Non-competitive and protectionist government purchasing behavior

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to investigate the structural relationships between brand consciousness, perceived quality, social influences, traits of vanity, the need for uniqueness (i.e. antecedents), Generation Y purchase intentions and behaviour (consequences) towards luxury fashion goods.Design/methodology/approachAn integrative theoretical model is proposed based on social comparison theory, social impact theory, the perceived quality model and theory of uniqueness to predict the antecedents and consequences of Generation Y luxury fashion goods purchase decisions. Using cross-sectional data, a total of 384 sets of valid questionnaires were collected to perform the statistical analysis for the measurement and structural model using the partial least squares path modelling, a variance-based structural equation modelling technique.FindingsOverall, the structural results imply that the proposed model explains 73.1 and 64 per cent of variances to predict the Generation Y luxury fashion goods purchase decisions. As the several indices for evaluation of goodness of model fit, standardised Root Mean Square Residual, geodesic discrepancy, and unweighted least squares discrepancy show a satisfactory result. The results of two-tailed hypotheses reveal that brand consciousness, perceived quality, social influences, traits of vanity and the need for uniqueness influence Generation Y purchase intention. Moreover, perceived quality and social influences impact purchase behaviour but brand consciousness, traits of vanity and the need for uniqueness do not seem to be significant in explaining the variance in Generation Y purchase behaviour. Furthermore, Generation Y purchase intention is statistically related to purchase behaviour.Originality/valueThere is a lack of empirical evidence and understanding on the influences of consumer purchase intention and behaviour towards luxury fashion goods among the Generation Y. Generation Y is likely to purchase and consume luxury fashion products, and it is important to have a deeper understanding of this market segment.

RECENT articles by Spence [I977], Dixit [I979], and Schmalensee [I98I] have elaborated on Wenders' [I97I1 proposition that excess capacity can act as a barrier to entry. The intent of all of these treatments is to suggest that firms may rationally invest in excess capacity with the expectation that excess capacity will be seen by potential entrants either as a signal of aggressive intent' or as a credible threat.2 When excess capacity does not lead to creation of a credible threat, it may still act as a barrier to entry by shifting the risk-return perceptions of potential entrants enough to divert the potential entrants' investments into other industries. 3 Alternatively, investment in excess capacity by incumbent firms may reduce the prospects of an active market for the used equipment of a defunct entrant and thereby help to convert fixed costs into sunk costs, consequently raising entry barriers.4 This paper represents an exploratory effort to investigate empirically the prevalence and efficiency of excess capacity in deterring entry. First, a simple and traditional model of entry is presented. This is followed by the description of the data used to explore the excess capacity-investment concept. A combined results and comments section follows the description of the data.

Optimizing biogas plants with excess power unit and storage capacity in electricity and control reserve markets

Investment, Expectations and Uncertainty: Empirical Evidence on the Relevance of Firm Size

This paper explores the funding issues at the early stages of development of small biotechnology and software firms in the UK. The paper reviews theory and evidence on firms in these two sectors and presents empirical evidence for the UK derived from an extensive on-line questionnaire survey. The sample consists of 41 small biotechnology firms and 42 software firms representing a sub-sample of a larger sample of 133 high technology small firms (HTSFs) or technology-based small firms (TBSFs). As a subgroup of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs), HTSFs face a number of obstacles to their business development. Finance is believed to be one of the main problems particularly at the early stages of their development. HTSFs encounter financing problems mainly because of their embryonic nature, young age, lack of collateral, lack of business skills, lack of market presence, high technical area and other factors. The main findings from this study suggest that entrepreneurs in the biotechnology sector reported higher academic qualifications than the other group. The founders of software firms are younger than the biotechnology firms. Firms in both groups have grown in terms of full-time employees. In terms of funding problems, software firms reports more funding problems than the biotechnology firms. Software firms are fastest growing firms and goes through the early stages of development quickly than the biotechnology group. With regards to the sources of funding the evidence shows that biotechnology small firms mainly use venture capital finance whilst the main source of funding for the software firms is personal savings and bank finance. However, biotechnology small firms report difficulties in securing equity finance. Software firms seem to be constraining their growth by the demand side financial constraints. The two groups of HTSFs in this study suggest that high technology small firms may have particular needs for finance and that these may change as they develop through early stages of business development. The paper present evidence on these issues and suggest differences in the experience of biotechnology and software firms in terms of financing.

In the past few years, in which the economies of most industrialized countries showed figures of stagnation phenomena, it has become increasingly evident from a variety of studies and official government policy statements that small and medium size firms are more and more regarded as generators of economic growth, as primary sources of technological change and--via job creation--as one of the major factors in maintaining social stability (see Rothwell and Zegveld, 1982). Economic growth does not take place uniformly on a nation-wide scale. Specific regions provide a specific incubator function for specific new activities. Research on the incubator hypothesis already has a long history since the early attempts of Hoover and Vernon (1959). The main question here is the identification of favourable locational conditions that act as attractors of new activities. In this framework, a regional profile analysis may be a useful analytical tool in order to identify by means of a strength-weakness analysis which regions are favourable candidates for the locational requirements of new firms (e.g., the regional entrepreneurial vitality, the industrial diversity, the available infrastructure, etc.) (see Ni]~amp et al., 1988). While traditional regional policy has primarily addressed itself to providing various incentives to firms to locate branch plants in development regions and to aiding establishments (such as the Voest-Alpine in Austria) already located in such regions, local authorities are nowadays increasingly focussing attention on the revitalization of indigenous regional resources which may trigger the creation of new--often knowledge-based--activities, particularly in the small firm sector (see also Keeble and Wever, 1986; Storey, 1982). This paper aims at discussing in more detail the regional development potential offered by the small firm sector. The paper is organized as follows: In section 2 the role of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in the economy is discussed, in particular with respect to its employment and development potential In section 3 the innovative role of SMEs will be discussed in more detail. It will be argued in this section that the innovative potential of SMEs is co-determined by the regional incubator profile at hand. Some empirical evidence from the Netherlands will be presented in order to demonstrate the plausibility of the previous statement. Section 4 will then outline the principles of a multi-dimensional locational profile analysis for SMEs, while section 5 will descr~e the results of a case study in which a regional incubator profile is related to the specific regional importance of a set of SME branches. This

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to analyse a key research hypothesis: Do firms ruled by managers have a greater rationale to implement a mergers and acquisitions (M&A) than (family) firms managed by their owners?Design/methodology/approachThis paper uses an organizational-delegation-quantity oligopoly game to examine the profitability of M&As for firms that strategically delegate production decisions to managers versus family firms with no strategic delegation. This paper delimits the condition for delegation as aimed at increasing merger profitability: non-family CEOs will implement mergers more frequently than family CEOs and more so for inefficient firms because these require fewer synergies. The paper tests the main propositions with data on all M&As by small and medium firms in Spain in 2017 and 2018.FindingsThe greater the average operating margin of a firm, the more likely a merger, which is also more likely between non-family firms. The evidence of higher ex post synergies by firms is not statistically significant due to large variability, suggesting that some family firms did not obtain the expected ex ante synergies. The lesson is that family firms competing in an environment of high marginal costs (e.g. industries in the early stage of the life cycle) seeking to grow through inorganic means such as M&As have an incentive to professionalize management.Research limitations/implicationsThis paper models competition in a Cournot fashion, representative of industries where firms compete in terms of sales growth and increased market share. Other results might hold in industries where firms are oriented to price competition or to service differentiation. The empirical research uses proxies for key variables such as the form of firm governance and unit costs, while hypotheses on ex ante synergies driving merger decisions had to be tested through ex post synergies.Originality/valueM&As by small firms and family firms remain largely unexplored in the literature. This paper contributes with both a theoretical model and empirical research that highlight the implications of strategic delegation contracts for M&A deals.

