Industry Concentration

Ψηλαφώντας την κυρίαρχη αφήγηση για τα προσκόμματα της παραγωγικότητας του εγχώριου οικονομικού υποδείγματος, μια ολιστική προσέγγιση προσκρούει αναγκαστικά σε παραμέτρους ισχύος και ταξικής σύγκρουσης. Ανακύπτουν, δε, αυτόματα ζητήματα επιστημολογικής επάρκειας αναφορικά με την πληρότητα με την οποία αντιμετωπίζουν οι εκάστοτε προσεγγίσεις οικονομικής ανάλυσης τις κατηγορίες της παραγωγικότητας, της ανταγωνιστικότητας και συνακόλουθα της μεγέθυνσης, της οικονομικής ανάπτυξης και των πυλώνων των δύο τελευταίων.

Purpose- This article reviews literature related to peer effects and different financial decisions. It further summarizes the theory and motives that drive peer effects. Also, the study highlights the influence of industry concentration on peer interaction in financial decision making. This content analysis of scantily available peer effect literature has been performed to highlight the significance of peer effects in financial decision making like investment, cash holding, leverage and many more. Most of the existing peer effects literature focuses on the U.S. However, peer effects also occur in other countries but empirical evidence is comparatively limited. But, managers may take into consideration their industry peers especially if their firms are operating in highly competitive environments.  Design/Methodology- Content analysis approach is applied to review prevailing financial literature on peer interactions and financial decisions with a special focus on industry concentrati...

In the study; it is aimed to analyze the level of effects of organizational culture and external factors on the organizational performances of firms in the textile sector in Istanbul, named as the megapol city of Turkey, within the framework of organizational ecology approach. In the investigation which is especially over small and medium sized textile firms in the European side of Istanbul, a categorization is made between the firms that do not continue their operations and the ones that stopped operating, and with the help of the classification, a new research model is being presented. In the extent of the model, workers of these firms are being asked a questionnaire of 69 items, including 12 questions over the organizational performances, 27 over the organizational culture and 30 on the external factors. The questionnaire has filled in by the senior & middle managers, owners and shareholders of small and medium sized textile firms operating in the European side of Istanbul. The g...

This paper examines the relationship between capital structure and shareholder returns in the UK between 1980 and 2008. Expanding on Modigliani and Miller’s (1958) Proposition 2, returns are estimated using the asset pricing models of CAPM, Fama and French and of Carhart. The analysis shows that gearing (in the form of debt finance) is a characteristic that influences stock returns and that, in contrast to accepted finance theory, is negatively related to estimated returns. This relationship is tested empirically for robustness with other risk factors such as corporate tax rates and industry concentration, the results remain consistent throughout the analysis. If confirmed, the negative impact of debt financing on shareholder returns should trigger a major rethink on corporate financing strategies.

PART I Conclusions and discussion........................................................................... 11 2. Issues arising ............................................................................................. 11 2.1. Overview .................. ... ... PART II Presentation of food industry and related data............................................. 35 4. Numbers of ...

We argue that not only the standard risk factors (size, book-to-market ratio) affect the average stock returns, but also the structure of the product market itself. We address the issue of competition on the Australian stock market, comparing it to the US stock market. In contrast o the US market, we find a significant evidence that companies operating in highly concentrated industries generate higher risk-adjusted returns than those operating in less concentrated (more competitive) industries. Regarding the standard risk factors, we find that average returns are positively related to the size of the company, and negatively related to book-to-market, which is the opposite to the US stock market as documented in previous studies.

We argue that not only the standard risk factors (size, book-to-market ratio) affect the average stock returns, but also the structure of the product market itself. We address the issue of competition on the Australian stock market, comparing it to the US stock market. In contrast o the US market, we find a significant evidence that companies operating in highly concentrated industries generate higher risk-adjusted returns than those operating in less concentrated (more competitive) industries. Regarding the standard risk factors, we find that average returns are positively related to the size of the company, and negatively related to book-to-market, which is the opposite to the US stock market as documented in previous studies.

