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We exploit a variation in organizational hierarchy induced by a reorganization plan implemented in roughly 2,000 bank branches in India. We do so to investigate how organizational hierarchy affects the allocation of credit. We find that increased hierarchization of a branch induces credit rationing, reduces loan performance, and generates standardization in loan contracts. Additionally, we find that hierarchical structures perform better in environments characterized by a high degree of corruption, highlighting the benefits of hierarchies in restraining rent-seeking activities. Overall, our results are consistent with the view that valuable information may be lost in hierarchical structures. Received May 4, 2018; editorial decision April 30, 2018 by Editor Itay Goldstein. Authors have furnished an Internet Appendix, which is available on the Oxford University Press Web site next to the link to the final published paper online. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines organizational learning in a target setting. Organizations commonly set targets--explicit and quantitative reference points--for their operational units that reflect top management aspirations for these units. Targets are commonly the outcome of a subjective process where supervisors combine their explicit and tacit knowledge to set performance expectations for their units. Using a proprietary database from a large European travel company during a period of rapid expansion, we document the effect of organizational learning by studying how targets change as units mature. In particular, we examine managers' experiential learning from branches' past performance and their vicarious learning from branches in the same region in determining performance expectations over the life cycle of branches. Our results indicate that, in setting performance targets, managers increase the weight of a branch's past performance and decrease the weight of comparable branches' performance as the branch matures. Vicarious learning, where managers extrapolate the performance of comparable branches to a new branch, dominates in the early years. Over time, this type of learning is replaced by experiential learning as experience accumulates. We document how early on in the life of branches, these two types of learning interact; this interaction disappears as branches mature. Furthermore, we find that managers learn differently from successes and failures early in the lives of the new units, and this learning is affected by the magnitude of the successes and failures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Scientific Bulletin of National Mining University is the property of National Mining University, State Higher Educational Institution and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This Article highlights and analyzes some important points about the new international tax rules. For example, such provisions do not create an entirely territorial system. The partial movement towards territorial objectives is accomplished largely through the new 100% dividends received deduction (DRD) for certain foreign dividends from foreign corporations. However, this new DRD is much more limited in its application than most taxpayers may realize (for example, due to a very long holding period requirement). Even when the DRD potentially applies, taxpayers may attempt to claim foreign tax credits instead. In addition, some of the new tax provisions show a surprising distaste for foreign branches, which are rather broadly defined. Further, GILTI (global intangible low taxed income) is misnamed--it fails to accurately measure either intangible-related or low-taxed income. Lastly, the new international tax provisions (and their interaction with the new, 100% current year depreciation deduction) may create undesirable incentives regarding the movement of tangible assets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Dilemas Contemporáneos: Educación, Política y Valores is the property of Dilemas Contemporaneos: Educacion, Politica y Valores and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The theory of multimarket contact has important but uninvestigated implications for interactions among a firm's divisions because divisions often meet and even compete in multiple geographical and product markets. I hypothesize that firms with incentives to induce competition among divisions will act to reduce levels of multimarket contact among those divisions. Further, I predict that, in markets with substantial uncertainty, firms will increase divisional multimarket contact. I find support for these hypotheses in the setting of the franchised fast-food industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How research played a fundamental role in the development of Abbey National's Convenience Retailing strategy, including the inclusion of Costa coffee in its retail outlets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Notwithstanding their concern with intra-MNC control mechanisms, scholars have overlooked the complementary phenomenon of self-regulatory behavior by subsidiaries. In this paper, we take the first steps towards addressing this gap by advancing and testing hypotheses dealing with the determinants of a major element of self-regulatory behavior at the subsidiary level, i.e., the performance-oriented feedback-seeking behavior of subsidiary presidents. Utilizing data from 374 subsidiaries of 75 MNCs, we test hypotheses regarding the impact of subsidiary task and organizational context on the feedback-seeking behavior of subsidiary presidents. The results of this study can be summarized as follows: (i) subsidiary presidents do engage in proactive performance-oriented feedback-seeking behavior; (ii) they vary in the extent to which they engage in such behavior; and (iii) these variations in feedback-seeking behavior are at least partially systematic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using Korean employer-employee matched data, we investigate the difference in occupational structure between domestic and multinational firms in manufacturing sectors. The main result shows that the occupational composition of the multinational firms is more skewed toward high-skills and service occupations than domestic firms. Furthermore, we find the heterogeneous labour structure among multinational firms upon types and locations of foreign affiliates. The multinationals that are establishing production plants or locating their affiliates in emerging countries tend to be composed of relatively smaller share of high-skills and service occupations than those with foreign R&D centres or business branch or with affiliates located in advanced countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the value-added tax (VAT) imposed on the turnover of mixed-use materials. Topics discussed include directives of European Commission (EC) on VAT, pro-rata basis on tax deduction, turnover of the branches of the company, dispute between investment banking company Morgan Stanley and Co. and Germany's Ministre de l'Économie et des Finances.