Despite the importance of informal modes of learning and innovation for developing countries, there is little empirical evidence on their role in firm performance. This paper examines the effect of formal and informal learning modes followed by small and large firms on their overall performance in the capital goods industry. Following the wider literature on national innovation systems, we categorise the innovation modes as formal Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) and informal learning by Doing, Using and Interacting (DUI) mode. We observe that in the case of small firms the informal learning and experience-based innovation is related to improved performance, while the formal STI mode does not have any effect. On the other hand, for large firms, both STI and DUI innovation modes are positively related to their sales growth. Our results indicate that building certain DUI capabilities may act as a pre-condition to enhance the strength of science and technology-based innovation strategies.

Demand.- to Essays on Port Economics.- Port Marketing Strategies and the Challenges of Maritime Globalization.- Contextual Port Development: A Theoretical Approach.- The Conditioned Demands of General Merchandise, Dry Bulk and Liquid Bulk Sea Transport.- Determinants of the Demand of International Maritime Transport.- The Demand for Maritime Transport: A Nonlinearity and Chaos Study.- Supply.- Productivity in Maritime Transportation.- Analysis of the Returns to Scale, Elasticities of Substitution and Behavior of Shipping (General Cargo) Production.- Returns to Scale, Elasticities of Substitution and Behavior of Shipping (Dry Bulk) Transport Costs, Some Empirical Evidence.- Cycles in the Ship Building Industry: An Empirical Evidence.- Port Economic Impact.- A Methodological Discussion on Port Economic Impact Studies and Their Possible Applications to Policy Design.- An Approach to the Contribution of the Port System.- The Economic Impact of Ports: Its Importance for the Region and Also the Hinterland.- The Effect of Port Infrastructures on Regional Production.- Regulation and Economic, Technical and Allocative Efficiency.- Bootstrapped Technical Efficiency of African Seaports.- Impact of New Technology on Port Administration.- Excess Capacity, Economic Efficiency and Technical Change in a Public-Owned Port System: An Application to the Infrastructure Services of Spanish Ports.- Analysis of Technical Efficiency and Rate of Return on Investment in Ports.- Cost Benefit Analysis and Externalities.- A Cost-Benefit Analysis of a New Container Terminal.- Evaluation of Port Externalities: The Ecological Footprint of Port Authorities.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate the implications of causation and effectuation behaviour of Ethiopian entrepreneurs on the eventual performance of their newly established small firms. It adds new knowledge and insights to advance the theory of effectuation by extending its scope into the domain of entrepreneurial behaviour and firm performance and by testing one of the operationalized scales in an African context.Design/methodology/approachThis empirical research is conducted amongst Ethiopian tour operators (n=118) based on primary data from the field. The scales are based on Chandler et al. (2011), which are adapted to fit to the tourism sector and validated in an African context using a two-stage exploratory factor analysis (EFA). Hierarchical multiple regression is used to assess the ability of entrepreneurs’ behaviour (i.e. causation and effectuation) at the startup phase to predict the eventual performance of their newly established firms (self-reported changes in employment size, sales, profit and assets) over three years (January 2012-2015).FindingsThe findings reveal a varied effect of causation and effectuation on financial and non-financial measures. Causation is positively related to an increase in employment size, whereas the overall effect of effectuation is positively related to financial performance measures, although its dimensions vary in their effects on sales, profit and assets increase. The paper concludes that causation and effectuation have varied implications on firm performance. In other words, unlike the findings of other research in Western contexts, a strong empirical support is not found to claim that effectuation is superior to causation in outcomes such as firm performance in Ethiopian context.Research limitations/implicationsWhile this paper provides a new data set for entrepreneurship literature, its findings may lack generalisability. Not only it is industry specific (tourism sector), but also it is conducted in a single African country (Ethiopia). Despite its limitations, the paper adds new knowledge and insights for empirical studies in entrepreneurship field on the effects of entrepreneurs’ behaviour, such as causation and effectuation; on firm performance. Future research should focus on other economic sectors and in different African countries before making generalisations about the effect of causation and effectuation behaviour of African entrepreneurs on firm performance.Practical implicationsThe findings of this paper can be used in other hospitality and tourism sectors like hotels and souvenir shops since tour operating business includes a broad range of service activities such as sightseeing, accommodation, transportation, recreational activities and shopping. Besides, these results have practical implications to prepare and provide business and management training tools to enhance entrepreneurial and managerial skills of owners of small tourism firms in Ethiopia. The findings of the study can also be applied in other African countries with similar culture and business environments to promote tourism development and success in Africa.Originality/valueThere have been hardly any empirical studies that are undertaken on the implications of entrepreneurial behaviour such as causation and effectuation on the performance of small tourism firms, particularly in an African context. The paper addresses this research gap in entrepreneurship literature in drawing on empirical evidence from small tourism firms (tour operators) in Ethiopia.

