Competitive Climate Research Articles

Exploratory navigation and salesperson performance: Investigating selected antecedents and boundary conditions in high-technology and financial services contexts

Salesperson behavior aimed at improving internal company response to customer requests has received little attention in the industrial marketing literature in comparison to external, customer-directed behaviors. In this study, the phenomenon of “salesperson navigation” (SpN) is developed within the context of a research model of selected antecedents and boundary-conditions that influence a primary form of navigational behavior, or “exploratory navigation”. The research model's utility in predicting sales performance is tested empirically with data from two Fortune 500 sales forces. The findings show that the traits of competitiveness and expert power significantly enhance the salesperson's propensity to engage in exploratory navigation behavior. Exploratory navigation, in turn, is found to have a significant and positive association with salesperson job performance, contingent upon specific boundary conditions within the salesperson's own organization (i.e., sales management support and internal competitive climate). The article concludes by offering sales researchers and industrial marketing managers implications derived from the study as well as directions for further work.

Questioning colonia consolidation in a Mexican border city: Charity and the charms of the narcomundo in a neoliberal political economy

This article examines two drags on organizing for self‐help community development in Agua Prieta, Sonora. The first is U.S.‐based, church‐led charity in two forms: “forays,” which bring outreach groups to disadvantaged barrios of the city for very brief periods; and more consistent charity provision via Evangelical Protestant churches. The second is the drug trade, which exacerbates a social climate of accumulation, competition, and personal enrichment. The study analyzes charity and drugs together under the rubric of new patron‐client ties that both reflect and reinforce the culture of neoliberalism on the border. The article closes with a brief account of an alternative model for development which seeks to avoid the traps of dependency on charity, drugs, and the state: a subsistence‐ and sustainability‐oriented permaculture model of development that would enhance security and community cohesion through food production, resource conservation, and affordable green housing.

Pietro da Cortona and Roman Baroque architecture

At first a successful painter of the Roman Baroque, Pietro (Berrettini) da Cortona (1597-1669) soon emerged as an architect of equal stature. This book is the first to focus full attention on Cortona's buildings and projects and to assess his position in Roman Baroque architecture. The book discusses Cortona's major commissions, particularly SS. Luca e Martina, the Villa del Pigneto, S. Maria della Pace, and S. Maria in Via Lata, as well as the designs that remained unbuilt, such as his plans for the Palazzo Pitti in Florence and the Louvre in Paris. Cortona's great decorative cycles, including Palazzo Barberini, the Chiesa Nuova, and others are also considered as part of his stunning vocabulary of architectural decoration. The book explores Cortona's relationships and rivalries with other outstanding Roman architects to illuminate the competitive climate in which he worked, and it concludes with a review of his influence and reputation into the twentieth century.

Le gratte-ciel à Paris au début des années 1930 : discours et représentations

The Skyscraper in Paris in the Early 1930s : Discourses and Representations. After the First World War, the debate on devastated cities involves a new reflection on high-rise architecture. Activating multiple discourses held as well by municipal authorities, than by urban planners and architects, the debate on the height is the opportunity to ideological disputes, which degree of rationality fluctuates, in particular to the identity and modernity. In a competitive climate which opposes European metropolises between them and observes the Americanism’s expansion, how does the idea of a “French tower” is formulated ? The emergence of conflicting communities of thought, the testing of consensus on the urban question and the first imagined projects - in particular at the occasion of the Rosenthal competitions and the “Voie triomphale” - are then relayed by specialized publications, which are a useful way to identify nuances, even differences in the ideological and doctrinal speeches.

Review: Scholarship in the Digital Age: Information, Infrastructure, and the Internet by Christine Borgman

