Brand heritage emerged as a marketing tool of brand managers within the last couple of decades, and since then has been critiqued extensively concerning fallacies and inconsistencies in mainstream definitions. In order to obtain a clear understanding of brand heritage it is important to identify and conceptualize what brand heritage entails to provide a basis for measurability. My task was to draw on the extant of literature and to create a new framework that coherently defines brand heritage. Through secondary research I have analyzed the models and dimensions in existing research, including arguments from a variety of sources that either support of weaken the veracity of such existing definitions. I extracted valuable concepts from past research, and created a new framework that focuses less on the idea of dimensions, which imply that their measurability can be mutually exclusive and distinct, to a set of three components. The components remain coherently distinct wile displaying an interworking relationship amongst them that if one changes the others will likely change in an interrelated and, hopefully through more research, predictable pattern. The three components are core values, track record, and consumer perception. I incorporated explanations as to their meaning and usage pertaining to brand heritage. I then compared my concept of brand heritage against similar brand management tools to ensure that it provides a basis for separation. My research also focuses on exploring these components of brand heritage using qualitative research methodologies among consumers living in the Tacoma area. Implications for theory and practice will also be presented.

Many brands nowadays evoke their history and heritage. Whether it is Chevy cars or Wells Fargo bank, one often sees brands employing advertising that extol brand heritage. Brand heritage encompasses past, present, and future of the brand. This means that brand heritage identifies the details of a very consistent brand over a significant period of time. Because of this, corporations that have existed over the course of many decades could leverage their brand’s heritage to build sales if they advertise the brand correctly. Recent research has examined brand heritage across different product categories. For example, after purchasing Mini Cooper, the German brand BMW was able to use the heritage of the Mini to generate sales. Some companies have resurrected the brand heritage that became stale for a period of time; Carnival bought the brand of Cunard, and successfully resurrected it using heritage marketing and leveraging traditions associated with the brand. However, other brands have been unable to unleash the value of brand heritage despite having negative cash flow. The recent bankruptcy of Kodak proves that a company can still have heritage and equity despite a negative cash flow. Even though interest in brand heritage in growing among researchers and practitioners, there are still many research questions unanswered. Can new brands evoke a fictitious heritage? Can brands with heritage pursue innovations or are they doomed to be old and traditional? Can foreign brands evoke their international heritage? Can heritage be borrowed through co-branding strategies? Can sports teams utilize brand heritage? My research will focus on exploring these questions using qualitative research methodologies among consumers living in the Tacoma area. Implications for theory and practice will also be presented.

In Economics, increasing energy prices is considered as a main factor contributing to the improvement of energy efficiency. China has experienced a constant increase in both energy prices and energy efficiency since the energy price reforms in the early 1990s. The question of interest is whether the impact of energy prices on energy efficiency was asymmetric before and after the energy price reforms. Energy intensity, defined as units of energy consumption per unit of GDP, is used to quantify energy efficiency. In this study, I assess the impact of changes in energy prices on aggregate energy intensity in China between 1985 and 2010, and identify the asymmetric impact of energy prices on energy intensity prior to and after the energy price reforms of the early 1990s. I used time series data to estimate energy price elasticity for aggregate energy, and compared the values of elasticity before and after the energy price deregulations. Empirical results showed that: the own-price elasticity of aggregate energy was negative over the periods both prior to and after 1994, implying that an increase of aggregate energy prices led to a decrease in aggregate energy intensity. The impact of energy prices on aggregate energy intensity was asymmetric over two periods, prior to 1994 and after 1994. The magnitude of own-price elasticity of aggregate energy was larger after 1994 than before that date, indicating the price effects on energy intensity strengthened after the energy price reforms. Although raising energy prices seems to be an effective policy tool to improve energy efficiency, other implications, such as social instability, should also be considered.

The level of external debt always plays a significant role in judging a country’s overall economic well-being. A general accepted threshold regarding its impact is that for levels of external debt in excess of 90 percent of GDP, growth rates decrease by roughly half. External debt, the part of total debt of a country owed to creditors overseas, is always denominated in foreign currencies. Thus to thoroughly analyze the implications of external debt level on an economy, we must relate it to the currency regime in force. Indeed countries choose to adopt various currency regimes from fixed to flexible exchange rate and hybrid models in between. The goal of this research is to draw the linkage between external debt/GDP and changes in currency regimes. I constructed historical data set on total gross external debt for 1970-2010 for 44 countries that have experienced periods with external debt/GDP above the threshold. Moreover, I gathered data over the same period documenting the corresponding exchange rate regimes to find whether there is a relation between an external debt crisis and a change in the exchange rate regime, which is very likely. The next question is to find out the direction of the causality: does a debt crisis trigger a change in the exchange rate or vice versa. I am using Granger causality test, a statistical hypothesis test, to determine whether one time series is more successful in forecasting the other; I anticipate the results to show positive correlations in either direction. These results could be useful to understand the close relation between the level of external debt of a country and its exchange rate arrangement. For policy makers, these results could be taken in consideration when selecting tools for implementing monetary policies, the efficiency of which is highly dependent on the exchange rate arrangement.

Explaining regional differences in real wages has long been a subject of interest to economists. A substantial body of econometric literature offers various explanations for such differences, ranging from labor market characteristics such as unionization to local amenities such as crime levels and average commute times. Another possibility is that labor market wages compensate for constraints placed on the time of residents in a given region. In particular, if the lifestyle in a certain area requires a greater amount of time devoted to non-market labor activities (things such as grocery shopping which are neither leisure nor a labor market job) then perhaps wages must be higher in those areas in order for residents to accept the constraints placed on their time by living there. This paper tests that hypothesis using an econometric method known as hedonic wage-amenity modeling which has become standard in regional amenity valuation literature. Detailed time-use data recently made available by the Bureau of Labor Statistics is aggregated for regional patterns and analyzed against local wages and cost of living for a possible relationship.

This paper applies the theory of real options to study the dynamics of input substitution in the uranium enrichment industry. Enrichment is a process whereby natural uranium is separated into a stream rich in the fissile isotope U²³⁵, which is used as nuclear fuel, and another “tails” stream with a low U²³⁵ content, or a low “tails assay.” As more separative work energy is used in the process relative to a given amount of natural uranium feed, the resulting tails assay falls and the amount of fuel produced rises. A well-known formula asserts that a cost-minimizing enricher will choose a given level of inputs based only on the relative price of enrichment and uranium, but I show that the standard formula ignores the potential value of holding the leftover tails for further enrichment if that relative price of uranium rises. The theory of real options, a subfield of finance, shows that this decades-old formula is incorrect. I quantify the value of the option to enrich if the relative price of uranium should rise. I then use a numerical method to calculate a new optimal ratio of separative work to uranium that takes into account the price volatility of the relative price of the inputs, and I find that the option-adjusted optimal input ratio uses significantly less separative work, leaving richer tails, than the standard formula under realistic assumptions of price ratio volatility.