Co-creation and service recovery process communication: effects on satisfaction,repurchase intentions,and word of mouth

After service failure situations, firms often carry out transactional activities to achieve customer recovery (CR), using corrective actions to restore the exchange (e.g., economic and social compensations). Furthermore, during the service recovery process, firms can encourage activities of co-creation (CC) to prevent similar future failures. This paper discusses the importance of CC and service recovery process communication (RPC), in which customers are informed of the adoption of solutions to address the cause of the failure, so as to avoid the same problem happening again. Experimental studies investigate the impact, individually and together, of CR, CC, and RPC on satisfaction, repurchase intentions, and word of mouth. The results indicate that CC and RPC improve customer’s satisfaction, repurchase intentions, and word of mouth. Firms that want to maximize the return on their efforts to prevent service failures, should encourage CC, develop solutions to prevent future failure recurrence, and implement strategies of RPC. Firms must decide how to promote CC and which media to use for RPC.     

Double talk—The political economy of eastward enlargement of the EU

There is an inherent ambiguity in the attitude of the EU towards eastern enlargement. On the one hand, since the Gothenburg Council of June 2001 the EU appears to be at last on the brink of a first round of eastward enlargement. On the other hand, the major internal reforms in the EU which are essential if enlargement is to take place have so far made only unsatisfactory progress. What are the reasons for this situation? What are the perspectives?     

A statistical analysis of seven multipliers for linear congruential random number generators with modulus 231−1

Twelve statistical tests were performed on the sequences produced by seven linear congruential pseudorandom number generators with modulus 2³¹?1. The seven generators had, respectively, the multipliers 742938285, 950706376, 1226874159, 62089911, 1343714438, 397204094 and 16807. The worst results were obtained from the sequences produced by the multipliers 1226874159, 397204094 and 16807, while the best ones corresponded to the sequences produced by 1343714438 and 742938285.     

The effect of innovation efficiency management on performance: Differences according to organizational size

The efficiency associated with innovation has been a frequently considered element in the literature. However, the conceptualization of this efficiency and its management is an underexplored factor. We study the way in which the different elements that conform to this efficiency are managed over time. From a dynamic efficiency analysis using data envelope analysis (DEA) and the Malmquist productivity index, we evaluate changes in efficiency and if there are differences according to firm size. Our results confirm the relevance of size in the way that firms manage their innovation efficiency and how small firms differ from larger ones in terms of efficiency management.     

A stochastic frontier analysis to estimate the relative efficiency of Spanish airports

There exists a common belief among researchers and regional policy makers that the actual central system of Aeropuertos Españoles y Navegación Aérea (AENA) should be changed to one more decentralized where airport managers could have more autonomy. The main objective of this article is to evaluate the efficiency of the Spanish airports using Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) simulation to estimate a stochastic frontier analysis (SFA) model. Our results show the existence of a significant level of inefficiency in airport operations. Additionally, we provide efficient marginal cost estimates for each airport which also cast some doubts about the current pricing practices.     

Political viability of public pensions and education. An empirical application

Public intergenerational transfers (IGTs) may emerge from the failure of private arrangements to provide optimal economic resources for the young and old. We investigate the political sustainability of the public system of IGTs by seeking to determine the outcome if the decision to reallocate economic resources per se was put to the vote. Exploiting the particular nature of the data from the National Transfer Accounts data in a political economy application in which generations cooperate under certain conditions, we show that most of the developed countries would vote in favour of a joint public education and pension system.     

Entrepreneurship persistence with and without personnel: The role of human capital and previous unemployment

By considering entrepreneurs who hire employees (employers) and entrepreneurs without personnel (own-account workers) as related but distinct entrepreneurship groups, this work analyses factors in entrepreneurship survival from a new perspective: we contrast the determinants of employers’ survival with those affecting own-account workers’ survival. Discrete choice models under competing risks frameworks are applied to data drawn from the European Community Household Panel for the EU-15 (EUROSTAT). Our results suggest that survival chances are markedly higher for employers than for own-account workers—especially when non-employment exits are considered. We also observe that high qualifications have positive and statistically significant effects on survival rates of employers, regardless of exit routes, while high qualifications have no significant effect on survival rates of own-account workers. Finally, we find that entering entrepreneurship from unemployment—the target group for entrepreneurship incentives—strongly increases the probability of re-entering unemployment for both entrepreneurship groups. Thus, entrepreneurship and higher education policies should be considered together to develop high quality entrepreneurial businesses.