Market Research for the Optimization of the Consumers Response to the Recent Award of a Protected Geographical Indication to a Local Product,Beans from “La Bañeza-León” (Spain)

Abstract

In Europe several low involvement food products with reduced productions have been awarded with a PGI or PDO during the last few years. The beans from La Bañeza-León (Spain) are an example of this and received a PGI in September 2005. The general objective was to appraise the effect that the award of the PGI to such kinds of food products has in consumers, in order to optimize the managerial and public policies, and to get maximum advantage from the PGI distinction in the commercialization of them. For low involvement products with PGI, the general guidelines should be to keep the prices as low as possible, to develop intensive public information campaigns about the award of the PGI, and to offer the product in medium or high involvement restaurants, in order to reach those consumers willing to pay more for the product, that are mainly in the age range of 36 to 45 years. It is also discussed that the PGI label would have more interest than a private brand. Specifically for beans from “La Bañeza-León,” the PGI Council should urgently tackle a promotional campaign about the product and the PGI award that should reach to most of the consumers in the target markets, taking into account that as the distance from the production area increases the knowledge of the product decreases. This campaign should help the consumer to clearly identify the beans from the PGI by using an attractive logo, and to inform them that the beans from the PGI are superior than substitutive beans in taste and cooking time. Finally, public campaigns that promote the consumption of beans among youth would be necessary.     

University spin-offs vs. other NTBFs: Total factor productivity differences at outset and evolution

Previous empirical research suggests that university spin-offs under-perform in economic terms compared to other new technology-based firms (NTBFs) in their early years. The usual explanations suggest a lower capabilities endowment of university spin-offs compared to other NTBFs. Using a longitudinal Spanish dataset we compare the evolution of firms′ total factor productivity (capabilities endowment) in both kinds of firm. Productivity grew faster in university spin-offs and their initial underperformance disappeared after 2 or 3 years of operation. The evidence therefore suggests that university spin-offs have lower initial substantive capabilities but greater dynamic capabilities than independent NTBFs. Possible explanations are discussed.     

Analysis of contagion from the dynamic conditional correlation model with Markov Regime switching

Over the last decades, the transmissions of international financial events have been the subject of many academic studies focused on multivariate volatility models. This study evaluates the financial contagion between stock market returns. The econometric model employed, regime switching dynamic correlation (RSDC). A modification was made in the original RSDC model, the introduction of the GJR-GARCH-N and also GJR-GARCH-t models, on the equation of conditional univariate variances, thus allowing us to capture the asymmetric effects in volatility and also heavy tails. A database was built using series of indices in the United States (S&P500), the United Kingdom (FTSE100), Brazil (IBOVESPA) and South Korea (KOSPI) from 1 February 2003 to 20 September 2012. Throughout this study the methodology is compared with those frequently found in literature, and the model RSDC with two regimes was defined as the most appropriate for the selected sample with t-Student distribution in the disturbances. The adapted RSDC model used in this article can be used to detect contagion – considering the definition of financial contagion from the World Bank called very restrictive – with the help of the empirical exercise.     

Business cycle affiliations in the context of European integration

We study affiliations for the countries of the European Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) with Germany and the USA, using various business cycle measures derived from quarterly real GDP. These measures are Hodrick-Prescott and Baxter-King filtered series and annual growth rates. By using rolling contemporaneous and maximum (over a short lead/lag interval) correlations, we document increasing correlations of EMU countries with Germany, with these typically being largest during the 1990s. We also document a strong leading role for the USA in relation to these countries in the period since 1993, thereby correcting the fallacy that the European business cycle was disjointed from the USA for most of the 1990s.     

Salesperson CLV orientation's effect on performance

Previous studies show how strategies based on the customer lifetime value (CLV) can lead to an increase of profitability for a firm. In this context, marketing serves the purpose of maximizing CLV and customer equity (the CLV of current and future customers). For most types of service firms, salespeople are direct participants in implementing the CLV concept. However, prior research does not answer the question of whether or how salesperson CLV orientation can enhance profits. Using data on salespeople in a large Chilean retail bank, this study shows that the effect of salesperson CLV orientation on salesperson performance follows an S-shaped function (which is first convex and then concave). Additionally, data does not support the idea that the optimum level of CLV orientation depends on salesperson customer orientation, salesperson adaptive selling behavior, or salesperson experience (i.e., CLV-oriented behaviors could be effective across a wide range of salespeople). As such, this study addresses an important concern among researchers and managers that is related to how to increase the salesperson performance. The findings of this study suggest that firms need to monitor individual salesperson CLV orientation more closely.     

