God,family and money: Pacific people and gambling in New Zealand

Pacific people living in New Zealand are less likely to participate in gambling activities than the general population but those who do gamble are at greater risk of being problem gamblers. This difference remains when socio-economic variables are controlled for. To date, little research has investigated the reasons underlying these differences. The present exploratory study investigated Pacific people's thoughts about gambling through a series of focus groups involving 97 participants, including Pacific gamblers, non-gamblers, gambling venue workers, gambling treatment providers and church leaders. The results suggest that some Pacific people draw a distinction between ‘community’ and ‘commercial’ types of gambling, that gambling is understood by some to be an easy way in which to make money, and also that familial and church obligations can motivate gambling behaviour. These findings inform possible unique features of gambling in Pacific cultures in New Zealand and internationally. Moreover, together with the research approach the results inform further research on Pacific peoples' relationship with gambling, as well as those of other cultural groups.     

Models for Multi-site Problem Gambling Clinical Trials

Efficacy, effectiveness and outcome studies of problem gambling treatment are limited. Systemic barriers to the development of evidence-based treatments for problem gambling include but are not limited to: low sample sizes, heterogeneous samples, lack of protocol driven treatments, single site clinical trials, lack of replication of studies by independent investigators and high rates of nonspecific treatment response. Increased collaboration among problem gambling treatment providers and investigators is necessary to overcome the systemic barriers and establish evidence-based treatments for problem gambling. Established models for provider and research collaborations are available in the fields of mental health and addictions. Development of a multi-site gambling treatment research network would facilitate development of evidence-based treatments, but require funding for the development of common assessment measures, information systems, training programs and communication networks.     

IN SEARCH OF WHAT IS RIGHT: THE MORAL DIMENSIONS OF THE DRUG DEBATE

The protagonists in the drug debate are talking past one another. While some argue that the drug debate is a health and social issue and should primarily be analytical and based on empirical evidence, others, explicitly or implicitly, treat it as a moral issue: overwhelmingly, in Australia, based on Christian beliefs. The aim of this paper is to set out a framework for the debate which explicitly recognises its moral as well as its empirical and analytical dimensions. It is hoped that greater transparency will facilitate the debate and may help the formulation of common positions. Heroin maintenance is used as an example to illustrate the arguments.     

Managing “forced” technology transfer in emerging markets: The case of China

This paper explores how foreign multinational corporations (MNCs) manage risks associated with “forced” technology transfer (“FTT”) policies in emerging markets. Although MNCs are increasingly exposed to appropriability risks from these policies, how they respond is relatively understudied in international business (IB) research. We explore this topic based upon a survey and interviews with Western MNCs doing business in China, as well as a discussion about the recent US-China trade war. We find that, as traditional IB theory would predict, internally-oriented strategies (e.g., internalization, maintenance of informal intellectual property (IP), and control of technological centrality and sophistication) are often used to respond to FTT policies; however, the risks from such policies can sometimes be more efficiently managed by externally-oriented strategies (e.g., non-market activities and reliance on formal IP). We discuss how the co-evolution of MNCs' risk management strategies alongside changing value chains, IP institutions, and conditions determining the leverage of FTT policies appear to contribute to this phenomenon. We argue that IB research should more prominently recognize the role of externally-oriented strategies, not only internally-oriented ones, in managing the complex IP-related institutional challenges present in emerging markets today.     

How Inventory Cost Influences Introduction Timing of Product Line Extensions

In the industry with radical technology push or rapidly changing customer preference, it is firms' common wisdom to introduce high‐end product first, and follow by low‐end product‐line extensions. A key decision in this “down‐market stretch” strategy is the introduction time. High inventory cost is pervasive in such industries, but its impact has long been ignored during the presale planning stage. This study takes a first step toward filling this gap. We propose an integrated inventory (supply) and diffusion (demand) framework and analyze how inventory cost influences the introduction timing of product‐line extensions, considering substitution effect among successive generations. We show that under low inventory cost or frequent replenishment ordering policy, the optimal introduction time indeed follows the well‐known “now or never” rule. However, sequential introduction becomes optimal as the inventory holding gets more substantial or the product life cycle gets shorter. The optimal introduction timing can increase or decrease with the inventory cost depending on the marketplace setting, requiring a careful analysis.     

A Continuous‐Review Inventory Model with Disruptions at Both Supplier and Retailer

We consider a continuous‐review inventory problem for a retailer who faces random disruptions both internally and externally (from its supplier). We formulate the expected inventory cost at this retailer and analyze the properties of the cost function. In particular, we show that the cost function is quasi‐convex and therefore can be efficiently optimized to numerically find the optimal order size from the retailer to the supplier. Computational experiments provide additional insight into the problem. In addition, we introduce an effective approximation of the cost function. Our approximation can be solved in closed form, which is useful when the model is embedded into more complicated supply chain design or management models.