Scholarship in the Digital Age: Information, Infrastructure, and the Internet by Christine Borgman. Cambridge, MA and London: MIT Press, 2007. 336 pp. ISBN 978-0-262-02619-2. Innovations in information access via semantic Web and digital library technologies have set scholarly communication and research dissemination on a critical trajectory. But emerging technologies alone cannot define the infrastructure of digital scholarship, much less the specialized contents and disparate cultures of the humanities, social sciences, and sciences, respectively; the historical and socio-economic foundations of academic publication and disciplinary boundaries have an abiding influence on the nature of, and access to, digital scholarship. In Scholarship in the Digital Age, Christine Borgman presents a thorough appraisal of how the digital age affects the nature, momentum, and mechanisms of scholarly research dissemination. Borgman delineates the vocabularies prevalent in contemporary scholarly infrastructures and situates them in social, policy, technical or historical contexts. The author’s goal in this book was, “to frame research questions about practices, incentives, disincentives, and solutions for an e-Infrastructure and how those questions may vary by discipline and situation” (p. 264). Borgman (2007) describes the scholarly communication system in terms of the elaborate relationships between scholars, universities, and publishers; following Dutton (1999), Borgman considers scholarship’s competitive climate to be an “ecology of games” with dynamic interactions and unpredictable outcomes. Borgman demonstrates an idealistic bias as she writes how “[w]hen the interests of the many stakeholders are in balance, the system works well…” (p. 264). The intention of the author to initiate a conversation about digital scholarship, coupled with the book’s noteworthy readability, combine to invite a multiplicity of interpretations and charge readers to envision, and account for, the myriad of unattested connections between scholarship and technology in modernity. In order for a book to successfully solicit the kind of reflection and focused treatment that Borgman (2007) calls for, it must justify its mandate with respect to established authority. To substantiate the need for (re)building an information infrastructure for scholarly research, the author could begin by establishing an authority schema “from the ground up” (i.e. from data to published findings). Instead, the text’s logic departs from a pure scientific model as the author convincingly advances the most salient assumption for future dialogue on digital scholarship. Borgman (2007) posits that as the social and behavioral context of scholarly communication intersects vitally with public policy and technological innovation, the information practices of the various stakeholders (i.e. researchers, publishers, librarians, etc.) must be carefully analyzed: (1) to design equitable information infrastructures for the information society in general, and (2) to create sustainable infrastructures that not only cater to the needs of disparate academic disciplines, but that also facilitate collaborative research in particular. The book presents a well-referenced appraisal of scholarly information infrastructures, but could not completely incorporate equal treatment of the implications for the sciences, social sciences and humanities (as the author aimed to introduce). The book succeeds in offering overview of contemporary scholarly communications, including: print forms and genres; types and roles of data across disciplines; and

The Second Lebanon War: From Republican Control to Market Control Over the Army

The Second Lebanon War reflected and accelerated a broader change in the mode of civilian supervision of the army. This change can be described as a shift from republican control to market control over the army. The historical citizen-soldier type of political control, by which the political community supervised the military through the social groups serving in the military and the social networks from which they emerged, is supplanted by market control. Market control is characterized by market-oriented monitoring of military activity stemming from the change in its social composition, the impact of the market-style competitive climate that compels the military to market its services by allowing media penetration and by dialoging directly with the public, and the commodification of military service as part of professionalization. This type of control has a contradictory effect on the army's freedom of operation: the army is provided with broader freedom of action in administering belligerent policies, largely because of changes in its social composition, but also has fewer resources with which to fund these policies, due to amplified criticism arising from a market orientation.

Customer Engagement and Behavioral Considerations

Customer Retention is more complex than ever before and there has been a dramatic change in how selling takes place (Jacob, 1994). There is even strong evidence that reveals US corporations lose half their customers in five years (Ganesh, Arnold, & Reynolds, 2000). Changes such as technological advances, a more frantic competitive climate, globalization, more demanding, sophisticated customers and even catastrophic crisis are some of the shifts in the business environment causing this (Stiglitz, 2003). The faster the economy changes, with new innovations and opportunities, creating more choices and options for customers, the harder it is to retain better informed and astute customers that can switch allegiance quickly, providing themselves with greater value and choice (Stiglitz, 2003).

Competition with open source as a public good

The open source paradigm is often defined as a ''collaborative effort,'' implying that firms and consumers come together in a non-competitive climate. We show here that open source development can arise from a competitive climate. Under competition, we find that open source is the surplus maximizing outcome and can be in equilibrium if cost asymmetries are small. However, when cost asymmetries are large, contradictions between equilibrium and welfare maximization result. Considerations typical to public good problems arise, with issues of asymmetric contributions and free-riding. These issues should guide the firm's as well as the society's decisions to implement open source in particular environments. We analyze this problem in the framework of a dynamic duopolistic competition, with firms controlling their investments in software.

