The determinants of dealership structure: Empirical analysis of the Chinese auto market

This paper investigates the factors that affect manufacturers’ decisions to grant local monopoly to a dealer and the factors that determine the dealer’s status of sole dealership in the Chinese automobile market. Our empirical findings suggest that manufacturer decisions depend on dealers’ retail network: manufacturers are inclined to choose a sole dealer for their brands if that dealer also has retail outlets for substitute brands in the local market and to choose multiple dealers otherwise. These findings can be explained by the theory proposed by [Mathewson, G. F., Winter, R. A., 1994. Territorial restrictions in franchise contracts. Economic Inquiry 32 (2), 181–192.], who suggest that manufacturers transfer the exclusive right of resale from themselves to dealers only if dealers’ contribution is crucial to the vertical relationship. When dealers also have extensive retail channels for other brands, their retail efforts and experience become crucial to brand success, and thus manufacturers are more likely to offer them sole resale rights. Moreover, our empirical findings suggest that manufacturers also consider product quality and market conditions when making their decisions.     

零售业网络销售渠道积极因素实证分析

针对零售连锁和网络销售的特点和理论,综合运用关键成功因素法,构建网络销售渠道积极因素结构模型,通过对网络消费的主要群体进行调查考证,使用数据挖掘技术中的因子分析方法,寻找确认对网络销售渠道有积极影响的若干因素,并依此对连锁零售业开拓网络销售渠道提出建议。     

产业链的合作机制选择与低碳产品定价及碳减排策略

生产链上下游企业选择合适的合作机制对低碳产品定价及碳减排有重要影响。通过构建博弈模型分析三种不同合作机制下的低碳产品定价及碳减排问题:第一种合作机制即制造商与零售商进行合作,当两条生产链都选择这种合作机制时,能带来较高的碳减排率和较低的零售价格,这对制造商、零售商、消费者和环境都是有利的。第二种合作机制即两条生产链的制造商之间、零售商之间分别合作,这会带来较低的碳减排率和较高的零售价格,对两个制造商有利,而对零售商和消费者不利。分析前两种合作机制的利与弊提出第三种合作机制,即零售商和制造商共享利润下的有利于碳减排的策略。最后,结合案例讨论和数值分析的研究结果表明:当制造商和零售商收入共享比在一定范围内时,第三种合作机制可以给制造商和零售商带来更高的利润。由此为企业选择最佳的合作机制及合理的碳减排策略提供了理论指导。     

交易成本与农户销售渠道选择——基于浙江省仙居县杨梅种植户的调查

笔者基于浙江省仙居县杨梅种植户的实地调查数据,利用Tobit模型,实证分析了交易成本对农户杨梅销售渠道选择的影响。研究结果显示,市场价格波动幅度、买主对杨梅质量认证的关注程度和单次平均销售数量促使农户从零售渠道转向贩卖商和加工企业渠道;交易前农户是否了解市场价格和果园到主要成交地点的距离促使农户选择零售渠道;户主年龄及种植面积对农户销售渠道选择也存在一定程度的影响,但其他家庭特征的影响则不显著。     

Dividing Online and Offline: A Case Study

Every new method of trade offers an opportunity for economic agents to compare its costs and benefits relative to the status quo. Such comparison motivates sorting across market segments and reshapes the whole marketplace. The Internet provides an excellent example: it introduces substantial search cost savings over brick and mortar retail stores but imposes new obstacles for sellers to convey quality. Using sports card trading as a case study, we provide empirical evidence on (1) the sorting of product quality between the online and offline segments, (2) the changes for retail outlets after the Internet came into place, and (3) how supporting industries such as professional grading and card manufacturing adapted to take advantage of the new market.     

Antecedents and consequences of green innovation in the wine industry: the role of channel structure

In this study, we place green innovation in a broader technology development, commercialisation and distribution context to test hypotheses in three areas: (1) the internal vs external drivers of green innovation; (2) the effect of green innovation on business performance; and (3) the role of channel structures (the degree to which producers sell directly to consumers or businesses) in making green innovation more productive in terms of business performance. To test our hypotheses, data from an international survey among 123 wineries is used. Our results suggest that internal drivers, i.e. environmental management and quality management in particular, play a greater role than external drivers (e.g. government and regulatory pressures) on the adoption of green innovation strategies. Producing and using organic products and processes and recycling activities are found to have a significant direct positive impact on business performance. Our results also confirm the moderating effect of channel structures: the benefits of green innovation in terms of business performance are larger when firms use more direct sales channels (selling wine directly from the wine cellar to consumers and businesses).     

Can price discrimination improve the performance of online retail platforms?

