Consumers' Attitudes Toward Labelling of Ethical Products: The Case of Organic and Fair Trade Products

This article aims to investigate the factors that influence consumer attitudes to use labelling information in purchasing organic and Fair Trade products and to verify if labelling is a valid tool of direct shopping aid to consumers, with a view to derive inferences that may contribute to better strategic and tactical marketing decisions. A quantitative survey with a sample of 300 consumers living in south Italy was conducted to explore consumers' knowledge and attitudes toward labelling of organic and fair trade products. Data generated in this way were submitted to exploratory and segmentation analysis. The results indicate significant differences in consumer attitudes and behavior for ethical products and show the importance of new variables, other than demographics characteristics, that can influence the purchasing behavior and label information use.     

SHIFTING BOUNDARIES IN ECONOMICS: THE INSTITUTIONAL COGNITIVE STRAND AND THE FUTURE OF INSTITUTIONAL ECONOMICS

This paper aims at contributing to the debate on the future of institutional economics and of the field as a whole by starting from the literature that discusses the relationship between Old‐Original Institutional Economics and New Institutional Economics. It suggests that the process of reunifying OIE and NIE (and evolutionary economics) prompted by part of the literature could be improved by the contribution of the Cognitive Institutional Economics. The paper follows a two‐stage pathway: first, it frames the debate on the relationships between NIE and the OIE and it concentrates on a subset of the literature that shows that NIE's recent developments complicate the distinction between NIE and OIE, and it explores the possibility that NIE and OIE may merge so that an amalgam of NIE, OIE and Evolutionary Economics becomes the next economic paradigm. Secondly, the paper argues that a step forward in the direction outlined by the literature has been made by CIE, which is a research stream that developed from cross‐fertilization among NIE, OIE and the Hayekian contributions to the analysis of institutions. In the concluding remarks, the possible emergence of a single institutional paradigm is discussed in the light of the literature about change in economics.     

Italian consumer awareness of layer hens' welfare standards: a cluster analysis

Animal welfare has assumed in recent years an increasing significance for European consumers, becoming part of the Community Agricultural Policy strategy that encourages farmers to achieve higher standards of animal welfare. Undoubtedly, the superior social sensitivity towards animal welfare has produced over time notable changes within European Union (EU) Policy. However, while EU legislation has progressively focused on granting animals better possibilities to express their behavioural repertoire, recent analysis shows that consumer knowledge of animal welfare compulsory standards is still quite limited. Drawing on the results of a direct survey on 300 Italian food shoppers, our research analyses consumer knowledge of the welfare standards of laying hens. Our findings highlight important market opportunities and policy implications. Our research shows that, although the majority of the sample expressed concern on hen husbandry systems, most of respondents were unaware of the current mandatory labelling system for eggs. Through cluster analysis three segments were found: the inactive consumer cluster, the conflicted consumer cluster and the ethically competent consumer cluster. This segmentation is especially valuable for producers of ‘animal‐friendly’ eggs to identify market opportunities and formulate appropriate marketing strategies.     

An Open Innovation Decision Support System to Select a Biopharmaceutical R&D Portfolio

Drugs available in the market today, selected several years ago under very uncertain future scenario, have experienced a long and expensive process of research and development carried out following both a closed and an open innovation path. To support this critical selection process, we propose a Decision Support System, able to choose among different candidates the most promising drugs along their best development path. The Decision Support System, based on a real options portfolio optimization model, mapping tools, and what‐if rules as well, has been applied to a numerical example available in literature, and the research findings show interesting managerial and academic implications. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The tourism gender gap and its potential impact on the development of the emerging countries

Quality & Quantity - Tourism offers both incredible opportunities and huge challenges for gender equality. During the last decades, tourism grew almost steadily, and, since it is a labour...     

Cost-effectiveness of switching to insulin degludec from other basal insulins in real-world clinical practice in Italy

Abstract

Aims: The costs associated with insulin therapy and diabetes-related complications represent a significant and growing economic burden for healthcare systems. The aim of this study was to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of switching to insulin degludec (degludec) vs continuing previous basal insulin, in Italian patients with type 1 (T1D) or type 2 (T2D) diabetes, using a long-term economic model.

Materials and methods: Data were retrieved from a real-world population of patients from clinical practice in Italy. Clinical parameters included in the base-case model were change from baseline in HbA_1c, rates of hypoglycemia, and basal and bolus insulin dose, at 6?months following switch to degludec. Costs of treatments were taken from official Italian pharmaceutical list prices and costs of hypoglycemia were based on the literature. The data were used to populate a long-term (lifetime) IQVIA CORE Diabetes Model to evaluate the incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) – cost per quality-adjusted life-year (QALY). The robustness of these results was tested with extensive sensitivity analyses by varying the time horizons and abolishing each of the treatment differences and previous basal insulins.

Results: The total incremental cost for degludec vs previous basal insulin was €–6,310 and €–2,682 for patients with T1D and T2D, respectively; the switch to degludec resulted in a QALY gain of 0.781 and 0.628. The long-term ICER for degludec vs continuing the previous basal insulin regimen showed that degludec was dominant for both T1D and T2D, meaning that patient health was improved in terms of QALYs with lower healthcare costs. Sensitivity analyses showed that degludec remained dominant in most scenarios including after elimination of any benefit in non-severe hypoglycemia and insulin dose, in both T1D and T2D.

Conclusions: Under routine care, switching to degludec is dominant, compared with continuing previous basal insulin, in Italian patients with T1D or T2D.     

Consumers' willingness to pay for conventional,organic and functional yogurt: evidence from experimental auctions

This research is aimed at investigating consumers' willingness to pay (WTP) for conventional, organic and functional yogurts in two different information treatments. The basic information treatment provided respondents with yogurts labelled conventional, organic or functional while the second treatment included additional information. To elicit values for these specific products, 100 Italian consumers participated in an experimental auction using the Vickrey fifth‐price sealed‐bid mechanism. Findings reveal that providing additional information through a specific health claim increases consumer's perceived value of the functional yogurt, while for the organic counterpart additional information on organic regulation does not add much to the premium. Moreover, our study shows that specific socio‐demographic variables (as gender, age, presence of kids in the household and the need to follow a specific diet) positively affect WTP for functional and organic yogurts.     

The Relationship between Organizational Culture and Energy Performance: A Municipal Energy Manager Level Study

For energy managers, finding personal meaning in the activities they are engaged in and gaining an identity in connection between energy efficiency and organizational goals is a necessary condition to mobilize passion and commitment, which in turn are fundamental to achieve organizational goals under tight budget constraints. Despite this, little is known about how municipalities, which are typical budget‐constrained organizations, can enhance the empowerment of employees with roles as energy managers. This paper draws from the literature on the person–organization fit in order to adapt and test the hypothesis that multiple dimensions of organizational culture are strong predictors of perceived managerial and technical energy performance. Data from 729 questionnaire responses from energy managers of Italian municipalities show that formalization, team orientation, innovation, centralization and reward systems are the key elements that enable energy managers to act as business partners instead of task managers. Causal relations are discussed and presented along with theoretical and policy implications that can provide inspiration also to private organizations. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment