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Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons

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Economics

University of Richmond

2005

Economics

Articles 1 - 2 of 2

Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Agglomeration Effects And Strategic Orientations: Evidence From The U.S. Lodging Industry, Linda Canina, Cathy A. Enz, Jeffrey S. Harrison Jan 2005

Agglomeration Effects And Strategic Orientations: Evidence From The U.S. Lodging Industry, Linda Canina, Cathy A. Enz, Jeffrey S. Harrison

Management Faculty Publications

This study provides evidence regarding the strategic dynamics of competitive clusters. Firms that agglomerate (co-locate) may benefit from the differentiation of competitors without making similar differentiating investments themselves. Alternatively, co-locating with a high percentage of firms with low-cost strategic orientations reduces performance for firms pursuing high levels of differentiation. Further, the lowest-cost providers with the greatest strategic distance from the norm of the competitive cluster reap the greatest benefit from co-location with differentiated firms. We find empirical support for these ideas using a sample of 14,995 U.S. lodging establishments, and controlling for a number of key demand-shaping factors.


Adam Smith And Greed, Jonathan B. Wight Jan 2005

Adam Smith And Greed, Jonathan B. Wight

Economics Faculty Publications

The virtues of greed have been widely promoted by some economists in the 20th century. Allegedly it is Adam Smith who provides this new dignity to greed (Lerner, 1937, ix). Kenneth Arrow and Frank Hahn in the General Equilibrium Analysis (1971), for example, implicitly assume that Adam Smith's self-interest is the greed that promotes economic efficiency (quoted in Evensky, 1993, 203). Walter Williams (1999), a devoted follower of Smith, writes in his column that, "Free markets, private property rights, voluntary exchange, and greed produce preferable outcomes most times and under most conditions." These pronouncements have become part of the cultural …