This paper provides new empirical evidence on the effects of mergers and acquisitions (M&As) on the shape of the firm size distribution, by using data of the population of manufacturing firms in the Netherlands. Our analysis shows that M&As do not affect the size distribution when we consider the entire population of firms. When we focus on the firms involved in an M&A event, we observe a shift of the firm size distribution towards larger sizes. Firm size distribution becomes more concentrated around the mean, less skewed to the right hand side, and thinner at the tails as a whole. The shift toward higher sizes due to M&A is not uniform but affects firms of different sizes in different ways. While the number of firms in the lower tail decreased, the number of firms in the central size classes increased substantially and outweighed the increase in the number (and mean size) of firms in the upper tail of the distribution (consequently the overall market concentration measured by the Herfindahl index declines). M&As lead to a departure from log-normality of the firm size distribution, suggesting that external growth does not follow Gibrat's law. Our counterfactual analysis highlights that only internal growth does not affect the shape of the size distribution of firms. On the contrary, it

Food is always a matter of interest, a means of providing energy, the raw material that builds and maintains our well-being, a defence against illness, a pleasure to consume when well prepared and presented, a basis for social interaction and enjoyment at home, in a restaurant, canteen or perhaps even hospital or school. Our ancient ancestors spent more than half of their waking hours searching for, gathering, hunting and preparing food. Clearly we have progressed. For example, television and magazines have large audiences eager for entertainment and instruction on methods of food preparation and presentation, of novelties, of variations on a theme, exotic and ethnic foods or perhaps the simple basics such as ensuring an egg is fresh, boiled, fried or poached to perfection. Yet, whoever we may be, we rely on a secure supply of food, and that is more or less taken for granted in richer countries. Consumers' concerns are price, ease of acquisition and preparation, and quality as measured by preferences for colour, taste and consistency. By and large, all these are met for the majority of people in developed countries for most of the time. We live at a time of abundantly supplied shops, stores, supermarkets and fast food outlets. Supporting all of these is a supply chain, a series of links and inter-dependencies from farm to fork, from plough to plate. It is the behind-the-scenes production and preparation that delivers hour by hour, week by week, through almost seamless seasons, providing us with food at a price we like and in a place we want it. The food supply chain is a managed process, a combination of knowledge and skills, spanning electronics, biology and the social sciences of economics, human behaviour, psychology, and more. All are set in a legal framework of minimum standards and basic rules. The food supply chain embraces a wide range of disciplines. This book brings together the most important of them and aims to provide an understanding of the chain, to support those who manage parts of the chain and to enhance the development of research activities in the discipline. It will therefore be of interest to students, managers, researchers and policy decision-makers with an interest in food supply chain management. Contributors Johanne Allinson is a research associate in the School of Agriculture, Food and Rural Development at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne. Since joining the University in 2001 she has worked on a number of agro-food and rural development research projects, including a study of the UK fat lamb chain following the footh and mouth outbreak in 2001, and an evaluation of the impact of foot and mouth disease on food consumers. She has previously conducted research into the Cumbrian agro-food sector, including a study of potential infrastructure development opportunities for that sector with the Centre for Regional Economic Development at the University of Northumbria. Her core research interests include the structure, form and nature of agro-food supply organisation and regulation and the power relations that characterise them, and the concept of regional or local rural development. She previously lectured on rural development at the University of Northumbria and was a rural development officer at Durham County Council.

This book presents evidence as of 1987 on industrial concentration and diversification at the European Union level of aggregation that can be compared with country-specific measures of concentration and diversification reported by governmental statistics bureaus. The results differ from governmental reports to the extent that the national census authorities survey almost all businesses within a country, whereas the authors were limited to public data sources and therefore had to calculate approximate concentration statistics. The authors, however, are not bound by disclosure restrictions and provide summary statistics for each industry and for each major firm. Although Davies and Lyons are the principal authors, the title page lists credits much like a motion picture. However, the publisher does not mislead readers in listing Davies and Lyons as authors rather than editors, because either one of the authors is a coauthor of all but three chapters and the presentation is unified. The book presents measures of industrial concentration within the European Union (EU) to estimate the extent of aggregate and within-industry concentration and to identify multinational and multiproduct operations of leading firms. The authors extend the concept of industrial structure beyond the traditional notion of concentration to include business strategies concerning multinational or diversified production. The first of four parts has three chapters that introduce the research questions and present the stylized facts of industrial organization in the European Union. Relying on recent work from the trade literature, the authors present a classification scheme for industries that uses research and development (R&D) or advertising as the principal method for differentiating products. The data are organized in a market-share matrix that permits calculation of concentration within an industry, diversification within a firm, and the extent of multinational operation either by a firm or within an industry. The authors admit the limitations of their methods that identify production in concentrated industries but are less successful in characterizing production in unconcentrated industries. The second part, containing four chapters, investigates the structure of industries within the European Union to obtain four insights into the nature of the competitive processes. First, concentrated industries generally rely on