Many consumers are concerned about environmental issues and have expressed interest in purchasing green products. However, actual sales of green products are still not as high as expected. Therefore, marketers of green products may need to investigate the factors driving green purchase behaviors. In this study, we proposed an extended theory of planned behavior (TPB) model that links consumers’ environmental concerns, perceived image of the company, consumer innovativeness, and environmental knowledge with green product purchase behavior. We applied a quantitative approach to collect the data via online questionnaires through Amazon MTurk. With 974 useable samples, the data were analyzed with structural equation modeling (SEM) using Smart PLS. The results showed that green purchase intention positively and significantly affects green purchase behavior. Moreover, the multigroup analysis revealed that the direct influence of green purchase intention on green purchase behavior is higher in developing countries than in developed countries. Regarding the direct effect on green purchase intention, attitude toward green products, perceived consumer effectiveness (PCE), environmental concern, and company’s perceived green image are significant antecedents of the intention to purchase, with attitude toward green products being the most robust antecedent among the three. However, subjective norms do not act as a direct antecedent of purchase intention. For the indirect effect on green purchase intention, four main antecedents (attitude toward green products, subjective norms, PCE, and environmental concerns) indirectly impact purchase intention via the mediating role of the perceived green image of the company. This study contributes to existing literatures via extending the TPB model. Regarding attitude-intention-behavior model, we found that environmental concern complements the model as an antecedent of green purchase intention. Moreover, a company’s perceived green image mediates the relationship between four antecedents and green purchase intention. Therefore, marketers of green products may also enhance future purchases by promoting the green image of the company. Particularly, we found that environmental knowledge positively moderates the relationship between environmental concern and a company’s perceived green image. We added on the empirical evidence that PCE plays a crucial role in stimulating green purchases as its direct positive influence on green purchase behavior is larger than that of green purchase intention. Moreover, consumer innovativeness positively moderates the relationship between PCE and green purchase intention.

This research aims to identify strategic planning system characteristics in Jordanian small industrial firms and toexamine its relationship with corporate performance. This is one of the first studies to examine such questions.Existing literature, both theoretical and empirical, is examined to identify the state of knowledge associated withthis question in both developed and middle East countries. The empirical research was co-ordinated via a surveyof small Jordanian industrial publicly quoted firms. A questionnaire survey of these firms yielded a 52.1 per centresponse rate. The results of the survey provided a rich source of data in relation to a variety of practicesassociated with strategic planning in small Jordanian industrial firms. Key findings provided empirical evidenceabout the involvement of top and line management in planning, the use of environmental screening, and the useof strategy tools and techniques. Furthermore, the study found a strong positive relationship between strategicplanning and corporate performance. This research gives a new empirical evidence about the value of strategicplanning to corporate performance from Middle East countries context.

