Establishing the internet channel : short-term pain but long-term gain ?.

The emergence of the Internet has pushed many established companies to explore this radically new distribution channel. Like all market discontinuities, the Internet creates opportunities as well as threats - it can be performance-enhancing as readily as it can be performance-destroying. One industry where this certainly holds is the newspaper industry, where several players have rushed to supplement their traditional channels with an Internet channel, in spite of a lingering fear of cannibalizing their existing business. Making use of event-study methodology, we assess the net impact of setting up an additional Internet channel on a firm's stock market return, a measure of the change in expected future cash flows. We find that, on average, Internet channel investments are positive net-present-value investments: the present value of the expected cash inflows is greater than the present value of the anticipated cash outflows. We then identify firm, introduction-strategy, and marketplace characteristics that influence the direction and magnitude of the stock-market reaction. More specifically, our results indicate that powerful firms with fewer direct channels achieve greater gains in financial performance than less powerful firms with a broader direct channel offering. In terms of introduction timing, early followers have a competitive advantage vis-à-vis both innovators and later followers. We also find that firms which provide additional advertising support to their Internet channel introduction achieve greater financial gains. Finally, in terms of marketplace characteristics, firms operating in fast-growing Internet environments benefit more than players operating in less munificent markets.Time series;

How managers can build trust in strategic alliances: a meta-analysis on the central trust-building mechanisms

Trust is an important driver of superior alliance performance. Alliance managers are influential in this regard because trust requires active involvement, commitment and the dedicated support of the key actors involved in the strategic alliance. Despite the importance of trust for explaining alliance performance, little effort has been made to systematically investigate the mechanisms that managers can use to purposefully create trust in strategic alliances. We use Parkhe’s (1998b) theoretical framework to derive nine hypotheses that distinguish between process-based, characteristic-based and institutional-based trust-building mechanisms. Our meta-analysis of 64 empirical studies shows that trust is strongly related to alliance performance. Process-based mechanisms are more important for building trust than characteristic- and institutional-based mechanisms. The effects of prior ties and asset specificity are not as strong as expected and the impact of safeguards on trust is not well understood. Overall, theoretical trust research has outpaced empirical research by far and promising opportunities for future empirical research exist

Visualisation of trust and quality information for geospatial dataset selection and use:Drawing trust presentation comparisons with B2C e-Commerce

The evaluation of geospatial data quality and trustworthiness presents a major challenge to geospatial data users when making a dataset selection decision. Part of the problem arises from the inconsistent and patchy nature of data quality information, which makes intercomparison very difficult. Over recent years, the production and availability of geospatial data has significantly increased, facilitated by the recent explosion of Web-based catalogues, portals, standards and services, and by initiatives such as INSPIRE and GEOSS. Despite this significant growth in availability of geospatial data and the fact that geospatial datasets can, in many respects, be considered commercial products that are available for purchase online, consumer trust has to date received relatively little attention in the GIS domain. In this paper, we discuss how concepts of trust, trust models, and trust indicators (largely derived from B2C e-Commerce) apply to the GIS domain and to geospatial data selection and use. Our research aim is to support data users in more efficient and effective geospatial dataset selection on the basis of quality, trustworthiness and fitness for purpose. To achieve this, we propose a GEO label – a decision support mechanism that visually summarises availability of key geospatial data informational aspects. We also present a Web service that was developed to support generation of dynamic GEO label representations for datasets by combining producer metadata (from standard catalogues or other published locations) with structured user feedback

Identifying patterns of alumni commitment in key strategic relationship programmes

Higher education institutions (HEIs) need to understand their alumni when drawing strategic relationship programmes. This paper aims to identify clusters of alumni based on their commitment relationship and to analyse factors influencing their intention to collaborate with the HEI. The study took place at a Portuguese university, considering a dataset of 1075 of alumni asserting intention to collaborate. First, a cluster analysis was conducted to identify patterns of commitment relationship. Secondly, a logistic regression was run to identify determinants of intention to collaborate. Both techniques revealed the decisive role of HEI commitment in the process. Relationship advantages and positive feelings towards the HEI were also pointed out as important. Alumni asserted recommendations, further training, sharing experiences and giving help as ways to collaborate with HEI. Regression results suggest that sociodemographic variables such as gender, marital status and volunteering are significantly associated with a probability to collaborate. Results also show that affiliation in sororities/fraternities and participation in extracurricular activities are significantly associated with that collaborative intention. The findings provide clues to support strategic relationship programmes based on consistent marketing campaigns, while bringing value to the literature in the European context, where alumni culture requires real insights to evolve.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Corporate boards and the performance of Asian firms: A meta-analysis

The prevalence of ownership concentration in Asian firms presents a challenge to the influential agency theory-based understanding of the role of corporate boards. In this paper we develop and test hypotheses about board attributes and firm performance that reflect Asian institutional conditions. We present the first meta-analysis of the relationship between board attributes and performance of Asian firms using a varied set of meta-analytical techniques on a database of 86 studies covering nine Asian countries. First, we find that board structure and composition preferences are influenced by the identity of the concentrated owner. Second, consistent with US data, we find very limited evidence of a direct relationship between board attributes and firm financial performance in the Asian context. Third, we find that the relationship between board structure and composition and firm performance is mediated by the revealed strategic preferences of Asian firms specifically by the level of R&D investment