In this paper, I examine the relationship between industry concentration and the cross-section of stock returns in the London Stock Exchange between 1985 and 2010. Using Multifactor asset pricing theory, I test whether industry concentration is a new asset pricing factor in addition to conventional risk factors such as beta, firm size, book-to-market ratio, momentum, and leverage. I find that industry concentration is negatively related to the expected stock returns in all Fama and MacBeth cross-sectional regressions. In addition, the negative relationship between industry concentration and expected stock returns remain significantly negative after beta, size, book-to-market, momentum, and leverage are included, while beta is never significant. The results are robust to firm-and industry-level regressions and the formation of firms into 100 size-beta portfolios. The findings indicate that competitive industries earn, on average, higher risk-adjusted returns compared to concentrated industries which is consistent with Schumpeter's concept of creative destruction.

Brockman for their advice and encouragement since I took up the M.Sc. program at this University. I am particularly grateful to Mr. Roger Lui for his assistance on data enquiries and the use of statistical package. Last but not the least, special thanks is indebted to Ms. Piggy Lu for her tireless support over the years. Without that, it's going to be an even more painful period. I hope she will find my effort spent on this program worthwhile.

This study examines the impact on export sales of various promotional strategies for branded food products in foreign markets. It is an empirical analysis using data obtained from organizations that administer the High Value Export Incentive Program (HVEIP) for branded food products, part of USDA's Targeted Export Assistance (TEA) program and its successor, the Marketing Assistance Program (MAP). To respect the proprietary nature of the data, the identity of individual firms and brand names has been deleted and products have been combined into two groups: (1) consumer ready and (2) intermediate. Economic analysis reveals positive and statistically significant impacts of expenditures on television advertising and advertising in consumer-orientated print media on export sales of consumer ready products, the effect of the latter being somewhat larger. No other promotional strategy reveals a consistent and statistically significant relationship to exports. Channel-orientated strateg...

Market Basket Analysis (MBA) system is a widely used technique among marketers, especially for undirected data mining analysis. MBA is also known as product association analysis and the outcome of this analysis is called association rules. The outcome can be used to schedule marketing or advertising strategies and design catalogs for different shop layouts. Discovering the pattern from the customer's buying habits in the shopping stores was collected in their buying transaction. This study aims to compare the item purchased by the respondents between Store A and Store B and to find out the most potential products that customers have bought along with a specific category of products. Convenience non-probability sampling was involved with structured questionnaires of items in store was collected to analyze data. Association analysis was used by analyzing the result from support, confidence, and lift. The findings showed that there are 13 interesting rules of association revealed in this study. Moreover, the result also found that most products that were purchased together are tissues, condiments, instant food, cooking oil, meat, biscuits, dry goods, beverages, and cleaning products.

To maintain product quality and protect consumers, many industries have implemented product National Standards of Indonesia (SNI) and SNI management systems and include the SNI mark on the products they produce. On the other hand, every consumer has different considerations before making a purchase decision. Consumers are faced with the choice of products marked with SNI and not marked with SNI in the market the application of SNI is voluntary. Information regarding the level of consumer preference for products marked with SNI needs to be known to provide recommendations to the government in formulating policies related to strengthening the application of SNI. This study aims to analyze consumer preference factors for eight products in the food and beverage sector. The method used is Analytical Network Process (ANP) and Analysis Hierarchy Process (AHP) with the help of the Superdecisson analysis tool by raising 5 variables that are considered by consumers, namely: taste, brand, price, packaging, and quality assurance (SNI mark). The results showed that from 106 responses to the level of preference for 8 products at once. The taste variable was found to be the most important variable that consumers paid attention to when deciding to purchase the 7 food and beverage products (instant noodles, packaged tea, ground coffee, rice, shredded, fish balls, chili sauce), while the quality assurance variable (SNI mark) became the most important factor that consumers consider when deciding to buy a margarine food product.

This study investigates the standard procurement and merchandising practices of wholesale and retail supermarket dairy buyers in New York State. Although much anecdotal and trade information exists regarding how wholesale/retail buyers make decisions, their standard operating practices have not previously been well documented. Yet these decisions and resulting strategies at wholesale/ retail levels can significantly enhance or diminish marketing initiatives and, in particular, the impact of advertising and promotion programs of the dairy industry. The primary data for this study were gathered from dairy directors and buyers from 17 wholesale and retail supermarket companies serving New York State. Mail surveys were employed to determine the factors that influence dairy buyers in their decision making. Additionally, a number of dairy industry leaders were interviewed to assist with interpretation of the survey data. The empirical results and analysis of the study are presented in Sec...

