Role of Retailer Positioning and Product Category on the Relationship Between Store Brand Consumption and Store Loyalty

Recent empirical evidence regarding the relationship between store brand purchase and store loyalty suggests a nonmonotonic relationship (inverted U): positive up to a certain store brand consumption level, after which it becomes negative. To investigate this idea further, this research analyzes the role of (1) the retailer's competitive positioning, and specifically its price positioning, and (2) the product category. On the one hand, the more price oriented the retailer's positioning, the more favorable is the relationship between store brand consumption and store loyalty. The threshold level of store brand purchasing at which the relationship becomes negative occurs later, and this negative relationship is less prominent. On the other hand, the relationship between store brand consumption and store loyalty appears to differ across product categories as a consequence of several factors, including perceived risk. The relationship therefore appears more favorable for risky categories. An empirical study of ten retailers that adopt different price positions corroborates these propositions.     

Directed technical change and environmental quality

Portuguese Economic Journal - We propose a directed technical change model with two sectors, clean and dirty, to analyze the impact of the degree of substitutability between sectors and the degree...     

Viability of competencies,skills and knowledge acquired by industrial design students

International Journal of Technology and Design Education - Many Industrial Design professionals in Spain have difficulties when it comes to getting a job related to their field. They also have...     

¿Han sido el IBEX35 y el IPC definiciones financieramente eficientes del portafolio de mercado?

The present paper questions the financial efficiency of the most used market portfolio proxies in Spain and Mexico (IBEX35 and IPC) in order to determine if these can be considered a proper market portfolio proxy. The paper questions if they can be used as “neutrals”, according to Black & Litterman (1992) proposals in portfolio management. For this purpose, two discrete event simulations that use the Markowtiz-Tobin-Sharpe-Linter model (Markowitz, 1987, p.5) are performed with monthly data of the stock members of these indices in a February 2001 to December 2010 time window. The results are compared by using the Sharpe ratio (Sharpe, 1966) and show that the equilibrium assumptions in the market do not hold, leading to conclude that these market portfolio proxies are inefficient.     

A resource-based view of human resource management and organizational capabilities development

The aim of this research work was to analyse the role of human resource management in the development of organizational capabilities and its influence on the firm's performance from a resource-based view. Our results, from empirical research on a nation-wide sample of Spanish savings banks, suggest that human resource decisions, integrated in a human resource system, have an important influence on the development of organizational capabilities and on the firm's performance.     

Negative Monetary Policy Rates and Systemic Banks' Risk-Taking: Evidence from the Euro Area Securities Register

We show that negative monetary policy rates induce systemic banks to reach-for-yield. For identification, we exploit the introduction of negative deposit rates by the European Central Bank in June 2014 and a novel securities register for the 26 largest euro area banking groups. Banks with more customer deposits are negatively affected by negative rates, as they do not pass negative rates to retail customers, in turn investing more in securities, especially in those yielding higher returns. Effects are stronger for less capitalized banks, private-sector (financial and nonfinancial) securities and dollar-denominated securities. Affected banks also take higher risk in loans.     

From Agrarian Reform to Ethnodevelopment in the Highlands of Ecuador

Through an examination of interventions in the agrarian structures and rural society of the Ecuadorian Andes over the past 40 years, this article explores the gradual imposition of a particular line of action that separates rural development from the unresolved question of the concentration of land ownership and wealth among the very few. This imposition has been the consequence, it is argued, of the new development paradigms implemented in Andean peasant communities since the end of land reform in the 1970s. The new paradigms emphasize identity and organizational aspects of indigenous populations at the expense of anything connected with the class‐based campesinista agenda, which was still operational in the indigenous movement in the early 1990s. The essay concludes with some thoughts on the remarkable parallels between the 1990s neoliberal and counter‐reformist models of action, and the pre‐reformist indigenist policies of the period that ended in the 1960s.     

Financial Regulation,Financial Globalization,and the Synchronization of Economic Activity

We analyze the impact of financial globalization on business cycle synchronization using a proprietary database on banks’ international exposure for industrialized countries during 1978 to 2006. Theory makes ambiguous predictions and identification has been elusive due to lack of bilateral time‐varying financial linkages data. In contrast to conventional wisdom and previous empirical studies, we identify a strong negative effect of banking integration on output synchronization, conditional on global shocks and country‐pair heterogeneity. Similarly, we show divergent economic activity due to higher integration using an exogenous de‐jure measure of integration based on financial regulations that harmonized EU markets.     

Demand for wild edible mushrooms. The case of Lactarius deliciosus in Barcelona (Spain)

Wild edible mushroom demand has increased substantially in OECD countries in the last few years. Nevertheless, few studies have been published in recent years on these markets. The main objective of this paper is to characterise the saffron milk cap (Lactarius deliciosus Fr.) demand in Spain. Data sources in this study come from main Central Markets in Spain. Using econometric methods, we have found that the consequence of an increase in the price of the saffron milk cap has a negative effect on demand. However, changes in the percentage of persons born in Catalonia every year exercise a positive effect, and price increases in the Madrid market could also induce an increase in the Lactarius deliciosus demand in the Barcelona Central Market. The consequences of chanterelle imports on the Catalan demand for the saffron milk cap appear to be negative. Finally, results indicate that the saffron milk cap and oyster mushroom behave as complementary goods and, therefore, consumption of one of these mushrooms reinforces the other's consumption.     

Living standards and plague in London, 1560–1665

This article uses individual records of 930,000 burials and 630,000 baptisms to reconstruct the spatial and temporal patterns of birth and death in London from 1560 to 1665, a period dominated by recurrent plague. The plagues of 1563, 1603, 1625, and 1665 appear of roughly equal magnitude, with deaths running at five to six times their usual rate, but the impact on wealthier central parishes falls markedly through time. Tracking the weekly spread of plague, we find no evidence that plague emerged first in the docks, and in many cases elevated mortality emerges first in the poor northern suburbs. Looking at the seasonal pattern of mortality, we find that the characteristic autumn spike associated with plague continued into the early 1700s. Natural increase improved as smaller crises disappeared after 1590, but fewer than half of those born survived childhood.