Gabriela Ribes-Giner

Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) in Latin America: Who Should Finance the Entrepreneurial Ventures of the Less Privileged?

The purpose of this paper is to study the relationship of the so-called microfinance in the entrepreneurial activity of small business entrepreneurs. To do this, the activity of microfinance institutions in Latin America is analysed, as a higher degree of this kind of activity has been reached in this continent. To this end, the current paper analyses the granting of small loans to micro-entrepreneurs who, due to the economic conditions in their countries, can not find jobs and decide to start their own small businesses or micro-enterprises to improve their own and their families standard of living. These entrepreneurs, lacking financial resources, are left outside the conventional banking system as such operations are too risky and expensive to be profitable. Therefore, microcredits stand as an alternative that prevents them from relying on predatory lenders whose extremely high interest rates do not allow to start new projects. This improvement is especially significant in the case of women.

The Impact of Cocreation on the Student Satisfaction: Analysis through Structural Equation Modeling

The objective of this study is to apply the cocreation initiative as a marketing tool in the context of university undergraduate programs. Considering that cocreation is a practice that involves stakeholders in different phases of product production or service, this research analyzes the interactions between some of the factors during the cocreation process as students collaborate with the university. These factors are participation, communication, cocreation, and satisfaction, and this study focuses on how they fuse together at the moment of cocreation. After a literature review, which supplied the basis for creating a model, we used exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling to validate the hypothesized relations between the variables; finally, the proposed cocreation model was verified. The results could empower academic institutions to develop managerial strategies in order to increase students’ collaboration and satisfaction.

Influence of candidate qualities and previous president performance in voting intentions

This article aims to measure empirically the influence of the main variables affecting the voting intention of the electorate, taking as reference the polls result obtained in the previous months of the 2008 American General Elections, which are provided by the American National Election Studies. Our research is an approach to political marketing with causal methodology, for that purpose structural equation methodology is used, confirming some concepts such as the personalization of politics, main pillar of the current political marketing strategies and the retrospective voting.

Greenbranding practices for a company of phytosanitary ecological products

The aim of this work is to examine the practices of greenbranding for a Phytosanitary Company today. For it we have used the methodology of benchmarking, comparing the company with his competitors in the sector. Across Green Brandings integral program the brand won in solidity and coherence helping to differ from the rest, strengthening furthermore his green brand image. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4995/ICBM.2015.1343

Co-creation Innovation Model for Masters Programs in the Universities

The purpose of this study is to offer a model that facilitates innovation for postgraduate institutions as they develop masters under the concept of co-creation innovation and its necessary proactive market orientation. First, we provide a comprehensive literature review related to “universities” and “innovation for higher education institutions” and the “co-creation innovation” paradigm. Second, we use the Delphi technique to further validate the analysis of literature and develop a model that facilitates innovation for postgraduate institutions for their postgraduate programs, under the concept of co-creation which integrates the different stakeholders which participate in this process, university staff and teachers, adult students, and employers. Finally, we highlight that such a model has the ability to provide different ways to facilitate the innovation process in a coherent way and help universities to find a differentiation strategy and to be much more adapted to the needs of companies and adult students. Through a comprehensive literature review of the concepts of proactive market orientation for educational innovation and co-creation innovation, we have created a framework for improving the innovation among those institutions for this particular segment of postgraduate students. This tool has the potential to facilitate the interaction among customers, companies, universities, and all stakeholders under the co-creating innovation paradigm.