The Environmental Benefits of Organic Wine: Exploring Consumer Willingness-to-Pay Premiums?

Consumers and the producers have shown interest in organics, but there exist gaps in their common interest. Producers require premiums for their products based on the peculiarity of their production circumstances and the perceived benefits inherent in their products. Predicting consumer willingness to pay a premium for the environmental benefits of organics (WTPe) is a challenge and is of interest in this study. The contingent valuation method was used to gather information on WTPe from a sample that yielded 2,099 surveys. The econometric test ordered probit regression and other analyses were carried out. On average, respondents indicated WTP 23% premium. The proposed hypotheses were tested, and all were accepted except social demographic variables that presented a mixed outcome. The results have implications for consumer sensitization and enlightenment programs of the wine industry, wine market segmentation, and government’s climate change policy. This study is exploratory and has presented a snapshot scenario. Confirmatory and longitudinal studies are recommended to validate this study’s outcomes.     

Syndication of European Buyouts and its Effects on Target‐Firm Performance

Using a unique dataset of 859 leveraged buyouts in Europe during the period 1999–2009, the authors' recent study reports that buyout financiers syndicate their transactions to other buyers to achieve benefits that include diversification of different types of target risk, the combination of complementary investor information and skillsets, and an increase in future deal flow. The authors also report that lead financiers structure their syndicates in ways designed to minimize syndication costs, in particular potential information and incentive problems with co‐investors in the syndicate, while also aiming to maximize the syndication benefits mentioned above. For example, through effective management of conflicts of interest with co‐investors within their syndicates, lead financiers are likely to acquire a reputation for looking out for the interests of their co‐investors that ends up increasing their own deal flow. As additional evidence in support of this claim, the authors also report finding that the post‐buyout profitability and growth of the target companies are higher when buyouts are syndicated (even after adjusting for the “endogeneity” of such decisions) and when the syndicates are structured to limit inter‐investor conflicts of interest within the syndicate. And as the authors point out, this finding, when viewed with the other main findings cited above, provides a more positive view of European buyout syndicates than the one projected by studies of Anglo‐American syndicates to date, whose findings have emphasized the potential for collusion among the buyout financiers.     

Priming a Cross‐Category Brand Alliance: The Moderating Role of Attribute Knowledge and Need for Cognition

Firms often enter cross‐category advertising brand alliance strategies with the goal to increase their market share by association with popular but noncompeting brand allies. However, firms are often not aware of the effects of these alliances on consumer perceptions of participating brands. This research explores the factors moderating brand attribute inferences following exposure to a cross‐category advertising brand alliance. It is proposed that attributes of a brand ally may serve as anchors that produce assimilation effects and move perceptions of a target brand toward the ally's attribute value, or as standards of comparison that produce contrast. This work provides evidence that attribute judgments in a cross‐category advertising brand alliance are moderated by attribute knowledge and individual differences in information processing motivation as reflected in self‐reported need for cognition (NFC) ratings.     

North American Free Trade and Changes in the Nativity of the Garment Industry Workforce in the United States

