Suchergebnisse

The orientation towards the value of quality is a new trend of modern quality management sciences. The quality value orientations (national, social, religious, government bodies, market participants, and consumers) and quality culture are rather important in the global economical collaboration and trade, as well as in the international communication on the business, scientific or personal level. The orientations towards the value of quality are manifested in different aspects, such as customer preferences, the use of different management methods and systems, product and service consumption, assortment of goods, business lunch traditions, etc. The sphere where the relationship between the religion and quality is more than obvious – it is religious-ethnical quality, hygiene, ethical and certification control regulation of the Muslim halal products and Jewish kosher products. Unfortunately, the majority of European quality sciences textbooks and scientific articles do not baselessly include religious-ethnical products, quality and certification aspects. Quality sciences and quality academics must always be pioneers in innovations of management measures for business practice and society. Today this quality field is very important for business development of all European countries. This sort of certification can be directed to both products and their manufacturers. The article analyzes particularly one of the fastest growing products certification – halal certification. The main purpose of this study is to analyze the requirements for products manufactured for religious markets and also to prepare a working system to help manufacturers fit the requirements of halal certification. Methods. Analysis and comparison of halal certification requirements and quality assurance guidelines from different countries and institutions; analysis of scientific literature surveying the field of halal certification; the investigation; survey of halal certificated Lithuanian companies and questioning of the consumers. Author's analysis ...

In the last decades, international trade in agri-food products has been mainly affected by two important phenomena. On the one hand there has been a rapid expansion of consumer preferences towards a range of quality characteristics in food products. On the other, we have witnessed significant changes in trade policy patterns in favor of non-tariff measures Food quality and safety issues have become important topics in the agri-food markets, in particular for richer countries. This trend has been driven by a variety of factors exacerbated by several food scares that have triggered growing consumer concern about the attributes of food, the way they are produced, and increasing awareness of the relationship between diet and health. As a consequence, vertical and horizontal quality differentiation of food products has become a necessary condition to satisfy consumer demand (Grunert, 2005). This demand trend and the progressive worldwide elimination or reduction of traditional trade policies, such as tariffs, triggered the diffusion of non-tariff measures, like regulatory standards addressing safety, quality and environmental concerns (WTO, 2012). Such evolution of trade policies stimulates a growing attention in studying the trade and welfare effect of these standards (e.g. Beghin et al. 2015). However, understanding the economic effects of these policy measures is, for several reasons, difficult. This organized session includes three presentations dealing with complementary issues regarding the economics of trade and food quality. Each presentation will be followed by a short discussion. After the three presentations, Bruno Larue, a North American researcher in international trade, will introduce the discussion based on the results presented and their implications for international trade policies. Rich exchanges should then arise with the audience of agricultural economists attending the session. The three presentations will address the following issues. First, the focus will be on the emerging analytical models incorporating information asymmetry and the role of standards in firm heterogeneity trade models. Second, the impact of the policy of geographical indication labeling proposed by the European Union will be discussed. Its role on firms' export competitiveness and behavior for an important French food product (i.e. cheese) will be analyzed. Finally, how the diffusion of most restrictive food standards affects developing country firms' export decisions and products quality will be addressed.[br/] [br/] Trade margins and product quality: adjustments to NTM under information asymmetry. Carl Gaigné, Anne-Célia Disdier, Cristina Herghelegiu[br/] On the competitiveness effects of quality labels: Evidence from the French cheese industry. Sabine Duvaleix-Treguer, Charlotte Emlinger, Carl Gaigné, Karine Latouche[br/] Standards, Trade Margins and Product Quality: Firm-level Evidence from Peru. Daniele Curzi, Monica Schuster , Miet Maertens, Alessandro Olper

AbstractImproving the quality of export products is critical for promoting economic development, including for the achievement of sustainable development goals. The present study has examined the effect of export product quality improvement on inclusivity in developing countries. Inclusivity reflects a concomitant increase in the real per capita income, reduction in within‐country income inequality, and poverty reduction. The analysis covers 101 developing countries over the period from 1980 to 2014, and uses primarily the two‐step system Generalized Method of Moments estimator. It shows that export product quality improvement results in greater inclusivity, especially in countries that face high levels of economic growth volatility, including large magnitudes of external shocks. Likewise, export product quality improvement leads to greater inclusivity in countries that experience high levels of export product concentration. The analysis sheds light on the positive contribution of export product quality improvement to inclusivity in developing countries.

