María Laura Mediza Romero, Mariana von Staszewski and María Julia Martínez
The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the effect of green tea polyphenols addition on physicochemical, microbiological and bioactive characteristics of yogurt.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the effect of green tea polyphenols addition on physicochemical, microbiological and bioactive characteristics of yogurt.
Design/methodology/approach
Two incorporation methods of polyphenols were evaluated: direct addition or incorporated within protein particles of whey protein concentrate and gelatin. During yogurt’s shelf life, structure characteristics (water holding capacity, textural and rheological parameters), lactic acid bacteria (LAB) viability and polyphenols antioxidant activity were analyzed. Also, polyphenol bioaccesibility after in vitro digestion was evaluated.
Findings
Polyphenols addition (by the two methods used) did not affect the dynamics of the fermentation process, nor the LAB viability during storage. The color parameter a* for the yogurts with the highest polyphenol concentrations showed positive values (tending to red), but not visible to the naked eye. Because of the ability of polyphenols to interact with milk proteins, yogurts with polyphenols presented higher values in firmness and cohesiveness with respect to the control. Additionally, the incorporation of polyphenols in protein particles increased even more these parameters because of the higher protein content of these formulations. After simulated digestion, a high polyphenol bioaccesibility was observed, and the antioxidant activity was retained, which could be explained by the “protector” effect of the milk matrix.
Practical implications
Yogurt supplementation with green tea polyphenols is feasible for the development of functional food. However, the use of protein particles would not provide an extra benefit because milk proteins already act as protective molecules of polyphenols.
Originality/value
This study shows not only the physico-chemical implications of including polyphenols in yogurt but also their bioaccesibility after an in vitro digestion, revealing a suitable manner for delivery of antioxidants in a dairy product like yogurt.
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Fernando García-Monleón, Elena González-Rodrigo and María-Julia Bordonado-Bermejo
The purpose of this research is to investigate the differences between financial crises of fear and confidence and the differential behavior between downtrends and recovery.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this research is to investigate the differences between financial crises of fear and confidence and the differential behavior between downtrends and recovery.
Design/methodology/approach
Five national stock markets have been analyzed – the USA (SP500), China (Hang Seng), Spain (IBEX 35), Japan (Nikkei) and Germany (DAX) – through the evolution of three world economic crises: the mortgage bubble crisis of 2007 in the first place, with special attention to the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers, which will be treated as an independent crisis process, and the crisis caused by COVID-19. The behavioral finance theory, with the support of the complexity theory in the field of risk management, will establish the different behavioral biases that explain the differences between the two types of crises, fear and confidence, when confronted with risk.
Findings
Economic crises resulting from a shocking event, addressed as crises of fear in this research, such as Lehman Brothers or COVID-19, are fast-moving; all the economies analyzed show a common pattern of evolution. The difference is found in the recovery periods in which the previous parallelism does not continue. Crisis events that arise from a social context, addressed as crises of trust in this research, follow similar patterns in their evolution; nonetheless, the start date presents higher variations than those originated by a shock. These crises also lack parallelism between fall and recovery.
Practical implications
Understanding crisis process patterns may help to prevent them and alleviate their effects when they occur.
Originality/value
Understanding crisis process patterns may help to prevent them and alleviate their effects when they occur. This constitutes an original field of research.
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Maria Laura Victória Marques, Daniel de Abreu Pereira Uhr and Julia Ziero Uhr
This paper aims to identify the income and price elasticities of demand for residential electricity in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) and to verify their main determinants.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to identify the income and price elasticities of demand for residential electricity in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) and to verify their main determinants.
Design/methodology/approach
Meta-analysis and meta-regression methods were applied. After collecting and filtering journal articles, the authors obtained a sample composed of 76 studies covering 1979–2020.
Findings
The results show that the LAC's income elasticity is approximately 0.20 and 0.92 for the short and long term, respectively. The LAC's price elasticity is approximately −0.37 and −0.46 for the short and long term, respectively. Furthermore, the estimates are affected by the data structure, the estimation method used and the sampling period.
Originality/value
The authors close a gap in the literature by analyzing the price and income elasticities of demand through meta-analysis and meta-regression.
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This chapter explores an aspect of voluntary childlessness that has been neglected in previous research; how voluntarily childless (i.e. childfree) women engage in partnership…
Abstract
This chapter explores an aspect of voluntary childlessness that has been neglected in previous research; how voluntarily childless (i.e. childfree) women engage in partnership formation processes and how they perceive that these processes become influenced by their voluntarily childless status. Drawing on interviews with 21 voluntarily childless, heterosexual, Swedish women, this chapter highlights how their childfree decision(s) impacted their partnering behaviour, their chances to form an intimate relationship and their preferences concerning partners and partnerships. The results show some of the challenges these women faced as they engaged in partnership formation processes concerning; for example, constraints in partner availability and potentially conflicting preferences regards autonomy, reproduction and intimacy. In addition, partnership formation was complicated due to a lack of communication, misunderstandings and disbelief in their childfree choices. The analysis illustrates that it was of utmost importance to these women that their intimacy goals were respected and protected during these processes but that some of them were also willing to negotiate their partner ideal. Nevertheless, this chapter ends with a discussion of relationship dissolution due to ambivalence concerning childfree choices and intimacy goals both on behalf of the childfree woman and her partner.