This article is about the annual OECD report on wage income and wage income taxation. The report revealed that the average wage income in Greece was reduced by 7,4% in 2022. This is a disaster for the government that has been arguing that the economy is flourishing and this is benefiting everyone. But facts are stubborn. (PARON 7/5/2023)

To maintain product quality and protect consumers, many industries have implemented product National Standards of Indonesia (SNI) and SNI management systems and include the SNI mark on the products they produce. On the other hand, every consumer has different considerations before making a purchase decision. Consumers are faced with the choice of products marked with SNI and not marked with SNI in the market the application of SNI is voluntary. Information regarding the level of consumer preference for products marked with SNI needs to be known to provide recommendations to the government in formulating policies related to strengthening the application of SNI. This study aims to analyze consumer preference factors for eight products in the food and beverage sector. The method used is Analytical Network Process (ANP) and Analysis Hierarchy Process (AHP) with the help of the Superdecisson analysis tool by raising 5 variables that are considered by consumers, namely: taste, brand, price, packaging, and quality assurance (SNI mark). The results showed that from 106 responses to the level of preference for 8 products at once. The taste variable was found to be the most important variable that consumers paid attention to when deciding to purchase the 7 food and beverage products (instant noodles, packaged tea, ground coffee, rice, shredded, fish balls, chili sauce), while the quality assurance variable (SNI mark) became the most important factor that consumers consider when deciding to buy a margarine food product.

This study examines the extent to which retailer's country of origin and product assortment influence retailer operating practices. Although conventional wisdom suggests practices are likely to vary by country, universal aspects of the retailing task may lead to similarities in retailing practices for a given product, regardless of national setting. To empirically investigate whether country or product is the dominant influence in determining retailer behavior, data on retailer activities in India and Africa is examined.

Local brands are rapidly emerging in food retail in Asia. However, it is not well understood what impact they have in domestic food markets. In a detailed case study of makhana in Bihar, one of the poorest states in India, we see the fast emergence - a doubling over five years leading to a share of 50% in total trade - of more expensive packaged and branded products. Two types of brands can be distinguished. Low-price brands focus exclusively on attractive glossy packing with little consideration for quality. The high-price brands pay attention to quality beyond packing, invest in advertisements and promotion, explore options for value-addition, and employ specialized salesmen. We find that information provided by most of these brands is incomplete or misleading and that there are little direct benefits to the farmers from the emergence of either of these brands. However, farmers might benefit indirectly because of the expanding product demand.

Local brands are rapidly emerging in food retail in Asia. However, it is not well understood what impact they have in domestic food markets. In a detailed case study of makhana in Bihar, one of the poorest states in India, we see the fast emergence-a doubling over five years leading to a share of 50% in total trade-of more expensive packaged and branded products. Two types of brands can be distinguished. Low-price brands focus exclusively on attractive glossy packing with little consideration for quality. The high-price brands pay attention to quality beyond packing, invest in advertisements and promotion, explore options for value-addition, and employ specialized salesmen. We find that information provided by most of these brands is incomplete or misleading and that there are little direct benefits to the farmers from the emergence of either of these brands. However, farmers might benefit indirectly because of the expanding product demand.

The purpose of this study is to predict the share of visual inventory (SOVI), which is defined as the number of stock-keeping units (SKUs) of a company’s products, calculated as a percentage of the total SKUs on the display of all products. Research studies in the past have focused mainly on the impact of inventory, which includes back end and visual inventory, on sales but less attention has been given to the impact of SOVI on sales. To address this research gap, this study attempted to create an analytics model to predict SOVI at the category of soft drinks level using four predictor variables namely point of purchase display, channel/sub-channel, package group, product category, and derived variable gross national income (GNI). The results were encouraging confirming the effectiveness of such a model. The researchers utilized a data set collected over a period of 18 months (February 2016 to July 2017) by a soft drink firm headquartered in the United States. Based on the findings,...

Since the link between organizations' sustainability initiatives and effects from the societal environment has not been consistently established in the literature, this paper provides a conceptual framework to demonstrate the antecedents to the levels of sustainability initiatives undertaken by firms. Taking insights from institutional theory, it proposes that the relationship between the sustainability determinants and the level of sustainability initiatives is mediated by coercive, mimetic and normative isomorphic pressures. Moreover, it suggests that culture plays a significant role in moderating the extent to which the various types of isomorphic pressure on firms may influence the levels of firms' sustainability initiatives. The implications of the framework are discussed in the light of encouraging sustainability initiatives and overall sustainable development in various cultural settings as well as undertaking future research to enhance the framework and its applicability.