Recent Revisions to Commercial Agency Law in the United Arab Emirates

AbstractThe United Arab Emirates—despite its general reputation for free trade and limited government regulation of business—has had (for over two decades) the most onerous 'dealer protection' law in the Middle East.Very recently, however, pro-competition (or anti-monopoly) sentiment within certain UAE government circles resulted in enactment of a new federal law and two UAE Ministry of Economy resolutions that collectively reflect a weakening of those dealer protections. For example, Minister of Economy Sheikha Lubna Al Qasimi observed:The new amendments will certainly boost the competitive economic climate in the UAE…. This law was promulgated out of the desire to enhance and maintain stability in prices and ensure that agencies are not manipulated to increase prices.The following summary highlights some of the more significant aspects of current UAE commercial agency law, including a look at those recent amendments. (I have prepared an English translation of the UAE Commercial Agency Law, including the 2006 amendments, listed as Appendix 1 at the end of this article.)

Managing urban growth in Asia

This article provides perspectives on some key issues countries need to consider in rethinking their priorities to achieve greater social, environmental and economic sustainability from increasing urbanization in Asia. It discusses three areas where such new thinking is needed: improved governance requiring clearer assignment of responsibilities, more extensive use of information and communications technology, and performance and results management to increase urban government productivity. The advantages of establishing a more competitive business climate and increased reliance on markets and market mechanisms for problem solving in Asian cities also is emphasized. The importance of increased infrastructure investment and development are noted, followed by conclusions and recommendations.

Changing Role of Management Accounting: Lithuanian Experience Case Studies

The preconditions of knowledge economy have influenced global changes, which, consequently, had an impact on the nature of organizational equity. Furthermore, a dynamic and competitive climate urges managers to perfect their skills in global orientation, strategic flexibility and quick response to changes as a prerequisite of working under ever-transforming conditions, where an organization should be in the state of continuous development, responding to new technologies, new markets, new businesses, and new people (employees and consumers). The above-mentioned business environment and information access alternate the nature of market competition as well as determine particular information demand. Quick response and flexibility could be achieved, only if decisions are based on timely and adequate information, knowledge and experience in managing the external business environment and internal capacities of an organization. Thus, the new measurement tools are in demand, which should assist in measuring, planning, evaluating and managing the value-creating process inside the organization. The role of modern management accounting systems has extended from data accumulation to strategy implementation. The most popular management accounting conceptions, namely, activity based costing (management) and balanced scorecard, disclose how changed management accounting role integrates a focus on three key stakeholder groups: employees, customers and shareholders. Built on previous management accounting studies this article explores Lithuanian experience implementing modern costing and performance measurement systems. In order to point out the changing role of management accounting in Lithuanian organizations an empirical research was performed. This research consists of two main stages. 1) Implementation level of modern management accounting conceptions and the availability of information for decision making were analyzed using quantitative data (survey). 2) A deeper analysis was performed in Lithuanian organization disclosing the changing role of management accounting after implementation of modern costing and performance measurement system (case study). Results of empirical research indicate that there is quite a strong correlation between implementation level of conceptions (ABCM and / or BSC) and a range of management areas where information generated with the help of those conceptions is useful. Case study organization has started integration stages and has created information basis for cross functional and vertical communication through different management levels, but meanwhile there is an absence of communicative relations between top and lower management levels. The results of the research disclosed that modern management accounting conceptions might be precondition for changing role of management accounting but it depends on implementation level and organization’s ability to manage all capacities of these conceptions.

The interactive relationship of competitive climate and trait competitiveness with workplace attitudes, stress, and performance

AbstractThere has been a considerable debate about the individual and organizational benefits of competition. Adopting a person–environment fit perspective, this research examined the influence of competition as an interaction between trait competitiveness and competitive climate. Using a sample of information technology workers, competitive climate was considered as both an individual level variable and a workgroup variable. Results show that the effect of competitive climate depended on trait competitiveness and the level at which climate was assessed for four of the outcomes assessed: job satisfaction, organizational commitment, job dedication, and supervisor‐rated task performance. In general, the effect of competitive climate was more negative for individuals lower in trait competitiveness. Competitive psychological climate was associated with greater stress regardless of the level of trait competitiveness but was not directly related to self‐rated task performance. Findings suggest that managers should be cautious in encouraging competitive climate. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Marketing Schools

Effective school-choice plans depend on the quality of information available to families. Examining the promotional materials provided by different schools in a highly competitive and diverse urban area tells us not only about the quality of that information but also how schools respond to competitive incentives. This analysis outlines an economic theory of goods as a framework for understanding information, focusing on the essential “search,” “experience,” and “credence” qualities of promotional materials. The information made available to families through commercial-style materials challenges the notion of parents making reasoned choices based on institutional effectiveness. Instead, more emotional themes and images dominate school marketing strategies, with implications for ethnic and socioeconomic sorting within diverse but competitive climates. Promotional strategies suggest that competition is creating an environment in which, rather than responding to incentives intended to improve education for more disadvantaged students, schools are instead attracting better performing students through their marketing campaigns.

