Search

Buyer-supplier negotiations play a central role in supply chain networks regulating the conditions for the exchange of goods. This paper investigates the relationships between influencing factors and their impact on bargaining power. In a multiple case study, we triangulate secondary data from 12 German automotive suppliers. Following a structural equation modelling approach, bargaining power and the effects of those influencing variables are analysed. Four relationships can be found. (1) The availability of internal resources and the existence of strong buyer-supplier relationships have a positive effect on bargaining power. (2) A positive influence of buyer-supplier relationships on gaining access to internal resources can be identified. (3) External market conditions have a small negative effect on bargaining power. (4) No significant effect can be found looking at the impact of external market conditions on internal resources or buyer-supplier relationships. The findings support theory by showing that internal resources and strong buyer-supplier relationships positively influence bargaining power. Based on these results, managers are advised to prioritise strategic resource allocation, implement win-win strategies, and employ benchmarking techniques to enhance competitiveness and strengthen bargaining positions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The primary focus of brand equity research has been on how brand knowledge creates value for firms through customer behavior in product markets. Using archival data and five experiments, this article tests a framework that outlines the unique role brands play in the labor market. The framework distinguishes between vertical and horizontal differentiation and shows that vertical brand differentiation is associated with lower pay, whereas horizontal brand differentiation is associated with higher pay. Employees are also vertically and horizontally differentiated, and firms high in horizontal brand differentiation pay more for employees who match their brands' differentiating characteristics (i.e., brand-relevant complementarities). Results show that these brand–pay relationships have important downstream effects on employee behavior and, consequently, on firm profits. Specifically, leveraging vertical brand differentiation to lower pay represents a false economy because profits are attenuated by negative effects on employee productivity and retention. In contrast, when managers at firms high on horizontal brand differentiation pay more, profits increase via the same mediating employee behaviors. Six firm strategies and investments that influence firm bargaining power in the employee–brand matching process are found to moderate the brand–pay relationship and downstream effects on profits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The phenomenon of organizations breaking laws and norms in the pursuit of strategic advantage has received substantial attention in recent years. Such transgressions generally elicit the intervention of social control agents seeking to curb deviant behavior and defend the status quo. In some cases, their efforts result in the deviant behavior being suppressed; in other occasions, however, organizational deviance can persist and even be accepted into the very system of rules that was initially challenged. In this paper, we advance a structured view of this process by formulating a theory of the social control of organizational deviance. Building upon the sociological literature, we classify forms of social control based on their cooperativeness and formality; additionally, we shed light on the outcomes of social control by illustrating the conditions under which they are likely to be more, or less, accommodative of deviant behavior, as well as more, or less, permanent. In so doing, we contribute to scholarly understanding of the role of social control in organizational fields, as well as of the advantageousness of deviant behavior as a strategic option for organizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tightening lending standards are motivating companies to adopt supply chain financing, with invoice backed lending to remedy financial stress. These financial objects depend on company-to-company relationships. The accumulation of these dyadic relationships creates complex supply network topologies. Companies within these networks are selfish and have varying degrees of bargaining power. To remain operational, they maximise their liquidity by negotiating longer repayment terms and cheaper financing, thus distributing risk onto weaker companies and propagating financial stress. To study this phenomenon, we created an agent-based supply network simulation model capturing these behaviours. We investigate structural conditions that make supply networks vulnerable to financial stress propagation and the resultant financial ripple effects using survivability analysis. We found firms with higher bargaining power are disproportionately more exposed to network risk. In diamond-shaped networks, firms occupying lower tiers are critical in financial stress propagation, becoming deep-tier nexus suppliers. Our results are relevant to industries with heterogeneous network composition. Practitioners must mitigate the effects of vulnerable network structures with careful supply chain financing design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates the relationship between the share of assets held by institutional investors relative to GDP and a synthetic index of union bargaining power in 20 OECD countries from 1980 to 2017. Findings from the use of fixed-effects OLS and instrumental variables regressions show that the share of assets held by institutional investors, especially insurance companies and pension funds, is correlated with a decline in union bargaining power. The authors argue that by contributing to significant changes in corporate strategies and governance through potential effects on jobs and wages, institutional investors in most OECD countries may have weakened the influence of trade unions, thereby leading to a higher decentralization of wage bargaining. Mixed evidence is found, however, when investigating the role of complementarity across institutions to explain cross-country heterogeneity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores the relationship between AI applications and supply chain concentration. We measure the AI applications of Chinese listed firms based on text analytics on annual