The EVALI outbreak and tobacco sales in the USA, 2014–2020

BackgroundThe E-cigarette, or Vaping Product-Use Associated Lung Injury (EVALI) Outbreak of 2019 hospitalised thousands and killed dozens of people in the USA and raised perceptions of the dangers posed to health by electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes). These illnesses along with continued increases in youth vaping rates lead to the passage of many state and federal laws intended to curtail the sale of flavoured e-cigarettes. Little is known about the impact of these events on US e-cigarette and cigarette retail sales.MethodsUsing Nielsen Scantrack sales data from January 2014 to January 2020 for 23 US states, we evaluate the effect of the EVALI outbreak. First-differenced state-panel regressions tracking unit sales of total-level and category-level e-cigarettes and cigarette sales controlling for price, Tobacco 21 policy coverage, product distribution, seasonality, EVALI-attributable deaths, and state-level e-cigarette policies affecting the availability of e-cigarettes (non-tobacco flavoured and total) were employed.ResultsDollar sales of e-cigarettes declined 29% from their pre-EVALI peak by January 2020. Total sales of e-cigarettes declined in response to EVALI deaths and the total e-cigarette sales ban put in place in Massachusetts adopted in its wake. Cigarette sales were largely unchanged by either the direct or indirect policy effects of the EVALI outbreak, except for in Massachusetts, where cigarette sales—particularly those smoked by young people—rose temporarily after a total ban on e-cigarette sales.ConclusionSales of e-cigarettes declined in response to the EVALI outbreak and from the most restrictive regulatory policies that were adopted in response, while sales of cigarettes were affected less.

Blow the whistle or dance to a tune! An ethical dilemma

Study level/applicability BBA. Case overview Mr Qazi was sitting in his office in the Multan branch, reviewing his past month’s key performance indicators when he got a call from his Town Operations Supervisor, Mr Ahmed, based in Bahawalpur. Ahmed was recently promoted and transferred to Bahawalpur, from Multan branch. He informed Qazi about the huge inventory variances, which were not earlier reported by the previous Town Operations Supervisor, Mr Sagheer. Qazi was informed that differences were around 2.37% of total sales vs the allowable company limit of Zero inventory variance. Qazi was worried about whether to report these differences to higher management or not. He was very well aware that reporting might even cost him his job, and that of Sagheer too. He could not see any solution to the recovery of the inventory or cash against the same. Should Qazi take a risk and let go of Sagheer? Should he report the differences? Expected learning outcome 1. Demonstrate the fraud and integrity-related issues. Why and how happened? 2. Analyzed the role of organizational policies in the decision of blow the whistle. 3. Identify the behaviors that helped a whistle-blower. 4. Assess the ethical dilemmas in which professional duties may conflict with personal ethics. 5. Propose organizational policies to encourage whistle-blowing and to discourage the fraud or integrity-related issues. Supplementary materials Teaching Notes are available for educators only. Subject code CSS 9: Operations and logistics.

Enterprise Financial Characteristics and Corporate Social Responsibility Costs of Oil and Gas Businesses in Nigeria

This work evaluated the effect of entity characteristics on company social responsibility costs of oil and gas firms in Nigeria for 2010 - 2019. The independent variables of the study and measures of firm characteristics are total assets, total sales, financial leverage and firm age while the independent variable is corporate social responsibility. A sample of three firms was selected out of a population of eleven oil and gas businesses on the Nigeria Stock Exchange during the period. Supporting data were obtained from the selected firms and analyzed using multiple regression analysis. Findings from the analysis suggest that both total assets and total sales positively and significantly affect the corporate social responsibility costs of the firms. It was also found that financial leverage positively and insignificantly affects the corporate social responsibility costs of the firms. Finding further reveals that firm age negatively and insignificantly affects corporate social responsibility costs of the firms. In the light of the findings, it was recommended that the firm managers should invest in assets especially long-term assets that will yield future streams of returns for their firms. This is because investment in assets improves production and promotes the corporate social responsibility performance of the firms. It was also recommended that the firm managers should promote their products through various product promotion channels as total sales boast firm profitability and promote corporate social responsibility performance. It was further recommended that the firm managers should increase the proportion of debts in their firms’ capital structure. It was finally recommended that firm managers should use a modern approach while implementing their corporate social responsibility programs as opposed to the old style.

Designing a Star Schema for Optimizing the Total Sales of Motorcycles

Motorcycle sales have increased significantly, motorcycle manufacturers are competing to produce the latest models which are then sold to consumers. As a result, motorcycle dealers are overwhelmed with more and more data, not knowing what to do with it. Motorcycle dealers also have difficulty calculating the total sales of motorcycles. We try to provide solutions to deal with data overflow. We propose designing a star schema as the basis for creating a data warehouse. To create a star schema, we propose a four-step sequence in creating an effective star schema, starting from requirements analysis and reporting, understanding business processes, connecting and matching business processes with suitable entities and determining the dimensions of the business processes. We get a star schema with 1 fact table, motorcycle_sales and 11 of dimension tables, such as brand, color, customer, customer_contract, distributor, district, motorcycle, repair_workshop, sell_location, type and time. The star schema is an optimized model that provides the best performance in presenting more complex information

TOMA DE DECISIONES EN EL CORTO PLAZO BASADOS EN COSTE-VOLUMEN-BENEFICIO

Cost-volume-profit relationships are the strategy for short-term decisions. This article analyzes and examines the relationship between changes in activity and changes in total sales revenue, costs, and net profit. Making a profit in times of economic/financial uncertainty is not easy for companies. The cost of materials, labor, equipment, advertising, etc., means that it is exceedingly difficult to stay in business. Questions such as: How much do companies have to produce and sell to break even in times of uncertainty? How do short-term decisions affect the business and capital structure? The answer is the relationship between sales revenue and costs.

