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Technical variety in the paper and pulp industry offer four analytical perspectives. One attests that the high standards usually associated with the Finnish industry is not evident in the p & p industry of Sweden and Finland. Also, the innovation process involved behind the Thermopulp technology cannot be considered an industry-wide movement. Another view pertains to the incorporation of old and new technologies to more advanced systems in the installation project in Braviken. Lastly, it has been shown that the industry is geared towards drastic technology changes.

The purpose of this research is to study the effect of four sponsors (honor society, university, marketing research firm, and an unidentified sponsor) on the response rates to a questionnaire sent to a commercial population. In addition, the main and interaction effects of color of stationery (pink, green, yellow, and white) are examined. This research expands on the previous use of limited types of questionaire source by including the first use of two source types, an academic honor society and an unidentified sponsor. Also, this research for the first time studies the interaction of types of questionnaire source and paper color on survey response rates. The authors conclude that mean response rates for a university or academic honor society are significantly higher than those for a marketing research firm or an unidentified sponsor. However, they found no significant impact on response rates by the use of different colors of stationery and also found no source and color interaction effects. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)

Accounting research has not paid sufficient attention to heath care as a public policy issue. Given the intensifying debate over health care reform, there is a need for accounting researchers to participate more actively in discussions. The Journal of Accounting and Public Policy intends to stimulate such discussions by publishing a special issue that is devoted to accounting issues relevant to the health care debate. Suggested topics for discussion are offered to those who would like to contribute to the special issue.

The two types of rationality embodied in subjective expected utility need to be distinguished to review behavioral evidence which point out the flaws of the theory. Preference rationality incorporates principles such as transitivity and consequence monotonicity, while structural rationality states that one's preferences should not be changed by modifying the manner by which a gamble is formulated as long as the bottom line remains the same. Rationality and nonrationality assumptions that can be explained empirically must be carefully merged to come up with descriptive theories.

Ethics and social behavior has been a growing concern among policy makers as business and political leaders have become more accountable for the outcome of the entities they manage. Research in ethics and accounting were historically focused on ethical codes and the behavior of auditors. Recent research in accounting and taxation have begun examining the previously disregarded aspects of ethics. Ethical behavior in the economic setting is one topic which has not been extensively studied. The University of Oklahoma Center for Research in Accounting will sponsor a conference on this topic.

Two separate papers by Carlstrom and Samolyk, on one hand, and Jagtiani, Saunders and Udell, on the other, discuss trends in the banking industry in the 1980's such as bank loan sales and off-balance sheet activities. The first two authors deal with a stylized model of bank loan sales which they could have expanded by including an analysis of equilibrial situations. The other paper deals with a statistical evaluation of financial innovation.

A proposal to write an issue of the Journal of Accounting and Public Policy on the cost management concepts and industrial competitiveness was made, in the light of its importance in world economic policy formulation. The topics of discussion for the said issue would include cost management techniques, management accounting systems, and firm performance and competitive strategies. Contributions from interested parties for the mentioned topics were encouraged.

The need for more flexible and often temporary types of organizational structures in high-technology companies has resulted in an increasing use of teams and project groups employing special know-how and expertise in carrying out marketing activities. These form partly planned and partly informal intra-corporation networks. We contend that the handling of these intra-organizational relationships between the different marketing units in industrial high-tech companies is a key prerequisite for the successful management of their customer relationships. This argument is supported by the findings of a multiple-case study, investigating four major industrial process automation producers (ABB, Honeywell, Measurex, Valmet Automation). The main findings suggest the dismantling of traditional marketing departments in favor of a relatively large collection of marketing-related units and structures. The development of these internal marketing units, the establishment of good communications between them, and the coordination of their activities presented major challenges for the case companies. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)

Cole's paper is a useful addition to existing economic literature on credit rationing but the paper may be further improved by testing for robustness in stratifying organizational legality and estimating bivariate probit models on loan applications and denials. Interpretation of the findings are also open to debate as with the conclusion that the lender disappearance causes a short term reduction in credit availability and the conclusion that relationships not continuing the probability of denial after a year.

