The out-of-region bias: Distance estimations based on geographic category membership

This research addresses estimations of distance, an important factor in numerous consumer decisions (e.g., store choice, willingness to pay for travel). Our central hypothesis is that when two places are located in the same geographic category, individuals estimate them to be closer to each other than when they are located in different categories, a bias we term ??the out-of-region bias.?? In study 1, we demonstrate that participants are more willing to visit a store located in the city in which they live rather than a store located in a neighboring city because they mistakenly think that a store in their city is closer to home. In studies 2a and b, we show that the out-of-region bias leads consumers to express higher willingness to pay for an airline ticket that involves travel across versus within regions because they inaccurately estimate greater distance between cities that are located in different regions (vs. the same region). Study 2a also demonstrates that the out-of-region bias is ameliorated in the presence of a map, indicating that the bias is a conceptual (vs. perceptual) bias, and study 2b rules out an alternative explanation for our results based on consumers?? tendency to exaggerate north?Csouth distances.     

Price Effects of Preferential Market Access: Caribbean Basin Initiative and the Apparel Sector

Preferential trade arrangements should be evaluated by theireffect on prices rather than by their effect on the total valueof trade. This point is emphasized in the theoretical literaturebut rarely implemented empirically. This article analyzes theU.S. Caribbean Basin Initiative’s (CBI’s) impacton the prices received by eligible apparel exporters. The CBI’sapparel preferences are the most important and heavily usedunilateral preferences because of high trade barriers imposedon exports from the rest of the world. A fixed-effects generalizedleast squares (GLS) estimation is used to isolate the effectsof other factors (such as quality, exchange rates, and transactioncosts) and to identify the effects of tariff preferences. CBIexporters capture only about two-thirds of their preferencemargin despite the high degree of competition among importers.This translates into a 9 percent increase in the relative pricesthey receive, with some variance across countries and years.Countries specializing in higher value items capture more ofthe preference margin, and the implementation of the North AmericanFree Trade Agreement (NAFTA) has a negative effect. RemovingMultifibre Arrangement quotas significantly lowers the benefitsof CBI preferences.     

The expansion of intensive marine aquaculture in Turkey: The next‐to‐last commodity frontier?

Aquaculture is one of the fastest growing food‐producing sectors, and its share in global seafood production is rising significantly compared with capture fisheries. This transforms seafood production practices while allowing capital to expand to new marine commodity frontiers. Building on the conceptualization of aquaculture as a new frontier for capture fisheries, the article aims to uncover how commodity frontiers expand within the intensive marine aquaculture sector and shape the transformation of seafood production by focusing on its recent growth in Turkey. It analyses this transformation based on 22 in‐depth interviews with key social actors in Turkey, as well as a review of sector and state reports and the relevant legislations of Turkey and the European Union, and argues that the three‐pronged horizontal, vertical, and taxonomic expansion already observed in industrial capture fisheries has similarly taken place in intensive marine aquaculture through the commodity widening, deepening, and marketing strategies employed by aquaculture firms.     

Entrepreneurial self-efficacy and entrepreneurial intention: the Turkish case

This paper examines the relationship of entrepreneurial self-efficacy (ESE) and entrepreneurial intention in the Turkish culture. Sub-dimensions of ESE were investigated and the level of entrepreneurial intention was discussed. The sample comprised of 245 undergraduate students of a university in Turkey. Results suggest that students have a high intention to be entrepreneurs. ESE has a strong effect on entrepreneurial intention, but sub-dimensions of ESE have different impacts. The results of the study were compared with a previously published study conducted in the USA and Korea by a group of researchers. In this comparison, the national cultural context was considered as an influential factor in entrepreneurship.     

Reliability evaluation of healthcare services by assessing the technical efficiency

Classical reliability analysis techniques of manufacturing and defence industries are not a perfect fit for the assessment of the reliability of services. This is partly due to the lack of proper and valid reliability testing procedures in service systems and complications faced in identifying critical service parameters. Since most prominent performance indicators of a system can be associated with the maximum overall reliability it achieves, then factors that degrade the reliability can be identified with respect to its superior peers. This study utilizes the data envelopment analysis for the evaluation of reliability in service systems with a focus on healthcare. This approach comparably evaluates the performance of a service provider over a period of time by means of failure rates and identifies the factors affecting unreliable time phases. Application of the proposed method is illustrated with a private Turkish hospital along with an example of failure mode and effect analysis for inpatient treatment.     

The effect of a no-pain, no-gain lay theory on product efficacy perceptions

We document the existence of an inference strategy based on a no-pain, no-gain lay theory, showing that consumers infer pharmaceutical products to be more efficacious when they are associated with a detrimental side effect or attribute. Study 1 finds that consumers high in need for cognition infer a bad-tasting cough syrup to be more effective than a good-tasting one. However, taste does not impact efficacy beliefs of consumers low in need for cognition. A second study conceptually replicates these results, showing that consumers who take allergy medications (i.e., those high in issue involvement) infer an allergy medication with common side effects to be more effective than one with rare side effects. Our final study builds on these findings by demonstrating that consumers high in need for cognition believe a pain killer with common side effects to be more effective than one with rare side effects. Demonstrating a boundary condition of this inference strategy, the effect is observed only when the pain killer has been on the market for a relatively long period of time.