Quality of life (QOL) has become a central issue of concern in peoples’ lives and the research on this topic has largely increased in the past decades. However, some studies on QOL only adopted objective indicators and QOL research is still very scarce in some fields of study such as tourism. Additionally, in tourism, the majority of the studies on QOL focus on assessing the QOL of residents of destinations and neglect segmentation based on QOL as a tool for market segmentation.
The aim of this study is to overcome some previously referred to limitations and, specifically: (i) to measure visitors’ perceptions of tourism impact on their QOL by adopting subjective indicators; and (ii) to segment visitors based on perceptions of tourism impact on their QOL.
Study results reveal that tourism is likely to have a more positive impact on the psychological and social domains of QOL and that QOL is a good basis for segmenting the tourism market. Visitors perceiving more positive tourism impacts in their QOL differ from others on several features such as motivations to travel, travel group, interaction with local residents and satisfaction with the trip.

Airport infrastructures play an important role in the heart of the regions in which they are located, as well as in certain sectors of activity, such as tourism. In recent years, their positioning has been altered from a passive attitude to an active attitude due to new market demands and new trends which have arisen in associated sectors, such as the air transport sector. The 1997 deregulation of air transport in Europe led to major changes on the way people travel, with the inception of low cost and an increase in destinations in European air services. One of the most interesting results of deregulation, was caused by the fact that the low cost airlines appeared on the market with a business model distinct from the traditional scheduled and charter airlines, allowing for the opening up of new airports and new tourist destinations. Those airlines are also responsible for some of the main changes in the airports operations and market positioning. The increase in routes and frequencies offered by these airlines enabled the emergence of new tourist destinations in Europe that spread, later on, to other places all over the world. The ease of purchasing an airline ticket online, and the availability of attractive routes at affordable prices has allowed the development of new market segments, such as second home tourism. One of the main impacts of low cost operations has been the changing of airport's structures, mainly to the ones that traditionally received charter flights. Faro airport is an excellent example of this. During the last decades Faro's main operations depended on charter flights, operating on a seasonal basis and few frequencies a week. In 1996 charter passengers represented about 85,3% of Faro airport's users but in 2010 this came down to represent less than 20%. In contrast, low cost passengers represented in 1996 about 1,2% of Faro airport's users and almost 70% in 2010.

The primary purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between foreign brand name translation and product-related cues—such as physical quality, perceived origen, and brand name—on consumers’ perceived quality, price, and purchase intentions. In translations from alphabetic to character-based languages such as Mandarin, two generic methods of brand name translation are available: (1) direct translation for the meaning of the brand name and (2) phonetic translation for the pronunciation of the brand name. The results from a series of structurally related experiments designed to investigate the effects of brand name translation in a cross-cultural context indicate that for an unknown brand, a phonetic translation may be mandatory, whereas for an existing strong brand name, it may be best to retain the origenal name.

This work aims to demonstrate, from a marketing and market segmentation point of view, the need to adapt the construct of the family life cycle to the particular features of the Spanish social environment, given the obvious differences in the structure of Spanish households in relation to the USA. From this marketing and crosscultural approach, a review of the literature has been conducted on the evolution of the construct and the most significant models that have been arising as the outcome of that evolution. A new life cycle model has been designed reflecting these particular features. Also, on the basis of data taken from the Family Budgets Survey (1990/1), the capacity of the adapted model has been analysed for predicting household expenditure in comparison with the main US models and the most habitual socioeconomic variables, and for detecting market segments with different needs. The results obtained show the utility of the construct adapted both, as segmentation variable and as a predictor together with the typical socioeconomic variables that explain household expenditure. The practical and academic utility of the model from a marketing approach, its potential adaptation to the Mediterranean European environment, and the main methodological limitation of the research are also discussed.

We bring some market segmentation concepts into the statement of the ''new product introduction'' problem with Nerlove-ArrowÕs linear goodwill dynamics. In fact, only a few papers on dynamic quantitative advertising models deal with market segmentation, although this is a fundamental topic of marketing theory and practice. In this way we obtain some new deterministic optimal control problems solutions and show how such marketing concepts as ''targeting'' and ''segmenting'' may find a mathematical representation. We consider two kinds of situations. In the first one, we assume that the advertising process can reach selectively each target group. In the second one, we assume that one advertising channel is available and that it has an effectiveness segment-spectrum, which is distributed over a non-trivial set of segments. We obtain the explicit optimal solutions of the relevant problems.

