Gender’s moderating role in the relationship between organisational form and performance in the Spanish supermarket industry

This research seeks to discover how the organisational form (franchising vs. vertical integration) of 305 supermarkets belonging to a Spanish franchise chain influences unit-level performance measured through three key performance indicators commonly used in the retail literature: sales per square metre, sales per employee, and service quality scores. Additionally, we assess the moderating role of the manager's gender in each individual supermarket. We have analysed the research questions using multivariate analyses, with a panel dataset that includes quarterly establishment-level data covering the period from January 2017 to December 2019. We have found that franchised supermarkets record higher sales both per square metre and per employee than vertically integrated ones. This positive effect of franchising is lower in establishments run by females than in those run by males. The findings also reveal that franchised supermarkets record lower service quality scores than their company-owned counterparts, and this negative effect is again lower in establishments managed by females than in those managed by males.     

我国地方政府债务的区域比较分析

本文以A省与B省为例,对我国地方政府债务情况在规模与结构进行区域比较,同时就地方债务规模与经济总量进行相关分析,表明,地方债务总量呈现区域性特征,其规模大小与当地经济发展高度相关,但债务负担率、偿债率并没有显著的地区差异,甚至出现累退现象,同时也表明,我国地方财政支出对债务具有一定的依赖性。     

谈我国中央与地方政府间税权配置的进一步改进

本文从介绍政府间税权配置的基本原则及中央与地方政府间税权配置的基本模式出发,认为目前我国中央与地方政府间在税权配置上仍存在着许多问题。为了更好地实现政府间“事权与财权”的相对统一,有必要对我国中央与地方政府间的税权配置做进一步的改进。     

单本振二次变频方案浅析

介绍了一种新型的变频方案,采用单本振源即可实现二次变频,还能保留传统二次变频方案的优点,简化了本振源的实现,有利于小型化和集成化.对该新方案进行了理论分析,进而对这种改进二次变频方案提出了采用的频率配置关系和中频滤波器参数设计准则,并结合一个工程实例完成了相关设计.文中所讨论的方案也同样适用于其它频段.     

The possible effects on the future management of local Italian authorities following the use of financial derivative instruments

The appeal from municipalities, provinces and regions to financial derivative instruments is tied to the need of overcoming the situations in a state of urgency inherent in a balance. On average, one local Italian authority in twenty has decided to underwrite a derivative product, giving life to a number of contracts that had a value of over 35 billion euro with an average value of 6.5 million for each contract until 2007. The boom of swaps has, since 2000 on, experienced a peak period from 2003 to the end of 2005, in which the Euribor rate touched a very low level, maintained itself for long periods at around 2% and fallen in some cases even under this value. Many of the contracts completed before 2006, which link the debt of local authorities to variable rates, but also many of those completed from 2006 onwards that moved debt onto fixed rate, which are now a source of loss for the balance of local authorities that have underwritten them. In the 2002-2008 period, the number of the stipulation of contracts local authorities reported to the Ministry of Economy and Finance is about 900, corresponding to more or less 150 per year, which affected 18 regions, 44 provinces, 532 municipalities and 4 mountain commtmities, for a total of 594 authorities. Therefore, the local authorities have approached the derivative instruments in an often approximate way without a real awareness, both for the conditions that were being negotiated and the effects that they would have produced in perspective. The purpose of this work is to highlight the consequences of the use of derivative instruments on the future management of local authorities.     

Understanding Local Food Consumers: Theory of Planned Behavior and Segmentation Approach

Purpose: The objectives of this study were to examine the antecedents and consequence of consumer attitudes toward local food and to segment these consumers using their food-related lifestyle (FRL) attributes. Using the Theory of Planned Behavior, we proposed three factors to impact attitude toward local food (health consciousness, concern for the environment, and concern for local economies) along with subjective norm and perceived behavioral control to influence intentions to purchase local food.

Methodology: Data were collected from 502 local food consumers measuring the following: antecedents and consequence of attitude toward local food; FRL; demographic information.

Findings: Health consciousness, concern for the environment, and concern for local economies were found to be significant predictors of attitude toward local food. Attitude toward local food and subjective norm, but not perceived behavioral control, were found to have a significant effect on intention to purchase local food. Further, segmenting based on their FRL yielded four types of consumers (Impromptu Novelty Explorer, Uninvolved Connoisseur, Involved Information Seeker, and Apathetic Local Food Consumer). An ANOVA provided a snapshot of several demographic and psychographic differences between segments.     

School foodservice employees’ beliefs about local produce use at work and home

Sustainability practices are becoming an essential part of foodservice businesses. Schools often purchase local produce and use it in school meals as part of their sustainability efforts. School foodservice employees play an important role in the effectuation of these efforts and understanding their perceptions is important. A questionnaire was used to assess foodservice employees’ beliefs regarding the quality and benefits of local produce use in schools. Results indicate differences in employees’ perceptions regarding benefits and quality of local produce based on their perception of the importance of purchasing local produce for home use.     

Buy Local! Familiarity and Preferences for Extra Virgin Olive Oil of Italian Consumers

Over the last few years, the origin of the local product has played a central role in consumer choices. This study explores what Italian consumers want and look for when purchasing olive oil by combining a web-based survey and a perceived analysis technique. In particular, preferences for different olive oil attributes as well as the psychographic traits of respondents were revealed through a web-based questionnaire administered to Italian consumers (N = 179). From this questionnaire, respondents who indicated their availability to participate further underwent a preference test under blind conditions (N = 99). Respondents also did an expectation test based on the visual observation of the labels. Results showed that the majority of consumers considered local production, PDO and region as factors of highest importance in determining olive oil quality.     

地方政府行为、政府 R & D 投资与创新

R＆D活动是创新的引擎,制度安排以及R＆D投资是影响创新的关键因素,也是重要的约束条件。文中探讨了地方政府行为及其R＆D投资对创新的影响作用,利用引入虚拟变量的面板数据模型分析了前者对创新的作用及存在地区差异性,并运用门槛回归模型研究了该差异产生的深层次原因。研究结果表明,财政分权和政府R＆D投资存在理论上的最佳值,偏离最佳值会影响到创新水平。因此,保持适度的财政分权及确保合理政府R＆D投资规模非常有必要,并以此提出进一步研究的方向。