Showing papers on "Rivalry published in 2006"

Why Do Firms Imitate Each Other

Abstract: Scholars from diverse disciplines have proposed numerous theories of business imitation. We organize these theories into two broad categories: (1) information-based theories, where firms follow others that are perceived as having superior information, and (2) rivalry-based theories, where firms imitate others to maintain competitive parity or limit rivalry. We describe conditions under which each type of imitation is most likely and offer guidance on identifying imitation in practice. Amplification effects and other performance implications of imitation are also addressed.

Agent-Based Computational Economics: A Constructive Approach to Economic Theory

Abstract: This talk will explore the potential advantages and disadvantages of Agent-based Computational Economics (ACE) for the study of economic systems. General points will be concretely illustrated using an ACE model of a two-sector decentralized market economy and an ongoing ACE project on the testing of market designs for restructured wholesale power markets. Six issues will be highlighted: constructive understanding of production, pricing, and trade processes; the essential primacy of survival; strategic rivalry and market power; behavioral uncertainty and learning; the role of conventions and organizations; and the complex interactions among structural attributes, behaviors, and institutional arrangements

Nonmarket Strategy Performance: Evidence from U.S. Electric Utilities

Abstract: This paper develops and tests a theory of the performance determinants of a firm's nonmarket strategy in shaping public policy outcomes. Building on the concept of political market attractiveness, we argue that nonmarket performance is influenced by both the characteristics of a firm's regulatory and political environment, especially rivalry among interest groups or politicians, and by internal capabilities that enable a firm to mitigate political transaction costs. Using data on regulatory filings for rate increases made by U. S. Electric utilities over a 13-year period, we find empirical support for our approach.

The New Rivalry Dataset: Procedures and Patterns

Abstract: The 1990s saw the emergence of a new research agenda focused on enduring rivalries, longstanding competitions between the same pair of states. The original Diehl & Goertz dataset on international r...

The time course of binocular rivalry reveals a fundamental role of noise

Abstract: When our two eyes view incongruent images, we experience binocular rivalry: An ongoing cycle of dominance periods ofeither image and transition periods when both are visible. Two key forces underlying this process are adaptation of andinhibition between the images’ neural representations. Models based on these factors meet the constraints posed by data ondominanceperiods,butthesearenotverystringent.Weextensivelystudiedcontrastdependenceofdominanceandtransitiondurations and that of the occurrence of return transitions: Occasions when an eye loses and regains dominance without in-tervening dominance of the other eye. We found that dominance durations and the incidence of return transitions dependsimilarly on contrast; transition durations show a different dependence. Regarding dominance durations, we show that thewidely accepted rule known as Levelt’s second proposition is only valid in a limited contrast range; outside this range, theopposite of the proposition is true. Our data refute current models, based solely on adaptation and inhibition, as these cannotexplain the long and reversible transitions that we find. These features indicate that noise is a crucial force in rivalry, frequentlydominating the deterministic forces.Keywords: binocular rivalry, bistable perception, noise, visual awareness, temporal dynamics, Levelt’s second proposition,neural models

Tainted Knowledge vs. Tempting Knowledge: People Avoid Knowledge from Internal Rivals and Seek Knowledge from External Rivals

Abstract: We compare how people react to good ideas authored by internal rivals (employees at the same organization) versus external rivals (employees at a competitor organization). We hypothesize that internal and external rivals evoke contrasting kinds of threats. Specifically, using knowledge from an internal rival is difficult because it threatens the self and its competence: It is tantamount to being a “follower” and losing status relative to a direct competitor. By contrast, external rivals pose a lower threat to personal status, so people are more willing to use their knowledge. We conducted three studies. Study 1 showed that internal and external rivalry involved opposite relationships between threat and knowledge valuation: The more threat internal rivals provoked, the more people avoided their knowledge, whereas the more threat external rivals provoked, the more people pursued their knowledge. Study 2 explored the types of threat that insiders and outsiders evoked. In particular, people assumed that they would lose more personal status if they used an internal rival's knowledge and, therefore, reduced their valuation of that knowledge. Finally, Study 3 found that self-affirmation attenuated these patterns. We suggest that the threats and opportunities for affirmation facing the self dictate how people respond to rivals and, ultimately, their willingness to value new ideas.

