Assessing retail market competition for multi-aquaculture products

2015 ◽  
Vol 42 (3) ◽  
pp. 462-476 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abdulai Fofana ◽  
Shabbar Jaffry
Keyword(s):  
Market Power ◽  
Structural Changes ◽  
Market Competition ◽  
Similar Data ◽  
Retail Market ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Data Limitations ◽  
Aquaculture Products ◽  
The Uk

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate market competition for three product types of salmon (smoke, fresh and whole salmon) to understand whether supermarkets are exercising market power over salmon consumers in the UK retail market. Design/methodology/approach – Competition and the corresponding pricing conduct among supermarkets are tested by applying dynamic structural simultaneous system equations and using similar data set used by Jaffry et al. (2003). Findings – The results indicate that the market is competitive for fresh fillets and whole salmon but retailers appeared to exert some level of market power for smoke salmon. The hypothesis that market power is the same for all three products in the study was rejected; further indicating that the market for fresh products are competitive while retailers may be exercising market power over consumers for smoke salmon. Research limitations/implications – Current data limitations did not allow the investigation to cover the past few years in the modelling process. However, the results are still relevant as there have been no major structural changes in aquaculture products retailing landscape in the recent past. Practical implications – Concerns over the supermarkets’ exercise of market power over consumers have prompted the competition authorities to continue investigating the situation in the UK supermarket sector since 1996. The most recent investigation by competition authorities was in 2006. In all cases, no evidence of market power was found despite increased market concentration. Results from this study generally uphold the claim of the competition authorities in the UK. Originality/value – This is the first study to use a model within a structural econometric framework of firms to test for competitiveness of salmon products in the UK market place.

Technology, market change and the privatisation of communications in Britain

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Edward A. Smith
Keyword(s):  
Structural Changes ◽  
Market Competition ◽  
Organisational Change ◽  
Economic Consequences ◽  
Private Ownership ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Market Change ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
The Uk

Purpose What are the trade-offs between public and private ownership in the business and how does this impact industries responsible for providing and offering services on critical national infrastructure? The privatisation of British Telecom (BT), the UK telecommunications provider that was initially part of the British Post Office, is used to explore this question. By broadening the business perspective beyond the political goals and economic consequences of privatisation; this study aims to approach management history provides new perspectives of the benefits and challenges offered by both public and private ownership. Design/methodology/approach To fulfil its purpose, this paper examines how the UK telecommunications incumbent proactively adapted from being an organisation shaped by its unique position within the public sector, to one embracing the challenges offered by the private sector. The analysis is synthesised by linking an understanding of the customer’s requirements, services and technology with surveys of the secondary literature, supported where applicable by archival material, combining perspectives from authors both within the organisation and external to it. Sources include specialist and more general academic material and contemporary and reflective publications from practising engineers and managers; supplemented by material held at the BT Archives and the Guildhall Library in London. It links the debate on ownership to the evolution of the market under study and provides a balanced view across the business, its market, competition and technology. Findings The arguments surrounding public or private ownership, are complex, in particular, it is difficult to separate effects due to liberalisation and privatisation. Whilst the former provided the impetus for beneficial change, the latter reduced the level of detrimental entanglement with government policy and enabled the technology and structural changes that took the market forward. Originality/value A new and balanced view of the privatisation of BT is taken, with an emphasis on how the company needed to change to thrive in a liberalised market, noting how technological change both required organisational change and enabled it. In contrast to many studies, the emphasis is on what was driving the organisation rather than the policy of privatisation and its effectiveness.

Competition and Contestability in the UK Package Tour Industry: Some Econometric Observations

1998 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 241-251 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian Davies ◽  
Paul Downward
Keyword(s):  
Panel Data ◽  
Market Power ◽  
Power Efficiency ◽  
Econometric Analysis ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Research Needs ◽  
Data Set ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Efficiency Hypothesis

This paper explores competition and contestability in the UK package tour industry. Using econometric analysis of a panel-data set evidence is presented that rules out the market power/efficiency hypothesis. In keeping with Evans and Stabler (1995), there is evidence that the industry is segmented according to the size of the firms. In contrast with Gratton and Richards (1997), the results suggest that it is difficult to support the contestability hypothesis in the industry overall. Future research needs to offer less generalized conclusions in characterizing the industry.

scholarly journals Employability outcomes for university joint honours graduates

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 195-210 ◽  
Author(s):  
Louise Pigden ◽  
Andrew Garford Moore
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Education Institution ◽  
Subject Area ◽  
Higher Education Institution ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Highly Skilled ◽  
Employment Rates ◽  
Cent Point ◽  
The Uk

