Abstraction and Product Categories as Explanatory Variables for Food Consumption

An understanding of the process by which consumers match consumption choices to personal values is powerful aid to guide strategic market orientation. It is of particular importance in the highly saturated food markets of developed countries, where consumer needs are shifting closer and closer towards the search for quality and emotional benefits. This study sets out to explore variation in the consumer choice structure in relation to three products with different levels of search, experience and credence attributes, using means-end chain theory. The results suggest the presence of an emotional component in foods that increases in complexity (becomes more abstract) with the number of credence attributes associated with the product; a fact worthy of the consideration of product managers when designing marketing strategies.quality, the information economy, search, experience and credence goods, means-end chain, laddering, abstraction, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,

MARKET SEGMENTATION AND WILLINGNESS TO PAY FOR ORGANIC PRODUCTS IN SPAIN

In recent years, consumer concerns on environmental and health issues related to food products have increased and, as a result, the demand for organically grown production has grown. Higher costs of production and retailer margins generate a gap between real prices and those that consumers are willing to pay for organic food. In this article, consumer willingness to pay for organic food in two Spanish regions is analyzed. Markets in both regions are segmented considering consumers lifestyles. Results indicate that consumers concerned about healthy diet and environmental degradation are the most likely to buy organic food, and are willing to pay a high premium. Organic attributes are easily identified in perishable products as the premium consumers would pay for organic meat, fruits, and vegetables is higher.Demand and Price Analysis,

Confidence in the Beef Production System as a Key Factor to Mitigate the Impact of BSE on Beef Consumption

Recent food scares in the food market has caused a reduction in consumer's confidence in the food system that it has induced a significant reduction in consumption in a sector, the beef sector that was already characterized by a saturated trend in quantity terms. In this context, all participants in the beef production system are facing to a great challenge, to retrieve consumer's confidence in the food chain and to mitigate the reduction in beef consumption. The aim of the paper is to analyse the impact of consumer's confidence in the food system as well as other factors on the explanation of food consumption reduction. A structural modelling approach has been used to analyse factors affecting the reduction in beef consumption in two different regions characterised by different production systems and different marketing strategies (PGI beef label). Results indicate that main factor explaining the reduction in beef consumption is the confidence in the beef and a positive relation has been found. Moreover, confidence in a product is directly related to the perceived quality offered by farmers and other decision makers on the beef chain, and to the consumer involvement with the product. Therefore, the main implication is that participants in the food chain has to develop adequate communication strategies such as quality labelling in order to increase consumers perceive quality because, higher quality perception will recover consumers' confidence in beef, and therefore, it will mitigate beef consumption reduction.food confidence, consumer behaviour, structural equation modelling, beef sector, quality label, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,

Los valores personales y culturales como elementos clave en la adopción de nuevos alimentos en un mercado globalizado. Aplicación a un producto étnico.

El sector de la alimentación se enfrenta últimamente a un mercado cada vez más competitivo y más globalizado, donde las diferencias culturales parecen ser un aspecto importante de la adopción y difusión de innovaciones internacionales. Los diferentes grupos culturales difieren en su evaluación de productos, por lo tanto entender las actitudes y comportamientos de los diferentes grupos étnicos puede ser fundamental de cara a conocer la posible aceptación de productos en el mercado. Sobre esta base argumental, este trabajo pretende analizar si la estructura de decisión con respecto a un nuevo alimento varía en su complejidad y en el tipo de beneficios y valores buscados en función del origen étnico del encuestado. Para contrastar estos objetivos se ha planteado un ejercicio en el que se aplica la teoría “means-end chain”, que establece las relaciones entre atributos-consecuencias-valores frente al consumo de un alimento étnico (cous-cous), a través de una entrevista laddering entre dos tipos de origen étnico (español y árabe). Los resultados indican la existencia de una importante dimensión emocional en el consumo del producto analizado, siendo esta dimensión más importante en el grupo de origen árabe, lo que indica que el mayor conocimiento del producto implica una mayor complejidad en el proceso de elección. Asimismo, independientemente de su origen la adopción de este producto viene motivada por el sabor del mismo, el placer que proporciona su consumo y la calidad de vida y seguridad que les proporciona a los consumidores. Sin embargo también se aprecian algunas diferencias, concediendo una mayor importancia al origen geográfico y la identificación cultural el grupo árabe, así como a considerar que con el consumo del cous-cous están cumpliendo con sus obligaciones en relación a su entorno familiar. En el caso de los consumidores de origen español destaca el sentirse más cercano a las nuevas tendencias, más cosmopolita y adquirir un mayor éxito con respecto a su entorno. Todos estos aspectos pueden ayudar a proponer a la oferta alimentaria actuaciones más adecuadas en cada tipo de demandantes cara a conseguir un mejor posicionamiento del producto y en consecuencia, mejores resultados empresariales.innovación alimentaria, identidad étnica, means-end chain, Agribusiness, Agricultural and Food Policy, Community/Rural/Urban Development, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Labor and Human Capital,