Houston and James' conclusions deserve further investigation because of a paradox in the performance of insuring relationship lending while Berlin and Mester's conclusions on relationship lending are doubtful also. The two papers focus on the effects of relationship lending within and outside of banking institutions and their papers deserve further investigation so as to clarify and support their conclusions.

The role of public science, which refers to scientific research conducted in academic and governmental research institutions, in advancing the American technology industry continues to increase based from the analysis of relationship between US patents and scientific research papers. Data shows that 73% of scientific research papers conducted in America are classified as public science created at public institutions. Much of the papers classified are from the mainstream of modern science backed by public agencies, such as the National Science Foundation.

Research activities undertaken by firms seldom see publication as scientific papers. For this reason, many researchers believe that bibliometrics is an inadequate measure for industrial science. To determine the validity of this argument, papers and patents from 199 multinational corporations are statistically analyzed. Results indicate that bibliometrics may provide a useful gauge of industrial scientific activities.

A 1994 paper questions the adequacy of hindsight bias and its reversal in explaining highly unexpected outcomes. In particular, the paper asserts that retrospective judgments are often not in accordance with the hindsight bias and the reversal hypothesis. However, further study reveals that the hindsight bias and its reversal is applicable in many instances of unexpected outcomes.

Perceptions of service quality can vary across different organizational hierarchies. Taking an industrial marketing perspective, this paper proposes a methodology for analyzing such differences both within and between a service organization and its industrial/commercial customers. Means of operationalizing the suggested model are discussed, and the managerial implications are demonstrated. The discussion unfolds with a brief synopsis of service quality research to date. A subsequent evaluation and comparison of two formal models of service quality leads to the identification of a number of shortcomings in the service quality literature. Based on this, the proposed model then provides a service quality agenda for industrial companies. The paper concludes with an outline of the potential benefits of the suggested investigation. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)

The purpose of this article is to examine the marketing variables affecting the exportation of nuclear power plants by U.S. manufacturers. It is stated that with the demise of the nuclear industry within the United States following the TMI-2 accident in 1979, U.S. nuclear power plant suppliers have been forced to look externally to expand their market. Currently, U.S. suppliers of nuclear power plants are concentrating their export marketing efforts in developing countries and newly emerging Asian countries. However, the United States faces stiff competition from other industrialized nations such as Canada and France in the nuclear power plant export markets. The paper analyzes the marketing variables involved in exporting nuclear power plants, including the site selection process, legal variables, and financing. It is noted that during the early 1970s, the export market for nuclear power was essential a seller's market. In recent years, marked with the increasing debt repayment problems facing developing countries and a lack of nuclear power plan orders in the United States, the export market has become a buyer's market. The paper also evaluates what changes are needed in the U.S. nuclear power industry in order to remain competitive in the exporting of nuclear power abroad. Changes are recommended in reactor design, the licensing process, adaptation to legal and political environments, and joint financing in cooperation with the host country. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)

Performance measures of the scientific performance of the EU in terms of information and communication technologies (ICT) are examined. The measures are based on the flows and stock of scientific knowledge embodied in research papers published in international technical and scientific journals. A comparison of the performance of the EU science base with Japan and the US was made based on the quantitative data obtained from the papers. Results confirm the existence of the Paradox in both the ICT research domains of telecommunications and computers and data processing.

This paper discusses an industrial competitiveness model and describes an application of it in manufacturing industry. The model is not only instrumental in quantifying the overall competitiveness levels of manufacturing firms but also useful in identifying specific weaknesses and strengths of a given industrial firm. The paper also describes some areas of strategic decision making that may benefit from applying this approach. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)

This article presents a model for determining the composition of the organizational buying center. It is the result of extensive study of the purchasing and marketing literature to identify key variables for determining the management level and functional areas of major importance in the buying process. The need for and background of the model are discussed in the first section of the paper. A general description of the model is then followed by sections on the key individual variables. The last section of the paper discusses the successful use of the model as a framework for a field investigation of purchasing transportation. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)

There are several ways of improving the response to mail surveys among industrial managers and business persons. Among the techniques to improve response are monetary incentives, free postage, use of postcards, a priori letters, open questions, different methods used by the questionnaire paper, and assured anonymity. This last incentive proved to increase response rate from 14 percent to 23.6 percent. Techniques such as pictures, color of questionnaire paper, and postscripts have proved not to have any effect in increasing the response rate from industrial executives. Follow-up letters also proved ineffective in getting more executives to answer questionnaires.

