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This paper reports an analysis of the evolution of equity in the utilisation of health care in Spain over the period 1987–2001, a time span covering the development of the modern Spanish National Health System. Our measures of utilisation are the probabilities of visiting a doctor, using emergency services and being hospitalised. For these three measures, we obtain indices of horizontal inequity from microeconometric models of utilisation that exploit the individual information in the Spanish National Health Surveys of 1987 and 2001. We find that by 2001, the system had improved insofar as differences in income no longer lead to differences in utilisation given the same level of need. However, tenure of private health insurance leads to differences in utilisation given the same level of need, and its contribution to inequity has increased over time, both because insurance is more concentrated among the rich and because the elasticity of utilisation for the three services has also increased.

Sous la présidencc du Professeur Dr Walter Hunziker (Suisse), l'AIEST s'est réunie en 17° Congrès en Grèce (Athènes et Spetsai), du 10 au 17 septembre 1966, pour débattre du sujet des «Problèmes théoriques et pratiques de la localisation touristique».

For equity, societies may wish to eliminate certain forms or manifestations of inequality. Horizontal equity and vertical equity in the income tax are topics which have interested me for some years. Although any shortfall from each of these objectives can be measured in terms of unwanted inequalities, equity per se is a different concept from equality. Equity relates to fairness, justice and other societal norms which give expression to the best aspirations of our collective social conscience. For example, equal access to health care for those in equal need is an accepted norm for horizontal equity in the health field. Vertical equity in this context means treating appropriately differently those who have different needs. When offered the opportunity to be Guest Editor of this volume of Research on Economic Inequality, I decided to define the focus simply as “equity”, without placing any further restriction on topics. The papers which were ultimately included in this volume are the ones, from among those offered, which survived a rigorous refereeing process. Each has its own “take” on the concept of equity, and its link with equality. I hope that you, the reader, will gain from reading all of these contributions and pondering their significance.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the differences and similarities that arise between manufacturing and service firms with regard to the impact of business model objectives on marketing innovation activities.

This study focuses on business model objectives and marketing innovations activities. As described by Oslo Manual, marketing innovations involve changes in product design, promotion, placement and pricing. Relationships between business model objectives and marketing innovations are based on the analysis of 9,525 firms, 5,488 of which are manufacturing companies and 4,037 of which are service companies.

Findings reveal distinctive results in the adoption of marketing innovation, depending on the business model objectives being pursued and the type of companies (manufacture or service) considered.

This research goes further than prior studies by identifying more precisely the particularities that differentiate the manufacturing and service sectors.

Firm’s age and size are not significant restrictions to introduce new marketing innovations in manufacturing or service sectors. In contrast, the business model objective to enter a new market is a significant driver of marketing innovations in most cases.

The focus on business model objectives and their impact on marketing innovations is novel. In addition, this study focuses on a large-scale sample that allows us to compare differences between manufacturing and service companies.

The purpose of this article is to measure knowledge management (KM) implementation and determine KM strategy by assigning KM instruments into KM orientations.

Information is collected from ten SMEs in Spain and ten in Austria taking part in a KM audit project.

Results show that instruments can be used to diagnose KM strategy. Besides, some firm's characteristics as industry, national culture, size and age act as contingent factors. Personalisation strategy is predominant probably due to be more feasible in first KM stages.

Besides the increase of cases, business strategy could be introduced to explore relationships with KM instruments and strategy.

This study helps management to auto‐diagnosis its KM implementation and strategy

Instead of sophisticated measures, KM strategy is revealed considering knowledge instruments use.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the direct effects of strategic orientation in innovation and competition on personalisation and codification type knowledge management (KM) strategies and their organisational creativity.

The authors counter-checked the hypothesis model with a sample of 169 companies in emerging markets that adopt technology: a country such as Colombia. To do so, the authors used structural equations with the least squares model.

The data indicate that both KM strategies positively influence creativity; however, personalisation has a greater effect. Additionally, SG for innovation has a positive effect on both KM strategies; however, for competition, KM only has an influence on codification.

