Governing the coffee chain: The role of voluntary regulatory Systems

The coffee crisis has coincided with the emergence of a number of voluntary regulatory systems in the global coffee chain. The present article explores the advantages and limitations of such schemes, their impact on the chain’s governance, and their implications for farmers’ upgrading. We conclude that participation in these systems does not ensure a better economic performance, but it may facilitate coordination between roasters/traders and some growers, which may lead to upgrading opportunities. The paper also explores some possible options for deriving rents from improved coordination along the coffee chain.     

Perspective: New Service Development: How the Field Developed,Its Current Status and Recommendations for Moving the Field Forward

New service development (NSD) is a growing innovation discipline. Despite the growth of articles about NSD, several authors have criticized the lack of attention paid to NSD, compared with new product development (NPD), and the lack of consensus across NSD findings. At the same time, others have proclaimed that NSD is a sophisticated, mature field of research. This paper tries to resolve these issues by analyzing 230 empirical articles on NSD, published over a period of 30 years. It investigates the content of NSD research articles, the authors contributing to the field, and the research methodologies employed. It finds that, despite its growing popularity, the field has not moved forward substantively. NSD is a subject specialty but lacks an “invisible college” of researchers addressing the topic. This has resulted in a body of research that fails to provide managers with consistent answers to basic questions about how to most effectively manage NSD processes. One of the main causes for the lack of coherence in the knowledge on this topic may stem from the fact that, rather than initially approaching research in the domain without ingoing bias and using grounded theory approaches to create initial understanding, many of the early researchers applied the concepts, frameworks, and methods used to understand NPD to the NSD domain. To correct this problem, it is proposed that the field of NSD needs to move forward in a significantly different manner. This paper provides several recommendations for attracting more academics to the field, elevating the visibility and status of NSD as a research domain, and also presents a research agenda that may help reorient future research in this area so that a more complete and coherent body of knowledge is generated that both advances the field and helps practitioners manage NSD more effectively and efficiently.     

Exploring a theoretical framework to structure the public policy implications of open innovation

Open innovation is increasingly popular among practitioners and scholars, but its implications for public policy making have not yet been analysed in detail. This paper explores a theoretical framework to structure the debate about public policy making that facilitates open innovation. We first define open innovation in terms of firms’ open innovation practices and external conditions that encourage enterprises to practice open innovation. We show that policies for open innovation are legitimate as traditional arguments like market and system failures continue to apply. Next, we identify several guidelines for policymaking. Rather than just offering R&D and interaction-oriented policies, we conclude that open innovation warrants attention in a broader range of policy areas, including entrepreneurship, education, science, labour markets and competition. Developing truly horizontal policies is a major challenge to facilitate open innovation in developed economies.     

EURANDOM: a decade of European stochastics

Conception, founding, start-up and development of EURANDOM are described by Willem van Zwet, Frank den Hollander (former scientific directors of EURANDOM) and Wim Senden (former managing director of EURANDOM).     

Futures markets,price stabilization and efficient exploitation of exhaustible resources

Markets for natural resource futures contracts and cash forward contracts experience a rapid growth. According to theory, this should result in more efficient resource depletion, implying that price formation is more consistent with Hotelling's rule. The rationale of this stabilization effect is briefly discussed. Next, we analyze the impact of expanding futures markets on the behaviour of individual resource owners trading on the cash market. Using a simple pulse extraction model, we demonstrate that the expected time of depletion can shift to the present or the future, and that utility of exploitation can go up or down, as market prices are stabilized.     

Match Specific Gains to Marriage: A Random Effects Ordered Response Model

A random effects ordered response model is used to analyze individuallife satisfaction. It is found that a substantial part of the unexplained variance in theindividual's life satisfaction can be ascribed to the household or marriage. It is further found thatthe age variable should be considered as a random effect on life satisfaction, i.e., an effectthat varies between households.     

Political Transition in DRC: How Did Kinshasa Households Fare?*

Abstract: Officially announced on 24 April 1990, the political transition in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) would eventually culminate in presidential elections. By comparing the results of two household surveys, conducted in 1986 and 2004 respectively, we are able to trace the economic reflection of this process in the standard of living of the Kinois (the inhabitants of Congo's capital, Kinshasa). Although the exercise is fraught with methodological problems, it nevertheless generates some salient outcomes. First and foremost, the available evidence unanimously points to a slight increase in the general standard of living, thereby contradicting the official macro‐data. Further, given an increase in inequality, it is well possible that the period of transition was experienced increasingly unequally by different population groups. Third, one of the most significant changes observed is that Kinshasa has become more closely connected with world (food) markets. Meanwhile, the level of education of the principal income earner remains one of the main predictors of the level of household consumption, even in a thoroughly informalized economy.     

Conic quantization: stochastic volatility and market implied liquidity

Market implied liquidity links the pricing of European options under stochastic volatility with the Conic Finance theory of two prices     

Parents' perceptions, attitudes and behaviours towards child safety: a study in 14 European countries

Injury is the leading cause of death for children 0- 19 years of age in Europe, accounting for 3.1 deaths per 10 000 children per year. The youngest children of the ages 0-4 years require the most protection in this age group, with 2.5 injury-related deaths per 10 000 children in Europe annually. As parents are the primary caregivers of children, it is necessary to learn more about parents' perceptions, attitudes and behaviours towards child safety. This study presents the findings of a 14-country study in Europe on this theme. A quantitative survey of parents of children aged 5 years or under was performed in 14 EU member states in order to enable better targeting of prevention efforts aimed at educating parents. The total sample size was 2088. The results show that 95% of parents reported that they personally take measures to avoid accidental injury to their children. Their top concern with regard to safety of their children was children being hit by a car. The most common response, when asked why some parents find it difficult to protect their children from accidental injury, was not being able to watch their children constantly. Lack of awareness or knowledge about the causes of accidents was the second response. Two-thirds of parents would like to see more help from the government to prevent childhood injuries. Three-quarters of parents agreed that child injuries can be avoided. It was concluded that parents want to be better informed about the causes of child accidents and about actions they and society can take to reduce injury-related risks to children.