Integrated consumer shopping decision model: A Japanese online supermarket context

Abstract

Online shopping is not a new marketing channel but has been growing tremendously throughout Japan. The rapid growth of Internet technology has enabled the Japanese to break away from their conservative culture and embark on different shopping experiences by shopping online. With the growing importance of online reviews to promote one’s business, Japanese online supermarkets are looking for ways to increase consumer-generated content. The purpose of this study is to investigate Japanese repeat online consumers and the antecedents that encourage them to review their shopping experiences, including the supermarket website they used and product availability in the online supermarket. It was found that online supermarkets must focus on establishing confidence with their repeat online consumers if they desire to increase the electronic word of mouth (e-WOM) of their online supermarket. Implications are discussed in relation to online supermarkets and repeat consumers’ intentions to review their online shopping experiences.     

Impatience and Inconsistency in Intertemporal Choice: An Experimental Analysis

In this article the experiment carried out by Takahashi et al. [2009 Takahashi, T., T. Hadzibeganovic, S. A. Cannas, T. Makino, H. Fukui, and S. Kitayama. “Cultural Neuroeconomics of Intertemporal Choice.” Neuroendocrinology Letters, 30, (2009), pp. 185–191.[PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]] is replicated to analyze the influence of culture, gender, origin (urban or rural), and socioeconomic level on the impulsivity and consistency of decision-making processes concerning monetary gains and losses. The results indicate that Spanish students show inconsistency, and more impulsivity over gains (i.e., more impatience, as they discount delayed outcomes more rapidly) than do Japanese and American students. Additionally, participants from urban areas show more impatience over gains than do participants from rural ones, women are more impatient than men are over losses, and participants of different socioeconomic levels show differences in their impulsivity parameters.     

An extention of Samuelson's warrant valuation model and its application to Japanese data

It is well known among warrant traders that the Black & Scholes model cannot be directly used for warrant and convertible bond valuation. In this paper, a new warrant valuation model based on both the Samuelson and the Barone-Adesi & Whaley model is proposed, and the model is applied to convertible bond valuation. Our model is an extension of Samuelson's perpertual warrant model, whose parameters depend on stock price, volatility, term to maturity and interest rate.     

Perturbative Expansion Technique for Non-linear FBSDEs with Interacting Particle Method

In this paper, we propose an efficient Monte Carlo implementation of a non-linear FBSDE as a system of interacting particles inspired by the idea of the branching diffusion method of McKean. It will be particularly useful to investigate large and complex systems, and hence it is a good complement of our previous work presenting an analytical perturbation procedure for generic non-linear FBSDEs. There appear multiple species of particles, where the first one follows the diffusion of the original underlying state, and the others the Malliavin derivatives with a grading structure. The number of branching points are capped by the order of perturbation, which is expected to make the scheme less numerically intensive. The proposed method can be applied to semi-linear problems, such as American options, credit and funding value adjustments, and even fully non-linear issues, such as the optimal portfolio problems in incomplete and/or constrained markets.     

Macroeconomic Implications of Term Structures of Interest Rates Under Stochastic Differential Utility with Non-Unitary EIS

This paper proposes a continuous-time term-structure model under stochastic differential utility with non-unitary elasticity of intertemporal substitution (EIS, henceforth) in a representative-agent endowment economy with mean-reverting expectations on real output growth and inflation. Using this model, we make clear structural relationships among a term structure of real and nominal interest rates, utility form and underlying economic factors (in particular, inflation expectation). Notably, we show that, if (1) the EIS is less than one, (2) the agent is comparatively more risk-averse relative to time-separable utility, (3) short-term interest rates are pro-cyclical, and (4) the rate of expected inflation is negatively correlated with the rate of real output growth and its expected rate, then a nominal yield curve can have a low instantaneous riskless rate and an upward slope.     

Are Bank Mergers Good News for Shareholders? The Effect of Bank Mergers on Shareholder Value in Japan

This study investigates the effects of bank mergers on the welfare of affiliated client firms. The findings demonstrate that, in general, bank mergers increase the welfare of client firms. However, there are significant differences in the impact of a bank merger on client firms across different merger, bank, and firm characteristics. Client firms of banks involved in mega‐mergers do not enjoy an increase in welfare. Client firms of undercapitalized banks in fact suffer significant welfare losses. In the long‐run, weak “zombie” firms also in many cases experience welfare losses following the announcement of a merger by their main bank.     

Mechanization in land preparation and agricultural intensification: The case of rice farming in the Cote d'Ivoire

It is critically important to intensify farming systems in sub-Saharan Africa by disseminating improved agronomic practices and increasing the application of modern inputs. One of the region's problems is that proper land preparation is difficult due to the scarcity of draft animals and the underdevelopment of the tractor rental market. Our analysis of rice production in the Cote d'Ivoire reveals that farmers who use tractors in land preparation more intensively apply fertilizer and use more labor to carefully implement proper agronomic practices, thereby raising productivity. Thus, the diffusion of tractors appears to be key to the intensification of rice farming systems in sub-Saharan Africa.     

Development and validation of a situational judgement test of Japanese leadership knowledge

ABSTRACT

Leadership research has accumulated a wealth of empirical findings about what leadership behaviours are effective in various business environments. We took advantage of these empirical findings to develop a situational judgement test (SJT) of leadership knowledge with correct answers. The SJT contains four leadership dimensions: task-focused, relationship-focused, transformational, and developmental leadership. Item response theory and confirmatory factor analyses were used to examine the psychometric properties of the SJT, based on a sample of 658 Japanese college students. Ultimately, we confirmed a four-factor model and retained 21 of 53 situation questions for the final SJT.     

Quality_Marriage Deployment in determining priority needs for initiating marriage loyalty

Marriage life is an abstract and complex matter that even for husband and wife themselves find not as easy as they expect in achieving a long term marriage. The differences between spouses may lead to disabilities to see clearly their spouse needs. The disabilities may implicate to a bigger issue which is loyalty. In this study, the analysis have been carried out to determine priority needs in marriage for initiating loyalty. In using Quality Function (QFD) adaptations, we created “Quality_Marriage Deployment” by deploy the marriage in quality perspectives. As result, we succeed to identify 7 of 15 variables with the lowest performance value that make them as the priority needs. Based on the needs, we proposed some actions both in perspective of marriage and quality knowledge. Furthermore, the result shows Quality_Marriage Deployment matrix may generally easier for any user to read and know directly what variables need to be improved. Each solutions were presented to allow the users to act in a more efficient and effective in time and energy.