Modelling of customer retention in multi-format retailing

The objective of this study is to offer a model of the formation process of loyalty towards the services provided by retail food companies. Specifically, the case of a Spanish company, which is a leader in the retail food market is taken. The company operates using different retail formats, and it has customers with various levels of loyalty and behavioural patterns. The research tries to determine implications for managing the loyalty towards the company. Different customer groups are analysed. Four working hypotheses are proposed and contrasted through the formulation and estimation of two theoretical models or conceptual maps. After the empirical analysis, the proposed models show a good fit, and the formulated hypotheses are confirmed. By using this kind of modelling, the companies that operate under the considered framework may reach significant conclusions prior to making decisions in the area of customer retention.     

Product Quality as a Formative Index: Evaluating an Alternative Measurement Approach*

Product quality is a critical competitive issue when launching new products. However, the product quality construct has been measured inconsistently in prior research, with researchers often not considering multiple components of quality. Thus, results may not be comparable across studies, and when dimensions of quality are excluded, relationships found between quality and other constructs may be spurious. As a response, we develop a formative measurement approach to product quality. The components of product quality are not interchangeable in measurement as typical reflective approaches assume. These dimensions make up the quality construct, necessitating a formative measurement approach. Here, this approach is developed and tested, compared with the traditional reflective approach, and its relationships with other constructs evaluated in a model of new product performance. Overall, this formative approach is shown both to be theoretically appropriate and to possess strong measurement properties. This approach has clear implications for research concerning product quality and improving its measurement in the future.     

Current accounts in the euro area: An intertemporal approach

Current accounts have diverged substantially among euro area countries since the creation of the euro. This divergence has raised concerns about the sustainability of some member countries’ external indebtedness. This paper uses an intertemporal model of the current account to analyze the fluctuations in current account balances experienced by euro area countries over the last three decades and to disentangle its determinants. We find that the model is not rejected for six of the ten euro area countries examined (Belgium, France, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal and Spain), although it tends to underestimate their current account volatility. For these countries, we derive the expectations about future income and relative prices, which, according to the model, underlie their current account balances. Expectations about future growth increased in all Southern European countries at the creation of the euro, but they diverged considerably by 2005. While in Portugal these expectations were below its historical mean by then, in Spain they were at an historical high.     

Is it punishment? Sovereign defaults and the decline in trade

Sovereign defaults are associated with declines in defaulting countries trade. Are these declines the result of trade sanctions as the trade sanctions argument of sovereign borrowing would suggest? We devise an empirical strategy to evaluate this issue based on the idea that if trade sanctions are causing the declines, bilateral trade with creditor countries should fall more than trade with other countries. We find that this is not the case. The analysis does not yield much evidence of broader punishment strategies including a league of major creditors either. These results contradict the predictions of the trade sanctions theory of sovereign borrowing.     

Extreme events: a study of small oil and gas firms

The oil and gas industry is subject to different types of risks, many of which have the potential to generate extreme results. Classifying extreme events as global, industry specific and firm specific, we use a Bayesian probability model and the Exponential Generalized Autoregressive Conditional Heteroskedasticity (EGARCH) model to evaluate the impact of disclosure of extreme events on returns and return volatilities. The results suggest political events have more of a pronounced effect compared to those classified as economic events. The overall effects are more pronounced at the global and firm‐level classifications. At the firm level, extreme economic events have a more significant impact than political extreme events.     

