Emerging dual channel system and manufacturer's direct retail channel strategy

The Internet has led many manufacturers to add direct online retail channels to their existing offline retail networks. Using both online and offline channels, manufacturers increase their market coverage and profits by customizing their products and services for the differing needs of customer segments using separate channels. Much recent research on channel management tends to focus on pricing strategies rather than analyzing channel strategies. This paper analyzes optimal channel strategies of manufacturers when they consider online stores as their new direct online channels, and it discusses some strategic implications of these channel strategies from the perspective of consumer heterogeneity and retail services.     

低碳经济下我国网络零售业发展探究

近年来,我国网络零售业表现出了不容忽视的发展趋势,在网络零售业低碳、节能、可持续发展的消费理念下,越来越多的人开始在互联网上从事商品交易活动。网络零售业的市场空间每天都在扩增,其间蕴涵的无限商机也使其今后的发展更具潜力,如何在发挥网络零售业优势的同时,扫清其制约因素,是未来网络零售业发展的重点。     

商业银行信用卡业务发展与风险管理

回顾信用卡业务在我国的发展历程、分析信用卡业务的发展现状,不难发现中国已成为全球信用卡业务增长最快、发展潜力最大的市场。作为未来消费信贷的重要增长点,在金融行业民间资本准入制度的放开、全球化进程不断深入、移动互联快速普及的大数据时代,民间资本、外资银行对信用卡业务的广泛渗透,以及互联网金融的创新发展,必将导致国内信用卡业务参与方关系日趋复杂,信用卡市场竞争日趋激烈。因此,信用卡业务发展过程中所面临的问题及发行风险不容忽视。文中采用行为概率及效用函数的方法对信用卡消费行为进行博弈分析,应用行为分析的结果,对信用卡业务中诸如个人信用登记评估制度,发卡机构营销、审批机制和产品附加值,消费管理和奖惩制度及法律法规制定等相关问题进行了剖析,系统分析了银行信用卡发行过程中的风险,并对信用卡市场的健康发展提出了几点建议。     

Technological innovation and market turbulence: The dot-com experience

This paper explains market turbulence, such as the recent dot-com boom/bust cycle, as equilibrium industry dynamics driven by the synergy between new and existing technologies. When a major technological innovation arrives, a wave of new firms implement the innovation and enter the market. However, if the innovation complements existing technology, some new entrants later will be forced out as more and more incumbent firms succeed in adopting the innovation. It is argued that the diffusion of Internet technology among traditional brick-and-mortar firms was indeed the driving force behind the rise and fall of dot-coms as well as the sustained growth of e-commerce. Systematic empirical evidence from retail and banking industries supports the theoretical findings.     

Demand estimation and market definition for broadband Internet services

This paper analyses residential demand for Internet access in Austria with a focus on broadband Internet connections. Austria has cable network coverage of about 50% and is, therefore, a good candidate to analyse the elasticity of demand for DSL where cable is available and where it is not. We also include mobile broadband via UMTS or HSDPA in our analysis and estimate various nested logit models to derive conclusions for market definition. The estimation results suggest that demand for DSL is elastic and that cable networks are likely to be in the same market as DSL connections both at the retail and at the wholesale level. We discuss possible implications for the regulation of wholesale broadband access markets. All views expressed are solely the authors’ and do not bind RTR or the Telekom-Control-Kommission (TKK) in any way nor are they official position of RTR or TKK.     

Trade credit use and competition in the value chain

Trade credit is a major source of finance in value chains in developed and emerging economies. Despite its ubiquitous use, this is one of the first empirical studies that analyzes why the use of trade credit varies along the value chain. We argue that competition faced by firms at different stages in the value chain and enforcement mechanisms that stimulate repayment jointly determine the use of trade credit. We distinguish two dimensions of competition, that is, rivalry and customer bargaining power. Competition may stimulate firms to provide trade credit to keep customers from switching to other suppliers. Yet, high contract enforcement costs relative to the value of the transactions, reduce the willingness to offer trade credit. We find empirical evidence showing that competition does not (strongly) influence the use of trade credit in the retail market, whereas it does in the markets for wholesalers and millers. We interpret these results as suggestive evidence that the retail, wholesale and milling market segments differ in terms of the enforcement costs involved in the provision of trade credit. Rivalry at the retail market segment makes switching easy for customers, even in case of default. As enforcement of repayment in this market segment is difficult and costly, trade credit appears to be a risky and less attractive marketing instrument for retailers. In contrast, in the wholesale and milling market segment, trade credit is widespread as stakeholders know each other, making informal mechanisms effective in supporting the enforcement of trade credit repayment.     

