Commitment and choice of partner in a negotiation with a deadline

This paper analyses the effects of partially revocable endogenous commitments of a seller in a negotiation with a deadline. In particular, we examine when commitment is a source of strength, a source of inefficiency and when it does not affect the bargaining outcome at all. We show that when commitment possesses a minimum amount of irrevocability this crucially determines the bargaining outcome. In the bilateral bargaining case, commitment becomes a source of inefficiency since it causes a deadline effect. In the choice of partner framework, however, the deadline effect disappears and there is an immediate agreement and, moreover, commitment becomes a source of strength since it increases the seller's equilibrium payoff by triggering off competition between the buyers.     

To post or not to post: social media sharing and sporting event performance

Social networks are becoming increasingly important for consumers, especially in the context of sport, where the service experience is highly intense. Few studies have combined subjective event performance variables and social network variables to analyze social network content sharing by sports practitioners. This article investigates the use of social networks in relation to sporting events. An empirical study examined the role of social network variables and sporting event performance variables in social media use. The sample consisted of 410 triathletes (72.2% male) aged between 18 and 66 years (mean 37.03 ± 8.62). Four analyses were performed using fuzzy‐set qualitative comparative analysis to examine the causes of sharing comments through social media, sharing photos and videos on social media, participant satisfaction, and word‐of‐mouth (WOM). The event's general image was a necessary condition in all cases. The combination of participants’ satisfaction and positive event image and the combination of social network use and positive event image lead to social network content sharing by athletes. The combination of positive event image and participant satisfaction leads to a positive WOM.     

The impact of electronic commerce on small and midsized spanish companies

Electronic commerce (EC) is not new for some European Union countries, but in others, such as Spain, it is only at the developmental stage. Now that Spain has joined the third phase of the economic and monetary union, Spanish companies' internationalization and the progressive change in the Spanish consumers' buying habits are determining the search for new business strategies. Starting with an analysis of the Spanish business environment, followed by an internal scanning of small and midsized Spanish companies, this paper will analyze the viability of EC as a new business strategy.     

Effect of price increases on future intentions of sport consumers

This work analyzes the relationships between perceived value, satisfaction and future intentions among users of a public sport service who experience a price increase in the service they receive. A self-administered survey provides data from two samples (before and after the service price increase). After confirming the reliability and validity of the measures, hierarchical multiple regression provides the means for analyzing the data. The results show that the increase in the service price worsens the perception of service performance. As expected, satisfaction, perceived value and future intentions decrease following an increase in the service price. Perceived value also serves as a more effective predictor of future intentions than satisfaction. Finally, price increase has a low direct effect on predicting future intentions of sport users.     

The erosion of personal norms and cognitive dissonance

In this article, we study how personal norms and behaviour interact and evolve when agents try to reduce cognitive dissonance, and how this dynamic relates to Nash equilibrium. We find that in long run, agents play, and norms prescribe, Nash equilibrium in material payoffs (in the absence of norms). Our model captures two main facts: (i) norms erode along the play of the game; (ii) the erosion of norms depends on the set of possible economic choices, so that the policy maker can potentially influence them.     

Expiration and maturity effect: empirical evidence from the Spanish spot and futures stock index

The paper studies how the time remaining to the expiration date of derivative markets affects the volatility of the IBEX-35 index (expiration effect) and its futures market (maturity effect). The innovation of the study lies in both effects being studied together for the Spanish stock market using bivariate ECM-GARCH including dummy variables that express the time left to expiration day. The results obtained show that, during the week of the expiration day, the conditional variance of both markets increases without presenting any significant behaviour in the correlation level. During the second week, however, the conditional variance diminishes and the degree of correlation between both markets increases.     

Internal market orientation and its influence on the satisfaction of contact personnel

To verify the dimensions, reliability and validity of internal market orientation (IMO) as a scale of measurement of internal marketing, and using it to measure the effect of internal marketing on the satisfaction of contact personnel. Interviews were carried out with all the cashiers of the 16 branches of a small, local credit institution. Because of the small sample size, partial least squares were used in the analysis of the data. The results show the validity and reliability of the IMO construct, formed by four of the five dimensions of the original scale. They also corroborate the causal relationships among the four dimensions, as well as the significant influence of the informal dimension of IMO on the satisfaction of contact personnel. The main limitation of this study is that it analyses a single financial entity, with the characteristics and behaviours that the latter has in its relationship with its employees. To achieve their organisational objectives, firms must adopt an orientation towards the employee, or internal marketing, on an equal plane to the traditional consideration of the external market. Also, the measurability of this internal orientation on the basis of the IMO scale makes available a valuable tool of planning and control in its implementation. This article verifies the validity and reliability of the IMO construct, and its influence on the satisfaction of contact personnel, in a different business sector and with a different research subject from those analysed hitherto by the literature. It also demonstrates the sequential type of relationship among the dimensions that form IMO.     

Consumption structure and atmospheric pollution in Spain: towards a higher sustainability

The aim of this paper is to analyse the responsibility of Spanish demand composition (particularly private and public consumption) in the actual levels of atmospheric pollution in Spain. To that end, and on the basis of an input–output model, we set out to identify the environmental pollution generated both directly and indirectly by the economic sectors in order to obtain a determined final demand. We focus on three atmospheric pollutants, namely SOx, NOx and CO₂. After identifying the key sectors in the generation of these types of pollution, we estimate the effect that a change in final consumption will have on the global level of pollution. As a consequence, we can evaluate the effectiveness of different demand policies when seeking to control this global pollution. These policies, directed mainly towards a change in private and public consumption, can hopefully contribute towards the objective of achieving sustainable development.     

Historical Significance of Labor’s Increased Precariousness in Germany,the United Kingdom,and Spain

This article addresses the historical significance of the increasing precariousness of labor, even in the most advanced economies. Given the sterility of the mainstream approach, based on methodological individualism, we start from a Marxist critique of political economy, focusing on the laws that govern the process of capitalist accumulation and its contradictions. Within the framework of these laws, we analyze the tendency of labor exploitation to increase in a capitalist economy, linked to the exigencies of profitability due to the increasing difficulties of the valorization of capital. The precariousness of labor is studied around some of the main forms it adopts in three European economies: mini‐jobs in Germany, “zero‐hours contracts” in the United Kingdom, and false self‐employment, together with internship and training contracts, in Spain. Based on theoretical and empirical analysis, several conclusions are proposed to understand the extension and deepening of labor precariousness, built on the notions of overexploitation and destruction of productive forces, linked to current demands of capitalist accumulation.