PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of ISO 9000 certification on three dimensions of firm performance that are theoretically derived to have a relationship with the adoption of ISO 9000 standards, namely, sales revenue, cost of goods sold/sales revenue, and the asset turnover ratio (sales/total assets).Design/methodology/approachEmploying a panel data approach covering all publicly traded companies in Brazil that had adopted the ISO 9000 standards from 1995 to 2006, the authors investigate the impact of the certification on firm performance using three categories of economic regression models: the pooling of cutting data with ordinary least squares, the fixed effects and the random effects.FindingsISO 9000 certification is found to be associated with an increase in sales revenues, decrease in cost of goods sold/sales revenue and increase in the asset turnover ratios of the certified firms.Research limitations/implicationsThe research findings suggest that companies large or small, irrespective of their capital structure (i.e. debt/equity) and cutting across industries will benefit from the adoption of ISO 9000 standards. However, the extent to which firms benefit from such adoption is likely to vary. Moreover, the generalizability of the research findings is limited by the size of the sample.Originality/valueThe paper's chief contribution lies in the validation of the signaling theory in the context of business organizations and extending the domain of research on this topic to emerging markets generally.

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Há pouca literatura sobre vieses relacionados ao processo de escolha em decisões de consumo. Um desses vieses é o da ancoragem, isto é, a adoção de um referencial, lógico ou não, que direciona a escolha dos indivíduos. Este artigo tem por objetivo identificar e analisar os efeitos da ancoragem no processo decisório dos consumidores em relação à percepção e à estimação dos preços de produtos e serviços. Foi conduzido um experimento com os alunos de graduação da Faculdade de Economia, Administração e Contabilidade da Universidade de São Paulo. O modelo do experimento envolveu três grupos de uma mesma população. O grupo de calibragem gerou estimativas sobre o preço de produtos e serviços sem nenhuma menção a âncoras. Os outros dois grupos desenvolveram estimativas após julgarem uma âncora selecionada a partir da distribuição das estimativas do grupo de calibragem. Verificou-se que os referenciais com valores menores ancoram mais fortemente a opinião dos consumidores. Esses resultados trazem relevantes implicações para a definição de políticas de preços nas empresas de varejo brasileiras. Sinteticamente, este trabalho indica que as técnicas tradicionais de precificação não esgotam as possibilidades de políticas de preços.

Purpose -The central objective of this research was to analyze the moderating role of chronic regulatory focus in impulse consumption when individuals are exhausted of self-control energies (ego depletion). In addition, we sought to examine the relationship between regulatory adjustment and the affective and cognitive processes of impulse decision making.Design/methodology/approach -The study was performed through an experiment. Data analysis was done using the Johnson-Neyman floodlight technique, which is recommended when the independent variable is continuous, so as not to transform it into a dichotomous variable, thus avoiding the loss of information.Findings -The results provide evidence that individuals with a profile of being vigilant about impulse decisions (focus on prevention), that is, with greater self-control in their decisions, end up spending more self-control energy than individuals who do not have this concern (focus on promotion), resulting in higher impulse consumption.Originality/value -The main contribution is a counterintuitive result that individuals who should be better prepared to withstand impulse consumption, with greater self-control, end up consuming more on impulse because they expend more energy in an attempt to control themselves.

PurposeThe paper aims to evaluate the relative importance of various factors that influenced the flow of foreign direct investment (FDI) into Brazil in recent years. Analysis of empirical data indicates that evolution of the consumer market and strength of consumer sales are more important in explaining capital movements into Brazil than other frequently offered explanations such as exchange rates and country risk.Design/methodology/approachThe paper uses two‐stage least squares regression to estimate the coefficients of a system of simultaneous equations relating FDI flows into Brazil to various influential factors.FindingsThe results indicate that internal market growth represented by aggregate consumer sales was a significant determinant of FDI into Brazil. Increase in interest rate on consumer financing was negatively related and the attractiveness of the Brazilian market had no impact on FDI flows during the captioned period.Research limitations/implicationsWhile factors such as inflation and exchange rates might be more important for smaller, less stable markets, in the case of larger emerging markets such as Brazil, multi‐national firms might be less concerned with short‐term fluctuations and more guided by internal market growth that affords greater opportunities to achieve economies of scale and scope.Practical implicationsThe findings suggest that policy planners in big emerging markets should try to stimulate their internal markets rather than tweak fiscal and monetary policies to attract FDI.Originality/valueThe paper extends and expands the knowledge of international capital flows and provides a more nuanced understanding of the importance of internal market dynamism in attracting FDI into emerging markets.