Value chain envy: explaining new entry and vertical integration in popular music

The desirability of establishing a value chain at a particular stage in a value system can be considered to depend on the relation between the value that can be created and the value that can be captured at that particular stage. Value chain envy motivates firms to invade the more desirable stages of the value system, either through new entry or vertical integration. The feasibility of establishing a value chain, however, can be considered to depend on the efficacy of the means to value protection at that particular stage. The concepts of value creation, capture, and protection within value systems are employed to analyze recent developments in the recorded music industries, particularly those affecting the stage of music publishing. Over the course of the 20th century the value created at the stage of music publishing diminished steadily, while the value captured remained high, thereby giving rise to value chain envy. On the basis of the proposed theoretical framework one could expect these developments to trigger strategic responses to remedy this value chain envy. However, most actors, except the major record companies, were unable to do so until new information communication technologies were introduced. Industry level data do indeed corroborate that vertical integration by major record companies was followed, from the mid-1990’s onwards, by a significant increase in the prevalence rate of newly founded SMEs in the music publishing industry in the Netherlands. These newly founded firms are testimony to new entry or vertical integration by musician-entrepreneurs, thereby providing support for the advanced arguments.

How management innovation happens

Management innovation — that is, the implementation of new management practices, processes and structures that represent a significant departure from current norms — has over time dramatically transformed the way many functions and activities work in organizations. Many of the practices, processes and structures that we see in modern business organizations were developed during the last 150 years by the creative efforts of management innovators. Those innovators have included well-known names like Alfred P. Sloan and Frederick Taylor, as well as numerous other unheralded individuals and small groups of people who all sought to improve the internal workings of organizations by trying something new

Integration of the Baltic States into the EU and Institutions of Fiscal Convergence

This paper evaluates the functioning, suitability, and effectiveness of the Maastricht convergence criteria regarding fiscal policy and the Stability and Growth Pact for the Baltic States. We argue that the Maastricht fiscal targets from the Baltic perspective should be considered as long-term goals as opposed to short-run objectives of fiscal policy. Using the European Commission's approach as well as impulse response and variance decomposition techniques, we assess the fiscal discipline and cyclical sensitivity of each state's budget to changes in output gap. Empirical evidence indicates that Estonia and Latvia have been more successful in maintaining fiscal discipline than Lithuania during 1996-2000. We also observe that the Stability and Growth Pact signed in July 1997 would offer enough room for automatic fiscal stabilizers in Estonia and Latvia, but not necessarily in Lithuania. Policy implications of the findings for future perspectives are also discussed.EU-enlargement; fiscal policy; Baltic countries

Integration of the Baltic states into the EU and institutions of fiscal convergence: A critical evaluation of key issues and empirical evidence

This paper reviews the issues concerning the integration of the Baltic States into the European Union (EU). The focus is on fiscal policy and institutions of policy convergence. More specifically, we evaluate the functioning, suitability, and effectiveness of the Maastricht convergence criteria on fiscal policy and the Stability and Growth Pact for Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. Using the European Commission's approach, we estimate output gap measures to provide empirical evidence on fiscal discipline and cyclical sensitivity of each state's budget to changes in output. Empirical evidence indicates that Estonia and Latvia have been more successful in maintaining fiscal discipline than Lithuania during 1996-2000. Evidence on the cyclical sensitivity of the Baltic States suggests that the Stability and Growth Pact signed in July 1997 would offer enough room for automatic fiscal stabilizers in Estonia and Latvia, but not in Lithuania. Implications of our results for future perspectives are also discussed. --

Goggles in the lab:Economic experiments in immersive virtual environments

This review outlines the potential of virtual reality for creating naturalistic and interactive high-immersive environments in experimental economics. After explanation of essential terminology and technical equipment, the advantages are discussed by describing the available high-immersive VR experiments concerning economic topics to give an idea of the possibilities of VR for economic experiments. Furthermore, possible drawbacks are examined, including simulator sickness, the costs of VR equipment and specialist skills. By carefully controlling a naturalistic experimental context, virtual reality brings some field into the lab. Besides, it allows for testing contexts that would otherwise be unethical or impossible. It is a promising new tool in the experimental economics toolkit

SMART users guides: SMART_NL & SMS_NL

Instructions to install and to use the model SMART_NL are given, and how to use the model SMART_NL with SUMO included. Besides, a user manual for configuration management is given