PurposeIn the UK, the vast majority of university students specialise and study just one subject at bachelor degree level, commonly known in the UK as a single honours degree. However, nearly all British universities will permit students if they wish to study two or even three subjects, so-called joint or combined honours degrees, internationally known as a double major. The purpose of this paper is to explore whether the study of a joint rather than a single honours degree had an impact on employment outcomes six months after graduation.Design/methodology/approachThe authors analysed the complete data set provided from the Higher Education Statistics Agency Destination of Leavers from the Higher Education survey. The data were analysed to establish whether there was a difference in the highly skilled graduate employability of the joint honours students. The authors established whether there were any differences inherent in completing a joint honours degree in a post-1992 higher education institution, by nation within the UK or within a Russell Group higher education institution.FindingsThe authors found an approximately consistent 3 per cent point negative gap nationally in the highly skilled employment rates of joint compared with single honours graduates. This gap was at its lowest in the highly selective Russell Group universities (−1.52 per cent points) and highest in post-1992, vocationally oriented universities (−7.13 per cent points) and in Northern Ireland universities (−12.45 per cent points). Joint honours graduates of Scottish universities fared well, with a +3.09 per cent point advantage over the national average for joint honours. The authors found that universities that had a higher proportion of joint honours graduates generally had a lower employability gap between their joint and single honours graduates.Research limitations/implicationsThis study focussed on joint honours degrees in the UK where the two or three principal subjects fall into different JACS subject areas, i.e. the two or three subjects are necessarily diverse rather than academically cognate. Future work will consider the class of joint honours degrees where the principal subjects lie within the same JACS subject area, i.e. they may be closer academically, although still taught by different academic teams. This grouping will include, for example, pairs of foreign languages, some social sciences pairings such as politics and sociology, and pairings such as history and theology from the historical and philosophical subject area.Originality/valueThe potential disbenefits of studying for a joint honours degree are apparent in this study. Joint honours students may face organisational, academic and cultural challenges that require a positive, conscious and sustained effort to overcome, on both the part of the student and the higher education institution. In particular for graduates of the post-1992 universities, it appears that there is a negative relative impact on highly skilled employment. This impact is lessened if the university is Scottish (four-year degrees with in-built breadth of study) or where the proportion completing joint honours degrees is relatively high.

India-based versus UK-based SME owners’ perspectives on inter-firm collaboration

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Manish Unhale ◽  
André Slowak
Keyword(s):  
Small And Medium Enterprises ◽  
Business Associations ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Grounded Theory Research ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Medium Enterprises ◽  
Theory Research ◽  
Indian Perspective ◽  
Country Specific

Purpose This study aims to inquire about pre-requisites and benefits of collaboration in the UK and India, testing for significance of country context. Design/methodology/approach The survey data set includes 118 UK-based and 175 India-based small and medium enterprises (SMEs). This paper applies a grounded theory research design, given that to date, no sufficient SME sector-specific, quantitative frameworks have been published. Findings India-based SMEs are more inclined towards frequent collaboration. Soft variables such as perceived trustworthiness or past commitment, appear to be significant when explaining whether or not SMEs in India enter into a collaboration. Operations-driven motives play the most significant role for them, whereas for UK-based SMEs, product design-related collaboration motives are of more importance. Research limitations/implications The developed cross-country and country-specific collaboration variables will facilitate SME studies under a consistent and complete framework. Practical implications Business associations and SME owners in the UK can use the research to gain an Indian perspective and vice versa. This study concludes a stylised framework for SME owners and managers to classify collaboration patterns in a country. Originality/value While previous research established concepts and practices of SME collaboration, this is the first paper that quantitatively addresses the attitudes and experiences that SME owners hold when initialising inter-firm collaboration.

scholarly journals The normative evolution of corporate governance in the UK: an empirical analysis (1995-2014)

2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (5) ◽  
pp. 1015-1041 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefanie Pletz ◽  
Joan Upson
Keyword(s):  
Corporate Governance ◽  
Longitudinal Data ◽  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Financial Market ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Market Growth ◽  
Implementation Model ◽  
Quantitative And Qualitative Research ◽  
The Uk

Purpose This paper aims to analyse normative corporate governance evolution in the UK between 1995 and 2014 against the benchmark of Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) regulatory principles. Design/methodology/approach Methodologically, the authors conduct an empirical, longitudinal data set analysis of the formative years of UK normative corporate governance development between 1995 and 2014. We provide a qualitative discussion of the empirical evidence that links the type of UK regulatory corporate governance development to financial market growth thereby adopting a mixed approach based on quantitative and qualitative research methods. Findings The authors find that compared to the OECD model of corporate governance, the UK model is less rigid following a more self-regulatory approach based upon a “comply or explain” paradigm. Thus it is scored below corporate governance systems that follow a compulsory implementation model. However, even with such “low” tilt towards formal shareholder primacy norms, the UK has the best performing financial market. As a quasi-empirical study, the authors suggest that there are several historical and economic reasons for this, which together with a robust rule of law in the UK contribute to this performance – and the law especially the type or tilt is less relevant. Originality/value This is the first of its kind empirical, longitudinal data set analysis with qualitative elements that links empirical evidence to regulatory developments in the wider context of UK corporate governance evolution.