This study examines the extent to which retailer's country of origin and product assortment influence retailer operating practices. Although conventional wisdom suggests practices are likely to vary by country, universal aspects of the retailing task may lead to similarities in retailing practices for a given product, regardless of national setting. To empirically investigate whether country or product is the dominant influence in determining retailer behavior, data on retailer activities in India and Africa is examined.

Brockman for their advice and encouragement since I took up the M.Sc. program at this University. I am particularly grateful to Mr. Roger Lui for his assistance on data enquiries and the use of statistical package. Last but not the least, special thanks is indebted to Ms. Piggy Lu for her tireless support over the years. Without that, it's going to be an even more painful period. I hope she will find my effort spent on this program worthwhile.

The main aim of the article is to identify issues and analyze the affordability of dairy products at the local retailers in all regions of Slovakia. The main objective of the study is investigation of the availability of local dairy products in farms stores, and comparison of the prices of dairy products at the local stores with the prices of Slovakian products on the shelves of the selected major retailers. The European Union's efforts are to support rural development, including farmers at local, regional and national levels. Our assumption is that specialized local stores offer mainly high cost and high quality products from the region and retail chains offer products from major Slovak dairy processors. The authors analyzed the relationship between the type of specialized store, region and demand for local dairy products using methods of Chi-Square Test of Independence and the Kruskal-Wallis test. The second part of the survey consisted of interviews to find out what the owner...

This article is articulated in two sections. In the first-one we try to explain the dynamics of military spending and others social expenditures in the period 1988-2010 for the United States. According to empirical data we support the argument that there is a remarkable trade-off in the allocation of public spending, because, often, the increase in military expenditures was to detriment of those for the education, social security and health. In the second section we analyze the transition from the old "military industrial complex" to the new "military security system" in the light of defense industry restructuring. We focus in particular on the role of financialization and industrial concentration of the firms.

Preface i Acknowledgements ii Partners and funding iii Resume iv Summary vi Glossary of terms viii 1 Research approach 1.1 Background 1.2 Research base and dissertation structure 1.3 The research process 1.4 Theoretical frame 1.4.1 Food quality 1.4.2 Product development alliances 1.4.3 Modularisation 1.4.4 Meal solutions 1.4.5 Food industry context 1.5 Methodology 1.6 Research contribution 2 Quality and product development of meal solutions 2.1 Dimensions of food quality perception 2.2 Linking quality goals and product development competences (paper A) 2.3 The quality cycle 2.4 Meal solutions-market and quality 2.4.1 Market development 2.4.2 Central quality characteristics 2.4.3 Matching consumer demands 2.5 Challenges of meal solution development 2.6 Conclusions and implications 3 Meal development alliances 3.1 Motivations for entering product development alliances 3.2 Potential of developing meal solutions in alliances 3.3 Factors influencing formation and success (paper B) 3.4 A typology for product development alliances in the food industry 3.4.1 Examples of product development alliances 3.5 Perspectives of meal development alliances 3.6 Conclusions and implications 4 Meal modularisation 4.1 Translation of consumer demands into product specifications 4.2 Modularisation of meal solutions 4.3 The Meal Composition Approach (paper C) 4.4 Perspectives of meal modularisation 4.4.1 Mass customisation of meal solutions 4.4.2 Module groups-a preface to modularisation 4.5 Conclusions and implications List of contents 5 Matching consumer demands and meal solutions 5.1 A new approach to development of meal solutions 5.2 Synergy effects of meal development alliances and meal modularisation 5.3 Implementation perspectives 5.3.1 Managerial guidelines 5.4 Feasibility of implementation 5.5 Revisiting the working hypothesis and research contribution 5.6 Concluding remarks References Appendix A

