Toward a Wider Analysis of Market Definition: Theory and Evidence from the Turkish Telecommunications Industry

This article develops a novel approach to the analysis of market definition. The article empirically investigates the main components of market definition, such as market power, substitution, and the simultaneous interaction between the demand and its determinants for the fixed and mobile voice services. To this end, I employ the multivariate Johansen cointegration methodology and analyze the Turkish voice telecommunications industry. While the VECM analysis confirms the presence of a simultaneous long-term causality relationship among the variables, the Johansen normalization results reveal demand elasticities that enable the analysis of market power and fixed-to-mobile substitution. My findings suggest that the fixed and mobile voice services, which are traditionally viewed as separate markets, can be defined as products that compete in the single market.     

Aiming to connect: the business case for diversity in public organizations in The Netherlands

This paper examines the effectiveness of diversity policy and interventions in the Dutch public sector and shows that business case interventions can affect employees’ commitment to their organization, contributing to staff retention rates and improving overall performance. Leadership style, as well as organizational culture, are shown to play a crucial role in the effectiveness of the interventions that were analysed.     

Achieving Customer Satisfaction through Integrated Products and Services: An Exploratory Study

Complex products such as manufacturing equipment have always needed maintenance and repair services. Increasingly, leading manufacturers are integrating products and services to generate increased revenues and achieve customer satisfaction. Designing integrated products and services requires a different approach to new product development and a clear understanding of how customers perceive the value they obtain from actual usage of products and services—so‐called value‐in‐use. However, there is a lack of research on integrated products and services and how they impact customer satisfaction. An exploratory study was undertaken to understand customers' views on integrated products and services and the value‐in‐use derived from such offerings. As value‐in‐use and its impacts are complicated concepts, a technique from psychology—Repertory Grid Technique—was used to gather data in 33 interviews. The interviews allowed a deep understanding of customer views on integrated products and services to be obtained, and a systematic analysis identified the key attributes of value‐in‐use. In order to probe further, the data were then analyzed using Honey's procedure, which identified the impact of the attributes of value‐in‐use on customer satisfaction. Two key attributes—relational dynamic and access—were found to have the most influence on customer satisfaction. This paper contributes to the innovation field by identifying customer needs for integrated products and services and how these impact customer satisfaction. These are key points and need to be fully considered by managers during new product and service development. Similarly, the paper identifies a number of important areas for further research.     

Persistence and non-linearity in US unemployment: A regime-switching approach

This article examines persistence and nonlinearity in the US unemployment rate in the post-war period by using a regime-switching unit root test. The empirical results indicate that a regime-switching unit root test outperforms conventional unit root tests and describes unemployment behavior better over the business cycle in the sample. While shocks to US unemployment dissipate in expansions, shocks to the unemployment rate seem to be persistent in recessions, supporting the hysteresis hypothesis. This is consistent with the usual explanation of hysteresis that workers may lose valuable job skills in protracted recessions.     

Fading attraction: Turkey's shifting relationship with the European Union

In this paper, we examine Turkey's changing economic relations with the European Union (EU) and the rest of the world during the past few decades. We argue that a combination of the EU's reluctance to accept Turkey as a member, internal economic and political developments, and the rise of economic and political opportunities elsewhere have shifted the country to diversify its economic relations around the world and reduced its reliance on the ties with Europe. This shift, which had started long before the 2008 global financial crisis and accelerated in its aftermath, seems to have helped Turkey weather relatively well the recent economic storms in Europe.     

Achieving environmental sustainability through green transformational leadership policy: Can green team resilience help?

The race to gain competitive advantage through the formulation of a sustainable business strategy is key for the survival in the global business sphere. Even more importantly is the quest to deploy an effective green strategy to combat the numerous negative impact industrialization has on the environment. Researches pointed out the role of leaders and stakeholder's engagement in bringing about reform. This research focuses on how to build a robust psychological capital within an organization through the leader's transformative ability in combating environmental issues. This is necessary because research related to green transformational leadership and the effect on green team resilience has not been considered in literature. Drawing from the combination of three theories; broaden-and-build theory, job demand–resource theory, and conservation of resource theory, this study contributes to the extant literature by testing the effect of green transformational leadership via the mediating role of green work engagement to green team resilience. Using Amos 20 version to analyze 351 questionnaires that were collected from employees in four and five star hotels in Turkey, the result reviews that green transformational leadership has a positive effect on green work engagement and green team resilience, and green work engagement fully mediates the relationship between the variables. The theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

