The Robinson-Patman Act (RP), an antitrust statute aimed at protecting small businesses, limits price setting in distribution channels. To avoid costly penalties under RP, managers take a variety of precautions when pricing to retailers and wholesalers. But how likely is a court to find a defendant guilty of violating the RP? We find that this likelihood has dropped drastically as a result of recent Supreme Court rulings from more than 1 in 3 before 1993 to less than 1 in 20 for the period 2006-2010. The analysis also points to an increased success of the no harm to competition defense, which reflects the view that the courts have raised the hurdle for plaintiffs to establish competitive harm. Finally, our results indicate that smaller plaintiffs over time have fared worse than larger ones, a trend that challenges the notion that RP protects small businesses.pricing, channels of distribution, Robinson-Patman Act, case history

Based on a review of North American professional sports teams, this study provides insight on how teams are communicating commitment to sustainability principles and practices on their Web sites. Web sites for 126 teams across 4 different leagues were examined for content relative to triple-bottom-line dimensions. Global Reporting Initiative indicator codes and definitions were constructs for the model and aligned to social, environmental, and economic principles for categories of sustainability practices. Although teams are including sustainability information on their Web sites, the vast majority downplay economic issues and highlight social issues on their home pages and subsequent pages; communication about environmental factors varies by league. The study shows differences across leagues and suggests that although some teams are communicating a commitment to sustainability, others may not be considering stakeholder perceptions of their Web-site communications or whether sustainability efforts affect public consumption of league offerings or attitudes toward professional sports.

No abstract

If you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Please visit www.emeraldinsight.com/authors for more information. About Emerald www.emeraldinsight.comEmerald is a global publisher linking research and practice to the benefit of society. The company manages a portfolio of more than 290 journals and over 2,350 books and book series volumes, as well as providing an extensive range of online products and additional customer resources and services.Emerald is both COUNTER 4 and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is a partner of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive preservation. AbstractPurpose -The purpose of this paper is to explore the gap in the literature as well as investigate how the combination of internal marketing or innovation investments with new product introductions influences alliance type choices. Most research on marketing-innovation resource allocation decisions has focused on trade-offs in internal investments such as advertising versus research and development. Absent from this discussion is whether firms offset a weakness internally by reaching outside the boundaries of the firm through alliances. As a result, managers lack a clear understanding of the potential for complementarity using internal-external approaches to a market. Design/methodology/approach -This paper draws on the resource-based view of the firm, using a longitudinal secondary data set and a choice model. Findings -The authors find that firms that internally emphasize either marketing or innovation maintain the same approach externally with respect to alliance type choices. Thus, efforts to complement internal marketing (innovation) resource investments with innovation (marketing) alliances are not seen. However, the interaction of new product introductions with internal resource investments does result in a complementary firm approach. Originality/value -The authors bridge a gap in the resource investment literature by exploring how the internal decisions impact the external alliance choices. The authors draw on longitudinal data and show that the action of making the choice is important, as it impacts future resource decisions. The authors explore the interaction between new production introductions and internal firm investments on alliance type choice. Given that new product introductions are a key to longer-term firm success, examining these relationships enhances the managerial impact.

Well-known benefits of corporate social responsibility (CSR) are goodwill and trust.Typically, research states that if a firm engages in CSR activities that benefit stakeholder X, then stakeholder X will reciprocate with higher levels of trust. We advance this line of research by examining whether CSR activities directed to stakeholder X increase the levels of trust between the firm and a different stakeholder, Y. Specifically, we examine the consequences of CSR actions that a firm directs toward non-supplier stakeholders on the firm-supplier relationship. We argue that a firm's secondary stakeholder CSR (e.g., community and environment) creates trust and goodwill with third parties (i.e., suppliers) that manifests in reduced inventory days. We use a data set comprising 27,551 firm-year observations and find that secondary CSR is associated with decreased inventory days in more complex (more heterogenous and competitive), munificent (growing), dynamic (unpredictable), and socially irresponsible (e.g., gambling and tobacco) business environments.