Sourcing organic food products from global green supply chains (GGSCs) spreads across country borders and interacting among a wide spectrum of intermediary stakeholders, which adds complexity and incentivises profit-seeking stakeholders to engage in food adulteration. This phenomenon is frequently observed among green and organic products with credence attributes that are difficult to authenticate in both the prior-and post-purchase stages in both developed and developing countries. The case study that we investigate is a small-sized supermarket chain operator in Hong Kong, with an increasingly expanding range of organic food products. Whilst there is a proven set of hybrid multi-criterion decision making (MCDM) methods and model that have been implemented successfully in Australia, unfortunately, unable to assure total success in optimizing the selection of organic food suppliers when applying to this supermarket chain in Hong Kong. Even the obvious solution of certification and product labeling is not sufficient to solve this organic food credibility problem. Our study proposes a newly discovered criterion as postulated by the game theoretic framework, offering a more optimal and authentic solution to the organic food authentication problem. Apart from adopting the mixed strategy of random monitoring, fines should be imposed to penalise dishonest suppliers, instead of awarding bonuses to suppliers operating with integrity. An even better solution is to institutionalise these control mechanisms by the governing authorities with continuous monitoring and imposition of penalties.

The quest to gain market share within an industry is argued to drive Decision Making Units (DMUs) to accommodate more risk. The cross sectional variations in risk taking is believed to be influenced by the position of the DMU in the industry, with those on the lower end assuming more risk in order to gain market share. On the other hand, less competition among banks could result in higher interest rates being charged on business loans, which might raise the credit risk of borrowers as a result of moral hazard issues. The South African highly concentrated banking sector presents an opportunity to econometrically investigate such issues. Panel estimation techniques are employed on the South African banking sector unique data set. The model explores the relationship between the specified bank risk measure and bank market concentration measure, controlling for individual bank characteristics and the state of the economy. We find that smaller banks in South African concentrated banking se...

Theory predicts that optimal effective corporation tax rates will be negatively related to industry specific sunk costs, and hence industry concentration. Governments should tax industries with monopolistic power softly. Evidence suggests that this Schumpeterian (1942) principle of corporate taxation was used widely across industries in France, Italy and the UK in the 1990s.

This study seeks to analyze the role of retail eco-brands in the development of markets for sustainability certified food products. Building on insights from the New Institutional Economics (NIE) paradigm, but also broader literature in the supply chain management and marketing research, we suggest that private eco-branding and third-party certification can be explained as private institutional arrangements that motivate and enable sustainability governance by retailers both upstream and downstream in the value chain. Based on semi-structured interviews with Western European retailers, this study reveals critical functions of retailers' sustainabilityeoriented brands. These functions address a number of inefficiencies pertained to the third-party certification, making eco-branding a private product policy tool to proactively set and implement sustainability in food production and consumption practices. At the same time, limitations associated with the development and use of private eco-brands are identified. Based on these limitations, we suggest that while retailer's eco-brands are likely to play an important role in transforming food markets towards higher levels of sustainability in the future, the continuous value of thirdparty certification schemes in implementing sustainability in the food supply chain should not be underestimated. The role of the latter will be to reduce transaction costs and liability risks associated with retail efforts to govern product sustainability issues upstream in the supply chain.

In Belgium there are a handful of retailers that are offering a gamma of organic products in their supermarkets. Three of these retailers are more important in supplying the product. Analysing the commercialisation of organic beef for these three retailers, we remarked important differences. This paper describes the different strategies of the retailers and explains why they are different. For one of the retailers organic products are seen as a strategic market. This retailer is supplying differentiated high quality products and organic food is one of them. Therefore investments are done to promote these products. For an other retailer organic products have no special significance, they offer it in order not to loose consumers who really want to buy it, but no special efforts are done to promote it.

Building on the current theory of industrial concentration, we analyze the relation between market size and product differentiation, and show how product differentiation impacts market share turbulence. Our basic results highlight that in markets where vertical product differentiation dominates, firms will have an incentive to escalate investment in advertising and/or R&D as market size increases. Such (firm-specific) investments will make competitive advantage more sustainable as the firm is less imitable. This will not be the case if the market is primarily characterized by homogeneous product or horizontal product differentiation. Our predictions are tested using an original EU dataset for the period 1987-1997. Our results strongly support our predictions-the degree of market share turbulence increases with market size. However, this relation is weakened by competitive investment in advertising and R&D.

