Sustainable Consumption: Proposal of a Multistage Model to Analyse Consumer Behaviour for Organic Foods

Explanatory models of consumer behaviour can be used to steer decision‐making in the complex task of designing generic strategies to increase sustainable consumption. This paper proposes an operational model which assumes that the purchase of an organic food is a complex process that can be broken down into phases. It is applied to a concrete case – organic olive oil in the Spanish market – quantifying each phase to determine which ones should be acted on to increase demand. Results indicate that it is possible to adopt the model proposed, and that the problems hindering consumption are a lack of confidence in organic certification, not perceiving differences between organic and conventional foods, and the perception of barriers in their purchase. Given the context, marketing communications strategies have a key role to play. This model can be used to analyse the specific situation of each market and propose development strategies. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment     

A template-based approach for responsibility management in executable business processes

Process-oriented organisations need to manage the different types of responsibilities their employees may have w.r.t. the activities involved in their business processes. Despite several approaches provide support for responsibility modelling, in current Business Process Management Systems (BPMS) the only responsibility considered at runtime is the one related to performing the work required for activity completion. Others like accountability or consultation must be implemented by manually adding activities in the executable process model, which is time-consuming and error-prone. In this paper, we address this limitation by enabling current BPMS to execute processes in which people with different responsibilities interact to complete the activities. We introduce a metamodel based on Responsibility Assignment Matrices (RAM) to model the responsibility assignment for each activity, and a flexible template-based mechanism that automatically transforms such information into BPMN elements, which can be interpreted and executed by a BPMS. Thus, our approach does not enforce any specific behaviour for the different responsibilities but new templates can be modelled to specify the interaction that best suits the activity requirements. Furthermore, libraries of templates can be created and reused in different processes. We provide a reference implementation and build a library of templates for a well-known set of responsibilities.     

Simultaneous Models for Contingency Tables: A Reanalysis of Heatherton et al. (1997) Data on Eating Behavior

In panel studies, where a categorical response is measured attwo points in time, we can examine two kind of hypotheses regardingthe nature of change. The first is related with change at theindividual level (gross change) through the modelling of joint distributionof responses. The second is related with aggregate change (netchange) through the modelling of marginal distributions of responses.This paper describes a general approach to the analysis of two-wavepanel data based on Lang and Agresti's work (1994) that simultaneouslypermits the modelling of marginal and joint distributions of responses.This approach is illustrated with data from Heatherton et al.(1997) about change in dieting behaviour. These data were originallyanalyzed using the ² statistic to test independenceof responses. This paper shows how it is possible toobtain a better understanding of these data using the proposedmethodological approach.     

Das Glühbirnendekret der EU – ein unnötiges Verbot

Since September 2009, the European market for household lamps is subject to EU regulation 244/2009, which enforces the gradual phase-out of incandescent light bulbs. As of September 2012, only energy-efficient lighting sources such as halogen lamps, light-emitting diodes (LED), or compact fluorescent lamps—often referred to as energy-saving lamps—will be allowed for sale. The EU’s justification for the phase-out of conventional light bulbs maintains that a reduction in the electricity consumed will not only lead to lower energy costs for private households and industrial consumers, but at the same time lead to a decrease in greenhouse gas emissions. This article discusses possible reasons for the slow market diffusion of energy-saving lamps and shows that the investment in energy-efficient lamps does not necessarily lead to significant cost reductions in every case. Drawing on some illustrative examples, we demonstrate that the use of cheaper incandescent bulbs instead of energy-saving lamps can be economically rational in cases of rather low usage times, in which the higher initial purchasing price might only pay off after very long time spans. Furthermore, due to the coexistence with the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), this regulation will not lead to any additional reduction of carbon emissions exceeding the amount caused by the ETS. We thus conclude that the general ban of incandescent light bulbs is inappropriate and should be abolished by the Commission.     

The use of scientific knowledge by Spanish agrifood firms

This paper analyses the factors that influence the use of scientific knowledge in patented technology by agrifood firms in Spain. Our particular objective is to identify whether collaboration with universities and technological characteristics of firms are the determining factors in this process. The methodology is supported by non-patent citations (NPCs) as an indicator of the extent to which scientific knowledge is used to support the development of patented technologies in the agrifood sector. The data suggest that scientific citations in patent documents are geographically more concentrated than patents, and that scientific citations are more common for agrifood products and chemical products than for agrifood machinery. Our econometric results show that internal factors related to the characteristics of technologies and firms, along with collaboration with a public research institution, are relevant factors that contribute to explaining the use of scientific knowledge by agrifood firms.     

Growth,development and tourism in a small economy: evidence from Aruba

This study will focus on tourism economic growth and its development impacts on a microstate and will explore their implications for tourism analysis and planning. The evidence presented in this article reveals that tourism in Aruba can generate desirable and widely distributed impacts. The tourist performance also has been remarkable and consistent. The results also suggest that the export‐led growth strategy has affected the whole of the economy in a positive way. The principal conclusion is that institutional intervention can only become a positive force within a context of rapid integration with the global market. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.