Food Motivations in a Tourist Destination: North American Tourists Visiting the City of Cuenca,Ecuador

Gastronomy has been established as one of the key elements for the promotion and consolidation of tourist destinations. The current aim is to contribute to the scientific literature in the field of the relationship between gastronomy and tourism in Latin America from the experience affirmed by North American tourists in the city of Cuenca (Ecuador). The methodology is based on a questionnaire presented to North American travelers during their visit to the city of Cuenca. The results show the existence of different segments of tourists in relation to their attitude toward the local gastronomy. Three segments are identified, and depending on their belonging to a certain segment, the tourists have different motivations with respect to gastronomy. Finally, the results permit concluding that the levels of satisfaction of the tourists differ depending on their attitude toward gastronomy, identified by the three segments.     

Estimating the effects of regional political climate on Russian tourists to Spain

Regional political climate has become an increasingly significant force influencing travel behaviour in many tourist destinations. This paper attempts to address impacts of regional political stability on Russian inbound tourism into Spain within a demand model framework and using a cointegration approach. The results show that visa openness as well as political instability and civil unrest in substitute destinations attract more Russian tourists, boosting economic growth and reducing unemployment rates in Spain. On the contrary, international political confrontation results in disadvantage to Russian tourism demand to Spain.     

Consumer Protection in Peru: Origins,Evolution, and Main Regulatory Influences

Journal of Consumer Policy - In the following text, the authors address the origins and evolution of consumer protection in Peru, as well as highlighting the main regulatory influences of the...     

¿Conduce la flexibilización a menor desempleo? Un análisis empírico del mercado laboral español

En España se llevaron a cabo dos grandes reformas laborales (2010 y 2012) bajo el supuesto de que la flexibilización del mercado laboral y la descentralización de la negociación colectiva conducirían mecánicamente a reducir el desempleo (hipótesis flexibilizadora). Este artículo destaca la centralidad de la demanda y de la composición sectorial de la economía para explicar el comportamiento de esta variable (hipótesis estructural). Mediante un análisis con datos de panel a escala subnacional, evaluamos la capacidad de ambas hipótesis para explicar la evolución del desempleo. Nuestros resultados cuestionan los supuestos de la hipótesis flexibilizadora y subrayan la importancia de los factores cíclicos y estructurales.     

Public debt and economic growth: what do neoclassical growth models teach us?

This paper aims to quantify the crowding-out effect of public debt and the related loss in long-run output in neoclassical growth models. To accomplish this task, we incorporate the government sector into the Ramsey–Cass–Koopmans (RCK) model, the Blanchard model and the Solow model, which differ only in their assumptions concerning the consumption behaviour of households. We also introduce a general framework that is capable of gauging the burden of public debt in a neoclassical world in the case of any type of consumption behaviour. Our results are threefold. First, contrary to the RCK model, public debt reduces long-run output in the Blanchard model and the Solow model, although to a different extent: the crowding-out effect is marginal in the former, whereas it can be very large in the latter. Second, the burden of public debt is country-specific depending crucially on the saving rate and the population growth rate. Finally, in developed countries the upper limit of the output loss related to public debt is moderate at best even if distortionary taxes are taken into account.     

Do independent,female and specialist directors promote eco-innovation and eco-design in agri-food firms?

Eco-innovation and eco-design strategies are associated with firms' innovation capabilities. Moreover, they may impact on access to public subsidies and on financial performance. In this respect, the agri-food industry is especially vulnerable, because in general, this sector has less experience of technological innovation, and managers are more likely to be averse to such projects. On the other hand, the board may promote a proactive environmental approach to defend the interests of investors and other stakeholders, taking the view that these strategies reduce the environmental impact of the firm's products and its production processes and are therefore beneficial. Our study aim is to identify the profile of directors who may be favourable to eco-design and eco-innovation strategies, focusing on the traits of independence, gender diversity and environmental specialisation. The results obtained, from a dependence model based on panel data supplied by 321 agri-food companies for the period 2002–2017 (unbalanced panel data with 4878 observations), show that independent directors play a crucial role in implementing eco-innovation and eco-design projects. However, neither the diversity nor the specialisation of directors is a significant factor in this regard.     

