Search results

This special issue of the Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, entitled “Business, Industrial Marketing and Uncertainty”, presents selected extended studies that were presented at the European Academy of Management and Business Economics Conference (AEDEM 2012).

The main focus of this year was reflected in the slogan: “Creating new opportunities in an uncertain environment”. The objective was to show the importance that uncertainty has in our current world, strongly affected by many complexities and modern developments, especially through the new technological advances.

One fundamental reason that explains the economic crisis is that the government and companies were not well prepared for these critical situations. And the main justification for this is that they did not have enough information. Otherwise, they would have tried any possible strategy to avoid the crisis. Usually, uncertainty is defined as the situation with unknown information in the environment.

From a theoretical perspective, the problem here is that enterprises and governments should assess the information and the uncertainty in a more appropriate way. Usually, they have some studies in this direction, but many times, it is not enough, as it was proved in the last economic crisis.

This paper aims to explore the impact of incentives on the behavioral intention to use electronic commerce through interactive television to enhance a deeper understanding of how television platforms can improve the attractiveness of television to enterprises as a channel of communication and distribution.

This study uses a questionnaire to collect empirical data on preferences related to perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, perceived enjoyment, attitude toward the use of t-commerce and behavioral intention to use t-commerce and incentives. The measurement scales of the variables were tested using exploratory factor analysis. The hypotheses were tested using the results of forgotten effects analysis applied to the incidences of incentives on the precedents of the behavioral intention to use t-commerce.

The findings suggest that there are no significant direct incidences between incentives and the behavioral intention to use t-commerce, but the direct incidence is only part of the total incidence and on many occasions is only a small part, as the result of causal relationships between causes and effects. The results indicate indirect incidences between incentives and the behavioral intention to use t-commerce through its precedents.

Marketing managers of television platforms may consider the use of incentives to encourage behavioral intention to use t-commerce to achieve the development of interactive television as a distribution channel.

Research on t-commerce acceptance, especially research that uses extrinsic variables, is scarce. This paper addresses that gap by exploring the use of incentives to attract users.

In this vein, this paper aims to provide empirical evidence on the following questions: Which expansion strategies offer better operational and economic performance? What effects does performance-related diversification have? How do other factors such as size, quality, service offered, location or seasonality interact with performance.

In this paper, the analysis of the effects of growth strategies and hotel attributes on performance is carried out with a sample of 255 hotels that operate internationally. Using panel data and quantile regression, this study evaluates the effect of expansion and diversification on the hotels’ performance.

From these findings, it appears that the equity strategy (own hotels) outperforms non-equity strategies (hotels under rental, franchise and management contract) at the operational level. However, the economic return of the property, both adjusted and unadjusted to risk, is lower under the property ownership strategy than under the franchise and management strategies because, in general, it requires a higher investment. Regarding diversification, the growth strategy based on related diversification in food and beverage services has a negative impact on performance, calling into question the synergies between the two businesses. However, an exception to this effect is seen among those hotels, mainly those in the Caribbean, that opt to provide all-inclusive services, since these hotels achieve better occupancy rates and more stable results.

This study has not taken into account the effect of hotel property revaluation on the performance of the ownership strategy, as there is no information on the historical average revaluation at the level of each individual hotel. This study has also been unable to include information regarding the level of competition and seasonality of sales.

This paper considers a wide number of factors that can influence the performance of hotels. Second, this is the only paper that studies the impact of growth strategies from the point of view of the hotel chain. Also, the sample considered uses data at the individual level on hotels and this research analyses not only operational performance but also economic performance.

The purpose of this study is to explore the incidence between the actions to be taken by business promoters and the degree or level of success in creating new businesses.

The paper matches data from market research based on a questionnaire sent to Spanish startups (years 2006-2010). The paper uses a methodology that is based on the “forgotten effects model”.

Results show the elements that make up the target objectives are financing needs, marketing actions, continued innovation, and efforts in the areas of internationalization and sustainability.