Success and Failure in Conversion Narratives1

Introduction Debates about conversion and proselytism have been gaining momentum around the globe in recent years. This is happening for several reasons but especially because the number of new constitutional democracies that have been created in Eastern Europe, Africa, Asia and Latin America during the last two decades are more than matched by the number of civil wars that have shaken and destabilized states undergoing acute transition in the same period. The modern human rights revolution and the outburst of violent conflicts on religious grounds are taking place simultaneously; indeed, in many places they are interconnected. In other words, Human rights are as much the problem as they are the solution in a number of current religious and cultural conflicts, (2) and democratization and economic liberalization often provide the conditions for increased religious pluralization and proselytization activities. (3) Religions and obscure cults that authoritarian regimes have suppressed in the past have taken advantage of the religious freedom newly guaranteed in these states to develop a vigorous life. In addition, evangelicals and Pentecostals, as well as relatively new religious groups such as Mormons, Seventh-day Adventists and Jehovah Witnesses, have entered the scene and contributed to the development of a climate of competition and strife. After the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Soviet Union, a veritable 'war for souls' was launched in Eastern Europe and other regions, and it provoked deep social and ideological conflicts. In this explosive atmosphere, rival religious communities have begun actively to defame and demonize each other, and to gather themselves into ever more dogmatic and fundamentalist strands. The ecumenical spirit of the previous decades is giving way to sharp new forms of religious balkanization. (4) Traditional religious communities and majority religions have frequently urged the state to pass anti-proselytism laws after a few years of such turmoil. In doing so, Eastern European, African and Latin American countries have developed a legal culture that tends to give protection to some religious communities and oppress others. (5) In India, anti-conversion laws have been passed mainly but not exclusively in states ruled by Hindu fundamentalists. (6) While it is not regarded as an offence in India to convert to Hinduism, leaving Hinduism for Buddhism, Islam or Christianity is severely controlled under such laws and is often hindered or even punished. Some converts come under scrutiny and have to prove that they have not been given material inducements to change their religious affiliation. (7) This situation has triggered a debate among members of different religious communities about the rights and wrongs of missionary outreach that aims at conversion. Opponents usually refer to missionary outreach in this sense by the pejorative term of proselytism, or proselytization. Urgent questions are arising. How can ethically acceptable means of missionary outreach be distinguished from unethical proselytization? (8) Should changes of religious affiliation be avoided altogether for the sake of religious peace? Such issues specifically challenge Christianity. What are the key Christian insights regarding human rights in general and, in particular, the right to make disciples (Matt. 28:19f) and seek adherents among members of other faith communities? How does the implementation of the Great Commission affect the objective and modalities of interreligious dialogue, and undermine the encounter with people of other faiths? There are also questions that can legitimately be posed to people on the other side of such confrontations. Are not many of the accusations that Christians proselytise with unethical means groundless insinuations and propaganda? If, for example, members of a specific Christian group dedicate themselves to care for the poor, the sick, prisoners and outcasts ignored by their co-religionists, is that really a case of inducement to conversion by unethical means? …

Market Research Reports: An Overlooked Resource for Agribusiness Libraries

ABSTRACT In today's competitive agribusiness climate, agribusiness professionals, and students perform research to develop new products for the marketplace. While traditional search tools such as AGRICOLA and CAB s are important for research, the content in those databases is mostly scientific in nature. Market research reports are an excellent resource for understanding the marketplace and for aiding researchers in new product development. This article defines and explains the purpose of market research and, by using a case study of an agribusiness course at a research university, compares the content from four market research products.

Information-System Investment: An IS-Commons Market-Failure

While investment in Information Systems (IS) is an area of vital strategic concern to most organizations, there is little understanding of how to measure real returns of IS to business. This measurement problem has persisted from the 1990s to the present -- where managers are under increasing pressure to adopt new technology or face being left behind. In the current competitive climate, senior managers seek practical techniques to manage their current IS investments and to help them to decide where best to allocate uncommitted company resources. The model in this paper should help firms understand and respond to the process behind the persistent underperformance of IS investments. Specifically, the responses of other market participants must be factored into estimates of IS-investment returns -- cooperation and coordination may yield higher long-term returns for all.

