Using emotional benefits as a differentiation strategy in saturated markets

The high level of product substitution in most consumer markets often makes it difficult to match supply with demand, especially in sectors with mature, saturated markets with intense competition and a high degree of product differentiation. The difficulty of using technical characteristics such as quality and/or price to differentiate products suggests that marketers could profit from gaining more insight into the way in which consumers' purchase decisions are influenced by their perceived emotions. This paper investigates this issue in the wine market, a highly saturated market with homogeneous supply, obtaining results that appear to support the notion that emotions do indeed play a part in consumer choice structures, which show a higher degree of abstraction in those segments that report a greater number of perceived emotions. This considerably complicates the task of creating a differentiated marketing strategy, in the sense that suppliers need to give much greater consideration to consumers' self‐awareness. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

The influence of personal values in the economic-use valuation of peri-urban green spaces: An application of the means-end chain theory

The implication of land-use managers and the local community in matters relating to peri-urban green spaces has been modified by the growing importance of the values attached to such areas. This paper uses means-end chain techniques to examine whether green space users reflect their own personal values through the benefits and attributes they perceive in this type of good. The results show key factors to be opportunities for sport and recreational activities, improvement of physical and mental well-being and enjoyment of landscape beauty. Other values, both individual (personal enjoyment and quality of life) and social (respect for others and a clearer conscience) also emerge. Further analysis to determine whether values differ according to whether or not the visitor assigns a monetary value to the green space showed higher environmental and social awareness to be associated with higher willingness to pay for peri-urban green space. Thus, the greater the perceived environmental values and the higher their subsequent monetary valuation, the more effective environmental protection and conservation policies are likely to be. These results may be worth consideration by land-use managers engaged in environmental cost benefit analysis     

Determinants of the satisfaction of firms with the competencies of university students: a Spanish case study

Spanish universities pay little attention to business demands with regard to workforce training and to the research that has been developed in this area. The present study analyses the effect of various factors on firms’ satisfaction with the education provided by universities. The factors include the content of the student's major subject of study and social, methodological and participation skills. The data were obtained from a survey of businesses. Although the results obtained show that all of the factors have an impact on overall satisfaction, they are not of equal importance. University managers may be able to use the information obtained from this study as a basis for designing and implementing action that might improve employers’ level of satisfaction, which has considerable positive consequences. Moreover, the study's methodology could be applied to other outputs of universities, such as the research performed.     

Entrepreneurship,innovation and regional performance: application for the Spanish regions

Abstract

The aim of this study is to test the importance of entrepreneurship or new business formation for explaining differences in economic performance in the Spanish regions, together with the role played by the endowments of innovation capital and the socio-economic capabilities of every region. The results show that the effect of new business formation on economic performance varies considerably between regions, and the type of start-up is highly important for the results obtained: entrepreneur endowments of high technology intensive sectors and medium technology intensive sectors, but not those of low technology intensive sectors, have a positive effect on regional performance. Also, the size of the start-ups is important for explaining regional development.     

High-growth firms and innovation: an empirical analysis for Spanish firms

This paper analyses the effect of R&D investment on firm growth. We use an extensive sample of Spanish manufacturing and service firms. The database comprises diverse waves of Spanish Community Innovation Survey and covers the period 2004–2008. First, a probit model corrected for sample selection analyses the role of innovation on the probability of being a high-growth firm (HGF). Second, a quantile regression technique is applied to explore the determinants of firm growth. Our database shows that a small number of firms experience fast growth rates in terms of sales or employees. Our results reveal that R&D investments positively affect the probability of becoming a HGF. However, differences appear between manufacturing and service firms. Finally, when we study the impact of R&D investment on firm growth, quantile estimations show that internal R&D presents a significant positive impact for the upper quantiles, while external R&D shows a significant positive impact up to the median.     

Pricing credit default swaps with bilateral value adjustments

The aim of this work is to examine the influence of mutual fund flows on market timing models, thus providing unbiased timing coefficients. However, as this control is motivated by the existing relationship between mutual fund flows and market returns, we first analyse this relationship, considering previous and concurrent market returns. However, unlike existing studies, we do not consider future returns, since investors do not observe them when making investment decisions. Thus, we feel it is more appropriate to consider expected market returns. We construct the expected market returns by running an AR model and considering the available public information about the macro-economy. The relationship is analysed under different conditions, considering a variety of different mutual fund flow measures, and considering (or not) the sensitivity of mutual fund flows to positive and negative market returns. We also propose different controls for the traditional timing models, and we further analyse the reverse-causality problem. The study demonstrates, for a sample of equity mutual funds registered for sale in the USA, that the poor market timing performance found in this and other prior studies can be completely attributed to the perverse effect of the fund managers’ liquidity service.     