I study why local banking markets became dominated by multimarket firms following deregulation in the 1990s. I estimate a model of branch entry that allows for spillovers across markets. The spillovers complicate estimation, and so I develop a revealed preference approach that also deals with unobserved firm and market heterogeneity. I then analyze the impact of multimarket banks and find that they increase local competition, but that they also open more branches than single‐market firms, and subsequently offer lower deposit rates. Ultimately, their welfare impact differs across markets based on the availability of outside alternatives and consumer sensitivity to rates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the effects of bank privatization on the number of bank branches operating in small isolated markets in Brazil. We estimate a dynamic game played between Brazilian public and private banks. We find private banks compete with each other as expected. We also find public banks generate positive spillovers for private banks. Our counterfactual study shows that privatization substantially reduces the number of banks. The government can mitigate the effects of privatization by providing subsidies to private banks. Our model predicts subsidy policies that reduce operating costs are more cost‐effective than entry costs for isolated markets in Brazil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainability of microfinance institutions (MFIs) in relation to branch expansion and related decisions has been widely debated in the microfinance sector. The present study explores the factors that are taken into consideration by the MFIs in Bangladesh while opening a new branch. Specifically, the study examines the locational considerations relating to branch expansion and implications relating to service delivery and other MFI operations. The analysis covers both head office and branch level information collected using stratified random sampling approach ensuring proportional representation of small, medium and large MFIs. The study finds locational characteristics and number of potential borrowers as the most important factors while deciding on opening a new branch. The decision on branch location responds to three main considerations: (i) reducing cost of loan operation; (ii) serving target people in remote areas; and (iii) implementing targeted programs. It is seen that very large and medium categories of MFIs have greater incentives for branch expansion relative to large and small categories while larger MFIs tend to establish new branches close to growth centres. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In retail, assortment planning refers to selecting a subset of products to offer that maximizes profit. Assortments can be planned for a single store or a retailer with multiple chain stores where demand varies between stores. In this paper, we assume that a retailer with a multitude of stores wants to specify her offered assortment. To suit all local preferences, regionalization and store-level assortment optimization are widely used in practice and lead to competitive advantages. When selecting regionalized assortments, a trade-off between expensive, customized assortments in every store and inexpensive, identical assortments in all stores that neglect demand variation is preferable. We formulate a stylized model for the regionalized assortment planning problem (APP) with capacity constraints and given demand. In our approach, a common assortment that is supplemented by regionalized products is selected. While products in the common assortment are offered in all stores, products in the local assortments are customized and vary from store to store. The model is both applicable for optimizing a total assortment as well as a particular category of an assortment. Concerning the computational complexity, we show that the APP is strongly NP-hard. We formulate the APP as an integer program and provide algorithms and methods for obtaining approximate solutions and solving large-scale instances. Moreover, we extend our model to include substitution effects. Lastly, we perform computational experiments to analyze the benefits of regionalized assortment planning depending on the variation in customer demands between stores. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traditional rationales for multinational organizational structures have emphasized top-down design parameters rather than linkages between geographically dispersed units and basic internationalization objectives. A basis for structural variation by resource flow considerations (Pfeffer & Salancik, 1978) is derived and is used to develop a tentative model of strategy-and-structure configurations. Under defined conditions, the several multinational structures are hypothesized to be related to identified strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article looks at the findings of a study examining the extent to which relative performance of organization subunits on a set of quantitative measures of performance is in agreement with judgments of relative performance made at higher levels in the organization. The author discusses the adoption of goal setting programs within organizations to establish performance criteria for achievement levels. The study asked headquarters managers in two functional departments of a telephone company to rank field units from their respective function according to their relative overall performance. For the field engineering units, some combination of a few variables were found that related linearly to performance judgments.

This paper reviews the role of planning in the multinational firm and some of the contentious problems which arise. Based on a survey of multinational subsidiaries operating in Brazil, it describes and analyzes current planning practices, focusing primarily on the annual marketing plan. Recommendations for dealing with some of the more difficult problem areas are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An increasing number of marketing organizations with branch locations face the problem of identifying appropriate goals for each branch. This article draws on the author's experience with a savings and loan institution to describe how chain marketing managers can use regression models to more effectively screen new branch locations, set realistic performance standards for different communities, and pinpoint remedial actions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper illustrates a case study of forecasting daily traffic levels at branch banks, where many behavioural and business factors are present. Many influences are not equally spaced over, which reduces the effectiveness of traditional time series approaches. To handle this problem, a univariate time series ARIMA model is developed and then dummy variables are added to incorporate exogenous effects that are not captured by the projection ARIMA model. The results indicate that a more adequate representation of the customer traffic pattern has been obtained by combining the two modelling approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For a century. retailing has been leavened by a succession of large scale retailers-the department store, the mail order house, the chain store, the supermarket, and the discount house. What are the common, underlying reasons for their emergence? Will the pattern continue? Here is a critical answer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a study on the community perception of chain stores. The author explains that many chain stores have been attacked on the basis that they are owned and operated by men living outside the community and as such, do not actively contribute to the well being of the community. Chain stores argue that they lower prices and raise rents in a community and should not have to actively participate in community functions. The study looks at five different chain store categories: department and variety stores, small specialty shops, drug stores, grocery stores, and oil companies and automobile tire stores. He presents results from interviews of consumers, merchants, and civil leaders, and offers suggestions on how chains can offer more to the community in which they are located.

