Relational,Functional Benefits and Customer Value in Large Retailing: A Cross-Format Comparative Analysis

ABSTRACT

Based on the existing marketing concept on relational and functional benefits and on the retailing management of customer value, the present research empirically tests the influence of these customer benefits by providing a comparative analysis for different retailing formats, such as supermarkets and hypermarkets. Using questionnaire data for a sample of customers (N = 362), the authors developed structural equation modeling. This study identifies the factors influencing customer value, as well as the key to understand the relationships of customer benefits, customer value, loyalty, and purchase intention in the retailing service context. The contribution of the present research includes empirically testing a conceptual model, by developing a comparative analysis, along with providing some meaningful insights to retailing managers on how to strategically manage customer value variables to increase and enhance customer retention and purchase intent.     

Taxes and labor supply: Portugal, Europe, and the United States

I relate hours worked with taxes on consumption and labor for Portugal, France, Spain, United Kingdom and United States. From 1986 to 2001, hours per worker in Portugal decreased from 35.1 to 32.6. With the parameters for Portugal, the model predicts hours worked in 2001 with an error of only 12 min from the actual hours. Across countries, most predictions differ from the data by 1 h or less. The model is not sensible to special assumptions on the parameters. I calculate the long run effects of taxes on consumption, hours, capital and welfare for Portugal. I extend the model to discuss implications for Social Security. I discuss the steady state and the transition from a pay-as-you-go to a fully funded system.

A metafrontier directional distance function approach to assessing eco-efficiency

This paper uses directional distance functions to extend the non-parametric metafrontier approach to efficiency measurement proposed by O’Donnell et al. (Empir Econ 34:231–255, 2008) to the assessment of technological differences in eco-efficiency between groups of producers. Furthermore, eco-efficiency is assessed at the level of specific environmental pressure management. This methodology is applied to a sample of Spanish olive producers that belong to both traditional mountain and traditional plain growing systems. We find great potential for both olive growing systems to reduce environmental pressures. In terms of pressures on natural resources, the most eco-efficient technology is the traditional plain system, while the traditional mountain system is the most eco-efficient when considering pressures on biodiversity. These results might help policymakers design strategies to improve the performance of olive growing and meet the demands of society regarding the economic and ecological functions of this farming activity.     

Technological spillovers from multinational firms

This paper aims to identify genuine technological spillovers from multinational firms (MNEs). To this end, we use data on R&D from MNEs to measure spillovers, while most of the existing literature uses output to measure the foreign presence in an industry (what we call output-based spillovers). In line with the existing literature, we distinguish between horizontal spillovers (i.e., intra-industry linkages) and vertical spillovers (i.e., backward—or downstream—and forward—or upstream—inter-industry linkages). Our results show that the three types of technological spillovers from MNEs are positive, with the horizontal spillovers the larger ones, followed by backward spillovers. The effect of forward spillovers is much smaller in magnitude. Moreover, we find that not controlling for industry size (i.e., technological spillovers from all firms in an industry) leads to underestimating both horizontal and backward spillovers from MNEs, and to overestimating forward spillovers from MNEs. Finally, we find that the distinction between technological and output-based spillovers is of great relevance. The size of backward technological spillovers is approximately 44% of the size of output-based backward spillovers, while for horizontal spillovers both types of spillovers are quite similar. Importantly, output-based forward spillovers are negative while technological forward spillovers are positive.     

The Link Between Wages and Productivity in Spain

This paper examines the effect of productivity on wages for Spanish industrial sectors by developing a model that captures effects from both sector‐specific and aggregate variables. The results show that a dual behaviour can be inferred, at the sector level, in the wage‐setting mechanism. It is also found that the linkage between wages and productivity varies over time. Some explanations for the increase in wage dispersion are provided, focusing on the increasing decentralisation in wage bargaining after 1986. Finally, we cast some light on the theoretical structure underlying the labour market.     

Disentangling the role of variance and covariance information in portfolio selection problems

The covariation among financial asset returns is often a key ingredient used in the construction of optimal portfolios. Estimating covariances from data, however, is challenging due to the potential influence of estimation error, specially in high-dimensional problems, which can impact negatively the performance of the resulting portfolios. We address this question by putting forward a simple approach to disentangle the role of variance and covariance information in the case of mean-variance efficient portfolios. Specifically, mean-variance portfolios can be represented as a two-fund rule: one fund is a fully invested portfolio that depends on diagonal covariance elements, whereas the other is a long-short, self financed portfolio associated with the presence of non-zero off-diagonal covariance elements. We characterize the contribution of each of these two components to the overall performance in terms of out-of-sample returns, risk, risk-adjusted returns and turnover. Finally, we provide an empirical illustration of the proposed portfolio decomposition using both simulated and real market data.