Market Changes (market + change)

Distribution by Scientific Domains


Selected Abstracts


IMPACTS OF TRANSPORTATION CHANGES ON THE WOODWORKING INDUSTRY OF MEXICO'S PURÉPECHA REGION

GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEW, Issue 4 2004
PAUL MARR
ABSTRACT. The PurÉpecha region of Michoacán State, in west-central Mexico, has a strong tradition of craft production, especially wooden items. Transportation improvements in the region since the mid-twentieth century have led to a higher level of integration of the regional economy, yet access to the broader Mexican market remains limited. Towns throughout the region have experienced substantial changes in the types of crafts produced, the extent of their local and external markets, and the location of craft production. Transportation improvements have, in part, led to agglomeration economies and a resultant contraction in the number of different types and an increase in the volume of the crafts produced. Market changes have led to the proliferation of craft storefronts in towns with higher levels of accessibility. Conversely, remote towns still rely heavily on distributors and have not been able to expand their markets. As a result, the region has seen the development of a two-tiered system whereby towns with increased accessibility have viable craft industries and towns with limited accessibility struggle with stagnant craft industries. [source]


Evaluation of sustainable packaging in the norwegian shopping basket 2001,2007

PACKAGING TECHNOLOGY AND SCIENCE, Issue 3 2010
Hanne Møller
Abstract The main purpose of the Norwegian Shopping Basket Survey (referred to here as the Survey) is to document development in packaging optimization and generation of packaging waste in the Norwegian packaging sector over time. As the environmental and resource efficiency of packaging systems depends to a large extent on the prevention of product loss, material intensity of the packaging and closing of the material loops, these factors are important elements in the characterization of sustainability of packaging systems. In this project we calculate indicators for material intensity and material recycling, based on the European Union (EU) directive on packaging and packaging waste (EC 64/92) and the corresponding European Committee for Standardization (CEN)-standards EN 13427-13432. The survey consists of 22 product categories that have a significant economic contribution to the retail sector. In each product category the three products with the highest turnover (market leaders) and the three products with the most rapid increase in turnover each year (market winners) are chosen. The survey result shows that the weighted packaging material intensity for the market leaders has been reduced but that the net material intensity has been rather constant. Data for the market winners indicate a much larger variation throughout the period, which is expected because many of the products change from year to year. The numbers of packaging changes are counted. Market changes are found to be the most important factor affecting the differences in material intensity. Changes in the packaging system of the individual products are less important. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]


Optimal operating policies in a commodity trading market with the manufacturer's presence

NAVAL RESEARCH LOGISTICS: AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL, Issue 2 2010
Hui Zhao
Abstract With the help of the Internet and express delivery at relatively low costs, trading markets have become increasingly popular as a venue to sell excess inventory and a source to obtain products at lower prices. In this article, we study the operational decisions in the presence of a trading market in a periodic-review, finite-horizon setting. Prices in the trading market change periodically and are determined endogenously by the demand and supply in the market. We characterize the retailers'optimal ordering and trading policies when the original manufacturer and the trading market co-exist and retailers face fees to participate in the trading market. Comparing with the case with no trading fees, we obtain insights into the impact of trading fees and the fee structure on the retailers and the manufacturer. Further, we find that by continually staying in the market, the manufacturer may use her pricing strategies to counter-balance the negative impact of the trading market on her profit. Finally, we extend the model to the case when retailers dynamically update their demand distribution based on demand observations in previous periods. A numerical study provides additional insights into the impact of demand updating in a trading market with the manufacturer's competition. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2010 [source]


Class, Agency and Resistance in the Old Industrial City

ANTIPODE, Issue 1 2010
Andrew Cumbers
Abstract:, Recent left academic work on the consequences of economic restructuring and local labour market change in old industrial cities has been important in emphasising the role of local context and contingency in the shaping of labour market outcomes. However, in such accounts agency is often limited to capital and state actors, albeit working across scales from the local upwards. There is little sense of agency for individuals and communities in the midst of economic restructuring. Instead, they are usually treated as passive victims of deeper underlying processes. In this paper, our purpose is to highlight the autonomy and agency of workers, people and communities in old industrial cities. Rather than starting from the perspective of capital, our starting point is to emphasise how those experiencing economic change forge strategies and practices for "getting by". This leads us to call for a re-theorisation of labour agency, drawing upon the Autonomous Marxist tradition and the more recent work of Cindi Katz, in order to offer fresh insight into the agency of labour and the prospect for recovering a class politics based upon lived experience over reified abstractions. [source]


