1,721,003 research outputs found
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Product Development Collaborations: Implications for Marketing Strategy and Innovation
Full text linkPhD thesisHigh-tech firms are no longer able to rely exclusively on their internal knowledge and technologies to respond effectively to current market dynamics. Instead, they frequently collaborate with external entities to access new technologies and share the costs and risks of the innovation process. However, the effectiveness of such collaborations is questioned by many executives. Yet, as these Product Development Collaborations (PDCs) become crucial for a firm’s growth and success in current times, executives and academics alike are paying growing attention to them. In marketing, PDC is an active research topic since 1999. However, the body of marketing knowledge on the PDC is scattered across several studies over an extended period of more than two decades. In addition, the extant marketing studies report results that are inconsistent on some PDC issues and have overlooked others. In particular, marketing strategy considerations, in terms of firm’s strategic capabilities and objectives, have received somewhat of a short shrift in the literature.
My dissertation contributes to our marketing literature with (a) a systematic review study that synthesizes the current state of marketing knowledge on the topic, identifies the research lacunas, and sets a future research agenda; and (b) two theory-driven empirical studies that provide new insights and novel implications to enrich our understanding of PDCs, their relation to the firm’s marketing strategy, and provide clear guidance to practitioners on how to benefit most from their supplier collaborations.
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Grounding on several theories, creating and using a unique dataset, and utilizing multiple research and econometric techniques, my dissertation empirically addresses the following two general research questions:
RQ1. Can their functional (marketing, technological, and operations) capabilities lead firms into competency traps and hurt their innovation performance? How? Do international PDCs outperform domestic PDCs in combating the competency trap effect? When?
RQ2. What is the appropriate PDC governance mechanism (joint ventures, agreements, or licenses) that would enhance innovation performance? How do governance and capabilities simultaneously impact innovation performance? How does the firm’s product positioning strategy (differentiation versus cost-leadership) interact with governance and capabilities to affect innovation outcomes?DissertationDoctor of Philosophy (PhD)Many firms establish Product Development Collaborations (PDCs) with suppliers to innovate new products. Although PDCs have numerous advantages, they are ladened by various contractual hazards and risks. This raises concerns of many executives about their effectiveness. In this dissertation, I systematically review the existing marketing studies on the PDC topic. Then, building on my review, I empirically investigate several marketing strategy factors that impact a PDC's effectiveness in terms of enhancing the innovation performance of focal firms.
Drawing on several theories, building and using a unique dataset, and utilizing multiple research and econometric techniques, I conduct two empirical studies to examine the impact of four strategic considerations (i.e., functional capabilities, international PDCs, PDC governance mechanisms, and positioning strategy) and their interactions on innovation performance of high-tech firms in PDCs.
My results reveal various interesting and important relationships and interactions that advance our understating of PDCs, their relation to marketing strategy, and provide important managerial implications to practitioners
An Investigation of Asymmetric Pricing “In the Small” in the Retail Grocery Sector
Full text linkThis dissertation studies asymmetric pricing in the small (APIS), where small price increases outnumber small price decreases, the asymmetry disappearing for larger price changes; and the corresponding reversed phenomenon (APIS-R). Current evidence suggests retailers deploy these pricing practices despite menu costs and potential consumer concerns. There is also evidence that inflation is only a partial contributor to the phenomena. These point to possible strategic intent driving these retail pricing practices. However, there are only a few papers in the domain, and none specifically address the cross-sectional and longitudinal variations. Further, existing results are mostly based on a single retailer, limited products, short time span, and legacy datasets dating back to the 1980s and 1990s, leaving their current relevance unsettled. Recent papers also question if small price changes are measurement artifacts.
This dissertation addresses these gaps by analyzing several large contemporary datasets – a scanner dataset with more than 79 billion price observations and a matching consumer panel dataset with more than 50,000 participating panelists. Our key results imply the pricing practices can be retailers’ strategic responses to the cognitive tasks faced by consumers.
