Reforming Property Rights Institutions in Developing Countries: Can FDI Inflows Help?

This paper analyses factors that can facilitate property rights institutions reform in developing countries (DC). Inspired by the works of North and Weingast (Journal of Economic History, 49, 1989, 803) and Acemoglu et al. (American Economic Review, 95, 2005a, 546; 2008) relating to the process of institutional reforms in England during the seventeenth century, I assume that FDI inflows could contribute to property rights reform in DC that are initially endowed with a minimum of effective institutions of constraints on the executive (i.e. effective institutions of checks and balances). Using five‐year panel data over the period 1970–2005 with a sample of 80 DC, and after correcting for endogeneity, I find that conditioned on the initial level of constraints on the executive, the effect of FDI inflows on the probability of reforming property rights is positive and significant. The minimum level of constraints on the executive necessary for the catalytic role of FDI inflows in reforming property rights institutions is 3.6. Only 20 out of the 80 DC in the sample have this minimum level of constraints on the executive. Among the 20 countries five are in sub‐Saharan Africa.     

Orthorexia Nervosa: Can Healthy Eating Food Trends Impact Food Companies Marketing Strategies?

The purpose of this article is to explore foods companies’ knowledge of food trends and assess how orthorexia nervosa may affect food companies’ marketing decisions. Data was gathered through a multiple case-study approach, and four semi-structured interviews to CEOs/CMOs of food companies from four distinct non-competing sectors of the food industry. The results show that although marketing managers are conscious of the existence of consumer behavior changes regarding food habits, they are not particularly concerned neither interested in micro-segments as they are not profitable. Despite the deficiencies on CMOs’ knowledge of particular food trends they declare to be attentive to the changes in consumer behavior and prepared to respond to competitors moves. This research adds to the existing knowledge on the food industry since it is the first study to explore the impact of food trends on food companies’ management marketing decisions from the company point of view.     

Who Invests in the Least Developed Countries?

Abstract

Africa is a giant market with a population of Europe and Japan combined, and highly diversified with respect to culture, natural resources, economic development, and political regimes. Yet, the continent is largely ignored with respect to research on the multinational activities of U.S. firms. In this paper, we provide the first evidence regarding the operating characteristics of U.S. firms that operate in Africa. We find that firms with operations in Africa are larger, more diversified, and more profitable than a matched control sample of multinational firms. This paper also shows that technology firms, manufacturing firms, and mining firms dominate the rest of companies operating in Africa. Certain geographical regions in Africa also seem to attract more companies than others, with Southern Africa being the most preferred region, while Central Africa is the least preferred. Finally, when a multinational firm invests in a specific country in Africa, it tends to do so in several business sectors.     

Can Western-Style Marketing Be Applied in Transitional Economies?

The authors report on research conducted to assess the marketing of personal banking products by Polish banks and determine whether Western developed marketing can be applied in transitional economies. The study comprised three parts: interviews with senior Polish bankers to identify strategies, a survey of front-line staff to determine whether strategies had been communicated and reinforced in the reward system, and a consumer survey to determine whether the strategies had successful outcomes. It finds that the concepts and tools of Western-style marketing can provide direction to bankers for strategy settings, but that successful implementation will depend on the adaptation of these concepts to the Polish context.     

Marketing and engineering: Can there ever be synergy?

This paper puts forward a number of views about marketing that are commonly held by engineers. It goes on to argue the link between marketing and engineering taking into account past areas of conflict. It then poses new ways forward as a result of new methods of manufacture, together with new demands being made on manufacturing companies by more discerning customers. Flexibility is seen to be critical in the link between customers and the company, and the catalyst is seen to be marketing.

A postulation is made in relation to the future, and suggestions are made as to what marketing and engineering must do in order to provide the levels of customer satisfaction that will be demanded.     

Responsible Marketing: Can Social Enterprises Show the Way?

In this article, the authors present a new perspective on responsible marketing. We discuss if and how social enterprises can present a new understanding of responsible marketing. Relevant publications (14 on social entrepreneurship, 40 on marketing in non-profit organizations and social enterprises and 41 papers on marketing) are selected and reviewed. The result of the literature analysis and synthesis show that social enterprises can gain from a more formal, systematic approach to marketing. Since social enterprises prioritize social goals over business results, successful adoption of marketing policies and practices can help then create a blueprint for responsible marketing. Marketing of socially relevant products and services by social enterprises thus create a new paradigm of responsible marketing. Such models can also be useful for larger corporations who look at social business and shared value creation as part of their business and marketing strategy.     

