Brand Information Mitigating Negative Shocks on Animal Welfare: Is It More Effective to “Distract†Consumers or Make Them Aware?

To create and sustain a competitive advantage in markets that increasingly value animal welfare attributes, meat companies need to meet public and private production standards while communicating to final consumers through their brands. Data are collected from a representative sample of 460 U.S. residents through an on-line experiment on McDonald’s chicken breast sandwiches and analyzed with Latent Growth Modeling. This study assesses which content of positive brand information effectively mitigates the risk of negative information shocks on animal welfare. On average, brand information has the same positive impact on consumers’ beliefs and attitudes, regardless of whether it is related or unrelated to animal welfare. However, there is strong market segmentation in terms of consumers’ response when exposed to brand information, suggesting that brand managers would benefit from tailoring brand information according to consumers’ age, education, gender and income.animal welfare, brand, information, consumer behavior, multivariate statistics, Agribusiness, Livestock Production/Industries, Q1,

A Model of the Decision to Achieve ISO 14000 Certification

The ISO 14000 certification standard is a relatively new development. Based on the highly successful ISO 9000 certification standard in quality, ISO 14000 is oriented towards environmental performance. Its major focus is on the structure, implementation and maintenance of the formal corporate environmental management information system. However, since its release, the ISO 14000 standard has generated a great deal of discussion. Its level and rate of acceptance has not mirrored the rate previously observed for the ISO 9000 standards. In the United States, some firms have announced that they have no interest in being ISO 14000 certified, while others have committed themselves to this standard. To resolve the apparent paradox, this paper attempts to identify the determinants of ISO 14000 adoption, and why those determinants are important. Based on a survey sample consisting of some 1500 respondents, the paper also presents some initial findings

Probiotics Reduce Inflammation in Antiretroviral Treated, HIV-Infected Individuals: Results of the "Probio-HIV" Clinical Trial

BACKGROUND: HIV infection results in damage to the gastrointestinal (GI) tract, microbial translocation and immune activation. These are not completely normalized with combined antiretroviral therapy (cART). Moreover, increate morbidity and mortality of cART-treated HIV-infected individuals is associated with inflammation. METHODS: In order to enhance GI tract immunity, we recruited and treated 20 HIV-infected humans with cART supplemented with probiotics and followed inflammation and immunological parameters (clinical trial number NCT02164344). 11 HIV seronegative subjects were included as control group. The enumeration of CD4+, CD8+, CD38+ and HLA-DR+ lymphocytes were evaluated on peripheral blood; HIV-RNA levels, sCD14, d-dimer, C-reactive protein (CRP) high sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP), IL-6 and Lipopolysaccharide Binding Protein (LBP) were assayed on plasma. RESULTS: We observe that cART does not normalize the levels of immune activation in HIV positive patients anyway inflammation and markers of microbial translocation were significantly reduced with probiotic supplementation. Patients show a clear and statistically significant reduction in the levels of immune activation on CD4 T-lymphocytes, for both markers CD38 and HLA-DR and their simultaneous expression, LBP and hsCRP plasma levels after probiotic diet supplementation settling to values comparable to controls. CONCLUSIONS: Supplementing cART with probiotics in HIV-infected individuals may improve GI tract immunity and there by mitigate inflammatory sequelae, ultimately improving prognosis

Exploring New Product Portfolio Management decisions: The role of managers' dispositional traits

Cataloged from PDF version of article.Product strategy links to new product development (NPD) through new product portfolio management (NPPM). This dynamic decision process addresses the strategy implementation questions of identifying which new product ideas to pursue and their relative priorities. Despite the importance of NPPM in implementing product strategy, firms exhibit substantial performance-affecting differences. We investigate one potential source for such differences by examining the impact of managers' dispositional factors as a possible explanation. Using a case study research method, we examine differences in NPPM strategies and managers' revealed dispositional traits across three divisions of a single conglomerate firm operating in different business-to-business markets. Based on our analysis, we offer propositions relating managers' dispositions to NPPM strategy: analytic cognitive style is associated with balance, ambiguity tolerance is associated with strategic fit, and leadership style is associated with the relative weights applied to each dimension. © 2007 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved

Brand coopetition with geographical indications: Which information does lead to brand differentiation?

Farmers and managers marketing food products with Geographical Indications (GIs) have to play a brand coopetition game: they cooperate with each other to develop a collective GI equity, yet they compete to build their individual brand and to establish market channels. Based on an online experiment on olive oil from “Riviera Ligure” (a region in North-Western Italy) through a convenient sample, this study tests a path model to 1) analyze which types and which sources of GI information differentiate an individual brand with GI from the others; and 2) explore which psychological and demographic variables play a role on the impact of GI informationon brand differentiation. The tested path model combines elements of economic consumer theory (Lancaster, 1966) and theory of attitude formation (Fishbein, 1967; Fishbein and Ajzen, 1975). Results cannot be generalized outside the observed product and sample, yet the method is applicable by the GI food industryas a consumer research tool to set up marketing communication strategies

An evaluation of research methodologies for benefit segmentation analysis.