reports from 2007 to 2021. Our results show that AI applications reduce supply chain concentration, and these results are robust to endogeneity examination. In addition, AI reduces companies' supply chain concentration by enhancing their bargaining power and, in turn, improving their operational performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In October 2021 136 countries reached a political agreement to transform the global tax regime for the first time since its creation. The disconnect between the digitalized economy and the global tax system was a key driver of the agreement, but it was not sufficient as negotiations only a few years earlier had failed to address the problem. This article advances a three-part explanation to resolve this puzzle. First, developments on one side of the Atlantic changed the default conditions and so increased support for compromise in the other. Second, those changes enhanced the bargaining power of higher-tax jurisdictions relative to lower-tax ones. Third, the Biden administration saw securing a multilateral agreement on minimum corporate taxes as a way to realize domestic tax objectives. The linking of the issues gave it an incentive to compromise on taxing the digital economy and paved the way for agreement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Green technology innovations propel both economic development and environmental sustainability. Exploring the contributing factors to green technology innovations carries important policy implications, but research from the perspective of supply chain relationships has been rare. This paper examines the impact of corporate customer concentration on green technology innovations and explores its influencing mechanisms using the data of Chinese A-share listed companies. The results show that a high customer concentration inhibits the quantity and quality of green technology innovations, a finding that is robust when endogeneity is addressed and when alternative measures and an alternative estimation model are employed. Financing constraints and social responsibility play intermediary roles in the impact of customer concentration on green technology innovations. A high customer concentration tends to increase corporate financing constraints and reduce corporate social responsibility performance, which hinder green technology innovations. The heterogeneity analysis reveals that the inhibitory effect of customer concentration on green technology innovations is less severe in digitally transformed enterprises, mature enterprises, or enterprises with a high level of market power. As this study provides a novel perspective on the contributing factors to corporate green innovations, it offers important policy recommendations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In global agricultural markets, farmers often face profit squeezes due to low bargaining power, which affects the sustainability of agriculture and the livelihoods of farmers. Cooperative intervention is seen as a key solution to improve bargaining power and optimize profit distribution in the agricultural supply chain. In this study, a two-stage dynamic game model is adopted to focus on bargaining power and compare the effects of linear pricing versus a double charging system under cooperative intervention. It is found that the cooperative is better when it has full bargaining power or when it faces downstream sellers with comparable bargaining power, and the dual-charging system is more favorable. When cooperatives bargain with sellers, the degree of differentiation of agricultural products affects the cooperatives' profitability and cooperatives tend to maintain the two-part tariff when the bargaining power is less than a threshold condition containing the degree of differentiation of agricultural products; when discounts exceed the threshold, cooperatives shift to linear pricing to safeguard their profitability. Numerical analysis validates the theory and reveals the changing pattern of cooperative profits under market forces. This study not only provides theoretical support for the study of supply chain pricing strategies under the condition of considering the bargaining power of producers (farmers) but also provides management insights for the stability and sustainable development of agricultural supply chains. Its novel dynamic game framework is cross-culturally applicable to help farmers' cooperatives cope with the challenge of profit distribution in a global context and emphasizes the importance of differentiation strategies to enhance bargaining power and promote fairness and efficiency in global agricultural supply chains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined the gendered rights and challenges of ownership, access, and investments in land and shea trees in Ghana. It mainstreams women into policies regarding land and shea tenures. A qualitative approach through focus group discussions and in-depth interviews with key stakeholders was used. From the study, women do not own land or shea trees, but they can exploit them. The loss of farmlands and shea trees through urbanisation worsens women's welfare, incomes, and bargaining power. To ensure the effective management of shea parklands, collaborative governance of land and shea trees between the landowners and local government is proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper conducts a systematic comparison of two main textbook variants within the Kaleckian tradition of post-Keynesian conflict inflation and distribution theory: the Blecker and Setterfield (2019) and Lavoie (1992; 2022) (BSL) model based on Dutt (1987), and the Hein (2023a) and Hein and Stockhammer (2011) (HS) model founded on Rowthorn (1977). Focusing on a basic closed economy framework sans government, we explore various iterations of each approach. Our analysis reveals that disparities chiefly centre around the treatment of price inflation expectations ('indexation') and the incorporation of bargaining power in wage- and price-inflation equations. BSL variants generally yield stable price Phillips curves, stable distribution and employment curves, and hence stable equilibria. Only the BSL-3 variant with complete indexation and complete pass-through generates shifting Phillips and employment curves, implying instability. It is thus similar to the HS-0 approach, which has bargaining power and complete indexation representing adaptive expectations in wage inflation and incomplete pass-through in price