Retailers, Frontiers of Innovation and Local Legislative Constraints

The role of retail has deeply changed over the last years. Today, large scale retailers are no longer perceived as mere sellers of products. A modern, advanced retailer, must be able to innovate and enrich the value of the offer throughout its network, integrating more and more goods and services under an umbrella brand that increases distinctiveness and loyalty. In order to do so, it is necessary to have an entrepreneurial ability oriented towards evolution of demand, a socially-focused company mission, but also a legislative landscape that allows for this innovation process.Large-Scale Retail in Europe; Large-Scale Retail in Italy; Global Markets; Supply Chain; Corporate Responsibility; The Coop Italia Case; Coop Private Label; Socially Responsible Behaviour; Ethical Category Management

Attitudes towards insurance: the role of propensity to hold liquid asset

There’s a lack of research on the relationship between families’ attitudes toward insurance and their financial behavior. The Italian insurance market appears weak with regard to non life and non motor insurance: Italy ranks only 18th in Europe in terms of the ratio between non life and non motor premiums and GDP. The propensity to subscribe to an insurance contract appears largely to depend on geographical area, qualification and job activity. Regardless of their wealth, families subscribing to a non life and non motor insurance policy show a significantly lower propensity for financial liquidity. This relationship suggests an opportunity: selling insurance products to high liquidity families offers financial industry the possibility to sell them new financial assets too. There is a final benefit for Italian families, whose high liquidity indicates risk adversity while their propensity not to buy insurance exposes them to great real risks: buying more insurance products they will be less exposed to real risks and have a better return on their financial investments.Insurance markets, Risk adversity, Italian families

Timing of the magmatism of the paleo-Pacific border of Gondwana: U-Pb geochronology of Late Paleozoic to Early Mesozoic igneous rocks of the north Chilean Andes between 20° and 31°S

Indexación: Web of Science; ScieloABSTRACT. U-Pb zircon geochronological data provide record of about 130 Ma of igneous activity in the Andes of northern Chile, which extended episodically from the latest Early Carboniferous to Early Jurassic (328-194 Ma). The overall U-Pb data show that volcanism and plutonism were essentially synchronous and major episodes of igneous activity developed during the Late Carboniferous to Mid-Permian (310 to 260 Ma) and from Late Permian to Late Triassic (255-205 Ma), with less prominent episodes in the mid-Carboniferous (330 to 320 Ma), and Early Jurassic (200-190 Ma). Thus, from the Carboniferous to the Early Triassic dominantly silicic magmatism developed along the Chilean segment of the southwestern border of Gondwana supercontinent. Further magmatism developed during the Mid-Late Triassic (250-194 Ma) was bimodal and synchronous with rift-related, continental and/or marine sedimentary strata related to the early stages of break-up of Gondwana. Most of the silicic volcanic rocks of the Precordillera and Domeyko Cordillera of northern Chile (21°30' to 25°30'S) are older than the silicic rocks assigned to the Choiyoi succession in Argentina, being instead equivalent in age to Carboniferous to Early Permian marine sedimentary sequences present in the eastern Argentinean foreland. On the other hand, silicic volcanic successions exposed in the easternmost part of northern Chile are equivalent in age to the Choiyoi succession of the San Rafael Block of Argentina. An eastward expansion or migration of the volcanism during the Mid-Permian to Early Triassic is inferred, interpretation that is consistent with expansion of the volcanism at that time in Argentina. The timing of the Late Paleozoic to Early Jurassic magmatism is coincident with that of the Andes of Perú and of western Argentina according to the available U-Pb data, revealing a rather consistent evolution in time of the magmatism along the southwestern, paleo-Pacific border of Gondwana. Keywords: Geochronology, U-Pb, Andes, Gondwana, Choiyoi, Paleozoic, Carboniferous, Triassic. RESUMEN. Los datos de U-Pb en circón registran aproximadamente 130 Ma de actividad ígnea en los Andes del norte de Chile, la que se extendió episódicamente desde el Carbonífero temprano hasta el Jurásico temprano (328-194 Ma). Los datos globales de U-Pb indican que el volcanismo y plutonismo fueron esencialmente sincrónicos con episodios mayores desde el Carbonífero tardío al Pérmico Medio (310-260 Ma) y durante el Pérmico Tardío a Triásico Tardío (255-205 Ma) y episodios menos prominentes durante el Carbonífero medio (330-320 Ma) y el Jurásico Temprano (200-190 Ma). Desde el Carbonífero hasta el Triásico Temprano se desarrolló magmatismo predominantemente félsico a lo largo del borde suroccidental del supercontinente de Gondwana, mientras que durante el Triásico medio a tardío (250-194 Ma) se desarrolló magmatismo bimodal sincrónico con estratos sedimentarios continentales y/o marinos relacionados con extensión (rift), durante las etapas tempranas de la desintegración de Gondwana. La mayor parte de las rocas volcánicas silíceas de la precordillera y la cordillera de Domeyko en el norte de Chile (21°30' a 25°30'S) son más antiguas que las rocas silíceas asignadas a la sucesión Choiyoi en Argentina, y son, en cambio, equivalentes en edad con las secuencias sedimentarias marinas del Carbonífero al Pérmico temprano presentes en el antepaís argentino al oriente. Por otra parte, las sucesiones volcánicas félsicas expuestas en la parte más oriental del norte de Chile, de la cordillera de Domeyko y de la cordillera Frontal al sur de 25°S son equivalentes en edad a la sucesión Choiyoi de Argentina. Se infiere una migración o expansión del volcanismo hacia el este durante el Pérmico Medio a Triásico Temprano, interpretación que es consistente con la expansión del volcanismo en Argentina durante ese período. La temporalidad del magmatismo del Paleozoico tardío a Mesozoico temprano es coincidente con la de los Andes de Perú y del oeste de Argentina, de acuerdo a los datos U-Pb disponibles, lo que revela una evolución temporal del magmatismo concordante a lo largo del borde suroeste del Gondwana. Palabras clave: Geocronología, U-Pb, Andes, Gondwana, Choiyoi, Paleozoico, Carbonífero, Triásico

