Claudio Aqueveque

Entrepreneurship at the Periphery: Exploring Framework Conditions in Core and Peripheral Locations

This paper reports the findings of the first academic study in Latin America, and one of the few in any emerging economy, to explore entrepreneurial perceptions and activity in peripheral geographic locations. A survey of experts included 139 respondents from three peripheral regions and two core regions in Chile. A key finding is that those located at the periphery perceived critical entrepreneurial resources and access to markets less favorably than their counterparts at the core, but surprisingly, they perceived greater business opportunity in their area. A further survey of 2,200 respondents concerning actual entrepreneurial activities among the total adult population revealed no differences between peripheral and core regions. This study revives the debate about specific regional policies for fostering the growth of local business, and the entrepreneurial framework conditions required at the regional level in emerging economies.

Producer–Consumer Misalignment as a Possible Cause for New Food Failure: Empirical Evidence From Chile

Literature on new food products development agrees on the importance of gaining knowledge about consumer tastes and preferences as a way to increase new product success. However, the failure rate of new food introductions continues to be high. In economies with a highly developed retail system, retailers and other market players create an information and communication barrier between the producer and the consumer. Consequently, the development of new products becomes difficult in such conditions, since misalignments between producers and consumers are more likely to occur. To investigate the issue, we interviewed producers of Chilean companies in the blueberry, plum, and wine industries and concluded that their product design was based on assumptions about consumers’ preferences and on the observed market response to competitors’ products. To test if these assumptions were correct, we compared them to consumer preferences. Results showed that producers’ assumptions about consumer preferences differ significantly from actual consumers’ preferences.

Intention to Try Unfamiliar Food: The Role of Level and Type of Unfamiliarity, Food Neophobia, and Ethnocentrism

The present work is focused in some aspects of the adoption process of unfamiliar foods. We make a distinction for the concept of unfamiliar food based on consumers’ degree of knowledge of the ingredients, therefore, we categorize unfamiliar food in two different types: unknown food (unknown ingredients) and novelty combination food (known ingredients combined in a novel or unusual way). Based on this distinction, we analyze the effect of this different source of food unfamiliarity on the intention to try it, considering personal traits such as food neophobia and consumer ethnocentrism. Our results show that the degree of food unfamiliarity has a higher impact on intention to try in consumers with low levels of consumer ethnocentrism, and that type of unfamiliarity moderates the effect of level of unfamiliarity on intention to try only in consumers with high level of consumer ethnocentrism.

Tourism Destination Competitiveness of Chile: A Stakeholder Perspective

ABSTRACT Chile is increasingly becoming an important tourist destination market in South America. However, there has been limited research that considers the perspective of stakeholders involved in developing competitiveness for a tourist destination from an emerging market. The purpose of this research is to explore the main features and requirements of destination competitiveness, as well as the main drivers and inhibitors of the competitiveness of Chile as a tourist destination from a stakeholder perspective. A qualitative case study research involved in-depth, semi-structured personal interviews with key stakeholders of the tourism industry in Chile (both private and public sectors). The research findings identify specific competitiveness factors and the scope of influence of each in the development of a tourist destination in an emerging South American market. The findings of this study are useful for national government tourism boards, public policy-makers, local tourism businesses, travel intermediaries and the host community.