Empirical evaluation of educational interactive systems

Educational software systems are usually highly interactive systems that needs to be evaluated from two different perspectives, first as interactive software, mainly using usability and accessibility approaches, and second as an educational product that needs to be evaluated from its learning impact. The empirical evaluation methods may be quantitative, with a more deductive reasoning, or qualitative, with a more inductive reasoning, oriented, however mixed approaches have been used extensively because they combine the both main methods with a more pragmatic knowledge focusing on knowing the consequences or solving problems. The empirical evaluation of interactive educational software due to its own characteristics requires a mixed approach typically. This special issue is devoted to identify, share and valorise best practices and experiences, with a very solid modelling background, that are focused on the empirical evaluation of educational interactive systems with a special emphasis on mixed quantitative and qualitative approaches.     

Management sub-advising in the mutual fund industry

This is a study of how contractual mechanisms can mitigate agency conflicts in sub-advised mutual funds. Sub-advising contracts allow fund families to expand their product offerings to include new investment styles and thereby gain market share. We show that costly contractual arrangements, such as co-branding, multi-advising, and performance-based compensation, can mitigate agency conflicts in outsourcing and protect investors from potential underperformance. Fund families will find it cost-effective to implement such incentive mechanisms only when investors are sophisticated in assessing manager skill. The findings help to explain why a large percentage of fund families outsource their funds to advisory firms.     

FINANCIAL FRAGILITY AND FINANCIAL CRISIS IN MEXICO

The objective of this paper is to show how Mexico’s strategy of financial deregulation and liberalization set the stage for the crisis that the country suffered in December 1994. The theoretical underpinning is Post‐Keynesian, and more precisely, a Minsky‐inspired analytical perspective extended to the open economy. In the first section the authors carry out a theoretical discussion dealing with some Post‐Keynesian theories of the business cycle. A second section is devoted to examining and identifying the stylized facts in the evolution of the Mexican economy, with special emphasis on the interaction between the financial and real variables. In the last section the authors propose a simplified model which shows how and why a strategy of financial deregulation and liberalization may lead to financial fragility and to a crisis.     

Globalization drives strategic product switching

Using firm-level panel data for Estonia, we analyse the impact of international competition on firm dynamics, considering both firm closedown and product switches. We contribute to the literature in two important ways: first, this is the first paper to study the determinants of exit and product switching in an emerging market; and second, we consider explicitly the role of export opportunities. Our results indicate that globalization does not affect firm exit significantly but it is an important factor explaining why firms choose a different core product. Previous studies on industrial countries have shown that product switching has been a defensive strategy against low-cost imports. In contrast, our results suggest that Estonian firms change their core products as an offensive strategy to take advantage of the export opportunities created by a globalized economy.     

Mediation effect of TQM technical factors in excellence management systems

This study seeks to examine the relationship between TQM social and technical factors and their effects on organizational results, and takes the EFQM model as a reference. Moreover, through structural equation modeling (Partial Least Squares), the study hypothesizes and tests a mediation model between social factors, technical factors and overall results. The study uses a sample of 116 Spanish firms undergoing complete assessment processes according to RADAR logic. The results show that: (1) an open, flexible and continuous improvement oriented culture, a committed and involved leadership, and efficient management of human resources (TQM social factors) exert a direct and significant impact on the effectiveness of the quality system deployed (TQM technical factors) and on the results; (2) the management and improvement of processes, the alliances with suppliers and other partners, and the management of resources (TQM technical factors) also directly influence results; moreover, (3) this variable partially mediates the effect of social TQM practices on organizational results.     

