We analyze public investment in basic research in a multi-country multi-industry environment with international trade. In our economy basic research generates ideas which private firms take up in applied research to develop new varieties. Such development requires industry specific know-how, and countries’ current specialization in international trade therefore determines which ideas can be commercialized domestically. We demonstrate that the equilibrium in our economy is consistent with key patterns observed from the data. We then compare basic research investments of national governments with optimal investments of a global social planner. We show that decentralized investments are inefficient along three dimensions: There is typically too little global investment in basic research. Basic research is too heavily concentrated in industrialized countries. And basic research is potentially not sufficiently directed to support innovation in complex, high-tech industries.
According to the Basel regulation banks may use internal risk models to measure interest rate risk and calculate regulatory capital requirements. Under its pillar II the Basel framework grants leeway to banks in their choice of these models. We therefore focus on how well interest rate models describe real interest rate movements empirically and which impact the model choice has on the economic value of bank equity during the financial crisis. Furthermore, we address the question how different choices of interest rate models affect the overall financial stability. To this end we estimate eight different interest rate models for three different currencies (USD, EUR, CHF) using the Generalized Method of Moments (GMM). Then we approximate the balance sheet of a typical Swiss bank during the financial crisis and run Monte Carlo simulations of the balance sheet using the estimated interest rate models. Our results show that the required economic value of equity for a bank varies considerably with the different choices of interest rate models. However, the interest rate models which are empirically best fitting do not imply aggregate financial stability. Thus, banks´ choices of interest rate models to calculate regulatory capital requirements may have a crucial impact on overall financial stability.
Die Strategietypologie von Treacy/Wiersema (1995) gewinnt in der Unternehmenspraxis und in der Marketingwissenschaft zunehmend an Bedeutung. Trotz des grossen Interesses ist ein erhebliches empirisches Forschungsdefizit bezüglich dieser Typologie zu verzeichnen. Ziel ist es daher, den Forschungsstand der Treacy/Wiersema-Typologie aufzunehmen und mit Forschungen zu traditionellen, etablierten Strategietypologien zu vergleichen, um die Hauptforschungslücken zu identifizieren. Es werden Vorschläge und Empfehlungen für eine empirisch fundierte Durchdringung der Treacy/Wiersema-Typologie hinsichtlich der Hauptuntersuchungsfelder (1) Identifikation der Strategietypen, (2) typenspezifische Attribute, (3) Erfolg der Strategietypen and (4) erfolgreiche Konfigurationsfits bezüglich jedes Strategietyps gegeben. Dieses Paper soll zudem zu Forschungen bezüglich der Strategietypologie von Treacy/Wiersema im Marketing motivieren.
Key Words: Strategisches Marketing, Strategietypen im Marketing, Typologie von
Treacy/Wiersema, Typologie von Miles/Snow
Consumers frequently rely on objects (i.e., their possessions) for building a sense of self or for "extending" their selves. In this research, we examine if and to what extent the tangibility of objects is related to their self-extending function. Specifically, we argue that objects that signify an intangible meaning may decrease the psychological distance between the self and the meaning. Two studies provide converging support for this prediction. Study 2 further shows that consumers develop a greater attachment to an object that signifies a meaning which is (1) not directly experienceable and (2) personally relevant to them.
Employee performance plays a vital role for the success of a service brand (Berry 2000; Vallaster and de Chernatony 2005). Other than with product brands, where consumers’ perceptions of a brand derive predominantly from a product’s tangible features, customers’ perceptions of a service brand depend highly on the behavior of front-line staff. It is they, through their demeanor, communications, and actions, who build an image of the service brand in the minds of customers. Of the variables that are likely to elicit brand-building behaviors on the part of front-line workers, effective leadership has been proposed as one of the key driving forces. Specifically, transformational leadership (TFL) as a leadership style oriented toward follower-development has been suggested to be of high value in the context of services brand building efforts (Vallaster and de Chernatony 2005). However, to date no specific attempt has been undertaken to conceptually and empirically substantiate this assumption. The purpose of this research is to explore how transformational supervisors may enhance brand-building behaviors on the part of front-line employees. We attempt to (1) conceptualize a new construct – employee brand building behavior; (2) adopt the concept of TFL to the specific domain of branding; and (3) explain the working mechanisms of the brand-specific transformational leadership process.
