My misunderstanding or their mistakes

Economic Growth and Advertising Expenditures in Different Media in Different Countries Richard van der Wurff and Piet Bakker, Robert G. Picard, Journal of Media Economics, 21:28-52, 2008

Purpose

It explores the relationships between economic growth (GDP) and advertising expenditures for different media in 21 industrialized countries (all long-time member states of the OECD)

Hypotheses

H1: Advertising intensity (a) increases in time and is higher in countries where (b) the primary sector is less important, (c) the secondary and tertiary sectors are more important, (d) a smaller share of production is exported, and (e) per capita GDP is higher.

H2: Advertising intensity of a single medium (a) is not influenced by the advertising intensity of other media and varies (b) in times as well as with (c) per capita GDP.

H3: The responsiveness of advertising expenditures to changes in GDP is higher for print media (newspapers, magazines) and outdoor advertising than for electronic media (television, radio, and cinema).

H4: The responsiveness of advertising expenditures to changes in GDP is higher in countries where (a) newspapers have a larger share in total advertising expenditures, and (b) advertising intensity is higher.

Results
· Advertising intensity varies considerably across time and countries.
· Newspaper advertising expenditures depend more strongly on economic development.
· GDP predicts ad spending better in countries where newspapers are an important advertising medium.
· GDP predicts ad spending better in countries where a larger proportion of GDP is spent on advertising.

The remaining questions

The weak tie between literature and its actual analysis.
· The authors mentioned the previous findings of the principle of relative constancy and unique
events influencing advertising expenditures; however, they did not analyze directly in this study.
· Regarding the intermedia competition, they considered the potential power of the Internet
Advertising; however, it was not analyzed directly in the study.
· For the first hypothesis, the authors did not mention clearly the influence of the manufactures variables

No clear explanation
· How do we define the long-term and short-term?
· How do we define economic declines and upturns? Any indicators to differentiate or standardize the periods?
· No clear analysis of the intermedia competition; why some media are more seriously affected by economic downtowns than others? The authors are more likely to find the answers from the previous research not their findings.
· What is “advertising cultures”? Does the advertising intensity or expenditures determine the advertising culture? Any factors?
· So….what..? why did we get that results? No explanation.