Business AdministrationDoctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.

Successful new product development by optimizing development process effectiveness in highly regulated sectors: the case of the Spanish medical devices sector

Rapid development and commercialization of new products is of vital importance for small and medium sized enterprises (SME) in regulated sectors. Due to strict regulations, competitive advantage can hardly be achieved through the effectiveness of product concepts only. If an SME in a highly regulated sector wants to excell in new product development (NPD) performance, the company should focus on the flexibility, speed, and productivity of its NPD function: i.e. the development process effectiveness. Our main research goals are first to explore if SMEs should focus on their their development process effectiveness rather than on their product concept effectiveness to achieve high NPD performance; and second, to explore whether a shared pattern in the organization of the NPD function can be recognized to affect NPD performance positively. The medical devices sector in Spain is used as an example of a\ud highly regulated sector. A structured survey among 11 SMEs, of which 2 were studied also as in in-depth case studies, led to the following results. First of all, indeed the companies in the dataset which focused on the effectiveness of their development process, stood out in NPD performance. Further, the higher performing companies did have a number of commonalities in the organisation of their NPD function: 1) The majority of the higher performing firms had an NPD strategy characterized by a predominantly incremental project portfolio.\ud 2) a) Successful firms with an incremental project portfolio combined this with a functional team structure b) Successful firms with a radical project portfolio combined this with a heavyweight or autonomous team structure.\ud 3) A negative reciprocal relationship exists between formalization of the NPD processes and the climate of the NPD function, in that a formalized NPD process and an innovative climate do not seem to reinforce each other. Innovative climate combined with an informal NPD process does however contribute positively to NPD performance. This effect was stronger in combination with a radical project portfolio. The highest NPD performance was measured for companies focusing mainly on incremental innovation. It is argued that in highly regulated sectors, companies with an incremental product portfolio would benefit from employing a functional structure. Those companies who choose for a more radical project portfolio in highly regulated sectors should be aware\ud that they are likely to excell only in the longer term by focusing on strategic flexibility. In their NPD organization, they might be well advised to combine informal innovation processes with an innovative climate

Antecedents to User Acceptance of Wireles Phone Services

Wireless phone services acceptance may be fundamentally different from traditional systems acceptance or online purchase adoption, partly because it includes acceptance of both technology products and services, and partly because the characteristics of wireless service providers also have roles to play. To understand these differences we study antecedents to Technology Acceptance Model’s (TAM) perceived usefulness and ease of use in wireless phone services context. Two characteristics of wireless service providers are identified: company affect and perceived company helpfulness. We collected data from 1,667 U.S. citizens. Results reveal that both company affect and company helpfulness are significant antecedents to user acceptance of wireless phone services. Moreover, our study of these antecedents has practical applicability as it deepens the understanding of the phenomenon and can provide advices for wireless service providers

Forecasting Consumer Adoption of Technological Innovation: Choosing the Appropriate Diffusion Models for New Products and Services before Launch

There are many good articles on various forecasting models. There is consensus that no single diffusion model is best for every situation. Experts in the field have asked for studies to provide empirical-based guidelines for recommending when various models should be used. This research investigates multiple diffusion models and provides recommendations for which diffusion models are appropriate for radical and really new products and services before the launch of the innovation

Start-Up Experiences of Latino Business Owners in Lansing and Saginaw, Michigan

Presentation made at Latinos in the Heartland (12th : 2014 : St. Louis, Mo.) and published in the annual conference proceedingThe paper presents findings from qualitative data gleaned from formal interviews with 14 business owners from the Start-Up Experiences of Latino/a Business Owners in Michigan study conducted by the Julian Samora Research Institute in 2011 and 2012. The majority of respondents were men over the age of 51 with at least some postsecondary education who were born in the United States; half of the respondents were born in Michigan. For Latino/a business owners in Lansing and Saginaw, MI, family influences decisions to venture into business ownership both in terms of intrinsic motivation and through a history of business ownership. Consistent with earlier research (Martinez et al., 2011), the majority of business owners in our sample used either informal funds or a combination of formal and informal funds to start their business endeavors. Respondents acknowledged that discrimination, prejudice, and exclusion, while perhaps less severe than in past decades, remain inherent in Latino business start-up experiences. Our research begins to fill the gap of knowledge on how Latinos and Latinas are starting and building businesses. www.cambio.missouri.edu/Library/ Keywords: immigrant entrepreneurship, Latino businesses, business ownershi