Attention Speeds Binocular Rivalry

Abstract: During binocular rivalry, incompatible images presented dichoptically compete for perceptual dominance. It has long been debated whether binocular rivalry can be controlled by attention. Most studies have shown that voluntary control over binocular rivalry is limited. We sought to remove attention from binocular rivalry by presenting a concurrent task. Diverting attention slowed the rivalry alternation rate, and did so in proportion to the difficulty of the concurrent task. Even a very demanding distractor task, however, did not arrest rivalry alternations completely. Given that diverting attention was equivalent to lowering the contrast of the rival stimuli, the ability of attention to speed binocular rivalry is most likely due to an increase in the effective contrast of the stimuli through boosting the gain of the cortical response. This increase in effective contrast will ultimately lead to a perceptual switch, thereby limiting voluntary control. Thus, attention speeds rivalry alternations, but has no ...

Excludable and Non-excludable Public Inputs: Consequences for Economic Growth

Abstract: Non-excludable and excludable public inputs are introduced into an endogenous growth model. We derive the equilibrium growth rate and design the optimal tax and user-cost structure, emphasizing the role of congestion and its consequences for the government's budget. The latter comprises fee and tax revenues that are used to finance the public inputs, although they may generate insufficient revenue to do so entirely. We extend the model to allow for monopoly pricing of the user fee by the government. Most of the analysis is conducted for general production functions consistent with endogenous growth, but the CES technology is also considered. A vast literature has evolved emphasizing the role of public investment as a determinant of economic growth. Among the earliest contributions, Arrow and Kurz (1970) is particularly significant, while the seminal work of Barro (1990) has been especially influential with respect to the contemporary endogenous growth literature. Stimulated by Aschauer's (1989) findings pertaining to the high rate of return on public capital, several authors have explored various aspects of the role of public capital in stimulating economic growth. For example, Baxter and King (1993) and Fisher and Turnovsky (1998) examine the interaction between public and private capital in a Ramsey-type growth model, while Futagami et al. (1993) perform a similar type of analysis in an endogenous growth context. Glomm and Ravikumar (1997) analyse the growth effects of productive public spending in an overlapping-generations setup, extending the framework to include majority voting, and alternative compositions of publicly provided goods and services; they also indicate private alternatives to public provision, but do not pursue this in detail. Cassou and Lansing (1998) focus on the relationship between private and public capital, showing how the evolution of the ratio between the two in the US economy since 1925 is broadly consistent with the predictions of a simple Ramsey growth model. They also show how the productivity slowdown in the US economy since the 1970s is more likely due to increasing tax rates than to non-optimal public investment policy. Much of the literature, including Barro, treats the public input as a pure public good, freely available without restrictions or impediments to all agents in the economy. But the public goods literature identifies many different characteristics that most public goods in fact exhibit, notably the presence of 'rivalry' and/or 'excludability'; see e.g. Cornes and Sandler (1996). Thus, the treatment of a public

Globalizing Sport: National Rivalry and International Community in the 1930s

Abstract: In this impressive book, Barbara Keys offers the first major study of the political and cultural ramifications of international sports competitions in the decades before World War II. She examines the transformation of events like the Olympic Games and the World Cup from relatively small-scale events to the expensive, celebrity-packed, politically resonant, globally popular entertainment extravaganzas familiar to us today. Focusing on the United States, Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, she details how countries of widely varying ideologies were drawn to participate in the emerging global culture. She tells of Hollywood and Coca-Cola jazzing up the 1932 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, of Hitler crowing over the 1936 Berlin games, and of the battle between democracy and dictatorship in the famed boxing matches between Joe Louis and Max Schmeling. Keys also presents one of the best accounts to date of the Soviet relationship to Western sports before the rise of the "big red sports machine." While international sport could be manipulated for nationalist purposes, it was also a vehicle for values - such as individualism and universalism - that subverted nationalist ideologies. The 1930s were thus a decade not just of conflict but of cultural integration, which laid a foundation for the post-war growth of international ties.