Innovation at the workplace: Do professional competencies matter?

This paper analyzes individuals' propensity to innovate in professional environments, by focusing on the specific competency profile of individuals who play a role in the incorporation of product, technological, and knowledge innovations at work. The analysis draws on economic and managerial literature on innovation, innovative behavior, and competencies to gain a better understanding of the relationships between the process of competency development and innovative behavior in working environments. Using data from REFLEX, a European survey on the transition from higher education to labor markets, the empirical component of this study estimates discrete response models to explain the propensity of individuals to innovate at work. The models take the responses to a set of 19 questionnaire items as the basis for determining individuals' competency profiles, while also incorporating firm, working environment, and personal characteristics. The estimation results provide evidence of significant marginal effects of specific competencies on the probability that individuals act as innovators at the workplace. Competencies such as alertness to new opportunities, ability to present products, ideas or reports, ability to mobilize the capacities of others, ability to come up with new ideas and solutions, and ability to use computers and the Internet appear to have stronger marginal effects on the likelihood of innovating and, consequently, emerge as key competencies in explaining the propensity of individuals to become innovators in their working environments.     

The effect of oil price on China's exports

The increase in oil prices in recent years has occurred concurrently with a rapid expansion of Chinese exports in the world markets, despite China being an oil importing country. In this paper we develop a theoretical model that explains the positive correlation between Chinese exports and the oil price. The model shows that Chinese growth can lead to an increase in oil prices that has a stronger impact on its export competitors. This is due to the large labor force surplus of China. We then examine this hypothesis by estimating a reduced form equation for Chinese exports using Rodrik [Rodrik, Dani, 2006. What's so special about China's exports? China and World Economy 14, 1–19.]'s measure of export competitiveness, together with the oil price, productivity, real exchange rate, and foreign industrial production over the monthly 1992–2005 period. The results suggest a stable relationship and yields slightly positive values for the price of oil and elastic coefficients for export competitiveness, along with the expected negative elasticity for the real exchange rate.     

Multifactor models and their consistency with the ICAPM

Can any multifactor model be interpreted as a variant of the Intertemporal CAPM (ICAPM)? The ICAPM places restrictions on time-series and cross-sectional behavior of state variables and factors. If a state variable forecasts positive (negative) changes in investment opportunities in time-series regressions, its innovation should earn a positive (negative) risk price in the cross-sectional test of the respective multifactor model. Second, the market (covariance) price of risk must be economically plausible as an estimate of the coefficient of relative risk aversion (RRA). We apply our ICAPM criteria to eight popular multifactor models and the results show that most models do not satisfy the ICAPM restrictions. Specifically, the “hedging” risk prices have the wrong sign and the estimates of RRA are not economically plausible. Overall, the Fama and French (1993) and Carhart (1997) models perform the best in consistently meeting the ICAPM restrictions. The remaining models, which represent some of the most relevant examples presented in the empirical asset pricing literature, can still empirically explain the size, value, and momentum anomalies, but they are generally inconsistent with the ICAPM.     

Accessing antecedents and outcomes of RFID implementation in health care

This research first conceptualizes, develops, and validates four constructs for studying RFID in health care, including Drivers (Internal and External), Implementation Level (Clinical Focus and Administrative Focus), Barriers (Cost Issues, Lack of Understanding, Technical Issues, and Privacy and Security Concerns), and Benefits (Patient Care, Productivity, Security and Safety, Asset Management, and Communication). Data for the study were collected from 88 health care organizations and the measurement scales were validated using structural equation modeling. Second, a framework is developed to discuss the causal relationships among the above mentioned constructs. It is found that Internal Drivers are positively related to Implementation Level, which in turn is positively related to Benefits and Performance. In addition, Barriers are found to be positively related to Implementation Level, which is in contrast to the originally proposed negative relationship. The research also compares perception differences regarding RFID implementation among the non-implementers, future implementers, and current implementers of RFID. It is found that both future implementers and current implementers consider RFID barriers to be lower and benefits to be higher compared to the non-implementers. This paper ends with our research implications, limitations and future research.