inflation. Introducing a workers' wage share target directly into the wage-inflation equation, but keeping full indexation/adaptive expectations in wage inflation and incomplete pass-through in price inflation, allows for stable and even flat Phillips curves, stable distribution and employment curves, and hence stable equilibria in the HS approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The recent post-Keynesian debate on conflict inflation revolves around plausible magnitudes of the parameters of the standard model. We assess this debate by examining the economic meaning of the 'bargaining' and 'indexation' parameters, and proposing a reinterpretation in which the bargaining power is reflected in the relative frequency of wage and price increases in a period. Inflation then depends on the size of the inconsistent distributive claims and the absolute frequency of wage and price increases. Distribution depends on the relative frequency of such increases. From the latter we derive the real wage and profit resistance parameters, which determine the structural degree of inflation inertia. By adding the employment rate as a determinant of the desired real wage, we get a conflict-augmented Phillips curve. We show how different assumptions on the real resistance parameters affect the shape of the Phillips curve and the distributive outcomes in different conflict inflation models. A NAIRU occurs only when there is both full real wage and real profit resistance. Conflict generates inflation (not acceleration) with less extreme assumptions. The old-type conflict-augmented Phillips curve, with income distribution depending on the relative frequency of wage and price adjustments, is the most plausible case. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study carries out a comprehensive examination of the evolving landscape of labour laws in India, with a particular focus on the recent labour codes introduced in 2020. Through a historical analysis of labour regulations, we contextualize the present labour regulatory framework, emphasizing the influence of the Indian state on the shifting dynamics of labour relations. Our analysis reveals that over the years the government has significantly enhanced labour market flexibility through less conspicuous channels and backdoor policy adjustments, instead of outright amending the 'protectionist' labour legislations. We argue that the new labour codes are an addition to the series of 'reforms by stealth' carried out by the government, to enhance flexibility in the labour market in the guise of promoting employment generation and economic growth. The new codes continue to exclude the bulk of the workforce engaged in the unorganized sector and have limited applicability in the organized sector. They dilute the bargaining power of trade unions and 'juridify' industrial relations and the provisions for exemptions in the OSHWCC further subject workers to precarious and subpar working conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many scholars consider the bargaining power between ruler and society to be one of the most important determinants of a country's political regime and institutions. The relative bargaining power, in turn, is shaped by arms technology and societal modernization: arms tend to strengthen rulers, and modernization tends to strengthen society. We document that rulers outside of Western Europe were strengthened by advanced arms technology at a time when societies were weakly modernized and political demands limited. We dub this the "coercive imbalance" and argue that it has shaped the state-society bargain outside Western Europe since at least 1850. We show that the coercive imbalance arose because arms diffuse faster than civilian technology. We then use ordinary least squares, system GMM, and two-stage least squares to document that the adoption of advanced arms technology at an early stage of societal modernization is strongly associated with limited democracy, poor bureaucracy, and corruption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces cooperative game theory into the data envelopment analysis (DEA) method for building a novel fixed cost allocation (FCA) approach from group and individual consciousness. We start by acknowledging the divergences of decision-making units (DMUs) and propose an asymmetrical Nash bargaining DEA game, where DMUs' bargaining powers are defined through the functions of cross-efficiency and operation scale. However, the asymmetrical Nash bargaining solution is proposed from an individual perspective, without providing the theoretical support of full cooperation. To narrow this gap, we further introduce the core concept of a coalitional cooperative game into the built asymmetrical Nash bargaining DEA game, resulting in the asymmetrical core-Nash bargaining DEA game. The asymmetrical core-Nash bargaining solution is based on the common weights, with the properties of stability, fairness, Pareto-efficiency, and invariance to affine transformation. Furthermore, our proposed approach inherently ensures the uniqueness of the fixed cost scheme. Finally, numerical analysis and case study are provided to show the concrete application of the new method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores the challenges faced by disadvantaged individuals in the labor market and presents the empowerment model as a distinctive approach to justice. It discusses the virtues of equalizing bargaining power and promoting egalitarianism by addressing inequalities based on gender, race, disability, and social class. The article acknowledges practical limits to achieving equal bargaining power but suggests that governments should consider individuals' own views and preferences. It also discusses the goods of work model and argues that the empowerment model is more practical and effective in guiding policy decisions. The article emphasizes the importance of considering global and environmental challenges in discussions of justice in the labor market. [Extracted from the article]