This article reports the findings of a 1985-1986 study of success and failure determinants for new industrial products that had recently reached commercialization. In particular, the paper seeks to identify underlying factors for success and to test whether perceived success and failure factors vary with new product 'experience' levels and-or with the degree of innovation in the company's new product program. The paper concludes that companies with more innovative and-or high-tech new product programs have significantly different success and failure factors at work than their less innovative and-or lower technology counterparts, and that across a sample of companies from many industries, wide variety of situation-specific success and failure variables need to be addressed by industrial marketers. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)

Disk by mail (DBM) offers an alternative to traditional pencil-and-paper surveys that achieves some of the benefits of in-person interviews at a comparable cost. DBM provides a solution to some of the unique problems encountered when conducting research that involves firms in business markets. This article reviews what is known about DBM, compares DBM with both pencil-and-paper surveys and on-line surveys, discusses the response effects of computerized questioning, and describes a recent study of international channel selection by software firms that illustrates the use of this method. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)

A retrospective evaluation of Research Policy, which includes comments on most-cited papers, special issues, and revised subject and author indexes is discussed and described in the Dec 1999 issue, the last issue of the millenium.

Many LDCs (less developed countries) that lack market values and competitive experience and instruments have moved to market economies. In this paper, we look at some of the new issues in the interaction process; particularly, at buyer behavior when the risk element becomes important and complex within a relatively short period, and uncertainty is much higher. The case examined involves the process of buying plants and equipment for the production of cash-operated and telephone card-operated equipment in Algeria. Both the technology and the product were new to the country. This limited empirical study raised some issues about the behavior of low-technology buyers and assessed the impact of the interaction between partners in international markets. Perceived risk resulting from uncertainty is magnified by new pressures of the environment; namely, shifts to performance requirements, a higher level of competition, and financial restrictions. These new market constraints influence both buyers (directly) and suppliers (indirectly). The supplier must adapt to both new market conditions and new buyer behavior and must reassess the new market pressures and requirements to determine more accurately the market impact of establishing these new relationships. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)

The article reviews some current guidance on when and how to segment business-to-business markets. It evaluates traditional segmentation processes and the variables usually recommended. Several important issues are highlighted including: the limitations of current definitions; the continuing tension between theoretically meaningful and managerially possible segmentation methods, and the difficulties in using product benefits as opposed to customer needs as a basis for segmentation. The paper proposes a new comprehensive definition of segmentation and a more balanced marketing-orientated approach to the process. We conclude that the appropriate approach to segmentation in business-to-business markets is governed by the objectives of the organizations involved and by prevailing investment priorities and competitive tensions, rather than by the idealistic recommendations of marketing theory always to focus exclusively on customer needs. The implications for managers and for future research are discussed. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)

Avery et al have made a significant contribution to economic theory but their paper may be further improved in some areas. Points for clarification or further research may focus on the use of more up-to-date data to incorporate the changes in small-business insurance, the use of guarantees, differences in the data sets of NSSBF and SCF data sets that may show differences in population samples and the overall use of personal commitments.

The need for global market presence, the complexity of new product development, and the emphasis on core competence are making alliances among firms more important, and recent evidence suggests that these issues are affecting small suppliers as well as the large firms that are their customers. This paper studied the relationship orientation (i.e., the perceived importance, of interfirm relations) in a fragmented supplier industry whose single largest customer group is automotive OEMs. The primary objective of the research was the identification of factors that discriminate between firms with high and low relationship orientations. The study found four factors describing benefits and barriers associated with interfirm relationships, and found that firms with a high relationship orientation were smaller and more optimistic about the industry's ability to support a greater number of firms in the future, and perceived faster technology change than firms with a low relationship orientation. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)

The problem of pricing swap credit risk has been addressed in only a few papers such as Sun et al. (1993) and Chen and Selender's (1995) unpublished works. The absence of empirical literature addressing the problem has necessitated the gathering of information, in addition to swap quotes, such as credit risk spreads on transaction data. Results show that credit ratings have significant influence on swap spreads for both interest rate swaps and currency swaps.

