It's not the economy, stupid! External effects on the supply and demand of cinema entertainment

The paper addresses whether the state of the economy impacts the supply of and demand for cinema entertainment. A literature review on the drivers of cinema supply and demand is provided, and two competing hypotheses are extracted. Economic downturns could either lead to a sober mood and drive the interest in serious genres or drive the need for distraction leading to an increased interest in feel-good or action movies. However, characteristics of the movie industry suggest that economic key factors have only limited effects on supply and demand. A time series analysis of supply and demand in three major European markets indicate that demand is unrelated to the state of the economy. In aggregate, the demand does not instruct supply. Fluctuations in individual movie quality superpose potential effects of the economic context on the aggregated demand. Simultaneously, a focus on film as art superposes potential effects of the economic context on the supply

Product differentiation, external economies and MNE location choices: M&As in Global Cities

Recent research has addressed the heterogeneity among MNEs in terms of their tendency to agglomerate. In this paper, we extend the scope of the firm-specific attributes considered to affect this agglomeration tendency by examining product differentiation. We find significant association between product differentiation and the preferences of firms for proximity to other firms in their industry. These findings imply that the value of agglomeration varies for firms pursuing different product differentiation strategies. We propose a conceptualization of product and location differentiations as two related dimensions of MNEs’ strategy. Journal of International Business Studies (2005) 36, 415–434. doi:10.1057/palgrave.jibs.8400151