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SKF Group is one of the largest bearing manufacturers in the world, well known for its innovations and high quality bearings. One of its innovations is the CARB bearing, which functions particularly well under severe working conditions where traditional bearings break down easily. Compared to traditional bearings, CARB saves costs and creates value because it requires less maintenance, has a longer life, and simplifies machine structure. SKF launched CARB in 1995 and acquired a patent for a period of ten years. CARB bearings, which are manufactured in Sweden, have been widely used in Western markets and become almost standard parts. SKF started to export the new bearings to China in 1997. CARB bearing markets, in China, could be classified into two parts, the new installation (OEM) market and maintenance market, which mainly consisted of the replacement of the CARB bearing for the Chinese‐made conventional bearings on numerous machines. The SKF Shanghai Office was in charge of devising a marketing strategy to sell the CARB bearings to the maintenance markets, the majority of which were large‐scale state‐run companies. But the China market is huge, culture and influences from the West vary across regions, styles of doing business are also different. The first task of the SKF Shanghai Office was to segment the maintenance market and select the segment which was least difficult to enter.

ABSTRACTThis article addresses some important issues in risk‐return, or mean‐variance, research. Much of the research in this tradition has used Kahneman and Tversky's prospect theory to explain Bowman's proposition that "troubled firms" prefer and seek risk. Unfortunately, two key constructs in prospect theory, reference point and risk attitude, have not been applied in risk‐return research in ways consistent with prospect theory. The author examines a series of inconsistencies in the use of prospect theory in risk‐return research to date and suggests remedies. A proposed approach using a longitudinal research design at the individual‐firm level is applied in an empirical test of the Bowman hypothesis with data from brewing firms in the United States. The findings strongly support the Bowman hypothesis.

This article reviews the distribution systems in the People's Republic of China in a systematic way and corrects some misconceptions about the ownership of enterprises. The study proposes a framework for explaining and analyzing distribution systems, both of the central government and the manufacturers, based on transaction cost analysis. The article also offers a projection of the distribution system development trend, based on the proposed framework.