To maintain product quality and protect consumers, many industries have implemented product National Standards of Indonesia (SNI) and SNI management systems and include the SNI mark on the products they produce. On the other hand, every consumer has different considerations before making a purchase decision. Consumers are faced with the choice of products marked with SNI and not marked with SNI in the market the application of SNI is voluntary. Information regarding the level of consumer preference for products marked with SNI needs to be known to provide recommendations to the government in formulating policies related to strengthening the application of SNI. This study aims to analyze consumer preference factors for eight products in the food and beverage sector. The method used is Analytical Network Process (ANP) and Analysis Hierarchy Process (AHP) with the help of the Superdecisson analysis tool by raising 5 variables that are considered by consumers, namely: taste, brand, price, packaging, and quality assurance (SNI mark). The results showed that from 106 responses to the level of preference for 8 products at once. The taste variable was found to be the most important variable that consumers paid attention to when deciding to purchase the 7 food and beverage products (instant noodles, packaged tea, ground coffee, rice, shredded, fish balls, chili sauce), while the quality assurance variable (SNI mark) became the most important factor that consumers consider when deciding to buy a margarine food product.

To maintain product quality and protect consumers, many industries have implemented product National Standards of Indonesia (SNI) and SNI management systems and include the SNI mark on the products they produce. On the other hand, every consumer has different considerations before making a purchase decision. Consumers are faced with the choice of products marked with SNI and not marked with SNI in the market the application of SNI is voluntary. Information regarding the level of consumer preference for products marked with SNI needs to be known to provide recommendations to the government in formulating policies related to strengthening the application of SNI. This study aims to analyze consumer preference factors for eight products in the food and beverage sector. The method used is Analytical Network Process (ANP) and Analysis Hierarchy Process (AHP) with the help of the Superdecisson analysis tool by raising 5 variables that are considered by consumers, namely: taste, brand, price, packaging, and quality assurance (SNI mark). The results showed that from 106 responses to the level of preference for 8 products at once. The taste variable was found to be the most important variable that consumers paid attention to when deciding to purchase the 7 food and beverage products (instant noodles, packaged tea, ground coffee, rice, shredded, fish balls, chili sauce), while the quality assurance variable (SNI mark) became the most important factor that consumers consider when deciding to buy a margarine food product.

To maintain product quality and protect consumers, many industries have implemented product National Standards of Indonesia (SNI) and SNI management systems and include the SNI mark on the products they produce. On the other hand, every consumer has different considerations before making a purchase decision. Consumers are faced with the choice of products marked with SNI and not marked with SNI in the market the application of SNI is voluntary. Information regarding the level of consumer preference for products marked with SNI needs to be known to provide recommendations to the government in formulating policies related to strengthening the application of SNI. This study aims to analyze consumer preference factors for eight products in the food and beverage sector. The method used is Analytical Network Process (ANP) and Analysis Hierarchy Process (AHP) with the help of the Superdecisson analysis tool by raising 5 variables that are considered by consumers, namely: taste, brand, price, packaging, and quality assurance (SNI mark). The results showed that from 106 responses to the level of preference for 8 products at once. The taste variable was found to be the most important variable that consumers paid attention to when deciding to purchase the 7 food and beverage products (instant noodles, packaged tea, ground coffee, rice, shredded, fish balls, chili sauce), while the quality assurance variable (SNI mark) became the most important factor that consumers consider when deciding to buy a margarine food product.

Πρόκειται για το πρώτο μέρος έρευνας που στόχο έχει τη μελέτη και την ανάδειξη του ρόλου των απλών στρατιωτών, των συγκροτημένων θεσμών (στρατός, Εκκλησία) αλλά και των απλών πολιτών στο Έπος του 1940, έχοντας ως ερευνητικό επίκεντρο την Αργολίδα. Με αφορμή την παρουσίαση ενός τετραδίου σημειώσεων από τα μέτωπα της Αλβανίας που διατήρησε ένας αγρότης από την Αργολίδα, η έρευνα περιλαμβάνει μαρτυρίες στρατιωτών, καταγράφει για πρώτη φορά το αρχείο του Δήμου Άργους της περιόδου εκείνης, αναφέρει τα πρώτα επίσημα στρατιωτικά στοιχεία για την Αργολίδα και αναδεικνύει τη σημασία των δημοσιευμένων «τετραδίων πολέμου» στη μελέτη αυτής της ιστορικής νίκης των Ελλήνων.
The first part of research that aims to study and highlight the role of ordinary soldiers, established institutions (army, Church) and ordinary citizens in the Epic of 1940, with Argolis as the research focus. On the occasion of the presentation of a notebook of notes from the Albanian fronts kept by a farmer from Argolis, the research includes testimonies of soldiers, records for the first time the archive of the Municipality of Argos of that period, mentions the first official military data for Argolis and highlights the importance of the published "war notebooks" in the study of this historical victory of the Greeks.
Il s'agit du premier volet de la recherche qui vise à étudier et mettre en lumière le rôle des simples soldats, des simples citoyens ainsi que des institutions constituées (armée, Église) dans l'épopée de 1940, ayant l'Argolide comme axe de recherche. A l'occasion de la présentation d'un cahier de notes des fronts albanais tenu par un agriculteur d'Argolide, la recherche comprend des témoignages de soldats, enregistre pour la première fois les archives de la municipalité d'Argos de cette période, mentionne des données militaires officielles pour l'Argolide et souligne l'importance des "carnets de guerre" publiés en vue de l'étude de cette victoire historique des Grecs.

