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.     

Can Insider Power Affect Employment?

Abstract. Do firms reduce employment when their insiders (established, incumbent employees) claim higher wages? The conventional answer in the theoretical literature is that insider power has no influence on employment, provided that the newly hired employees (entrants) receive their reservation wages. The reason given is that an increase in insider wages gives rise to a countervailing fall in reservation wages, leaving the present value of wage costs unchanged. Our analysis contradicts this conventional answer. We show that, in the context of a stochastic model of the labor market, an increase in insider wages promotes firing in recessions, while leaving hiring in booms unchanged. Thereby insider power reduces average employment.     

Effects of brand-related and market signals on franchisees’ entrepreneurial decisions: a multi-country panel data analysis

This paper analyses the influence of market and brand-related signals on franchisees’ decisions when choosing a franchise brand with which to open an outlet for the first time. Panel data methodology was used to analyse a sample of 1277 chains operating in Spain, Mexico and Peru between 2004 and 2013. The results show that market signals prevail over brand-related signals. Within brand-related signals, franchisees first seek information relating to the brand’s sector and then seek information relating to the brand’s value. Franchisors should match the content of the signals they send to the market to the true characteristics of the franchise. Franchisors should also endeavour to ensure the country where they operate has general and franchise-specific legislation that fosters business activity by both franchisor and franchisee. The use of institutional quality as a signal in a multi-country study represents a significant contribution to the literature on franchising.

     

Immigration and local spending in social services: evidence from a massive immigration wave

The aim of this paper is to analyze the relationship between immigration and redistributive public spending by using the recent, massive arrival of immigrants in Spain. Specifically, we focus our analysis on the effect of 1998–2006 changes in local immigrant density on contemporaneous changes in municipal spending in social services. To address the potential endogenous location of immigrants, we adopt an instrumental variables approach that uses the distribution of rental housing in 1991 to predict the location of immigrant inflows. The results indicate that (per capita) social spending increased less in those municipalities that recorded the largest increases in immigrant density. We interpret our results as a reduction in natives’ demand for redistributive public spending.