Franchising has been argued to be a technique for entrepreneurs in service industries to assemble resources in order to rapidly create large chains and gain first mover advantage. Whether and how such first mover advantage is created is the subject of this paper. Using theories from strategic management and marketing, it is argued that the first mover advantage initially takes the form of a lead in the number of retail outlets, followed by a market share lead, and, finally, superior profitability. A structural equations model is specified, and empirical results from the restaurant industry support the model's predictions. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

Economic and sociological theories explaining bandwagon behaviors, along with cognitive and behavioral theories of decision making, do not fully address the process whereby decision makers choose whether or not to jump on bandwagons. In this article we model the interactions between mindfulness as a decision-maker characteristic and the decision-making context, and we show the impact of those interactions on managers' ability to discriminate In the lace of bandwagons. We illustrate the framework by applying it to recent integration and disintegration bandwagon behaviors in the U.S. health care market.

We show that under typical conditions the simple “excess‐burden triangle” formula substantially underestimates the excess burden of commodity taxes, in some cases by a factor of 10 or more. This formula performs poorly because it ignores general equilibrium interactions—most important, interactions between the taxed commodity and the labor market. Many prior studies have shown that general equilibrium interactions affect excess burden but have not appreciated the bias associated with ignoring these interactions or the quantitative importance of this bias. We derive an implementable alternative to the simple formula. This alternative formula captures interactions that the simple formula omits; as a result it is both unbiased and usually more accurate.

Because of common data limitations, the existing testing framework for the generalized composite commodity theorem (Lewbel, 1996) is incomplete. This note clarifies and strengthens the testing procedure by implementing modified Bonferroni procedures. The conditions are established for consistency between the existing and modified Bonferroni tests. In an empirical application, the Bonferroni tests provide more powerful support for the generalized composite commodity theorem than is obtained from the existing test.

The authors report the results of three experiments that address the effects of health claims and nutrition information placed on restaurant menus and packaged food labels. The results indicate that when favorable nutrition information or health claims are presented, consumers have more favorable attitudes toward the product, nutrition attitudes, and purchase intentions, and they perceive risks of heart disease and stroke to be lower. The nutritional context in which a restaurant menu item is presented moderates the effects of both nutrition information and a health claim on consumer evaluations, which suggests that alternative (i.e., nontarget) menu items serve as a frame of reference against which the target menu item is evaluated.

ABSTRACT Employees often have ideas, information, and opinions for constructive ways to improve work and work organizations. Sometimes these employees exercise voice and express their ideas, information, and opinions; and other times they engage in silence and withhold their ideas, information, and opinions. On the surface, expressing and withholding behaviours might appear to be polar opposites because silence implies not speaking while voice implies speaking up on important issues and problems in organizations. Challenging this simplistic notion, this paper presents a conceptual framework suggesting that employee silence and voice are best conceptualized as separate, multidimensional constructs. Based on employee motives, we differentiate three types of silence (Acquiescent Silence, Defensive Silence, and ProSocial Silence) and three parallel types of voice (Acquiescent Voice, Defensive Voice, and ProSocial Voice) where withholding important information is not simply the absence of voice. Building on this conceptual framework, we further propose that silence and voice have differential consequences to employees in work organizations. Based on fundamental differences in the overt behavioural cues provided by silence and voice, we present a series of propositions predicting that silence is more ambiguous than voice, observers are more likely to misattribute employee motives for silence than for voice, and misattributions for motives behind silence will lead to more incongruent consequences (both positive and negative) for employees (than for voice). We conclude by discussing implications for future research and for managers.

Research on international marketing channels accentuates the importance of relational norms and trust-building activities between buyers and sellers. Indeed, cultural and country differences may limit the use and effectiveness of traditional tools (such as market incentives and authoritative control) that govern the relationship between an exporting manufacturer and its foreign distributor. Consequently, exporting manufacturers need to emphasize relationships with their foreign distributors. This research finds evidence that supports both direct and indirect effects between the manufacturer's use of governance via relational norms and its competitiveness in the export market. The indirect effect results from the mediating role of trust, a finding that makes a key contribution to the understanding of the role of relational governance in cross-border relationships.

ABSTRACT Expectations about long‐term earnings growth are crucial to valuation models and cost of capital estimates. We analyze historical long‐term growth rates across a broad cross section of stocks using several indicators of operating performance. We test for persistence and predictability in growth. While some firms have grown at high rates historically, they are relatively rare instances. There is no persistence in long‐term earnings growth beyond chance, and there is low predictability even with a wide variety of predictor variables. Specifically, IBES growth forecasts are overly optimistic and add little predictive power. Valuation ratios also have limited ability to predict future growth.