Helping You to Waste Less? Consumer Acceptance of Food Marketing Offers Targeted to Food-Related Lifestyle Segments of Consumers

ABSTRACT

Consumer households and consumer behavior have been identified as the major cause of food waste in the supply chain. Food marketing might offer products and services that help consumers to reduce their food waste or reduce the consumer-related food waste at the consumer–retailer interface. However, such strategies require consumer acceptance and targeting the right customers. Through an online survey of 800 Danish consumers and a measure of food-related lifestyle, four clusters of consumer segments are identified. The segments are compared with regard to their acceptance of a number of actions consumers can take to reduce food waste or their acceptance of food marketing services they would need to pay for. Acceptance differs with food involvement and the role of the price criterion, as well as with gender, education and age. The findings show how food marketing can help consumers to reduce food waste, through actions targeted to specific segments of consumers characterized by food-related lifestyle differences.     

Eating Sustainably? Practices and Background Factors of Ecological Food Consumption in Four Nordic Countries

This article examines sustainable food consumption in the Nordic context, studying to what extent people in Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden have food consumption patterns that are in the current discourse promoted as sustainability enhancing. The article analyses the association of sustainable food consumption to attitudinal support for environmental policy measures, interest in cooking, and healthy eating practices as well as sociodemographic background factors. The comparison of four countries enables an analysis of the importance of the national context in sustainable food consumption. The study is based on data from a 2012 Nordic Web survey (N?=?8248). The results show that carrying out sustainable activities was not very widespread. Buying local food was the most popular, eating meat less often the most unpopular sustainable activity. The level of participation in sustainable practices varied across the four countries. Swedish respondents were the overall most active, Norwegians the least. However, results from analysis of variance (anova) indicated that the individual explanatory factors of sustainable food consumption were relatively similar in the four countries. Healthy eating patterns, interest in cooking, and supporting environmental policy measures were all positively correlated to sustainable food consumption. Women and the elderly were more active in sustainable practices than were men and the young. Education and occupational position played a role, too, but their effect was not totally systematic across countries. The findings suggest that sustainable food consumption is not a strongly socially stratified phenomenon, but it is related to other practices of eating regarded as “proper,” such as interest in cooking and healthy eating. Broader and more inclusive policies are needed to better engage people in sustainable activities.     

Can Hand Washing Influence Hedonic Food Consumption?

The act of hand washing has been a routine part of hygienic practices across time and society. Aside from its physiological effects, hand washing has also been shown to symbolically cleanse individuals of their transgressions. However, most research demonstrating the metaphorical effect of hand washing has mainly been focused within the domain of morality. The objective of the current research is to explore the role of hand washing on consumption behavior, and more specifically, hedonic food consumption. Across two studies, this article establishes the role of hand washing after hedonic food consumption as well as prior to a hedonic food choice. In Study 1, washing one's hands after consumption of hedonic food decreased perceived guilt. In Study 2, washing one's hands prior to choice led to an increased likelihood of choosing a more hedonic (compared to less hedonic) food item. Thus, by washing one's hands, individuals are provided with a license to indulge in hedonic foods without the guilt that is commonly associated with such a choice. Several implications for consumer behavior research and the effects of hand washing on food decision making are discussed.     

Emerging Innovation in Emerging Economies: Can Institutional Reforms Help Russia Break Through Its Historical Barriers?

This article investigates Russia's historical and current innovation initiatives through the lens of institutional theory, utilizing the triple‐helix innovation model, which we have extended to include the context of Russian culture. The Russian government has embarked upon a national innovation policy and has committed billions of dollars with the goal of developing a knowledge‐based economy to enhance participation in the global arena, while simultaneously diversifying away from energy and natural resources. Historically, Russia has typically not succeeded with innovation beyond the idea, and sometimes product development, stages. Our primary conclusion is that the inadequacy of formal and informal institutional support has created historical barriers in Russia, some of which are currently being addressed to develop an innovation ecosystem encompassing a more supportive institutional infrastructure. The article concludes with implications for US firms and universities involved with innovation activities in Russia. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Declining Competition in Food Retailing: An Opportunity for Consumer Food Cooperatives?