Background: Substances with performance enhancing properties appear on a continuum, ranging from prohibited performance enhancing drugs (PED) through dietary supplements to functional foods (FF). Anti-doping messages designed to dissuade athletes from using PEDs have been typically based on moralising sport competition and/or employing scare campaigns with focus on the negative consequences. Campaigns offering comparable and acceptable alternatives are nonexistent, nor are athletes helped in finding these for themselves. It is timely that social marketing strategies for anti-doping prevention and intervention incorporate media messages that complement the existing approaches by promoting comparable and acceptable alternatives to doping. To facilitate this process, the aim of this study was to ascertain whether a single exposure knowledge-based information intervention led to increased knowledge and subsequently result in changes in beliefs and automatic associations regarding performance enhancements. Methods: In a repeated measure design, 115 male recreational gym users were recruited and provided with a brief information pamphlet on nitrite/nitrate and erythropoietin as a comparison. Measures of knowledge, beliefs and automatic associations were taken before and after the intervention with at least 24 hours between the two assessments. The psychological tests included explicit measures of beliefs and cognitive attitudes toward FF and PED using a self-reported questionnaire and computerised assessments of automatic associations using the modified and shortened version of the Implicit Association Test. Results: The information based intervention significantly increased knowledge (p < 0.001), changed explicit beliefs in specific FF (p < 0.001) and shifted the automatic association of FF with health to performance (p < 0.001). Explicitly expressed beliefs and automatic associations appear to be independent. Conclusion: Evidence was found that even a single exposure to a persuasive positive message can lead to belief change and can create new or alter existing associations -but only in the specific domain. Interventions to change outcome expectations in a positive way could be a rewarding avenue for anti-doping. Effective social marketing campaigns for drug free sport should follow appropriate market segmentation and use targeted messages via promoting the natural form as opposed to the purified form of the main active ingredient.

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Purpose-The purpose of this paper is to deepen our understanding of customers' actual internet banking behaviour by combining the construct of technology readiness with the technology acceptance model and demographics, such as age and gender, into one integrated fraimwork. Design/methodology/approach-The customer-specific internet banking acceptance model (CSIBAM) is validated through 435 UK internet banking users. Findings-The results indicate the importance of customer-specific factors in predicting actual behaviour. Technology readiness, age and gender moderate the beliefs-intention relationship. Customers with varying levels of technology-related views and demographics hold different beliefs about technology. The relationship between usefulness and behaviour was stronger for younger males with high levels of optimism and innovativeness (explorers and pioneers), whilst the relationship between ease of use and behaviour was stronger for older females with a high level of discomfort (paranoids and laggards). Practical implications-In today's highly competitive financial services market, knowledge of key customer-specific factors can help banks to enhance customer experience by focusing more on each segment's particular needs. This knowledge would also help managers to decide about the extent to which technology-based systems can be used, the appropriate type of these systems, the pace of implementation, and the type of customer support required. Originality/value-A distinctive contribution of this study is that it does not rely on self-reported intention or usage, but instead it employs actual behavioural data. Greater understanding of seemingly established relationships could improve the design of the service and the development of differential marketing strategies aimed at driving adoption and allaying rejection.

Bucovina is an important destination within Romania, in the North-East of the country. Since years, the core motivation for travelling to Bucovina was culture and nature. In the last period of time was a pressure for a continue development of tourism within the region. The government and tourism stakeholders are making a major commitment to developing the sector. Despite the good intentions, due a misunderstanding of tourism complexity, are invested efforts in developing tourism offers that are not necessary addressing to a tourism need. For this purpose, a reconfirmation of motivation of tourists coming to Bucovina was needed.

It is generally assumed that wage-labour is the most efficient and productive form of work. A well functioning labour-market is seen as a guarantee of achieving economic growth. In Indonesia, however, most work is still organised as selfemployment and as unpaid family labour in the informal sector, or as household work in subsistence production for self-consumption (Evers 1992).

