This study investigates the influence of blockchain and smart contracts on partners' trust, increasing visibility, competitiveness, and environmental performance when implemented in manufacturing supply chains. Partial least squares (PLS) was the main method used to test and verify the research...

Recently, a Competitive Exception Learning Algorithm (CELA) was introduced [1, 2]. This algorithm establishes an optimal mapping from a (continuous) M-dimensional input sample space to an N-dimensional (continuous) output sample space. CELA is aimed to discover regimes (i.e. local behavior in...

There is growing evidence that low-quality customer service prevails in the mobile telecommunications industry. In this paper we provide theoretical support to this empirical observation by using simple game theoretical models where inefficient low-quality service levels are part of an...

Online retailing is dominated by a channel structure in which a retailer either buys products from competing manufacturers and resells to consumers (wholesale scheme) or lets manufacturers directly sell to consumers on its platform for a commission (platform scheme), and is characterized by easy...

This paper investigates the relationship between the diffusion of EU standards and product quality upgrading using highly disaggregated import data to the EU in the food industry. Results show that, on average, the diffusion of EU voluntary standards boosts the rate of quality upgrading....

We analyzed the market for indivisible, pure status goods. Firms produce and sell different brands of pure status goods to a population that is willing to signal individual abilities to potential matches in another population. Individual status is determined by the most expensive status good one...

Public and private entities around the world are trying to induce the provision of higher-quality health care by adopting institutional arrangements intended to promote competition among care providers. I selectively survey and supplement the literature to show that an increase in...

This work investigates both theoretically and empirically how the behaviour of financial analysts is affected by competition, measured as the strength of coverage of a stock from other analysts. The interaction among analysts and investors is modelled as a dynamic cheap talk game. The...

Background: General Practitioners have limited means to compete. As quality is hard to observe by patients, GPs have incentives to signal quality by using instruments patients perceive as quality.<br/>Objectives: We investigate whether GPs exhibit different prescribing behavior (volume and value of...

Background: General Practitioners have limited means to compete. As quality is hard to observe by patients, GPs have incentives to signal quality by using instruments patients perceive as quality.<br/>Objectives: We investigate whether GPs exhibit different prescribing behavior (volume and value of...