Product Innovation Management in Spain

In line with the latest studies of product innovation management, Angel Martinez Sanchez and Luis Navarro Elola report results from their study of 56 industrial firms in Spain. The results reveal a systematic process of new products development with little consideration given to innovation, but with a contrasting preoccupation with market activities.     

USING EXCHANGE-TRADED EQUITY FLEX PUT OPTIONS IN CORPORATE STOCK REPURCHASE PROGRAMS

Casual evidence suggests that as many as 10% of the companies repurchasing their stock over the past decade have used the sale of puts on the company's stock as part of the repurchase program. This article describes a new instrument for such corporate stock buybacks recently introduced by the American Stock Exchange: Equity Flex puts on the issuer's stock. When and if the puts are exercised, the company's shares are retired—often on better terms and with better cash flow timing than the company could achieve with a conventional stock repurchase program.
To date, such stock repurchase programs have been conducted primarily using over-the-counter put options. The new Equity Flex puts promise to eliminate the relative advantages of OTC transactions and offer stock repurchasers better pricing and increased liquidity. Use of exchange markets can also help overcome any reluctance a financial officer might have to rely on prices offered by a single dealer.     

Millennials’ ethical ideology effects on responses to alcohol advertisements: The role of strength of ethnic identification and ethical appraisal of the ad

Abstract

In an extension of generational theory, the present research argues that ethical ideology (i.e. idealism vs. relativism) impacts attitude toward the ad (A_ad), attitude toward the brand (A_brand), and purchase intention (PI). Additionally, this research examines how this relationship is mediated by the ethical appraisal of the ad and moderated by the level of ethnic identification (i.e. high vs. low). The results of this experiment provide additional evidence in support of generational theory which states that each generational cohort holds distinct ethical ideologies. Furthermore, this study identifies differences in the participants’ responses to alcohol ads resulting from their personal values (i.e. in this study we focus on strength of ethnic identification).     

Human capital and sustainable competitive advantage: an analysis of the relationship between training and performance

This article analyses the importance of training as a creator of human capital, which enables a company to obtain competitive advantages that are sustainable in the long-term that result in greater profitability. The study is based on the general theoretical framework of resource and capacity theory. The study not only analyses the impact of the influence of training on performance; it also attempts to analyse the nature of such a relationship in greater depth. This being the case, an attempt has been made to measure explanatory capacity from two different perspectives: the universalistic approach and the contingent approach. At the outset, two hypotheses are formulated that attempt to quantify the relationship from a universalistic perspective to later, in two more hypotheses, incorporate the potential moderating effect of the strategy into the model, in order to verify whether or not this strategy improves the explanatory power of our model of analysis.

Do neighboring municipalities matter in industrial location decisions? Empirical evidence from Spain

This paper focuses on industrial location, assuming that entrepreneurs not only consider the advantages associated with a certain municipality, but also those coming from nearby areas. Exploratory analysis reflects the existence of spatial patterns in the creation of manufacturing establishments and sheds light on the geographical scope on which agglomeration economies operate in industrial location. Spatial Probit models and standard Probit models with spatially lagged explanatory variables are estimated to test whether neighboring municipalities’ location decisions and characteristics, including agglomeration economies, matter in industrial location choices. Results show that neighboring municipalities location decisions and characteristics help to explain location decisions of new establishments for 11 manufacturing industries in Spanish municipalities (NUTS V) over the period 1991–1995.     

Insider Trading 2.0? The Ethics of Information Sales

The sale of faster access to financial market data has recently generated public controversy. NY Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has referred to such fast data feeds as “Insider Trading 2.0”. For example, Thomson Reuters sold the University of Michigan’s Consumer Sentiment Index to computerized trading firms 2 seconds before releasing its data to its other paying clients. This paper explores the ethical issues involved in the sale of such information. Is selling faster access ethically the same as traditional insider trading, which generally involves a breach of fiduciary duty or the use of misappropriated information? Such practices are extremely different from traditional insider trading as there is neither a breach of fiduciary duty nor misappropriation of inside information. The ethical issues are similar to other market segmentation and price discrimination issues, in which different prices are charged to different customers. The ability to price discriminate across segments can actually benefit large segments of the population who may receive lower prices because others, such as the high-speed traders, are paying more. The sale of faster access to information, especially by exchanges, raises additional ethical issues. There may be adverse effects on market quality that must be addressed. The moral distaste for the practice expressed by some stems from the seeming unfairness of a modern market structure that provides advantages to a small group of computerized traders.     

Lancaster's characteristics approach revisited: product selection using non‐parametric methods

In consumer theory, the principles of Lancaster's characteristics approach and hedonic pricing appear to offer the most promising insight into choice when qualitative aspects are important. The paper reconciles these principles with the family of non‐parametric frontier estimation methods known as data envelopment analysis. It is shown that, with some straightforward adjustments, DEA is entirely consistent with the characteristics view of consumer choice found in the economics literature. In making Lancaster's ideas operational, the paper also addresses the theoretical concern voiced by Lancaster about combining indivisible products. The principles are illustrated with a case study involving the comparison of diesel cars. The paper concludes that the user will ultimately have to apply some judgement in choosing between competing efficient products. However, the analysis should help to restrict the number of products to be assessed to manageable proportions. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Conceptualising ‘shadow landscape’ in political ecology and rural studies

This paper develops the concept of ‘shadow landscape’ in order to describe the essential otherness and seemingly distinctive if ever contingent properties of in-between rural places characterised by historical depopulation and cultural marginalisation. It does so first of all through a critically sympathetic assessment of how these areas have been portrayed in the fields of political ecology and rural studies. In political ecology, reference has long been made to ‘depopulated areas’ whereas in rural studies there has been recently talk of ‘marginal cultures’. The result tends to be a ‘pre-given socio-spatial container’ (Zimmerer and Bassett, 2003) that often obscures more than it reveals about these distinctive locations. The paper thereafter outlines the concept of shadow landscape as a means by which to understand these areas, and does so via a discussion of marginality, scale, socio-nature and ‘cultures of depopulation’. In the process, some of the key material and discursive issues that surround these ‘imagined communities’ are brought into focus. The conclusion considers a future research agenda based on an understanding shaped by the concept of shadow landscape.     

On the hidden side of liquidity

This article deals with the informativeness of iceberg orders, also known as hidden limit orders (HLOs). Namely, we analyze how the market reacts when the presence of hidden volume in the limit order book is revealed by the trading process. We use high-frequency book and transaction data from the Spanish Stock Exchange, including a large sample of executed HLOs. We show that just when hidden volume is detected, traders on the opposite side of the market become more aggressive, exploiting the opportunity to consume more than expected at the best quotes. However, neither illiquidity nor volatility increases in the short term. Furthermore, the detection of hidden volume has no relevant price impact. Overall, our results suggest that market participants do not attribute any relevant information content to the hidden side of liquidity.