New services margin/high success discriminators

The present range of services, particularly financial, is subject to high privatisation and competition. Anticipating the future return of new projects is a critical challenge that confronts marketing managers at present. However, the transfer of success models from new products to services has not allowed a global vision of the internal and external environment that best set up the success of new services. Using a sample of 120 new Portuguese financial services (67 successful/57 failures), this study examines the relationships foreseen by a global model of success determinants of new services, i.e., formulates and tests hypotheses relative to the differentiated impact of the strategic and environmental factors on the multiple return indicators. The results of a binary logistic regression analysis suggest that a group of factors that best discriminate between new services of average and high return, through its different indicators that distinguishes the factors, is slightly different and less than one that distinguishes between successful and failed innovations.     

Farmers’ objectives as determinants of organic farming adoption: the case of Catalonian vineyard production

This article assesses the decision to adopt organic farming practices. We use Duration Analysis (DA) to determine why farmers adopt organic farming practices and what influences the timing of adoption. We extend previous studies by including farmers’ objectives, risk preferences, and agricultural policies as covariates in the DA model. The Analytical Hierarchy Process is used as a multicriteria decision‐making methodology to measure farmers’ objectives. The empirical analysis uses farm‐level data from a sample of vineyard farms in the Spanish region of Catalonia. Farmers’ objectives are found to influence the conversion decision. Moreover, farmers who are not risk averse are more likely to adopt organic farming. Results point to the policy changes that have been most relevant in motivating adoption of organic practices.     

Replacement of Agricultural Price Supports by Area Payments in the European Union and the Effects on Pesticide Use

This article determines the contribution of recent European Union agricultural policy reforms on the use of pesticides. Our theoretical model extends the multioutput generalization of the Lichtenberg–Zilberman damage control technology model developed by Chambers and Lichtenberg . Our empirical analysis uses farm-level data for a sample of French farms. Results suggest that price effects on the use of pesticides are always more elastic than area payment effects. This indicates that policy reforms consisting of a reduction in price supports in favor of area payments, may reduce application of crop protection inputs. Such policy changes, which represent a certain degree of decoupling, took place under the 1992 Common Agricultural Policy reforms.     

Food scare crises and price volatility: The case of the BSE in Spain

Recent incidents of contaminated food products coupled with the widespread diffusion of news by mass media and the growing social concerns about food safety, have resulted in significant food market crises. One of the most highly publicized recent food scares involved Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE). In our analysis, we evaluate the impacts from a BSE outbreak on the price volatility transmission along the Spanish food marketing chain by using a smooth transition conditional correlation (STCC) GARCH model. Our work is the first to assess price volatility responses to food scares. Results suggest that two distinct regimes involving different price volatility behavior can be distinguished, one characterized by turbulent markets and another where markets are calming down.     

Multiples’ Valuation: The Selection of Cross-Border Comparable Firms

We studied whether mean industry multiples are similar in Brazil and in the United States. Using multilevel models (hierarchical linear model and additive crossed random-effects model), we concluded that there exists significant variability within firms from the same industry and significant variability between countries (Brazil and United States). The same tests were applied to firms grouped in clusters by similarity of economic fundamentals and we concluded that part of the variability shifts from (a) the variability within firms from the same industry and the variability between countries to (b) the variability between clusters, which is desirable in multiples’ valuation.     

Economic analysis of the introduction of agricultural revenue insurance contracts in Spain using statistical copulas

This article aims at determining how the introduction of agricultural revenue insurance contracts in Spain will affect the cost of purchasing insurance, relative to yield insurance schemes. We focus our empirical analysis on the apple and orange sectors in Spain. Statistical copulas are used to jointly model price and yield perils. Premium rates under revenue and yield insurance are simulated through Monte Carlo methods. Results indicate that revenue insurance is likely to reduce the price of agricultural insurance in Spain, which may result in higher acceptance and demand for agricultural insurance programs.     

Price volatility in Niger millet markets

Price volatility of food staples is one of the most complex factors affecting food security. Recent food price crises have raised academic interest in improved volatility assessment. The widely held assumption in econometric volatility models that long‐run volatility is constant, has been recently questioned and partly blamed for these crises. A multiplicative MGARCH model recently proposed by Bauwens et al. is used in this article to model price volatility transmission along the Niger millet marketing chain. Results suggest important volatility links between consumer and producer prices, as well as noteworthy differences between short and long‐run price dynamics.