Reflections on the Chinese State

Abstract: This article examines critically the application of the developmental state concept to China. A conjuncture of specific political, socio-economic and institutional processes, both internal and external, undermines the case for China as a developmental state. Against a back-drop of intensifying global economic competition, intense rivalry between local economic actors for markets, resources and foreign investment not only produces contradictory developmental outcomes but also undermines the political and administrative capacity for fundamental social and economic transformation. The Chinese state is best understood as polymorphous, assuming multiple, complex forms and behaviours across time and space, and defying reduction to a unitary actor.

New Governance and Legal Regulation: Complementarity, Rivalry or Transformation

Abstract: New approaches to regulation have emerged to deal with inadequacies of traditional command and control systems. Such new governance mechanisms are designed to increase flexibility, improve participation, foster experimentation and deliberation, and accommodate complex multi-level systems. In many cases these mechanisms co-exist with conventional forms of regulation. As new forms of governance emerge in arenas regulated by conventional legal processes, a wide range of configurations is possible. The purpose of this paper is to provide a preliminary mapping of such relationships using examples drawn from the European Union and the United States. When the two processes are consciously yoked together in a hybrid form, we might speak of a real transformation in the law. In other cases, the two systems may exist in parallel but not fuse together in a single system. Where both systems co-exist, there are numerous possible configurations and relationships among them. Thus, one might simply be used to launch the other, as when formal law is used to mandate a new approach. Or, they might operate independently yet both may have an effect on the same policy domain. Finally, in some areas one system may take over the field, ether because new governance methods replace traditional law altogether, or because opposition to innovation halts efforts to employ new approaches.

Unraveling adaptation and mutual inhibition in perceptual rivalry.

Abstract: When the visual system is confronted with incompatible images in the same part of the visual field, the conscious percept switches back and forth between the rivaling stimuli. Such spontaneous flips provide important clues to the neuronal basis for visual awareness. The general idea is that two representations compete for dominance in a process of mutual inhibition, in which adaptation shifts the balance to and fro. The inherent nonlinear nature of the rivalrous flip-flop and its stochastic behavior, however, made it impossible to disentangle inhibition and adaptation. Here we report a general method to measure the time course, and asymmetries, of mechanisms involved in perceptual rivalry. Supported by model simulations, we show the dynamics of opponent interactions between mutual inhibition and adaptation. The findings not only provide new insight into the mechanism underlying rivalry but also offer new opportunities to study and compare a wide range of bistable processes in the brain and their relation to visual awareness.

Dynasties: Fortunes and Misfortunes of the World's Great Family Businesses

Abstract: Rothschilds - Morgans - Fords - Toyoda - Agnellis - Rockefellers - Guggenheims - Dynastic family businesses have everything: extraordinary success, bizarre eccentricity, bitter rivalry - as well as pots of money and power. Yet almost no one has looked closely enough to see what it is that really makes them tick. In "Dynasties", award-winning author David Landes casts his eye over some of the most powerful family businesses in Europe, Japan and America. On the way, he provides thrilling histories of the characters who have made their mark on the world and passed on a legacy - sometimes benign and sometimes not - to their descendants.

The tragedy of the commons, the public goods dilemma, and the meaning of rivalry and excludability in evolutionary biology

Abstract: Problem: In the study of conflicts, both economists and evolutionary biologists use the concepts ‘tragedy of the commons’ and ‘public goods dilemma’. What is the relationship between the economist and evolutionist views of these concepts? Model features: The economics literature defines the tragedy of the commons and the public goods dilemma in terms of rivalry and excludability of the good. In contrast, evolutionists define these conflicts based on fitness functions with two components: individual and group components of fitness. Mathematical method: Evolutionary game theory and the calculation of evolutionarily stable strategy trait values by standard optimization techniques and by replacing slopes of group phenotype on individual genotype by coefficients of relatedness. Conclusion: There is a direct relationship between rivalry and the individual component of fitness and between excludability and the group component of fitness. Moreover, although the prisoner’s dilemma constitutes a suitable metaphor to analyse both the public goods dilemma and the tragedy of the commons, it gives the false idea that the two conflicts are symmetric since they refer to situations in which individuals consume a common resource – tragedy of the commons – or contribute to a collective action or common good – public goods dilemma. However, the two situations are clearly not symmetric: from the economical point of view they differ by rivalry, and from the evolutionary biology point of view the two conflicts differ by the significance of the within-group competition in the fitness function.

Contested Territory, Strategic Rivalries, and Conflict Escalation

Abstract: After bringing together independent information on contested territory, rivalries, and conflict escalation (militarized interstate disputes (MIDs) and war), we examine the timing of the temporal ordering of these three processes. Contrary to conventional expectations, we find the contested territory-militarized dispute-rivalry ordering to be rare. Rivalries and contested territory often begin at the same time. Next, after setting up a unified model, we find the triadic combination of contested territory, contiguity, and strategic rivalry to be a strong explanatory combination for MIDs and war over time (1919–1992). We also control for other explanatory factors such as mixed regime type and major power status. These findings provide strong support for arguments such as Vasquez's steps-to-war theory that specify these sources of conflict escalation.

The making of White Australia: Ruling class agendas, 1876-1888

Abstract: This thesis argues that the colonial ruling class developed its first White Australia policy in 1888, creating most of the precedents for the federal legislation of 1901. White Australia was central to the making of the Australian working class, to the shaping of Australian nationalism, and the development of federal political institutions. It has long been understood as a product of labour movement mobilising, but this thesis rejects that approach, arguing that the labour movement lacked the power to impose such a fundamental national policy, and that the key decisions which led to White Australia were demonstrably not products of labour movement action. It finds three great ruling class agendas behind the decisions to exclude Chinese immigrants, and severely limit the use of indentured “coloured labour”. Chinese people were seen as a strategic threat to Anglo-Australian control of the continent, and this fear was sharpened in the mid-1880s when China was seen as a rising military power, and a necessary ally for Britain in its global rivalry with Russia. The second ruling class agenda was the building of a modern industrial economy, which might be threatened by industries resting on indentured labour in the north. The third agenda was the desire to construct an homogenous people, which was seen as necessary for containing social discontent and allowing “free institutions”, such as parliamentary democracy.

Collective Action, Rival Incentives, and the Emergence of Antisocial Norms:

Abstract: Centralized sanctions (selective incentives) and informal norms have been advanced as distinct solutions to collective action problems. This article investigates their interaction, modeling the eme...

The Role of Rivalry: Public Goods Versus Common-Pool Resources

Abstract: Despite a large theoretical and empirical literature on public goods and common-pool resources, a systematic comparison of these two types of social dilemmas is lacking. In fact, there is some conf...

One-Way Essential Complements

Abstract: While competition between firms producing substitutes is well understood, less is known about rivalry between complementors. We study the interaction between firms in markets with one-way essential complements. One good is essential to the use of the other but not vice versa, as arises with an operating system and applications. Our interest is in the division of surplus between the two goods and the related incentive for firms to create complements to an essential good. Formally, we study a two-good model where consumers value A alone, but can only enjoy B if they also purchase A. When one firm sells A and another sells B, the firm that sells B earns a majority of the value it creates. However, if the A firm were to buy the B firm, it would optimaly charge zero for B, provided marginal costs are zero and the average value of B is small relative to A. Hence, absent strong antitrust or intellectual property protections, the A firm can leverage its monopoly into B costlessly by producing a competing version of B and giving it away. For example, Microsoft provided Internet Explorer as a free substitute for Netscape; in our model, this maximizes Microsoft's joint monopoly profits. Furthermore, Microsoft has no incentive to raise prices, even if al browser competition exits. This may seem surprising since it runs counter to the traditional gains from price discrimination and versioning. We also show that an essential monopolist has no incentive to degrade rival complementary products, which suggests that a monopoly internet service provider will offer net neutrality. There are other means for the essential A monopolist to capture surplus from B. We consider the incentive to add a surcharge (or subsidy) to the price of B, or to act as a Stackelberg leader. We find a small gain from pricing first, but much greater profits from adding a surcharge to the price of B. The potential for A to capture B's surplus highlights the challenges facing a firm whose product depends on an essential good.