The relation between KM strategies and creativity has been approached on a strictly theoretical level; therefore, this paper provides empirical evidence on the subject. It also establishes the direct effect that SG has on KM strategies, which have so far only been tangentially analysed. In so doing, it goes further than the limitations in the literature regarding analysis of the KM-creativity relationship, but it does not consider business strategy implications.

el artículo busca analizar los efectos directos de la orientación estratégica (OE) a la innovación y a la competencia, sobre las estrategias de gestión del conocimiento (GC), de personalización y codificación y, de estas últimas, sobre la creatividad organizacional.

el modelo de hipótesis se contrastó en una muestra de 160 empresas situadas en un país emergente y tecnológicamente seguidor como Colombia. Para ello, se utilizaron ecuaciones estructurales por el método de los mínimos cuadrados.

los datos indican que ambas estrategias de GC influyen positivamente sobre la creatividad, sin embargo, el efecto de la personalización es mayor. Además, la OE a la innovación incide positivamente sobre ambas estrategias de GC, sin embargo, la OE a la competencia solo influye sobre la codificación.

la relación entre estrategias de GC y creatividad se ha planteado en el plano estrictamente teórico, por ende, este artículo aporta evidencia empírica sobre el particular. Además, establece el efecto directo de la OE sobre las estrategias de GC que ha sido analizado de manera tangencial y, de este modo, se superan las limitaciones que se han planteado en la literatura en torno a la forma como se ha venido analizando la relación GC-creatividad, sin considerar las implicaciones de la estrategia del negocio.

Business accelerators facilitate new venture creation, and most research on the subject focuses on the performance of accelerated ventures. This paper aims to understand what entrepreneurs value in business accelerators and how this differs for women- and men-led ventures. The authors suggest that venture growth stage may play a mediating role in these relationships.

The authors use the resource-based view perspective to develop models of women- and men-led ventures’ valuation for business accelerator services. They also draw upon a database of 2,000 US entrepreneurs.

The authors found that, compared to men, women entrepreneurs place greater value on knowledge transfer benefits (i.e. business skills education) but lower value on networking benefits offered by accelerators. However, there are no significant differences in the valuations for these services between genders for high-growth ventures. Additionally, compared to men, women leading high-growth ventures place greater value on access to potential investors or funders.

This research serves as a practical guide for accelerator administrators and marketers who seek to adjust their business support offerings based on the value placed for the services by different populations of entrepreneurs.

The authors provide a business accelerator user’s perspective and highlight differences in valuation of accelerator services by women- and men-led ventures at different stages of venture growth.

The purpose of this paper is to focus on studying the impact of collaborative technologies on firm performance. The methodology used analyzes the influence of collaborative technologies not only directly but through an intermediary variable. This variable represents different intranet use orientations (e‐information, e‐communication and e‐transaction).

A structured questionnaire consisting of close‐ended questions was developed. Face‐to‐face surveys were conducted on a sample comprising 310 Spanish firms in May 2005. Research hypotheses were tested through ANOVA and hierarchical regression analyses.

Empirical results show that distinct collaborative technologies are associated with different intranet use orientations and demonstrate there is a positive relationship between e‐information and organizational performance. That is, the use of collaborative technologies with an informational orientation contributes to increased organizational performance. In addition, the existence of complementarities between e‐information and e‐communication were found. Thus, firms using collaborative technologies for e‐information in conjunction with e‐communication achieve better performance. The collaborative technology that has the greatest impact on firm performance is in fact the less employed.

This study confirms collaborative technologies are oriented to different, but compatible, uses. However, only certain uses present complementarities and have a direct impact on firm performance.

Currently, the majority of designed robots are not well‐matched to their applications because designers do not employ a clear and organized design process. Additionally, the high cost of robotic systems makes it difficult to financially justify the use of this technology. The purpose of this paper is to present a new design process that gathers conceptual, kinematic and dynamic design, finite elements method (FEM), functional design and virtual reality control. Furthermore, kinematic and dynamic design can be obtained by traditional theory or standard computer tools (SCT) to accelerate the design. Through SCT fitted mathematical models and non‐mathematical virtual models may be acquired.

This paper investigates the design process of a robot. First, the entire methodology is presented (including two new techniques for solving the kinematic and dynamic questions via SCT). Second, a case study using Autodesk^® Inventor™ has been analysed to assess the feasibility of the method and techniques.

The more stages of the design process are considered, the more successful solutions become. Designers can obtain a mathematical solution for an analytically unsolvable robot fitting a mathematical model by SCT. To obtain a rapid design, designers must consider using SCT and following just in need (JIN) philosophy to find a non‐mathematical virtual model.

This paper presents an innovative guide for robotic engineers and researchers which covers the whole design process and new techniques for obtaining mathematical and non‐mathematical solutions.