Leveraging competitiveness upon national cultural traits: the management of people in Brazilian companies

This paper aims to discuss the leveraging of competitiveness upon cultural traits. Since the globalization process has raised a series of challenges for companies around the world, companies have sought to respond mainly through the adoption of management practices proved to be successful elsewhere. However, due to the anchoring of many management practices, especially those of human resources, in the socio-cultural context of a country, the import and/or transfer of management practices between different contexts risk resulting in changes which may be only superficial. There are, however, some exceptions. Some managers have chosen to build their companies' competitiveness through management practices firmly anchored on the cultural traits of their countries, instead of looking for practices from successful companies. This process is obviously not simple because it requires from company leaders first the capacity to re-signify the cultural trait in a different manner, i.e. to perceive it as a source of competitiveness for the company and, second, the competence to build a management practice upon this cultural trait so that it will leverage the competitiveness of the company. In order to illustrate how typical cultural traits from a country may leverage the competitiveness of a company, we present the case of Natura, a Brazilian cosmetics manufacturer, which has constructed much of its competitiveness through the adoption of management practices anchored in some typical Brazilian cultural traits. The analysis of the case demonstrates that this process of developing competitive management practices is feasible, but it must be based upon a solid system of values that the team leader practises or wants practised. Otherwise, it is unlikely that the management practices will stand or that people will be committed to them.     

Analysing pollution by way of vertically integrated coefficients, with an application to the water sector in Aragon

In this paper, we adopt Pasinetti's approach of vertically integratedsectors in order to disaggregate pollution into its most significantcomponents. Vertical integration allows us to obtain five components(and at least five measurement indices) corresponding to eachsector and each type of pollution. These indices overcome someof the deficiencies of the traditional Rasmussen-type coefficients.The empirical application is carried out by reference to thewater sector in Aragon, a region which lies in north-easternSpain, for five polluting factors, namely: water returns, biologicaloxygen demand at five days (BOD5), suspended solids (SS), nitratesand phosphates.     

Rational speculation and exchange rates

Models of exchange rates have typically failed to produce results consistent with the key fact that real and nominal exchange rates move in ways not closely connected to current (or past) macroeconomic variables. Models that rely on the same shocks to drive fluctuations in macroeconomic variables and exchange rates typically imply counterfactually-strong co-movements between them. We develop a model in which new information leads agents to change their rational beliefs about risk premia on foreign exchange markets. These changes in risk premia work through asset markets to cause real and nominal exchange rates to change without corresponding changes in GDP, productivity, money supplies, and other key macro variables.     

The future of olive groves on sloping land and ex-ante assessment of cross compliance for erosion control

Under the past Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) olive oil subsidy regime, farmers were eligible for subsidies on the basis of the amount of olive oil they produced. This led to an intensification of production, particularly on flat land, and had in most cases negative environmental effects, such as more soil erosion on sloping land and more pollution. With the decoupling of agricultural support under the newly established rules of the CAP, formalised in 2005, cross compliance measures have become obligatory.In this paper an ex-ante assessment is made of the application of cross compliance for soil erosion control (natural cover crops and terrace maintenance) in hilly and mountainous olive groves in Trás-os-Montes in Portugal. A linear programming model was developed to assess the various socio-economic and environmental effects of four different development scenarios for olive groves. The scenarios were developed on the basis of changing market prices, wage rates and subsidies; their effects included shifts towards intensification, abandonment and organic farming. Simulations considering a minimum return to labour constraint showed very high levels of abandonment, particularly in combination with cross compliance obligations. However, even without this minimum return to labour constraint, abandonment would reach more than 20% in three out of the four scenarios. The model showed that cross compliance obligations could be quite effective in reducing erosion, but that they would depress income in all scenarios as a result of higher abandonment and lower percentage shifts towards intensive systems.     