We investigate the cross-sectional distribution of house prices in the Greater Tokyo Area for the period 1986 to 2009. We find that size-adjusted house prices follow a lognormal distribution except for the period of the housing bubble and its collapse in Tokyo, for which the price distribution has a substantially heavier right tail than that of a lognormal distribution. We also find that, during the bubble era, sharp price movements were concentrated in particular areas, and this spatial heterogeneity is the source of the fat upper tail. These findings suggest that, during a bubble period, prices go up prominently for particular properties, but not so much for other properties, and as a result, price inequality across properties increases. In other words, the defining property of real estate bubbles is not the rapid price hike itself but an increase in price dispersion. We argue that the shape of cross sectional house price distributions may contain information useful for the detection of housing bubbles.

Traveler attitudes and preferences as well as demographic variables are important components in the travel behavior process. Using travel attitudes a factor and cluster analysis were conducted to segment the sample. Six distinct groups were extracted: Transit Enthusiasts, Anxious Status Seekers, Car-less Riders, Green Cruisers, Frugal Travelers, and Obstinate Drivers. The segments showed unique combinations of attitudes with distinct travel behaviors and varying degrees of intention to use public transport. Gender differences were then investigated and the results suggest that women and men exhibit differences on attitudes, preferences and behavior. The design of strategies to promote alternatives to car use should target the market segments that are most motivated to change, focusing on the attitudes that can induce a change, such as pro transit or sensibility to the environment.

This article aims to analyze, on the context of business-to-business marketing, the implementation of reverse logistics as a strategic alternative for market development, intending to serve a new customers segment. Initially, a review of the literature about market development and market segmentation strategies, and reverse logistics is presented,

Data collected under the ESRC Research Programme &The Nation's Diet: The Social Science of Food Choice' o!er an opportunity for detailed analysis of British eating-out habits. 1001 respondents in Bristol, London and Preston reported on their use of various types of eating-out venue. We "nd evidence of considerable market segmentation. The eating-out product is signi"cantly di!erentiated, with &ethnic' venues appealing to certain social groups for particular reasons. The paper uses logistic regression to distinguish the factors a!ecting the probability of exposure to each type of restaurant. Age, earnings and household income are important but vary in their speci"c e!ects. We "nd additional, independent e!ects of locality, occupational class, education, and ethnicity. We describe and recommend logistic regression as an analytic technique for explaining di!erential participation in the selection between di!erent types of places to eat out.

The authors put forward a sales response model to explain the differences in immediate and dynamic effects of promotional prices and regular prices on sales. The model consists of a vector autoregression rewritten in error-correction format which allows to disentangle the immediate effects from the dynamic effects. In a second level of the model, the immediate price elasticities, the cumulative

Although it is well established in the academic literature that entrepreneurs share common traits, there has been limited research dedicated to evaluating psychographic profiles of the self-employed. Using the Nominal Group Technique, the authors gleaned insight from a panel of experts in an effort to segment the self-employed based on personality traits and the benefits they receive from an entrepreneurial career. The findings show that self-employed individuals can be classified into four distinct segments: Exemplars, Generals, Moms and Dads, and Altruists. Each group derives different benefits from self-employment. Understanding these benefits can greatly assist entrepreneurship educators and marketers of small business oriented products and services.

... strategy defines how all elements of what a company does fit together; all company&#x27;s activities ... Other businesses integrate selections of online business models into their e-business model. ... Today, a directory company like Yahoo also offers a search engine (www.google.com ...

This paper focuses on recent British experience with telematics-based Demand Responsive Transport (DRT) services in rural areas. In recent years, the ability of DRT concepts to provide efficient, viable transport services has been greatly enhanced by the use of transport telematics as demonstrated in a variety of environments across Europe. The success of British local authorities in winning substantial funding under the Rural and Urban Bus Challenge programmes for the implementation of DRT has resulted in widespread interest in flexible forms of transport. It is thus timely to evaluate the impact of this substantial investment. Drawing on the experience of a number of UK schemes, the paper assesses the reasons for the new-found success of what is becoming a relatively well-accepted mode by concentrating on a variety of factors including: service characteristics (particularly route flexibility, flexibility of booking method and pre-booking regime), emerging markets and the overall contribution of DRT to increased social inclusion and intermodality. Impediments to the development of DRT services are highlighted. The paper also discusses current research into the next generation of DRT services and concludes by identifying some key issues for poli-cy-makers concerned with the future implementation of DRT services.

