Brakes to organic market enlargement in Spain: consumers’ and retailers’ attitudes and willingness to pay

In Spain, consumption of organic products has not kept pace with production. Up till now, foreign markets have been a natural destination for excess supply. However, world trade liberalization might cause important commercial problems to Spanish producers that could be partially solved by enlarging the domestic market. The goal of this paper is to assess the opportunity for such enlargement focusing on two main aspects: consumers’ and retailers’ attitudes and willingness to pay for organic products. Concerns about health, natural diets or environmental issues could stimulate consumption, while retailing dynamism and competition to gain new market segments might favour distribution. Both aspects are investigated through two surveys addressed to consumers and retailers in two Spanish towns. The results confirm that only a small proportion of consumers and distributors show attitudes that might favour demand expansion. The most sensitized segments are willing to pay more for organic products, but this premium is still very far from the prevailing gap between conventional and organic food products.     

Public participation in municipal transport planning processes – the case of the sustainable mobility plan of Ponta Delgada, Azores, Portugal

Public participation in transport planning is a recent trend. There is an increasing number of cases in Europe where the public is involved in the decision-making process. In Portugal, where the use of a motor vehicle as a means of transportation still enjoys a deep approval in the society, a participatory approach is an opportunity to change perceptions towards more sustainable transport modes. In Ponta Delgada (Archipelago of the Azores), for the first time in Portugal, the relevant stakeholders were involved in the development process of a sustainable mobility plan. It proved that, on a participatory basis, sustainable transport planning provides more satisfactory and efficient solutions. This paper presents the methodology and results of a participative transport management planning model. This model can be adapted to the specific needs and problems of other small island cities.     

Spanish Demand for Food Away from Home: Analysis of Panel Data

We analyse the Spanish demand for food away from home (FAFH). A panel dataset is built and appropriate techniques for estimating limited dependent variable models are applied. Results indicate that where there are zero expenditures, these are largely due to infrequency of purchase rather than to abstention, or for economic reasons. Furthermore, important differences appear among households. Households whose head is a highly educated person, male, young and living on a salary in a large town is more likely to purchase FAFH. FAFH expenditure responses to an increase in total per capita expenditure are markedly different depending on the age of the household's head, their employment status and also the size of the resident's town. The lowest elasticity is shown by single‐person households, between 36 and 55 years old, employed and living in large towns, for whom FAFH has become a necessity. On the other hand, FAFH remains a luxury for unemployed couples with one or two children.     

The King Never Emigrates

This paper uses a locational model of rent-seeking to describe incentives to emigrate. A country is considered in which how a person fares in privileged income redistribution is determined by proximity to a king. Contests for privilege determine whether the more or the less productive in the population are located closer to the king. A distinction is drawn between contests for privilege that are easy and difficult. When contests are easy, the more productive are furthest from the king and emigrate first. When contests are difficult, the least productive emigrate first. In either case, the population begins to unravel.     

Inflation convergence in Central and Eastern Europe vs. the Eurozone: Non‐linearities and long memory

In this paper, we consider inflation rate differentials between seven Central and Eastern European Countries (CEECs) and the Eurozone. We test for convergence in the inflation rate differentials, incorporating non‐linearities in the autoregressive parameters, fractional integration with endogenous structural changes, and also consider club convergence analysis for the CEECs over the period 1997 to 2015 based on monthly data. Our empirical findings suggest that the majority of countries experience non‐linearities in the inflation rate differential; however, there is only evidence of a persistent difference in some countries. Complementary to this analysis we apply the Phillips and Sul (2007) test for club convergence and find that there is evidence that most of the CEECs converge to a common steady state.     

The impact of knowledge management on innovation and entrepreneurship in the biotechnology and telecommunications industries

In the resource-based view approach, the knowledge frontier rests on the understanding of the process of creating and recreating distinctive competences. Moreover, in spite of the importance of knowledge assets, how innovation distinctive competences are generated in organizations is still an unknown factor. This research studies the effect of introducing knowledge management programs in the development of innovation distinctive competences, using two knowledge intensive industries. We establish a conceptual delimitation of knowledge management as a directive system through a set of principles and practices. The theoretical relationships we propose are tested in an empirical study carried out in 222 firms from the Spanish biotechnology and telecommunications industries.