When should a firm expand its business? : The signaling implications of business expansion

We examine an incumbent's trade-off between the improved efficiency that business expansion facilitates and the signaling role that business expansion plays in conveying information to potential entrants about the state of demand. We demonstrate that both separating and pooling equilibria survive the Intuitive Criterion. Essentially, in contrast to models with asymmetric information about unit cost, incumbents' benefits from investing in a signal are not necessarily monotonic in the state of demand. We investigate how the extent of informativeness of the outcome depends on the enhanced efficiency that the incumbent's expansion facilitates and the priors of the entrant.     

Licensing information goods

A significant amount of research on patent licensing and the diffusion of knowledge is organized around static frameworks of analysis. Patent holders, however, may face a dynamic problem, namely the intertemporal consistency problem of the durable-goods monopolist that is induced by durability on the demand side. Licensing practices such as exclusive licensing contracts and most favored customer clauses allow patentees to solve or mitigate this dynamic consistency problem. There are situations, however, where these practices are not possible either due to the nature of the patent (the case of information goods) or due to compulsory patenting laws. We study the effects of the intertemporal consistency problem on patent licensing in these situations. Relative to the existing literature, we obtain the following main results: (i) all of the firms that remain in the industry will be using the innovation; (ii) royalty licensing may be superior to fixed-fee or auction licensing from the licensor's point of view; (iii) social welfare and consumer surplus may be lower than when the patent holder can commit not to make additional sales; (iv) even for non-drastic innovations, the price of the good that is produced may be lower than the competitive price corresponding to the initial situation (before the innovation was discovered).     

Assessing the regional digital divide across the European Union-27

Despite the efforts devoted to the analysis of the digital divide over the last years, the regional evidence on this issue is still scarce. Within this context, the goals of this paper are twofold: (1) measuring the digital divide across the regions of the 27 Member States and within each country and (2) explaining the observed regional disparities. The analysis leads to identify Dutch regions as the Top-10 in ICT, while Greece and Bulgaria occupy the Bottom-10. Therefore, results show that the regional digital divide reflects to some extent the income gap. However, regional policy seems to be having some positive implications for technology adoption. In particular, the rural-versus-urban dimension of the digital gap appears to be less important than it is usually claimed to. Likewise, some evidence is found of the role of cultural and institutional factors in ICT adoption, an issue that has not been previously analyzed at the regional level.     

Network embeddedness,headquarters entrepreneurial orientation,and MNE international performance

The aim of this paper is to examine the role played by external and internal network embeddedness in the headquarters entrepreneurial orientation of multinational enterprises (MNEs), and the role of the latter in MNE performance. Drawing on responses from CEOs in a sample of 143 European MNEs, our study offers evidence for the antecedent role of network embeddedness on headquarters entrepreneurial orientation on the one hand, and for the positive impact of headquarters entrepreneurial orientation on international performance on the other. Our findings contribute to the network view of MNEs in the international business and international entrepreneurship literature by disentangling the complex phenomenon of entrepreneurship in MNEs, partly explained by its multiple embeddedness in external and internal networks, and by studying its impact on international performance.     

Marketing aspects of environmental practices of multinational enterprises in host countries: A Brazilian case study

This article investigates both the marketing and the production activities of a multinational enterprise (MNE) operating in the Brazilian chemical industry. The case chosen illustrates how the MNE has managed to adapt or to upgrade some of its main policies, programs, production activities, and products in conformity with both its long-term strategic positioning and the host country's environmental regulatory policy. The company established two effective environmental programs that deserve mention. One of the programs has been set up to generate receipts through the provision of environmental services for a price. The other one pursued systematic procedures to better serve clients through customized applications of waste reduction practices. The latter reveals how proactive companies may profit from effectively envisaging the whole product cycle along their value chain. © 1995 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Is the hotel classification system a good indicator of hotel quality?: An application in Spain

This paper analyses whether the hotel classification system is a good indicator of hotel quality, where quality is defined to be satisfying the expectations and needs of the client. We conducted our research in Spain, where a five-category system using stars is employed. To be exact, the hotel sector of one autonomous community (Cantabria, located in northern Spain) was studied, given that it is these autonomous regions that have exclusive authority to regulate and promote tourism. The results of the study confirm that even though significant quality differences are seen between the different categories, the ranking by quality does not correspond to that by categories. This supports the idea that quality is associated with the delivery of a service according to client expectations, more than it is with establishment category.     

Risky behaviours of males and females in a Spanish suburban community

Health is determined by an accumulative process, so a perspective on life cycle is crucial in any health prevention programme. As a consequence of this accumulative dimension, lifestyles are a key determinant of the state of health of older people. The main contribution of this paper is to explain gender differences in lifestyle and the implications of lifestyle in men's and women's states of health. We have implemented our empirical analysis into Spanish society through the use of a self‐elaborated survey. From this survey, we have drawn a subsample of 938 people older than 14 years old who live in the Spanish neighbourhood of Casablanca, Zaragoza (452 men and 486 women). We conclude that men tend to consume more substances that may negatively affect their state of health (alcoholic beverages, tobacco products and coffee), and they are also less careful in keeping an adequate weight and dental hygiene. On the other hand, women tend to be more sedentary. These results are decisive for policy makers that strive to improve the citizens’ state of health, because it is not only important to improve the quality and extension of healthy goods and services, but also to promote healthy lifestyles.     

Benefits of leisure in overcoming gender violence experiences: a case study

This article is based on a case study carried out at Casa Malva, a shelter for female victims of gender violence in Gijón, Asturias (Spain). The study explores the potential therapeutic value of leisure in the process of personal recovery for women living in sheltered accommodation, and the positive impact leisure may have in overcoming a traumatic life event. The study comprised 16 semi-structured interviews with female victims of gender violence and three discussion groups with shelter staff. The article examines the concept of leisure and the potential benefits of leisure activities as part of the Personal Recovery Project (PRP) run by Casa Malva. PRP is an innovative recovery initiative aimed at helping women to overcome situations of gender violence by focusing on areas of experience, such as family, employment and leisure.     

Dark times for cosmopolitanism? An ethical framework to address private agri-food governance and planetary stewardship

The scholarly tradition of cosmopolitanism (illustrated by the old saying, “I am a citizen of the world”) offers important insights into the examination of agri-food multinational corporations (MNCs) as powerful global actors. Acknowledging that agriculture is the business sector with the highest planetary environmental impact, in this paper, we advance existing discussions around cosmopolitanism and the normative implications of considering agri-food MNCs as political actors. Relying on an integrative literature review, we propose a tripartite ethical framework that gives a new momentum to the ideals and tenets of cosmopolitanism. This novel lens offers an integrated, seamless ethical approach and revolves around three dimensions: culture, morality, and governance. The first dimension examines key agri-food cultural and social-ecological issues, the second acknowledges interdependence and causality as central to understanding MNCs’ ethical responsibilities, and the third outlines several governance parameters around legitimacy, planetary reach and efficiency. Hence, our integrative framework resituates the planetary geographical imagination of cosmopolitanism within the biophysical parameters outlined by the planetary boundaries concept, advancing key issues on private agri-food environmental governance and planetary stewardship.