Chapter 1 is a general introduction to the thesis. Chapter 2 sets up the fundamentals of the phenomena and reports robust evidence of APIS and APIS-R across the retail price spectrum. Chapter 3 examines the cross-sectional variations of the phenomena and finds that APIS and APIS-R are associated with product characteristics such as purchase frequency and category price level, as well as retail format such as HILO or EDLP. Chapter 4 explores the longitudinal variations and finds that business cycles are a major time-varying factor influencing retail practices of APIS and APIS-R. Chapter 5 concludes with reflections on the findings, implications for theory and practice, limitations, and suggestions for future studies.DissertationCandidate in PhilosophyThis dissertation studies asymmetric pricing in the small (APIS), where small price increases outnumber small price decreases, the asymmetry disappearing for larger price changes; and the corresponding reversed phenomenon (APIS-R). There are only a few papers in the domain, and none explain their cross-sectional and longitudinal variations. Existing results are mostly based on a single retailer, limited products, short time span, and legacy datasets dating back to the 1980s and 1990s, leaving their current relevance unsettled. Recent papers also question if small price changes are measurement artifacts. This dissertation addresses these gaps by analyzing several large contemporary datasets. The research finds robust evidence of both APIS and APIS-R in the retail price spectrum, and provides explanations for their cross-sectional variation, across products and retailers, as well as longitudinal variations, across business cycles. The results indicate the pricing practices can be retailers’ strategic responses to the cognitive tasks faced by consumers
Product Performance and Contracts in Multi-component System Industries: Theory and Evidence
Full text linkThis dissertation will investigate how Product Performance Contracts are organized in Multi Component Systems contexts that proliferate contemporary OEM industries. The last two decades have seen a big change in both practice as well as the product engineering technologies that form the ecosystem within which suppliers and buyers negotiate the scale and scope of their transaction contracts. While we have seen the focus of industrial procurement move from specifications based contracts to performance based contracts, we are also witnessing a burgeoning technological capability that allows remote monitoring of product performance. These capabilities are part of the interconnectivity driving the much-touted Internet of Things (IoT) technology and at the heart of the Industrial Big Data ecosystem. The dissertation will attempt to explain three major phenomena in the industrial buyer and seller relationship in the context of Multi Component System Industries.
First, we uncover the factors that explain the choice of product performance contract specificity between the OEM and suppliers. We first set up an analytical model to explain the notion of an optimal contract specificity level and predict and further empirically test the role of different factors in the choice of contract specificity. We find that while the technology uncertainty decreases the level of optimal contract specificity, OEM’s transaction specific investment, unconstrained mixing-and-matching of branded component, and extent of product monitoring technology increases the level of optimal contract specificity.
Second, we provide empirical evidence that any deviation from optimal contract specificity erodes value in the form of an increase in total transaction cost. In our transaction cost efficiency model, we also illustrate with a precise granularity that under-specified contracts lead to more ex-post dispute costs, and over-specified contracts lead to more ex-post contract monitoring cost and ex-ante contract writing cost.
Third, we investigate how contracts, investments in strategic capabilities such as monitoring technology, the overall firm strategy, and transaction costs determine the firm performance. We find that not every transaction cost is a dead weight loss in terms of product performance. Most notably we find that ex-post dispute costs are associated with higher product performance when there is a major incident such as component failure between the OEM and the supplier.
Methodologically, this dissertation proposes to use a combination of field work, mathematical modeling, conceptual theory building, and empirical analysis of primary data about firm practices.ThesisDoctor of Philosophy (PhD
A Theoretical and Empirical Study of Retailers’ Omnichannel Integration and its Effectiveness
No full textWith the emergence of digital channels, new technologies and increased data availability- omnichannel strategy has increasingly been viewed as crucial for retailers to meet evolving consumer expectations and drive firm performance. Channel integration is a key element of this strategy, which refers to the degree to which retailers coordinate various channel functions to provide a seamless customer experience across various channels. With emerging capabilities in the industry inevitably raises consumer expectations, consumers perceive value only beyond a certain degree of channel integration. While higher degrees of coordination help meet elevated consumer expectations, these are endogenous to coordination costs. These coordination costs are not evident beforehand and can steeply rise to sabotage the presumed strategic dividends associated with channel integration. In addition to the degree of channel integration, retailers face decisions about the speed of omnichannel adoption given the entrenched competitors and strategic benefits associated in terms of securing a dominant market position and accelerated organizational learning. This dissertation contributes to the marketing channels and coordination literature with (a) a systematic review of the multichannel marketing literature by synthesizing current knowledge, its evolution, and future directions; and (b) Two theory-driven empirical research studies that provide new insights and novel implications to enrich our understanding of omnichannel integration decisions, and certain characteristics of coordination costs can derail the strategic dividends from channel integration. Together these research studies contribute to a growing literature that has outlined the complex nature of these coordination costs but few of which explain their role in determining the outcomes of omnichannel retailing.ThesisDoctor of Philosophy (PhD)Omnichannel retailers coordinate their online (e-commerce, mobile) and offline distribution channels (physical stores, catalogues) to provide value to customers, enabling seamless transition across various channels. With emerging capabilities in the industry inevitably raises consumer expectations, which the retailers cannot fulfill without a higher degree of channel coordination. Additionally, retailers facing competitive pressures must decide how quickly to implement a higher degree of channel coordination, which can steeply drive-up coordination cost. So, the effectiveness of retailer’s channel coordination efforts and its speed of implementation is not clear. I investigate these issues first with a systematic review of multichannel marketing literature and then examine marketing strategy factors that impact the effectiveness of channel coordination efforts. Building a unique dataset of U.S. retailing firms and using various analytical techniques, I develop two theory-driven empirical studies that reveal that channel coordination and its speed can deliver value to customers and help drive firm performance, however certain characteristics of coordination costs can undermine the benefits
Distribution Channel Conflict: Implications for Channel Governance, and Performance
Full text linkIn this dissertation, my focus is on understanding distribution channel
conflict, its relationship with efficient channel governance and its impact on
channel performance. In particular, I will study (1) how the channel conflict
can be defined and interpreted, (2) how channel conflict can affect channel
governance, (3) what would be the performance outcomes of channel conflict,
and (4) how channel conflict can be managed. My theoretical frameworks
borrow mainly from transaction cost economics theory (TCE), and strategic
marketing.
