Environmental practices in the wine industry: An empirical application of the theory of reasoned action and stakeholder theory in the United States and New Zealand

Industry transformation related to environmental stewardship has received significant scholarly attention over the past decade. However, limited theoretical and empirical work examines the motivations for improving environmental performance in an industry in different countries. In this paper, we develop a set of hypotheses, based in the theory of reasoned action and stakeholder theory, regarding drivers of the adoption of environmental practices in the wine industries of New Zealand and the United States. We test our hypotheses using data from survey questionnaires collected in each country. Our findings suggest that subjective norms and internal stakeholder pressures are common drivers of the adoption of environmental practices in these two countries. However, managerial attitudes and external stakeholder pressures are not significant drivers. We also find that managerial attitudes and export dependence are stronger determinants of environmental practice adoption in New Zealand compared to the U.S.     

An examination of consumers’ cross-shopping behaviour

This study addresses antecedents of cross-shopping behaviour. Five theory-driven hypotheses are derived and tested. The results indicate that impulse buying tendency and perceived time pressure have a statistically significant negative effect on supermarket patronage. Product assortment and price consciousness have a statistically significant negative effect on speciality store patronage, while impulse buying tendency and convenience orientation have a statistically significant positive effect on speciality store patronage. Perceived time pressure has a statistically significant positive effect on meat store patronage. This effect is, however, not statistically significant on seafood store patronage. The findings have managerial implications for both supermarkets and speciality stores.     

ARE CONSUMERS MORE LOYAL TO NATIONAL BRANDS THAN TO PRIVATE LABELS?

The evolution of private labels (PLs) can be understood in terms of a strategy adopted by the retail industry with the aim of competing with national brands (NBs). In the 1990s, this strategy led to the development of ‘me too’ products, which currently represent the largest share of store brand products. Since the early 2000s, retailers have widened the range of their store brands by introducing high‐quality products. The aim of this study was to estimate consumers’ attachment to ‘me‐too’ and niche PLs respectively, as compared to NBs. We captured the degree of maturity of these PLs through their price‐elasticities, computed for three staple goods offered by three mass retail companies. It was found that price sensitivity does not differ much between the ‘me‐too’ PLs and the corresponding NBs. This result confirms that ‘me‐too’ products are now considered reliable quality brands. However, in the high quality segment, consumers remain more sensitive to the price of PLs than to that of NBs, a characteristic which may relate to their recent introduction on the market.     

Twenty years of economic transition in Russia: Results and lessons learned

The present article studies the events and processes that took place during the socioeconomic transformation in Russia. The positive and negative consequences of the reforms are considered, and their macroeconomic results are assessed. The article reveals the causes of the weak points in the present-day Russian economy and focuses on mistakes and wrong solutions that should be avoided in the future.     

Perception evaluation kit: a case study with materials and learning styles

International Journal of Technology and Design Education - Materials are elements that configure our built environment and are key components in design and engineering education. This research aims...     

How did the Invisible Hand Handle Industrial Waste? By-product Development before the Modern Environmental Era

A growing number of historians have turned their attention tothe past behavior of industrialists toward their waste. Manyhave argued that the price system and competition typicallyfostered a short-term outlook that rewarded pollution ratherthan encouraging "loop-closing," a modern term that refers tothe linkages between different industries in which the residualof one becomes the input of another. Others have identifiedprecedents in this respect that are credited to ProgressiveEra reformers. Building on evidence that has, by and large,escaped the attention of the present generation of historicalwriters, this essay challenges both views by arguing that marketinstitutions, which included both profit motive and propertyrights, actually resulted in the usage of industrial by-products.Although past industrial activities did create significant pollutionproblems, perhaps our ancestors should be given more creditthan they generally are for the creativity and resourcefulnessthey displayed in profitably solving numerous environmentalproblems.     

Machine learning for pricing American options in high-dimensional Markovian and non-Markovian models

In this paper we propose two efficient techniques which allow one to compute the price of American basket options. In particular, we consider a basket of assets that follow a multi-dimensional Black–Scholes dynamics. The proposed techniques, called GPR Tree (GRP-Tree) and GPR Exact Integration (GPR-EI), are both based on Machine Learning, exploited together with binomial trees or with a closed form formula for integration. Moreover, these two methods solve the backward dynamic programing problem considering a Bermudan approximation of the American option. On the exercise dates, the value of the option is first computed as the maximum between the exercise value and the continuation value and then approximated by means of Gaussian Process Regression. The two methods mainly differ in the approach used to compute the continuation value: a single step of the binomial tree or integration according to the probability density of the process. Numerical results show that these two methods are accurate and reliable in handling American options on very large baskets of assets. Moreover we also consider the rough Bergomi model, which provides stochastic volatility with memory. Despite that this model is only bidimensional, the whole history of the process impacts on the price, and how to handle all this information is not obvious at all. To this aim, we present how to adapt the GPR-Tree and GPR-EI methods and we focus on pricing American options in this non-Markovian framework.     

Institutional Market Power in Comté: Insights from a ‘Double Marginalisation’ Model

This article explores the economic efficiency of a horizontally and vertically coordinated industry where upstream producers are atomised, but downstream processors are few, explicitly considering participation incentives and allowing the coordinated industry to exert market power towards buyers. The model offers insight into the probable social impacts of the government‐sanctioned supply control scheme in place in the French Comté cheese market, suggesting it falls short of constituting a Pareto‐improvement compared with a laissez‐faire situation. More generally, our theoretical model provides guidance to identify instances where encouraging industry coordination may be socially desirable. We formally introduce the concept of ‘seller‐equivalent degree of overall market power’ of the separated industry, a market characteristic comprised of measurable or inferable parameters, the value of which is shown to determine the potential for Pareto improvements through industry integration.