Decision Making & Negotiations

The purpose of this paper is to study consumer information processing within the context of attitude formation and change. Examination of the cognitive rules used by consumers in manipulating information presented in a persuasive communication seems quite relevant to understanding the impact of such communications. Persuasive communications can be viewed as presenting data to the consumer, who then manipulates and combines those data in the process of forming or changing an attitude.

The article explores the increasing popularity and importance of interest arbitration with regard to resolving collective bargaining disputes in public sector labor relations in the U.S. In avoiding or terminating strikes that threaten basic public interest, the use of arbitration may pose the only practical means of dealing with the situation. Furthermore, third-party figures brought to negotiating disputes harbors a fairness concept that is often viewed an important ingredient of labor stability.

A distinction is drawn between the multiattribute attitude model as a measurement device and as a theory of attitude formation and change. Using an analysis of variance paradigm to investigate the underlying multiplicative and summative assumptions, Fishbein's multiattribute theory is found to demonstrate reasonably high construct validity. Individual differences in attribute combination rules are identified, and the issue of cognitive averaging vs. cognitive summation is raised.

With so many mathematically bowdlerized, and computerized, versions of the application of systems analysis abroad it is a pleasure to welcome this purely descriptive account of the application of decision system analysis (DSA) to four marketing decision systems. Professors Capon and Hulbert describe the application of DSA to pricing, forecasting, advertising, and new product development that they carried out with the cooperation of a large, multinational, British firm specialized in the marketing of processed raw materials to secondary processors.

This research paper presents an in-depth study of two systems developed by a British oligopolist's one system for sales volume forecasting, the other system for day-to-day decisions on pricing. The paper describes two decision systems employed by a firm in an industry characterized as undifferentiated oligopoly; the development of terms of trade to suit market conditions and of short-term expectations with regard to volumes.

An examination of research studies that assume the existence of the sleeper effect concept has revealed surprising results: this effect may be observed only under certain restrictive design conditions-with subsets of the population divided on the basis of personality characteristics.

The degeneration of orderly relationships between city governments and their employees seriously complicates the nature of government and democracy in urban America. While most cities have not yet experienced major minimal labor breakdowns, most city governments do suffer from seemingly chronic conditions, like inadequate revenues and spiraling costs, which easily can serve as catalysts for municipal labor crises. Data show that serious labor relations problems are no longer limited to a few unfortunate cities like New York, the subject of this study.

Historically, when a major new type of machine has been built, men have at first been too apprehensive about what it would do to them immediately. Then, after it has been around for a while and hasn?t put them out of work, they have become too complacent about what its longer term effects would be. Today, many marketers behave as though they were in the stage of overcomplacency about the long-range impact of the computer. They seem sure it is not a near-term threat, so they give it mostly mundane chores and, in a sense, assume it will always be simply a routine data processor.

Bank balance sheet lending is commonly viewed as the predominant form of lending. We document and study two margins of adjustment that are usually absent from this view using microdata in the $10 trillion U.S. residential mortgage market. We first document the limits of the shadow bank substitution margin: shadow banks substitute for traditional “deposit-taking” banks in loans which are easily sold, but are limited from activities requiring on-balance-sheet financing.