Internet communication has long been known to pose a challenge to private international law and its reliance on geographical connecting factors. This article looks at the problem from the perspective of EU private international law and argues that the way in which it has been accommodated by Regulations Brussels I, Rome I, and II conflicts with some of its central paradigms. It advances an alternative approach that would generally submit claims against information society service providers established in the EU to the jurisdiction and substantive laws of their ‘country of origin’ but make certain exceptions for private persons and consumers. The article argues that implementing such an approach would require little legislative change, be more faithful to the particularities of internet communication, and give greater effect to the central paradigms of EU private international law.

The political participation of immigrants has received increased scholarly attention over recent decades. However, comparisons between the electoral behavior of immigrants in their countries of origin and of residence are still limited. This article addresses this gap in the literature and seeks to identify the determinants of Romanian immigrants' electoral participation in the local elections of four West European countries (Germany, France, Italy, and Spain) as compared to their turnout in their home country's legislative elections. Looking through the lenses of exposure theory, we hypothesize that contact with institutions, people, and values from the countries of residence are likely to have different effects in the two types of elections. We test the explanatory power of four main variables - time spent in the host country, social networks, degree of involvement in the local community, and the type of relationship with citizens of their host countries - to which we add a series of individual-level controls such as age, education, gender, and media exposure. To assess our claim, we employ binary logistic regression to analyze original web survey data collected in the summer of 2013. The result supports the empirical implications of exposure theory.

The main aim of this paper is to create an original model of correlations between the country of origin (COO), marketing mix elements and the brand name value from an external point of view of perception of the Croatian consumers. Based on the quantitative research we note the relationship between the origin of the poultry product, marketing mix elements, and the brand name value. Emphasis is placed on establishing how the origin of the product and marketing mix elements impact on the brand name value. It has been found that the origin of the product has at least such a statistically significant influence on the brand name value as the marketing mix elements. This article presents the model of conceptual relationships between the origin of the poultry product, marketing mix elements and brand name value, which was tested with a structural model of written relationships. Furthermore it presents a measuring instrument and procedures for checking the reliability and validity of the structural model of brand name value of product.

This paper uses a hypothetical choice experiment to investigate Italian consumer preferences and willingness-to-pay (WTP) for organic, conventional and genetically modified (GM)-fed beef, utilizing intrinsic, search cues (price, color and visible fat) and extrinsic, credence cues. Data are gathered from three different locations in northern, central and southern Italy using a sequential Bayesian approach. Results showed that consumers attach higher value to organic meat. WTP for GM-fed beef, which is not yet sold in Italy, is well below current conventional beef prices. Organic beef is attractive to consumers because it is associated with higher animal welfare standards and environment-related issues (food miles and biodiversity preservation). No differences are found in marginal WTP estimates by gender, age, education, being a parent or having a higher level of knowledge about organic production. Ethical/environmental issues (credence cues) appear to be more relevant in explaining variation in WTP for organic beef than ordinary product characteristics (search cues).

The aim of this paper is to ascertain the existence of differences in self-perceived health and depression between immigrants and native-born populations aged 50 years and older living in Western and Northern European countries. We examine the effect of country of origin, length of time in the host country and citizenship on the health of adults, using data from the Survey on Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE). As the logistic regressions reveal, some immigrant groups are more likely to perceive worse self-rated health and to suffer from depression than native-born groups, even when demographic and socio-economic variables are taken into account. In particular, people born in Eastern Europe living in Germany, France and Sweden have the highest odds ratio of poor health with respect to natives. Nativity status, duration and citizenship clearly contribute towards explaining health differences which are shown to vary significantly across countries. Furthermore, the perception of poor health rises as the length of stay increases, although a non-linear pattern was found. Results indicate that greater efforts by policy makers are needed in order to improve the health of specific middle-aged and older groups of immigrants in Europe.

The article investigates the importance of values of the perceived brand name from the external point of view perceived by the sample of consumers. Based on the stratified survey and the quantitative research the relationship between country of origin (COO), marketing mix elements and the perceived brand name value was noted. The emphasis is placed on establishing an impact of COO on the perceived brand name value and its impact on the latter compared to the selected marketing mix elements. The article presents the structural model of a conceptual relationship between the COO and the perceived brand name value. A measuring instrument and procedures used to check reliability and validity of the structural model of the product's perceived brand name value were developed. The conceptual model and the relationships within the model were evaluated by a modelling that used linear structural equations on the selected sample of respondents, which enabled verification of the conceptual model by empirical data.