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The influence of health and environment-focused values on restaurateur satisfaction in organic restaurants: a descriptive analysis in Spain
No full textAs a consequence of the increasing importance of the organic food in several countries, there are many theoretical and empirical studies focused on analyzing whether the health values or rather the environmental attitudes of the restaurateurs, are the most influential factors on their satisfaction. However, it is very important to differentiate the impact of these factors in order to improve the restaurateur satisfaction in the marketing of organic labeled foods.
As most studies in restaurants are related to customer satisfaction, this paper deals with a novel topic relating promotion and differentiation in organic restaurants and particularly describing restaurateur satisfaction (i.e. manager satisfaction). In the framework of a research project focused in organic restaurants, in this paper we investigate how restaurant managements’ attitudes influence decisions to promote organic foods as inputs on menus. Different combinations of promotional attributes of an organic menu are considered and a wide spatial representation of cross-sectional nature has been obtained, and an investigation of chefs’ decision-making criteria based on a questionnaire was carried out to collect data. We illustrate how is possible to manage the promotion of the organic restaurants in Spain and the implications of these findings for restaurants are discussed. The main contribution of this work is that there is a potential niche for restaurants in the marketing of organic labeled foods, in order to facilitate the promotion of organic food consumption in restaurants highlighting the attributes on which to establish the proposition of value
Influence of social networks on the purchase decisions of university students
No full textThe emergence of social networks has not just had a great impact in the way companies promote their products and services, but also in the decision-making process of consumers regarding their purchases. Using the application and extension of the models proposed by Okazaki et al. (2012), the present study tries to understand the factors that motivate the use of social networks in the purchase decisions of young university students, for this a self-administered questionnaires were applied to 224 university students. Some limitations were found at the time of evaluating the adjustment of the model through a structural equations method, due to the number of indicators per construct. However, the results show that the proposed model presents a good adjustment. Therefore, it can be concluded that the study develops an appropriate approach to the knowledge of the factors that can influence university students, who intend to use social networks to buy, validating the conclusions drawn by Okazaki et al. (2012) in their study. At last, it is recommended for companies that wish to promote their products through social networks to look out for strategies that combine information transparency and stimulation of word-of-mouth communication among users, generating a larger impact on the purchase decisions of clients
Is my professional future biased for gender perceptions? A study for the Spanish case with public policy proposals on education
No full textThis article deals with the ‘glass ceiling’ phenomenon based on the fact that a disproportionately low number of women access managerial positions by analyzing gender differences in the ‘educational profile’ and ‘professional profile perceived’. The sample is conducted among 165 undergraduate economics students (54 males and 111 females) in the final year of college in Spain at the time they were planning their future professional career. The methodology used is based on two approaches. First, an analytic model using Structural Equations Model (SEM) that leads us to explore perceptual differences in favorite subjects, professional ambitions, values associated to the workplace and mobility. Second, a causal analysis following the System Dynamics methodology to describe the women’s behavior in explaining their self-exclusion from managerial positions. Findings confirm the existence of an educational system biased by gender and reveals that while men are more ambitious professionally and show greater capacity to geographical mobility, women require greater motivation at work. Moreover, we find that the factors explaining why women are still far from reaching senior management positions are both external (gender stereotypes or organizational policies) and internal ones (self-confidence, self-esteem). Finally, we propose a set of education measures as a starting point to implement public policies which could reduce women´s barriers to break their glass ceiling
Regional development and capital structure of SMEs
No full textThis article studies the influence of regional institutional environment, measured as regional development, on capital structure of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Furthermore, the standard firm-factor determinants and the business sector of the firm are also incorporated. To this end, a sample of 6,560 Spanish firms for 2007 is analysed, where all regions of Spain and all sectors, except the financial sector, are considered. Spain provides a suitable and unexplored laboratory for the analysis of regional differences in the financial structure of SMEs, since, on the one hand, SMEs constitute the most relevant firms in this country, and on the other hand, Spain shows regional disparities at various levels. Moreover, the empirical analysis uses Partial Least Squares (PLS), a variance-based structural equation modelling (SEM). In this respect, PLS has several clear advantages to multiple linear regression (MLR). Thanks to this study, how each of these factors explains the variation in the capital structure could be shown. Moreover, the results show that although firm factors and the business sector explain a large proportion of the variance of capital structure of SMEs, it is important to take into account the regional institutional environment to better ascertain the level of debt of SMEs in a single country
New challenges in franchisor-franchisee relationship. An analysis from agency theory perspective
No full textAgency theory has been widely used in the franchising literature. This theory analyzes the contract relationships between the principal and agent and has been mostly applied to franchising in traditional sectors (e.g., restaurants, retailing, or travel agencies) where the processes and procedures can be easily standardized. Recently, there has been a spectacular development of high-intensity knowledge sectors, especially in the health sector (dentists, opticians, physiotherapists etc.), where many companies choose franchising to expand the network and improve the survival rates of franchisees, although this strategy goes against the traditional view of the agency theory.