The article presents an overview of the wholesaling experiences of automobile tire manufacturers. The evolution of the tire wholesaling system is discussed, including the implementation of the branch system. The article also describes the characteristic wholesale patterns of the tire industry and analyzes some of the more recent forces influencing the distribution and wholesaling methods employed in the industry. Information regarding tire manufacturers' distribution and wholesaling costs are also presented.

To what extent can a parent firm with many branches standardize the activities of its satellites and enforce such uniformity without causing undue strain on the organizational structure? This mathematical study, based on a linear model of the multiple branch organization constructed within a framework of activity analysis, outlines the parameters and postulates three hypotheses in regard to the behavior tendencies of such multibranch organizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article looks at banking operation costs, focusing on the costs of processing deposits, securities and loans, business promotion, and administration. It is noted that the operating costs of branch banks may differ from unit banks of similar size. The author analyzes the output and operating cost data from New England member banks from 1959-1961, gathered by the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. Operating costs were analyzed as a function of product mix, output, factor prices, mergers, and other cost-affecting variables.

The cross-border economic activity by means of branch is a phenomenon more and more usual in a global world, and is even more evident within certain sectors of said activity. In order to facilitate the acquaintance with the subjects so intervening in the market, a sufficient registry publicity is needed. There are some legal rules issued by the UE regarding the registry publicity of the branches, although limited to a limited number of companies; Spanish legal rules, however, do not differentiate when dealing with the publicity of foreign branches, but they would require an update to accommodate them to the present situation of the economic activities and to better fit them with the UE directives [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study the class of one-to-many-to-one single vehicle routing problems with pickups and deliveries, in which a single capacitated vehicle is used to serve a set of customers requiring a delivery, a pickup, or both. These problems have many real-world applications, including beverage distribution, courier service transportation, and reverse logistics. We first concentrate on a well-studied problem in this class, known as the single vehicle routing problem with deliveries and selective pickups (SVRPDSP), in which deliveries are mandatory but pickups are optional and generate a revenue if performed, and customers requiring both a delivery and a pickup (combined demand) can be visited either once or twice. Most exact algorithms in the literature solve SVRPDSP by looking for elementary tours on an extended network that is obtained by transforming each combined demand customer into two different customers, one requiring only the delivery and the other one only the pickup. Because this can result in a significant loss in performance, in this work we focus instead on the original problem network and present formulations that can yield non-elementary tours. Through the use of Benders decomposition, valid inequalities, and tailored optimization techniques based on branch-and-cut frameworks, we develop exact algorithms that outmatch previous results in the literature and obtain proven optimal solutions for all benchmark instances. We then generalize the algorithms to solve several other vehicle routing problems with pickups and deliveries, including the cases of split deliveries, intermediate drop-offs, mandatory pickups, and multiple vehicles. The online appendix is available at . [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to identify the efficiency scores of branches and districts, the sources of inefficiency for branches and projections of variables for inefficient branches. It measures the comparative performance of branches of a credit union for internal benchmarking.Design/methodology/approach The paper measures the performance of 35 branches of a credit union in the USA and suggests managerial insights. Data envelopment analysis is used for measuring the relative performance of the branches and districts of the credit union. The paper also compares performance differences among the districts using non-parametric statistical analyses.Findings Parts of the findings indicated that branches should focus on cost containment by reducing operating expenses and increasing their loan balances. In addition, districts were operated in different market conditions, which were evidenced by scale efficiency. The major contributions of the study are filling the void of benchmarking studies at a branch level in the credit union sector, suggesting a framework for internal benchmarking, and providing practical insights to managers of credit unions. The framework of this study can be applied to similar financial institutions with minor revisions.Research limitations/implications The limitation of this study is found in the use of cross-sectional data, which is mainly due to the sensitivity of information disclosure of the credit union.Practical implications The paper includes implications for the development of benchmarking studies at a branch level in the credit union sector.Originality/value This paper fulfills an identified need to study how to identify source of inefficiencies so as to further improve the efficiency of branches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]