The diffusion of electronic business in the United States

The authors provide a recent account of the diffusion of electronic business in the U.S. economy using new data from the U.S. Bureau of the Census. They document the extent of the diffusion in three main sectors of the economy: retail, services, and manufacturing. For manufacturing, they also analyze plants' patterns of adoption of several Internet-based processes and conclude with a look at the future of the Internet's diffusion and a prospect for further data collection by the U.S. Census Bureau.Electronic commerce ; Internet

Digital piracy, creative productivity, and customer care effort: evidence from the digital publishing industry

We empirically investigate how writers’ output is affected by copyright piracy using data from a Chinese digital publishing platform. We identify two measurements of writers’ output—creative productivity and customer care—which are also affected by readers’ feedback through purchasing, tipping, and commenting. We take advantage of an exogenous event—the termination of a free personal storage service and search function by a leading Chinese cloud storage provider in June 2016—to causally identify the effects of the resulting reduced copyright piracy on writers’ efforts. Using a difference-in-differences modeling approach, we compare the changes in average writer behavior before and after the event across two groups of writers: (1) writers who have profit-sharing contracts with the platform and (2) those who do not. We find that after the termination, contracted writers increased their creative productivity efforts in terms of quantity without sac-rificing quality but reduced their customer care efforts. However, these effects are absent for noncontracted writers. Our study is among the first to provide empirical support for the positive effect of digital intellectual property rights infringement re-duction on creative productivity

Diffusion and Impacts of E-Commerce in the United States of America: Results from an Industry Survey

The paper provides baseline conditions of U.S. e-commerce in the post-dot.com era. The article examines the key factors that act as determinants of e-commerce diffusion. It is based on qualitative analysis of U.S. industry survey data, matched to a similar data and analyses from other countries. It presents data taken from one of the most comprehensive sample surveys of U.S. firm activity in e-commerce. The paper analyzes differences among three industry sectors, and between small/medium and large firms using both qualitative interpretations and direct observations from the survey data, as well as use of structural equation modeling of e-commerce diffusion and impacts. Some differences in e-commerce orientation and experience were found across the three industry sectors studied in the survey. These differences are related largely to the nature of the tasks done in the respective industries, and to prior industry-level investment and learning related to e-commerce. There were also differences found in e-commerce attitudes and experience between small/medium sized enterprises (SMEs) and large establishments. Only modest differences were found between U.S. and non-U.S. establishments. Quantitative analysis revealed significant regression relationships with their level of statistical significance. Results show that e-commerce adoption is path dependent (i.e., establishments follow earlier investment patterns), and that each industry\u27s market and institutional context play a significant role in adoption

Can Upward Brand Extensions be an Opportunity for Marketing Managers During the Covid-19 Pandemic and Beyond?

Early COVID-19 research has guided current managerial practice by introducing more products across different product categories as consumers tried to avoid perceived health risks from food shortages, i.e. horizontal brand extensions. For example, Leon, a fast-food restaurant in the UK, introduced a new range of ready meal products. However, when the food supply stabilised, availability may no longer be a concern for consumers. Instead, job losses could be a driver of higher perceived financial risks. Meanwhile, it remains unknown whether the perceived health or financial risks play a more significant role on consumers’ consumptions. Our preliminary survey shows perceived health risks outperform perceived financial risks to positively influence purchase intention during COVID-19. We suggest such a result indicates an opportunity for marketers to consider introducing premium priced products, i.e. upward brand extensions. The risk-as�feelings and signalling theories were used to explain consumer choice under risk may adopt affective heuristic processing, using minimal cognitive efforts to evaluate products. Based on this, consumers are likely to be affected by the salient high-quality and reliable product cue of upward extension signalled by its premium price level, which may attract consumers to purchase when they have high perceived health risks associated with COVID-19. Addressing this, a series of experimental studies confirm that upward brand extensions (versus normal new product introductions) can positively moderate the positive effect between perceived health risks associated with COVID-19 and purchase intention. Such an effect can be mediated by affective heuristic information processing. The results contribute to emergent COVID-19 literature and managerial practice during the pandemic but could also inform post-pandemic thinking around vertical brand extensions

Structural market changes and strategic adaptation along the value chain:theoretical perspectives and empirical evidence

Strukturelle Veränderungen der Wettbewerbslandschaft, insbesondere die Deregulierung von Märkten und der rasante technologische Fortschritt, nehmen Einfluss auf die optimale Gestaltung von Wertschöpfungsprozessen. Zwei wesentliche Trends sind beobachtbar: die zunehmende Desintegration von Produktionsprozessen und die Neuinterpretation der Rolle des Kunden im Wertschöpfungsprozess. Im Rahmen von drei empirischen und einer konzeptionellen Analyse werden wesentliche Implikationen für die erfolgreiche Gestaltung von Wertschöpfungsprozessen abgeleitet und erwartete Erfolgswirkungen struktureller Veränderungen entlang der Wertschöpfungskette kritisch reflektiert

Financial integration and entrepreneurial activity: evidence from foreign bank entry in emerging markets

An extensive empirical literature has documented the positive growth effects of equity market liberalization. However, this line of research ignores the impact of financial integration on a category of firms crucial for economic development, i.e. the small entrepreneurial firms. This paper aims to fill this void. We employ a large panel containing almost 60,000 firm–year observations on listed and unlisted companies in Eastern European economies to assess the differential impact of foreign bank lending on firm growth and financing. Foreign lending stimulates growth in firm sales, assets, and leverage, but the effect is dampened for small firms. We also find that firms started during the transition period of 1989-1993 – arguably the most connected businesses – benefit least from foreign bank entry. This finding suggests that foreign banks can help mitigate connected lending problems and improve capital allocation. JEL Classification: G21, L11, L14competition, emerging markets, foreign bank lending, lending relationships