Does competitive entry structurally change key marketing metrics?

To what extent does competitive entry create a structural change in key marketing metrics? New players may just be a temporal nuisance to incumbents, but could also fundamentally change the latter's performance evolution, or induce them to permanently alter their spending levels and/or pricing decisions. Similarly, the addition of a new marketing channel could permanently shift shopping preferences, or could just create a short-lived migration from existing channels. The steady-state impact of a given entry or channel addition on various marketing metrics is intrinsically an empirical issue for which we need an appropriate testing procedure. In this study, we introduce a testing sequence that allows for the endogenous determination of potential change (break) locations, thereby accounting for lead and/or lagged effects of the introduction of interest. By not restricting the number of potential breaks to one (as is commonly done in the marketing literature), we quantify the impact of the new entrant(s) while controlling for other events that may have taken place in the market. We illustrate the methodology in the context of the Dutch television advertising market, which was characterized by the entry of several late movers. We find that the steady-state growth of private incumbents' revenues was slowed by the quasi-simultaneous entry of three new players. Contrary to industry observers' expectations, such a slowdown was not experienced in the related markets of print and radio advertising.

Exchange rate exposure:do size and foreign operations matter?

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of firm size and foreign operations on the exchange rate exposure of UK non-financial companies from January 1981 to December 2001. Design/methodology/approach – The impact of the unexpected changes in exchange rates on firms’ stock returns is examined. In addition, the movements in bilateral, equally weighted (EQW) and trade-weighted and exchange rate indices are considered. The sample is classified according to firm size and the extent of firms’ foreign operations. In addition, structural changes on the relationship between exchange rate changes and individual firms’ stock returns are examined over three sub-periods: before joining the exchange rate mechanism (pre-ERM), during joining the ERM (in-ERM), and after departure from the ERM (post-ERM). Findings – The findings indicate that a higher percentage of UK firms are exposed to contemporaneous exchange rate changes than those reported in previous studies. UK firms’ stock returns are more affected by changes in the EQW, and US$ European currency unit exchange rate, and respond less significantly to the basket of 20 countries’ currencies relative to the UK pound exchange rate. It is found that exchange rate exposure has a more significant impact on stock returns of the large firms compared with the small and medium-sized companies. The evidence is consistent across all specifications using different exchange rate. The results provide evidence that the proportion of significant foreign exchange rate exposure is higher for firms which generate a higher percentage of revenues from abroad. The sensitivities of firms’ stock returns to exchange rate fluctuations are most evident in the pre-ERM and post-ERM periods. Practical implications – This study provides important implications for public policymakers, financial managers and investors on how common stock returns of various sectors react to exchange rate fluctuations. Originality/value – The empirical evidence supports the view that UK firms’ stock returns are affected by foreign exchange rate exposure.

RFID in the warehouse:a literature analysis (1995-2010) of its applications, benefits, challenges and future trends

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) has been identified as a crucial technology for the modern 21st century knowledge-based economy. Some businesses have realised benefits of RFID adoption through improvements in operational efficiency, additional cost savings, and opportunities for higher revenues. RFID research in warehousing operations has been less prominent than in other application domains. To investigate how RFID technology has had an impact in warehousing, a comprehensive analysis of research findings available from articles through leading scientific article databases has been conducted. Articles from years 1995 to 2010 have been reviewed and analysed with respect to warehouse operations, RFID application domains, benefits achieved and obstacles encountered. Four discussion topics are presented covering RFID in warehousing focusing on its applications, perceived benefits, obstacles to its adoption and future trends. This is aimed at elucidating the current state of RFID in the warehouse and providing insights for researchers to establish new research agendas and for practitioners to consider and assess the adoption of RFID in warehousing functions. © 2013 Elsevier B.V.

From 3LSP (Third Party Logistics Service Provider) to 4LSP (Fourth Party Logistics Service Provider):a case study from Ireland

Increased competition, geographically expanded marketplaces, technology replication and an ever discerning consumer base, are reasons why companies need to regularly reappraise their competencies in terms of activities and functions they perform themselves. Where viable alternatives exist, companies should consider outsourcing of non-core activities and functions. Within SCM (Supply Chain Management) it could be preferable if a “one stop shop” existed for companies seeking to outsource functions identified as non-core. “Traditionally” structured LSP’s who have concentrated their service offer around providing warehousing and transport activities are potentially at a crossroads – clients and potential clients requiring “new” services which could increase LSP’s revenues if provided, whilst failure to provide could perhaps result in clients seeking outsourced services elsewhere.