In this work, we propose to study this “new agency problem”, using the franchising business model as our research field. The know-how in high-knowledge-intensive sectors is difficult to codify and transfer, and it opens new possibilities for resource-based and intellectual capital perspectives to explain how knowledge assets are built into contracts in franchisor-franchisee relationships. Using resource-based theory and an intellectual capital perspective, we develop propositions on how to handle the knowledge transfer more efficiently. From this point of view, we propose an interorganizational dynamic contract to provide a more efficient knowledge transfer, thereby contributing to the success of the franchise networks as well as reducing the failure rates of franchisees’ outlets
The effects of implementing ISO 9001 in the Spanish construction industry
No full textThe ISO 9001 Standard – a quality assurance standard for products and services – is well established in the construction industry, which is one of the major industries in the world, including Spain. The objectives of this paper are, on the one hand, to analyse the results of adhering to this standard for construction companies in Spain, and on the other, to examine whether these results are affected by the size of the organization and the seniority of the certification. To this end, a questionnaire was sent to quality managers of 302 companies in the industry, and the responses of 126 valid questionnaires received were treated by descriptive analysis and ANOVA. From the answers gathered is concluded that obtaining the ISO 9001 certification has positive effects leading to benefits which are both “internal” and “external”. Some of the most significant internal benefits mentioned were improvements to the organisational processes, while among the external benefits, commercial aspects, such as better chances of competing on the market, were mentioned most frequently. It was also observed that the size of the organization does not significantly modify the positive effects of adherence to the standard, while the age of the certification itself, has a significant influence on the positive results of the adherence
The marketing orientation as a university management philosophy: a framework to guide its application
No full textThe environment in which university institutions develop their activities has become more competitive over recent decades and market elements have been introduced into the sector. Accordingly, universities have shown a growing interest in developing and maintaining a favourable and distinctive image among their stakeholders. To this end, many of them have focused their efforts on the improvement and renewal of training programs. However, such efforts have not always been matched in the transmission of a more favourable perception among their stakeholders. This context calls for university management with a marketing orientation. However, university marketing is in its early stages in many parts of the world and the incorporation of marketing principles and practices in the field of higher education encounters much reluctance from citizens and academics. This contribution sets out the reasons for this resistance, which may be grounded in a misconception about the discipline, and a working framework for marketing management in universities is proposed to facilitate the practical implementation of marketing philosophy in such institutions. It is a framework whose design involves a combination of services marketing and corporate marketing proposals and highlights aspects that managers of higher education institutions should focus on 1) to meet the demands of different stakeholders with varied (and sometimes conflicting) interests and 2) to move towards the development of a favourable perception among the stakeholders of the institutions they manage
Supplier capacity and key account management performance: a stochastic frontier analysis
No full textTaking the influences of operational, organizational and relational factors on key account management performance into account, present research examines the antecedent variables of key account management performance. Using a questionnaire, data from 112 ready-made garments companies in Bangladesh were used to evaluate Capacity Oriented Key Account Management Performance through Stochastic Frontier Model. Results show that in the case of medium key account serving capacity, log-likelihood estimation of Maximum Likelihood Estimation (MLE) is found same as the Ordinary Least Square (OLS) estimation whereas for both high and low key account serving capacity, MLE is found better than OLS estimation. It is observed that perceived risks of serving key account, supplier relational investment, and relational intimacy are significant in case of both MLE and OLS estimation methods while in case of MLE team effort and supplier relational investment are recorded significant for the high, medium and low key account serving capacity oriented performance of Bangladeshi ready-made garments companies. Again, most of the companies with high key account serving capacity are found showing above average performance, the performance of the companies with medium key account serving capacity is homogeneous. On the other hand, the performance of low key account serving capacity garments companies are more volatile than garments companies with medium and high key account serving capacity. Implications, limitations, and further research options are suggested