Retailers’ Price Positioning and the Motivational Profiling of Store‐Brand Shoppers: The Case of Spain

In recent years, retailers have worked to advance store‐brand strategies, leading to greater success and higher congruence with the retailer's positioning. In this new competitive context, this research aims to characterize store‐brand shoppers in terms of motivation and benefits sought, as well as analyze, on the basis of congruence theory, the moderating role of a retailer's price positioning on store‐brand shopper characterizations. The empirical study combines survey and household panel information related to leading retailers in Spain; the findings reveal that store‐brand shoppers are motivated by their price sensitivity, whereas they are less sensitive to service quality and name brands. However, the retailer's price positioning exerts a moderating effect on shopper profiles: In less price‐oriented retail chains, store‐brand purchases seem motivated less by price and more by quality, brand awareness, and brand reputation.     

Isolating the geodemographic characterisation of retail format choice from the effects of spatial convenience

The authors analyze the relationship between the geodemographic profile of consumers and retail format choice while accounting for the effects of spatial convenience. The proposed analytic model assumes that format choice is an implicit portion of store choice, such that a geodemographic profile functions as a determinant of format choice, and spatial convenience is a determinant of store choice. The results show that some geodemographic dimensions capture preferences for certain store formats and thereby facilitate retailers’ selection of geographic markets. The results also indicate that obviating the effect of spatial convenience may lead to biased estimations.     

The economics of rules of origin

Rules of origin of free trade arrangements limit the use of inputs from outside the preferential trade zone. A government negotiating a future FTAcan manipulate these rules in order to achieve national welfare objectives. The correct definition of rules of origin may help to enhance demand for domestically produced goods, promote national technological development, and maximize labour income. This paper proves that a more stringent rule of origin implies an increase of demand for the domestic factor if the substitution effect prevails over the effects caused by the decrease of the scale of operation in the domestic plant, and the reallocation of output between domestic and foreign plants. We further show that policy decisions regarding rules of origin that intertemporally maximize welfare and foster domestic technological evolution should be made at the greatest level of disaggregation that is feasible.     

Geodemographic and socioeconomic characterization of the retail attraction of leading hypermarket chains in Spain

This paper aims at examining the impact on demand of the competitive positioning strategies developed by the leading hypermarket chains in Spain. Specifically, the purpose is to carry out a geodemographic and socieconomic characterization of the potential consumers of each chain. As retail attraction has traditionally been divided into three components, distance, mass and image, a gravitational model is proposed which distinguishes them and facilitates the evaluation of existing differences across any a priori segmentation base. The empirical test identifies significant geodemographic differences in the retail attraction of hypermarket chains. Chains seem to target the whole market by developing an image balanced against the advantages and disadvantages derived from the spatial coverage strategy. Social class is not as good an indicator of hypermarket choice as expected, although some interesting patterns have been detected.     

Gender‐Compensation Differences Among High‐Level Executives in the United States

Bertrand and Hallock (2001: 3) present compelling evidence that female executives in the United States earned 45 percent less total compensation than their male counterparts for 1992–1997. We complement their results by analyzing data over a longer time period and, more importantly, contend that most of the unexplained gender difference in total pay among executives was due to gender differences in the portion of variable pay, in particular a different cash payout from stock option exercises.     

Rolling over stock index futures contracts

Derivative contracts have a finite life limited by their maturity. The construction of continuous series, however, is crucial for academic and trading purposes. In this study, we analyze the relevance of the choice of the rollover date, defined as the point in time when we switch from the front contract series to the next one. We have used five different methodologies in order to construct five different return series of stock index futures contracts. The results show that, regardless of the criterion applied, there are not significant differences between the resultant series. Therefore, the least complex method can be used in order to reach the same conclusions. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Jrl Fut Mark 28:684–694, 2009     

Economic Success Factors in Spanish Small Retail Businesses. An Analysis Based on Sector-Relative Definitions

The purpose of this study was to carry out a sectorial analysis of the strategic profile of successful small businesses in Spanish retailing. First, a one-dimensional statistical formalisation of the concept of small business was proposed, based on yearly sales revenue and relative to the sector. Likewise, some statistical formalisations of the concept of economic success were proposed, based on profit margins and also relativised according to sector. Once a conceptual framework was established, a sectorial model of strategic characterisation of successful small retailing firms was developed. The results of applying these proposals to the Spanish retail industry confirmed the importance of a sectorial approach as opposed to an overall analysis. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

REASSESSING THE IRISH POUND REPORT OF 1804 1

The 1804 report of the Select Committee on the Irish Currency remains a somewhat neglected classic in the history of economics. Its forceful statement of the classical monetary approach towards exchange rate determination and the balance of payments anticipates the main findings of the more famous Bullion Report of 1810. This paper reassesses the empirical underpinnings of the Report and associated literature. Your Committee must refer to the confirmation and sanction which all their reasonings receive from the labours of the Committee…appointed…to examine into the causes of the great depreciation of the Irish exchange with England in 1804. [The Bullion Report, 1810]