Mapas cognitivos difusos para la selección de proyectos de tecnologías de la información

The evaluation and selection of information technology projects is one of the most complex decision-making processes. To achieve alignment between projects and strategy is very important to analyze the goals and processes inside the organization. This paper presents a model for the selection of IT projects, based on the analysis of enterprise architecture. The proposal makes use of causal relations modelling using fuzzy cognitive maps. This approach facilitates the evaluation and selection of a project portfolio in order to achieve the desired future state of enterprise architecture. The model represents an attractive alternative or complement to existing methods in the evaluation of IT initiatives. A case study showing the application of the model to a professional services organization for the transformation of the enterprise architecture is shown.     

Autonomy in trip planning and overall satisfaction

ABSTRACT

Tourists increasingly rely on Internet-based, autonomous resources to gather information, book, and pay for their trips; this increasing autonomy may affect their overall satisfaction. Using data about how Spanish tourists search for information and complete their bookings, this study analyzes the influence of tourist autonomy on overall satisfaction with the trip, as well as the effects of moderating characteristics related to both tourists and their trips. The results indicate a direct relationship between tourists’ autonomy and their overall satisfaction, as well as positive moderating effects of tourists’ previous travel experience and education, but negative moderating effects of trip complexity.     

Do Mexican Companies Culturally Adapt Their Websites?

Although some articles have tried to address the standardization/adaptation strategies of companies on the internet, there is still a lack of guidance on the issue, especially for companies outside of the United States. To help alleviate this shortage of guidance and provide Mexican web designers, web marketers, and IT managers with some insights into web cultural adaptation, this article conducted a comparative analysis of Mexican based companies’ domestic websites and their U.S. international websites, replicating a cultural adaptation framework from prior literature. Thirteen Mexican based Bolsa Mexicana de Valores (2005) companies were evaluated to test for the cultural adaptation of their Mexican and international websites. A content analysis of 26 Mexican domestic and U.S. international websites reveals non-significant cultural adaptation on the web; however, the results of the web content analysis are similar to those of previous research, which consider Mexican culture to score high in power distance, uncertainty avoidance, masculinity, and high-context cultural dimensions. However, for the collectivistic dimension, the results were opposite to those of previous research, which may suggest a need to develop and test other cultural adaptation frameworks for future research.     

Investment Crowding‐Out and Labor Market Effects of Financialization in the US

This paper studies the impact of financialization on unemployment in the United States. We estimate a dynamic multi‐equation macro labor model including labor demand, labor suppy, wage‐setting, and capital accumulation equations. Financialization appears as a key determinant of capital accumulation which, in turn, is the transmission channel toward its unemployment effects. We conduct a series of counterfactual simulations where we quantify the macroeconomic consequences of the recent swings experienced by the financialization process. We find that it has had relevant unemployment effects in all periods considered, even in those where financial payments were not the main driver of capital accumulation. We also identify a structural change in the financialization process in the early 1980s, and find that it has caused USA unemployment to systematically fluctuate around 2 percentage points above what it would otherwise have done. We call for a reappraisal of the way financial markets work, and stress the vital need of preventing financial devices that result in productive investment crowding‐out.     

Artistic Creation and Intellectual Property: A Professional Career Approach

Reaching high levels of artistic creation in a society requires institutions that facilitate the sorting of the most talented individuals of each generation and the development of their skills throughout the artistic career. The impact of long copyrights is not straightforward in this respect. This paper takes a professional career approach to analyzing how copyright regulation affects artistic creation. It does so within an overlapping‐generations model of artists. Long copyrights increase superstar market concentration and can reduce the number of young artists being able to pursue artistic careers. As a result, in the long run, excessively long copyrights can reduce artistic creation, the average talent of artists, and social welfare.     

Stock repurchases with legal restrictions. Evidence from Spain

This paper analyses the consequences of legal restrictions on the volume of shares firms can repurchase. Results suggest that the imposition of a limit on the volume of common stock favours the use of open market repurchases (OMRs) compared to other methods of repurchase such as tender offer repurchases (TORs) and Dutch auctions (DAs). The positive share abnormal returns around both announcements of open market buybacks and sellbacks in the full sample suggest that they are basically used to change the ownership structure of the firm in a consistent way with the convergence of interest hypothesis. The positive abnormal stock returns around open market repurchases, which are significantly different to the negative ones around sellbacks, when there are no changes in ownership structure also indicates the existence of a signalling and free cash flow effects.     

Attitudes Towards Genetically Modified Food with a Specific Consumer Benefit in Food Allergic Consumers and Non‐food Allergic Consumers

The aim of the reported study was to investigate attitudes towards genetically modified food with a specific consumer benefit. Fifty food allergic and one hundred non‐allergic consumers took part in a telephone interview study in each of Austria, Spain and the Netherlands. Participants were first asked about their purchase intentions for an unspecified genetically modified food. Next, participants were asked about their purchase intentions for a genetically modified food with a specific consumer benefit. Food allergic consumers were asked about ‘low‐allergen food’ produced using genetic modification and non‐allergic consumers were asked about ‘food that benefits your health’ produced using genetic modification. It was found that intention to purchase genetically modified food with these specific benefits was higher than intention to purchase an unspecified genetically modified food.     

Agglomeration economies in manufacturing industries: the case of Spain

This study analyses the extent of geographical concentration of Spanish industry between 1993 and 1999, and studies the agglomeration economies that could underlie that concentration. The results confirm that there is major geographic concentration in a number of industries with widely varying characteristics, including high-tech businesses and those linked to the provision of natural resources as well as traditional industries. The analysis of the scope of spillovers behind this agglomeration supports the idea that transportation costs may induce plants in some industries to locate near their customers and suppliers. However, one cannot conclude that this is a common fact for all industries. This study also shows that the higher the technological level of an industry, the higher the agglomeration it experiences. This result implies the importance of the labour market, informational spillovers and producer services location for the agglomeration of these industries.     

Firm size and capital structure: evidence using dynamic panel data

This article suggests that the validity of the Trade-Off Theory (TOT) and Pecking-Order Theory (POT) to explain financing decisions varies among small, medium-sized and large firms. Using dynamic panel data tests on a sample of 3439 Spanish firms over the period 1995–2003, results are partially consistent with both explanations but suggest a greater validity of pecking-order predictions for small firms. In small firms, the negative influence of profitability and the positive influence of investment opportunities and of intangible assets on firm debt predicted by the POT are heightened. However, no differences are observed between small and large firms in their speed of adjustment to the target leverage as suggested by the TOT.     

Impact of the dedicated infrastructure on bus service quality: an empirical analysis

An econometric analysis is conducted to quantify the impact of different variables on the service quality of the Santiago, Chile bus system. The indicators tested as measures of service quality are the average bus speed, the bus trip time coefficient of variation and the bus headway coefficient of variation. The analysis uses peak hour data obtained for all the routes served by the system’s various concessionaire operators. A separate multiple linear regression model is estimated for each indicator, with the latter as the explained variable. The main explanatory variables are a series of design factors representing different types of dedicated route infrastructure and the incorporation in some routes of segments of urban motorway. The results of the models show that the existence of dedicated bus route infrastructure positively impacts all three service quality indicators. The use of motorway segments in particular has a major positive effect on average speed. The model estimates also reveal that the main explanatory factor in headway variability at the end of a route is the headway variability at the start of it, the latter factor determined by operator management decisions regarding bus despatches.