In this article, we address the question of the extent to which US producers’ reliance on cheap immigrant labor can continue to retard the march of apparel manufacturing out of the country as garments produced by even cheaper labor overseas flood the US market in the post‐NAFTA period. The article is divided into five sections. In the first, we introduce concepts that are key to our discussion, including the new international division of labor thesis, dual labor market theory, the state’s role in boundary management and the implications of these with regard to industrial development and migration in Mexico and the United States. In the next section, we examine changes in the regulatory regime governing international trade in garments and the subsequent shifts that have occurred in Mexican apparel exports to the United States on the one hand, and in Mexican and US garment employment on the other. In the third section, we review the role immigrants play in the US garment industry and the debates about if and how immigrant workers and entrepreneurs contribute to its international competitiveness. We then turn our attention to a case study of garment production in El Paso, Texas, where thousands of Mexican‐immigrant and Mexican‐American women have lost their jobs as seamstresses since the implementation of NAFTA began in 1994. In the fourth section of the article, we analyze data from US County Business Patterns, the decennial US Census of Population and Housing, the annual March US Current Population Surveys and the US Department of Labor’s records of certified NAFTA‐related layoffs to ascertain the extent to which El Paso’s experience of heavy immigrant garment job losses is typical of the rest of the country. In the concluding section we discuss the implications of our analysis for the future of the US garment workforce. Dans quelle mesure le recours des producteurs américains à un personnel bon marché d’immigrants peut‐il continuer à freiner la confection d’habillement hors du pays, tandis que des v? tements fabriqués par une main‐d’uvre étrangère encore moins chère envahissent le marché américain depuis l’ALENA? Cet article se compose de cinq parties. La première présente les concepts‐clés de notre argument, notamment la nouvelle thèse sur la division internationale du travail, la théorie du double marché de la main‐d’uvre, le rôle de l’État dans la gestion des frontières, ainsi que l’incidence de ces aspects sur l’essor industriel et la migration au Mexique et aux États‐Unis. La deuxième partie étudie les évolutions du régime qui régule le marché international de l’habillement, ainsi que les mutations subséquentes qu’ont connues à la fois les exportations de v? tements mexicaines vers les États‐Unis, et l’emploi de ce secteur dans les deux pays. En examinant le rôle des immigrants dans la confection amééricaine, la troisième partie reprend le débat sur la possibilité que les travailleurs et entrepreneurs immigrants contribuent à la compétitivité internationale de ce secteur. L’article s’attache ensuiteà une étude de cas de fabrication de v? tements à El Paso, au Texas, où des milliers d’immigrantes mexicaines et de femmes américano‐mexicaines ont perdu leur emploi de couturière depuis la mise en place de l’ALENA en 1994. La quatrième partie analyse des données émanant de plusieurs sources statistiques américaines (profils locaux de l’emploi par secteur d’activité, recensement décennal de la population et de l’habitat, enqu? tes démographiques annuelles), ainsi que de dossiers du ministère du Travail américain attestant de licenciements liés à l’ALENA, afin de démontrer que l’ampleur considérable des pertes d’emploi d’immigrants à El Paso est caractéristique du reste du pays. La conclusion déduit les implications de notre analyse pour l’avenir de la main‐d’uvre dans la confection aux États‐Unis.     

如何在世贸组织规则下选择有效的国内农业保护政策?

美国是国际农产品市场的主要生产者和消费者,美国农业政策对国际市场具有重要影响.农业保护政策是美国农业法案的一个重要组成部分,作为世界贸易组织成员方,美国农业保护政策要符合世界贸易组织出台的《农业协定》《补贴与反补贴措施协定》和《关于争端解决规则与程序的谅解》等关于农业保护政策的基本规定.其中,《农业协定》根据农业补贴政策对市场的扭曲程度由轻到重依次分为绿箱、蓝箱、黄箱、红箱政策.绿箱、蓝箱政策不受规则限制,黄箱政策受到严格的总支出限制,红箱政策被禁止.截至2017年,美国黄箱政策方面补贴没有超过总支出限额,符合对世界贸易组织的承诺.     

Consumer Behavior in a Multichannel,Multimedia Retailing Environment

Over the past decade, multichannel, multimedia retailing environments have grown in variety, scope, and sophistication. However, research regarding the implications of this trend for consumer behavior is rather scarce. We seek to address this need by providing a comprehensive yet flexible approach for formulating promising consumer behavior-related research questions based in multichannel, multimedia retailing environments. This approach adopts a consumer-centric view of multichannel, multimedia retailing and identifies a number of important dimensions of this environment. We then illustrate how this approach could be applied via specific examples involving consumer memory, product assortment, and information acquisition. We conclude by considering the managerial implications of our proposed approach.     

An Overview of Normal Theory Structural Measurement Error Models

This paper gives an introduction and overview to the often under‐used measurement error model. The purpose is to provide a simple summary of problems that arise from measurement error and of the solutions that have been proposed. We start by describing how measurement error models occur in real‐world situations. Then we proceed with defining the measurement error model, initially introducing the multivariate form of the model, and then, starting with the simplest form of the model thoroughly discuss its features and solutions to the problems introduced due to measurement error. We discuss higher‐dimensional and more advanced forms of the model and give a brief numerical illustration.