scholarly journals An enquiry into potential graduate entrepreneurship

2017 ◽  
Vol 36 (6) ◽  
pp. 743-760 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chris Birch ◽  
Jessica Lichy ◽  
Gary Mulholland ◽  
Maher Kachour
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Global Economy ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Entrepreneurial Intention ◽  
Individual Development ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Business World ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Graduate Entrepreneurship

Purpose In today’s global economy, high in talent but low in growth, the capability and skills mismatch between the output of universities and the demands of business has escalated to a worrying extent for graduates. Increasingly, university students are considering alternatives to a lifetime of employment, including their own start-up, and becoming an entrepreneur. The literature indicates a significant disconnect between the role and value of education and healthy enterprising economies, with many less-educated economies growing faster than more knowledgeable ones. Moreover, theory concerning the entrepreneurial pipeline and entrepreneurial ecosystems is applied to graduate entrepreneurial intentions and aspirations. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach Using a large-scale online quantitative survey, this study explores graduate “entrepreneurial intention” in the UK and France, taking into consideration personal, social and situational factors. The results point to a number of factors that contribute to entrepreneurial intention including social background, parental occupation, gender, subject of study and nationality. The study furthers the understanding of and contributes to the extant literature on graduate entrepreneurship. It provides an original insight into a topical and contemporary issue, raising a number of research questions for future study. Findings For too long, students have been educated to be employees, not entrepreneurs. The study points strongly to the fact that today’s students have both willingness and intention to become entrepreneurs. However, the range of pedagogical and curriculum content does not correspond with the ambition of those who wish to develop entrepreneurial skills. There is an urgent need for directors of higher education and pedagogues to rethink their education offer in order to create a generation of entrepreneurs for tomorrow’s business world. The challenge will be to integrate two key considerations: how to create a business idea and how to make it happen practically and theoretically. Clearly, change in the education product will necessitate change in the HE business model. Research limitations/implications The data set collected was extensive (c3500), with a focus on France and the UK. More business, engineering and technology students completed the survey than others. Further research is being undertaken to look at other countries (and continents) to test the value of extrapolation of findings. Initial results parallel those described in this paper. Practical implications Some things can be taught, others need nurturing. Entrepreneurship involves a complex set of processes which engender individual development, and are highly personalised. Higher Education Enterprise and Teaching and Learning Strategies need to be cognisant of this, and to develop innovative and appropriate curricula, including assessment, which reflects the importance of the process as much as that of the destination. Social implications The global economy, propelled by the push and pull of technology, is changing at a speed never before seen. This is having profound political, social and economic effects which necessitate fundamental change that we organise ourselves and our activities. Current models and modus operandi are proving increasingly unfit for purpose. Nurturing and encouraging agile mindsets, creativity, supporting the testing of new ideas and ways of doing things and adapting/adopting to innovation are all critical future employability factors. Our future prosperity and well-being will be dependent on creating new learning models. Originality/value This work builds on an extensive literature review coupled with original primary research. The authors originate from a variety of backgrounds and disciplines, and the result is a very challenging set of thoughts, comments and suggestions that are relevant to all higher education institutions, at policy, strategy and operational levels.

scholarly journals Would credit scoring work for Islamic finance? A neural network approach

2014 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 112-125 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hussein A. Abdou ◽  
Shaair T. Alam ◽  
James Mulkeen
Keyword(s):  
Neural Network ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
Credit Scoring ◽  
Islamic Finance ◽  
Decision Making Process ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Modeling Techniques ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Training Subset

Purpose – This paper aims to distinguish whether the decision-making process of the Islamic financial houses in the UK can be improved through the use of credit scoring modeling techniques as opposed to the currently used judgmental approaches. Subsidiary aims are to identify how scoring models can reclassify accepted applicants who later are considered as having bad credit and how many of the rejected applicants are later considered as having good credit, and highlight significant variables that are crucial in terms of accepting and rejecting applicants, which can further aid the decision-making process. Design/methodology/approach – A real data set of 487 applicants is used consisting of 336 accepted credit applications and 151 rejected credit applications made to an Islamic finance house in the UK. To build the proposed scoring models, the data set is divided into training and hold-out subsets. The training subset is used to build the scoring models, and the hold-out subset is used to test the predictive capabilities of the scoring models. Seventy per cent of the overall applicants will be used for the training subset, and 30 per cent will be used for the testing subset. Three statistical modeling techniques, namely, discriminant analysis, logistic regression (LR) and multilayer perceptron (MP) neural network, are used to build the proposed scoring models. Findings – The findings reveal that the LR model has the highest correct classification (CC) rate in the training subset, whereas MP outperforms other techniques and has the highest CC rate in the hold-out subset. MP also outperforms other techniques in terms of predicting the rejected credit applications and has the lowest misclassification cost above other techniques. In addition, results from MP models show that monthly expenses, age and marital status are identified as the key factors affecting the decision-making process. Originality/value – This contribution is the first to apply credit scoring modeling techniques in Islamic finance. Also in building a scoring model, the authors' application applies a different approach by using accepted and rejected credit applications instead of good and bad credit histories. This identifies opportunity costs of misclassifying credit applications as rejected.