Online retail platforms are the core of online retail activities, but due to increased competition among the platforms, traditional sources of revenue such as the membership and transaction fees alone cannot guarantee platform profitability. Thus, platform enterprises are looking for other sources of revenue. In this article, we focus on the role of value-added services fees charged by platforms. Specifically, we show that price discrimination exercised by platform enterprises in value-added services fees can increase the user access scale, platform profit as well as the social welfare.     

流通商主导供应链模式及其实现 ——相似流通渠道比较转化视角

随着制造商在分销渠道中的话语权逐步被下游流通商所平衡甚至超越，传统厂商主导型供应链模式不断受到应用限制，而流通商借助渠道优势整合供应链趋势日益强化。从供应链与流通渠道的理论关联出发，基于分销管理的渠道关系能够在拓展至段落供应链的整合关系中获得效率增进。具体应用模式包括：基于W型流通渠道延伸的批发商主导供应链模式，基于R型流通渠道转型的零售商主导供应链模式，基于M型流通渠道分解的第四方物流商主导供应链模式。     

Service sharing,profit mode and coordination mechanism in the Online-to-Offline retail market

How does the sharing economy affect the retail industry? This study investigates the impact of service sharing on the decisions and profits of two profit modes in the Online-to-Offline (O2O) retail market. We find that service sharing always improves the profit of the brand supplier as a service demander in both two profit modes, and improves the profit of the offline franchisee as a service provider in the profit-sharing mode under certain circumstances, but always reduces its profit in the non-profit-sharing mode. This is associated with the double marginalisation effect of the non-profit-sharing mode which leads to channel conflicts. Thus, a service-cost sharing mechanism is introduced to coordinate conflicts and achieve a win-win strategy, thereby improving the performance of the entire O2O supply chain.     

Analysis of price competition and strategic implications for heterogeneous market structure

This paper examines strategic competition behavior in heterogeneous market structure where both conventional offline and online firms coexist in equilibrium and draws strategic implications with some remarks on welfare. Research on the price competition between conventional offline and online firms has been done through empirical approaches; however, the results are conflicting. This paper reconciles the existing conflicting empirical findings on price levels between conventional offline and online firms through a theoretical approach. We find that as the online market matures, prices in both conventional and online firms drop, and the price in the online firm can be higher than that in a conventional offline firm. Furthermore, if convenience associated with the online increases, the online price tends to exceed the conventional offline price.     

消费者跨渠道购买行为研究评述与展望

消费者跨渠道购买行为是指多渠道零售环境下,消费者在购买决策过程的不同阶段运用不同渠道的行为。文章基于文献研究法,从定义、影响因素和企业管理策略三个方面对消费者跨渠道购买行为的国内外相关研究进行了梳理和评述,阐述了消费者跨渠道购买行为的定义,总结了消费者跨渠道购买行为的影响因素,归纳了企业对消费者跨渠道购买行为的管理策略并进行了评述,分析了未来研究方向,得出消费者跨渠道购买行为可以细分为消费者跨渠道搭便车行为和消费者跨渠道保留行为,研究结果为多渠道零售企业进行渠道设计和多渠道顾客管理提供了决策参考。     

Foreign subsidiaries as a channel of international technology diffusion: Some direct firm level evidence from Belgium

The use of foreign direct investment as a channel of international spillovers is by now fairly established in the empirical literature on innovation and growth. It is often argued that subsidiaries of foreign multinational enterprises are a mechanism through which technological know-how flows across borders. For foreign subsidiaries to be channels of international spillovers, these subsidiaries need to source know-how internationally and transfer their know-how to the local economy. Using direct firm level evidence from the Belgian Community Innovation Survey on the occurrence of technology transfers, we find that foreign subsidiaries are indeed more likely to acquire technology internationally. But after controlling for the superior access to the international technology market that foreign subsidiaries enjoy, we find that these firms are not more likely to transfer technology to the local economy as compared to local firms.     

Employed Job Search among Young Workers: Do Women Still Search Differently than Men in the Internet Age?

Using data from the 2008–2011 waves of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997, this study explores the job search methods and strategies utilized by young workers. Although women are found to be marginally less likely to engage in on-the-job search than men, when they do they are equally likely to use the internet. The most important gender difference identified is that marriage serves as a strong inhibiting factor to search, both online and offline, for women but not so for men. In terms of search methods, men and women show almost identical patterns of usage. While there is substitution between online and offline search within particular method categories, employed searchers are generally using the internet as a complement to rather than as a replacement for more traditional offline search methods.     