Convergence processes are based on the activity of distinct industry sectors showing cross-industry collaborations. The aim of this paper is to analyze cross-industry collaborations between the food and pharmaceutical sectors in the convergence area of functional foods. Selected companies from food (Nestle/Danone) and pharmaceutical (Martek/Bayer HealthCare) sectors are analyzed using the determinants of motivation and industrial scope. The analysis shows that food companies are more active in cross-industry collaborations than pharmaceutical companies. The latter are more active at the front-end of the value chain focusing on research and development, and delivering their ingredients to food companies that due to their higher expertise in consumer marketing launch the products. While the first cross-industry collaborations were based on an exploration motivation, those that follow focus on exploitation. Acquisitions and licensing agreements are dominant in inside-out and outside-in...

The quest to gain market share within an industry is argued to drive Decision Making Units (DMUs) to accommodate more risk. The cross sectional variations in risk taking is believed to be influenced by the position of the DMU in the industry, with those on the lower end assuming more risk in order to gain market share. On the other hand, less competition among banks could result in higher interest rates being charged on business loans, which might raise the credit risk of borrowers as a result of moral hazard issues. The South African highly concentrated banking sector presents an opportunity to econometrically investigate such issues. Panel estimation techniques are employed on the South African banking sector unique data set. The model explores the relationship between the specified bank risk measure and bank market concentration measure, controlling for individual bank characteristics and the state of the economy. We find that smaller banks in South African concentrated banking se...

Since mid 2020 the Greek society is faced with huge electricity prices exceeding the Eurozone average by at least 30%. The reason is simple. Coal production by the state owned electricity company (ΔΕΗ)  costing 205 euros by megawatt hour was substituted by natural gas production by private producers. The latter costs 422 euros per megawatt hour. Although the state owned company has additional coal production capacity it is not operating it. The reason is that it is implicitly subsidizing the private producers (PARON 7/8/2022)

Constructing circulation mode of high feasibility and good implementation effect is the key method to solve difficulties in the development of "Agricultural Super-Docking" at present in China. There are many problems that exist in the process of the development of "Agricultural Super-Docking" by our analyzing from both the benefit of subjects and the whole supply chain perspectives. A large amount of relevant literature research shows that adopting the "cooperation between the government and the third party logistics enterprises to build distribution center" innovation model can solve these problems. This model can effectively remove obstacles between farmers and supermarkets. It is conducive to the development of small and medium-scale the farmer cooperatives, supermarkets and the third party logistics enterprises that don't have a strong financial strength and a high degree of brand influence. In addition, it can also produce considerable social benefits. In order to ensure the implementation efficiency of the model to maximize, some management issues in the implementation process about the determination of core subject in supply chain, the method of evaluating the third party logistics enterprises grade, the planning of the number of customers for the distribution center, the mechanism of income distribution among multiple subjects and the implementation of relevant policies after the model into practice should be taken into account.

Trade system and the pattern of distribution of commodities in the regions that are bad will affect the control of the supply and demand of these commodities. The stability of commodity prices will also be affected, inflation towards these commodities. This study aims to provide baseline information for the development of strategic development of agribusiness and agro-industries inter-linkage various commodities Ciamis district. By hypothesis the availability of detailed information about the trading system and the system will facilitate the distribution pattern of estimated demand and supply, Demand will bring down the inflation rate leading commodities Ciamis district. The analysis method used is descriptive analysis and quantitative analysis of the results the studies are as follows: (1) Model distribution channel marketing product a longer lead to inefficiencies. This causes a disproportionate distribution margin between commercial actors. (2) The link from the marketing centres of production to centres of consumption is quite long and the structure of the market is not good, so often lead to market distortions. (3) The Customer shall pay more than reasonable prices, while farmers receive only a small portion of the price paid by the consumer, and (4) agricultural distribution centre is required for the management more cautious given the perishable nature of the product.