Selecting explanatory factors of voting decisions by means of fsQCA and ANN

This investigation applies fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) and an artificial neural networks method (ANN) with the aim of addressing the determinants of votes regarding managerial proposals presented in corporate meetings. The data refer to companies in the United States banking industry and they cover the period from 2003 to 2013. The results show that the variables that contribute to explain the voting support have changed over time. Thus, during the 2003–2006 sub-period the number of funds voting appears as the most clearly outstanding variable. On the contrary, in the 2007–2009 sub-period there is a heterogeneous set of explanatory features that includes the total volume of assets, the leverage ratio and the return on assets ratio, among others, as the most remarkable factors. Finally, in the 2010–2013 sub-period, there are no specific features or combinations that contribute to voting support, indicating that the explanatory factors are yet to be consolidated after the financial downturn.     

Public Investment in Transportation Infrastructure and Economic Performance in Portugal

In this paper, we use a VAR approach to investigate the effects of public investment in transportation infrastructures on private investment, employment, and output in Portugal. Estimation results suggest that public investment crowds in private investment and employment, and has a strong positive effect on output. We estimate that one euro in public investment increases output in the long‐term by 9.5 euros, which corresponds to a rate of return of 15.9%. These figures imply that there are strong long‐term budgetary benefits from public investment in the form of increased future tax revenues. A closer look at the effects of different types of public investment uncovers the same general patterns. These results are very important from a public policy perspective. They suggest that the strategy followed by the Portuguese authorities of investing in public infrastructures is justified, both from a long‐term development perspective and a long‐term public budgetary perspective.     

A kernel-based method for nonparametric estimation of variograms

Variogram estimation plays an important role in many areas of spatial statistics. Potential areas of application include biology, ecology, economics and meteorology. However, it is common that, for example under highly correlated patterns, traditional estimators can not reflect all the spatial features or dependencies. In this paper, we present an alternative distribution-free estimator based on nearest-neighbour estimation with a non-constant smoothing field that is better able to adapt to spatially varying features of the data pattern. We present a simulation study to compare our new estimator to a nearest-neighbour estimator built with a constant smoothing parameter and to the classical variogram estimator. We apply our method to analyze two ecological data sets.     

Mean residual life functions of finite mixtures,order statistics and coherent systems

We study properties of the mean residual life functions of finite mixtures. Specifically, we study ordering properties, monotonicity and the limiting behaviour. We show, under some mild conditions, that the limiting behaviour is similar to that of the strongest member (in the mean residual life order) of the mixture. We also consider the case of negative mixtures (i.e., mixtures with some negative coefficients) which is applied to study the behaviour of the mean residual life of order statistics and coherent systems with possibly dependent components. Partially Supported by Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnologí a under grant BFM2003-02947 and Fundación Séneca under grant 00698/PI/04.     

Who is exposed to gas prices? How gasoline prices affect automobile manufacturers and dealerships

Many consumers are keenly aware of gasoline prices, and consumer responses to gasoline prices have been well studied. In this paper, by contrast, we investigate how gasoline prices affect the automobile industry: manufacturers and dealerships. We estimate how changes in gasoline prices affect equilibrium prices and sales of both new and used vehicles of different fuel economies. We investigate the implications of these effects for individual auto manufacturers, taking into account differences in manufacturers’ vehicle portfolios. We also investigate effects on manufacturers’ affiliated dealership networks, including effects implied by the changes in used vehicle market outcomes.     

The association between environmental sustainable development and internalization of a quality standard

This work empirically examines the importance of the internalization of a quality standard for environmental sustainable development in Spanish hotels. It aims to examine the direct relationships between the internalization of a quality standard and environmental practices and performance and the mediating role of environmental practices on the relationship between the internalization of a quality standard and environmental performance. The work uses a sample of 176 hotels and applies the partial least squares (PLS) approach to test these relationships. The results show that (a) the internalization of a quality standard (through daily practices and continuous improvement) is positively related to environmental practices and performance and (b) environmental practices partially mediate the relationship between the internalization of a quality standard and environmental performance. The study extends the literature by explaining that the internalization of a quality standard strengthens environmental sustainable development.     

Corporate identity management in the banking sector: effects on employees’ identification,identity attractiveness,and job satisfaction

This paper analyzes the effects of corporate identity management (CIM) on employees’ responses. Specifically, it advances previous literature by exploring how CIM dimensions affect identity attractiveness, organizational identification, and job satisfaction from the employees’ perspective. The empirical study is aimed at 293 branch managers in the Spanish banking sector, an industry facing changes in the corporate identity of many financial entities. The results show the relative importance of each dimension and help brand managers to anticipate the effects of CIM practices. Of all the dimensions, it highlights the key role of the employee–client focus strategy.     

The ECB During the Financial Crisis. Not so Unconventional!

The European Central Bank's balance sheet has expanded notably, without banks granting more credit, and the overnight interest rate has stayed close to the deposit facility level for long periods of time since the onset of the financial crisis. This appears to go against the logic implicit in the post‐Keynesian Horizontalist approach to monetary macroeconomics, which links reserves to credit and holds that a central bank accommodates the demand for reserves in order to control the overnight interest rate. In this article, we analyze the monetary policy implemented by the ECB since the third quarter of 2008, with a view to studying its implications for monetary theory, concluding that this approach can still explain much of what has happened in the Euro Zone in the last troubled years, despite paradoxically, there being excess reserves and simultaneously accepting that reserves are demand led, and that the ECB has lent them at the official rate while the overnight interest rate has been close to the deposit facility rate. Further, this analysis reveals that mainstream monetary theory has not been very useful, because neither the link between reserves and loans nor the relation between reserves and inflation have worked. This leads us to believe that some transmission channels of the monetary policy implemented by the ECB since late 2014, which can be deemed unconventional, will not perform well.     

Nanoimplants that Enhance Human Capabilities: A Cognitive‐Affective Approach to Assess Individuals’ Acceptance of this Controversial Technology

Nanotechnology enables the miniaturization of complex devices designed to enhance individuals’ physical and cognitive capabilities and, in the form of nanoimplants, their integration in the human body. It is unknown, however, whether people are willing or not to accept such devices. To shed light on this issue, this research used an extended version of the well‐known technology acceptance model (TAM), adding affective factors to the cognitive components already present in the model. Testing on a sample of 600 individuals yielded statistically significant effects on attitudes toward nanoimplants and intention to undergo nanoimplantation. Conclusions are drawn and implications are discussed.     

Marketing Intelligent Systems for consumer behaviour modelling by a descriptive induction approach based on Genetic Fuzzy Systems

In its introduction this paper discusses why marketing professionals do not make satisfactory use of the marketing models posed by academics in their studies. The main body of this research is characterised by the proposal of a brand new and complete methodology for knowledge discovery in databases (KDD), to be applied in marketing causal modelling and with utilities to be used as a marketing management decision support tool. Such methodology is based on Genetic Fuzzy Systems, a specific hybridization of artificial intelligence methods, highly suited to the research problem we face. The use of KDD methodologies based on intelligent systems like this can be considered as an avant-garde evolution, exponent nowadays of the so-called knowledge-based Marketing Management Support Systems; we name them as Marketing Intelligent Systems. The most important questions to the KDD process-i.e. pre-processing; machine learning and post-processing-are discussed in depth and solved. After its theoretical presentation, we empirically experiment with it, using a consumer behaviour model of reference. In this part of the paper, we try to offer an overall perspective of how it works. The valuation of its performance and utility is very positive.