U.S.-China Economic and Political Relations: Youths’ Perceptions

This paper is a study of the perceptions of young adults in the U.S. and China on the relations between the two nations. We conducted a case study by distributing a 17 question survey to 201 American undergraduate students (NYC) and 164 Chinese undergraduate students (Shanghai). The questions probed their views of U.S. and China’s economic and political systems, the future economic growth and political power in the world of the two nations, and the future political and economic relations between the two powers. The results of our study reveal a number of important perceptions that both U.S. and Chinese students have, some being similar and others being in sharp contrast. Most students in both countries view future political and economic relations between the U.S. and China predominantly as cooperative but only based on each nation’s self-interests. Both Chinese and American students agree that China is gaining political strength and economic influence among the advanced and the emerging nations of the world. While most of the U.S. students believe that China has been and will continue to grow at a much faster rate than the U.S., Chinese students are more likely to believe that this rate of growth is unsustainable. The results from our survey are compared and contrasted to the findings of national surveys for both countries. We believe that the study provides valuable insights into the similarities and differences in viewpoints of the next generation of adults in both nations about future U.S.-China relations.     

Italian consumer awareness of layer hens' welfare standards: a cluster analysis

Animal welfare has assumed in recent years an increasing significance for European consumers, becoming part of the Community Agricultural Policy strategy that encourages farmers to achieve higher standards of animal welfare. Undoubtedly, the superior social sensitivity towards animal welfare has produced over time notable changes within European Union (EU) Policy. However, while EU legislation has progressively focused on granting animals better possibilities to express their behavioural repertoire, recent analysis shows that consumer knowledge of animal welfare compulsory standards is still quite limited. Drawing on the results of a direct survey on 300 Italian food shoppers, our research analyses consumer knowledge of the welfare standards of laying hens. Our findings highlight important market opportunities and policy implications. Our research shows that, although the majority of the sample expressed concern on hen husbandry systems, most of respondents were unaware of the current mandatory labelling system for eggs. Through cluster analysis three segments were found: the inactive consumer cluster, the conflicted consumer cluster and the ethically competent consumer cluster. This segmentation is especially valuable for producers of ‘animal‐friendly’ eggs to identify market opportunities and formulate appropriate marketing strategies.     

SHIFTING BOUNDARIES IN ECONOMICS: THE INSTITUTIONAL COGNITIVE STRAND AND THE FUTURE OF INSTITUTIONAL ECONOMICS

This paper aims at contributing to the debate on the future of institutional economics and of the field as a whole by starting from the literature that discusses the relationship between Old‐Original Institutional Economics and New Institutional Economics. It suggests that the process of reunifying OIE and NIE (and evolutionary economics) prompted by part of the literature could be improved by the contribution of the Cognitive Institutional Economics. The paper follows a two‐stage pathway: first, it frames the debate on the relationships between NIE and the OIE and it concentrates on a subset of the literature that shows that NIE's recent developments complicate the distinction between NIE and OIE, and it explores the possibility that NIE and OIE may merge so that an amalgam of NIE, OIE and Evolutionary Economics becomes the next economic paradigm. Secondly, the paper argues that a step forward in the direction outlined by the literature has been made by CIE, which is a research stream that developed from cross‐fertilization among NIE, OIE and the Hayekian contributions to the analysis of institutions. In the concluding remarks, the possible emergence of a single institutional paradigm is discussed in the light of the literature about change in economics.     

Consumers' Attitudes Toward Labelling of Ethical Products: The Case of Organic and Fair Trade Products

This article aims to investigate the factors that influence consumer attitudes to use labelling information in purchasing organic and Fair Trade products and to verify if labelling is a valid tool of direct shopping aid to consumers, with a view to derive inferences that may contribute to better strategic and tactical marketing decisions. A quantitative survey with a sample of 300 consumers living in south Italy was conducted to explore consumers' knowledge and attitudes toward labelling of organic and fair trade products. Data generated in this way were submitted to exploratory and segmentation analysis. The results indicate significant differences in consumer attitudes and behavior for ethical products and show the importance of new variables, other than demographics characteristics, that can influence the purchasing behavior and label information use.     

An Open Innovation Decision Support System to Select a Biopharmaceutical R&D Portfolio

Drugs available in the market today, selected several years ago under very uncertain future scenario, have experienced a long and expensive process of research and development carried out following both a closed and an open innovation path. To support this critical selection process, we propose a Decision Support System, able to choose among different candidates the most promising drugs along their best development path. The Decision Support System, based on a real options portfolio optimization model, mapping tools, and what‐if rules as well, has been applied to a numerical example available in literature, and the research findings show interesting managerial and academic implications. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The tourism gender gap and its potential impact on the development of the emerging countries

Quality & Quantity - Tourism offers both incredible opportunities and huge challenges for gender equality. During the last decades, tourism grew almost steadily, and, since it is a labour...     

Consumers' willingness to pay for conventional,organic and functional yogurt: evidence from experimental auctions

This research is aimed at investigating consumers' willingness to pay (WTP) for conventional, organic and functional yogurts in two different information treatments. The basic information treatment provided respondents with yogurts labelled conventional, organic or functional while the second treatment included additional information. To elicit values for these specific products, 100 Italian consumers participated in an experimental auction using the Vickrey fifth‐price sealed‐bid mechanism. Findings reveal that providing additional information through a specific health claim increases consumer's perceived value of the functional yogurt, while for the organic counterpart additional information on organic regulation does not add much to the premium. Moreover, our study shows that specific socio‐demographic variables (as gender, age, presence of kids in the household and the need to follow a specific diet) positively affect WTP for functional and organic yogurts.