A data mining approach for the monitoring of active labour market policies

The paper addresses the problem of evaluation of the effectiveness of Active Labour Policies in the province of Bologna, a manufacturing district in Northern Italy, during the period 2004/2006. Using surviving analysis through Kaplan Meier filter and a new approach to propensity score computation, the Authors shows that the policies run by the Labor Market Authorities are able to compensate the disavatanges that secondary labor forces such as migrants, old age or less educated workers have in getting a job when fired. Moreover, they put new light on the transitions from temporary job to permanent jobs, and show that the probability of transitions is very low.Mercato del lavoro, Precarietà, Valutazione delle politiche Labour Market, Temporary Jobs, Evaluation of Policy Effectiveness

An analysis of the role of liking on the memorial response to advertising

After the publication of the results of the Advertising Research Foundation’s Copy Research Validity Project, ad liking has been extensively used as copy test predictor of campaign’s performance. Less favourable findings have been recently presented on the basis of its delayed effects. This paper addresses the question of carryover effects of ad liking on the recall, jointly modelling the patterns of recall, ad pressure and ad liking, by means of the specification of a vector autoregressive model with GRPs acting as exogenous variable. The approach is innovative since literature has mainly investigated until now only the simultaneous relationship between advertising, recall and liking. The analysis is carried out for the markets of small automobiles, deodorants and shampoos. Main empirical findings for the analysed categories highlight that: 1) carryover effects of ad liking on the recall measures may be detected but not systematically, and 2) the ad liking role of ad likeability on memorial responses varies among product categories. Moreover 3) a further finding shows that, whereas positive influences are thoroughly retrievable (in the small car category), ad likeability influences more advertising than brand awareness and more total than unaided awareness.Advertising effectiveness; Ad Liking; Recall; VARX models;

The effects of marketing activities on fast moving consumer good purchases : the case of yoghurt Italian market.

This paper examines whether sales promotions effectiveness depends upon the consumer’s brand loyalty and her buying behaviour and whether consumer’s behavioural characteristics in term of purchase frequency and level affect the response to promotional activities and moderate the effect of brand loyalty during the consumer choice process. Different specifications for the utility function, exploiting information on selling price, promotional activities such as displays usage, ad features in the store, 3x2 and discount, and differently brand loyalty measures have been estimated into a discrete choice framework, that is into the rational brand choice paradigm, paying attention to their effects on individuals’ probabilities to choose the specific brand during each purchase occasion. The application is run on a ACNielsen dataset of Italian households consumer panel, observed to buy at least two yoghurt packages during a year, matched to store panel data with respect to quantities, prices and promotions.promotional effectiveness, brand loyalty, purchase volume, purchase frequency, random utility model, multinomial logit,

Rapporto sul mercato del lavoro della provincia di Bologna nel 2013 : uscire dal labirinto

The paper contains the main informations about labour market in the county of Bologna during 2013. T in 2008he Bologna labour market suffers deeply of the effects of the economic crisis started goes through great transformations: from full employment to mass unemployment. Moreover, it witnessed an heavy diffusion of short term jobs and other non standard contracts. The paper shows that this changes are shared with what has happened at regional and national levels