CONSIDERATION OF WEATHER RISK IN FORAGE MACHINERY SELECTION

This paper concerns a procedure jor measuring the major economic risks and returns involved in forage production. Conventional static production economics was modified to permit the use of decision criteria under conditions of weather risk. Twenty-six years of rainfall data were analyzed to determine the expected mean number of days available for fieldwork ivithin each of three specified seasons. These seasons correspond with three critical forage production periods: e.g., (1) land preparation and planting, (2) hay harvest, and (3) corn silage harvest and fall plouiing. A probability distribution of days available for field operations was derived, and the number of days available in any one year was randomly selected from this distribution. Given the acreage involved and the machinery system, the days required to perform nine specified field operations were calculated. If the number of days required within a specified season exceeded the number of days available, the value of the crops produced was reduced by a set of yield reducing functions for each deficient day. Overhead and use-associated machinery costs uiere calculated, and net returns over machinery costs were determined for five machinery systems at 75,150, 225, and 300 acres. Cette publication montre une façon de mesurer les plus grands risques économiques et les profits provenant de la production fourragére. On a modifyé?économie de production conventionnelle et statique afin de tenir compte des critéres de décision utilisés sous les conditions de risques climatologiques. Les chutes de pluie ont été analysées sur une période de vingt-six ans afin de determiner la moyenne des jours disponibles au travail des champs, et ce, pour chacune des trois saisons specifiées. Ces saisons correspondent aux trois périodes critiques de la production fourragere: (1) la préparation du sol et le semis, (2) la récolte du foin, et (3) la récolte du maïs à ensiler et les labours ?automne. On a calculé la distribution probable des jours disponibles pour les travaux des champs et, de cette distribution, le nombre des jours disponibles fut choisi au hasard dans une quel-conque année. Selon une superfécie et un systéme dé machinerie determineés, le nombre de jours nécessaires à?exécution de neuf operations differéntes fut calculé. Lorsque le nombre de jour requis pour ?exécution des travaux ?une saison donnee dépasse le nombre de jours disponibles, la valeur des récoltes produites est réduite par une diminution de rende-ment de plusieurs facteurs, une diminution fonction du nombre de jours manquants. Les frais géneraux et les dépenses associées à?utilisation de la machinerie furent calculés. Les profits nets sur les dépenses de machinerie ont été déterminés pour chaque systéme ?equipement avec 75, 150, 225, et 300 âcres.     

Speed to Market for Innovative Products: Blessing or Curse?

The relationships among speed to market, quality, and costs are important to managers as they attempt to best establish incentives and set goals for new product development teams, allocate resources for new product development, or create positional advantage in the market. The existing literature suggests that the economic consequences of being late to the market are significant, including higher development and manufacturing costs, lower profit margins, and lessening of the firm's market value. Therefore, traditional logic has held that new product development managers need to manage the trade‐offs among speed to market, quality, and costs. While both scholars and managers have often acquiesced to performance trade‐offs among “faster, better, and cheaper,” this research attempts to improve understanding of the interrelationships between these objectives, and ultimately profit. Based on a survey of 197 managers, faster speed to market is shown to be related to better quality and lower costs; it is not necessary to sacrifice one of these outcomes. Further, the moderating roles of two dimensions of innovativeness (innovativeness to the firm and to the market) are examined on the relationships between speed and quality, as well as speed and profit. Both dimensions of innovativeness positively moderate the relationship between speed to market and quality. For more innovative products (both to the firm and the market), there is a stronger positive relationship between speed and quality than for less innovative products. Further, innovativeness to the firm negatively moderates the relationship between speed and profit. Thus, speed has a less positive impact on profit for highly innovative‐to‐the‐firm products compared with less innovative‐to‐the‐firm products. By being conscious of the projects’ levels of innovativeness (along with prioritizing various performance measures), managers can more rationally decide when to emphasize speed to market based on this study's findings.     

Fostering Corporate Social Responsibility Through Public Initiative: From the EU to the Spanish Case

Should CSR be approached only on a voluntary basis or should it be complemented with a compulsory regulatory framework? What type of government intervention is more effective in fostering CSR among companies? This paper is an attempt to answer these questions, reviewing the debate between proponents of the voluntary case and the obligatory case for CSR, and critically analysing current international government-led initiatives to foster CSR among companies, and national government-led initiatives in the EU area. Finally, the paper focuses on the Spanish case, as an example of the failure of an exclusively voluntary approach. Despite the rapid uprise of CSR, Spain is still far behind late in CSR promotion strategies. Most action has been undertaken by companies themselves with no common guidelines, governmental support, or independent verification. The lack of a regulatory framework for CSR or ethical investment issues and the virtual absence of other indirect incentives, explains the misbalance between private, public and Third Sector initiatives. Based on the Spanish context which is quite similar to other non-OECD countries, the authors call for a more proactive government position in CSR related issues. The conclusions of the paper detail the features of this regulatory framework and other policies to promote CSR in Spain as well as in other OECD countries.     

Inconsistency and over‐determination in neo‐Kaleckian growth models: A note

This short note argues that the canonical neo‐Kaleckian growth model does not yield a balanced growth path due to the absence of an inbuilt mechanism by which desired and actual rates of capital accumulation are equalized. Introducing non‐generating capacity autonomous demand does not solve such inconsistency. Contrary to what Lavoie ( 2016 ) claims, we show that the latter is also unable to bring capacity utilization to its normal level. In light of recent contributions (e.g., Nikiforos, 2013, 2016 ), we suggest that making normal capacity utilization an endogenous variable is an alternative better suited to deal with the issue.