Ideology and the Balanced Scorecard: An Empirical Exploration of the Tension Between Shareholder Value Maximization and Corporate Social Responsibility

In a society where the ideology of shareholder value maximization (SVM) prevails, how do evaluators make appraisal and bonus decisions when corporate social responsibility (CSR) measures and financial measures in the balanced scorecard (BSC) point in different directions? To explore this question, we conducted two studies to develop and test a conceptual framework. Participants were asked to evaluate the performance of two managers, using a case we wrote about a commercial bank. We found that (1) evaluators are more willing to drop CSR performance measures than financial measures from the evaluations; (2) perceived CSR relevance is influenced by where evaluators stand in regard to CSR (“stakeholder view” in the “Perceptions of the Role of Ethics and Social Responsibility” or PRESOR scale) and also by where evaluators believe shareholders stand (shareholder support); and (3) there is a financial bias in appraisal and bonus decisions when CSR measures are used in the BSC, consistent with SVM ideology. We conclude by discussing the implications of the influence of SVM ideology on the use of CSR measures in terms of business research, practice, and education.     

Asymmetric rivalry within and between strategic groups

Our study examines asymmetric rivalry within and between strategic groups defined according to the size of their members. We hypothesize that, owing to several forms of group‐level effects, including switching costs and efficiency, strategic groups comprising large firms expect to experience a large amount of retaliation from firms within their group and accommodation from the group comprising smaller firms. Small firms, on the other hand, expect to experience a small amount of retaliation from the group comprising large firms and no reaction from the other firms in their group. We estimate the effect of group‐level strategic interactions on firm performance. Our analysis reveals that the rivalry behavior within and between groups is asymmetric, which supports the dominant‐fringe relation between firms, as described in our hypothesis. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Rivalry within strategic groups and consequences for performance: the firm‐size effects

Our study examines how, in a given industry, rivalry functions within strategic groups defined according to the size of their member firms and how this rivalry affects performance. We hypothesize that, owing to several forms of group‐level effects including market power, efficiency, differentiation, and multimarket contact, strategic groups that comprise smaller firms will exhibit both increased rivalry and decreased performance compared with strategic groups that comprise larger firms. We test our hypotheses by estimating the effect of group‐level strategic interactions (i.e., conjectural variations) on firm performance. Ultimately, our analysis of empirical data on loans in the Spanish banking industry demonstrates that increased rivalry and decreased performance indeed characterizes firms belonging to a strategic group that comprises smaller firms. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Regional relationships between inherent coffee quality and growing environment for denomination of origin labels in Nariño and Cauca,Colombia

International markets are increasingly signaling demand for quality-differentiated coffee, which the Colombian Coffee Growers Federation (FNC) proposed to exploit to identify those regional coffees that would fulfill the requirements to be classified as denomination of origin. The objective of this study was to develop and implement a sound, robust and repeatable approach with and for the FNC to identify regional causal relationships between coffee quality and environmental characteristics as bases for labels of denomination of origin. Environmental differences between coffee-growing areas in the departments of Cauca and Nariño were statistically significant for several characteristics, including the number of dry months, annual precipitation and diurnal temperature range. The dominant varieties (Caturra and Colombia) did not show major differences in quality attributes, and were pooled for the analyses with the environmental data. There are significant differences in biochemical and sensorial product characteristics between the two departments. The spatial patterns in product characteristics exhibit a non-random, regionally-changing structure that is related to those in the environmental data. The generated results provided ample evidence to support the application for regionally-based denominations of origin. Recommendations were derived to help mainstreaming the developed approach and thereby facilitate policy decisions for its use in other geographies and with other crops. Furthermore, the importance of systematic interdisciplinary institutional collaboration for large-scale denomination of origin projects was corroborated for food policy dialogue and decision making. It seems plausible that producers of high-quality products within other commodities are likely to follow the FNC in seeking denomination of origin for their goods. The presented approach is crucial to facilitate policy.     

Auctions with heterogeneous entry costs

If bidders have independent private values and homogeneous entry costs, a first‐ or second‐price auction with a reserve price equal to the seller’s value maximizes social surplus and seller revenue. We show that if entry costs are heterogeneous and private information, then the revenue‐maximizing reserve price is above the seller’s value, a positive admission fee (and a reserve price equal to the seller’s value) generates more revenue, and an entry cap combined with an admission fee generates even more revenue. Social surplus and seller revenue may either increase or decrease in the number of bidders, but they coincide asymptotically.