Linking bank regulatory capital buffer to business cycle fluctuations

2018 ◽  
Vol 45 (3) ◽  
pp. 565-585 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kolade Sunday Adesina ◽  
John Muteba Mwamba
Keyword(s):  
Panel Data ◽  
Market Power ◽  
Commercial Banks ◽  
Basel Iii ◽  
Regulatory Capital ◽  
Revenue Diversification ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Cyclical Behavior

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to assist bank regulators in Africa who are currently considering the implementation of Basel III countercyclical capital buffer (CCB) requirement. Design/methodology/approach Using a panel data set of 129 commercial banks operating in 14 African countries over the period 2004–2014, this paper estimates the system generalized method of moments regression to examine the impact of business cycle on banks’ regulatory capital buffers and attempts to identify the influence of bank revenue diversification, market power and cost of funding (CF) on bank regulatory capital buffers. It further carries out some robustness analyses using a panel data set of 257 commercial banks in 23 African countries over the period 2004–2014. Findings The results show that higher regulatory capital buffers are associated with higher market power, higher revenue diversification and higher CF. Additionally, the results show significant evidence of procyclical behavior of bank capital buffers (BUFs) in the sampled countries. Practical implications The results of this study suggest that African banking systems are not exposed to contagion and systemic risks arising from countercyclical movements of BUFs to the real economy. Therefore, this study does not support the implementation of the Basel III CCB requirement in the sampled African countries. Originality/value Considering that the results of existing studies on the cyclical behavior of BUFs are inconclusive, there is value in studying the cyclical movements of bank regulatory capital buffers in a set of countries that has not been analyzed before. Toward this direction, this is the first empirical study focusing on the cyclical behavior of bank regulatory capital buffers in Africa. Besides examining the cyclical behavior of bank regulatory capital buffers, this paper further investigates the effects of bank revenue diversification, market power and CF on bank regulatory capital buffers.

UK industrial strategy impact rests on implementation

2018 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Structural Changes ◽  
Business Environment ◽  
Green Paper ◽  
Policy Area ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Us ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Start Ups ◽  
Skill Shortages

Subject UK industrial strategy. Significance The UK government's industrial strategy responds to concerns about poor productivity, Brexit and the profound structural changes the economy is undergoing. ‘Building a Britain fit for the future' rests on five policy-area foundations -- ideas, people, infrastructure, business environment and places. Published on November 27 last year, the strategy was shaped by more than 2,000 responses to a green paper published in January the same year. Impacts Increasing R&D is key to narrowing the gap between the country's success in start-ups and its weakness scaling them up. R&D as a percentage of GDP is below the US, Chinese and German levels, undermining the goal of being the world’s most innovative nation. The STEM funds and the focus on technical as well as higher education will help fill possible post-Brexit labour and skill shortages.

Impediments on the way to entrepreneurship. Some new evidence from the EU's post-socialist world

2014 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 385-402 ◽  
Author(s):  
Georgios K. Batsakis
Keyword(s):  
Structural Changes ◽  
Transition Process ◽  
Geographic Area ◽  
Tax Rates ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Probit Regression ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Rich Data

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to shed light on traditionally important determinants (demographics, peoples’ perceptions, and environmental characteristics) of entrepreneurial engagement in the post-socialist region of the European Union (EU). Design/methodology/approach – A rich data set obtained from the Flash Eurobarometer Survey on Entrepreneurship 2007 is used, while a binomial probit regression model is employed. Findings – Gender, mother's occupation, unemployment, and economic growth are reported as significant determinants of entrepreneurship. The econometric results also suggest that lack of financial resources, individual's risk aversion, a large number of start-up procedures, and increased tax rates are all positively, rather than negatively related to entrepreneurial engagement. Research limitations/implications – It is suggested that the recent structural changes that have occurred in the examined region, as well as the transition process under which the examined countries operate have influenced the attitude of individuals towards entrepreneurial engagement. Originality/value – The study provides useful information in relation to the attitude of a post-socialist society towards structural issues which have possibly impeded its engagement to entrepreneurship. Both the geographic area (post-socialist European countries) and the time the data were collected (i.e. three years after the examined countries’ accession to the EU) can be perceived as factors of great interest for both policy makers and entrepreneurs.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document