Current Issue : January - March Volume : 2012 Issue Number : 1 Articles : 7 Articles
Most Internet vendors offer tax-free cigarettes making them cheaper than those sold at stores. This undermines the impact that higher prices have upon reducing consumption. Most Internet tobacco sales have violated taxation and youth access laws, which led to landmark voluntary agreements in 2005 with the major credit card companies and major private shippers to ban payment transactions and shipments for all Internet cigarette sales.\nTo assess whether these bans increased the rate of Internet Cigarette Vendors (ICVs) ceasing online sales, decreased the proportion of vendors offering banned payment and shipping options, and decreased consumer traffic to the most popular ICVs.\nWebsites in a longitudinal study of ICVs were visited in 2003 (n = 338), 2004 (n = 775), 2005 (n = 664), 2006 (n = 762), and 2007 (n = 497) to assess whether they were in business and monitor their advertised sales practices. The number of unique monthly visitors to the 50 most popular ICVs at baseline was examined for the period one year before and two years after the bans to determine whether the bans altered traffic.\nFollowing the bans, the rate of ICVs ceasing online sales year to year increased, but due to an influx of new vendors, there was a net increase in ICVs. The proportion of vendors accepting banned payment options dropped from 99.2% to 37.4% after the bans, and the proportion offering banned shipping options dropped from 32.2% to 5.6%, but there was a corresponding increase in vendors offering non-banned payment options (e.g., personal checks) and shipping options (e.g., US Postal Service). Following the bans, there was a 3.5 fold decline in traffic to the most popular ICV websites.\nThis promising approach to controlling the sale of restricted goods online has implications for regulating other products such as alcohol, firearms, quack cures, and medicines sold without a prescription....
Ongoing declines in production of the world's fisheries may have serious ecological and socioeconomic consequences. As a result, a number of international efforts have sought to improve management and prevent overexploitation, while helping to maintain biodiversity and a sustainable food supply. Although these initiatives have received broad acceptance, the extent to which corrective measures have been implemented and are effective remains largely unknown. We used a survey approach, validated with empirical data, and enquiries to over 13,000 fisheries experts (of which 1,188 responded) to assess the current effectiveness of fisheries management regimes worldwide; for each of those regimes, we also calculated the probable sustainability of reported catches to determine how management affects fisheries sustainability. Our survey shows that 7% of all coastal states undergo rigorous scientific assessment for the generation of management policies, 1.4% also have a participatory and transparent processes to convert scientific recommendations into policy, and 0.95% also provide for robust mechanisms to ensure the compliance with regulations; none is also free of the effects of excess fishing capacity, subsidies, or access to foreign fishing. A comparison of fisheries management attributes with the sustainability of reported fisheries catches indicated that the conversion of scientific advice into policy, through a participatory and transparent process, is at the core of achieving fisheries sustainability, regardless of other attributes of the fisheries. Our results illustrate the great vulnerability of the world's fisheries and the urgent need to meet well-identified guidelines for sustainable management; they also provide a baseline against which future changes can be quantified....
Tuberculosis (TB) control is considered primarily a public health concern, and private sector TB treatment has attracted less attention. Thus, the size and characteristics of private sector TB drug sales remain largely unknown.\nWe used IMS Health data to analyze private TB drug consumption in 10 high burden countries (HBCs), after first mapping how well IMS data coverage overlapped with private markets. We defined private markets as any channels not used or influenced by national TB programs. Private markets in four countries ââ?¬â?? Pakistan, the Philippines, Indonesia and India ââ?¬â?? had the largest relative sales volumes; annually, they sold enough first line TB drugs to provide 65ââ?¬â??117% of the respective countries' estimated annual incident cases with a standard 6ââ?¬â??8 month regimen. First line drug volumes in five countries were predominantly fixed dose combinations (FDCs), but predominantly loose drugs in the other five. Across 10 countries, these drugs were available in 37 (loose drug) plus 74 (FDCs) distinct strengths. There were 54 distinct, significant first line manufacturers (range 2ââ?¬â??11 per country), and most companies sold TB drugs in only a single study country. FDC markets were, however, more concentrated, with 4 companies capturing 69% of FDC volume across the ten countries. Among second line drugs, fluoroquinolones were widely available, with significant volumes used for TB in India, Pakistan and Indonesia. However, certain WHO-recommended drugs were not available and in general there were insufficient drug volumes to cover the majority of the expected burden of multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB).\nPrivate TB drug markets in several HBCs are substantial, stable, and complicated. This calls for appropriate policy and market responses, including expansion of Public-Private Mix (PPM) programs, greater reach, flexibility and appeal of public programs, regulatory and quality enforcement, and expansion of public MDR-TB treatment programs....