Purpose: This paper aims to investigate how emerging market multinational enterprises (EMNEs) are integrating and expanding into other emerging market host countries, focusing on Chinese mining companies in Peru. Design/methodology/approach: Adopting a qualitative approach, an in-depth analysis of two Chinese state-owned enterprises' strategies was conducted, building on stakeholder theory and the business ecosystem perspective. Findings: This study reveals a reliance on high-level political lobbying rather than localized engagement strategies. However, findings point to increasing grassroots resistance among local stakeholders, undermining EMNEs' bargaining power. Originality/value: This paper argues for a paradigm shift toward inclusive, cooperative "translocal governance" approaches as empowered communities gain voice. Key contributions include advancing theoretical understanding of changing stakeholder relationships and power configurations in emerging countries, underscoring the rising significance of microlevel sociocultural embeddedness for MNE success and highlighting practical imperatives for EMNEs to embark on rapid localization strategies in Latin America. By elucidating multilayered integration realities in Peru, this interdisciplinary study yields contextualized insights and enriches perspective on the conditions and pathways for EMNEs to build sustainability in Global South emerging market environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the core objectives of unions is to raise the wages of the lowest paid. Utilizing a panel of individual‐matched employee–employer data covering the Norwegian private sector in the period 2000–2014, I investigate how workplace union density is related to individual low‐pay risk. By exploiting changes in tax deductions for union members in Norway as a source of exogenous variation, a negative effect of increased union density on low‐pay risk is identified within jobs. The results further suggest that the effect of local bargaining power on individual low‐pay probability is larger among immigrants than among natives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Misclassification of employees as independent contractors is widespread. This article aims to make two contributions. My first goal is to sharpen the explanation of why misclassifications persist; I argue that three well‐known problems – the indeterminacy of employee status tests, the barriers to self‐enforcement, and the inequality of bargaining power – together combine to give employers de facto power to set the default legal status. Putting the burden on the worker to initiate legal proceedings and challenge their classification as an independent contractor is the ultimate reason for persistent misclassifications. The second and main contribution is to propose a solution that relies on new AI capabilities. Thanks to technological advancements it is now possible to require employers to seek pre‐authorisation before engaging with someone as an independent contractor. The authorisation would be granted (or refused) by a state‐run automated system, based on an AI prediction about the law. Both parties would still be able to bring the case before a court of law; but the power to set the default legal status would be taken away from employers. The article considers the difficulties with relying on AI predictions, and argues that those difficulties can be addressed, proposing a model that can be justified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Child stunting is a serious challenge in Indonesia, one of the largest middle-income countries in the world. Beyond the influence of bio-behavioral determinants, mothers’ bargaining power in the household is expected to have an overarching contribution to stunting, particularly as the primary caregivers of their children. Using a dataset from the fifth wave of the Indonesia Family Life Survey (IFLS-5), this study examines whether and to what extent a mother’s bargaining power influences children’s nutritional status. The study uses the instrumental variables method to correct the potential endogeneity of the mother’s bargaining power. Results suggest that children of mothers with higher intrahousehold bargaining power have a lower prevalence of stunting and better anthropometric outcomes. However, other members of the household matter, in the sense that improved outcomes are evidenced when the mother exercises her choice in decision making in a more consensual manner, by consultation with other household members.HIGHLIGHTSIn Indonesia, higher women’s bargaining power enhances child nutritional long-term outcomes.Child nutrition improves when women make decisions jointly with other family members.Boys appear to be the main beneficiaries of mothers’ higher bargaining power.Policies to increase women’s agency need to consider family support and social norms.In Indonesia, higher women’s bargaining power enhances child nutritional long-term outcomes.Child nutrition improves when women make decisions jointly with other family members.Boys appear to be the main beneficiaries of mothers’ higher bargaining power.Policies to increase women’s agency need to consider family support and social norms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most subsistence crops that fall in low-value chains, such as cassava, are controlled mainly by women; hence, intra-household gender roles and power dynamics are complex and depend on socio-economic and cultural contexts. Cassava food value chains contribute to the immediate food and income household needs of marginalized and vulnerable rural communities where agriculture is a significant livelihood. However, few studies have explicitly documented how perceived lowvalue agricultural commodity value chains transform intra-household social relations and resource ownership, benefit sharing, and how, in turn, these value chains are affected by these micro-level processes. The primary objective in designing this framework was to highlight the importance of gendered interactions at the microscale through an analysis of the changing roles, responsibilities, and bargaining power of women and men within the cassava value chains at the household level. A crosssectional survey involving focus group discussions, in-depth interviews, and an ethnographic approach was undertaken using repeated household visits during data collection. Qualitative data analysis used content analysis to identify key themes from focus group discussions about intra-household gender power dynamics. The framework was derived from analyzing the empirical findings from Tanzania's smallholder farming sector underpinned by the Colfer and Minarchek framework. The findings refute the assumption of unitary household preferences along the gender axis, given the intricate relationships in the multi-sectoral smallholder farming space. By emphasizing intra-household gender power dynamics, the framework helps to identify gender inequalities emanating