Product Attribute Saliency and Region of Origin: Some Empirical Evidence from Portugal

This paper empirically investigates the extent to which consumer preferences may act as promoters of regional products. Three products are studied in terms of the importance consumers attach to various product attributes with particular emphasis on region of origin information. The estimation of a hedonic price function, which relates the price of Portuguese regional products to its various attributes, provided empirical support to the hypothesis that region of origin matters to consumers. The study shows that wine, olive oil and cheese from some regions of origin have a significant impact on price. Particularly, some regions of origin are expected to have price premiums, while others are expected to have discounts.regional products, hedonic approach, wine, olive oil, cheese, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, C21, D83, Q18,

Region's reputation and the price of regional products: a hedonic analysis of Portuguese quality cheese

Resources (tangible and intangible) can be mobilized to increase region's reputation and image giving a competitive advantage to certain products with origin in that region. The returns of a region's resources depend upon the ability of local firms to appropriate the rents earned and whether the consumers value the characteristics of the region that are associated with the product, being disposed to pay a price premium. The estimation of a hedonic price function, which relates the price of Portuguese regional cheeses to its various attributes provided empirical support to test the importance of designation of origin on price. The study showsthat some designations of origin and milk types have a significant impact on price, while retailer format (hypermarket versus online store)and cheese characteristics (cured versus not cured)are nor significant. Specifically, while cheeses from regions of Minho e Trás os Montes and Alentejo are expected to have price premiums, cheeses from regions of Beiras and Ilhas are expected to have discounts. Also, cheeses made with mixed milk and goat's and ewe's milk all have positive effects on price regarding cow's milk (base category).

Regional Products, Regions' Reputation and Commercial Strategies: A Tale of Two Cheese Suppliers

Networks of firms producing and selling regional products to domestic and foreign markets are influencing the direction and options of local development. Regional products are embedded in historical tradition and geographic, cultural and social specificity. Most of the local activities are performed by clustered SME's in well defined geographical areas. To study the mechanisms and factors which favour spontaneous development in specific areas and make SME's competitive through cluster development we used case study methodology. An evolutionary perspective of "Casa Matias" and "Casa dos Queijos", two portuguese SME's, is expected to illustrate which key factors triggered the firm's cheese business and, simultaneously, examine organisational practices with particular emphasis on cluster formation and internationalisation process. From this analysis we expected to conceptualise a specific policy scheme to help developing spontaneous entrepreneurship, cooperation between clustered SME's and local collective development.

Issues on the residents’ perceptions of the impacts of tourism development: the case-study of Guimarães

In recent years peripheral regions, such as Guimarães, in the Northwest of Portugal, has been experiencing the expansion of its tourism industry. This occurred, may be, as part of the wish felt by a large number of tourists of reaching “unspoilt†landscapes and more “authentical†experiences (Nepal, 2008). After the nomination by U.N.E.S.C.O., in 2001, of its historical centre as world heritage, the city of Guimarães is now in the process of hosting the 2012 European Capital of Culture. These recent facts helped to reinforce its external visibility and cultural significance and put it in the trail to become a more consolidated cultural tourism destination. This paper aims presenting a few results of a survey that envisaged capturing the Guimarães residents’ perceptions of tourism effects and attitudes regarding the tourists. The survey was implemented between January and March 2010 to a convenience sample of 540 inhabitants of the municipality of Guimarães. The results show that the Guimarães` residents keep a strong positive perception of the tourism benefits. The more or less favourable perception of tourism impacts the survey respondents kept are strongly correlated with some demographic features, such as age, gender and level of education. As expected, we got a more positive perception among the younger cohorts of age and the ones endowed with a higher level of education.

Foreign firms in Portuguese manufacturing and retail sectors: a similar or different location

Foreign Directo Investment (FDI) is increasingly important in the portuguese economy since it integration in the European Union (1986), although from 1997 onwards it has considerably decreased. In 1995 and 1996, the share of the FDI in the GDP reached it peak obtaining a value of 4,29 and 4,34 respectively. The manufacturing and retailing sectors represent a good part of the total FDI. In this paper we investigate the industrial and retail services location factors. Two surveys have been carried out allowing for the identification of the most preferable factors by the foreign investors. In the manufacturing sector the selection of Portugal to invest depended upon the labour costs and the importance of domestic market. In the retailing sector the government regulations, market size, cultural and geographic proximity to the host country are the most relevent factors.

Retail Macro-location Factors: Empirical Evidence from the Portuguese Shopping Centres

Shopping Centres have appeared in Portugal in the beginning of the seventies and have consolidated their presence from the eighties onwards. This study aims to identify the retail macro-location factors that attracts or deters the location of shopping centres at regional (municipality) level. Using OLS regression, we tested some hypothesis as pointed out by the theory, namely the number of potential consumers, their purchasing power, the presence of competitiors, accessibility to the shopping centre and costs (e.g., land, installation). The results allow for the acceptance of the hypothesis which unveil that the promoters of shopping centres seems to value highly the size of the market, both in terms of potential consumers and purchasing power. On the other hand, due to lack of atatistical significance, we cannot infer about the other hypothesis formulated above.

Portuguese olive oil and the price of regional products: does designation of origin really matter?

Resources (tangible and intangible) can be mobilised to increase region’s reputation and confer a competitive advantage to certain products with origin in that region. The returns of a region’s resources depend upon the ability of local firms to appropriate the rents earned and whether the consumers value the characteristics of the region that are associated with the product, being disposed to pay a price premium. The results we got through the estimation of a hedonic price function, which relates the price of portuguese regional olive oil to its various attributes, provided empirical support to this idea. The study shows that designation of origin, producer’s brand and olive oil characteristics (biological and mixed with herbs) have strong impact on price. Specifically, olive oil from regions of “Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro”, “Beiras e Ribatejo” and “Alentejo” are expected to have price premiums relative to other olive oil without region indication (base category). It also allows to conclude that olive oil acidity has a negative impact on price.

Sport Tourism: Regional Promotion Strategies

The main purposes of this paper are (i) to analyze the regional promotion strategies of the UEFA Euro 2004 and (ii) to contribute for the improvement of planning and implementation strategies of tourism marketing at regional level. Data regarding these strategies were collected and synthesided. We verified if these match some of the theoretical issues of promotion and tourism marketing. Despite the fact that already many studies have been made, internationally, on the impact of sport events, the present study contains something new as it introduces an ante analysis on the regional pronotion strategies of major sport events.Unlikely, the results show that no specific and integrated regional promotion strategy was pursuit, and no substantial additional financial effort was made. In what concerns the private regional tourism agents, no promotion could be found. The main tourism promotion competition came from across the boarder, whit dynamic promotion actions of the nearby Spanish regional responsibles.UEFA Euro 2004, tourism, promotion, marketing, regional, Minho, Portugal, Spain and major sport events.

Social networks and performance in distributed learning communities

Social networks play an essential role in learning environments as a key channel for knowledge sharing and students' support. In distributed learning communities, knowledge sharing does not occur as spontaneously as when a working group shares the same physical space; knowledge sharing depends even more on student informal connections. In this study we analyse two distributed learning communities' social networks in order to understand how characteristics of the social structure can enhance students' success and performance. We used a monitoring system for social network data gathering. Results from correlation analyses showed that students' social network characteristics are related to their performancePostprint (published version