Capturing Value from Alliance Portfolio Diversity: The Mediating Role of R&D Human Capital in High and Low Tech Industries

Research has demonstrated the value of external linkages to augment in-house R&D efforts; however, very little is known about how managers can operationally leverage the potential benefits of open innovation to create an innovative edge. This paper examines the value of alliance portfolio diversity and whether R&D human capital is the pathway through which alliance portfolio diversity influences innovation novelty. We reason that the absorptive capacity of R&D human capital determines a firm’s potential gains from highly diverse alliance portfolios. Using data from the Spanish Technological Innovation Panel (PITEC) for the period 2005–2012, results support the curvilinear (inverted U-shaped) association between alliance portfolio diversity and firm innovation performance reported in studies, suggesting that not only too little, but also too much alliance portfolio diversity may be detrimental to firm innovation performance. Findings emphasise the value of alliance portfolio diversity in high-technology industries to achieve explorative performance objectives, given the technological complexity, market uncertainty and the divergent skill sets required for breakthrough innovations in these sectors. Further, we find evidence that R&D human capital plays an important role in innovation novelty by partially mediating the relationship between alliance partner diversity and firm innovation performance, emphasising the importance of internal capabilities to harness external knowledge assets. This study provides valuable insights to managers aiming to increase the effectiveness of their alliance portfolios

Did the global financial crisis impact firms’ innovation performance? The role of internal and external knowledge capabilities in high and low tech industries

This paper examines the role exerted by internal innovation efforts and external knowledge assets as dynamic capabilities to overcome adverse economic conditions. Additionally, we examine the differential impacts of the financial crisis in high and low-tech industries. Using panel data of manufacturing firms in Spain for the period 2006-2013, our results show that maintaining strong internal and external knowledge capabilities enables firms to mitigate the effects of the financial crisis. Findings emphasise the value of human capital, by enabling internal capabilities, as a coping mechanisms in low-tech sectors during the financial downturn. Similarly, open innovation allows firms to minimise the resources limitations and risk surrounding innovation, particularly during the financial crisis. This study provides valuable insights to managers aiming to develop strong internal knowledge bases to remain competitive under uncertain financial conditions

Durabilidad de hormigones autocompactantes con prestaciones especiales expuestos en atmósferas marinas y urbanas.

El hormigón autocompactante es aún una tecnología relativamente nueva y se tiene un escaso conocimiento acerca del comportamiento frente a durabilidad de este material. Sin embargo, la creciente tendencia al desarrollo de códigos y normativas que contemplan tanto la durabilidad del hormigón desde la fase de diseño como el empleo de nuevos materiales, implica un mayor conocimiento de las propiedades durables de este tipo de hormigón. En el presente trabajo se presentan los resultados obtenidos a partir de un estudio de durabilidad con hormigón autocompactante convencional fabricado con filler calizo, así como hormigones autocompactantes, con la misma dosificación pero modificados bien con incorporación de fibras (metálicas y poliméricas) o bien con sustitución del filler calizo por residuos de lodos de naturaleza caliza. Se han llevado a cabo tanto ensayos en laboratorio para determinación de indicadores de durabilidad como ensayos de exposición durante un año a atmósferas naturales (marina y urbana con distinta humedad relativa). Los indicadores de durabilidad analizados arrojan una elevada calidad de los distintos hormigones autocompactantes, lo cual se confirma a partir de ensayos de exposición en atmósferas reales. Si bien no se ha visto que la incorporación de fibras influya en la interacción de este material con el cloruro ni con el CO2, la sustitución del filler calizo por residuo de lodo indica un ligero aumento en la carbonatación y el transporte de cloruros

Immunoanalytical Approach for Detecting and Identifying Ancestral Peptide Biomarkers in Early Earth Analogue Environments