Fiscal Policy at the Zero Lower Bound

Intereconomics - With interest rates at zero where they are expected to remain for a long time, and with the main risk being that inflation is too low, fiscal policy must be active and contribute...     

External stakeholder engagement: Complementary and substitutive effects on firms' eco-innovation

In this paper, we investigate whether firms' engagements in collaboration agreements with different types of external stakeholders produce complementary effects on the likelihood of eco-innovation. Although collaboration network and open eco-innovation theories affirm that the combination of external partners such as scientific partners, suppliers and customers produces complementary effects on the firm's likelihood of eco-innovation, several empirical studies found the existence of substitutive effects between them. To bridge this gap in the literature, we shape the nature of the interaction between different external partners, analysing an unbalanced panel sample of 10,918 innovative Spanish firms, covering the period 2008–2016. Consequently, we can show how firms benefit the most from collaboration with external partners. Our results show that firms that simultaneously collaborate with scientific partners, suppliers and customers generate partial complementary effects, which increase the firm's likelihood to eco-innovate the most, and that the combination of customer-collaboration with scientific partners, or supplier-collaboration, produces partial substitutive effects. Taking this in account, our results also confirm that engaging with scientific partners, suppliers or customers, independent of one another, increases firms' likelihood of eco-innovation more than noncollaboration. These results have important implications for managers, researchers and policy designers. For managers, this study provides a correct understanding of the benefits that they can expect to obtain from multi-partner external collaboration. For researchers, it introduces the marginal analysis to estimate interaction on nonlinear models. Finally, for policy designers, it shows the need for sponsored R&D collaboration to encourage coordinated ecosystems in which sustainability goals are pursued together.     

How to face a political boycott: the relevance of entrepreneurs’ awareness

Despite the growth in the number of consumer boycotts, the marketing literature has paid little attention to the factors that could explain such behavior or the effect of boycotts on entrepreneurial initiatives. Several studies have examined the motivations of customer boycott behavior. Nevertheless, its relation to other attitudinal variables and with firm-related characteristics has not been analyzed or has been dealt with only partially even though the implications are crucial for incumbents and start-ups to adapt their strategies. This paper examines the factors that could explain the consumer’s decision to boycott a brand because of its location in a specific country. The relevance of addressing this gap is based on the boycotts’ impact on local firms and start-ups performance. This study addresses this issue by proposing a model that considers consumer-related variables and the perceived importance of brands. The hypotheses proposed in this research are verified via variance-based partial least squares structural equation modeling. The authors tested their framework during an actual boycott to Catalonian products and firms promoted on social media in Spain. The discussion of the results and their implications contribute to improving entrepreneurs, managers and academics’ comprehension of the determinants of customers’ intentions to participate in a boycott. This can also provide entrepreneurs and managers with a guide to orientate the design and implementation of strategies that enable the reduction of customer abandonment due to political boycotts. The main value of this research is that it provides a comprehensive model that includes different sorts of variables that could be involved in consumer boycott behavior. This model can support flexible entrepreneurial and managerial practices to help entrepreneurs to adapt rapidly to changes in the market due to boycotts.

     

Green growth versus economic growth: Do sustainable technology transfer and innovations lead to an imperfect choice?

A concern with the mitigation of climate change cuts a transversal line across economic agents, epitomized by two contradictory viewpoints. Some defend that green growth can be achieved without harming economic growth; others argue that it is not possible to respect sustainability if intensive consumption of goods continues to foster economic growth. Our research aims to analyze the role that sustainable technology transfer and sustainable innovations play in green growth and ascertain the impact of green growth on economic growth. We use aggregated country-level data provided by the OECD, including national accounts, population, and environment statistics (including patents) between 1990 and 2013 for 32 countries, corresponding to an unbalanced panel of 591 observations. We estimate econometric models based on dynamic panel methodologies to capture differences that exist over time. The results show that sustainable technology transfer and sustainable innovation promote green growth, which in turn positively impacts economic growth. We contribute new insight to the green growth versus economic growth debate and provide several political and management implications.