Consumer-based brand equity and brand performance

The relation between consumer-based brand equity and brand performance was investigated across 15 product categories in Brazil and the UK. Brand equity was conceptualized as related to the level of social benefit offered by each brand and was measured with a simple questionnaire that asked consumers to rate brands with respect to their familiarity and quality levels. These measures were then related to brand market share and revenue. Results showed that the relation between consumer-based brand equity and brand performance varies across product categories, indicating that products differ with respect to their level of brandability and suggesting ways to measure it.     

Conformity and the Demand for Environmental Goods

The existing literature on eco-labeling and green consumerism has been framed within a classical market context where price and quality are the drivers of consumer choice. However, it seems possible that consumers are also concerned about the choices made by other consumers. In fact, it is unclear that people’s consumption decisions are made independently of social context. For instance, under the desire to conform to certain social norms—or in the presence of status concerns—some individuals may be willing to pay a higher price premium for green products the more widespread green consumerism is in society. We test this hypothesis using a choice experiment where the respondents were asked to choose among coffee products varying with respect to their share of ecological beans, share of fair trade beans, and price. Three treatments were used, differing only in the information given about the choices made by other consumers. We find different responses to the treatments across individuals and we can only confirm our hypothesis of conformity for women, although men appear to have stronger preferences for ecological coffee than women have.     

Optimal portfolio choices using financial leverage

This paper investigates the role of leverage in determining the investor's optimal asset allocation over multiperiod investment horizons. To do this, we allow investors to lever their financial position by borrowing from credit markets. GMM methods are used to estimate and test the optimal portfolio weights and individual's optimal choice of financial leverage. These optimal choices are assumed to be parametric functions of a set of state variables describing the evolution of the economy. The empirical application of this methodology to a portfolio of cash, bonds and stocks reveals that a) financial leverage limits the reaction of investors to changes in the investment opportunity set; b) individuals increase leverage during recessions and deleverage in expansionary periods; c) optimal portfolio weights and financial leverage are negatively related to the degree of investor's risk aversion and positively related to the investment horizon.     

Entrepreneurial Intention and UAE Youth: Unique Influencers of Entrepreneurial Intentions in an Emerging Country Context

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is a young, oil-rich country, where national youth display a clear preference for public sector employment. Growing youth unemployment reinforces the importance of non-government employment, including entrepreneurship. This study investigates UAE national youth intentions toward entrepreneurship through the Theory of Planned Behavior and the Entrepreneurial Intention Questionnaire (EIQ). Analysis (N?=?544) identifies the direct influence of attitude and perceived behavioral control and indirect influence of subjective norms on entrepreneurship intention. Results also examine several demographic variables and highlight the potential importance of family and social groups in promoting entrepreneurial intentions in this emerging country context.     

Unleashing proactive low-carbon strategies through behavioral factors in biodiversity-intensive sustainable supply chains: Mixed methodology

The aim of this research is to understand the complex and relatively understudied relationship between human and behavioral factors and low-carbon management practices from the perspective of the resource-based view (RBV). Research application is in the “biodiversity sector” and consists of a survey and multiple-case study in Brazil, the richest country globally in terms of biodiversity but a country that also faces challenges in protecting biodiversity. The research problem considers the relationship between human critical success factors and the adoption of low-carbon management practices. Quantitative analysis through structural equation modeling shows the three branches of hypothesis to be accepted—the first with a higher coefficient than the second and the second with a higher coefficient than the third. It was observed that human factors influence low-carbon product management practices the most, followed by process practices and finally logistics practices. Qualitative multiple-case study research shows that companies are at different stages of maturity in relation to low-carbon management organizational practices, ranging from the highest stage to the lowest. It was found that the intensity of the presence of human critical success factors was higher where organizations had greater adoption of low-carbon management practices.     

A Mixed Duopoly With Switching Costs

We examine the effects of switching costs in a two‐period Hotelling‐type model where a profit‐maximising private firm competes with a welfare‐maximising public firm. We show that, in contrast with the case in which both firms are private, where switching costs raise prices in both periods, in the mixed duopoly they raise prices in the second period but reduce them in the first period. Moreover, the first‐period price reduction is of such magnitude that switching costs reduce firms’ profits and raise consumer welfare. We also find that switching costs affect the consequences of privatisation in favour of firms and against consumers.     

Large Infrastructure Investments: Financing Mechanisms and Incentives in Decentralised Countries*

Infrastructure services crucially affect competitiveness and efficiency. They are essential but they usually require important amounts of public funds. In decentralised countries, regional governments cannot usually afford large infrastructure projects, so co-financing with the central government is required. The aim of this paper is to demonstrate the influence of the central government financing mechanisms on the contract offered by the regional government for the construction, maintenance and operation of the infrastructure. We prove that if the central government uses certain financing mechanisms (total cost coverage), the regional government may have no incentives to offer an efficient contract to the firm.     

Toward A Place‐Based Understanding of Business Sustainability: The Role of Green Competitors and Green Locales in Firms' Voluntary Environmental Engagement

Management research has extensively considered who, what, when, why, which and how aspects pertaining to firms' voluntary environmental practices, yet the where aspect, which would consider the role of a firm's location on its environmental practices, has received remarkably less attention. We explore three research questions relating social and physical attributes of a firm's location with its engagement in a voluntary environmental program (VEP). Drawing on a sample of hotels participating in a Costa Rican VEP, we find that the number of VEP certified competitors (i.e. green competitors) and firm proximity to a sacrosanct environment (i.e. a green locale) are positively related to a firm's level of VEP engagement. We also find an interaction effect such that the relationship between the number of VEP certified competitors and the level of VEP engagement is positively moderated by firm proximity to a green locale. We argue that firms' voluntary environmental engagement can be enhanced by developing green clusters amid green corridors. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment     

Labor supply: Toward the construction of an alternative conception from post Keynesian and institutional economics

Post Keynesian and institutional economics have traditionally maintained a critical stance toward the orthodox model of labor supply, questioning many of its underlying assumptions. Nevertheless, this critical view has not led to the formulation of an alternative conception of labor supply that is sufficiently coherent and structured to be generally accepted within these branches of the literature. Accordingly, the purpose of this study is to contribute to the construction of such an alternative. To do so, the article starts by analyzing the relationship between the reasons that lead to individuals offering their labor and what that activity can bring to human beings in return. Secondly, the authors present an alternative concept of what workers contribute at work. They then analyze how the decision-making process regarding the labor supply actually takes place. Finally, the article concludes by briefly presenting certain additional points, in particular how differentiation is an inherent feature of the labor supply.     

Unveiling the Endogenous Relationship Between Technical Efficiency and Value Creation in Mergers and Acquisitions in Nigeria

There is a growing literature on how the beneficial impacts of horizontal mergers and acquisitions (M&A) should be measured. Thus far, however, there have been few studies addressing endogeneity between technical efficiency and value creation: they tend to present a bidirectional and simultaneous relationship. This research contributes to the debate by investigating the impact of voluntary horizontal M&A on these metrics in Nigeria between 1995 and 2012, in light of the individual performance of bidders, targets, and the resulting corporate companies. First, technical efficiency, technology gap ratio, and returns-to-scale estimates were computed based on a meta-frontier DEA approach, together with a set of contextual variables that encompass performance indicators which reflect the value creation process. Then, robust regressions were used to discriminate these efficiency estimates in terms of such business-related variables, correcting for endogeneity and controlling for industry and trend effects. The results reveal that these contextual variables significantly impact virtual efficiency and returns-to-scale levels, and that there is a trade-off between efficiency and value creation at some point in the merging process. Managerial implications are derived.