Efficiency and technical progress: sources of convergence in the Spanish regions

The paper analyses the contribution of efficiency as a mechanism of labour productivity convergence, taking as the unit of analysis the Spanish regions in the period 1964–1993. Using the stochastic frontier approach, a translogarithmic production function is estimated for the different sectors of the Spanish regional economy, demonstrating on this basis the existence of substantial differences in efficiency between sectors as well as between regions. With regard to convergence, the results obtained indicate that at aggregate level the convergence observed in labour productivity is explained by the faster growth of the capital-labour ratio of the initially poorer regions and the contribution of technical change and the efficiency, hence by the convergence of TFP. However, the information by sectors shows different results. Thus, on the one hand, the importance of the convergence in production per employee is seen in all sectors except agriculture and, on the other it is observed that technical change is a factor of convergence in all sectors but construction, and, qualitatively, the contribution of technical change is greater than the contribution of efficiency. By sectors, technical change contributed significantly to labour productivity convergence in agriculture, but the faster growth of the capital-labour ratio of the rich regions acted as a mechanism of divergence, completely counteracting the technological catching-up effect. It is further concluded that, as well as the contribution of the accumulation of factors, the positive evolution of efficiency in the poorest regions favoured convergence in the construction and industry sectors, whereas technical progress was decisive in industry and the services sectors.     

PROFILE OF A WINE TOURIST AND THE CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN DESTINATION AND PREFERRED WINE: A STUDY IN ARAGON,SPAIN

Most of the existing characteristics of wine tourists have been based on the point of view of wineries or have been based on the tourists who have visited wineries. It is therefore necessary to establish a more general profile of wine tourists. In conjunction with this, a more in‐depth look must be taken at the motivations for visiting a destination. These motivations can include the production area of a preferred wine. The correspondence between the production area of a preferred wine and the destination selected by a tourist has been taken as a given in the research performed to date, but it has not been studied in depth. The results obtained show that the profile of a wine tourist can be divided into two groups, thereby considering the variables of gender, income, age, belonging to a wine club, wine consumption habits, and involvement in activities related to wine. Moreover, in the analyzed case there is positive correspondence between the place of origin of a preferred wine and the destination selected when participating in wine tourism.     

Hotel performance and knowledge sources in Spanish tourism districts

The present paper brings together two of the research lines which have proved most relevant in the field of strategic management during the last few years: the importance of knowledge as a source of competitive advantage; and the ease of access to that resource within clusters and/or industrial districts. More specifically, our work focuses on the tourism sector, analysing the extent to which the profitability of Spanish vacation hotels located along the Mediterranean coastline depends on internal and external knowledge, that is, on the knowledge resources generated at each destination. A multiple linear regression is designed for the empirical analysis. The evidence supports the hypothesis that the external knowledge generated at each destination is statistically significant, even though internal knowledge turns out to be more relevant in terms of hotel profitability.     

The role of road safety in a sustainable urban mobility: An econometric assessment of the Spanish NUTS-3 case

There has been a structural change in mobility in major Spanish cities in recent decades, with a switch to the pattern followed in other countries in the area. A shift has taken place from a traditional Mediterranean model to a North American city stereotype, with uncontrolled motorization and major implications for public health. This article specifically analyzes negative road safety-related externalities that result from this process, given that the trend seems to show a steady decline in road safety accidents on urban roads in Spain, with major differences among NUTS-3 provinces. The objective is to evaluate the factors that empirically explain these differences for the 2003–2013 period using a panel data analysis. Results show that a key role is played by urban development variables, such as population density and improvements in health services, with advances linked to more accessible and sustainable urban transportation, such as the Smart City concept. Not only does this article close a gap in the literature, but the findings can also serve as a practical guide for the development and implementation of urban mobility and road safety plans, and reveals the special needs of the most vulnerable groups.