Search results for "Marketing"
showing 10 items of 3224 documents
Renewable energy growth and the financial performance of electric utilities: A panel data study
2017
Electric utilities are under pressure to increase clean energy production. Although the adoption of renewable energy can improve the utilities' environmental performance, a fundamental question is if it also pays in economic terms. Building on the natural-resource-based view of the firm, we answer this question using two data analysis methods. First, we carry out a regression analysis of panel data from 66 large electric utilities covering the period 2005–2014, applying both a fixed and random effects estimator. Subsequently, we use the Granger causality test to explore possible causality links. Our results show a negative correlation at the firm level between renewable energy increase and …
“Natural wine” consumers and interest in label information: An analysis of willingness to pay in a new Italian wine market segment
2019
Abstract Increasing public attention to issues of health and environmental sustainability has contributed to a growing consumer demand for “natural” food and drinks. As has been observed, this trend has also affected the wine market, leading to the spread of so-called “natural wine”. According to the literature, consumers who are aware of the social and environmental impact of their consumption choices pay more attention to the information displayed on the label as a tool to reduce the risk associated with their purchase. This study seeks to identify which consumers are willing to pay for natural wine and to understand what information on the label influences their choice. This study is one…
Metaheuristic procedures for the lexicographic bottleneck assembly line balancing problem
2015
The goal of this work is to develop an improved procedure for the solution of the lexicographic bottleneck variant of the assembly line balancing problem (LB-ALBP). The objective of the LB-ALBP is to minimize the workload of the most heavily loaded workstation, followed by the workload of the second most heavily loaded workstation and so on. This problem-recently introduced to the literature (Pastor, 2011)-has practical relevance to manufacturing facilities. We design, implement and fine-tune GRASP, tabu search (TS) and scatter search (SS) heuristics for the LB-ALBP and show that our procedures are able to obtain solutions of a quality that outperforms previous approaches. We rely on both s…
Conceptual Key Competency Model for Smart Factories in Production Processes
2020
Abstract Background and Purpose: The aim of the study is to develop a conceptual key competency model for smart factories in production processes, focused on the automotive industry, as innovation and continuous development in this industry are at the forefront and represent the key to its long-term success. Methodology: For the purpose of the research, we used a semi-structured interview as a method of data collection. Participants were segmented into three homogeneous groups, which are industry experts, university professors and secondary education teachers, and government experts. In order to analyse the qualitative data, we used the method of content analysis. Results: Based on the anal…
Emotional Design: Discovering Emotions Across Cars’ Morphologies
2020
The primary focus behind the overall design involves shifting from a designer-centric concept to a user-centric one. In essence, cars are utilitarian from an engineering point of view and symbolic-emotional from a social point of view. The modern car retains a strong social position and also generates vivid emotions. The tellability of a car is the priority when communicating with a customer. As a result, this paper proposes a computational approach towards studying the relationship between car morphology and the aforementioned produced emotions. Emotions are considered self-measurable and physiologically distinct. Each car is thus self-evaluated emotionally by a panel of potential users. T…
The Challenge of Coexistence in Socially Vulnerable Schools
2017
Abstract Society in general and schools in particular continue to express their concerns with regard to the many challenges posed nowadays by living in a globalized world, where learning to coexist involves knowing oneself and those around us. Therefore, the professionals from the education sector and specially from the most vulnerable contexts demand the necessity to know strategies and initiatives which enable them to build a democratic school, where learning to coexist is the key to educate engaged citizens living in an increasingly intercultural, changing world. The study presented here has been conducted in two differentiated, but complementary, phases. During the first phase a documen…
La performance hospitalière : à la recherche d'un modèle multidimensionnel cohérent
2009
Cet article a pour ambition de proposer un modele multidimensionnel coherent de la performance hospitaliere. En effet, le secteur hospitalier doit repondre a une performance globale et multidimensionnelle (qualite et securite des soins, utilisation optimale des ressources, productivite, satisfaction du patient, etc.). En France, aucun modele integrant les differentes dimensions de la performance hospitaliere n’a pour l’instant ete instaure alors que l’hopital public est au centre d’enjeux essentiels pour son avenir. Pour construire ce modele, nous nous appuierons d’une part sur une comparaison des systemes hospitaliers de trois pays anglo-saxons et d’autre part, sur une revue des cadres con…
Influence of Biologically Oriented Preparation Technique on Peri-Implant Tissues; Prospective Randomized Clinical Trial with Three-Year Follow-Up. Pa…
2019
Purpose: The objective of this prospective randomized clinical trial (RCT) was to analyze and compare the clinical behavior of three types of prosthesis supported by single implants in the posterior region after three years functional loading. Materials and Methods: Seventy-five implants were divided into three groups according to the type of prosthetic restoration: screw-retained crown (Group GS); cemented crown without finishing line (biologically oriented preparation technique) (Group GBOPT); and conventional cemented crown with finishing line (Group GCC). The clinical behavior of each restoration type was analyzed after 3 years functional loading by analyzing radiographic peri-implant b…
Study of consumer perception of healthy menus at restaurants
2017
Abstract To improve food-away-from-home nutritional quality, not only must healthy food options be available but also consumers must respond by making those choices. However, this is not always possible, as consumers believe healthy foods are loss tasty. A new concept of gastronomy focused not only on sensations but also on nutrition and health is necessary. The aim of this research is to evaluate whether offering a healthy menu based on nutritional claims would be an interesting option for restaurants as well as to check the impact of proposed nutritional improvements on consumer’s acceptability of menus. 300 customers of a specific restaurant located in Valencia city center (Spain) partic…
Role of MUC4 in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis
2019
Background: Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a chronic, progressive and irreversible form of fibrotic intersticial lung disease, characterized by uncontrolled fibroblast proliferative processes and alveolar type II epithelial dysfunction. MUC4, a multi-domain transmembrane glycoprotein, is often overexpressed in epithelial cancers, with consequences for the biological properties, involved in cellular processes related to IPF. However, the role of MUC4 in IPF has not beet studied yet. Objective: To analyze the implication of MUC4 in IPF Methods: Lung tissue from 14 healthy and 14 IPF patients was obtained. MUC4 expression was analyzed by western blot, RT-PCR and immunohistochemistry. T…