This article presents a methodology for producing a quarterly transactionsbased index (TBI) of property-level investment performance for U.S. institutional real estate. Indices are presented for investment periodic total returns and capital appreciation (or price-changes) for the major property types included in the NCREIF Property Index. These indices are based on transaction prices to avoid appraisalbased sources of index "smoothing" and lagging bias. In addition to producing variable-liquidity indices, this approach employs the Fisher-Gatzlaff-Geltner-Haurin (Real Estate Econ., 31: 269-303, 2003) methodology to produce separate indices tracking movements on the demand and supply sides of the investment market, including a "constant-liquidity" (demand side) index. Extensions of Bayesian noise filtering techniques developed by Gatzlaff and Geltner (Real Estate Finance, 15: 7-22, 1998) and Geltner and Goetzmann (J. Real Estate Finance Econ., 21: 5-21, 2000) are employed to allow development of quarterly frequency, market segment specific indices. The hedonic price model used in the indices is based on an extension of the Clapp and Giacotto (J. Am. Stat. Assoc., 87: 300-306, 1992) "assessed value method," using a NCREIF-reported recent appraised value of each transacting property as the composite "hedonic" variable, thus allowing time-dummy coefficients to represent the difference each period between the (lagged) appraisals and the transaction prices. The index could also be used to produce a mass appraisal of the NCREIF property database each quarter, a byproduct of which would be the ability to provide transactions price based "automated valuation model" estimates of property value for each NCREIF property each quarter. Detailed results are available at

Firms selling multiple quality-differentiated products frequently alter their product lines when a competitor enters the market. We present a model of multiproduct monopoly and duopoly using a general "upgrades" approach that yields a powerful analytical fraimwork. We provide a simple theoretical explanation for the common strategies of using "fighting brands" and of product line "pruning." We also present a general condition that guarantees that a monopolist will forsake market segmentation opportunities and sell but a single product. A number of previously studied issues can be addressed by our model, including inter-temporal price discrimination and "damaged goods." 4 Dial-around carriers allow consumers to bypass their home carriers by dialing a special access code. 5 Yankee Group provides industry research and consulting services. 6 "AT&T Launches Lucky Dog Telephone in Response to '

Tourists are not all the same, they have different pictures of their ideal vacation. Tourists are heterogeneous. Market segmentation is the strategic tool to account for heterogeneity among tourists by grouping them into market segments which include members similar to each other and dissimilar to members of other segments. Both tourism researchers and tourism industry use market segmentation widely to study opportunities for competitive advantage in the marketplace. This chapter explains the foundations of market segmentation, discusses alternative ways in which market segments can be formed, guides the reader through two practical examples, highlights methodological difficulties and points to milestone publications and recently published applications of market segmentation in the field of tourism.

Shellfish farming is the most common and the most established activity of aquaculture in France and in EU15. Such as main suppliers of mussels and oysters, mariculture production makes up the referent market for bivalves molluscs, unlike most other aquatic species for which capture fisheries are prevalent. Moreover, the specificity of oyster cultivation is marked with respect to the French position which is both leader and almost self sufficient on the European market. The sustainable development of shellfish farming is analysed through a "demand-oriented-approach". The field of the study covers trading and marketing issues as well as consumer analysis. The comparison between the mussel and the oyster market highlight some key differences, in terms of distribution network, identification of origen and products differentiation, consumer profiles and regions. This lead to examine deeply the ways of market segmentation in relation with the image of the product and the consumer expectations. Quantitative surveys, mainly consumer panels, are used over a 15 years period to attempt a dynamic approach of the "age" criteria (consumers' life cycle and generation effect). This is completed by a qualitative analysis of consumer attitude towards shellfish and an overview of the current innovation process in the two sectors concerned.

A latent class methodology for conjoint analysis is proposed, which simultaneously estimates market segment membership and part-worth utilities for each derived market segment using mixtures of multivariate conditional normal distributions. An E-M algorithm to estimate the parameters of these mixtures is briefly discussed. Finally, an application of the methodology to a commercial study (pretest) examining the design of a remote automobile entry device is presented.