from skewed resource ownership, limited women participation, unequal benefit sharing, and power relations within the cassava food value chain. The study recommends policy shifts for women to own productive resources such as land, reduced export taxes, access to finance, and rewarding markets for cassava value chain actors. This study resonates with global and regional policy initiatives such as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Agenda 2063: Africa We Want in enhancing gender equality, reducing poverty, and ensuring food and nutrition security. The framework will facilitate the development of gender-sensitive intervention programs for upgrading and strengthening women's participation in cassava food value chains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Identifies factors affecting the workers' bargaining power. • Builds a composite index for the United States using the principal component analysis. • Analyses the relationship between this index and the wage share in the years 1960–2018. • Discusses the link between the workers' bargaining power and inflation. • Estimates the Phillips curve and explains why it has flattened over the last decades. This paper aims to construct a synthetic index of workers' bargaining power and investigate the relationship between it and inflation in the U.S. economy. As a first step, we identify the factors affecting the bargaining power of workers, referring to different groups of variables: labour market indicators; institutional indicators (e.g., collective bargaining coverage, union density); characteristics of the economy (e.g., degree of freedom for capital mobility, share of employment by sector). We then implement Principal Component Analysis (PCA) to assess the adequacy of the indicators and calculate the weights to aggregate the single indicators into a composite index. As a second step, we estimate the impact of our Bargaining Index on inflation by estimating an equation of the determinants of inflation. The composite index thus has a twofold use: it sheds light on the extent to which changes in the labour market in recent decades have weakened workers' bargaining power, and it can be used to test how the evolution of the wage bargaining system affects inflation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bangladesh, a country that has been a solid example of low levels of trade unionism in the last 40 years, is significantly influenced by globalisation and neoliberalism, the main factors contributing to the decline of trade unionism. These factors have played a key role in the decline, particularly in the ready-made garments (RMG) sector, which currently has only 5% to 10% union membership. As a result, millions of RMG workers work in shoddy factories with meagre minimum wages. At the same time, their RMG factories lack trade union rights and collective bargaining power, leading to extreme exploitation in the modern century. This article analyses the empirical data collected from Bangladesh to understand the reasons for the decline of trade unionism in Bangladesh over the last 40 years. The scholarly recommendations provided at the end of this article are a call to action for all stakeholders to contribute to the necessary structural changes in trade unionism in Bangladesh. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study analyzes how the relationship between corporate income tax and employment varies according to the bargaining power of labor unions. To this end, we use a dynamic general equilibrium model to examine corporate income tax and the bargaining power of labor unions based on a span-of-control model. Previous studies on the relationship between corporate income tax and employment are inconclusive and do not examine the role of the bargaining power of labor unions in this relationship. Calibrated results obtained using data from Korea show that a reduction in only the corporate income tax rate slightly decreases total employment, but a reduction in the corporate income tax rate accompanied by a decline in the bargaining power of labor unions significantly increases total employment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Economic Science / Jingji Kexue is the property of Economic Science Editorial Office and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The 1970 nationalisation of foreign businesses in Uganda was arguably the first time that a country would announce to pay compensation for nationalised businesses from the future profits earned by such businesses. Using two interrelated models, namely the Obsolescing Bargaining Model and Political Bargaining Model, and materials from three UK archives and the World Bank Archives, this paper critiques the negotiations between the nationalised businesses and the Ugandan Government during the period. It explores the role of the British Government in the entire episode, including the covert negotiations with international agencies such as the World Bank in order to ensure that UK companies got the best possible settlement from the Ugandan authorities. The result of this study shows that Uganda's nationalisation programme was indeed hastily formulated and implemented, which joined to weaken the government's bargaining powers and rendered the major clause of 'paying compensation from future profit' more idealistic than practical. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Domestic value chains (DVCs) led by retailers within the global South often overlap with global value chains (GVCs) as well as domestic arm's length markets. DVCs incorporate some private governance, but we know little about the role of public governance. Based on analysis of Kenyan fresh fruit and vegetables, we ask: How is the power (or ability) of lead firms to govern producers being reshaped by the increased complexity of polycentric trade in the Kenyan horticultural sector? We reveal constraints to lead firms' ability to directly exercise bargaining power; and shifts towards institutional power in a context of polycentric trade. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Considering a bargaining equilibrium of intergenerational exchange within a family, we study the effects of an increase in the bargaining power of children on the fertility rate, informal long-term care provision, and intergenerational transfers within the family. Most economically developed countries have experienced both fertility rate decline and life longevity extension in the last several decades. Under such circumstances, the bargaining power of each child apparently becomes greater if needs for elderly long-term care do not decrease. We demonstrate that, in a family bargaining equilibrium, a higher bargaining weight of a child results in fewer children and greater intergenerational transfer from the parent, although the family long-term care level remains unchanged for a given wage rate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lewbel and Pendakur (2021) propose a model of consumption inefficiency in collective households, based on "cooperation factors". We simplify that model to make it empirically tractable, and apply it to identify and estimate household member resource shares, and to measure the dollar cost of inefficient levels of cooperation. Using data from Bangladesh, we find that increased cooperation among household members yields the equivalent of a 13% gain in total expenditures, with most of the benefit of this gain going towards men. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding the organizational consequences of corporate ESG and its underlying mechanisms is essential for corporate management to develop sustainable strategies, and it is a topic of growing interest in academia. This study, utilizing a sample of Chinese A‐share listed firms from 2010 to 2019, examines the impact of corporate ESG profiles on customer structure. We demonstrate that superior ESG profiles (primarily the social and governance aspects) contribute to reducing customer concentration. This effect is achieved by enhancing firm reputation and employee efficiency, thereby increasing market competitiveness and market share. This effect is more pronounced in firms that invest heavily in advertising and have employees committed to long‐term goals. Furthermore, we discover that ESG‐driven changes in customer concentration led to additional organizational outcomes, including enhanced bargaining power over customers, improved financial performance, and reduced operational risk. In conclusion, our evidence suggests that ESG significantly shapes a firm's customer structure and, consequently, its operations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of International Journal of Professional Business Review (JPBReview) is the property of Open Access Publications LLC and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Zeitschrift fur Wirtschaftspolitik is the property of De Gruyter and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Women's financial independence has become an important issue in recent decades. As women's participation in the workforce increases, they have greater control over their own finances and can make more independent decisions about their lives. This can have significant implications for power dynamics in the household and relationships between women and men. The aim of this research is to analyze the implications of women's financial independence on power negotiations in the household. This study used qualitative research methods. The data collection technique in this research is literature study. The data that has been collected is then analyzed in three stages, namely data reduction, data presentation and drawing conclusions. The research results show that women's financial independence has complex implications for power negotiations in the household. In some cases, women's financial independence can increase their bargaining power in negotiations with their partners and lead to positive changes in their relationship dynamics. However, in other cases, women's financial independence can cause tension and conflict in the household. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

People who beg are almost invisible in public policy debates in India due to their literal absence of bargaining power, in spite of their substantial population in Indian society. Despite being decriminalised by the Delhi High Court in 2018, begging continues to be stigmatised by society. The COVID-19 lockdown endangered the lives of those who beg as evidenced by their lived experiences. Although there were some efforts, governments largely failed to provide social security to people who beg during the lockdown. NGOs and some other associations, an essential part of civil society, have had more success in alleviating the undesirable predicament of the people who beg in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine the problem of voluntary participation in negotiations regarding the provision of public goods. In contrast to earlier studies, in our model, a negotiation is followed by renegotiations. First, players decide whether to participate in a negotiation, and the participants produce a public good. The participants then renegotiate the level of the public good with nonparticipants in the preceding negotiations. We show that with these renegotiation opportunities, many players may participate in providing the public good in the preceding negotiation. In some cases, all players participate in the preceding negotiation and the public good is produced efficiently. Our findings indicate that more players participate in the provision of public goods if they have strong bargaining power in the renegotiations. Hence, this problem may not be as severe as reported by previous studies. Our results may be consistent with the recent developments in voluntary projects for international river management. • We present a simple model of voluntary negotiation on providing public goods. • Players can choose whether to join a negotiation providing public goods. • There are opportunities to renegotiate the agreement of the initial negotiation. • The opportunities may induce many players to join the public good provision. • The public goods may be supplied efficiently by the participation of all players. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a microhistory of Dongfang Arsenal, a Small Third Front project in Beijing, using archival sources, gazetteers, memoirs compiled by former workers, and oral history. It focuses on how the arsenal's former workers engaged with socialist modernity and tangibly experienced the changing relationship between China and the outside world. It examines the military-industrial complex as a physical micro-space for employment, political mobilisation, and later a collective memory site. Built upon existing studies of the Third Front and emerging research on negotiated state power in socialist enterprises, the article demonstrates how the Third Front's internally stratified industrial labour force creatively navigated the physical and institutional urban-rural divide by employing collective bargaining power. It also offers an insight into how an industrial, close-knit community and the society related to it experienced the Cultural Revolution. Additionally, it discusses the Front employees' experience and the arsenal's struggle for survival during the transition between various socio-economic regimes, bringing together the history of Maoist revolutionary modernisation and post-Maoist reform. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents examples of arbitrage deterrence from the pharmaceutical, chemical and auto industries. Based on these cases, it develops two models where a monopolist prices and spends to deter arbitrage. The models differ in whether the lower price is set by the firm or negotiated with a representative of consumers. In both models, imports into the high-price market are completely deterred, but the two markets are nonetheless linked by the threat of arbitrage. If this linkage is ignored and the absence of arbitrage is misattributed to exogenous factors, econometric estimates of firm bargaining power will be biased upwards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Early marriage restrains women's agency and bargaining strength in postmarital households, impairing their ability to make meaningful contributions to household decision making. This paper employs a comprehensive measure of women's empowerment in the domestic and productive spheres, and isolates the causal effect of age at marriage, instrumented by age at menarche, on their bargaining strength, using nationally representative data from Bangladesh. Results suggest that delayed marriages result in significantly higher empowerment scores and probability of being empowered for women, because of higher likelihood in achieving adequacy in their autonomy in agricultural production, control over income, ownership of assets and rights in those assets, and ability to speak in public. Favorable impacts of delayed marriage are also found on women's freedom of mobility, fertility choices, and their ability to decide on household expenses and investments, with the impacts likely coming via improvements in education and labor market outcomes when women married later. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To meet the challenges of renewable energy consumption and improve the efficiency of energy systems, we propose an intelligent distributed energy dispatch strategy for multi-energy systems based on Nash bargaining by utilizing the power dispatch meta-universe platform. First, the operational framework of the multi-energy system, including wind park (WP), photovoltaic power plant (PVPP), and energy storage (ES), is described. Using the power dispatch meta-universe platform, the models of WP, PVPP, and ES are constructed and analyzed. Then, a Nash bargaining model of the multi-energy system is built and transformed into a coalition profit maximization problem, which is solved using the alternating direction multiplier method (ADMM). Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed strategy is verified. The results show that the strategy greatly improves the consumption of renewable energy sources and the profit of the overall system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Double marginalization is a robust phenomenon in procurement under asymmetric information when sophisticated contracts can be implemented. In this context, vertical integration causes merger-specific elimination of double marginalization but biases the make-or-buy decision against independent suppliers. If the buyer has full bargaining power over prices and quantities, a vertical merger benefits final consumers even when it results in the exclusion of efficient suppliers. If on the contrary the buyer's bargaining power is reduced after she has committed to deal exclusively with a limited set of suppliers, exclusion of efficient suppliers may harm final consumers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Taiwan Law Review is the property of Angle Publishing Co., Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Compared to linear tariffs, two-part tariffs are generally perceived as being more efficient since double marginalization is avoided. We investigate the efficiency of two-part tariffs vs. linear tariffs when a vertically integrated firm sells its input also to an independent downstream firm selling a differentiated substitute product. We find that a linear tariff can generate higher consumer surplus and overall welfare than a two-part tariff when the independent downstream firm is rather powerful in negotiating the contract terms, and downstream competition is in prices (Bertrand competition). In that case, the integrated firm makes more profits under a linear tariff than under a two-part tariff. In contrast, under downstream Cournot competition two-part tariffs are always welfare-superior. Under linear demand, we find that, irrespective of the mode of downstream competition and the distribution of bargaining power, the preferred contract type of the integrated firm is always welfare-superior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A monopolist platform uses data to match heterogeneous consumers with multiproduct sellers. The consumers can purchase the products on the platform or search off the platform. The platform sells targeted ads to sellers that recommend their products to consumers and reveals information to consumers about their match values. The revenue-optimal mechanism is a managed advertising campaign that matches products and preferences efficiently. In equilibrium, sellers offer higher qualities at lower unit prices on than off platform. The platform exploits its information advantage to increase its bargaining power vis-à-vis the sellers. Finally, privacy-respecting data-governance rules can lead to welfare gains for consumers. (JEL D11, D42, D44, D82, D83, M37) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Consumption practices represent a central mode of social integration. Yet, due to the lack of material resources poor households cannot meet the expectations of dominant consumer culture, thus facing limited choices and feelings of shame. Based on a qualitative long-term study of the welfare production of 40 poor Swiss households, this article sheds light on consumption patterns and experiences in different distribution systems, namely the primary market, the charity system, and