Liquid Applepie: Market Entry Strategy for a New Lifestyle Drink

ABSTRACT

This is a theoretical case which observes the path a small business needs to follow to be successful. It is hoped the company involved will take these conclusions into consideration for future development.

This case study has been conducted in order to understand the theoretical models of international marketing. It determines the key criteria that need to be considered when entering a foreign market. The idea was to develop a market entry strategy for a Polish Vodka manufacturer who wants to enter the Austrian market.

After an analysis of the market and consideration of the situational factors, which are very important for the development of a detailed SWOT analysis, the segmentation, targeting, positioning and finally the selection of the right entry method, including the customer specific marketing tools, have been identified.     

SOLVABLE AFFINE TERM STRUCTURE MODELS

An Affine Term Structure Model (ATSM) is said to be solvable if the pricing problem has an explicit solution, i.e., the corresponding Riccati ordinary differential equations have a regular globally integrable flow. We identify the parametric restrictions which are necessary and sufficient for an ATSM with continuous paths, to be solvable in a state space     , where     , the domain of positive factors, has the geometry of a symmetric cone. This class of state spaces includes as special cases those introduced by Duffie and Kan (1996) , and Wishart term structure processes discussed by Gourieroux and Sufana (2003) . For all solvable models we provide the procedure to find the explicit solution of the Riccati ODE.     

Social Agents,the Provision of Buildings and Property Booms: The Case of Sã0 Paulo

This paper examines the systems of social relations underpinning the late 1980s’ office boom in São Paulo, Brazil. Using ‘institutionalist’ approaches to provide an empirical examination of these systems, it focuses on the nature of the dominant agents and their strategies, the linkages that allow them to perform their functions, and the relative position and power of the agents in the production and use of built structures. The paper tries to situate these systems in their economic and social environment and to point to the connections between socially constructed property markets, their environment, and the characteristics and outcomes of the property boom. In doing so, it aims to cast some light on the processes through which a mix of economic, social and cultural impulses, of global and ã local origins, are related to the structures of provision of offices in the context of So Paulo and lead to the production of specific forms of built environment. — Cet article examine les sytèmes de relations sociales qui a soutenu le boom des bureaux à S ão Paulo à la fin les années quatre-vingt. Utilisant des approches ‘institutionnalistes’ afin de fournir une examination empirique de ces systèmes, il se concentre sur la nature des agents principaux et sur leurs stratègies, sur les liens qui leur permettent d’assurer leurs fonctions, et sur la position de pouvoir relatif de ces agents dans la production et l’utilisation des structures bâties. Cet article essaie de situer ces sytèmes dans leur environnement social et économique, et de montrer les rapports entre les marchés immobiliers construits socialement, leur environnement et les caractéristiques et résultats de l’essor immobilier. Ce faisant, il entend éclaicir les processus par lesquels un mélange d’impulsions économiques, sociales et culturelles d’origine locale et globale est lié aux structures de construction des bureaux dans le contexte de S ão Paulo et conduit à la production de formes spécifiques d’environnement construit.     

Investigating the determinants of patent acquisition in biotechnology: an empirical analysis

Acquiring patents is an increasingly relevant opportunity for innovating companies, especially after the rise and development of the so-called markets for technologies (MFTs). However, only scant attention has been devoted to investigate patents' characteristics influencing their acquisition by organisations. Accordingly, this paper aims at filling this gap by analysing how four main characteristics – as patent scope, scientific knowledge cited by the patent, forward patent citations, and number of patent claims – impact the likelihood of patent acquisition. We based our statistical analysis on a sample of 9716 US Patent and Trademark Office patents assigned to 165 biotechnological firms. Results support our conjectures and offer interesting managerial implications for organisations operating within MFTs indicating which characteristics make patented technological solutions more likely to be acquired by other firms, as a narrow scope, inclusion of scientific knowledge, and a number of forward citations able to increase patent's impact and exclusion rights.     

Why So Unhappy? The Effects of Unionization on Job Satisfaction*

Using linked employer–employee data we investigate the job satisfaction effect of union membership in Britain. We develop a model that simultaneously controls for the determinants of individual membership status and for the selection of employees into occupations according to union coverage. We find a negative association between membership and satisfaction. However, having accounted for selection effects, we find that the negative association is confined to non‐covered employees. This is consistent with ‘voice’ effects, whereby non‐covered members voice dissatisfaction to achieve union goals, and with the possibility that membership increases preferences for collective bargaining, thus lowering members’ satisfaction in non‐covered environments.     

Weight Watchers: Social Event Centered Marketing

ABSTRACT

This article looks at an international weight loss service company known as Weight Watchers and evaluates the promotional effectiveness of their social event focused business. Secondary research highlights their approach to the marketing mix and the significance of perception within this particular market and the marketing mix per se. Research of their traditional social event based business is reported in terms of the effect of the promotional tools used by Weight Watchers, influences on consumer decision making, consumer behavior, and internal and external factors which influence marketing decisions. The conclusions drawn are that there are significant issues for Weight Watchers to consider in terms of their future approach to the weight loss market. Firstly, the need for Weight Watchers to differentiate themselves further from their competitors and, secondly, to ensure they have distinct differentiation strategies for their social event and online businesses.     

Foresight in corporate organisations

Strategy formulation is strictly intertwined with the analysis of the likely evolution of the business environment, in order to detect promptly the opportunities and the threats brought about by emerging trends and to deal with them properly (strategic foresight). Today many companies put much effort into strategic foresight, and also in the literature on strategy there is a growing attention to strategic foresight. However, it still seems there is a lack of a general framework of analysis that clearly defines how all the foresight activities should be carried out in a firm and should be integrated in an organic way, in order to support strategic decision makers at corporate, business and functional levels. This is the main issue we have taken into account through the study of some relevant European and US firms that have established foresight units, in order to deliver support for long term strategy formulation.     

GARCH inadequacy for modelling exchange rates: empirical evidence from Latin America

This article checks for the adequacy of using GARCH models in exchange rate series. Using the Hinich portmanteau bicorrelation test, we find that a GARCH formulation or any of its variants fails to capture the data generating process of the main Latin American exchange rates. Our results highlight the potential of having misleading public policy when estimates are based in GARCH types of models. This article also complements recent similar findings encountered in European and Asian economies.     

Heterogeneity in health responses and anchoring vignettes

In this article we employ the tool of anchoring vignettes to analyze gender differences in self-assessments of health in Europe. We propose and estimate an extension of the basic vignette model for correcting the lack of interpersonal comparability of self-assessments on a categorical scale. Our extension allows for potential correlation in the self-assessments of health on different domains by including an unobservable individual effect, common to all domains but different across individuals, in both the thresholds and the equations for the latent health problems. After applying this model to the SHARE data, we find that vignettes help narrow gender differences in self-assessments of health, although these differences are not entirely eliminated.