AbstractThis article analyzes the conditions under which better product quality implies higher or lower product price. In an optimal control framework, I make the following assumptions: The firm sets the dynamic pricing and product innovation policies; product innovation raises quality, which drives production cost, and consumers are sensitive to price and quality. I derive a rule of price-quality relationship that stresses the influence of quality on price through the effects of cost (positive), sales (negative), and markup (positive). This article shows that, while maximizing profit and despite a quality and cost increases, the firm may decrease product prices because of the possibility of generating more sales as a result of combining better quality with lower price. This sales effect solves the puzzle of a negative price-quality relationship. More generally, the sales effect mitigates the ability of price to convey information about quality.

AbstractThis paper quantifies the separate contributions of product quality and technical efficiency in explaining variation in export outcomes across US manufacturing plants. Unlike previous studies that rely on unit values, I estimate idiosyncratic demand from price and quantity information. I find substantial across‐plant heterogeneity in demand, and consistent with the quality interpretation, demand is positively correlated with advertising expenditures, wage rates and material costs. I use this variation to explain across‐plant heterogeneity in export outcomes. The results show that, in addition to productivity, idiosyncratic demand is an important determinant of selection into exporting and the levels of foreign sales.

This study investigated wine drinkers' perspectives on how product quality is conceptualized. The research was carried out because the dominant paradigm for quality within the marketing literature is perceived quality, and as such it is important to understand how consumers construct frameworks to understand quality and specifically whether they share this perception of the particular importance of the notion of perceived quality. Qualitative processes were used to obtain data from 60 informants. The findings indicate that consumers can adopt subjective or objective frameworks, with some also leaning towards relative and absolute quality positions. These conflicting frameworks are resolved by using an interactionist perspective, which allows quality to mediate the varying quality correlates noted in the marketing literature.

I develop a dynamic asymmetric information model where a domestic producer is unable to commit to producing a high‐quality product. The domestic producer then can signal to consumers that it is producing a high‐quality product by developing the infrastructure needed to start exporting the product. This signalling may take place even if selling internationally is less profitable than selling high quality only at home in the absence of credibility problems. Thus, this paper provides another explanation for the decision to start exporting. I then analyse how and which kind of export subsidies alter a firm's incentive to sell a high‐quality product in different markets.

This paper aims to develop and test a model that involves consumer ethnocentrism, world-mindedness, patriotism, and domestic product quality syndrome. This research used a quantitative approach. Data were collected through a survey of 222 respondents in Jakarta, Indonesia. The respondents are consumer electronic product users. Structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis was used to test the conceptual model and hypotheses. The results of this research show that the conceptual model has a good fit. We found that consumer ethnocentrism has a positive and significant impact on domestic product quality syndrome. We also found that patriotism significantly influences consumer ethnocentrism, while world-mindedness does not significantly influence consumer ethnocentrism. Data were collected only in Jakarta. Furthermore, a convenience sampling technique was applied. Thus, the findings of this research may not be generalized to other contexts. Therefore, future studies involving larger respondents coming from diverse areas are required to improve the generalization of the results and examine the stability of this research's findings. Company should align its strategy and quality objectives with the level of consumer ethnocentrism and patriotism to overcome domestic product quality syndrome. There is a lack of research that develops and tests a model that can be used to explain the phenomenon of domestic product quality syndrome. This research fulfills the literature gaps.

AbstractA summative product evaluation is not as useful to a high‐tech organization as is a formative evaluation that focuses on front‐end process methodology and continual testing of the evolving product.

This paper examines the roles of quality and increasing returns in trade. It implies that there is intense intra‐industry trade among economies with similar levels of per capita income, which increases both the quality and the quantity of consumption. However, there may be no trade in manufactured goods between rich and poor countries because of the disparity in their optimal qualities of consumption and the high complementarity of the qualities of intermediate goods in production. Thus, it helps explain the observed trade patterns. Moreover, the model shows that a smaller country is more likely to engage in international trade.