We contribute to the acquisition literature by clarifying the role that pre-acquisition competitive interdependencies play in firms’ acquisition strategies. Specifically, we suggest that high multimarket contact firms do not necessarily avoid acquisition activity. Instead, these firms are more likely to acquire targets that are less likely to incur retaliation from interconnected rivals. We also explore two important boundary conditions to this relationship: (1) the market’s competitive structure and (2) the location of the target firm. Our empirical tests of a sample of 741 bank holding companies from 1995 to 2014 offer support for our hypotheses.

Exclusivity or Competitor Retail? Impacts of Channel Structures on Multinational Supply Chains considering Green Manufacturing

The development of green supply chains by multinational manufacturers (MNMs) in emerging markets promotes a better corporate reputation and competitive advantage. Selecting viable marketing channels will help reduce risks in overseas markets while positively impacting the green level and the stakeholders. This paper analyzes channel decisions under different scenarios in a game analytical framework and identifies that both exclusive and competitive channels promote the green supply chain, and that the latter leads to a higher green level and benefits the local manufacturer. Whatever profit-seeking or corporate social responsibility- (CSR-) seeking follows, the MNM prefers the competitive channel when the green research and development (R&D) investment coefficient is relatively low and vice versa for the exclusive channel. Moreover, transaction cost undermines the green supply chain, the competitive structure lowers the loss of greenness, and the exclusionary mode raises the MNM’s profits. Another interesting finding is when subsidies are offered by the importing country, the competitive structure is more conducive to the green and the participant’s gains, while the exclusive structure is detrimental to the green and only advantageous for the domestic manufacturer’s benefits. Besides, the revenue-sharing contract results in a higher green level of the supply chain in the channels than before, but the MNM tends to select the exclusive marketing channel with a relatively lower green level due to the profits. Subject to the findings, we propose an improved revenue-sharing contract that achieves the MNM’s competitive retailing option and ensures the emergence of the manufacturers’ win-win solution.

On the Analogy Between Business and Sport: Towards an Aristotelian Response to The Market Failures Approach to Business Ethics

This paper explores the notion that business calls for an adversarial ethic, akin to that of sport. On this view, because of their competitive structure, both sport and business call for behaviours that are contrary to ‘ordinary morality’, and yet are ultimately justified because of the goods they facilitate. I develop three objections to this analogy. Firstly, there is an important qualitative difference between harms risked voluntarily and harms risked involuntarily. Secondly, the goods achieved by adversarial relationships in sport go beyond the function of sport, i.e. to entertain audiences. Thirdly, the most plausible account of the athlete’s motivational development starts with their love of the sport, which can explain a commitment to the sporting ethics in a way that is not paralleled in business. I close by drawing attention to the ways in which an Aristotelian conception of business ethics may be able to accommodate these objections.

Energy-Efficient Products and Competitiveness in the Manufacturing Sector

Transition to a low-carbon, energy-efficient economy presents an opportunity to enhance the sustainability and competitiveness of manufacturing firms. The integration of energy-efficiency solutions into products resembles the concept of servitization that is now a lever for product competitiveness and, in turn, business performance. Based on empirical data from 293 manufacturers of electrical equipment or machinery and equipment, this paper analyzes the relation between energy-efficiency servitization capacity and performance using two structural equation models. To test the mediating role of servitization capacity, the first model uses strategic analysis of competitive structure to predict business performance, while the second model uses knowledge of the regulatory framework. Results suggest that both strategic analysis of competitive structure and knowledge of the regulatory framework positively influence performance via improving servitization capacity. With demand for new energy-efficient products expected to increase, products with a reduced energy footprint and energy-management services are needed for industrial processes to contribute to decarbonizing the economy.

The effectiveness of marketing tools in a consumer goods market in Italy during the Great Recession (2010-2015)

In the case of markets characterized by a stationary primary demand, the relevant dimension for measuring a company’s success is represented by market shares. The paper aims to build and comment on a model that gauges the competitive effects of marketing maneuvers on market shares, with reference to tea-based beverages in Italy in the period November 2010 – October 2015. This analysis will be instrumental in establishing the effectiveness of marketing policies based on promotions or advertising. We estimate such a model on weekly data provided by IRI Infoscan and Nielsen, involving the top five brands in the Italian market. After a descriptive analysis and a stationarity test, we estimate a Multinomial Logit model, making use of the Seemingly Unrelated Regressions method. The results allow us to identify the effectiveness of each brand’s marketing policies. Moreover, they enable us to derive the matrices of direct and cross elasticities of brands’ market shares with respect to the main marketing tools (price, promotions, distribution, advertising investments) and to compare basic and average market shares. Based on these results, it is therefore possible to identify the market’s competitive structure, revealing the most incisive factors to be price and weighted distribution, while advertising investments are significant in only a few cases and elasticities are remarkably low. The competitive structure appears to be of a horizontal type (i.e., cross elasticities do not vary greatly).

Undercutting Justice – Why legal representation should not be allocated by the market

The adversarial legal system is traditionally praised for its normative appeal: it protects individual rights; ensures an equal, impartial, and consistent application of the law; and, most importantly, its competitive structure facilitates the discovery of truth – both in terms of the facts, and in terms of the correct interpretation of the law. At the same time, legal representation is allocated as a commodity, bought and sold in the market: the more one pays, the better legal representation one gets. In this article, I argue that the integration of a market in legal representation with the adversarial system undercuts the very normative justifications on which the system is based. Furthermore, I argue that there are two implicit conditions, which are currently unmet, but are required for the standard justifications to hold: that there is (equal opportunity for) equality of legal representation between parties, and that each party has (equal opportunity for) a sufficient level of legal representation. I, therefore, outline an ideal proposal for reform that would satisfy these conditions.

FINANCIAL ISSUES AND CHALLENGES OF TOBACCO PRODUCERS: A CASE STUDY FROM ALBANIAN PRODUCERS

The aim of this research paper is to realize an analysis of the tobacco market in Albania. We will be focused on some of the elements that have characterized this market, like the existence of monopoly situation. The study will help us reveal some of the problems that the monopoly as a competitive structure may have brought. We also want to treat some of the issues or problems that tobacco producers face. We want also to see how much they are supported from the government and also want to discover their opinion about different issues regarding the way in which this market functions. The results showed that there are several problems that tobacco producers in Albania face. These problems are related with the market competitive structure and also with the governmental intervention. Informality has been one of the elements that have been followed by some other problems for the producers; such as uncertainties for the producers. So the study revealed that not everything is going well for tobacco producers in Albania. One of the main elements that have done the producers not satis-fied as been the lack of the necessary support from the government, which should be more helpful toward them.