Differentiation strategies in emerging markets: The case of Latin American agribusinesses

This study furthers the research agenda on Porter's generic strategies by exploring their implementation by firms that suffer from under representation in the literature. It focuses on agribusinesses based in emerging markets that specialize in high value added products. Relying on information collected through interviews, and a survey with 66 agribusinesses based in eight countries of Latin America, it examines the factors that distinguish firms implementing a differentiation strategy (DS). The findings provide interesting insights for scholars and practitioners alike, illustrating the strategic initiatives that DS firms use to ensure they command higher than average prices.     

Specialization and concentration: a note on theory and evidence

We study the prediction of the theory in Rossi-Hansberg [Rossi-Hansberg E (2005) Am Econ Rev 95(5):1464–1491] that, under quite general circumstances, lower transport costs increase specialization of regions or countries and decrease (regional) concentration of industries. This prediction contradicts the contention of other models and many empirical papers that specialization and concentration should move in parallel. We use two data sets on manufacturing industries across US States and EU member countries to show specialization and concentration do not develop in parallel. The empirical data replicates some of the features of the divergence predicted in the model.     

On the optimal acquisition of foreign capital through investment of oil export revenues

The subject of the paper is the optimal policy for a national monopoly to follow when the product exported is an essential input for production in the importing country and the exporter wishes to invest the proceeds in the purchase of claims on the capital stock of the importer. A number of alternative optimal solutions are compared with the conventional monopoly solution. The focus is on the deviations from this solution that are induced by the actual or desired ownership of capital in the importing country by the exporter.     

High-involvement practices in human resource management: concept and factors that motivate their adoption

Using data on 250 Spanish firms, we examine the incidence of high-involvement practices and investigate what variables are associated with the adoption of these practices. Particularly, we analyse the influence of size, age, competitive advantage, activity sector, the existence of a recent crisis, culture, leadership style and the competitiveness of the environment on the adoption of high-involvement work practices. With all this, we try to offer an exploratory view of nature of the contexts that condition the adoption of such practices, with the aim of motivating future research more thoroughly.     

Organizational culture and human resources in the environmental issue: a review of the literature

From the resourced-based view, the weakness of organizations' business culture and their shortcomings in human resources may be important obstacles in the process of environmental action. However, as the number of works on these questions is still limited, our aim is to integrate the classical literature concerning business culture and human resources and the small number of works concerning these aspects of environmental management. Several issues, such as managerial duties, the role of organizational culture in the formation of environmental internal stakeholders' awareness, organizational involvement in environmental issues, environmental training and concern, environmental motivation and incentives and implementation and organizational innovations, may be very important for thesuccess of companies' environmental strategy. However, it seems necessary to carry out studies in which qualitative and quantitative methodologies are applied.     

On the Popular Support for Progressive Taxation

The “popular support for progressive taxation theorem” ( Marhuenda and Ortuño‐Ortín, 1995 ) provides an important formalization of the intuition that a majority of relatively poor voters over rich ones leads to progressive income taxation. Yet the theorem does not provide an equilibrium outcome. In addition, it assumes an overly restrictive domain of tax schedules and no incentive effects of income taxation. This paper shows that none of these assumptions of the theorem can be relaxed completely. Most notably, it is shown that a majority of poor voters does not imply progressive taxation in a more general policy space and that a regressive tax schedule may obtain a majority over a progressive one when individuals' income is endogenous.     

Durable‐goods oligopoly with secondary markets: the case of automobiles

We study the effects of durability and secondary markets on equilibrium firm behavior in the car market. We construct a dynamic oligopoly model of a differentiated product market to incorporate the equilibrium production dynamics that arise from the durability of the goods and their active trade in secondary markets. We derive an econometric model and estimate its parameters using data from the automobile industry over a 20‐year period. Our estimates are used to provide a measure of the competitive importance of the secondary market.     

Do Store Image and Price Perception Matter to Store Brand Equity?

Store brands account for 41% of the Spanish market share in 2011, and a further increase is expected in the next year due to the economic crisis, which makes up an increasingly competitive market. Previous literature suggests that price and store image are antecedents with a relevant influence on store brand equity. Our study aims to analyze if the store image and price perception matter to store brand equity. A quantitative study was carried out obtaining a total of 362 valid responses. Results show that both variables have a positive influence on store brand equity, store image being the more relevant factor. The study is of great interest for retailers who wish to increase the value proposition.     

SPINOFFS AND THE MARKET FOR IDEAS*

We present a theory of entry through spinoffs where workers generate ideas and possess private information concerning their quality. Because quality is privately observed, adverse selection implies that the market can only offer a price that reflects the average quality of ideas sold. Only workers with good ideas decide to spin off, whereas workers with mediocre ideas sell them. Existing firms pay a price for ideas sold in the market that implies zero expected profits. Hence, firms’ project selection is independent of firm size, which can lead to scale‐independent growth. This mechanism results in invariant firm‐size distributions that resemble the data.