This paper studies how the existence of a potential entrant influences an incumbent’s choice of quality in a model of vertical product differentiation and entry. Both firms face fixed set-up costs and quality-dependent costs of production, and compete on quality and price. With identical...

Often a quality improvement necessitates modifications of varietal product features. This paper studies firms' incentives to invest in quality improving R&D when this decision affects the goods' degree of varietal differention.

We contrast two approaches to the prediction of latent variables in the model of factor analysis. The likelihood statistic constitutes the set of minimal sufficient statistics for the unobservables when sampling arises from the exponential family of distributions. Linear predictors on the other...

Rapid change has been the keynote to survival and business success in the 1990s. Even highly successful organisations have had to communicate bad news at times. This paper is based on the premise that change will be smoother if the ‘bad news’ elements are properly communicated — both...

Examines the past and future of total quality management through observations contributed by senior leaders of the USA quality movement on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the American Society for Quality Control, the 40th anniversary of the European Organization for Quality and the 30th...

Both the theoretical and the empirical literature on international trade agree that quantitative restrictions on trade have an impact on the average quality of exports. Yet, in evaluating (ex- ante) trade policy effects, there are no studies taking into account the role of the change in quality....