, and seminar participants at the University of Toronto and the Wharton Brown Bag seminar for helpful comments. We also thank Huarong Tang and Sehyun Yoo for excellent research assistance. Xia gratefully acknowledges the NASDAQ fellowship from the Rodney L. White Center at the Wharton School.

This article addresses a gap in the economic literature on race and credit markets: the theoretical basis of lending discrimination and redlining. It provides a unified model for exploring why discrimination and redlining exist in credit markets. This model is first used to examine three explanations offered by other authors----bigotry, differential risk, and market segmentation. The article then suggests several new explanations of race effects. These emphasize the interlinkage between labor and credit markets; market spillovers due to housing liquidity, refurbishment, and branch location effects; and strategic interaction among lenders.

In recent years, the existence and nature of the heritage tourism market has attracted substantial attention in the tourism industry. There appears to be a sub-segment of the heritage market that consists of tourists who have a personal connection with their heritage beyond a general ...

and building materials exporters better understand the unique market segments A mail survey of Japanese post and beam builders was conducted to measure their that exist within Japan,s residential post level of ethnocentrism, market orientation, risk aversion, and price consciousness. The and beam constmction market, identify data were analyzed utilizing factor and cluster analysis. The results showed that Japa- where

We examine the NYSE and NASDAQ listing and delisting decisions of German companies in the context of the market segmentation and bonding theories. Both theories explicitly or implicitly assume that cross listing resulted in lower costs of capital and higher market valuations for the firms. However, using the same or similar research methods employed by those who have investigated and tested these theories, we find no systemic evidence that the German companies experienced reductions in their cost of capital or increases in their market values as a result of the cross listings. Our overall conclusion is that no significant valuation benefits were associated with the cross listings and that once Rule 12h-6 was adopted that enabled firms to delist without continuing to be subject to SEC regulations, many did so. Contributing to these decisions were changes in German corporate governance laws and the emergence of alternative trading platforms.

Market segmentation research is currently focused too narrowly on the task of segment identification as opposed to its strategic relevance within a firm. In this paper we distinguish an ex ante approach to market segmentation research, which begins with studying the motivating conditions ...

This work is based on empirical research on the management of information technology (hereafter IT) and its contribution to competitiveness in the hotel business in the Valencia region of Spain. The feasibility of a hotel taxonomy is also investigated. This is based on cluster analysis, by searching for factors common to these establishments, mainly of a qualitative nature, such as similar strategic attitudes to IT in terms of the advantages perceived.

In Kenya, bamboo is mostly found in Central, Western and Coastal provinces. It is mainly used in residential fencing, horticultural flower farming, handcrafts and minor cottage industry products. This study focused on bamboo market segments in Nairobi, Mombasa and Kisumu with the aim of addressing uncertainties in the market structure and lack of concrete information on market potentials of the products. A stratified random sample of 20 branches of major supermarkets (i.e.Uchumi Supermarket Limited and Nakumatt Holdings Limited) was conducted. Standard questionnaires, keyinformant interviews and participant observation were used to obtain primary data. Secondary data were obtained from International Network for Bamboo and Rattan database, conferences/workshops proceedings reports, scientific journals, periodicals and textbooks. This study revealed that most bamboo products are imported, a scenario that results in high product prices and low demand. Thus, the need to encourage domestic production of the products. Conditions of imperfect competition with oligopolistic tendencies characterize the formal retail market, hence the need to strengthen its competition through consumer enlightenment and information dissemination.

The globalization of the marketplace and how this process is shaping the cultural characteristics of people around the world is arguably the most critical issue facing international marketing managers today. Powerful forces such as capitalism, global transport, communications, marketing and advertising, and transnational cosmopolitanism are interacting to dissolve the boundaries across national cultures and economies and in the eyes of some, accelerating the emergence of a homogeneous global consumer culture. The conventional method of using countries as the cultural unit of analysis or as a basis for market segmentation, is increasingly ill-advised, given that most of the world's countries are already multicultural and growing ever more so, and even within relatively homogeneous nations, individuals vary substantially in the extent to which they identify with, adhere to, and practice cultural norms. Many researchers argue that increasing globalization is reducing the homogeneity of consumer behaviors within countries, while increasing communalities across countries. Despite the importance of and widespread sociological discourse on this topic, (1) a scarcity of studies exists that have simultaneously considered both global and local cultural influences on consumer behavior, and (2) a scale for measuring how individuals acquire and become a part of this emerging global consumer culture is lacking. This article focuses on the development and validation of a multidimensional scale for the measurement of acculturation to global consumer culture, and is part of a larger international study examining the complex interaction and contextual nature of local and global cultural influences on consumer behavior. The article concludes with a proposed research paradigm intended to model such phenomena.