The development of Portuguese consumer law with special regard to conflict resolution

The paper reports about the considerable progress in Portuguese consumer law since the adoption of the Constitution of 1976. Portugal has adopted a frame-work legislation aiming at guaranteeing certain consumer rights as well as specific acts implementing EC consumer protection directives. Most important has been the institution of a system of consumer arbitration, based on an agreement negotiated between the Lisbon's townhall, Portuguese government, Portuguese business, and consumer associations. It is supported by the EC Portuguese government and Lisbon's townhall. Information, mediation, conciliation, and arbitration in the City of Lisbon are in the hands of a special arbitration centre (CACC) of which the author is the chairperson. The paper presents the first practical experiences of the centre.

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Die Entwicklung des portugiesischen Verbraucherrechts unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der Konfliktlösung

Zusammenfassung Der Beitrag berichtet über die rasante Entwicklung des portugiesischen Verbraucherrechts seit der neuen Verfassung von 1976. Ein Rahmengesetz und zahlreiche Sondergesetze garantieren einen umfassenden Rechtsschutz des Verbrauchers. Von besonderer Bedeutung ist die Entwicklung vereinfachter Konfliktlösungverfahren. Die Verfasserin berichtet ausführlich über die Erfahrungen des von ihr geleiteten Schiedszentrums für Verbraucherstreitigkeiten in Lissabon, das sie für ein gelungenes, verbreitungsfähiges Experiment hält. In letzter Zeit nimmt es sich auch grenzüberschreitenden Streitigkeiten an, insbesondere durch Abschlu\ einer Gegenseitigkeitsvereinbarung mit einer entsprechenden Einrichtung in Madrid.

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Isabel Mendes CabeÇadas has been Director of the Centro de Arbitragem de Conflitos de Consumo (CACC) since its founding in 1989.     

An exploratory study of resident perceptions toward the tourism industry in Cappadocia: a Social Exchange Theory approach

This paper evaluates the perceptions of Cappadocia residents on the impacts of tourism development and resident attitudes toward tourism. Social Exchange Theory underpinned this study of the perceptions of Cappadocia’s residents and their attitudes toward tourism. Primary data were collected from tourism industry professionals, officials of non-profit organizations and handicraftsmen. Twenty-three in-depth interviews were conducted with Cappadocia residents, and the data were analyzed with content analysis. Results highlight that “Economic,” “Socio-Cultural” and “Environmental” aspects can be inferred to encompass resident perceptions toward the impacts of tourism development in Cappadocia. Residents tend to recognize the economic benefits as well as socio-cultural and environmental costs. Results indicate that Social Exchange Theory can be used in explaining the perceptions of Cappadocia residents and reactions to tourism phenomena. This study is expected to provide practical ways for concerned authorities to make future policies and strategies to eradicate problems that create unpleasant feelings amongst residents.     

Tourism education and internships: a metaphor analysis

The objective of the present study was to examine tourism undergraduates’ perceptions of their education and internship experiences through metaphorical analysis whilst striving to raise the awareness of tourism educators towards using metaphors. A qualitative methodology was used to explore this phenomenon. Participants were senior students (n = 94) from the Faculty of Tourism at Akdeniz University in Antalya, Turkey. The data were collected with a semi-structured questionnaire and processed using content analysis. Next, metaphors found in answers were categorised into different groups, and relevant excerpts were identified. The results provide insights useful to both tourism education providers and tourism establishments. Conclusions, limitations and future research directions are also presented.     

Welfare impacts of new demand-enhancing agricultural products: The case of Honeycrisp apples

Agricultural research and development programs on new demand-enhancing products have become increasingly important over the past decade. Large numbers of new agricultural products have been developed and commercialized in the United States to meet consumers’ increasingly diverse expectations for food quality. However, little is known about their economic benefits. Focusing on the apple market, we investigate the welfare impacts of the introduction of Honeycrisp apples in a market equilibrium framework. We use market data on apple sales from 61 cities across the United States between 2009 and 2015. We find the introduction of Honeycrisp increased consumer welfare, which is mainly explained by the increased number of total apple varieties. We also find that the introduction of Honeycrisp apples has increased overall market size and total apple sales. To extrapolate our results to the entire U.S. apple market, we perform a back-of-the-envelope analysis and find that the introduction of Honeycrisp apples has increased total consumer welfare by about 859 million dollars during the study period. This corresponds to approximately 19% of the annual average domestic expenditures on public food and agricultural R&D.