Global Value Chain Participation, Competition, and Markups: Evidence from Ethiopian Manufacturing Firms

This study uses detailed manufacturing census panel data for 2000 to 2014 to explore the relationship between Ethiopian firms’ global value chain (GVC) participation and markups. We find that GVC firms, defined as firms involved in both exporting and importing intermediate inputs, tend to have lower markups relative to non-trading firms and firms that are involved only in material imports. Moreover, the more intensely a firm is integrated into a GVC (measured by the share of export value added and imported inputs in total sales), the lower its markup is. Finally, we explore competition effects at the industry level and find that firms operating in industries with a relatively high GVC presence and suppliers selling inputs to such industries tend to have lower markups owing to horizontal competition and backward linkages, respectively. All of these findings suggest that GVC participation is associated with greater competition for Ethiopian firms.

Estimated Economic Impacts of the 2019 Midwest Floods

In the spring of 2019, U.S. agriculture experienced a record high number of prevented planted acres primarily due to historic rainfall across large portions of the Corn Belt and Mid-South. Producers of corn, upland cotton, soybean, and wheat were impacted with a substantial loss of revenue due to no crops being produced and marketed. With about 11.4 million acres of corn not planted, foregone gross revenue from crop sales likely exceeded $6 billion alone. Instead of focusing on the loss of producers’ incomes as a result of prevented planted acres, our analysis focuses on the economic impacts, due to lost sales, for firms that provide inputs to farmers. Acres prevented from planting resulted in producers not incurring typical expenditures for planting and post planting inputs such as seed, crop nutrients, and crop protection (herbicides, insecticides, fungicides, etc.). Agricultural input manufacturers, wholesalers, and retailers do not have similar opportunities to insure against foregone sales and have received no disaster assistance payments. Normally, the large geographic footprint of many of these firms mitigates the impact of localized weather effects. However, given the widespread nature of the wet spring, these firms were negatively affected across Corn Belt and Mid-South representing a substantial production area. Regional economic impact of declines in sales by agricultural input providers due to wet weather-based prevented plantings on 13.1 million acres. Direct sale losses of $2.9 billion led to $4.5 billion losses in total sales that were concentrated in parts of Minnesota, South Dakota, and Illinois.

A Two-Stage SEM–Artificial Neural Network Analysis of Mobile Commerce and Its Drivers

The COVID-19 health and economic crisis has affected all areas of social life globally, including the economy. The world economy has declined due to purchasing power for individuals who have been forced to stay at home and cannot perform work. These restrictions to prevent the spread of SARS-Cov-2 have led to an increase in electronic commerce and mobile commerce as tools for procuring goods and services. In this paper, we conducted a longitudinal analysis of mobile commerce as an essential electronic commerce component, establishing the main drivers of mobile commerce and the intensity of their influences. The research focuses on mobile commerce in the United States (U.S.). It covers the period 2010–2020, the last year of this period capturing the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on electronic commerce (e-commerce) and mobile commerce (m-commerce). In the macroeconomic analysis of competitiveness, we established the main drivers of m-commerce, using artificial neural networks and the mediation effects found between the variables that describe m-commerce, e-commerce, and total sales, using structural equation modeling. The research results indicate an increase in the share of e-commerce in total sales and a predominance of the m-commerce share in e-commerce on the background of traffic restrictions and social distance rules imposed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Stakeholders in the m-commerce area should consider the following enhancing drivers: increasing internet speed, expanding 5G and Wi-Fi networks, and increasing accessibility and trust in mobile devices and applications.

Investment in Commodity Stocks as Way to Minimize Risks in Crisis

Managing stocks in crisis is an effective method of providing sustainable functioning of the company and maintaining sales on the necessary level. To arrange this process it is essential to identify groups of products bringing high profit, products being in demand and products, which should be denied, as their sales are no higher than 2% of the total sales. The authors consider management of finished commodity stocks as a method to provide sustainability in crisis, in particular, pandemic. At the same time they highlight the key factors of stock monitoring, including possibility to build-up moderate stocks of free cash, methods of building-up and gaining commodity stocks, keep the balance between stock costs and costs of their maintenance, etc. To raise the efficiency of stock management the authors propose the following solutions for accumulating cash: crediting as the easiest way of raising funds to get stocks, which can affect negatively the finance sustainability of the organization; emergency meeting of proprietors and informing them about the strategy of crisis counteracting, including delay of paying dividends; building-up the urgent reserve and discharging unnecessary employees or transferring them on parttime work; discounts and sales, which can clear stock-houses and get needed funds. The article gives classification of products proceeding from 5 groups: leading products, accompanying products, substitutes, complex products and status products, each of the groups was characterized.