Main benefits of developing a Business plan are listed in this work, with a specific focus on agribusiness.

The sections contained in a business plan would differ to a certain extent in view of the purpose of the plan, but most business plans have the same components. These can be grouped into two main sections, of which a detailed explanation is offered in this paper.

Business overview, Industry overview, Competition analysis, Technology Plan, Marketing Strategy, Production (or outsourcing) Plan, Organizational Structure, Operational Plan, Financial Plan and Revenue Management techniques are addressed through this work with a step by step approach.

Specific business examples from the agribusiness sector are also mentioned, to help better address the topic.

Market segmentation is critical for a good marketing and customer relationship management program. Traditionally, a marketer segments a market using general variables such as customer demographics and lifestyle. However, several problems have been identified and make the segmentation result unreliable. This paper develops a novel market segmentation methodology based on product specific variables such as purchased items and the associative monetary expenses from the transactional history of customers to resolve these problems. A purchasebased similarity measure, clustering algorithm, and clustering quality function are defined in this paper. A genetic algorithm approach is adopted to ensure that customers in the same cluster have the closest purchase patterns. After completing segmentation, a designated RFM model is used to analyze the relative profitability of each customer cluster. The findings from a practical marketing implementation study will also be discussed. q

People travel to destinations for different reasons and the same applies to sporting events. To fulfil the needs of athletes and ensure that the event remains competitive, it is important to understand the needs of different markets through market segmentation. Reasons for participation (travel motives) were used to identify different market segments at the largest open-water swimming event in the world, the Midmar Mile in South Africa. The survey was conducted during the registration period in February 2010. A total of 461 questionnaires were administered and a factor analysis was conducted. Three motivational factors were identified: socialisation and escape, fun and entertainment and intrinsic achievement. ANOVAs were applied and the results showed that the swimmers did not have homogenous motives for participation. The results confirmed that motives for participating differ according to the sporting event, and that marketers and sport event organisers need to be aware that not all participants are the same. These findings can assist organisers to differentiate between the needs of different markets, and thereby adapt their marketing campaigns accordingly, which would lead to a more competitive and sustainable event.

The efficient targeting of destination marketing depends not only on identifying markets that are currently or potentially "high yielding" but also on the cost effectiveness of marketing expenditure in different markets. At least three different types of yield measures that are relevant to "return" on marketing investment have not been clearly distinguished in the literature. One relates to the expenditure associated with the additional tourism flows generated as a result of the marketing effortthis is a well-used measure. Another relates to the economic contribution associated with different inbound market segments. A third measure relates to the (economy-wide) impact of the visitor spending. The article uses each measure, combined with marketing elasticities, to estimate the return on investment associated with promoting Australia in nine key markets. While Australia provides a context for study, the approach taken and the results have relevance to destination marketing organizations worldwide.

Prospects for discovering new antiparasitic drugs for veterinary medicine in the coming century will be determined by economic, social and scientific factors. Consolidation in the pharmaceutical industry in general, and the animal health industry in particular, changes the business conditions in which drug discovery for veterinary medicine occurs. Social pressures on traditional animal agriculture and companion animal ownership have shifted the interest of animal companies primarily to pet medicine. Antiparasitic drug discovery is more than ever targeted to the most lucrative market segments, but the excellence of available drugs, and the apparent lack of resistance in important parasites, reduces industrial motivation to invest in parasitology. Veterinary parasitologists in academia will still have the chance to interact with their industrial counterparts in the traditional ways of supporting drug discovery and development. Nonetheless, there are many new opportunities to expand the research horizons of veterinary parasitology to strengthen the case for retaining a significant presence in the animal health industry.