Strategic Behavior and International Benchmarking for Monopoly Price Regulation: The Case of Mexico

This paper looks into various models that address strategic behavior in the supply of gas by the Mexican monopoly Pemex. The paper has three very strong technical results. First, the netback pricing rule for the price of domestic natural gas (based on a Houston benchmark price) leads to discontinuities in Pemex’s revenue function. Second, having Pemex pay for the gas it uses and the gas it flares increases the value of the Lagrange multiplier associated with the gas processing constraint. Third, if the gas processing constraint is binding, having Pemex pay for the gas it uses and flares does not change the short run optimal solution for the optimization problem, so it will have no impact on short-run behavior. These results imply three clear policy recommendations. The first is that the arbitrage point be fixed by the amount of gas Pemex has the potential to supply in the absence of processing and gathering constraints. The second is that Pemex be charged for the gas it uses in production and the gas it flares. The third is that investment in gas processing and pipeline should be in a separate account from other Pemex investment.     

The nexus between firm-supply-chain relationships and the potential for tourism development: A case study approach

This exploratory study examines the importance of firm-supply chain relationships for tourism development. Based upon prior observations, two firms seeking to boost their tourism offerings and operating in a popular Vietnamese tourist destination were selected. Semi-structured face-to-face and online interviews were conducted and complemented by on-site visits, and firm information. Various salient dimensions emerged from the data analysis. The ‘performance catalyst’ and ‘detectable value adding’ dimensions underscore the supply chain's benefits, while the ‘discerning relations’ dimension highlights deeper relationships through mutual support, building trust, or demonstrating care. Conceptually, the study proposes a framework with associated theoretical and practical implications.     

Local stakeholders,role and tourism development

Building sustainable communities, as well as sustainable forms of livelihood, including tourism, has been a key objective among many government agencies and community stakeholders. Against this background, and through the lens of role theory, the present study investigates the potential for sustainable tourism to be developed in a rural community. Data were gathered among business owners and residents of Bridgetown, Western Australia. Four key groups of participants emerged, each emphasizing participants' role as community, and therefore, as tourism stakeholders. Alignment with various perspectives of role theory, including functional, “symbolic interactionist”, structural and cognitive was noticed; similarly, consensus, conformity and role taking were identified as key concepts. Whether currently involved in tourism or not, participants' pro-active role suggesting practical ways to enhance the sustainability of local tourism could be a powerful tool in this and other communities seeking to build their destination image.     

乡村旅游创业动机的性别差异研究——以台湾为例

以往有关乡村旅游经营者创业动机的研究主要局限于拉力创业动机和不同性别创业者拉力创业动机研究。旅游研究学者提出应该对乡村旅游经营者动机进行更为理论化和系统的研究,并对乡村旅游经营动机的性别差异做进一步的探讨。该研究以台湾地区为例,比较性别差异下中小型乡村旅游经营者的创业动机模式。探索性因子分析结果显示,乡村旅游经营者拉力创业动机包括善用农业资源、社交、更换工作与政府政策鼓励等4个因子;推力创业动机则包括工作压力、自我压力与生活压力等3个因子。后续的多元方差分析(MANOVA)结果表明,女性的拉力创业动机明显高于男性,而男性的推力创业动机则明显高于女性。研究表明,女性从事乡村旅游产业经营主要是为了追求理想的生活方式与获得利益,而男性从事乡村旅游产业经营主要是因为对过去生活不满意。     

Why Do First-Time and Repeat Visitors Patronize a Destination?

Most studies of tourists' destination choices have either focused on how to attract more tourists or on developing stable relationships with existing ones. Therefore, the fit of a conceptual model incorporating relational (destination attachment) and transactional (destination image) antecedents to patronizing intentions (revisit, recommend, and resist change) was tested on a sample of first-time visitors and on a sample of repeat visitors to a hot spring destination in Taiwan. The findings indicated that first-time visitors' intentions to patronize the destination were mainly affected by destination image and that repeat visitors' intentions to patronize the destination were primarily affected by destination attachment. These findings highlight the importance of destination attachment and destination image in predicting tourists' patronizing intentions and future behavior, and reveal that researchers have overlooked that the antecedents of tourists' patronizing intentions differ depending on the type of relationship they have with the destination. As a result, this study provides compelling evidence for the need to clearly situate studies of destination choice in the transactional-relational continuum and questions the generalizability of previously published work that neglects to do so.