Several mass spectrometry and spectroscopic techniques have been used in the search for molecular biomarkers on Mars. A major constraint is their capability to detect and identify large and complex compounds such as peptides or other biopolymers. Multiplex immunoassays can detect these com-pounds, but antibodies must be produced for a large number of sequence-dependent molecular targets. Ancestral Sequence Re-construction (ASR) followed by protein "resurrection" in the lab can help to narrow the selection of targets. Herein, we propose an immunoanalytical method to identify ancient and universally conserved protein/peptide sequences as targets for identifying ancestral biomarkers in nature. We have developed, tested, and validated this approach by producing antibodies to eight previously described ancestral resurrected proteins (three beta-lactamases, three thioredoxins, one Elongation Factor Tu, and one RuBisCO, all of them theoretically dated as Precambrian), and used them as a proxy to search for any potential feature of them that could be present in current natural environments. By fluorescent sandwich microarray immunoassays (FSMI), we have detected positive immunoreactions with antibodies to the oldest beta-lactamase and thioredoxin proteins (ca. 4 Ga) in samples from a hydrothermal environment. Fine epitope mapping and inhibitory immunoassays allowed the identification of well-conserved epitope peptide sequences that resulted from ASR and were present in the sample. We corroborated these results by metagenomic sequencing and found several genes encoding analogue proteins with significant matches to the peptide epitopes identified with the antibodies. The results demonstrated that peptides inferred from ASR studies have true counterpart analogues in Nature, which validates and strengthens the well-known ASR/protein resurrection technique and our immunoanalytical approach for investigating ancient environments and metabolisms on Earth and elsewhere

International entrepreneurship in Africa: The roles of institutional voids, entrepreneurial networks and gender

This paper explored how institutional voids (market-unfriendly regulations and corruption) in the home country affect the internationalization degree of early-stage entrepreneurs in Africa. We examined the contingent roles of entrepreneurial networks and gender in the relationship between these institutional voids and entrepreneurs’ internationalization degree. We used 2003–2017 GEM data from 17 African countries and applied multilevel-ordered logistic models. Our analysis revealed that market-unfriendly regulations have a negative effect on the entrepreneurs’ internationalization degree and that corruption, in line with the escapism view, has a positive effect. Our results indicated that entrepreneurs engage in networking bricolage to internationalize their ventures and overcome context limitations. They also suggested that the internationalization degree of female entrepreneurs increases in market-unfriendly regulatory environments. Finally, our results showed that the ‘escapism effect’ of corruption is greater for female entrepreneurs; however, for female entrepreneurs with medium and large internationalization degrees, this context imposes additional constraints on them

The neuronal ischemic tolerance is conditioned by the Tp53 Arg72Pro polymorphism

Cerebral preconditioning (PC) confers endogenous brain protection after stroke. Ischemic stroke patients with a prior transient ischemic attack (TIA) may potentially be in a preconditioned state. Although PC has been associated with the activation of prosurvival signals, the mechanism by which preconditioning confers neuroprotection is not yet fully clarified. Recently, we have described that PC-mediated neuroprotection against ischemic insult is promoted by p53 destabilization, which is mediated by its main regulatorMDM2. Moreover, we have previously described that the human Tp53 Arg72Pro single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) controls susceptibility to ischemia-induced neuronal apoptosis and governs the functional outcome of patients after stroke. Here, we studied the contribution of the human Tp53 Arg72Pro SNP on PC-induced neuroprotection after ischemia. Our results showed that cortical neurons expressing the Pro72-p53 variant exhibited higher PC-mediated neuroprotection as compared with Arg72-p53 neurons. PC prevented ischemia-induced nuclear and cytosolic p53 stabilization in Pro72-p53 neurons. However, PC failed to prevent mitochondrial p53 stabilization, which occurs in Arg72-p53 neurons after ischemia. Furthermore, PC promoted neuroprotection against ischemia by controlling the p53/active caspase-3 pathway in Pro72-p53, but not in Arg72-p53 neurons. Finally, we found that good prognosis associated to TIA within 1 month prior to ischemic stroke was restricted to patients harboring the Pro72 allele. Our findings demonstrate that the Tp53 Arg72Pro SNP controls PC-promoted neuroprotection against a subsequent ischemic insult bymodulatingmitochondrial p53 stabilization and then modulates TIA-induced ischemic tolerance.This work was funded by The Instituto de Salud Carlos III grants CP14/00010 (M.D.-E.); PI15/00473 and RD12/0014/ 0007 (A.A.); CM14/00096 (ME.R.-A.); RD16/0019/0018 (C.R.); and Junta de Castilla y Leon grant BIO/SA35/15 (M.D.-E.), and the European Regional Development Fund (R.V.) was funded by the FPU program (Ministerio de Educación)