Many managers face the problem of employee assessment. Face to face meetings are the only source of basic information concerning employee activity and productivity. This unavoidable situation creates an opening for dishonest and misleading behavior whereby employees invest in 'manager relations'...

Significant conflicts impacting production costs and efficient use of labour are associated with shift work. We examine the relationship between the number of shifts and their duration in order to maximize efficient use of labour. We focus on the debate between two basic elements: (1) a greater...

The paper adds another dimension to the literature on bundling as a profit-maximizing strategy. We compare policies of joint consumption and segmentation of a profit maximizer. In the case of positive social influences between two population groups 'bundling' is preferred to segmentation, while...

The paper analyses the decision made by firms to issue one-time coupons as a means of attracting new deal prone customers. Given the structure of the market and the share of loyal customers, we derive boundaries for the value of the coupon, as well as the optimal face value of the coupon. The...

The paper analyses the decision made by firms to issue one-time coupons as a means of attracting new deal prone customers. Given the structure of the market and the share of loyal customers, we derive boundaries for the value of the coupon, as well as the optimal face value of the coupon. The...

In this paper we show how the use of a restricted number of coupons in the presence of different types of customers is an effective means of implementing a price discriminating policy. Hence, firm profits can be increased even when traditional price discrimination is forbidden.

This paper examines pricing policy, quality levels, consumer surplus and social welfare for the monopoly and non-monopoly case. It is shown that given certain realistic assumptions, the network industry under unregulated monopoly would yield more social welfare than in the case of several...