Brazil's Experiment with Corporate Governance

The adoption of special listing segments by the São Paulo Stock Exchange in the year 2000 was an important step forward for the Brazilian equity market. Bovespa's introduction of the Novo Mercado and its Special Corporate Governance Levels 1 and 2 provided concrete, standardized certification of corporate commitments to higher governance standards that could be readily observed and verified by all market participants. What evidence do we have that this experiment in corporate governance has been a success? One indication is the performance of the Brazilian stock market itself, along with its ability to attract foreign investors. From 2002 to mid‐2008, the market capitalization of Bovespa companies increased by over 700%, while average daily volume grew almost tenfold. And as of June 2008, international investors represented 37% of total value, up from 26% in 2002. What's more, the growth in the three differentiated governance segments has been even more remarkable. Starting with 15 companies in 2001, the special governance segments had a total of 161 listings by early 2009. And by the end of 2008, the companies listed in the three differentiated segments accounted for more than 60% of Bovespa's total market capitalization and 73% of all trades. Perhaps even more telling, over 70% of the Brazilian IPOs issued between 2001 and 2008 were placed in the special governance segments. In this article, the authors summarize the findings of their study of the reaction of stock prices to the announcement by 31 Brazilian companies of their intent to list on one of the special governance exchanges. Their analysis showed that the companies choosing to list in these segments experienced an increase in both the value and the liquidity of their shares. In light of this evidence, such corporate decisions can be seen as functioning as publicly verifiable signals of commitment to greater transparency and investor protection. And the fact that the listing requirements of the special segments are stricter than those of Brazilian securities legislation means that stock exchanges—and the companies that choose to list on them— effectively have the option to initiate or lead investor protection reforms, as opposed to just complying with them. Thus, in countries where governance legislation is weak and the progress of reform is slow, stock markets can play a key role in helping companies differentiate themselves through exchange‐defined governance codes.     

Travellers’ profiles definition using statistical multivariate analysis of attitudinal variables

This paper aims at presenting a set of travellers’ typologies using attributes characterizing people’s attitude, through an Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA), and a subsequent cluster analysis (CA), based on the obtained latent constructs. The final goal is to contribute to deepen the knowledge on market segmentation in order to define more people-oriented transport policies, focusing on a medium size Italian city, Alessandria. Six factors have been defined on which the k-means cluster analysis has been applied finding four travellers’ profiles.Results confirm certain hypothesis from behavioural psychological theories. Attitude–behaviour relationships loosen when habits, consolidated in time, do intervene; moreover in small-medium urban context, as opposed to large and dense cities, insufficient transport supply does not favour the use of alternative modes to the motor vehicle, if not to the cost of a great loss in efficiency. In fact, the study shows how significant constraints such as necessity, time saving, and low transport supply (mainly designed around students going to school) are in determining a behavioural change, so that the “right general attitudes” are not sufficient to obtain a real modal shift. This leads to expect opportunistic behaviours, even within a overall positive attitude towards the environment. Actually, that overall positive attitude is not enough to prompt consistent behaviour unless a marked self-control and strong motivation are present. These two features seem to be missing in the interviewed sample of population, unlike what emerges from other studies undertaken in Northern Europe. The geographic location most likely plays a significant role in such a difference. Indeed, cultural background and the prevailing habits of the population may well explain the “slackening” of the bond between moral norms and behaviour, and the subsequent search for surrogates (e.g. the high willingness to pay for environmental protection) to justify the unwillingness to forgo the private vehicle on behalf of more sustainable modes.Finally, our study seems to prove that education could play a key role in transport policy formulation but, moreover, in social policy, as individuals more akin to modal shift are those showing higher levels of instruction.     

Entrepreneurial orientation in family firms: a generational perspective

We adopt a generational perspective to investigate entrepreneurial orientation (EO) in family firms. We test a model that determines how the influence on EO of external factors and internal factors differs in first-, second- and third-and-beyond-generation family firms. We argue that while the founder is vital in the first generation, EO is more subject to interpretations of the competitive environment in the second generation and that in the third generation and beyond, access to non-family resources drives EO to a greater extent. Our findings show that perceptions of the competitive environment and EO correlate differently in family firms, depending on the generation in charge, and it is generally stronger in second-generation family firms. Further, we find that non-family managers on the top management team makes a positive difference for EO only in the third-generation and beyond family firms. The significance of non-family investors’ on EO is particularly strong in third-generation-and-beyond firms.     

What's Behind CRM Research? A Bibliometric Analysis of Publications in the CRM Research Field

The diversity of approaches to customer relationship management (CRM) brings about the need for systematic reviews. The objective of this article is to identify and categorize the most used publications in the CRM field. We conducted a bibliometric analysis using the Web of Science database. To identify and categorize the subfields, we conducted an exploratory factor analysis. The most used publications were categorized into: (1) methodology in the CRM research field; (2) relationship marketing; (3) service quality and customer loyalty; (4) implications of market-oriented strategy; (5) CRM theory and its practical implications; (6) strategic management; and (7) customer value.     

Measuring Consumer Sensitivity to Corporate Social Performance Across Cultures

ABSTRACT

In the context of a severe economic crisis, the objective of this research is to examine to what extent the economic crisis and austerity's measures have generated new marketing strategies in food companies. We develop a comparative analysis though multivariate analysis of variance, consisting of 10 food product categories across eight European countries, distinguishing between countries that needed financial support—the so-called rescued countries—and the countries with better economic development. Our findings show an increasingly trend toward increasing product prices and price per quantity in the rescued countries, along with an increase in the package content. Our findings suggest that food companies have been raising prices through the recession, as consumers continue to pare their spending and demand.     

Does innovativeness of knowledge-intensive business services differ from other industries?

This article seeks to determine whether the innovative capabilities of knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS) do actually differ from other industries through comparing the innovation capacities and financial performance of KIBS with firms operating in other sectors (non-KIBS). Based upon a 1000-firm sample, the results of our estimated econometric model demonstrate that non-KIBS firms are in possession of significantly greater innovation capacities than KIBS firms. These differences were observed across factors such as organisational process innovation, the launch of already existing products in new markets, branding and new product designs. Nevertheless, as regards the actual importance attributed to product/service innovation, KIBS firms place a greater comparative importance on innovation in comparison with their non-KIBS peers. In addition, the empirical evidences display a significantly different range of effects of innovation capacities on financial performance and concludes that non-KIBS firms turn in better comparative performances than specialist KIBS firms.     

Do Store Image and Price Perception Matter to Store Brand Equity?

Store brands account for 41% of the Spanish market share in 2011, and a further increase is expected in the next year due to the economic crisis, which makes up an increasingly competitive market. Previous literature suggests that price and store image are antecedents with a relevant influence on store brand equity. Our study aims to analyze if the store image and price perception matter to store brand equity. A quantitative study was carried out obtaining a total of 362 valid responses. Results show that both variables have a positive influence on store brand equity, store image being the more relevant factor. The study is of great interest for retailers who wish to increase the value proposition.