Tracking the causes of eurozone external imbalances: new evidence and some policy implications

The paper assesses the contribution of key drivers of external imbalances in the Eurozone through the estimation of a panel-data Vector Autoregressive model over 1975–2011. Growth fluctuations, initially associated with demand booms triggered by unusually low interest rates, and later with demand contractions resulting from the crisis and policy adjustments, have played an important role in current account balance fluctuations. Changes in real exchange rates or unit labor costs have played a less important role. Demand shocks have contributed more to current account balance dynamics in the Eurozone periphery than in the core, whereas competitiveness has been a less prominent factor in the periphery but relatively more important in the core. Some broad policy implications of the findings for demand management in a currency union are discussed, including for fiscal policy coordination and macroprudential policies when union members face asymmetric shocks. The role of internal devaluation policies as a means of correcting external imbalances is also reassessed.     

Economic crisis and tourism competitiveness in Spain: permanent effects or transitory shocks?

This paper considers the influence of business cycles and economic crises on Spain's tourism competitiveness. This competitiveness is measured by its share in world tourism. Analysing the presence of unit roots in the market share series from 1958 to 2010, the permanent effects of economic crises on competitiveness are evaluated. The evidence from standard linear unit root tests indicates that crises on Spanish market shares are highly persistent. When we account for endogenously determined structural breaks, we obtain greater support for stationarity, but breakpoints are identified with major economic crises. Therefore the main conclusion obtained is that the effects of the economic shocks are not neutral on competitiveness, with the negative effects being more persistent in highly intensive crises. These crises reinforce a natural downward trend of the Spanish world tourism market share caused by the natural emergence of new competing destinations and by the maturity of the Spain's principal tourism product.     

Brand price differentials in retail distribution: product quality and service quality

A theoretical model is proposed to disentangle the contribution of brand quality and retailer service quality in explaining brand price differentials across retailers. Two testable hypotheses emerge: (i) for each brand type, price differences across retailers are independent of brand quality differentials and (ii) at a given retailer, price differences between different brand qualities are independent of service quality differentials. Our empirical analysis, for a sample of the U.K. grocery retailer prices, discloses that retailers that offer higher service quality sell same quality brands at higher prices. In particular, service quality premia amount to 6% for national brands and are in the range of 9–15% for low-quality store brands. Besides, at a given retailer, the price premia paid for the national brand are very large: around 150% between national brands and low-quality store brands, and around 40% between national brands and high-quality store brands. Also, the price differential between the national brand and the low-quality store brand does not increase with service quality.     

Green Practices and Organizational Design as Sources of Strategic Flexibility and Performance

Green competences are dynamic capabilities based on practices (green practices), routines and structures that can be used to detect opportunities, make the most of them and use them to transform organizations. With this in mind, we explore the relationships between environmental management, organizational performance, and organizational processes and practices. We identify three key constructs related to green competences: (1) hybrid structures, (2) environmental best practices and (3) strategic flexibility, a key variable connecting structural design and green practices to organizational performance. We propose that the implementation of specific organizational structures characterized by the inclusion of market‐driven control practices within hierarchies (internal hybrids) could enhance firms' environmental responsiveness and deployment of green best practices. In addition, we suggest that green practices and structures are positively related to the development of strategic flexibility, driving above‐average returns in dynamic environments. To test these hypotheses, we use data from the European aviation industry. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment     

Charity Art Auctions

Using a unique panel data set of art auctions on eBay, we conduct an empirical analysis of the impact of charity status on the outcome of an auction and find it to be substantial. Charity status increases the probability of sale by 46%, the observed number of bidders by 111% and the sale price by 45%. In addition, charity status substantially lowers the auction's opening price. Interestingly, the effect of charity status declines over time indicating that charity auctions may be susceptible to donor fatigue.     

A multivariate method for analyzing and improving the use of student evaluation of teaching questionnaires: a case study

Student evaluation of teaching (SET) questionnaires are the most common methods of evaluation used by European universities to assess the quality of teaching delivered by their lecturers. A series of multivariate statistical methods were applied to analyze the underlying structure of the SET questionnaire used by the Universidad Politecnica de Valencia (UPV) in order to develop an appropriate methodology for extracting, analyzing, and interpreting the information contained in the questionnaire. In a first step, a confirmatory factorial analysis (CFA) was developed in order to evaluate the reliability, validity and dimensionality of it, by means of two relatively new parameters commonly used in structural equation modelling: the compound reliability and extracted variance for each latent construct. In a second step, cluster analysis (CA) was used to test the ability of the questionnaire for the identification of different categories of lecturers. In the last step, a tree classification method, the chi-squared automatic interaction detector (CHAID), was used in order to characterize the different lecturer’s categories obtained with CA according to all available information regarding the teaching staff and subjects.     

Can China Make Movies More Than Flying Kung Fu Warriors?

Chinese movies have helped me to understand China and its people; they reflect their hopes, their fears, their traditions, their views of their own world,… but they are also valuable in themselves and provide a complete different view of the world to foreign eyes.     

eHR software,multinational corporations and emerging China: Exploring the role of information through a postcolonial lens

This paper seeks to offer an alternative account of Human Resources Information software (eHR) informed by a critical/postcolonial view on information systems. In so doing, it aims to explore the possibilities for managing people that information brings when Human Resources Management practices are transferred from “developed” to “developing” countries. The paper relies on several qualitative in-depth interviews with renowned Chinese Human Resources experts in Shanghai, and the examination of diverse eHR software-related documentation and functionalities. Critical discourse analysis was used to examine these sources. The findings show that eHR information systems bring new governance possibilities that support and expand the discipline of Human Resources Management. The use of eHR software in people management gives a new momentum and increased dominance to key Western-originated practices, such as HR-based performance management. Information brings new ordering options that facilitate the transferability, mobility and standardization of HR values, discourse and practices and, ultimately, the construction of a global “generified employee”. The paper offers a first critical analysis of eHR software, showing the need to understand the relevancy of the informating power of these systems for a postcolonial critique of ICT. It offers a view of the “micro-processes” that facilitate organizational transfer from the multinational corporation headquarters to the subsidiaries and across countries. In so doing, it challenges mainstream deterministic assumptions and apolitical approaches to this technology.     

Determinants of Economic Units Creation in the Period 1985--93: The Case of the Manufacturing Industry in CAPV

This article attemps to highlight the factors that condition the creation of economic units of different dimensions in the manufacturing industry of the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country (CAPV) during the period 1985--93. We conclude that more establishments are created, particularly those of a small dimension, in sectors in which smaller economic units have a higher advantage in costs vis-à-vis those of a larger dimension, in sectors which are more profitable, with a larger proportion of subcontrating firms, with a lower degree of concentration and of technological intensity and in which entities external to the firm have a heavier wheight in R&D activities.