Non‐Reciprocal Trade Preferences and the Role of Compliance Costs in the Agricultural Sector: Exports to the EU

We investigate whether non‐reciprocal preferential regimes granted by the European Union have an impact on agricultural export flows from beneficiary countries while accounting for the costs of compliance that may prevent exporters from taking full advantage of potential benefits. Compliance costs are heterogeneous and difficult to measure. We proxy their influence and specify a model that allows for a different preferential margin impact according to the proxy costs. Adopting the gravity framework and using a sample of 554 lines of agricultural products for 131 developing countries in 2002, we find that the costs of compliance play a role in making the schemes work: the lower the costs, the greater the impact of the preferential margins. Moreover, the estimated margin effect differs between different regimes.     

Agriculture's terms of trade: issues and implications

The article addresses (1) the issue of what agricultural commodity prices should be compared to if we are concerned with the welfare of agriculturalists, (2) the general absence of product quality adjustment when analysis is undertaken comparing agricultural to manufactured goods prices, (3) the extent to which energy prices are or will be the driver of both manufactured and agricultural prices, and (4) the importance of considering agriculture's terms of trade (TOT) against the service sector, since the service sector is typically the largest in the economy. It reflects on the basic question of whether the widespread perception “that agriculture's TOT secularly decline” is correct.     

Measuring Food Product Differentiation by Quality Ratings: A Cross‐Entropy Analysis of Specialty Coffee e‐Auctions

Food quality ratings can be used for product differentiation and strategic marketing. This article develops a differentiation measure based on the cross‐entropy of two distributions for speciality coffees. It examines whether quality ratings achieve their objectives for speciality coffee supply chains. The estimation, using e‐auctions data, indicates that the quality rating is more informative in the Cup of Excellence (CofE) relative to the Q auction. To determine significance, a statistical test for comparing the information measure across different e‐auctions and segments of the quality rating was developed. The significant difference between the two auctions is not a surprise as the auctions trade coffee lots of different volumes and the quality evaluation is more important in the case of the CofE, with its jury of renowned coffee experts. The total cross‐entropy measure of product differentiation shows that the 100‐point quality rating does not carry the same information content and meaning in the two different e‐auctions and their respective supply chains. The cross‐entropy measure of product differentiation is shown to be a good indicator of the information and the value created throughout the speciality food supply chain.     

Gay men's holiday destination choice: a case of risk and avoidance

Gay men are subject to discrimination and social disapproval in many parts of the world. This paper examines the possible impact of this on choice of holiday destination, drawing on the concepts of risk and destination avoidance. A number of interviews were held with gay men and it was concluded that risk of adverse reactions and of the need to modify behaviour were significant issues in destination avoidance and choice. It is possible, as a consequence, to classify holiday‐taking by gay men into a typology including gay‐centric and gay‐related. In addition, it is appropriate to modify existing models of risk‐avoidance through the addition of the risks that are more applicable to gay men than to other tourists. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Sense‐giving in health care: the relationship between the HR roles of line managers and employee commitment

In this article, we examine line manager prioritisation of HR roles and the consequences for employee commitment in a health‐care setting. Our analysis is based on a quantitative, multi‐actor study (509 employees and 67 line managers) in four Dutch hospitals. Using sense‐giving as a theoretical lens, we demonstrate that, in addition to the effects of high commitment HRM, prioritising the Employee Champion role alone and the Employee Champion and Strategic Partner roles in combination is associated with higher employee commitment. We argue that through performing roles that are evocative of deep‐seated values, such as excellent patient care and concern for others, line managers can have a positive effect on staff attitudes. In a sector often beleaguered by staff turnover, exhaustion and burnout, we offer an important, empirically based framework that has the potential to improve employee commitment and, from there, enhance performance.     

Breaking the frame: an analysis of strategic cognition and decision making under uncertainty

This paper reports the findings of two experimental investigations into the efficacy of a causal cognitive mapping procedure as a means for overcoming cognitive biases arising from the framing of strategic decision problems. In Study 1, final year management studies undergraduate students were presented with an elaborated strategic decision scenario, under one of four experimental conditions: positively vs. negatively framed decision scenarios, with prechoice vs. postchoice mapping task orders (i.e., participants were required to engage in cognitive mapping before or after making a decision). As predicted, participants in the postchoice mapping conditions succumbed to the framing bias whereas those in the prechoice mapping conditions did not. Study 2 replicated and extended these findings in a field setting, on a sample of senior managers, using a decision scenario that closely mirrored a strategic dilemma currently facing their organization. Taken together, the findings of these studies indicate that the framing bias is likely to be an important factor in strategic decision making, and suggest that cognitive mapping provides an effective means of limiting the damage accruing from this bias. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An Integrated Model of Quality for Mass Services in the Context of the Ghanaian Retail Banking Sector

This study draws upon the service literature and operationalizes the investment model in the services domain to examine factors that contribute to customers’ desire to maintain service relationships with firms (i.e., retail banks) in an emerging economy in sub‐Saharan Africa: Ghana. We empirically test the explanatory power and robustness of the investment model using 218 customers of various banking institutions in Ghana. Results from partial least squares—structural equation modeling (PLS‐SEM)—reveal that (1) service quality is positively associated with customer satisfaction, investment size, and customer commitment; and (2) while customer satisfaction is positively associated with customer commitment, both investment size and quality of attractive alternatives are not associated with customer commitment. Interestingly, we found investment size to have a positive association with customer commitment only when fully mediated by customer satisfaction. Our model reveals that service quality and customer satisfaction predict 79.3% of the variation in customer commitment toward maintaining a service relationship with their retail banks. Discussion and managerial implications conclude the article. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Consuming apart,together: the role of multiple identities in sustainable behaviour

Although consumers’ awareness of the environmental and ethical consequences of their behaviour has grown, research on the role of multiple consumer identities in sustainability behaviours is scarce. The aim of the current study was to explain sustainable behaviour from a social identity perspective. We conducted a longitudinal cross‐national within‐subjects design consumer study in six countries (T1, N=3083; T2, N=1440). The results indicate that environmental sustainability can comprise several distinct yet overlapping sustainable behaviours. Multiple social identities seem to play different roles in these different behaviours. Therefore, efforts to enhance different sustainability behaviours are challenging yet promising. Once consumers incorporate a sustainable behaviour, it becomes part of their own identity and could lead to spill over effects on other closely related sustainable behaviours.