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The purpose of this paper is to identify the main determinants of winegrowers’ profitability in Eastern Europe with the ultimate purpose to improve the wine industry competitiveness.

The research is focussed on the Moldova region (Romania), a little studied wine-growing area that presents potential for the future development of the wine industry. A hierarchical approach is applied to consider the simultaneous effects of climate aspects, vineyard features, winegrowers’ characteristics and management practices on vineyards’ profitability. The model is based on data from 274 vineyards managed by 64 winegrowers, where 32 different grape varieties are cultivated in different districts. Different scenarios are simulated and alternative policies are analysed.

Climate aspects and human factors, particularly the educational level and type of agriculture practiced, emerge as main determinants. Farmers’ climate change perceptions also have a primary role. The grape variety affects profitability differences across vineyards at a lower extent.

The study suggests an approach easily replicable to other viticultural contexts.

Results are useful for policymakers in order to forecast the impact of policies devoted to improving the wine industry competitiveness in Eastern Europe.

The study presents a micro-scale analysis in which the effects of climate aspects, vineyard features, winegrowers’ characteristics and management practices are simultaneously estimated. It also produces new knowledge in a little studied wine region.

In 2012, the European food industry was hit by a food fraud: horsemeat was found in pre-prepared foods, without any declaration on the package. This is commonly referred to as the “horsemeat scandal”. The purpose of this paper is to investigate consumers’ preferences across Europe for a selected ready meal, ready to heat (RTH) fresh lasagne, to consider whether the effects of potential food frauds on consumers’ choices can be mitigated by introducing enhanced standards of RTH products.

An online survey was administered to 4,598 consumers of RTH lasagne in six European countries (Republic of Ireland, France, Italy, Spain, Germany and Norway), applying discrete choice experiments to estimate consumers’ willingness to pay for enhanced food safety standards and highlight differences between countries.

Many similarities across countries emerged, as well as some differences. Consumers in Europe are highly concerned with the authenticity of the meat in ready meals and strongly prefer to know that ingredients are nationally sourced. Strong regional differences in price premiums exist for enhanced food safety standards.

This research adds relevant insights in the analysis of consumers’ reaction to food fraud, providing practical guidelines on the most appropriate practices that producers should adopt and on the information to reduce food risk perception among consumers. This would prove beneficial for the food processing industry and the European Union. The survey is based on a representative sample of European consumers making this the largest cross-country study of this kind.

El presente trabajo indaga acerca del estado actual de la legislación de alojamiento turístico bajo la modalidad de apartamentos turísticos y viviendas de uso turístico en España.

Se trata de una investigación exploratoria centrada en el análisis de una tipología específica dentro del subsector hospedaje. Se basa en un trabajo de gabinete (recopilación bibliográfica y normativa).

Como resultado, se advierte que la legislación de alojamiento turístico bajo la modalidad de apartamentos y viviendas de uso turístico en España ha experimentado un creciente desarrollo en la última década y presenta un importante nivel de dispersión, un alto grado de heterogeneidad en los criterios de categorización, y en algunos casos falta de incorporación de aspectos claves como la accesibilidad, la calidad y la sostenibilidad.

La originalidad del estudio se fundamenta en el análisis comparativo de la regulación que las Comunidades Autónomas realizan de esta modalidad de alojamiento turístico denominada en la mayoría de las normativas analizadas de apartamentos turísticos y viviendas de uso turístico. El trabajo comprende un estudio actualizado de la legislación autonómica en la materia.

The purpose of this paper is to report on the level of government web portal resource development, impediments to progress in electronic government practices, and areas that require improvement in 19 Latin American countries.

A comparative study was carried out between March and May of 2012, based on a method combining heuristic usability analysis with an automatic web portal accessibility test.

The results suggest that Latin American government web portals do not fully meet international accessibility guidelines and that multidirectional communication and participation mechanisms lack diversity. Only functionalities related to usability presented positive scores, but with shortcomings in terms of security.

Extensive literature is available on the development of electronic government policies in Latin America. This study falls within that tradition but, in addition, offers a new perspective by examining the features of web portals, which ultimately aids the calibration of the results of policy implementation. The data obtained are useful for web developers, ICT policy designers and the entire community of actors involved in developing electronic government programs.

El artículo pretende describir el nivel de desarrollo de los recursos ofertados por los portales webs gubernamentales de 19 países latinoamericanos, desvelar la presencia de elementos obstaculizadores del desarrollo de las prácticas de gobierno electrónico y subrayar áreas de mejora.

Se realiza un estudio comparado, llevado a cabo entre los meses de marzo y mayo de 2012, basado en el empleo de un método que combina el análisis heurístico de usabilidad y la aplicación de un procedimiento automático de examen de la accesibilidad de los portales webs.

Los resultados sugieren que los portales webs gubernamentales latinoamericanos adolecen de insuficiencias relativas al cumplimiento de la normativa internacional de accesibilidad y una escasa diversidad de dispositivos de comunicación/participación multidireccionales. Solo las funcionalidades relacionadas con la usabilidad, salvo la relativa a seguridad, presentan un balance positivo.