redistribution systems for used goods. It shows that feelings of shame and processes of exclusion differ between distribution systems according to institutional features conducive to the (in)visibility of poverty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Shared energy storage offers substantial savings on construction costs and improves energy efficiency for users, yet its business model as an independent economic entity remains unclear. An optimal scheduling method for cooperative operation of shared energy storage among multiple user types is proposed in this paper, which relied on asymmetric Nash bargaining to define operational schedules and pricing strategies effectively. Initially, a cost-benefit model for shared energy storage operators, along with power generation users, demand-side consumers, and microgrid prosumers is developed. Then, a cooperative game framework is established using asymmetric Nash bargaining principles which decomposes the problem into two parts: minimizing social total cost through cooperative operation scheduling and determining service fee pricing for equitable benefit distribution. For benefit distribution, the bargaining power of users is adjusted based on their alliance contribution, ensuring revenue distribution is aligned with individual contributions and improving fairness in pricing. Subsequently, the adaptive penalty factor alternating direction multiplier method (ADMM) algorithm is employed for distributed equilibrium solving, enhancing the convergence speed and safeguarding user privacy. Finally, the economics and feasibility of the proposed cooperation framework for shared energy storage are validated through a numerical example. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Greater women's bargaining power and decision‐making within a household have been shown to increase investments in human capital. This study links women's participation in decision‐making in dairy production with household investment in girls and boys in health, nutrition, and education. We survey households in the urbanizing region of Bangalore, India. We utilize a multinomial treatment effects model to analyze the individual and household factors that are associated with women's participation in sole or joint decision‐making. We then assess how the type of decision‐making influences a household's investments. The results first show that female decision‐making households are more disadvantaged on average than other types of decision‐making households. Second, we observe that female decision‐makers for dairy production are more likely to have more children and earn a higher income than their husbands. Third, the main findings show that households in which women engage in joint decision‐making have higher levels of investment across all categories for girls. Conversely, investments decrease in education and nutrition for both girls and boys when the wife is the sole decision‐maker. Lastly, investments are enhanced further for girls when households can sell milk at a higher price. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Young adults with difficulties finding affordable housing have increasingly been choosing to rent in the private sector and share housing with unknown individuals. Shared living arrangements allow these young single tenants to reduce their housing expenses while enjoying a shared lifestyle that encourages social interaction with a diverse group of housemates. However, physical proximity does not guarantee social proximity, as people may encounter undesirable housemates. Using a rich dataset of shared housing tenancies in Shanghai, China, this study examines how the characteristics of housemates influences tenants’ decision to terminate their shared housing tenancy before its expiration. Our results show that the similarity of housemates in age, gender, occupation, and birthplace reduces the probability of an early termination of the shared tenancy. The impact of housemate similarity measured in the four dimensions is further augmented by tenants’ bargaining power and individual characteristics. Since early tenancy termination increases the vacancy rate in shared housing, sharing with undesirable housemates incurs significant social costs. This study sheds light on how residents living in proximity can share urban space effectively to facilitate sustained shared housing tenancies and suggests the need for policy solutions that are tailored to the needs of shared housing renters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Promoting enterprises' digital transformation is fundamental to implementing the digital China strategy and realizing high-quality development. Methods: Taking China's A-share listed companies from 2007 to 2021 as a research sample, this study examines the impact of sharing auditors with customers on the digital transformation of suppliers. Results: The results show that sharing auditors with customers can promote suppliers' digital transformation, and this promotion effect is stronger among suppliers with weaker bargaining power, lower media attention, and higher auditor industry expertise. In terms of the mechanism of action, sharing auditors with customers can help strengthen the supplier's supervision, alleviate suppliers' financing constraints, and thus facilitate their digital transformation. Further research finds that when suppliers share auditors with their customers, suppliers' digital transformation helps promote innovation. Discussion: The research conclusion provides effective empirical evidence for alleviating the dilemma of digital transformation of enterprises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Why have most Latin American countries – traditionally pro‐Atlantic and staunch defenders of non‐intervention – remained conspicuously neutral during the Ukraine War? We argue that in an increasingly bipolar context, fence‐sitting produces clear strategic gains through partner‐diversification and bargaining power. However, this strategy becomes riskier with polarisation and, at a certain point, these risks may upset benefits. We formalise this argument and examine the foreign policy trajectories of several Latin American countries in the context of the Ukraine War to illustrate how their room for diplomatic flexibility has shrunk with polarisation. As a corollary, we think of scenarios where the costs of fence‐sitting can outweigh its advantages, forcing the region to align. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]