Suchergebnisse

PurposeThe image of the country of origin is a determinant variable for the success or failure of launching a product into a new market. For companies of emerging countries which want to access markets of industrialized countries, the choice of a local negotiator sharing the same culture as the purchaser might have a moderating effect on the image of the country of origin which is generally perceived as negative. Cultural similarity induces trust between negotiators and facilitates communication. Consequently, it is an important factor in the presentation of a foreign product. The purpose of this paper is to examine the different variables and factors intervening during a negotiation of a product coming from an emerging country to a foreign market.Design/methodology/approachAn empirical study based on a quantitative survey of a sample of international negotiators has been conducted with the aim of testing the above mentioned hypotheses. The questionnaire used in this survey has been administered through mail and has been sent to French and Italian negotiators.FindingsThe research hypotheses have been tested empirically. The results show effectively that a product coming from an emerging country is ill‐perceived by buyers in developed countries. The results show as well that cultural similarity induces trust which in turn expresses expertise and contact easiness.Research limitations/implicationsThe main limitation of this study is the size of the sample. Despite the big number of the sent questionnaires, return rate was very low, which shows the limitations of surveys using the mail. The second limitation of this study concerns the variable trust which, despite a theoretical abundance on this concept, no compromise on its dimensionality has been detected till now.Practical implicationsAt the level of management, these results constitute an encouragement to opt for local negotiators in order to succeed in launching a new product in to a foreign market.Originality/valueThis paper shows that professionals and researchers ought to collaborate on studies related to topics and themes related to intercultural negotiation, which is currently seen as a good way to bring together academic research and exporting companies.

Dissertation presented as the partial requirement for obtaining a Master's degree in Information Management, specialization in Knowledge Management and Business Intelligence ; All over the world, the food industry faces several challenges, such as food security and life conditions of agricultural workforce. The population holds an increasing interest in agricultural products to achieve a healthy lifestyle but might be promoting unethical practices at the farming process. Without knowing nothing but the country of origin of the product, the consumer is doing uninformed shopping. This study aims to develop a model, able to crosscheck the coffee products sold at the supermarket with their country of origin's classification regarding food security, environmental sustainability and sociopolitical ethics. Another major objective is to propose an application to generate the classification of each coffee product, allowing the consumer to make informed shopping. The Awareness score is proposed to classify the coffee products in terms of its social and political responsibility during the products production. Underlying the proposed score, there is food security, environmental performance, migration integration policy, and child labour occurrence. The proposed prototype design allows developing a software for consumers to consult coffee products' scores during the buying process. A survey allowed to understand that consumers are not deeply concerned with the underlying problems of coffee production, however, an application would allow them to make more concious shopping.

IntroductionMany well established string comparators are currently used in data linkage. Jaro-Winkler distance is SA NT DataLink's metric of choice for comparing personal names. However, due to Jaro-Winkler's lower specificity we investigated if output scores could be transformed to produce scores more closely matching those assigned manually.
Objectives and ApproachOur objective was to reduce the need for clerical review by modifying the Jaro-Winkler distance metric output scores. Clerical reviewers assigned similarity scores to pairs of first or last names from a database of approximately 2,000 random cases. By plotting the Jaro-Winkler scores against those assigned by the reviewers, a distinct radical function shape was observed. We then transformed the Jaro-Winkler scores by applying a power function where we gradually changed the exponent until we obtained the best fit with our clerically assigned scores. From the next linkage, two separate outputs were created (original and modified) and the results compared.
ResultsTo assess the best fit we calculated the sum of squared errors for each of tested exponent values ranging from 1.1 to 6.0 (with 0.1 steps). The minimum sum of squared errors was achieved with exponent value of 4.6. We performed a probabilistic linkage for one decade of the Birth Registry records looking for familial links. Two separate linkage runs were conducted and clerically reviewed. In the second run, names were compared using the modified Jaro-Winkler comparator. This resulted in a reduced number of false positives. Though the lower-end threshold of the clerically reviewed "grey area" had to be lowered, the overall range was narrower resulting in less record pairs for clerical review.
Conclusion/ImplicationsBy transforming the Jaro-Winkler scores, we reduced the number of records requiring clerical review. While only three linkage variables were affected, the resultant outcome was encouraging enough to consider exploring other possibilities for replicating clerical review knowledge in other comparators and metrics to reduce the demands for clerical review.

Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of perceived product similarity and comparative ad claims on brand responses.


Design/methodology/approach
– This study uses a two (similarity between the target product and the comparison product: relatively similar vs dissimilar) by three (product attributes of the target product: common to the comparison product, distinct from the comparison product, and a combination of common and distinct attributes) between-subjects factorial design with 300 Thai undergraduate students.


Findings
– It finds that when perceived similarity between the products is high, a combination of superiority (distinct) and parity (common) ad claims lead to the best brand responses. When perceived similarity is low, superiority claims bring about the best brand responses.


Research limitations/implications
– It extends comparative advertising and category-substitution research by addressing the research gaps in perceived similarity and claim type.


Practical implications
– Companies should emphasize a product's superior attributes in general but a combination of common and superior attributes when the product is relatively similar to other products in comparative advertising.


Originality/value
– This study provides new evidence that perceived product similarity moderates the effect of comparative ad claims on brand responses.

Difference scores have been widely used in studies of fit, similarity, and agreement. Despite their widespread use, difference scores suffer from numerous methodological problems. These problems can be mitigated or avoided with polynomial regression analysis, and this method has become increasingly prevalent during the past decade. Unfortunately, a number of potentially damaging myths have begun to spread regarding the drawbacks of difference scores and the advantages of polynomial regression. If these myths go unchecked, difference scores and the problems they create are likely to persist in studies of fit, similarity, and agreement. This article reviews 10 difference score myths and attempts to dispel these myths, focusing on studies conducted since polynomial regression was formally introduced as an alternative to difference scores.