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Dolores Romero López and José Luis Bueren Gómez-Acebo
Studies of Spanish literature during the late nineteenth century and the first one-third of the twentieth century are evolving from research on canonical writers to the study of…
Abstract
Purpose
Studies of Spanish literature during the late nineteenth century and the first one-third of the twentieth century are evolving from research on canonical writers to the study of “odd and forgotten” authors, themes and genres during what is now called the Other Silver Age. This paper aims to focus on the work undertaken in the field of literary translation by the women writers of this period.
Design/methodology/approach
Mnemosyne is an open-access digital library that allows data modeling for specific collections (women translators, science fiction, etc.) in support of research and teaching on Silver Age Spain. The first version of the library is stored on the server at the Universidad Complutense Library, and it is linked to the collections of the digital library HathiTrust and Biblioteca Nacional de España. Behind the scenes of Mnemosyne’s public presence online, the project is developing with the aid of the tool Clavy which is a rich internet application that is able to import, preserve and edit information from big data collections of digital objects so as to build bridges between institutional and digital repositories and create collections of enriched digital content. See:http://repositorios.fdi.ucm.es/mnemosine/queesmnemosine.php
Findings
The Collection Women Translators in Spain (1868-1936) inside Mnemosyne selects, categorizes and makes visible in digital format women translators and literary translations that belong to a forgotten repertoire to allow the historical review of the period. The digital collection of Spanish Women Translators pretends to be a field of international experimentation for the creation of interoperable semantic networks through which a large group of scholars could generate innovative research and theoretical reading models for literary texts. See:http://repositorios.fdi.ucm.es/mnemosine/colecciones.php
Research limitations/implications
Clavy also provides a basic system of data visualization, edition and navigation. There are plans to integrate @Note, a collaborative annotation application, into Clavy. These two computational tools were developed by the software languages research group ILSA[1] at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid.
Practical implications
Its been followed NEWW Women Writers’ categories concerning biographical categories as successful standard for ensuring interoperability in the near future: children, marital status, social class, religion, profession and other activities, financial aspects, memberships. See:http://repositorios.fdi.ucm.es/mnemosine/ver_documento.php?documento=208369
Social implications
These women also showed their interest in the writings of contemporary women by translating their works into Spanish or glossing foreign ideas about how the modern woman should be, think or behave. This digital collection shows the first steps of the intellectual women in the South of Europe.
Originality/value
To incorporate specially tailored metadata for the women translators’ collection into Mnemosyne, it will be necessary to use of Clavy’s extensibility to account for the particularities of the women translators’ collection. This is where prior knowledge of this literature’s historical and cultural context proves indispensable. In particular, the specific metadata model for the women translators’ collection incorporates elements that reflect the literary, historical and cultural characteristics of the collections.
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Julia Nieves and Gonzalo Diaz-Meneses
The purpose of this paper is to analyze the influence of knowledge resources on marketing innovation and the way learning capability mediates this relationship. In addition, it…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to analyze the influence of knowledge resources on marketing innovation and the way learning capability mediates this relationship. In addition, it evaluates the effect of marketing innovation on the financial performance of hotel firms.
Design/methodology/approach
Data from a survey conducted in companies that operate hotel establishments are analyzed using structural equation modelling (SEM). The SEM technique makes it possible to evaluate the multiple and intersected relationships existing among the variables under study.
Findings
Collective knowledge has a direct influence on marketing innovation and an indirect effect through the learning capability, but the influence of the knowledge held by individuals on marketing innovation is exercised through the learning capability. In turn, both the learning capability and marketing innovation favor the financial performance of hotel firms.
Research limitations/implications
The study shows that intangible resources play an important role in achieving marketing innovation and financial performance. Because the hospitality industry is composed of firms with different characteristics, it would be relevant to confirm the model in other hospitality businesses. Future studies could analyze possible links between marketing innovation and other types of performance.
Practical implications
Hotel firms can reach higher performance levels if they invest in developing the employees’ knowledge and, fundamentally, in fomenting a higher level of collective knowledge related to the business environment in general. Likewise, the learning capability plays a relevant role in achieving performance in hotels firms.
Originality/value
To date, studies on innovation in the field of hospitality have mainly focused on developing new services, while other types of innovation, such as marketing innovation, have taken a backseat. Likewise, the hospitality literature has paid little attention to knowledge assets. This study deals with both topics, analyzing knowledge resources and the learning capability as possible antecedents of marketing innovation activities. Furthermore, the effect of marketing innovation on the firm’s performance is evaluated.