An analytical study of participating policies with minimum rate guarantee and surrender option

Finance and Stochastics - We perform a detailed theoretical study of the value of a class of participating policies with four key features: (i) the policyholder is guaranteed a minimum interest...     

Correction to: When intentions turn into action: Pathways to successful firm performance

International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal -     

The generalized bin packing problem

In the Generalized Bin Packing Problem (GBPP), given two sets of compulsory and non-compulsory items characterized by volume and profit and a set of bins with given volume and cost, we want to select the subset of profitable non-compulsory items to be loaded together with the compulsory ones into the appropriate bins in order to minimize the total net cost. Lower and upper bounds to the GBPP are given. The results of extensive computational experiments show that the proposed procedures are efficient and the bounds are tight.     

Towards a Smart Tourism Business Ecosystem based on Industrial Heritage: research perspectives from the mining region of Rio Tinto,Spain

The implications of the study provide suggestions for future improvements relating to the development of industrial tourism destinations. The possibility of ‘re-using’ the old industrial and mining heritage could favour the development of an economic opportunity to the recession that affected most industrial regions after the 1960s. This paper is focused on the field of industrial heritage tourism management (IHTM) to deepen the knowledge about its business ecosystem. The IHTM is chosen because a number of evidences highlight the interconnections that exist between this field and the business ecosystem concept. To explore these interconnections, the purpose of this article is to define a frame of analysis based also on the emergent initiative of smart tourism and to set up a theoretical framework not only used to the case study of the region of Rio Tinto mine in Spain, but also used as a policy instrument to suggest propositions for recommending new paths for future studies.     

Ethnographic Heritage as a Branding Strategy: A Case Study of Yogurt in Bulgaria and Japan

Abstract

This article explores the various ways in which ethnographic images are deployed in branding strategies by Bulgarian and Japanese companies to frame industrial food as cultural heritage. Examining the history and marketing strategies of yogurt in Japan, I demonstrate how international marketing and cooperation has influenced the definitions, meanings and values of yogurt. In Japan, companies turn to ethnographic images of Bulgaria to sell their products, emphasizing visions of rural life over Bulgarian yogurt-making technology. At the same time, the fact that Bulgarian yogurt has turned into a symbol of health and wellbeing in one of the world’s economic powers is a source of national pride for consumers in post-socialist Bulgaria. The branding strategies of yogurt show how companies transform foods into culturally meaningful products, thereby doing much more than making profitable commodities of them. In educating and offering consumers new lifestyles, they change established systems of consumption and influence people’s imaginations.     

In Good Company: When Small and Medium‐Sized Enterprises Acquire Multiplex Knowledge from Key Commercial Partners

This study explores the specific conditions under which key strategic alliances of small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) with commercial partners can become multiplex in knowledge exchange. Using survey data from a sample of 150 Spanish SMEs in the information and communication technology (ICT) industry, we find that trust creates an appropriate context for the concurrent acquisition of technological, market, and managerial knowledge. When the SME and its key commercial partner exhibit significant strategic, technological, and market differences, however, the SME's ability to acquire different types of knowledge diminishes considerably, reducing the positive impact of trust on knowledge multiplexity.     

“One of these days,things are going to change!” How do you make sense of market disruption?

The significance of mindsets is apparent in everyday business life. As today’s managers and companies face uncertainty and disruptive change in the business environment and markets, there is a growing need to understand and strategically address such change. This becomes challenging when disruptive market forces confront the institutional logic or rules of the game based on collectively acquired experience of doing business in the given field. In overcoming such challenges, managers’ hidden reasoning remains an untapped potential while their existing mindset influences what they attend to and what they decide to do. This article elaborates a diagnostic framework, accompanied by a tool to help managers make sense of disruptive markets and reflect individually and collectively on possible courses of action. The framework has two principal dimensions—strategic scope and focus—that are further divided into three business elements of strategic market-oriented management: offering, customer, and market. The tool offers a practical means of profiling individuals’ mindsets. In increasingly dynamic business environments, reflection capabilities represent a new source of competitive advantage.     

Online piracy in the context of routine activities and subjective norms

Why do mainstream consumers who would not typically engage in illegal behaviour routinely resort to online piracy of copyrighted software? This paper provides answers to this research query by applying routine activity theory and the theory of reasoned action. The paper’s study analyses consumers’ role as possible offenders that can have the opportunity to engage in online software piracy as part of their routine online activities. Although it is problematic to measure the exact magnitude of the negative impact on the US economy, as stated by the Government Accountability Office it is sizeable. After analysing the conceptual model using a US national consumer sample of over 700 consumers, results show the influence of proximity to motivated offenders, target suitability, and capable guardianship on consumers’ attitudes and perceived subjective norms towards online software piracy, as well as their intentions to engage in this illegal behaviour on the Internet. By integrating routine activity theory, a criminology theory with the theory of reasoned action from psychology and analysing a widespread online software piracy phenomenon, several academic and practical contributions are made.     

The development trinity: How regional integration impacts growth,inequality and poverty

Developing countries today have become more active participants in regional trade agreements. This raises questions about how the benefits of integration are distributed, and the extent to which lower‐income countries are able to capture development gains. Historically, such impacts have been difficult to identify with precision. This paper seeks to address this gap by empirically analysing the impact of regional integration on development, particularly the effects on growth and welfare. Using both bilateral and regional integration measures, we show that the ability to capture gains from integration varies across developing country regional groups, with developing Asia benefiting on par with developed countries. The findings in the paper indicate that trade and trade policy play an important role in reducing inequality and poverty in developing countries. It also shows that regionalism can function as a channel to make multilateralism a more adept way of addressing national challenges.