Quality and productivity: role conflict in the service context

This article presents a qualitative study exploring service employees’ experiences of quality–productivity tensions in the workplace, and how they cope with such conflicts. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 50 service employees. Content analysis suggests that organization-level conflict derives from the different channels that service organizations use to convey the importance of quality (e.g. training) and of productivity (e.g. rewards) to employees. During service interactions, employees experience conflict when standardization is violated and productivity is threatened. Our results demonstrate and explain employees' strategies for coping with the conflict between productivity and quality and with the ‘double message' they receive about these two goals. Many of these strategies are intended to ensure quality while maintaining productivity. We discuss the study's contribution to service science, and explain existing organizational mechanisms and processes for communicating the importance of quality and productivity to employees. Implications for service management are discussed.     

The impact of IT and customer orientation on building trust and commitment in the supply chain

The application of information technologies (IT) to logistics activities may have benefits beyond cost savings, as it can create bonds between the supply chain partners. The objective of this paper is to analyse the influence of customer orientation on the application of IT to the supply chain and of these on the development of channel relationships based on trust and commitment. A questionnaire-based personal survey was conducted among manufacturers. Structural equation modelling was used to test the hypothesis contained in the theoretical model. The results indicate that customer orientation affects the application of IT to logistics, and IT has a positive impact on manufacturer and supplier commitment to the relationship.     

Contests, NGOs, and Decentralizing Aid

International donors usually have particular goals they want to achieve with their foreign aid, e.g., poverty alleviation. In the international aid story lobbying by potential recipient groups attempting to capture the donor's support plays a potentially important role for non‐governmental organizations. We model this situation as a hierarchical contest and compare the implications of a centralized allocation process with a decentralized allocation process with non‐governmental organizations as intermediaries.     

Knowledge and willingness to pay for organic food in Spain: Evidence from experimental auctions

The aim of this paper is to analyse the main determinants of consumers' knowledge and their willingness to pay for organic food products. Moreover, the relationship between knowledge and buying behaviour is explored. Virgin olive oil is taken as an example. Data was generated by way of an experimental auction carried out in two cities in northeast Spain. A three-equation model is estimated: (1) Consumer knowledge; (2) the decision to pay a premium for organic olive oil; and (3) how much premium consumers are willing to pay. Results indicate that socio-economic variables are main determinants of consumer knowledge, and that consumer attitude, lifestyle and knowledge all influence the decision to pay a premium for organic olive oil.     

Demand Shifts and Changes in Competition: Evidence from the Movie Theatre Industry

In this paper, I empirically examine how demand shifts affect firm behaviour. In particular, I study how competitive behaviour between firms changes across different demand states. For this purpose, I use price and concentration data from the Spanish movie theatre industry in 1995 and 2000. The evidence suggests that demand shifts change the competitive nature of the industry under study, and that this change differs across different demand shifts. Firms deviate less from tacit collusive behaviour when gains of deviation are smaller.     

Fractional Integration and the Dynamics of UK Unemployment*

This article is concerned with estimating the dynamic behaviour of UK unemployment using fractional integration methods. The question it considers is whether an unemployment model using a relatively small set of determinants of unemployment is consistent with the persistence which estimates an integrated model yield, or the much long‐lasting estimates obtained from fractional integration. Our empirical tests favour the latter version. The results show that when accounting for UK unemployment in terms of lagged values of the real oil price and the real interest rate, unemployment appears fractionally integrated. This finding means that although unemployment is mean reverting, once it is shocked it may take a very long time to recover, and our estimates of the response times are considerably in excess of those previously reported in the literature.     

Endogenous Public Policy, Politicization and Welfare

In the two–stage political–economic game that we study public policy is the outcome of the interaction between interest groups and a two–tier government. Implementation of a policy proposed by a bureaucrat requires approval by an elected politician. The objective function of the bureaucrat hinges on the weight assigned to social welfare relative to the rent–seeking outlays of the interest groups. This weight represents the degree of politicization of the government. Our main result is that, in contrast to common belief, increased politicization need not adversely affect the public well–being.     

Mean Reversion of Short‐run Interest Rates in Emerging Countries*

In this paper we examine the stochastic behavior of short‐run interest rates in several emerging countries using fractional integration techniques. We allow for a much richer flexibility in the dynamic behavior of the series than the classical representations based on I(0) or I(1) processes. It appears that for Singapore and Thailand nominal interest rates are mean‐reverting, whereas for Mexico, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Korea, the presence of a unit‐root test depends on the assumptions regarding the residuals’ autocorrelation. The results also suggest that uncovered interest parity (UIP) can only hold for two emerging countries. For the other countries, the stabilization policies in the aftermath of the currency crises have led to the rejection of the UIP hypothesis.     

Incorporating nutrients into meat demand analysis using household budgets data

The objective of this article is to analyze the Spanish demand for meat, taking into account the consumer's concern about the relationship between food diet and health. This concern is forcing food demand analysts to assume that consumer utility is a function of nutrients instead of simply the food products themselves. Nevertheless, these utility function arguments are not produced in the marketplace but rather at home. As a consequence, in this article household production theory is followed in order to analyze Spanish demand for meat using the Quarterly National Expenditure Survey for 1999. Demands for several meat products (the input in the model) are derived from the translog cost function. Censored regression models are used in the estimation process, since many zero responses are reported. Five broad categories, eight nutrients, and the most relevant socioeconomic variables are considered. Finally, a set of elasticities is calculated with respect to all the variables included in the analysis.     

Alcohol demand among young people in Spain: an addictive QUAIDS

This paper analyzes the demand for alcoholic beverages among young people in Spain. To that end, we develop a theoretical model which combines elements from the Theory of Two-Stage Budgeting and the Theory of Addiction, with this being empirically translated into a Quadratic Almost Ideal Demand System (QUAIDS) in which the particular characteristics of young people are introduced by Price Scaling (PS) techniques. We then estimate this specification by using data drawn from the Spanish National Survey on Drug Use in the School Population (2000) and the Spanish National Household Survey (2000). Given that wine, beer and spirits all have normal demands, our results suggest that a tax increase imposed with the intention of reducing alcohol consumption would appear to be efficient. This paper was partially written while Ana Isabel Gil was a Visiting Researcher at the London School of Economics and Political Science, to which she would like to express her gratitude for the hospitality and facilities provided. An earlier version of this paper has been presented at the Spanish Economic Analysis Meeting-2003 (Sevilla, Spain) with all the comments made by the participants being appreciated. Finally, the authors would like to express their thanks for the financial support provided by the Spanish Ministry of Education-CICYT and the European Commission (Project 2FD97-2057). The usual disclaimer applies.