The Impact Of Information Technology Investments On Managerial Decision Making: Evidence From Dividend Payout

Investments in Information Technology (IT) are an increasing part of organizational expenditures in spite of the fact that there is little evidence in the existing literature that suggests these investments are related to the organization’s performance. The uncertainty of IT investment payoff should be reflected in other managerial decisions. This research examines Rozeff's (1982) agency cost/transaction cost tradeoff model to determine if IT investments are related to dividend payout ratios for an organization. A dividend payout model including an IT investment variable is estimated. The estimation results suggest that a significant positive relationship exists between dividend payout and a firm’s IT investments

An Aggregate Advertising Pulsing Model with Wearout Effects

This paper, guided by empirical findings in the literature, develops an advertising pulsing model for established frequently purchased products under the presence of advertising wearout effects. Using such a model, the superiority of Advertising Pulsing Policy over an equivalent Uniform Advertising Policy is explored analytically for both S-shaped and concave advertising response functions in relation to initial sales and the employed discount rate. The basic results of the research, summarized in four propositions, indicate that under the presence of advertising wearout and for both S-shaped and concave advertising response functions that: —Pulsing is superior to the even policy for a zero discount rate. —For all positive values of the discount rate, pulsing is superior to the even policy provided that initial sales are close enough to the equilibrium sales of the even policy. —If initial sales are much different from the equilibrium sales of the even policy, pulsing would be superior for small values of the discount rate whereas the even policy would be superior for large values of the discount rate.sales response, advertising policies, pulsing

A Competitive Pricing Model

This paper is principally concerned with the development of a competitive pricing model aimed at predicting the impact of a vector of price increases on sales of a given brand of a low priced, frequently purchased product. The model has its base in a set of assumptions describing the purchasing behavior of the individual consumer. A method for testing the model against empirical data is described and illustrated. The competitive pricing model is found to perform somewhat better than a simple regression model in the application reported.marketing: pricing, marketing: buyer behavior

On the superiority of pulsing under a concave advertising market potential function

The authors study the superiority of advertising pulsing policy (turning advertising on and off in a cyclic fashion) over its uniform (constant spending) counterpart that costs the same under the assumption that sales dynamics follow a modified Vidale-Wolfe aggregate advertising model. The authors show that pulsing can be superior if the product of the concave market potential function and the linear or concave advertising response function is convex in advertising. Similar to previous studies in the literature, the average undiscounted profit over the infinite planning horizon is considered as a performance measure according to which alternative advertising pulsation policies are compared. Employing a well-known data set relating advertising to sales, the above convexity requirement is empirically supported and the superiority of pulsing is established numerically. The performance of the proposed model is found to be superior to two rival models using a one-step-ahead forecasting procedure. The analytical findings of the study are documented into six theoretical results for which proofs are relegated to a separate appendix. Managerial implications of the study and directions for future research are also discussed.Marketing Advertising pulsation Optimization Regression

On optimal service capacity allocation policy in an advance selling environment in continuous time

Based on some general reasonable assumptions, this paper employs the techniques of calculus of variations and optimal control theory to derive 10 main propositions associated with a service provider who aims at maximizing the present value of revenues/profits over a planning horizon in continuous time. Employing an aggregate pricing-response function that is dependent on excess capacity and a convex service cost formulation, the results show that (i) for a zero discount rate and unanticipated competitive entry, units of service capacity are allocated evenly over time, (ii) for a zero discount rate and anticipated competitive entry, units of allocated service capacity are increasing over time, (iii) for a positive discount rate and unanticipated competitive entry, units of allocated service capacity are decreasing over time, and (iv) for a positive discount rate and anticipated competitive entry, units of allocated service capacity are increasing over time, or are decreasing at first then increasing later. In addition, the questions of how deep a service firm should advance sell, whether advance selling is optimal in continuous time, and whether excess capacity could be an optimal strategy have been addressed. Furthermore, related sensitivity analyses are performed and endpoint constraints together with alternative shapes of the service-cost function are discussed. The managerial implications of the study's results have been demonstrated.Advance selling Calculus of variations Marketing Optimal control theory Service capacity allocation

Examining the moderating role of national culture on an extended technology acceptance model

Previous research studies have primarily examined the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) in one country or in developed and western countries. This paper attempts to answer two questions of particular significance that remain only partially answered in the information systems literature. The first question asks: do TAM relationships hold good for a group of countries of diverse national cultures? The second question investigates: can national culture explain differences in TAM relationships across countries? To answer the above two questions, a structural equation modeling approach was applied using computer-related data collected from college students in the USA and two countries of non-Western cultures: Chile, and the United Arab Emirates. The research findings imply that for the group of three countries, all relationships among the components of an extended TAM that incorporates individual computer knowledge as an external variable were supported. In addition, national culture moderates four of the TAM relationships. © 2011, Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

Dynamic efficiency assessment of the Chinese hotel industry

The paper introduces for the first time a totally dynamic two-stage approach to analyzing the hotel industry's technical efficiency at the sub-national level. The first stage uses data envelopment window analysis (DEWA) to assess regional hotel sectors' technical efficiency over time. Unlike previous studies, the second stage uses a dynamic Tobit model to investigate the impact of macro contextual factors on the hotel sector efficiency. The study chooses the Chinese hotel industry during the period 2001-2006 as its application setting. The findings of the investigation indicate that the Chinese hotel industry is approaching an efficient operation in general, recovering from a major dip in 2003 resulting from the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) outbreak. In addition, the study introduces a novel two-dimensional efficiency-based matrix to assess the competitive advantage of different regions of the Chinese hotel sector. The paper presents strategic market implications for hoteliers, government decision-makers, and destination management organizations. The proposed methods are applicable for situations in which an exogenous event of a destabilizing impact (e.g., SARS) does occur. (C) 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved

Optimum advertising policy over time for subscriber service innovations in the presence of service cost learning and customers' disadoption

On the theoretical side, this paper characterizes qualitatively optimal advertising policy for new subscriber services. A monopolistic market is analyzed first for which customers' disadoption, discounting of future profits streams and a service cost learning curve are allowed. After characterizing the optimal policy for a general diffusion model, the results pertaining to a specific diffusion model for which advertising affects the coefficient of innovation that incorporates the disadoption rate are reported. The results of the theoretical research show that the advertising policy of the service firm in the presence of customers' disadoption could be very different from the same when disadoption is ignored. On the empirical side, four alternative diffusion models are estimated and their predictive powers using a one-step-ahead forecasting procedure compared. The diffusion data analyzed are related to the Canadian cable TV industry. Empirical research findings suggest that the specific diffusion model considered above is not only of theoretical appeal but also of major empirical relevance. The analytical findings of the study are documented in six theoretical propositions for which proofs are provided in a separate Appendix. The results of a related numerical experiment together with the analytical findings pertaining to the competitive role of advertising are included. Managerial implications of the study together with directions for future research are also discussed.Marketing Advertising New subscriber services Optimal control theory Regression Service cost learning