Existe una abundante literatura latinoamericana sobre el desarrollo de políticas de gobierno electrónico. Este trabajo se enmarca en esa tradición, pero ofrece un ángulo nuevo al centrarse en el examen de las prestaciones que ofrecen los portales webs, lo que puede contribuir ulteriormente a calibrar los resultados de la implementación de tales políticas. Los datos obtenidos resultan de utilidad para desarrolladores web, diseñadores de políticas de difusión de TIC y, en general, la comunidad de actores relacionados con el desarrollo de programas de gobierno electrónico.

In this chapter, we analyse the role of women in armed Basque nationalist and separatist terrorist group Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (ETA) from a gender perspective. ETA women were essential agents in the armed conflict, but their image in the mass media and society has been very different from that of their male colleagues (Rodríguez Lara, 2017). Also, their role in the terrorist gang has described a sexually based functional specialisation. In addition, this chapter seeks to contribute to the area of feminist studies on women and political violence. Women's role in one of the most important armed nationalist groups in Europe, ETA, stands as a suitable case study to understand how the mass media (press, journalism), audiovisual content, and social representations of ETA have portrayed these women. The final conclusion of this chapter is that women were not portrayed in the same way as their male colleagues. Women of ETA were doubly penalised because they were women and because they were terrorists.

The purpose of this paper is to determine a model for developing sustainable tourism in archaeological sites. A qualitative and quantitative approach has been assumed in order to test a model of market orientation, where 11 experts were interviewed and 122 employees of archaeological sites answered the e-questionnaire.

Partial least squares path modelling regression was employed to examine the measurement and structural model.

The findings have revealed that market orientation and innovativeness positively and significantly influence tourism sustainability, measured in economic and social terms. Besides, tourist functionality has been determined as an antecedent of market orientation.

This study is limited by the sample sizes of both researches. The model has second order constructs (market orientation, innovativeness and tourism sustainability) that include related concepts to increase parsimony and understand relations with other variables. As a result, separate effects of these dimensions have not been measured, which could report interesting findings in future-related studies.

The results suggest useful insights for managers to improve social and economic sustainability in archaeological sites. Innovativeness affects tourism sustainability, which reinforces the idea that offering technological and organisational innovations improve economic and social sustainability. Besides, it has been proved that market orientation is a necessary precondition to guarantee social and economic sustainability.

This paper assists scholars and practitioners by shedding light on the comprehension of tourism sustainability.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze if the composition and activity of the appointment and remuneration committee have a significant effect in the remunerations of the members of the board of directors.

To achieve the paper's objective the authors proposed four hypotheses in order to analyze the repercussions of independent, institutional and executive directors in the Appointment and Retribution Committee (ARC) and its activity in the directors’ remunerations.

The results put into evidence that the composition (independent, institutional and executive members) of the ARC is not associated with the variation of the directors remuneration mean, while the activity of the ARC influences positively this remuneration mean, contrary to what was expected.

The ARC in Spain is not effective in fixating the directors’ remunerations.

El objetivo de este artículo es analizar si la configuración y actividad de las comisiones de nombramientos y remuneraciones (CNR) tienen un efecto significativo en las remuneraciones de los miembros del consejo de administración.

Para alcanzar el objetivo del artículo hemos planteado cuatro hipótesis con la finalidad de analizar la repercusión de los consejeros independientes, dominicales y ejecutivos de las CNR y la actividad de las mismas en las remuneraciones de los consejeros.

Los resultados ponen de manifiesto que la composición (miembros independientes, dominicales y ejecutivos) de las CNR no se asocian con la variación de las remuneraciones medias de los consejeros, mientras que la actividad de las CNR influye de manera positiva, contrario a lo pronosticado, en las variaciones de las retribuciones medias de los consejeros.

Las CNR en España no son efectivas en la fijación de las retribuciones de los consejeros.

This paper aims to investigate the internationalization strategies of small and medium enterprises (SMEs), focusing on the interaction between network ties and “soft” internal resources at the foundation of knowledge management (KM). Specifically, it identifies the firms’ internal capabilities that affect KM strategies, and their collective influence on the degree of internationalization; verifies the influence of network ties on the internationalization process itself; and develops a conceptual “preliminary theoretical framework of SME internationalization capabilities and networks.”

The primary research and analysis are based on a proportional stratified sample of Sicilian wineries; while the conceptual and implicative developments of the paper rest on the combination of the theoretical with the primary findings of the research, and, it has been designed and tested through eight experts’ interviews/reviews.

Findings underline a strong influence of the internal capabilities of firms on the internationalization process. In addition, an important role in the export process emerges from the acquisition of information and knowledge through the establishment of networks.

The results need to be interpreted within the context for which this study was designed and cannot be applied generally to all businesses. However, results allow cellars’ managers to better understand the relationships among the influencing factors of SMEs internationalization.

The originality of the paper lies not only in its above-stated explicit theoretical objectives and findings but also in its comprehensive conceptual framework that theoretically incorporates the “strategic” with the “internal” and “networking” aspects; purposefully also arming the industry with a practicable tool toward managerial implementation.