The influence of sharing versus self-use on the preference for different types of promotional offers

Sharing, which refers to giving something you have to someone else, is one of the most ubiquitous forms of human behavior in the world. Everyone experiences it in various situations, including buying food. Nonetheless, although buying something to share with others is quite common in our daily lives, most consumer research on buying focuses on the condition of “self-use” rather than “sharing.” The main purpose of this study is to investigate the influence of promotional offers on consumers' purchase decisions when buying food for self-use/sharing with others. The authors conducted four experiments to answer the main research questions. The results indicated that consumers prefer “price discounts” over “bonus packs” when the shopping task relates to self-use due to their concern about “loss reduction.” In contrast, they prefer bonus packs over price discounts when the shopping task relates to sharing with others because of their focus on “extra gains.” In addition, consumers’ perceived responsibility is a moderator. When perceived responsibility is low and the purchase is for self-use (sharing with others), price discounts (bonus pack) are favored over bonus packs (price discounts). However, when perceived responsibility is high, consumer preference to promotional offers are not significant different either in self-use or sharing with others condition. It seems that role of responsibility is influential when the shopping task relates to self-use. This study not only contributes to a deeper understanding of consumer psychology but will also be beneficial to practitioners in designing effective promotional strategies that consider motives for food shopping.     

Identifying emergence process of group panic buying behavior under the COVID-19 pandemic

The sudden COVID-19 caused frequent incidents of large-scale material panic buying, resulting in imbalance in supply and demand of goods and threatening social stability. It is of great significance to analyze the formation of group panic buying and help alleviate such action. This paper takes the panic buying phenomenon as the research target, quantifies the internal and external factors affecting individual buying behavior, restores the selection process of individual buying behavior, and constructs the emergence model of group panic buying behavior by using the idea of cluster dynamics. Through simulations, we find that: (1) The epidemic information intensity has a significant impact on the emergence of group rush buying behavior. (2) Government intervention plays a significant role in reducing the scale of group rush buying. Besides, the effects of intervention reach the best before people who do not participate in rush buying disappear. In addition, we also discuss the impact, limitations and future research directions.     

Buying Norwegian Salmon: A Cross-Cultural Study of Store Choice Behavior

This article examines antecedents of store choice behavior in a cross-cultural context (i.e., 1.296 consumers in Sweden, Italy, and China). Chinese culture has a significant downward impact on choosing super-/hypermarkets and an upward impact on choosing fish shops when buying salmon. Italian consumers have a positive impact on the fish shop option, but a negative impact on the street market option. If consumers prefer salmon and think it is luxurious and sophisticated and not a “value for money”-item, the probability of choosing super-/hypermarkets increase. Opposite scores, increase the probability of choosing fish shops. Research and managerial implications are drawn.     

浙江顺联网络科技有限公司董事长郭洪安:互联网的一次“责任大考”

2019年10月27日的武汉,微风、晴朗,那一天是军运会闭幕的日子,整座城市热烈且闪着高光。郭洪安的那一天也是在武汉度过的,他作为社交电商企业的领军人物,出席了一个在那里举行的天使投资峰会。几天后,他从天河国际机场离开武汉,从飞机舷窗回望,有点感慨:“这座城市真的是鲜活热闹、江湖豪迈。”     

三方博弈情景下品牌真实性的提升策略研究

为了研究品牌真实性的提升,通过构建政府、企业、消费者的三方博弈模型,分析提升品牌真实性的过程中博弈主体各方的变量影响关系、策略选择,并用Matlab模拟仿真三方博弈行为的相互演化过程。研究发现,在监督、惩罚、品牌价值提升等因素的作用下,当公众参与水平较高且达到一定水平时,会推动政府及企业积极实施品牌真实性策略,博弈主体三方的策略选择在演化过程中彼此相互影响。     

家庭财富与城镇居民创业行为研究

企业家创业活动在经济和社会发展中发挥着重要作用,本文从家庭财富的视角研究我国城镇居民的创业问题。利用CHIPS2008年数据研究发现:家庭财富越多,城镇居民选择创业的概率越高,即创业过程中存在流动性约束。通过选取更为外生的财富衡量指标以及引入工具变量两种方法缓解潜在的内生性问题后,研究结论依旧稳健。进一步区分财富对不同类型创业活动的异质性影响发现,财富显著提高了城镇居民选择“自雇型”创业的概率,但对选择“雇主型”创业影响较小或不存在显著的影响。考虑到截面数据对财富与创业行为关系的识别可能存在一定的局限性,本文进一步引入CFPS面板数据,利用面板固定效应模型对两者之间的关系进行稳健性检验。本文的研究结论可为政府优化金融环境,缓解信贷约束,促进居民创业行为提供依据。     