Personalized Question-Answering Mobile System

Mobile messaging is an integral and vital part of the mobile industry and contributes significantly to worldwide total mobile service revenues. In today’s competitive world, differentiation is a significant factor in the success of the business communication. SMS (Short Message Service) provides a powerful vehicle for service differentiation. What is missing, however, is the availability of personalized SMS messages. In particular, the exploitation of user profile information allows a selection and content delivery that meets preferences and interests for the individual. Personalization of mobile messages is important in today’s service-oriented society, and has proven to be crucial for the acceptance of services provided by the mobile telecommunication networks. In this paper we focus on user profile description and the mechanism for delivering the relevant information to the mobile user in accordance with his/her profile.

Long-term drivers of broadband traffic in next-generation networks

This paper is concerned with long-term (20+ years) forecasting of broadband traffic in next-generation networks. Such long-term approach requires going beyond extrapolations of past traffic data while facing high uncertainty in predicting the future developments and facing the fact that, in 20 years, the current network technologies and architectures will be obsolete. Thus, "order of magnitude" upper bounds of upstream and downstream traffic are deemed to be good enough to facilitate such long-term forecasting. These bounds can be obtained by evaluating the limits of human sighting and assuming that these limits will be achieved by future services or, alternatively, by considering the contents transferred by bandwidth-demanding applications such as those using embedded interactive 3D video streaming. The traffic upper bounds are a good indication of the peak values and, subsequently, also of the future network capacity demands. Furthermore, the main drivers of traffic growth including multimedia as well as non-multimedia applications are identified. New disruptive applications and services are explored that can make good use of the large bandwidth provided by next-generation networks. The results can be used to identify monetization opportunities of future services and to map potential revenues for network operators. © 2014 The Author(s).

Oligopoly Model of a Debit Card Network

JEL Classification: G21, L13.

Financial Transaction Tax: Small is Beautiful

The case for taxing financial transactions merely to raise more revenues from the financial sector is not particularly strong. Better alternatives to tax the financial sector are likely to be available. However, a tax on financial transactions could be justified in order to limit socially undesirable transactions when more direct means of doing so are unavailable for political or practical reasons. Some financial transactions are indeed likely to do more harm than good, especially when they contribute to the systemic risk of the financial system. However, such a financial transaction tax should be very small, much smaller than the negative externalities in question, because it is a blunt instrument that also drives out socially useful transactions. There is a case for taxing over-the-counter derivative transactions at a somewhat higher rate than exchange-based derivative transactions. More targeted remedies to drive out socially undesirable transactions should be sought in parallel, which would allow, after their implementation, to reduce or even phase out financialtransaction taxes.

Modeling the fiscal impacts caused by climate change

Aim of the paper: The purpose is to gather the practices and to model the impacts of climate change on fiscal spending and revenues, responsibilities and opportunities, balance and debt related to climate change (CC). Methodology of the paper: The methodology will distinguish fiscal cost of mitigation and adaptation, besides direct and indirect costs. It will also introduce cost benefit analyses to evaluate the propensity of policy makers for action or passivity. Several scenarios will be drafted to see the different outcomes. The scenarios shall contain the possible losses in the natural and artificial environment and resources. Impacts on public budget are based on damage of income opportunities and capital/wealth/natural assets. There will be a list of actions when the fiscal correction of market failures will be necessary. Findings: There will be a summary and synthesis of estimation models on CC impacts on public finances, and morals of existing/existed budgeting practices on mitigation. The model will be based on damages (and maybe benefits) from CC, adjusted with probabilities of scenarios and policy making propensity for action. Findings will cover the way of funding of fiscal costs. Practical use, value added: From the synthesis of model, the fiscal cost of mitigation and adaptation can be estimated for any developed, emerging and developing countries. The paper will try to reply, also, for the challenge how to harmonize fiscal and developmental sustainability.

Az exportteljesítmények és a hátterükben álló vállalati jellemzők elemzése (Export performance clusters of the Hungarian enterprises)

