The Strategic Impact of Information on Firms and Markets: The Case of the Nutrition Labeling and Education Act of 1990

Moorman 摘要“信息对企业和市场的战略影响：以 1990 年营养标签和教育法案为例。”本研究提案考察了信息对企业行为和市场动态的影响，并解决了信息流超出单个企业范围，而成为行业中大多数企业信息可用的情况。 信息的流动可能是企业主动竞争行为或监管机构或消费者团体行为的结果。例如，法规可能会被取消，大量信息流入市场，或者法规可能会要求企业披露信息。 这些外部信息流被称为市场信息。 本研究中检验市场信息影响的背景是 1990 年国会通过并于 1994 年实施的《营养标签和教育法案》(NLEA) 所产生的大量信息。NLEA 迫使食品制造商使用称为“营养成分”标签的标准化格式来传达营养信息。 本次资助调查的所有项目均采用纵向准实验设计和适当的控制。 这笔赠款调查了几个研究问题。 第一个问题是研究市场信息对产品质量措施的影响。 该提案通过研究更复杂的、多属性的产品质量（例如味道和营养）测量方法以及评估对市场效率的影响和企业之间竞争的性质，扩展了该领域的初步工作。 然后，该研究将考察公司资源和能力对产品质量变化的水平和时间的影响。 如果发现企业差异导致企业对市场信息的反应产生差异，那么研究将调查市场信息对食品行业结构和动态的影响。 该研究计划的最后一个组成部分是收集额外的数据来检查市场信息相对于控制条件的影响。 通过利用历史数据、非食品数据和国际数据，本研究提案为确定信息对市场动态的影响提供了坚实的基础。 就影响而言，本研究旨在通过利用跨学科方法来发展研究问题和相关假设来增强现有理论。 这种方法会对每个研究主题产生一些反直觉的预测，传播这些结果的文章将针对营销、战略管理、经济学和公共政策等学科。 除了理论上的影响外，该提案还试图影响政策设计。 具体来说，通过证明消费者行为、管理决策、企业层面的反应和行业层面的影响与直接从经济学理论推断的预期不同，监管机构将更好地理解各种政策设计选择的影响。

Moorman Abstract `The Strategic Impact of Information on Firms and Markets: The Case of the Nutrition Labeling and Education Act of 1990.` This research proposal examines the impact of information in firm behavior and market dynamics and addresses situations in which the flow of information goes beyond in a single firm to where information is available regarding most firms in an industry. The flow of information might result from proactive competitive moves by firms or from the actions of regulatory bodies or consumer groups.. For example, regulations may be removed and free the floe of information into markets or regulations may require the disclosure of information by firms. These external information flows are termed market information. The context for examining the impact of market information in this research is the influx of information created by the Nutrition Labeling and Education Act (NLEA) passed by Congress in 1990 and implemented in 1994. The NLEA forced food manufacturers to communicate nutrition information using a standardized format referred to as the `Nutrition Facts` label. All of the projects investigated in this grant utilized a longitudinal quasi-experimental design with appropriate controls. This grant investigates several research issues. The first issue is to examine the impact of market information on product quality measures. This proposal extends initial work in this area by examining more complex, multi-attribute approaches to the measurement of product quality (e.g., taste and nutrition) and by assessing the impact on market efficiency and the nature of competitive rivalry among firms. The research will then examine the impact of firm resources and capabilities on the level and timing of product quality changes. If firm differences are found to produce differences in firm responses to market information, research will then investigate the impact of market information on the structure and dynamics of the food industry. A final component of this research program is to collect additional data to examine the impact of market information relative to control conditions. By utilizing historical data, non-food data, and international data, this research proposal provides a solid basis for establishing the impact of information on market dynamics. In terms of implications, this research seeks to augment existing theories by utilizing and interdisciplinary approach to the development of research questions and associated hypotheses. This approach produces several counter-intuitive predictions for each research topic and articles disseminating these results will be targeted across disciplines in marketing, strategic management, economics, and public policy. In addition to theoretical impact, this proposal also seeks to influence policy design. Specifically, by demonstrating that consumer behavior, managerial decision-making, firm-level responses, and industry-level effects are different from what might be expected from straight extrapolations of economics theories, regulators will have a better understanding of implications of various policy design choices.