The Role of Market Sentiment in Asset Allocations and Stock Returns

Abstract

The authors investigate the role of mutual fund flows in incorporating market sentiment into asset prices. They show that retail investors adjust their investments among mutual fund categories in response to changes in market sentiment. Consistent with sentiment-induced price pressure through fund flows, they further find that firms favored by mutual funds, such as large-cap, dividend payers, and firms with high institutional ownership are sensitive to market sentiment. The authors construct a pricing factor representing sentiment risk and find that the sentiment factor is significant in standard asset pricing models and robust to various sorting procedure.     

“互联网+再生资源回收”模式推进机制的三方演化博弈研究

随着垃圾分类政策逐步在全国范围内推行,一些企业将互联网技术与垃圾分类回收相结合,提出了“互联网+再生资源回收”的新模式,但目前该模式仍处于探索阶段,想要在全国范围内推广还有诸多问题需要解决。论文基于演化博弈论理论,构建“互联网+再生资源回收”模式下城市生活垃圾分类回收的演化博弈模型,对博弈三方行为决策进行分析以及仿真验证,研究结果表明:政府的监督成本、政府提供给垃圾分类企业和居民的财政补贴、政府对垃圾分类企业的行政处罚力度以及居民参与垃圾分类的直接收益等因素是制约三方演化博弈能否达到理想均衡状态的关键,进一步分析模型成因,并针对结果提出几点建议。     

武汉市食品连锁企业区位选择研究--以武汉双汇连锁公司的发展为例

食品零售业市场是商业企业竞争的主要场所之一。文章以双汇连锁公司在武汉的布点网络为例,从空间入手研究食品连锁企业区位选择的特征和规律,通过分析两种业态门店的分布模式与商圈结构,并结合区位竞争情况,对其未来合理化的发展布局提出了思考与建议。     

Interest rate pass-through in Morocco: Evidence from bank-level survey data

We investigate the relationship between banks’ marginal cost and retail lending rates in Morocco. The data covers the rates of new business loans for four market segments broken down by institutional sector between 2006Q2 and 2016Q4. We examine the pass-through mechanism using recently developed heterogeneous panel cointegration framework. Our findings suggest that there is a high degree of pass-through heterogeneity over bank products. The weak adjustment for short-term credit facilities and consumption loans can be explained by credit risk compensation allowing banks to reduce their exposition to systemic risks. Corporate loans are priced more competitive than household and individual entrepreneur products, suggesting that negotiation power or the competition from the borrower side matters. Overall, our results indicate that banking market contestability has improved during the last decade.     

Retail and Wholesale Margins in Successive Cournot Oligopolies

This paper studies the determination of retail and wholesale prices in successive Cournot oligopolies. It is shown that (i) the ratio of retail to wholesale margins increases (decreases, resp.) as the retail part of the market becomes less (more, resp.) competitive; (ii) the ratio of margin in one part of the market to total margin increases (decreases, resp.) as that part of the market becomes less (more, resp.) competitive; (iii) the decline in final consumer price is larger (smaller, resp.) if the entry of additional firm occurs in less (more, resp.) competitive part of the market. The results of the paper are applied to the case of third degree price discrimination.     

商业银行信用卡交叉营销管理探索

随着国内银行信用卡业务竞争的进一步加剧,传统营销方式的效率已经不能满足业务发展的需要,各家银行都积极尝试零售业务的战略转型,探索新的营销运作模式。实施信用卡交叉营销,由于可以充分利用客户资源,降低营销成本,成为商业银行加快结构转型,提升核心竞争力的必然选择。但由于信用卡业务自身特点的限制,国内商业银行信用卡交叉营销还存在不少问题,需要从内部机制、客户、渠道、产品等多个方面入手加强交叉营销的管理。     

On the Effects of Suggested Prices in Gasoline Markets

There is a widespread suspicion that suggested prices act as a focal point for individual firms when setting their prices. Oil companies announce suggested prices for gasoline stations in the Dutch retail market. We show that, compared to the gasoline spot market price, suggested prices contain additional information that explains retail price changes. We conclude that suggested prices have a horizontal coordinating effect in the sense that retail prices react to information that suggested prices contain and that is unrelated to firms’ costs (i.e., the information that firms use under normal competitive conditions).     

Deregulating Self-Regulated Shared Atm Networks

The development of shared ATM networks raises important issues of competition, cooperation and standardization. Sharing necessarily involves cooperation among competing ATM owners and card issuing financial institutions. Networks adopt rules that regulate members' pricing decisions also involve issues of standardization and competition. In particular, most networks make ATM owners sell at wholesale by mandating of interchange fees to replace retail market competition among ATM owners. Networks argue that these rules are necessary to present consumers with a standardized product instead of the chaos of the marketplace and to maintain the integrity of the complementary products offered by members. These are, of course, similar to the standardization and compatibility issues raised in other networks contexts. The paper analyzes the need for this system of fixed interchange fees and sets out a proposal to replace the current system with free market price competition by ATM owners.     