A tanulmány célja a Magyarországon működő exportáló vállalatok jellemzőinek feltárása volt a 2009-es vállalati versenyképességi felmérés alapján. Több tanulmány vizsgálta a vállalatok exportteljesítményét vállalati méret és tulajdonosi szerkezet szerinti bontásban, az elemzésben a szerző viszont ettől eltérő szemléletmódot alkalmazott. A vállalatok exportteljesítménye áll (exportértékesítés volumene, aránya, exportárbevétel változása, jövedelmezőség), a vállalati csoportképzés, klaszterelemzés középpontjában. Három jól elkülöníthető klasztert sikerült azonosítani: a jelentős exporthányaddal és folyamatos növekedéssel jellemezhető sikeres exportáló vállalatok csoportját, a stagnálással, s gyakran csökkenő exportértékesítéssel jellemezhető vállalatcsoportot, s végül a harmadik klasztert azok a jelenleg még alacsony export-ár bevétellel és alacsony exportaránnyal jellemezhető vállalatok képezték, melyekre a növekedés és a kiugróan magas jövedelmezőség volt a jellemző. Az elemzés egyediségét az adja, hogy a vállalati versenyképességi felmérés adatbázisa lehetővé tette a különböző exportteljesítmények hátterében álló működési jellemzők vizsgálatát, amelynek eredményeit a cikk bemutatja. Fő következtetésként megállapítható, hogy a sikeres exportáló vállalatok csoportja mindegyik jellemző szerint jobb működési jellemzőkkel rendelkezik a másik két csoporthoz viszonyítva. / === / The purpose of the paper is to reveal the main characteristics of the Hungarian export oriented firms. It is based on the Hungarian Competitiveness Research Survey 2009. 85% of enterprises were small or medium size in the sample. The aim of the analysis was to identify main factors and tendencies of the overall export performance. Several papers discussed the export activities of firms according to their size and ownership structure in Hungary. A different method was used here. The overall export performance (measured by volume, change, and share of export revenues, and firm profitability ratios) was put in the centre of cluster analysis. Three different clusters were identified. Firms in the firstcluster had significant export performance and growth rate. The second cluster was the group of stagnating firms and the third one contained those whose export performance was low but signaled growth with excellent profitability ratios. The uniqueness of the paper derived from the Competitiveness Research Survey because it provided an opportunity to analyse the connection between export performance and other management and operational characteristics of enterprises. The paper may induce futher research in exploring main enterprise level factors of export performance of the Hungarian firms.

Does Lost Time Cost You Money and Create High Risk?

The aim of the case study is to express the delayed repair time impact on the revenues and profit in numbers with the example of the outage of power plant units. Main steps of risk assessment: • creating project plan suitable for risk assessment • identification of the risk factors for each project activities • scenario-analysis based evaluation of risk factors • selection of the critical risk factors based on the results of quantitative risk analysis • formulating risk response actions for the critical risks • running Monte-Carlo simulation [1] using the results of scenario-analysis • building up a macro which creates the connection among the results of the risk assessment, the production plan and the business plan.

Sportvállalatok külpiacra lépése - Elméleti alapok

A tanulmány célja, hogy megteremtse a kapcsolatot a sportgazdaságtan és a nemzetközi üzleti gazdaságtan között, felhívva a figyelmet a két terület metszetének jelentőségére. Azt állítjuk, hogy a sportszolgáltatások sajátosságai, az üzleti gazdaságtan fókuszában álló termeléstől való különbözőségük indokolttá teszi a sportvállalatok nemzetközivé válásának vizsgálatát. A tanulmány bemutatja a sportszolgáltatások néhány egyediségét, amelyek a nemzetközivé válás szempontjából is relevánsak, majd a nemzetközivé válás első logikai lépéseként megvizsgálja, hogyan és milyen okból lépnek külpiacra a sportszolgáltatást nyújtó cégek. Miután a sportvállalatok bevételei öt különböző piacról származnak, az egyes piacokon külön tárgyaljuk a nemzetközi terjeszkedés motivációit, és formáit. ----- Abstract: The aim of the study is to connect economics of sports with international business economics while enhancing the significance of the commonalities of the two disciplines. We found that the specialties of sport services, that are profoundly different from the production-centered business economics, highlight the importance of separate scientific analysis of the internationalization of sport companies. The study projects the characteristics of sport services that are relevant regarding the process of sports companies becoming international. Furthermore, it explores the first logical step of internationalization: the reasons of sports companies appearing on foreign markets. Since the revenues of sports companies flow from five different markets, we separately describe the motives and forms of international expansion on each market.

Financial transaction tax: Small is beautiful

The case for taxing financial transactions merely to raise more revenues from the financial sector is not particularly strong. Better alternatives to tax the financial sector are likely to be available. However, a tax on financial transactions could be justified in order to limit socially undesirable transactions when more direct means of doing so are unavailable for political or practical reasons. Some financial transactions are indeed likely to do more harm than good, especially when they contribute to the systemic risk of the financial system. However, such a financial transaction tax should be very small, much smaller than the negative externalities in question, because it is a blunt instrument that also drives out socially useful transactions. There is a case for taxing over-the-counter derivative transactions at a somewhat higher rate than exchange-based derivative transactions. More targeted remedies to drive out socially undesirable transactions should be sought in parallel, which would allow, after their implementation, to reduce or even phase out financial transaction taxes.