On the empirical side, I employ several methods including meta-analysis
(Two-Stage SEM) as well as different econometrics techniques such as
Conditional Mixed-Process (CMP) regression estimation. My data comes from
diverse sources and are mainly hand collected and created from archival
sources. For the meta-analysis study, I extract empirical results of more than
100 studies on channel conflict since the 1960s. For the other empirical efforts,
the data comes from various sources. The major data collection undertakings
include extracting and integrating data from: (1) Franchise Disclosure
Document (FDD) of more than 1000 franchise firms, (2) firms records, and (3)
specific franchise rankings such as Entrepreneur and Franchise Times’ rankings
spanning from 2004 to 2015. The dissertation comprises following broad inter-related chapters (excluding Introduction and Conclusion chapters): (1) Managing Channel Conflict:
Insights from the Current Literature, (2) Conflict and Performance in Channels:
A Meta-Analysis, (3) Channel Conflict: Bad for Business?, (4) Adapting to
Channel Conflict: An Empirical Study?, and (5) Two Views on Channel
Conflict. Chapter 1 is a compendium on channel conflict that not only provides a
comprehensive literature review on channel conflict (since the 1960s) but also
identifies gaps and provides some managerial perspectives on channel conflict. One of the identified gaps in Chapter 1 revolves around the role of channel conflict and its relationship with other inter-firm constructs. In Chapter 2, I build on this identified gap by conducting a comprehensive meta-analysis study using Two-Stage SEM (TSSEM) method to aggregate the previous findings on channel conflict and its relationship with other inter-firm constructs particularly channel performance. I also investigate the potential moderators of the conflict-performance link. Chapters 1 and 2 set the stage for the next empirical work. One of the
enduring debates in the channel domain is about the functionality and dysfunctionality of channel conflict. In Chapter 3, I address this directly by exploring the non-linear (inverted U-shaped) relationship between channel conflict and performance. While Chapter 3 explores the empirical relation between conflict and performance, another understudied but important research question is about how firms react to channel conflict. Such reactions can span the range from relying on relational norms to more explicit adjustment in channel governance.
In Chapter 4, I address this by examining the effect of manifest channel conflict on channel governance, controlling for relational norms. In particular, I study how firms adapt their channel governance following litigation. Finally, Chapter 5 is a reflection on the body of knowledge that I have investigated above. This chapter will provide two views on channel conflict by comparing two different channel conflict conceptualizations. I illustrate the
differences between these two views by comparing them based on firms’ objectives, conflict characteristics, and managerial approaches toward channel conflict, providing real-world examples of how firms approach and manage channel conflict.ThesisDoctor of Philosophy (PhD)In this dissertation, my focus is on understanding distribution channel
conflict, its relationship with efficient channel governance and its impact on
channel performance. Channel conflict is an endemic phenomenon. The
advent of new technologies (such as Internet-of-Things enabled monitoring
systems) and the emergence of the Internet as a primary medium of business
transactions have brought big changes to channel management. Use of
multiple channels to reach consumers and exchange value with business
partners have become much more common with these changes. While
channel conflict has always been an important business concern, these have
rekindled the interest and attention of researchers and managers to the
phenomena.
In this dissertation, I investigate the phenomenon of channel conflict and
its effect on channel governance and business performance by conducting
several independent studies spanning different research methods. The
research findings will address gaps in the extant research literature as well
as offer both theoretical and practical insights for researchers and
practitioners interested in distribution channels strategy and management
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
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