Sacred activism through seva and khidmat: Contextualising management and organisations in South Asia

What if our actions were imbued with the sacred? What if activism in organisations evokes better local society and responsible global community? What if sacred activism signals the performance of a deeper understanding and mindful actions for contextualising management and organisations in South Asia? These are some of the questions we pose to scholars and practitioners as we seek to present the multiplexities and singularities that epitomise South Asia. We address the braided realities and opportunities presented by religion, culture, ethnicity, gender and governance to contextualise organisations and management among the 1.67 billion people who constitute South Asia. We calligraph our interpretations and future possibilities based on historical traditions and extant data, mindful that some parts of this vast region are grappling with religious radicalisation, East-West tensions, underdevelopment, low literacy rates, violence against women, and international debts and handouts. This heterogeneous region also has a major BRICS country (i.e., India), provides CEOs to the world, scientists to NASA, outsourcing facilities to global corporations, has a young population, a huge middle class, and is actively participating in mergers and acquisitions in the global corridors of commerce. Our poignant hope is to inform and suggest possibilities for constructing enriching engagements and research in this region

Mergers in Imperfectly Segmented Markets

We present a model with firms selling (homogeneous) products in two imperfectly segmented markets (a "high-demand" and a "low-demand" market). Buyers are mobile but restricted by transportation costs, so that imperfect arbitrage occurs when prices differ in both markets. We show that equilibria are distorted away from Cournot outcomes to prevent consumer arbitrage. Furthermore, a merger can lead to an equilibrium in which only the "high-demand" market is served. This is more likely (i) the lower consumers' transportation costs and (ii) the higher the concentration of the industry. Therefore, merger incentives are much larger than standard analysis suggests.Imperfect Market Segmentation, Oligopoly, Price Discrimination, Consumer Arbitrage, Mergers

Open Source Software, Competition and Potential Entry

We analyze a model with two software firms, quality improving coding expenditures and potential competition. The firms can publish parts of their software as open source. Publishing software implies positive spillovers and thus reduces the firms' coding costs. On the other hand there exist two negative effects. First, lower coding costs induce higher coding expenditures which decreases the firms' profits if their programs are substitutes. Second, open source encourages entry and increases the expenditures required to deter entry. The firms' optimal open source decisions balance these opposite effects.Open Source, Spillovers, Potential Entry

Mobile Phone Termination Charges with Asymmetric Regulation

We model competition between two unregulated mobile phone companies with price-elastic demand and less than full market coverage. We also assume that there is a regulated full-coverage fixed network. In order to induce stronger competition, mobile companies could have an incentive to raise their reciprocal mobile-to-mobile access charges above the marginal costs of termination. Stronger competition leads to an increase of the mobiles' market shares, with the advantage that (genuine) network effects are strengthened. Therefore, 'collusion' may well be in line with social welfare.Telecommunication, Mobile phones, Mobile-to-mobile access charges, Network effects

New Networks, Competition and Regulation

We consider a model with two firms operating their individual networks. Each firm can choose its price as well as its investment to build up its network. Assuming a skewed distribution of consumers, our model leads to an asymmetric market structure with one firm choosing higher investments. While access regulation imposed on the dominant firm leads to lower prices, positive welfare effects are diminished by strategic investment decisions of the firms. Within a dynamic game with indirect network effects leading to potentially increased demand, regulation can substantially lower aggregate social welfare. Conditional access holidays can alleviate regulatory failure.Regulation, network effects, natural monopoly

Upfront Payments and Listing Decisions

We analyze the listing decisions of a retailer who may ask her suppliers to make upfront payments in order to be listed. We consider a sequential game with upfront payments being negotiated before short-term delivery contracts. We show that the retailer is more likely to use upfront payments the higher her bargaining power and the higher the number of potential suppliers. Upfront payments tend to lower the number of products offered by the retailer when the products are rather close substitutes. However, upfront payments can increase social welfare if they ameliorate inefficient listing decisions implied by short-term contracts only.Buyer power, upfront payments, retailing

Quality Distortions in Vertical Relations

This paper examines how delivery tariffs and private quality standards are determined in vertical relations that are subject to asymmetric information. We consider an infinitely repeated game where an upstream firm sells a product to a downstream firm. In each period, the firms negotiate a delivery contract comprising the quality of the good as well as a non-linear tariff. Assuming asymmetric information about the actual quality of the product and focusing on incentive compatible contracts, we show that delivery contracts are more efficient the lower the firms' outside options, i.e. the higher their mutual dependency. Buyer power driven by a reduced outside option of the upstream firm enhances the efficiency of vertical relations, while buyer power due to an improved outside option of the downstream firm implies less efficient outcomes.Quality Uncertainty, Private Standards, Vertical Relations, Buyer Power

Risk factors in gastric cancer

STATE OF THE ART: Gastric cancer (GC) is still a major health problem worldwide due to its frequency, poor prognosis and limited treatment options. At present prevention is likely to be the most effective means of reducing the incidence and mortality from this disease. The most important etiological factors implicated in gastric carcinogenesis are diet and Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infection. High intake of salted, pickled or smoked foods, as well as dried fish and meat and refined carbohydrates significantly increased the risk of developing GC while fibers, fresh vegetables and fruit were found to be inversely associated with GC risk. Epidemiological investigations (retrospective, case-control and prospective) and several meta-analyses have demonstrated that concurrent or previous H. pylori infection is associated with an increased risk of GC in respect to uninfected people. H. pylori colonizes gastric mucosa where it induces a complex inflammatory and immune reaction that on time leads to a severe mucosal damage i.e., atrophy, intestinal metaplasia (IM) and dysplasia. The risk of GC is closely related to the grade and extension of gastric atrophy, IM and dysplasia. PERSPECTIVES AND CONCLUSIONS: Today a plausible program for GC prevention means: (1) a correct dietary habit since childhood increasing vegetables and fruit intake, (2) a decrease of H. pylori spread improving family and community sanitation and hygiene, (3) a search and treat H. pylori strategy in offspring of GC, (4) a search and treat H. pylori strategy in patients with chronic atrophic gastritis and intestinal metaplasia (IM), (5) a careful endoscopic and histologic follow-up if precancerous lesions persist irrespective of H. pylori eradication

Complexity and Progressivity in Income Tax Design: Deductions for Work-Related Expenses

We analyze optimal income taxes with deductions for work-related or consumptive goods. We consider two cases. In the first case (called a complex tax system) the tax authorities can exactly distinguish between consumptive and work-related expenditures. In the second case (called a simple tax system) this distinction is not exact. Assuming additively separable utility functions, we show that work-related expenditures should be fully deductible in the first case while deduction rates should be less than 100 percent in the second case. Under further simplifying assumptions, we also show that the simple system can be characterized by higher tax burdens on low income earners and less redistribution.Optimal taxation; Tax deductions; Work-related expenditures