Retailers routinely allow consumers to negotiate a discount off the posted price for big-ticket items such as home appliances and automobiles, and on online platforms such as Amazon and eBay. The profitability of such a strategy, relative to selling only at posted prices, depends on consumers’ willingness to initiate a negotiation and ability to negotiate a discount. In this article, the authors incorporate consumers’ decision of whether to negotiate into a demand model.
In this paper, we study the role of point-of-sale (POS) marketing mix variables in explaining variation in brand shares (i) at different retail formats, and (ii) across national and store brands in different price tiers. Stores in different retail formats differ in their positioning, the clientele they attract, and types of shopping trips made to the store. Further, national and store brands in different price tiers differ in the quality perception, and the contracts between the retailer and the manufacturer.
Negotiations are inherently dyadic. Negotiators’ individual-level characteristics may not only make them perform better or worse in general, but also may make them particularly well- or poorly-suited to negotiate with a particular counterpart.
This paper investigates changes in firm spending following changes in shareholder taxes. We show that firms with less elastic demand for equity capital will expand operations less than other firms following shareholder tax cuts. Since financial constraint is a factor that diminishes a firms demand elasticity for capital, we predict that financially constrained firms expand less than other companies following shareholder tax reductions.
Traditional models of operations management involve dynamic decision-making assuming optimal (Bayesian) updating. However, behavioral theory suggests that individuals exhibit bias in their beliefs and decisions. We conduct both a field study and two laboratory studies to examine the phenomena in the context of health. In particular, we examine how an individual’s prior experiences and the experiences of those around them alter the operational decisions that the individual makes.
Organizations vary significantly in the rates at which they learn from experience (i.e., learning by doing). While prior work has explored how different categories of prior experience affect learning outcomes, limited attention has been paid to the role played by the organizational context. We focus on one important aspect of an organization’s context—goals—and examine how the degree of goal relatedness across an organization’s diverse set of activities affects the rate at which it learns from experience. In doing so, we argue that even where otherwise diverse activities are knowledge related, if they are not goal related, learning by doing is likely to suffer.
On January 18-19, 2018, the Frank H. Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise convened its second-ever Frontiers of Entrepreneurship Conference, bringing together academic researchers, policymakers and industry leaders to share their experiences, insights and ideas for improving the entrepreneurial climate in the United States and beyond.
We investigate the influence of bank competition on agency costs by examining whether earnings management in the form of loan loss provision smoothing increases as the wedge between control rights and cash-flow rights increases.
Previous research has used an ego depletion perspective to establish a self-regulatory model linking sleep deprivation to unethical behavior via depletion (Barnes, Schaubroeck, Huth, & Ghumman, 2011; Christian & Ellis, 2011; Welsh, Ellis, Christian, & Mai, 2014). We extend this research by moving beyond depletion to examine a more nuanced, process-based view of self-control.
As the digital revolution rages on, every business leader must become technology literate. This guide provides executives with an introduction to the technologies that are transforming our world.
The efficiency of price discovery in the REIT market is an issue of enduring interest. Unfortunately, existing studies focus on REIT index data, and the general equity efficiency literature that uses individual assets typically excludes this sector.
Suppliers are increasingly being forced by dominant retailers to clean up their supply chains. These retailers argue that their sustainability mandates may translate into profits for suppliers, but many suppliers are cynical about these mandates because the onus to undertake the required investments is on them while potential gains may be usurped by the mandating retailer.
A BloombergView article on the negative economic effects of the growing number of mega companies dominating American markets features the latest research co-authored by Kenan Institute Director Greg Brown. The research looks at how the dramatic change in the number and composition of firms listed on major U.S. exchanges over the past two decades – namely, more larger, older companies and fewer companies overall – has resulted in historically low levels of idiosyncratic risk.
Worker attrition is a costly and operationally disruptive challenge throughout the world. Although large bodies of research have documented drivers of attrition and its operational consequences, managers still lack an integrated approach to understanding attrition and making decisions to address it on a forward-going basis.
FoodCon is a daylong event focused on the business of sustainable food with a goal of bringing together a diverse audience of students, community members, and business professionals who have a shared interest in the sustainable food industry. UNC Kenan-Flagler MBA Net Impact students (Elisa Elkind and Brianne Abramowicz, both MBA ’15) had an idea in 2014 to host a conference to talk about the business of sustainable food. Since then, their idea has grown to include partner schools, who each take a turn to co-host the event, Duke University and NC State. This event is a collaborative effort between the three schools that surpasses ‘Tobacco Road’ rivalries. The 2017 event came back to UNC Kenan-Flagler with a theme of ‘Good For All: Sustainable. Profitable. Accessible.’
The New Oxford Handbook of Economic Geography is the most comprehensive and significant statement about the value and potential of economic geography in 2017. Sixty-six leading economists and geographers from around the world investigate the rival theories and perspectives that have sustained the development of economic geography. The Handbook also focuses on linkages, including those between inequality, instability, and sustainability in the global economy; economic behavior, strategies, and practices; mobility and creativity; resources and development; and distribution and consumption.
This monograph introduces Management Accounting to Operations Management researchers and illustrates how unleashing this accounting information perspective into the world of Operations Management can improve our understanding of topics of interest to Operations Management researchers and practitioners.
Goals and the performance feedback on those goals are fundamental to organizational learning and adaptation. However, most research has focused on single overall, high-level organizational goals, while ignoring important operational goals farther down in the goal hierarchy.
Economic forecasting is a key ingredient of decision making both in the public and in the private sector. Because economic outcomes are the result of a vast, complex, dynamic and stochastic system, forecasting is very difficult and forecast errors are unavoidable. Because forecast precision and reliability can be enhanced by the use of proper econometric models and methods, this innovative book provides an overview of both theory and applications. Undergraduate and graduate students learning basic and advanced forecasting techniques will be able to build from strong foundations, and researchers in public and private institutions will have access to the most recent tools and insights
A Triangle Business Journal article on the Kenan Institute’s Dean’s Speakers Series featuring Blackstone CEO Steve Schwarzman last week. Schwarzman and UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School Dean Doug Shackelford discussed the makings of a CEO in their Kenan Center fireside chat before students, faculty, staff and UNC Chapel Hill community members.