This thesis concerns the influence of healthcare systems regulation on firm-level capabilities and affordable healthcare technologies. Regulatory change is highly contentious, critics arguing that regulatory changes interfere with the efficiency of the market, and advocates arguing that well designed regulatory changes make markets more efficient and ensure market outcomes are more equitable. To date, very few studies analyze the influence of regulatory change on the medical device industry, and its ability to manufacture and supply affordable healthcare technologies. To respond to this gap, this research employs the Sectoral Systems of Innovation (SSI) approach as a theoretical framework to analyze the influence of regulatory changes on industrial capabilities in medical device industries and affordable healthcare technologies in South Africa and the United Kingdom. A mixed-method approach, focusing on three cases of regulatory change, emphasised documentary analysis and questionnaire-guided interviews to collect primary and secondary data from different sources in the healthcare systems of the two study countries. Regulatory changes facilitated some firms to create new strategies and innovative capabilities. Regulatory changes enabled some firms to develop close collaborative linkages with external providers in search of competitive advantage and improved market positioning. One reactive regulatory change, in particular, illustrated negative influence on innovative capabilities. Smaller firms were at a particular disadvantage in adapting to regulatory change. In the South Africa case, the more stringent regulatory requirements made it hard for domestic suppliers to enter the supply chain and led to joint ventures mainly with multinational corporations. The thesis argues, with empirical evidence, that a more enabling and discriminating regulation that takes into consideration of firms’ technological capabilities can achieve intended goals more efficiently and effectively, than constraining and indiscriminate regulation.

Purpose: The paper aims to understand how eco labels influence attitude towards green product purchases. The study progresses to analyze why attitude does not translate to actual purchase behavior even when eco labels transpire green information to customers'. This is done using the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) Design/methodology/approach: The study used partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS SEM) to analyze the statistical data. The TPB was used as the root model to understand the green purchase behavior and how eco labels with product attributes influence attitude towards green products. The variables of TPB namely attitude, subjective norms and perceived behavioral control contributed to the constellation of green product behavior. The questionnaire was distributed using convenience sampling method to 241 youths (university students). Findings: Firstly, the study successfully established the validity of TPB in the Indian context towards green products. It classifies the model on product, perception and actual level which adds to the better rendition for consumers' green behavior. Secondly, with the addition of eco labels and product attributes of green products improved the prediction power of TPB from 53.1% to 58.5%. Thirdly, eco labels and product attributes came out to be cardinal antecedents to harbor favorable attitude towards green products. The study also found the attitude was not translating to green purchase behavior and mandated further inquiry to the concern. Finally, the study vouches for gender neutrality while promoting green products. Research implications: Firstly, the study adds to the mounting evidences towards the applicability of TPB towards green product purchase in India. Secondly, the study addresses the importance of ecol labels and product attributes towards harboring favorable attitude towards green products. Finally, unfolds the nuances for the inability to translate attitude towards green purchase behavior. Managerial implications: Firstly, the study advances the indispensability of eco labels to promote green products. Firms can materialize on this dynamics of information dissemination through eco labels and promote sustainable attitude among consumers'. Secondly, the firms can understand the dynamics of consumer behavior and work accordingly to frame policies conducive towards translating attitude into green purchase behavior. Thirdly, the study strongly documents the need to market green products in a gender neutral manner. Originality: The study draws novelty on two prospects. Firstly, the study uses eco labels and product attributes as antecedents towards attitude. Secondly, the study also aims to determine the actual green purchase behavior using the TPB model. Thirdly, the study investigates the moderating role of gender towards green product behavior.

The difference in purchase behavior between male and female consumers is a well-established narrative because of the considerable differences in their buying preferences and decision-making approaches. Women buyer market for financial products is an untapped yet promising segment, however, beyond certain generic assumptions, very little is known about the consumer behavior patterns, satisfaction, and positive word of mouth (WOM) of women customers related to financial products. Targeting a serving woman as a financial service customer necessitates an understanding of the factors contributing to satisfaction level leading to the positive WOM of female customers. Therefore, this paper is an effort to explore the role of the responsiveness component of service quality and sincerity dimension of brand personality on WOM via customer satisfaction. Using the partial least square method in structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) on 183 working women respondents in India, the research results highlighted some interesting findings. Results revealed that brand sincerity directly impacts the WOM of the women customers where achieving satisfaction is not necessary; however, the responsiveness of a financial product does not directly lead to a positive WOM, rather through satisfaction. The research is novel in empirically testing and comparing the role of brand sincerity and responsiveness in generating satisfaction and positive WOM. This study provides insights for the financial product designers and marketers intending to target women-customers, by focusing on the specific consumer behavioral dimensions leading to satisfaction and positive WOM to ensure the product success.