Upgrading local operations for global arbitrage

This study shows that upgrading sales operations in host countries towards production allows MNCs to perform global arbitrage in their networks of foreign subsidiaries and thereby contributes to a strategy of reaping the benefits of multinationality. We predict and find that operation upgrades follow opportunities of improving resource flows in the subsidiary network to exploit the advantages of host countries in tax rates, investment incentives, and technological knowledge across borders. Performance effects on the level of the MNC network give evidence of these benefits from global arbitrage.     

The Impact of Mega‐Catastrophes on Insurers: An Exposure‐Based Analysis of the U.S. Homeowners’ Insurance Market

Insurance is a key risk‐sharing mechanism that protects citizens and governments from the losses caused by natural catastrophes. Given the increase in the frequency and intensity of natural catastrophes over recent years, this article analyzes the performance effects of mega‐catastrophes for U.S. insurance firms using a measure of market expectations. Specifically, we analyze the share price losses of insurance firms in response to catastrophe events to ascertain whether mega‐catastrophes significantly damage the performance of insurers and whether different types of mega‐catastrophes have different impacts. The main message from our analysis is that the impact of mega‐catastrophes on insurers has not been too damaging. While the exact impact of catastrophes depends on the nature of the event and the degree of competition within the relevant insurance market (less competition allows insurers to recoup catastrophe losses through adjustments to premiums), our overall results suggest that U.S. insurance firms can adequately manage the risks and costs of mega‐catastrophes. From a public policy perspective, our results show that insurance provides a robust means of sharing catastrophe losses to help reduce the financial consequences of a catastrophe event.     

A Systematic Review of Literature on Offshoring of Value Chain Activities

Locational aspects of a firm's value chain configuration are recently gaining increasing attention by academics, practitioners, and policymakers. In this vein, the international business (IB) literature has produced a substantial body of knowledge on the offshoring phenomenon, offering a sizeable and constantly growing amount of evidence related to the offshoring organization and its organizational and managerial specifics. In this study, I map and assess the existing literature on offshoring of value chain activities. In the course of a systematic literature review, I analyze a total of 63 studies from leading IB research publishing journals and synthesize them into an integrating framework that links offshoring with its antecedents and consequences. In doing so, this systematic literature review offers a two-fold contribution: On the one hand, it helps to identify gaps that IB scholars need to address in order to further develop the existing body of knowledge on offshoring. On the other hand, it provides practitioners with a comprehensive knowledge repertoire that increases the quality of their offshoring-related decision-making.     

Characterization of dose‐response for count data using a generalized MCP‐Mod approach in an adaptive dose‐ranging trial

Understanding the dose–response relationship is a key objective in Phase II clinical development. Yet, designing a dose‐ranging trial is a challenging task, as it requires identifying the therapeutic window and the shape of the dose–response curve for a new drug on the basis of a limited number of doses. Adaptive designs have been proposed as a solution to improve both quality and efficiency of Phase II trials as they give the possibility to select the dose to be tested as the trial goes. In this article, we present a ‘shapebased’ two‐stage adaptive trial design where the doses to be tested in the second stage are determined based on the correlation observed between efficacy of the doses tested in the first stage and a set of pre‐specified candidate dose–response profiles. At the end of the trial, the data are analyzed using the generalized MCP‐Mod approach in order to account for model uncertainty. A simulation study shows that this approach gives more precise estimates of a desired target dose (e.g. ED70) than a single‐stage (fixed‐dose) design and performs as well as a two‐stage D‐optimal design. We present the results of an adaptive model‐based dose‐ranging trial in multiple sclerosis that motivated this research and was conducted using the presented methodology. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Partitioned pricing: review of the literature and directions for further research

Partitioned pricing (PP) has received increased attention in both managerial practice and academic literature. The fragmented nature of existing research, terminological and conceptual inconsistencies, and ambiguous findings regarding performance implications of PP underscore the need for an organization of the PP literature. This article provides four major contributions to the literature. First, it develops a new definition of PP based on a critical evaluation of the current body of literature and an analysis of key characteristics of the concept. Second, this article discusses the primary theoretical perspectives used to explain PP, which provides insights into the theoretical foundation of the concept and impetus for future studies on PP. Third, this article presents a review of the state-of-the-art in research on PP and provides managers with guidelines about when and how to apply this pricing tactic. Finally, this article identifies overarching limitations of prior PP research and outlines avenues for further research.