Search results for "Commerce."

Street Food and Street Vendors, a Culinary Heritage?

2018

This paper examines the theoretical discourse surrounding street food and tells how street food is multidimensional and spatially contingent, but also tackles food safety and aspects related to street vendors’ issues. The street food sector offers to the guests various dishes and drinks prepared at the place of sale or only marketed by itinerant merchants or by vendors with stationary carts, either on the streets or in other public places that may be of interest for tourists. Fast food is generally associated with globalization, so present in high income per capita countries. This paper aims to present a radiography of street food marketing, an image that defines a particular region or coun…

Creative service industries and regional productivity

2015

This research analyses the effect of creative service industries on labour productivity of the regions. Creative service industries offer services that increase a region's capacity to generate and combine new ideas, resulting in an increased production of innovations which raise productivity. The paper proposes an analytical framework and compares findings in 250 regions in 24 countries of the European Union in 2008. We find that creative service industries increases labour productivity of the regions and their effects are as important for regional productivity as scientific research or highly qualified human capital.

Relational content of travel and tourism websites

2006

Developments in information technologies are having a far-reaching impact on the travel and tourism industry. This paper analyses the use of the internet as a relational tool for travel and tourism companies providing air travel and rent-a-car services. The empirical research results show the role the internet plays in increasing sales and how companies use different relational tools to gain consumer trust and commitment.

Entry Barriers of Small and Medium-sized Software Firms in the Japanese Market

2007

The Japanese software market size was 131,773 million U.S. dollars in 2004. Due to limited domestic software production, Japan is highly dependent on imported software products. Despite the market potential for foreign software firms in Japan, almost no research exists on what kind of challenges foreign software firms encounter when they are entering the market. To fill this gap, this paper investigates the entry barriers of small and medium-sized software firms in the Japanese market by using a multi case-study. The findings suggest that most of the barriers are firm-specific and mainly related to firms’ resources and capabilities to operate in the market. The entry barriers encountered al…

Mobile Commerce Adoption in Spain

2009

The chapter aims to present an in-depth study of the factors influencing mobile commerce adoption. The authors analyze the influence of Mobile use experience, ICT ownership, Mobile affinity and Mobile Commerce compatibility in the m-commerce adoption decision. After identifying the key drivers of Mobile shopping adoption, the second part of the chapter presents an empirical study of the Spanish market. Results based on a sample of 470 Mobile users show that Mobile affinity, ICT ownership, and m-shopping compatibility are positive key drivers of M-shopping adoption. Mobile use experience has no significant influence on m-shopping adoption. This chapter will give managers and students insight…

Virtual Team Leadership and Collaborative Engineering Advancements

2009

A Conversational Agent Based on a Conceptual Interpretation of a Data Driven Semantic Space

2005

In this work we propose an interpretation of the LSA framework which leads to a data-driven “conceptual” space creation suitable for an “intuitive” conversational agent. The proposed approach allows overcoming the limitations of traditional, rule-based, chat-bots, leading to a more natural dialogue.

Green energy products in the United Kingdom, Germany and Finland

2014

In liberalized electricity markets, suppliers are offering several kinds of voluntary green electricity products marketed as environmentally friendly. This paper focuses on the development of these voluntary markets at household level in the UK, Germany and Finland. Since there are already existing renewable energy policies regulating and encouraging the use of renewable energy, it is important to consider whether voluntary products offer real additional benefits above these policies. Problems such as double counting or re-marketing hydropower produced in existing plants are identified. According to our study, the demand varies between countries: in Germany the number of green electricity c…

How Can Secure Websites Improve Buying Intention?

2014

A conceptual model is proposed to show 3 effects of augmenting security perceptions (more pleasure, less perceived risk and higher trust) in order to improve buying intention. The role of usability in reinforcing these direct and indirect security effects has also been tested. This study examines the reinforcement of previous relationships in highly usable contexts. To test this, a fictitious website was designed for a nonexistent clothing company directed at the segment of middle class consumers. Two blocks of changes were made to alter website usability: one concerning website speed and the other related to ease of use. Results for a study sample of 170 respondents show that in usable con…

Birth and growth in new metal‐based manufacturing and business service firms in Finland

2001

This study examined factors influencing the growth of new firms in metal‐based manufacturing and business services in Finland over the three first years of their operation. The factors affecting the growth of a new firm were found in the start‐up phase, in the characteristics of the entrepreneur and of the firm, and in the firm’s environment. Growth was especially explained by the know‐how and changes in the strategic behaviour of the entrepreneur and by the firm’s environment. New firmshad equal chances for growth irrespective of their locality. Instead, growth was affected by changes in a firm’s competitive situation, and, especially in the more developed service centres, growth was depen…