The effect of entry restrictions on price: evidence from the retail gasoline market

I exploit a change in Spanish regulations to test the effect of the relaxation of entry restrictions on the equilibrium retail price of diesel. In February 2013, a Central Government reform permitted gasoline stations to operate in industrial and commercial areas. Over the following 2-year period, this deregulation led to a high number of new market entrants in these newly designated free entry areas. By isolating markets exposed to entry and markets unaffected by new entrants, and adopting a difference-in-difference approach, results show that gasoline stations exposed to a new market entrant within a one-mile radius lower their prices by an average 1.04%. This result is significant, representing almost one fifth of the average retail margin. Additionally, the results show that the reduction in the equilibrium price is caused by the first market entrant and that the effect decreases over time.     

A structural model of cost pass-through: the case of the US yogurt retailing

We provide a structural framework for retail cost pass-through based on a neoclassical inverse demand model and retail profit maximization conditions. Unlike previous literature where game-theoretic structures are imposed on cost pass-through, our framework allows for estimating cost pass-through and the degree of market competition simultaneously. Further, our model incorporates potential cross-brand effects representing demand substitution and strategic complementarity effects. Our model supplements the traditional reduced-form approach to pass-through and is applicable in environments, where the lack of brand-level cost data renders reduced-form analysis infeasible. The empirical value of our model is illustrated in an econometric analysis of retail pass-through for national and store brand yogurt. Our results indicate that: (1) market competition has a positive impact on own-brand cost pass-through, especially for national brands, and (2) overlooking cross-brand effects results in biased own-brand pass-through estimates. Finally, we provide a graphical illustration of the relationship between cost pass-through and market competition.     

How transparency affects investment-linked insurance products

Investment-linked insurance products exhibit a series of advantages versus direct investments, such as accumulation of retirement funds, tax benefits, and waiver of premiums in the case of disability. However, they are perceived as more complex and difficult compared to plain investments. Consequently, there is a need for disclosures, so that retail investors - insured can make well-informed decisions. Such disclosures have so far been uncoordinated. The EU has identified the need for uniform transparency rules in the packaged retail and insurance-based investment products market. The EU made an effort to enhance protection for investors - insured via a regulation effective in 2017. Such an effort is expected to restore retail investor confidence lost in the aftermath of the crisis. In this paper we attempt to quantify the effect of the existing transparency rules in the various member states to have an indication of what to expect as soon as the new uniform rules are implemented. We use customer satisfaction and trust so as to measure the effect of transparency. We find that increased transparency positively affects both measures.     

Regulation and Access Pricing: Comparison of Regulated Regimes

The statutory duties of regulators of British utilities include both the encouragement of competition and protection of consumers (through price caps). Competition depends on the terms on which new entrants can gain access to the monopolist's network. Where the incumbent in the retail market also owns the network, the regulator may determine prices in the capped and access markets separately or may make the price cap explicitly dependent on entry in the uncapped market. Contrary to the received wisdom that access charges should be separately regulated we show that higher welfare can be obtained in some circumstances by allowing the incumbent to determine access charges. This is achieved by permitting the incumbent to choose from a menu of retail prices which the regulator makes conditional on the extent of entry in the retail market.     

商业银行个人信贷信用评分模型的构建与应用

面对全球经济、金融一体化的现实背景以及随之而来的白热化竞争态势,个人信贷业务将是我国银行业目前及未来发展的关键领域。为此,文章首先从借款人、贷款方案、贷款投向和风险缓释四个要素出发,构建了一套产品水平的信用评分模型的整体分析框架,并将该框架具体应用于个人住房贷款产品;在此基础上,考虑到我国银行业的发展现状与评分模型的可实施性,设计了一个根据专家判断法的评分结果和定量模型法的评分结果进行相互校验的混合型个人住房贷款信用评分模型,并基于所收集的某股份制商业银行的样本贷款数据进行了部分验证工作,同时指出下一步的研究方向。     

区域经济系统互联网化转型能力研究

当前,引导经济系统适应互联网化的经济发展环境,是构建区域经济增长新动力、促进经济持续健康发展的重要问题,而剖析和评价经济系统的互联网转型能力是破解这一问题的关键。基于区域经济增长理论视角,从信息基础、市场供给、市场消费和创新共享4个维度,建立区域经济系统互联网化转型能力评价指标体系,采用模糊综合评价模型,评价和分析互联网经济发展环境下菱形经济圈核心城市经济系统的适应和发展能力。研究发现,观测城市转型发展能力的非均质化空间分布趋势明显,而信息服务能力、市场驱动力和创新能力仍是该区域适应互联网发展环境亟待解决的问题。