Interfirm strategic integration in retailer buying groups: antecedents and consequences on the retailer's economic satisfaction

Abstract

Independent small retailers have shown a growing trend toward joining buying groups as a means to compete against large distribution chains. The retailer's strategic integration of the relationship with the buying group (RSI), i.e., the retailer's recognition of this relationship as a strategic asset, is the focal theoretical construct of this study. With a sample of retailers of home appliances that are integrated in a buying group, the empirical test of two alternative models about the antecedents and consequences of RSI has confirmed that the concept plays an important and significant mediational role in explaining the effects of environment and relational characteristics on the retailer's satisfaction with the buying group. The author discusses the theoretical implications of the results obtained and explores consequences for decision makers.     

How to trust? The importance of self‐efficacy and social trust in public responses to industrial risks

Although a great deal of research has linked both self‐efficacy and social trust to risk responses, one overlooked question concerns the association between self‐efficacy and institutional trust. The purpose of this study was to investigate the main and combined effects of trust in the self and trust in responsible agencies to affective responses and information sufficiency. Survey respondents in this study were placed into one of four categories based on their levels of self‐efficacy (high/low) and social trust (high/low), including confidence, independence, dependence and insecure groups. Based on survey data (n = 466), the accuracy of the four‐group classification was tested. Indeed, we found that our classification system correlated with responses. Both self‐efficacy and institutional trust were found to contribute to emotional risk responses, as well as risk information needs and preferences for risk information.     

Pleasure and belief in Hume's Decision Process

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to introduce explicitly pleasure and belief in what aims at being a Humean theory of decision, like the one developed in Diaye and Lapidus (2005a). Although we support the idea that Hume was in some way a hedonist – evidently different from Bentham's or Jevons' way – we lay emphasis less on continuity than on the specific kind of hedonism encountered in Hume's writings (chiefly the Treatise, the second Enquiry, the Dissertation, or some of his Essays). Such hedonism clearly contrasts to its standard modern inheritance, expressed by the relation between preferences and utility.

The reason for such a difference with the usual approach lies in the mental process that Hume puts to the fore in order to explain the way pleasure determines desires and volition. Whereas pleasure is primarily, in Hume's words, an impression of sensation, it takes place in the birth of passions as reflecting an idea of pleasure, whose “force and vivacity” is precisely a “belief”, transferred to the direct passions of desire or volition that come immediately before action. As a result, from a Humean point of view, “belief” deals with decision under risk or uncertainty, as well as with intertemporal decision and indiscrimination problems.

The latter are explored within a formal framework, and it is shown that the relation of pleasure is transformed by belief into a non-empty class of relations of desire, among which at least one is a preorder.     

大学英语听说领先教学的实践探索

在大学英语教学中,实施听说领先教学有利于调动学生学习兴趣,提高教学效果。实践证明：在听力方面,基础较好的实验班学生提高较明显,基础偏弱的实验班学生提高不明显;在口语方面,基础偏弱的实验班学生提高很明显,基础较好的学生不受教学方式的影响,提高都很明显。     

Exploring impulse buying and variety seeking by retail shoppers: towards a common conceptual framework

Abstract

Impulse buying and variety seeking are both low-effort feelings-based behaviours with similar psychological origins. However, there is little research exploring the common sociopsychological processes regulating these behaviours. This gap is addressed with a conceptual framework incorporating the discrepancy between actual and optimum stimulation levels as the driver of both the behaviours, and self-monitoring as the moderator of interpersonal influences on these. Findings from a field-survey-based study with retail shoppers show that both the behaviours are responses to exploratory urges triggered by lower stimulation levels. Moreover, high self-monitors exhibit greater impulsiveness in private and seek greater variety in public compared to low self-monitors. The paper concludes with a discussion on its conceptual and managerial contribution along with some of its limitations and directions for future research.     

音乐营销的秘密

在企业发展过程中,创新的思维和策略才能获得长远的发展。因此,营销人员需要运用与时俱进的营销手段以确保满足消费者不断变化的需求。随着经济的发展、科技的进步和消费者生活水平的提高,消费者的购买行为开始发生变化,他(她)们的购买行为不仅仅受到产品本身的影响,还受到购买环境的影响。随之,突破传统营销手段的音乐营销逐渐进入营销人员的视线。一些研究发现,购买环境中的音乐因素对消费者购买行为的影响更胜于产品本身。这篇论文首先介绍了音乐的三个特性:一致性、广泛性和情感性;其次介绍了音乐营销的作用;最后对全文进行了总结。     

A Comparison Between the Conventional Stated Preference Technique and an Inferred Valuation Approach

Contrary to conventional stated preference valuation techniques that employ a direct questioning approach, the inferred valuation method utilises indirect questioning where respondents are asked for their belief regarding others’ values for a good or service. In this study, using choice experiments, we compare the results obtained through the two valuation techniques for environmental features of the Burren landscape in western Ireland. Consistent with previous studies, stated values using the conventional approach are found to be significantly higher than those obtained through the inferred valuation approach. In particular, this study highlights the dissimilarities in relative preferences observed between the two landscape attributes (rocky limestone pavements and orchid‐rich grasslands) from the two questioning formats. While respondents were indifferent between the two habitats, they believed the ‘average other’ to be significantly more concerned about the conservation of the rocky limestone pavements. We attribute this divergence in preferences to be a consequence of additional normative motives perceived by respondents with regard to the conservation of orchid‐rich grasslands.     

Latent Class Analysis of Consumer Preferences for Wine in Tirana,Albania

This research aimed to determine wine attributes preferred by consumers in Tirana, Albania, and consumer segments based on preferences and sociodemographic factors. To accomplish these objectives, a conjoint choice experiment was designed. Data were analyzed with the latent class approach. Initial results showed a 5-class model fit best. Results indicated that younger people tend to prefer Italian wines over domestic wines, whereas some older consumers strongly prefer domestic, lower priced wines. Other domestic wine consumers sought higher prices, possibly indicating a niche demand for high-quality Albanian wines. The wine industry and its marketers might use this information to strategically market their wine to different groups. Overall, the majority of the respondents preferred Italian wines, but many might be persuaded toward domestic wine. Government assistance in standardizing the quality of wine and introducing new grape cultivars and efficient farming practices should aid long-term competitiveness of domestic wine in Albania.     

Horticultural Auctions in the Netherlands

This paper depicts the evolution of Dutch auctions during the past hundred years from a "price discovery" institution to a "marketing" institution, focusing on price discovery. A conceptual framework is proposed to assess the suitablility of marketing management by agricultural marketing institutions. The history of Dutch horticultural auctions is briefly reviewed. The conceptual framework proposed is applied to the evolution of Dutch horticultural auctions.     

The loanable funds fallacy: exercises in the analysis of disequilibrium

This essay analyses the core proposition of loanable funds theorythat changes in technology and time preferences directly andimmediately affect interest rates. Applying what may be seenas a generalised financial-buffers approach to the analysisof disequilibrium, we find that loanable funds theory is flawedand should therefore be abandoned. A challenge to the neo-Walrasiangeneral equilibrium approach to monetary theory remains: thatof justifying the idea that—by some mechanism— intertemporalprices correctly reflect technology and time preferences.