A minimálbér költségvetési hatásai = The budgetary effects of the minimum wage

A minimálbér-emelés a munkapiacon közvetlenül hat a keresletre és a kínálatra. Közvetett hatásai azonban túlmutatnak a munkapiacon, ezért azokat egy makromodell keretei között elemezzük. A makromodellben háromféle munkafajta és tíz ágazat van; az egyes ágazatok az árképzésükben és az adó- és járulékelkerülésük szerkezetében különböznek. A minimálbér-emelés munkapiaci feszültséget generál: csökkenti a foglalkoztatást a szakképzetlenek körében. Mivel az árszint az átlagbérnél gyorsabban nő, és az aggregált foglalkoztatás is csökken, így csökken a reálfogyasztás. A vállalatok profitja és beruházása csökken, ugyanakkor a vállalati profit csökkenése már csekély mértékű adóelkerülés-növeléssel is kiegyensúlyozható. A minimálbér-emelés hatására nőnek ugyan az adóbevételek, viszont a kiadások nagyobb mértékben nőnek, így általában romlik az egyenleg. Aki tehát a minimálbér emelését követeli, annak a felelős döntés során számolnia kell ezekkel a következményekkel. _____ Raising the minimum wage on the labour market has direct effects on supply and demand. But its indirect effects extend beyond the labour market. They are analysed here with a macro model that distinguishes three types of work and ten industries, whose firms differ in their price structures and the degrees to which tax and social-insurance payments are avoided. Raising the minimum wage generates tension on the labour market and reduces employment of the unskilled. Since the price level rises faster than average pay and aggregate employment falls, so does real consumption. The firms’ profits and investment decline, but the former can be offset even by a small increase in tax avoidance. Although the rise in the minimum wage boosts tax revenues, budgetary expenditures rise more and the balance deteriorates. Advocates of a higher minimum wage need to consider these consequences if they are to reach a responsible decision.

Üzleti teljesítménymérés a sportban, - avagy miként segítheti a sportszervezetek vezetőit a Balanced Scorecard koncepció a stratégia szerinti működésben = Measuring Business Performance in Sports - How the Balanced Scorecard approach can help sports organisations in operating along strategic objectives

Napjainkban egyre nagyobb figyelem fordul a sporttevékenység társadalmi hasznosságára, ugyanakkor számos sportszervezet a túléléséért küzd. A legtöbb sportszervezetnél a sportteljesítmény mérése dominál, s viszonylag kevés figyelmet fordítanak az üzleti teljesítmény és az ezt befolyásoló tényezők mérésére, annak ellenére, hogy a vezetők tudatában vannak a sportteljesítmény és az üzleti teljesítmény kölcsönös összefüggésével. A sportteljesítményt a fogyasztói elégedettségen keresztül bevételre kell váltani, illetve biztosítani kell a finanszírozási forrásokat (gondolhatunk akár a játékosok fizetésére) a megfelelő sportteljesítmény eléréséhez. A sportszervezetek vezetőinek át kell látniuk a sportteljesítmény és az üzleti teljesítmény összefüggéseit, és azonosítaniuk kell a kritikus értékteremtő tényezőket. Ehhez adhat egy megfelelő gondolkodási keretet a Balanced Scorecard alkalmazása. Tanulmányunkban egy rövid áttekintést adunk a Balanced Scorecard alkalmazásának előnyeiről és kihívásairól a non-profit szervezetek esetében, majd egy magyarországi kézilabda klubnál készített esettanulmány segítségével megvizsgáljuk a BSC alkalmazási lehetőségét a sportkluboknál. _____ While performance measurement in the sport industry has a traditionally strong focus on sports results, commercial success of sports clubs needs to gain more ground. Sports results should generate market revenues, by satisfying customer needs, and allow continued investment in the further improvement of sports success (i.e. more funds for player transfers and wages). Club managers need to understand the complex relationship between on-field and off-the-field success, and identify critical success factors for achieving strategic objectives. The Balanced Scorecard approach provides a plausible framework for such analysis. Our paper explains the challenges of and opportunities for implementing a Balanced Scorecard system in non-profit organisations, and provides insights into its application in professional sport through an in-depth case study of a handball club in Hungary. We conclude by providing a model for managing sports organisations in line with strategic objectives, balancing out stakeholder expectations for both sports results and commercial success.