Allen and Rai's (1996) paper on operational efficiency in banking arrive at two main conclusions which state that the occurrence of input x-inefficiencies are more significant than the existence of output inefficiencies. However, their conclusions which state that the distribution-free (DF) model overestimates the extent of x-inefficiencies when compared to the stochastic cost frontier (SCF) method are erroneous. Comparison of both the DF and the SCF methods using rank order correlation can better assess the two approaches as tests of relative bank efficiency.

Environmental liabilities are environmental costs and losses which greatly affect the financial performance of a company. A study of industries showed that environmental liabilities negatively affect the stock market valuations of companies and that they are not reflected in the balance sheet. Larger companies tend to have greater environmental liabilities as a result of bigger and costlier environmental measures. The pulp and paper industry, chemicals, and oil refineries are some of the industries which have greater environmental liabilities.

Despite the importance and revenue potential of global markets, many companies still fail to train marketers to interact with diverse customers. Too often, international marketers are caught off guard in how to approach and respond to customers of different cultures. This lack of sensitivity can put companies at a competitive advantage. The purpose of this paper is to develop a conceptual framework and matrix that incorporate the role of intercultural communication in developing international buyer-seller relationships. The framework focuses on the predispositions and abilities that marketers bring to an intercultural selling encounter and the consequences of these abilities in developing buyer-seller relationships. Implications for developing interculturally adaptive training programs are discussed. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)

The constraints inherent in bibliometric methods for evaluating research activities were examined for the case of 13 institutes with an active role in molecular biology research. Specifically, the number of citations received by 7,102 publications in which the institutes release their results were counted for the years 1980-84. The number of citations per paper was used to measure quality while costs per citation was used to measure efficiency of research.

In a study of Euroyen and Japanese CD interest rates from November 1984 through January 1993, the paper finds that domestic market was isolated in the first half of the sample period, while two-way causality characterized the later years.

This paper analyzes the predictable variances of Federal funds returns on a daily and intraday basis and confirms that Federal requirements result in daily and intraday variances which are not constant.

This paper investigates results of over-bids in foreign acquisitions by U.S. multinational firms. The results show that financial markets favor more the initial than subsquent foreign investments of well managed U.S. multinational firms, the effects of the dollar exchange rate and of the 1986 Tax Act on U.S. firms' foreign tax credits.

A U.S. -based closed-end country fund is an investment company listed on a U.S. stock exchange but invests in the securities of a particular foreign country. This paper evaluates its potential as a vehicles for international diversification and finds that such funds retain exposure to their local market factors and provide diversification benefits to U.S. investors.

This paper investigates the market linkages between the U.S. and U.K. equity market. It concludes that they linkages are attributable to reactions of foreign trades to public information originating from the U.S.

In investigating Australian Building Societies, this paper shows that the permanent building societies adjust costs quickly to long -run levels. Also, it shows that cost dynamics and technological change influence economies of scale estimates, the identification of the timing of shifts and the growth of total factor productivity.

The determinants of bank failure are separated from the determinants of survival time by the use of split-population model survival time model. The paper finds that measures of bank liquidity such as investment securities and large certificates of deposit are not important determinants of bank survival time as only a select group of variables such as capital, troubled assets, and net income can relate significantly to timing of bank failure.

This paper studies the significant stock price reaction to announcement of self-tender common stock repurchases especially in respect of the hypothesis of free cash flow signalling.

This papers studies the interaction between market makers who set their bid-ask spread based on the number of financial analysts following the stock. On the other hand financial analysts base their forecast the profit potential of a stock from the size of the bid-ask spread set up by market makers.

This paper evaluates the relationship between the interest rate risk management of banks and its impact on liabilities of a deposit insuring agency like the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

This paper finds that the various factors explaining stock returns are the same for different data frequencies after appropriate adjustments.