Amparo Baviera-Puig

Innovation policy, services and internationalisation: the role of technology centres

Globalisation compels firms to undertake internationalisation strategies in different ways. Recent research explains that part of a firms international potential depends upon its networks. Technology centres play a key role in these networks: they belong to the territorial innovation system and supply knowledge-intensive services. The empirical evidence contained here shows a positive association between the use of services provided by technology centres and exportation, especially in the case of firms operating in R&D-intensive sectors.

Comparing trade areas of technology centres using ‘Geographical Information Systems’

Advances in geographical information systems have contributed to location and marketing design strategies on the part of retailers. The techniques used in this field are based on delimiting trade areas and spatial analysis. The same approach is applied in this study to technology centres, which are considered as suppliers of knowledge-intensive services to their associated firms. The research objective focuses on analysing the spatial distribution of firms associated with two technology centres from different sectors. The results indicate that firms associated with a technology centre present spatial patterns that are similar to those observed in retailing, while significant differences were also found between the two technology centres used for the study.

Trade areas and knowledge‐intensive services: the case of a technology centre

Purpose – This study aims to analyse the provision of knowledge‐intensive services (KIS) by technology centres based on approaches used in the literature on trade areas.Design/methodology/approach – The techniques employed derive from the literature on trade areas (customer spotting and ring studies) and spatial analysis (nearest neighbour analysis, Ripleys K statistic and median centre).Findings – The research demonstrates that there is a geographic factor in the distribution of firms associated with a technology centre and some of their characteristics depend on their proximity to such a centre. Trade areas are determined and access facilities are detected. It has also been observed how geographic proximity is coupled with functional (sector) factors in the firm‐technology centre relationship.Practical implications – These findings may contribute towards strategies for locating technology centres, and may be extended to future centre networks and to the development of more efficient marketing strategie...

Consumer profile analysis for different types of meat in Spain

It is important to analyse the consumer profile of each type of meat to better adapt the marketing mix to each one. To this end, we examined the average consumption frequency of different types of meat based on two methodologies: consumer segmentation using the food-related lifestyle (FRL) framework, giving rise to 4 segments, and analysis of socio-demographic profiles. The variables used were: sex, age, educational level, social class, number of people in the household, presence of children younger than 18 in the home, geographical area and habitual residence. Beef was the only meat type significant in both analyses. Turkey meat only appeared as significant in the FRL analysis. The other meats (chicken, pork, rabbit and lamb) were only significant in the sociodemographic variables analysis. From the outcomes we may conclude that there is no single consumer profile, which rather depends on the type of meat.

Assessing food retail competitors with a multi-criteria GIS-based method

Given the importance of competition in the retail sector, this research builds on spatial interaction theory to develop the competition index (CI). For this, geographic information systems (GIS) and the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) were used. AHP results reveal that key factors to assess competitors relate to location and branding. The proposed method was tested by evaluating 45 supermarkets in the city of Castellon (Spain). Using this method, sales targets can be adapted to each outlet’s individual circumstances.

Strategies to assess generic skills for different types of students

The Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV) has synthesized a profile to be acquired by all the students based on 13 generic skills. For its assessment, the UPV has also developed a rubric for every skill depending on the level of the course. In this research, we develop an educational innovation for validating the rubrics for 3 of the 13 generic skills specified by the UPV. The chosen skills are: “Ability to think practically and apply knowledge in practical situations”, “Innovation, creativity and entrepreneurship ability” and “Teamwork and leadership ability”. To do this, we develop the same methodology in two groups (Morning/English) of the same course (Marketing Research of the Degree of Business Administration and Management of the Faculty of Business Administration and Management at the UPV) with significantly different student profiles. The assessment results of the skills reveal that there are no significant differences between groups. In conclusion, we could say that the rubrics developed by the UPV are adequate to assess all types of students: Erasmus or non-erasmus, working or having worked in the last 2 years or without work experience, and regardless of their satisfaction with the course.

Estrategias de evaluación para las competencias transversales CT-02, CT-04 y CT-06

En esta innovacion educativa, pretendemos verificar las rubricas desarrolladas por la Universitat Politecnica de Valencia para las siguientes competencias transversales: CT-02 (Aplicacion y pensamiento practico), CT-04 (Innovacion, creatividad y emprendimiento) y CT-06 (Trabajo en equipo y liderazgo). Para ello, desarrollamos la misma metodologia en dos grupos con perfiles de estudiantes diferentes (Mananas/ARA). Los resultados de evaluacion de las competencias revelan que no hay diferencias significativas entre grupos. Como conclusion, podriamos decir que las rubricas son adecuadas para evaluar a todo tipo de estudiante.

Geomarketing models in supermarket location strategies

AbstractChoosing where to open a new outlet is a critical decision for retail firms. Building on the multiplicative competitive interaction model from retail location theory, this paper develops a geomarketing model that can be used to devise supermarket location strategies. First, attributes that explain a supermarket’s pull on consumers were determined. These attributes included objective (taken from databases and empirical observation) and subjective (based on managerial judgements) variables relating to the supermarket and its trade area. Then, geographic information system tools were used to analyse real data at a highly detailed level (road section). From a geomarketing viewpoint, the model shows that sociodemographic characteristics of the supermarket’s trade area affect firms’ location strategies. The paper also discusses improvements for calibrating and validating this model. Adding the spatial organization of supermarkets to the model yields a different consumer behaviour pattern. This geomarket...