Category Signaling and Reputation

Abstract

Publisher's copyright statement:Additional information: Use policyThe full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-pro t purposes provided that:• a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in DRO • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders.Please consult the full DRO policy for further details. Abstract. We propose that category membership can operate as a collective market signal for quality when low-quality producers face higher costs of gaining membership. The strength of membership as a collective signal increases with the sharpness of the category boundary, or contrast. Our empirical study focuses on biodynamic and organic viticulture in Alsace.

O papel dos agentes de suporte à inovação no desenvolvimento de empresas de base

“…According to many NTBFs interviewed they believe that the association to the university could be positive to their reputation, and due to this, they "use" its name, that could be considered as signaling phenomena to attain competitive advantage, which is in consonance with the literature (e.g. Skaggs and Snow, 2004;Sorenson, 2013;Negro et al, 2015) and could be considered as a way to reach competitive advantage, reducing the transaction costs for an eventual client (Williamson and Winter, 1993;Williamson, 1996). Thus, with respect to this discussion we can conclude with the third proposition:…”

“…This signals refer to purpoted actions which communicate a given positive aspect of the agent to the market (Skaggs and Snow, 2004;Sorenson, 2013;Negro et al, 2015). Thus, emitting these signals firms can increase its probability of attain the preference of customer, investors or other kind of agents in the context (Gao et al, 2016).…”

“…Felin and Zenger, 2011;Negro et al, 2015;Skaggs and Snow, 2004). In the context of NTBFs it is recent the studies which analyze the effects of information asymmetry on the development of NTBFs.…”

An overview of the biodynamic wine sector

“…36 Many winemakers claim that biodynamics increased their workload by ~30% compared to conventional viticulture, mainly due to planning, organizing and preparing precisely calibrated natural treatments for their vineyards. 26,37 It is important to highlight that the biodynamic farming system is associated with a lower yield per acre (of 20-30%) if compared to conventional technique. 26,34 In conclusion, producing a bottle of biodynamic wine costs at least 50% more, but the sale price of the bottle is not much more expensive.…”

“…26,34 In conclusion, producing a bottle of biodynamic wine costs at least 50% more, but the sale price of the bottle is not much more expensive. 37 The biodynamic certification is a multiple-step process including application and inspection; it must be renewed every year, and it represents a yearly additional cost for a biodynamic winery. It is based on a surface unit (ie, acre or hectare) and includes soil tests for traces of chemicals, checking the vineyards' health status and recording the application of compost and preparations.…”