Food cooperatives have become more popular among consumers during the past decade. Although consumers can organize cooperatives for several reasons, economic factors may be more important than indicated by previous research. Specifically, the recent growth in consumer food cooperatives may be associated with declining competition in local food markets. This article reports recent research results on market structure and performance by SMSA that address this hypothesis.     

Master's Level Education in Business Marketing: Quo Vadis?

ABSTRACT

Given the paucity of knowledge on the state of business marketing education at the master's level, we conducted an exploratory survey of instructors at selected universities in North America and Europe. We supplemented results from this survey with discussions with our colleagues who teach business marketing at the master's level, and a review of articles on master's level programs.

Through our investigations, we discovered that there is a shortage of management cases that address contemporary issues in business marketing. We learned that nearly half of survey participants do not use a textbook and that the remaining participants use a wide variety of textbooks. We observed that many instructors still teach business marketing courses from a traditional functional perspective. Instead, we believe that business marketing courses must address a host of emerging issues such as value and its assessment, business process reengineering, global marketing, working relationships and business networks, and cross-functional coordination issues, among other things.

We believe that scholars can rejuvenate the discipline by tailoring business marketing courses to the new generation of accelerated master's programs, by creating a network for sharing information on new cases and teaching materials, and by writing more relevant and timely business marketing cases. Finally, we believe that the time is right for a faculty consortium on teaching business marketing.     

What Can Third World Countries Learn from China?

Market socialism is a new hybrid among economic systems. Applied in an ad hoc fashion in Hungary, the huge-scale economic experimentation in the People's Republic of China, if allowed to continue, will first put to the test the basic concept of an open market within an economy of essentially publicly owned means of production. While each country should presumably adopt systems suited to local culture and resources, the PRC experience seems to offer Third World nations many worthwhile ideas.     

Declining Protection in Developing Countries: Fact or Fiction?

This paper explores whether and to what extent evident trade reform, falling average tariffs and rising exports in recent decades overstate the extent to which protectionism has declined in developing countries, especially low‐income developing countries. It identifies remaining significant protection, especially of final manufactured goods; this being associated with the presence of peak tariffs, escalating tariff structures by stage of production and replacement of old forms of non‐tariff protection with new instruments of non‐tariff protection. It also identifies significant protection arising from high international trade costs induced by inefficiencies in transportation, ports and customs, and from the growth of exports to preference‐receiving, export markets.     

Added value: Marketing basics?

Added value is a concept which is commonly used in marketing teaching and practice, yet a student seeking clarification of the concept and term, cannot easily find it by looking it up in the index of marketing textbooks. Of 80 texts surveyed, only 5% defined the term. However 100% of the sample of texts, used the concept of added value.

Several issues emerged from the survey. First, there were variations in the use in marketing textbooks, of the term added value. Second, where the term was used, often it was not defined. Finally, textbooks used the underlying concept (for which there is also some variation) of added value without necessarily using the term.

This paper reviews the various approaches to the concept of added value, and draws together some key themes in the form of a working model. The model developed recognises the accounting origins of the concept of added value, but arguments are developed within a marketing framework.

A key principle of the model developed, is the quantifiable nature of added value. This is viewed as being important, though difficult, where a sales transaction has not taken place. From a marketing perspective, it is recognised that products which have yet to be sold, have potential added value which marketing activity can help to realize.     

Food choices in Ethiopia: does nutritional information matter?

This article reports results from a framed market experiment conducted to examine whether milk choices are responsive to changes in the nutritional characteristics of milk products. Using a random‐effect Tobit model, we analyzed experimental data collected from 160 participants in urban Ethiopia. It shows that sensory properties play a key role in the acceptance of reduced‐fat milk while the provision of nutrition information has a mixed effect on a price premium. Further, a substantial percentage of participants were found to have a strong preference for whole milk while only 19% of them prefer reduced‐fat milk with 2.8% price premium. The study unveils a heterogeneous preference for the nutritional quality of milk products. Consumers’ health problems and socio‐demographic characteristics influence their preference for the nutritional quality of milk products. The result also shows a nutrition‐taste tradeoff, yet consumers place more value on sensory experience. Contrary to earlier studies, we found that prior belief about milk quality influences how consumers value sensory experience and nutrition information.