Business incomes in rural Nicaragua: the role of household resources,location, experience and trust

This paper analyses the determinants of business income for rural households in Nicaragua. A sample of 1030 households was studied in order to assess the importance of material and behavioural factors that influence income from business activity. The households are involved in manufacturing, trade, services or have a mixture of businesses. They generally have a low income and asset value. Households supplement their income from wages and agricultural activities. To estimate non-farm business income per employed person we analyse the impact of resources, location, entrepreneurial experience and trust. Our results show that household resources and entrepreneurial experience are significant determinants for business income in all sectors. Trust is also important, particularly generalized trust. The contribution of other forms of trust, such as institutional trust, depends on the sector in which households participate.     

Time‐varying Hedge Ratios: A Principal‐agent Approach

We use the classic agency model to derive a time‐varying optimal hedge ratio for low‐frequency time‐series data: the type of data used by crop farmers when deciding about production and about their hedging strategy. Rooted in the classic agency framework, the proposed hedge ratio reflects the context of both the crop farmer's decision and the crop farmer's contractual relationships in the marketing channel. An empirical illustration of the Dutch ware potato sector and its futures market in Amsterdam over the period 1971–2003 reveals that the time‐varying optimal hedge ratio decreased from 0.34 in 1971 to 0.24 in 2003. The hedging effectiveness, according to this ratio, is 39%. These estimates conform better with farmers’ interest in using futures contracts for hedging purposes than the much higher estimates obtained when price risk minimisation is the only objective considered.     

Marketing through Instagram influencers: the impact of number of followers and product divergence on brand attitude

ABSTRACT

Findings of two experimental studies show that Instagram influencers with high numbers of followers are found more likeable, partly because they are considered more popular. Important, only in limited cases, perceptions of popularity induced by the influencer's number of followers increase the influencer's perceived opinion leadership. However, if the influencer follows very few accounts him-/herself, this can negatively impact popular influencers’ likeability. Also, cooperating with influencers with high numbers of followers might not be the best marketing choice for promoting divergent products, as this decreases the brand's perceived uniqueness and consequently brand attitudes.     

Evolution and challenges of dairy supply chains: Evidence from supermarkets,industries and consumers in Ethiopia

In developing countries the demand for products of animal origin is expected to grow rapidly in the coming years. Using data collected from 200 urban households this study examines the evolution of the dairy market in Ethiopia. In particular, this study suggests that although the Ethiopian dairy market remains extremely thin and volatile, the commercialization of processed dairy products through supermarkets is expanding and is expected to keep doing so in the foreseeable future. Increasing urbanization and corresponding changes in consumer preferences, behaviour and purchasing power are the identified causes for the rise of supermarket-processor dairy chains. This study shows also that emerging dairy chains provide new market opportunities to Ethiopian farmers, but the existence of retail-industrial monopolies and monopsonies jeopardize farmers’ economic benefits to a great extent. The study concludes with some implications for policy and further research.     

Career success schemas and their contextual embeddedness: A comparative configurational perspective

We introduce career success schemas as critical for understanding how people in different contexts perceive and understand career success. Using a comparative configurational approach, we show, in a study of 13 countries, that two structural characteristics of career success schemas—complexity and convergence—differ across country contexts and are embedded in specific configurations of institutional factors. Adopting complexity and convergence as primary dimensions, we propose a taxonomy of career success schemas at the country level. Based on this taxonomy, we contribute to the understanding of subjective career success across countries, discuss the importance of schemas for organisational career systems in multinational enterprises, and propose specific guidelines for future comparative careers research.     

Methodological Issues in the Design of Online Surveys for Measuring Unethical Work Behavior: Recommendations on the Basis of a Split-Ballot Experiment

In recent years, there has been an increasing interest in unethical work behavior. Several types of survey instruments to collect information about unethical work behavior are available. Nevertheless, to date little attention has been paid to design issues of those surveys. There are, however, several important problems that may influence reliability and validity of questionnaire data on the topic, such as social desirability bias. This paper addresses two important issues in the design of online surveys on unethical work behavior: the response scale for questions regarding the frequency of certain types of unethical work behavior and the location of the background questions in an online survey. We present the results of an analysis of a double split-ballot experiment in a large sample (n = 3,386) on governmental integrity. We found that, when comparing response scales that have labels for all categories with response scales that only have anchors at the end, the latter provided answers with higher validity. The study did not provide support for the conventional practice of asking background questions at the end.     

Market Performance of Potato Auctions in Bhutan

Abstract

Market performance with respect to a main horticultural export commodity in Bhutan is the subject of this paper. Imperfections in (market) infrastructure and market structure and conduct may prevent an optimal price for farmers. Market performance is assessed by testing the law of one price for this commodity. This is done by testing three series of auction price data on both long-run and short-run price integration. It is concluded that for the period 1996-2000 the auction prices were interrelated both in the long and short run with one of the three auctions as the price-leading market. In contrast, in the period 2001-2005 the market arbitrage process slowed down, indicating the rise of market imperfections. Policy implications are suggested.     

Imported input varieties and product innovation: Evidence from five developing countries

We examine how access to imported intermediate inputs affects firm‐level product innovation in five developing counties. We combine trade data with survey data on innovation and develop a method to determine whether new inputs were essential for the product innovation. We find evidence that the number of newly imported varieties has a significant impact on product innovations that rely on new inputs and provide suggestive evidence that this effect comes from access to better quality imports. We extend our analysis to assess the consequences of the increase in the number of Chinese exporting firms on product innovation in developing countries.