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This paper investigates situations where a sizable sub-set of consumers prefer an inferior (dominated) offer made by an established brand to a superior (dominating) offer made by a less-established brand. Established brands are those for which consumers hold more confident beliefs concerning overall quality. Through a series of eight experiments, we test the hypothesis that the preference for a dominated established brand is linked to ambiguity aversion, a seemingly unrelated pattern of choice behavior between monetary gambles. We first show a correlation between ambiguity aversion and the preference for dominated established brands. We then demonstrate that the preference for established brands is enhanced when ambiguity aversion is made more salient in unrelated preceding choices. To further study the ambiguity-reducing properties of established brands, the last experiments assign brand names to monetary gambles, and it appears that (a priori unrelated) established brand names increase the likelihood of choosing ambiguous gambles. Overall, this research argues that brand equity for longstanding brands derives (at least in part) from consumers' tendency to avoid ambiguity.

Cross-country or cross-industry studies of technology diffusion typically estimate how independent factors affect diffusion speed or timing, often based on a two-stage approach. In many applications, however, countries (industries) differ most in the saturation level of diffusion. In a novel, single-stage econometric approach to a standard diffusion model, we therefore estimate how the saturation level co-varies with independent factors. In our application to diffusion of an important retail information technology, we focus on the competitive effect of hypermarkets (superstores). We also find standard scale, income and labor substitution effects.

This working paper explores the challenges of accelerated development of organizational talent. The meaning of the word 'accelerated' is that such development takes place at a pace that is significantly higher than that of 'traditional' development that allows an individual to learn the intricacies of the current job, observe incumbents in a higher level position (usually, one level up), practice elements of the boss' job when being delegated tasks, undergoing formal training, or benefiting from the knowledge accumulated by others and codified in the knowledge management systems. Accelerated development means, contrary to the usual, more traditional developmental path, bypassing traditionally expected career steps, stretched over a longer period of time learning opportunities, and/or age-related developmental progression. Accelerated development is a necessity for organizations facing unprecedented growth, lack of qualified individuals in the internal or external labor markets, and significant pressures from other organizations that are ready to 'poach' talented executives and employees and offer them even higher levels of responsibility and remuneration. Organizations also respond with accelerated development initiatives to the individuals engaged in career entrepreneurship, i.e., those who make alternative career investments in order to enjoy quicker returns in terms of career growth and progression.

I develop a structural demand model for mobile telephone service, which facilitates the identification of network effects and compatibility between networks. Network effects are measured by the dependence of consumer willingness to pay on the installed base of subscribers. Compatibility is measured by the relative extent of cross- and own-network effects. I then estimate the model using quarterly panel data from the Polish mobile telephone industry from 1996-2001 and find strong network effects and - despite full interconnection of the mobile telephone networks - low compatibility. I also show that ignoring network effects leads to an overestimation of elasticity of demand.