Buyer Power and Quality Improvement

Abstract: This paper analyses the sources of buyer power and its expect on sellers investment. We show that a retailer extracts a larger surplus from the negotiation with an upstream manufacturer the more it is essential to the creation of total surplus. In turn, this depends on the rivalry between retailers in the bargaining process. Rivalry increases when the retail market is more fragmented, when the retailers are less differentiated and when decreasing returns to scale in production are larger. The allocation of total surplus affects also the incentives of producers to invest in product quality, an instance of the hold up problem. This not only makes both the supplier and consumers worse off, but it may harm also the retailers.

The fundamental dimensions of strategy

Abstract: In nearly half a century of literature on corporate strategy, the term has become more complicated and fractured. There are now at least 10 separate schools of thought regarding strategy, and more than a dozen common definitions of the term. To clarify and deepen our understanding of corporate strategy, the author suggests general guidelines that set the boundaries of the discipline and highlight its specifics in order to facilitate future executive decisions. The author argues that strategy comprises three objectives: creating value, handling imitation and shaping a perimeter. The ability to sustain value creation, whether from the customer?s or the shareholder?s perspective, is the ultimate goal of any strategy. Concepts such as benchmarking, differentiation, core competencies, unique resources, institutionalism and competitive rivalry are all connected with the ability to prevent, implement or leverage imitation. Decisions about diversification, outsourcing, vertical integration, internationalization and positioning are all linked with the search for a profitable perimeter.

The Broken Olive Branch: Nationalism, Ethnic Conflict and the Quest for Peace in Cyprus

Abstract: At the forefront of its field, "The Broken Olive Branch" examines the dynamics of ethnonationalism in Cyprus, a country mired in a decades-long struggle fueled by ethnic rivalry. Harry Anastasiou's analysis of Cyprus' historic conflict examines the logic of nationalist thinking, assesses the rise of Greek and Turkish nationalism, and traces the division of Greek and Turkish Cypriots since the country won independence from British rule in 1960.In the first of two volumes, Anastasiou offers a detailed portrait of Cyprus's dual nationalisms, identifying the ways in which nationalist ideologies have undermined the relations between Greek and Turkish Cypriots. In the context of regional and global conflicts, he demonstrates how the ethnic rivalry was largely engineered by the leaders of each community and consolidated by the nationalist configuration of political culture. Taking a multilevel approach, he maps out the impasse and changes in ethnonationalism over time.In the second volume, Anastasiou focuses on emergent post-nationalist trends, their implications for peace, and recent attempts to reach mutually acceptable agreements between Greek and Turkish Cypriots. He documents the transformation of Greece, Cyprus, and Turkey within the context of Europeanization and globalization. While leaders of both communities have failed to resolve the conflict, Anastasiou argues that the accession of Cyprus into the European Union has created a structure and process that promises a multiethnic, democratic Cyprus. With great depth and balance, "The Broken Olive Branch" presents a fresh analysis of the Cyprus conflict and new insights on the influence of nationalism.

Why has the India-Pakistan Rivalry Been so Enduring? Power Asymmetry and an Intractable Conflict

Abstract: The India-Pakistan conflict is one of the most enduring rivalries of the post-World War era. Thus far, it has witnessed four wars and a number of serious interstate crises. The literature on enduring rivalries suggests that the India-Pakistan dyad contains factors such as unsettled territorial issues, political incompatibility, irreconcilable positions on national identity, and the absence of significant economic and trade relations between the two states, all cause the rivalry to persist. In this article I present a crucial neglected structural factor that explains the endurance of the rivalry. I argue that the peculiar power asymmetry that has prevailed between the two antagonists for over half a century has made full termination of the rivalry difficult in the near-term. Truncated power asymmetry is a causal factor in this rivalry's persistence, as rivalries between a status quo power and a challenger state that are relatively equal in their capabilities at the local level are the most intractable and ...

Creativity and Competition: The Beatles

Abstract: This article examines creativity, in particular the success of the British pop group The Beatles. The results suggest that The Beatles should not be seen as creative geniuses but as a creative process. Seeing creativity as a process suggests that experimental studies of one creative act may have limited value to real-world creativity. Behind The Beatles creative process were two dominant forces. First was the importance of rivalry as a contributor to creative enhancement. Second was the nature of the working team that possessed high levels of exchange and complimentary blends of expertise and thinking styles. This article also suggests that the structure of incentives is important in determining the nature of creative output.