Overt searchers' responses to advertising

The purpose of this study was to compare two groups of prospective buyers of an industrial product on awareness and recall of a particular advertising campaign. The two groups were: (a) overt searchers - operationally defined as those who had made inquiries about the product, and (b) random prospects - randomly selected from local industrial directories. According to the Howard and Sheth model, it is expected that overt searchers would exhibit greater awareness and knowledge of the advertising campaign than would the random prospects. The results indicated, however, that overt searchers scored higher than random prospects only on awareness. Indeed, they seemed to have poorer recall of the content of the advertisements. The authors provide an explanation for this unexpected result.     

Human resources audit

Human resource management (HRM) has experienced a strong evolution. In order to provide useful information to managers, it is necessary to evaluate the results generated by the design and implementation of personnel policies. This is the goal of the HR audit that includes two different analyses and valuations: the HR policies and their level of fit with the strategy of the firm, and the characteristics of human capital. Several criteria have been used to assess different HR policies. Nevertheless, the measurement of the value that human capital brings to the firm is a very complex topic. Consequently, different models are being presented that aim to properly solve this challenge. This paper will analyze the HR function from two perspectives: the evaluation of the implemented policies and the quality of human capital in relation to real competencies, and the capability to learn and develop new skills.     

Developing and testing a global model to explain the adoption of websites by users in rural tourism accommodations

This article analyzes the factors determining the intention to use the websites of the rural tourism accommodations to search for information and to make online reservations. Based on the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), a model is developed to explain the intention to use the websites, incorporating as explanatory variables the perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use (basic variables of the TAM) and the following key attributes of tourism websites: information, interactivity, and navigability. The results of a sample of 1083 users indicate that (1) the perceived usefulness is the main direct antecedent of the intention to use the websites to search for information and make online reservations, and that (2) information on the accommodation and destination positively influences the perceived usefulness, whereas both the interactivity and navigability have a positive effect on the perceived ease of use of the websites.     

Convergence in the Spanish and Portuguese NUTS 3 regions: An exploratory spatial approach

Since their accession to the European Union in 1986, both Portugal and Spain have benefited from strong financial support. Both countries have experienced considerable growth in income per capita, converging towards average European levels. However, several studies suggest a high degree of persistence of regional asymmetries within the countries. This paper empirically analyses convergence among NUTS 3 regions of the Iberian Peninsula between 1995 and 2008. The results reveal divergent national trends and indicate no evidence of catching-up effects among the poorest regions, confirming the existence of economic clusters.     

The Lee-Carter quantile mortality model

The Lee-Carter (LC) stochastic mortality model has been widely used for making future projections of mortality rates. In the framework of the LC model, the response function is non-linear in parameters. Here, we adapt this LC framework to compute conditional quantiles. The LC quantile model can be defined as quantile non-linear regression conditioned to age and the calendar year. Two strategies for estimating coefficients based on interior-point methods are described. We show that the LC quantile model provides additional information to that furnished by the traditional LC conditional mean. An application to Spanish mortality data is reported.     

Convergence among EU regions, 1990–2001

This article focuses on convergence in terms of output per working age person across regions in the European Union for the period 1990–2001. Controlling for the quality of national institutions, the authors investigate whether the status of “objective 1” region improves the speed of convergence as compared to what would be expected given the regions' initial conditions. They find evidence of conditional convergence among EU regions, with the quality of national institutions having a positive impact, but no evidence of a correlation between eligibility for objective 1 and faster convergence.     

A Panel Unit Root and Panel Cointegration Test of the Complementarity Hypothesis in the Mexican Case: 1960–2001

Using panel data, this paper tests whether public and private capital have a positive and significant effect on aggregate output and labor productivity for Mexico during the 1960–2001 period. The richer information set made possible by the sectorial data enables this study to utilize the methodologically sound “group-mean” fully modified ordinary least squares (FMOLS) procedure developed by Pedroni to generate consistent estimates of the relevant panel variables in the cointegrated production (labor productivity) function. The results suggest that, in the long run, changes in the stocks of public and private capital and the economically active population (EAP) have a positive and economically significant effect on output ( and labor productivity). The period is also broken down into two sub-periods: 1960–1981 (state-led industrialization) and 1982–2001 (neoliberal model). The estimate for the public capital variables clearly shows that it had a relatively more important economic effect during the earlier state-led period.

西陇海—兰新经济带区域经济整合条件及其发展战略研究

《西部开发“十五”总体规划》中明确提出,要促进西陇海—兰新经济带的经济整合,带动周围地区和农村发展。确定西陇海—兰新经济带这一重点建设区域,能使分散的生产要素集中使用,提高资源的空间配置效益,获取较大的投资边际效益,有利于快速提高西部整体的经济发展水平。本文正是基于上述背景,研究了西陇海—兰新经济带区域经济整合条件及其发展战略。