Cultural variety in perception to diversity addresses a marketing instrument for which substantial cultural disparity to be expected. Consumers� perceptions of variety differ from the actual variety provided by a manufacturer or trader. Literature indicates that consumers� benefits and cost of perceive variety differ methodically across cultures. Self-sufficient consumers in idiosyncratic cultures place a quality on choice, on variety seeking and on personal sovereignty. Current cultural theory suggests that they also stumble upon greater cognitive and touching costs than individuals in collectivistic cultures when eventually choosing. The objective of this paper is to point out specific implications. First, theories on variety awareness and variety seeking are discussed in order to highlight consumers� benefits of variety. Second, theories of behavioral decision-making are reflected and consumers� costs of variety are illuminated. Third, theories and results of cultural psychology are reviewed with regard to fundamental psychological processes about consumers� reaction to variety....
Many challenges are facing measuring KM initiatives and one of the key challenges is to provide a comprehensive set of criteria to measure success of KM programs. The aim of this research is to address the problem of identifying the criteria for measuring KM outcomes among Malaysia companies and seeks to develop widely-accepted criteria based on the systematic review of the literature in order to measure success of knowledge management programs for Malaysian organizations. Hence, attempts were made to discover the most favored criteria among Malaysia organizations and to investigate the relationship between KM criteria and organization�s mission, goals, and objectives. In addition, the relationship between KM criteria and success of KM programs were examined using regression analysis. The current population study was composed of 79 Malaysian organizations from different types of sectors. According to results achieved by statistical analyses, the most favored criteria among respondents who participated in this survey were enhanced collaboration, improved communication, improved learning/adaptation capability, sharing best practices, better decision-making, enhanced product or service quality, enhanced intellectual capital, and increased empowerment of employees. Finally, it is hoped that the current study provides a better picture for Malaysia organizations to identify and develop a comprehensive set of criteria to measure success of KM initiatives....
The structure of the control network of transnational corporations affects global market competition and financial stability. So far, only small national samples were studied and there was no appropriate methodology to assess control globally. We present the first investigation of the architecture of the international ownership network, along with the computation of the control held by each global player. We find that transnational corporations form a giant bow-tie structure and that a large portion of control flows to a small tightly-knit core of financial institutions. This core can be seen as an economic ââ?¬Å?super-entityââ?¬Â that raises new important issues both for researchers and policy makers....
The recent growth in diplomatic, civil and military conflicts presents evolving challenges for international business. These risks create new sources of country risk. Country risk, in this sense, is commonly associated with the risk faced by enterprises in developed countries while conducting their business operations in developing or politically volatile countries. Few studies, however, have been carried out on the impact of country risk on enterprises from developing countries operating in other developing countries. This research investigates the role of the risk manager in country risk assessment (CRA) within Jordanian multinational enterprises (MNEs) by adopting a survey strategy. The methodology included questionnaires which\r\ndistributed to the entire Jordanian multinational enterprises. The main finding of this research was the role of risk managers is still not being maximised, and enterprises may not be achieving optimum benefits from their risk management system....
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