Jobs, Houses, and Trees: Changing Regional Structure, Local Land-Use Patterns, and Forest Cover in Southern Indiana

GROWTH AND CHANGE, Issue 3 2003
Darla K. Munroe
Land-use and -cover change is a topic of increasing concern as interest in forest and agricultural land preservation grows. Urban and residential land use is quickly replacing extractive land use in southern Indiana. The interaction between land quality and urban growth pressures is also causing secondary forest growth and forest clearing to occur jointly in a complex spatial pattern. It is argued that similar processes fuel the abandonment of agricultural land leading to private forest regrowth, changes in topography and land quality, and declining real farm product prices. However, the impact of urban growth and development on forests depends more strongly on changes in both the residential housing and labor markets. Using location quotient analysis of aggregate employment patterns, and the relationship between regional labor market changes, the extent of private forest cover was examined from 1967 to 1998. Then an econometric model of land-use shares in forty southern Indiana counties was developed based on the net benefits to agriculture, forestland, and urban uses. To test the need to control explicitly for changes in residential demand and regional economic structure, a series of nested models was estimated. Some evidence was found that changing agricultural profitability is leading to private forest regrowth. It was also uncovered that the ratio of urban to forest land uses is better explained by incorporating measures of residential land value and industrial concentration than simply considering population density alone. [source]


The labour market and household income inequality in South Africa: existing evidence and new panel data

JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT, Issue 6 2001
Murray Leibbrandt
South Africa's very high Gini coefficient has always served as the starkest indicator of the country's extreme inequality. The racial legacy has always been highlighted in explaining this inequality. This paper presents evidence that between race contributions to inequality have declined from the early 1970s to the mid 1990s. However, they are still considerably higher than comparative international figures. The racially rigged labour market has always been assumed to operate as the key force underlying these changing inequality patterns and the paper presents findings for more formal decompositions of the linkage between the labour market and household inequality. This work confirms the dominance of the labour market in driving total South African, African and even KwaZulu-Natal inequality. However, the contribution of wage income is uneven across these different levels of aggregation and across time; suggesting complex patterns of inequality generation. The following lengthy section of the paper uses a panel data set to measure and explain the mobility patterns of a sample of African households in Kwazulu-Natal. It is found that there was less income mobility at the top and the bottom of the distribution than in the middle and overall there was an increase in income differentiation. Simple mobility profiling and more complex modelling confirm the importance of labour market changes in influencing movement of real adult equivalent income of households as well as mobility across deciles, across poverty lines. Demographic changes are also seen to be very important. The paper concludes with a summary and some suggestions for further work. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]


CONSUMER PERCEPTION OF IRRADIATED FRUIT: A CASE STUDY USING CHOICE-BASED CONJOINT ANALYSIS

JOURNAL OF SENSORY STUDIES, Issue 2 2010
ROSIRES DELIZA
ABSTRACT Papaya is a popular fruit among Brazilian consumers, but one problem is that fruit ripens quickly due to the high temperatures of the country. Irradiation is an effective way of slowing down ripening, hereby increasing shelf-life, but consumer acceptance of this novel technology is paramount for its successful introduction by industry. Using conjoint analysis, this research measures consumer acceptance of irradiated papaya fruit in a sample of urban Brazilian consumers. The study assesses the joint influence of product appearance, price and information about the use of irradiation for consumer choice. Real fruit was used and consumer responses were collected through intercept interviews in supermarkets. These two empirical aspects add external validity to the research. The responses from a convenience sample of 168 consumers from Rio de Janeiro revealed that the product appearance, as a proxy for product quality, was the most important factor influencing decision to purchase papaya. Price was of lesser importance. The participants in this study did not reject papaya due to the labelled information about the use of irradiation. This suggests irradiation as a viable alternative for fruit producers. Consumers demonstrated no knowledge about food irradiation, and education initiatives may be useful as a strategy to aid commercial introduction of irradiated papaya in Brazil. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS This study has important practical implications for Brazilian agribusinesses because it contributes to our understanding of the relationship between market changes, consumer behavior, food products and processing technologies. It has shown that sensory appearance was the key factor influencing Brazilian consumers' choice of papaya, however, more education and information regarding irradiation technology should be provided. The results suggest that irradiation could be used in Brazil and provide a viable alternative to fruit producers. As a consequence, these results are useful for strategic planning of consumer education regarding food irradiation (with emphasis on the benefits of processing and addressing the myths), something which could, eventually, contribute to a more favorable consumer response to the technology. [source]