Dynamic impact of negative public sentiment on agricultural product prices during COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significantly negative impact on public sentiment, which has resulted in panic and some irrational buying behavior, which in turn has had a complex impact on agricultural product prices. This study quantified online negative sentiment using micro-blog text mining and a time-varying parameter vector autoregressive model (TVP-VAR) to empirically analyze the dynamic impact of negative public emotions on agricultural product prices during the COVID-19 pandemic in China. It was found that the online negative sentiment impacted agricultural products prices during COVID-19 and had significant time-varying, lag, and life cycle characteristics, with the responses being most significant in the spread and recession periods. Differences were found in the price responses for different agricultural products and in different risk areas. The online negative sentiment was found to have the greatest impact on vegetable prices, with livestock products and vegetable prices being mainly positively impacted, fruit prices being mainly negatively impacted, and aquatic product prices being negatively impacted in the early stage and positively impacted in the middle and late stages. The online negative sentiment had the greatest impact on medium-risk area agricultural product prices, followed by low-risk areas, with the lowest impact found on the high-risk area agricultural product prices. Three policy suggestions for epidemic monitoring, public opinion guidance and control, and the timely release of agricultural product information are given based on the results.     

OPTIMAL STOCK SELLING/BUYING STRATEGY WITH REFERENCE TO THE ULTIMATE AVERAGE

We are concerned with the optimal decision to sell or buy a stock in a given period with reference to the ultimate average of the stock price. More precisely, we aim to determine an optimal selling (buying) time to maximize (minimize) the expectation of the ratio of the selling (buying) price to the ultimate average price over the period. This is an optimal stopping time problem which can be formulated as a variational inequality problem. The problem gives rise to a free boundary that corresponds to the optimal selling (buying) strategy. We provide a partial differential equation approach to characterize the free boundary (or equivalently, the optimal selling (buying) region). It turns out that the optimal selling strategy is bang‐bang, which is the same as that obtained by Shiryaev, Xu, and Zhou taking the ultimate maximum of the stock price as benchmark, whereas the optimal buying strategy can be a feedback one subject to the type of averaging and parameter values. Moreover, by a thorough characterization of free boundary, we reveal that the bang‐bang optimal selling strategy heavily depends on the assumption that no time‐vesting restrictions are imposed. If a time‐vested stock is considered, then the optimal selling strategy can also be a feedback one. In terms of a similar analysis developed by the present paper, the same phenomenon can be proved when taking the ultimate maximum as benchmark.     

The linking pin role in organizational buying centers

The buying center concept has been widely accepted in the organizational buying behavior literature. Nevertheless, the application of the concept in empirical investigations has been limited in scope. Most research has examined either the composition of the buying center or the influence processes operating within it. The intraorganizational dynamics (among members of the buying center) and the interorganizational dynamics (between buying center members and outside organizations) have been ignored in buying center research. Common to these two sets of relationships is the presence of a “linking pin” or “boundary role” person.The purposes of this paper are twofold. The first is to suggest the concept of the “linking pin” role in a buying center and to highlight the conceptual importance of this role in furthering the understanding and prediction of organizational buying processes and outcomes. Explication of this role should also lead to an enriched conceptualization of the relationships between the buying and selling organizations. The second objective is to report on the results of some initial empirical investigations into the role of a designated linking pin in hospital buying centers. These results offer preliminary evidence of the value of the linking pin concept.     

Neighbourhood influences on organic buying

Past studies have explained organic buying as a function of sociodemographic or attitudinal consumer's traits and/or as a result of marketing influences. However, in view of mounting evidence of social effects on sustainable consumption, this paper aims to enrich our understanding of the determinants of organic demand by introducing neighbourhood effects in buying models; in particular, using scanner data from Nielsen household panelists of 2012–2013, this study tests the influence on demand of both structural variables (collapsed into a factor labelled “neighbourhood class”) and geographical location of a household, controlling for the influence of household characteristics and other marketing‐related influences (e.g., price). This paper concludes that structural class, rather than household class, positively influences organic milk purchasing. It also shows that relative class can also explain the likelihood of organic buying.     

个别化价格歧视的规制难题及其纾解——基于“禁止差别待遇”规则的分析

在互联网相关市场,商品定价模式由统一定价模式和群体化价格歧视模式逐渐转向个别化价格歧视模式,“禁止差别待遇”规则面临个别化价格歧视行为的挑战。首先,个别化价格歧视行为引发了价格歧视型共谋行为。“禁止差别待遇”规则应采用“信息交流”与“知悉规则”的双重标准审查此类特殊的共谋行为。其次,个别化价格歧视行为开始伪装为动态定价行为,“禁止差别待遇”规则应当引入“相当性”规则区分两类行为。最后,个别化价格歧视行为在损害部分消费者利益的同时增加了市场效率,相关经济分析标准难以判断个别化价格歧视行为正当性。“禁止差别待遇”规则应当在损害分析与效率分析的基础上引入正当性综合审查。     

美联储"预防性降息"与"紧急降息"能否力挽狂澜

2019年下半年,美联储试图通过3次“预防性降息”提前阻止经济持续下滑,但提振作用有限。2020年新冠肺炎疫情“大流行”并在美国迅速蔓延恶化,使原本下行的经济陷入失速和衰退。为“救市”,美联储重拾降息与量化宽松货币政策,向市场提供急需的流动性。这轮降息不是给经济“买保险”“打预防针”,而是启动空前规模的“紧急降息”,降息幅度是3次“预防性降息”的2倍。这令投资者恐慌,对经济前景失去信心,导致三大股指狂跌,多次触发熔断机制,未能扭转股市颓势。之后,美联储又无限量购买国债及住房抵押贷款支持证券。这些重镑举措,旨在继续缓解“美元荒”、抑制就业突降及维护物价稳定,短期效果不尽人意,最终政策效果及其政策风险如何尚须跟踪观察。     