The transmission of euro area monetary policy to financially euroized countries

This paper provides a comprehensive analysis of the interest rate pass-through of euro area monetary policy to retail rates outside the euro area, contributing to the literature on the consequences of unofficial financial euroization and on the transmission channels of monetary policy spillovers. The results suggest that in the long run, more than the one-third of all euro retail rates in euroized countries of central, eastern, and south-eastern Europe is linked to the euro area shadow rate. Compared with euro area monetary policy, the share of cointegration of the domestic monetary policy rate is on average lower, suggesting that domestic central banks in euroized countries with independent monetary policy can only partially control the “euro part” of the interest rate channel. Furthermore, euro area monetary policy shocks are fast and persistently transmitted into euro retail rates outside the euro area, which constitutes an additional channel of international shock transmission.     

新形势下我国蔬菜营销渠道优化研究

蔬菜的生产流通关系着人们的切身利益,蔬菜营销渠道正成为学者们研究的重。目前我国蔬菜营销渠道存在营销主体分散、竞争力弱,营销渠道保鲜技术、基础设施和组织建设落后的问题,结合我国蔬菜零售产业和居民消费的变化,营销渠道信息技术、基础设施和组织建设的改善的新变化,我国蔬菜营销渠道要提高组织化程度,加强蔬菜物流和信息体系的建设,运用科学技术提高渠道成员素质。     

Power-by-the-hour: the role of technology in reshaping business strategy at Rolls-Royce

There is a recognised trend of manufacturing companies offering not only products, but also services and even complete solutions to business problems. Research has highlighted economic, market demand and competitiveness factors as responsible for the reshaping of business strategies that this has involved. This study analyses the extent to which another factor, technology, has been a significant factor in the switch from product oriented to service-oriented strategies. A case study of the aero engine manufacturer Rolls-Royce is used to analyse the impact of technology, which is found to have led manufacturers to reshape their business strategies. The study finds that developments in one technology in particular, namely digital electronics, have been a powerful enabling factor facilitating the implementation of service strategies. This provided original equipment manufacturers like Rolls-Royce with a competitive advantage relative to conventional service providers, by enabling them to acquire new knowledge management capabilities.     

农产品网店经营特点分析

电子商务的快速发展改变了人们的生活方式,为人们带来更为便捷、可靠、及时的产品服务。农产品作为人们生活的基本要素,其电子商务的发展却起步较晚。介绍现行农产品网络零售的模式和依托平台,针对网店形式的农产品经营方式,分析总结农产品网店经营现状和特点,指出目前农产品网店经营存在的缺陷和不足,为农产品网店经营发展提供借鉴经验。     

Finding the right employee online: determinants of internet recruitment in Spanish firms

This paper analyses the variation of recruitment strategies in Spanish firms, with special emphasis on the Internet. Using data from the Spanish Labour Trends Survey for the period 2001–2011, we study the factors influencing the decision to use online recruitment and explore the differences between Internet and eight traditional recruitment channels. Our results show that the adoption of the Internet monotonically increases over the sample period, when Internet becomes more universal and even in periods with excess of applicants. Large firms operating in information-intensive activities, and located in regions more developed and with better infrastructures are more likely to search for new employees online. We also find that Internet and traditional recruitment methods follow different patterns, especially when using personal referrals and public employment services. Our results suggest the presence of network externalities derived from the increase number of compatible online job seekers.     

Sequencing,timing and filling rates of recruitment channels

This paper analyses the recruitment process by which employers adjust their search strategies. The focus is, in particular, on the sequence and timing of recruitment channels. Two search strategies are identified. One strategy is to advertise a vacancy, and to form a pool of candidates by activating subsequent recruitment channels such that candidates are added to the pool. An alternative strategy used by employers is to start searching via informal channels, consider applicants at arrival and continue their search along a new recruitment channel if no suitable candidates show up. Results suggest that when informal personal contacts are available to the employer, this ‘switching of channel’ strategy is preferred. Moreover, the results of this paper are consistent with the view that informal search methods are potentially more efficient than using an advertisement and forming a pool of applicants, in particular when vital positions in firms have to be filled.     

TV advertising spillovers and demand for private labels: the case of carbonated soft drinks

The expansion of private labels, or store brands, has transformed consumer choice sets and competition in retail markets, prompting manufacturers to fight back with renewed pricing and product and promotion strategies to forestall further private label expansion. This article examines the spillover effects of television advertising on brand-level consumer demand for carbonated soft drinks (CSDs), including private labels, using a random coefficients logit model with household purchasing and advertising viewing Nielsen data. As in previous work, we find that although brand spillover effects significantly increase demand for CSD brands in the same company and undermine demand facing other manufacturers’ CSD brands, surprisingly, there are positive spillover effects on the demand for private label brands. This indicates that brand advertising is persuasive with respect to manufacturers’ brands but complementary with respect to private labels. Further results show that eliminating television advertising for CSDs would lower aggregate CSD sales as consumers migrate to other beverages, although private labels stand to gain, particularly Wal-Mart brands.