Playing Cards on Asthma Management: A New Interactive Method for Knowledge Transfer to Primary Care Physicians

To describe an interactive playing card workshop in the communication of asthma guidelines recommendations, and to assess the initial evaluation of this educational tool by family physicians. Family physicians were invited to participate in the workshop by advertisements or personal contacts. Each physician completed a standardized questionnaire on his or her perception of the rules, content and properties of the card game. A university-based continuing medical education initiative. Primary care physicians. Physicians' evaluation of the rules, content and usefulness of the program. The game allowed the communication of relevant asthma-related content, as well as experimentation with a different learning format. It also stimulated interaction in a climate of friendly competition. Participating physicians considered the method to be an innovative tool that facilitated reflection, interaction and learning. It generated relevant discussions on how to apply guideline recommendations to current asthma care. This new, interactive, educational intervention, integrating play and scientific components, was well received by participants. This method may be of value to help integrate current guidelines into current practice, thus facilitating knowledge transfer to caregivers.

Incentives for School Diversification

ABSTRACT Reforms using market-style mechanisms of parental choice and competition between schools are intended to leverage change by compelling schools to diversify options and increase effectiveness. Yet, some research challenges those assumptions, suggesting that schools in competitive climates are more likely to focus on image management to attract a more desirable student intake than to engage in substantive innovations to improve student outcomes. This analysis examines school responses to competition in two local education markets representing a mix of public (including charter) and private school types. School promotional signals to consumers are studied in order to understand school perceptions and responses to underlying competitive incentive structures-incentives that reformers intended to encourage programmatic improvement and diversification of options along a horizontal axis of diverse consumer preferences. A review of marketing materials demonstrates that many schools are instead adopting marketing strategies designed to attract “better” students-often from schools considered to be successful, rather than from the failing schools reformers had targeted. These patterns of vertical differentiation suggest that schools may be acting in ways that reflect contradictory incentives shaping how schools engage the marketplace.

Managing relationships to improve performance: a case study in the global aerospace industry

Organizations wishing to succeed in the competitive climate of the contemporary marketplace will need to differentiate themselves from competitors. World-class product development is considered the key to competitive advantage and, to compete effectively in global markets, organizations need to be proficient at this core activity. The knowledge-intensive process of product development will benefit from strategic alliances with customers based on trust and mutual benefit. This paper reports on research which developed a managerial tool that allows manufacturing organizations to understand the impacts of relationships at the boundaries of their internal and external activities. It focuses upon the importance of collaboration to forming and maintaining productive relationships within and between organizations. Such an approach will help organizations, and the individuals within them, to identify appropriate internal and inter-organizational network development strategies. An important assumption that underlies its development is that the model will improve project and product development performance by improving communication flows through enhanced networked relationships between team members, and hence improve the overall performance of the organization. This paper sets the research context and presents results of action research with a team of engineers from a large organization in the aerospace industry. It reveals the crucial importance of trust in underpinning successful internal and inter-organizational relationships. It is suggested that the tool provides a convenient methodology for measuring and benchmarking relational network performance.

ABS11: Updating knowledge of primary care physicians on the management of asthma using a new interactive method based on Playing Cards

Introduction:Asthma control and care are still frequently sub-optimal and new means of improving knowledge transfer to caregivers, such as those based on Game-based methods, are needed [1].Aims and objectives:To describe an innovative method of updating Primary Care Physicians (PCP) on asthma management, using a method integrating Play and Scientific components.Methods:We developed an interactive Playing Card workshop to communicate Asthma Guidelines recommendations and facilitate knowledge transfer. During this workshop, the physicians had to manage real-life cases using the tools that were provided to them and discuss with their peers and asthma specialists about the optimal management of the cases proposed.Results:The game allowed the physician to communicate relevant content, experiment with a different learning format and stimulated interactivity in a climate of friendly competition. An initial assessment made by thirty-four participating physicians showed that the method was considered innovative, highly interactive and useful in promoting reflection, interaction and learning. It generated relevant discussions on how to apply Guidelines recommendations into current asthma care.Conclusions:This new interactive educational intervention, integrating play and scientific components, was considered an innovative and valuable method by participants. It stimulated reflection and generated relevant discussion on current asthma Guidelines and how to apply them to current practice, thus facilitating knowledge transfer to caregivers. Conflict of interest and funding This work was supported by an unrestrictive grant to CME from Merck Frosst Canada Ltd.