Timed intervention in COVID-19 and panic buying

In view of 2020 outbreak of the pandemic COVID-19, the paper examines the relationship between government measures for combating the pandemic and their side effects. Panic buying is identified as one such side effect. Among various models and measures undertaken by government to manage the pandemic, timed-intervention policy is commonly practiced by most countries. This paper examines the timing effect between government measures and panic buying. Three studies were undertaken to understand the timing effect and identify a connection between timed measures and consumer behaviours. Semantic analysis, secondary data search, and big data analytics were deployed to address the research aim. Although claiming a causal relationship is cautioned, the findings reveal a connection between timing of government measures and panic buying. These findings are discussed with the support of real-life evidence. Implications for researchers and practitioners conclude this paper.     

Do Consumers Care about Ethics? Willingness to Pay for Fair‐Trade Coffee

Consumers’ buying behavior is not consistent with their positive attitude toward ethical products. In a survey of 808 Belgian respondents, the actual willingness to pay for fair‐trade coffee was measured. It was found that the average price premium that the consumers were willing to pay for a fair‐trade label was 10%. Ten percent of the sample was prepared to pay the current price premium of 27% in Belgium. Fair‐trade lovers (11%) were more idealistic, aged between 31 and 44 years and less “conventional.” Fair‐trade likers (40%) were more idealistic but sociodemographically not significantly different from the average consumer.     

直播带货现象的经济学分析

2020年直播带货迎来井喷式爆发,各行各业的名人纷纷下场进行直播带货,将其带入大众视野。《关于对拟发布新职业信息进行公示的公告》等政府文件的发布更是证明了其越来越高的认可度。直播带货的机制具有边际成本低而边际收益高,通过激励促进消费、降低信息不对称带来的距离感、促进就业等特点,于产业、实体经济都有巨大贡献。虽然直播带货广告模式和销售模式有别于传统模式,但也会带来“市场饱和”“投资风险”,以及部分直播带货平台、商家可能存在的“价格欺诈”等问题。因此,本文建议政府部门及相关机构通过健全法律体系、加强行政监管、完善自律机制等进行规制;建议电商平台加强自身监管义务,保护消费者合法权益等,以便直播带货将会走得更加规范,有更好地发展。     

Motives for and the management of countertrade in domestic markets

The emergence and persistence of modern countertrade (CT) is attributed to many factors including circumventing credit and foreign exchange problems, surmounting barriers to otherwise closed markets, hiding price cuts or simply exporters’ need to remain competitive. Because CT arrangements comprise bundles of buying, selling and financing contracts, explaining why firms conduct CT requires explanation of why a package deal is preferred to a set of component contracts. Examination of domestic CT stripped of “international ramifications” reveals the inherent rationale for CT as a desire to hide price discounts and to overcome cash shortages. Questionnaire data obtained from UK and Canadian firms broadly support this. If CT is worth undertaking, it requires effective management. The paper concludes by discussing the implications of CT for marketing strategy and planning.     

创业意愿如何转化为创业行为？——基于行动-状态导向作用的研究

创业意愿转化为创业行为才具有重要的现实意义。文章以大学生为对象，在理论研究的基础上，构建行动-状态导向调节创业意愿与创业行为关系的理论模型，运用滚雪球式非随机便利抽样法进行间隔1年时间的两个阶段调查，通过分层回归分析法等进行数据分析和假设检验。研究发现，创业意愿对创业行为具有显著正向预测作用，行动导向的“脱离”“主动”和“持续”维度分别强化创业意愿与创业行为的正向关系；而状态导向的“执着”“犹豫”和“短暂”维度分别弱化创业意愿与创业行为的正向关系。研究结果表明，在个人具有行动导向时创业意愿更能转化为创业行为，行动导向这种个人特质为创业意愿转化为创业行为提供了充分条件。以此为基础，对公共部门和大学生个人提出了策略建议。     

The role of cognitive and affective responses in the relationship between internal and external stimuli on online impulse buying behavior

Based on the impulse purchase decision-making process, the stimulus-organism-response framework, and technology acceptance model, this study investigated the role of cognitive and affective responses in the relationship between internal and external stimuli and social-media-based impulse buying behavior. We conducted an online survey and applied partial least squares structural equation modeling for data analysis and found that navigability, price attribute, trust propensity, and self-confidence are direct predictors of online impulse buying. Variety of selection and quality of information had indirect effects on the same through utilitarian browsing, while quality of information, navigability, and price attribute affected it through hedonic browsing. Trust propensity and self-confidence moderated the relation between utilitarian browsing and online impulse buying, while self-confidence moderated the hedonic browsing effect. Furthermore, utilitarian browsing affected hedonic browsing and online impulse buying. Thus, online merchants should control both external and internal stimuli to boost impulse buying through social media platforms.