The role of venture capitalist to enhance the growth of Spanish and Italian university spin-offs

The establishment of spin-offs to commercialise university knowledge/technology is a potential mechanism to promote economic and innovative development. Nevertheless, University Spin-Offs (USOs) are usually resource-constrained, especially in obtaining funding, limiting their growth. Venture Capital (VC) investors play an important role in the financing and the improvement of their managerial skills, which are critical for firm growth. This paper aims to explore both the effect of VC partners on the USOs’ growth and the cross-national differences in the role played by them. To study both issues, we empirically analysed 516 Spanish and 904 Italian USOs created by 50 Spanish and 57 Italian universities, respectively, and observed them between 2005 and 2013. The results showed different effects in the Spanish and Italian cases. While in Spain the presence of VC partners positively affects the USOs’ growth, in Italy there is not a significant effect. This evidence calls for systematic policies by public administrations and universities to foster USO growth.     

Modularization of hybrid censoring schemes and its application to unified progressive hybrid censoring

In this paper, a structural analysis of hybrid censoring models is presented. This new modularization approach to hybrid censoring models enables a convenient derivation of distributional results. For instance, it allows to derive the exact distribution of the MLEs under an exponential assumption for very complex hybrid scenarios. In order to illustrate the benefit of this idea, we apply it to four new unified progressive hybrid censoring schemes. They are extensions of already proposed unified Type-I/II/III/IV hybrid censoring schemes to progressively Type-II censored data. The resulting analysis shows that the modularization approach provides a powerful, efficient, and elegant tool to study even more complex hybrid censoring models.     

In and out of everyday life through film experiences: an analysis of two social spaces as leisure frames

The new information and communication technologies have made it possible to view films in different spaces. Using the symbolic interactionist framework as a frame of analysis, we interpret the meaning of the two experiences of viewing technology-mediated films in the home and in the cinema. We conducted field research during the first half of 2009, digitally recording 16 interviews with research participants living in Barcelona (Spain). The interviews were transcribed verbatim with the help of voice-recognition software. Reports from our research participants indicate that individuals considered only the cinema experience to be a true leisure activity, while the home experience was interpreted as a routine recreational activity. Therefore, the meanings of the film-viewing activity were associated with the symbolic properties of the frames of interpretation. Finally, we discuss the implications of these findings for the home as a unified centre where shared meanings are co-produced by family members.     

Automatically extracting tourism-related opinion from Chinese social media

Existing tourism-destination investigations of Chinese texts remain weak, and no approach is available to realize Chinese context semantically and automatically. To resolve this, we provide a novel method based on qualitative analysis for studying the online opinions of Chinese tourists regarding the destinations to which they travel. Both traditional and simplified Chinese forums were chosen as the object of study. Spain was selected as a travel destination to evaluate the proposed method. After processing the natural language, unstructured Chinese content is analysed to derive the general sentiment and relevant topics regarding the destination through user comments on social media. The proposed method allows us to understand what tourists are interested in and how they form opinions about tourist destinations.     

Quality of service and segmentation in the MICE industry: An approximation based on fuzzy logic

This article aims to evaluate the service quality experienced at academic conferences held at the Universidad Técnica Particular de Loja in Ecuador. Our approach is based on fuzzy logic and ideal solutions to calculate a global attendee satisfaction index for specific market segments: Gender, nationality, and age. Current literature on the service quality experienced by conference attendees is still scarce. Our results show that the analyzed segments experience varying levels of satisfaction, and that the more influential attributes to each of them are also different. Our results can be applied to improve the competitiveness of Loja and that of Universidad Técnica Particular de Loja.     

Modelling regional policy scenarios in the agri-food sector: a case study of a Spanish region

The agri-food industry has several features of great importance for sustainable economic growth in rural areas. The objective of this work is to evaluate the effects associated with different scenarios of growth, and changes in the regional agri-food industry. These scenarios simulate changes in exports and imports, changes in technology and changes in the level of industrial integration. We develop a computable general equilibrium model calibrated for the region. Our results indicate that policies trying to improve the competitiveness and dynamism of strategic sectors as the agro-industrial complex in this regional economy exert positive effects on its growth and income, having notable impacts on local job markets but also in other sectors and activities linked through the whole production chain.     

Forward-neutral valuation relationships for options on zero coupon bonds

This paper extends the literature on Risk-Neutral Valuation Relationships (RNVRs) to derive valuation formulae for options on zero coupon bonds when interest rates are stochastic. We develop Forward-Neutral Valuation Relationships (FNVRs) for the transformed-bounded random walk class. Our transformed-bounded random walk family of forward bond price processes implies that (i) the prices of the zero coupon bonds are bounded below at zero and above at one, and (ii) negative continuously compounded interest rates are ruled out. FNVRs are frameworks for option pricing, where the forward prices of the options are martingales independent of the market prices of risk. We illustrate the generality and flexibility of our approach with models that yield several new closed-form solutions for call and put options on discount bonds.     

Comparing alternative methods to estimate gravity models of bilateral trade

The gravity equation has been traditionally used to predict trade flows across countries. However, several problems related with its empirical application still remain unsolved. The unobserved heterogeneity, the presence of heteroskedasticity in trade data or the existence of zero flows, which make the estimation of the logarithm unfeasible, are some of them. This paper provides a survey of the most recent literature concerning the specification and estimation methods of this equation. For a dataset covering 80% of world trade, the most widely extended estimators are compared, showing that the Heckman sample selection model performs better overall for the specification of gravity equation selected.     

An application of co-word analysis and bibliometric maps for detecting the most highlighting themes in the consumer behaviour research from a longitudinal perspective

This article presents an application of a bibliometric and visual study of the research carried out on a social science subfield, concretely the consumer behaviour research (CBR), from a longitudinal perspective (period 1966–2008). The study combines performance analysis and science mapping for detecting and visualizing conceptual subdomains. Quantitative and qualitative measures are used in order to identify the most prominent themes. Quantitative data are used to put together very related concepts (themes or clusters of topics), while qualitative indicators (as those based on citations) are used to measure the quality and/or impact of the detected themes. The study also uses bibliometric maps to show in a visual way the associations between the main concepts treated by the CBR community. The maps provide insight into the structure of the CBR, visualize the division of the field into several subfields, and indicate the relationships between these subfields. Co-word analysis is the bibliometric technique used to identify the main themes. All this allows us to quantify and visualize the thematic evolution of the CBR. It also helps to both experts and novices to understand the current state of the art of the CBR and to predict where future research could lead.