Volume 53 (2017): Issue 3 (September 2017)

The degree of structural divergence in the Euro Area is examined on the basis of the frequency and distribution of observed asymmetric shocks over the period 1996–2015. An asymmetric shock is defined as an opposite sign difference between the deviation of an individual country’s GDP growth rate from a trend and the deviation of the EA-wide GDP growth rate from a trend. Two measures of asymmetric shocks are introduced, one based on exponential trend values and another on moving-average trend values. Geographical distribution of observed (“revealed”) shocks shows that EA member countries differ in terms of structural convergence, with a higher number of asymmetric shocks in countries that joined the EA at a later date. The distribution of asymmetric shocks over time shows two peaks in the number of shocks around 2002 and 2011, but no clear tendency towards more divergence is detected. As actual data may not provide a full picture of asymmetric shocks (given that countries with sufficient fiscal space could have neutralized their negative impact on GDP growth rates) a hypothesis on the existence of “non-revealed” negative asymmetric shocks is examined. Testing for correlation between public debt levels and GDP growth rate deviations confirms the existence of “non-revealed” asymmetric shocks in low-debt countries. In general, the observed differences in the number of asymmetric shocks in EA member countries (and their increases over time) may actually reflect different fiscal policy reactions in individual countries as well as the impact of financial and debt crises, and are not necessarily an indication of widening structural divergence across the EA.

This paper tests the performance of the Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) and the Fama-French three-factor and Carhart four-factor models on the Polish market. We use stock level data from April 2001 to January 2014 and find strong evidence for value and momentum effects, but only weak evidence for size premium. We formed portfolios double-sorted on size and book-to-market ratios, as well as on size and momentum, and we explain their returns with the above-mentioned asset pricing models. The CAPM is rejected and the three-factor and four-factor models perform well for the size and B/M sorted portfolios, but fail to explain returns on the size and momentum sorted portfolios. With the exception of the momentum factor, local Polish factors are not correlated with their European and global counterparts, suggesting market segmentation. Finally, the international value, size and momentum factors perform poorly in explaining cross-sectional variation in stock returns on the Polish market.

Anchoring and overconfidence are some of the best-known biases in psychology and behavioral finance literature. While a number of studies have investigated the evidence of these biases and explored the motives and human factors that contribute to the one’s susceptibility to the effects, little is known about the cultural factors behind these heuristic biases. This paper aims to fill the research gap and shows the differences in proneness to the anchoring effect and overconfidence in two samples of students from Poland and India. The purpose of the study is twofold: to analyze susceptibility to behavioral effects relative to cultural background; and to consider the subjects’ cognitive abilities as a potential factor in their exposure to behavioral biases and confirm that subjects with higher cognitive skills, measured by the cognitive reflection test (CRT) display less susceptibility to the above heuristic biases.

This empirical study analyzes the cultural basis of the United States market response to imported Spanish products that seem to violate strongly-held cultural taboos. Survey responses were obtained from students in two contrasting majors, Art and Business, in two distinct cities and universities, i.e. Little Rock at the University of Arkansas, and Dominguez Hills at California State University. The study focused on a baby doll marketed to piggy-back on the new movement towards breastfeeding babies. Although accepted in its original European market, the United States media reports strong moral objections to this product among U. S. citizens. The toy was overwhelmingly rejected in some, but not all, population sub-groups. This study attempts to discern the cultural basis for product rejection by comparing responses between regions, college majors, genders and gender/major combinations. Differences in acceptance between groups are correlated with specific cultural constructs.

The study examines the hypothesis that firms engaging customers in value co-creation tend to display more innovativeness. As such, it is one of the few quantitative studies on the link between these two concepts. Customer engagement in value co-creation was operationalized as a multiple scale following the DART framework by Prahalad and Ramaswamy. The DART acronym denotes four salient dimensions of enabling co-creation: Dialog, Access, Risk and Transparency. The applied innovativeness metric was revenue share from new and modified products. Data were collected from 432 managers of manufacturing and service SMEs. Statistical data analysis methods included EFA, CFA and multiple regression modeling.

The major finding is the existence of a significant positive effect between engaging customers in value co-creation and innovativeness. In particular, certain DART dimensions, such as Dialog, elements of Access and Risk, coincided with increased levels of innovativeness. Among the study’s limitations, two are particularly pertinent. First, different conceptualizations of customer engagement in value co-creation could yield different results in terms of effect magnitudes, although the authors believe that the direction of relationships should remain the same. Second, the research considered customer engagement from the perspective of managers, which could induce bias. Hence, it may be worthwhile to examine how customers evaluate their own engagement.

In terms of practical application, to enhance innovativeness, firms should intensify their efforts to engage customers in day-to-day operations. However, not all aspects of co-creation provide equal benefits – it appears that more involved actions on the part of the company are needed to produce noticeable positive effects.

From a theoretical viewpoint, the findings empirically validate the business relevance of engaging customers in value co-creation. Unlike many other studies of the co-creation stream, this paper relies on a large, representative sample of manufacturing and service firms.

Aesthetic medicine is, next to the wellness and spa, one of the most rapidly growing segments of health tourism. Its dynamic growth is closely linked to innovative offers (perhaps better described as “product innovation”). To date, however, there have been no scientific studies focusing on this market. Services in the field of aesthetic medicine are usually discussed descriptively as a subcategory of medical tourism, and innovation in this sector remains unexplored.

In this article we focus on innovation in aesthetic medicine as it pertains to health tourism, using the Delphi method to analyze innovation flow. Twelve experts from the fields of economics and management sciences with backgrounds in innovation and the economics of tourism (including health tourism) were invited to participate in the study. This group included also practitioners. The research was conducted in June and July 2015.

Our research addresses the current dearth of academic works on aesthetic medicine tourism, and lack of any relevant models of its flow and spread.