Using the forgotten effects model approach, this research tries to analyze the role that entrepreneurship actions play in the success of a project's objectives, taking into account not only the direct effects but also the indirect objectives.

The objective of this paper is to analyze the relationship between innovation and the development of artificial intelligence (AI) and digital technologies in Europe. The use of digital technologies among European companies is studied through a composite index, while the relationship between innovation and AI is studied through a log-linear regression model. The results of the model have made possible to develop interesting indications for economic and industrial policy.

The use of digital technologies among European companies is studied through a composite index of AI and information technology (ICT) (using the Fair and Sustainable Welfare methodology) with the aim of measuring territorial gaps and to know which European countries are more or less inclined to its use, while the relationship between innovation and AI is studied through a log-linear regression model.

In the paper, two different methodologies were used to analyze the relationship between innovation and the development of digital technologies in Europe. The synthetic indicator made possible to develop a taxonomy between the different countries, the log-linear model made possible to identify and explain the determinants of innovation.

The description of the biunivocal relationship between innovation and AI is a topical and relevant issue that is treated in the paper in an original way using a synthetic indicator and a log-linear model.

本文旨在探討在歐洲、創新與人工智能和數字技術的發展之間的關係。研究人員透過一個綜合指數、去探討歐洲公司之間數字技術的使用狀況。至於創新與人工智能之間的關係, 則以對數線性回歸模型來進行研究。從模型所得的結果, 為我們提供了建議、去訂定適切的經濟和產業政策。

研究人員透過一個人工智能和資訊科技的綜合指數, 去探討歐洲企業之間數字技術的使用狀況 (研究人員使用了公平和可持續福利方法論), 其目標為測量領土差距, 以及確定哪些歐洲國家、大體上傾向於使用數字技術;至於創新與人工智能之間的關係, 則以對數性回歸模型來進行研究。

本文使用了兩個不同的方法、去探討在歐洲、創新與數字技術發展之間的關係。有關的合成指標, 使研究人員可製定一個不同國家間的分類法;而有關的對數線性模型, 則讓研究人員可確立並說明創新的決定因素。

本文使用了合成指標和對數線性模型、去探討創新與人工智能之間的一對一的關係, 這是時下受到關注和適宜的課題;就研究法而言, 本研究確是新穎獨創的。

This work aims to ask for the possibility to establish one or more Europes in a heterogeneous territory where the main goal is to create a common space. The use of a specific methodology will help us to know whether it is possible to apply general policies in the whole territory or it will be necessary to adapt them to a different group of spaces.

Taking into account the experts’ opinions, causality relationships, grouping processes and distances techniques can be obtained to get an overall view of different groups of areas where it will be possible to develop the specific policies successfully.

Theoretically, the proposed model using fuzzy logic in grouping processes presents significant results that contribute to the theory on regional development.

This paper provides a new approach to solve the territorial problem to apply the European policies. Introducing these techniques, one will be able to approach the different positions to the specific areas in Europe to create a peaceful and harmonic space of cohabitation.

The aim of this study is to show in detail the theoretical and practical foundations of a new feasibility technique for cash flow forecasting (CFF) based on triangular fuzzy numbers.

One of the most complicated problems business people face is determining if they have enough cash to be able to meet all future payments of a specific period. The uncertainty of forecasting the data to solve the problem suggests that a model based on fuzzy logic tools may provide a good way to obtain new techniques to ensure the feasibility of cash flow management.

This study shows how a specific company can obtain a quantitative idea of the risk of not being able to meet payments in a specific period. This idea can be put into practice with the usual computer tools.

This work presents a technique to predict the feasibility of CFF using triangular fuzzy numbers. There are other fuzzy numbers with which we can model the study problem and that offer certain advantages over to triangular ones.

A qualitative procedure is currently used to calculate the feasibility of a CFF. This work represents a step forward since it shows how to model quantitative feasibility.

The originality and value of this contribution consists of providing a complete model for a feasibility technique of CFF, as well as several proposals to mechanize the calculations and make the results more intuitive by means of spreadsheet graphs.