Designing successful temporary loyalty programs: An exploratory study on retailer and country differences

Retailers increasingly adopt temporary loyalty programs (TLPs), in which consumers have limited time, often less than half a year, to save stamps and redeem highly discounted rewards. These programs often run alongside the retailers’ permanent loyalty programs in an attempt to increase customer engagement. Despite the growing popularity of TLPs, the literature on the topic remains limited. We address this gap by looking at the redemption rate, the industry’s primary success indicator, of almost 900 TLPs across a broad set of grocery retailers in 45 countries. We study the effects of four key design characteristics (the duration of the program, the discount offered, the spending requirement before an award can be redeemed, and the reward depth) on the redemption rate, and explore how these effects vary across a broad range of retailer and country characteristics. In doing so, we control for both a retailer’s potential self-selection into running a TLP and the potential endogeneity of the subsequent design choices. We derive a set of actionable results on how to design successful TLPs and show that high redemption rates are not only beneficial for the program operator and reward manufacturer, but also translate into higher sales and profit for the retailer.     

Digital marketing communication in global marketplaces: A review of extant research,future directions,and potential approaches

Digital marketing communication, that is, communication through digital or electronic media among businesses and consumers, is growing rapidly, especially during the COVID-19 era. We propose a framework for analyzing digital marketing communication along four major dyads, business-to-consumer (B2C), business-to-business (B2B), consumer-to-consumer (C2C), and consumer-to-business (C2B). We review and summarize, for researchers and practitioners, the literature during 2000–2021 in these dyads along four major components: goals; channels, media, and platforms; content; and responses. We find that extant research in digital marketing communication pertains mostly to a specific, national level rather than a global level, despite the porousness of national boundaries for digital marketing. We derive important insights, identify key research gaps and questions in each of the dyads along these dimensions. We suggest approaches to address these research questions under three major components: substantive issues, data, and methods. These approaches can offer the insights that managers need to better formulate digital marketing strategies in local and global contexts.     

Religious belief and international business negotiations: Does faith influence negotiator behaviour?

Religious observance is widespread and continues to influence managerial behaviour in many parts of the world. However, its role in international business negotiations has not received much scholarly attention. This study explores some of the key ways in which religious belief shapes negotiation behaviour. Focusing specifically on the Islamic context, and drawing on interviews with 27 religiously observant Muslim managers in Malaysia, the study found that commitment to a common religion among negotiators positively influenced certain components of the negotiation process through, for example, the use of religious/emotional appeal, which emphasised their ‘spiritual camaraderie’. In some instances, however, we observed something of a paradox, whereby differing religious beliefs among negotiating counterparts were claimed to actually enhance, rather than hinder, negotiations.     

Domestic political connections and international expansion: It's not only ‘who you know’ that matters

Former politicians on the board of directors bring to the firm domestic political connections and political knowledge. Previous research has mainly highlighted the role of contacts, without fully recognizing the role of political knowledge accumulated at home. By focusing on the effect of domestic political connections on foreign direct investment, we show that domestic political knowledge also shapes foreign expansion. We argue that contacts provided by former politicians may not be useful for foreign expansion whilst their political knowledge can be of help in countries with discretionary governments and with similar institutional environments to the one of the home country.     

数据交易市场双边匹配模型与决策方法研究

针对平台视角下的数据交易供需双边匹配问题，基于双边匹配理论，提出了考虑模糊语言评价信息、区间数评价信息和0-1评价信息的混合型多属性匹配决策方法并定义了属性匹配满意度函数。以供需主体最大匹配满意度为目标，构建了数据交易供需双边匹配的多目标优化模型，并设计模型求解算法，将多目标化模型转化为单目标线性规划模型进行求解，以获取匹配结果。结果表明，通过对供需双方需求信息的详细分析，双边匹配结果能在最大程度上满足双方需求，同时，优化模型具有合理性及有效性。     

A systematic approach to conducting review studies: An assessment of content analysis in 25 years of IB research

Content analysis has become a popular method for qualitative and quantitative analyses in management and international business (IB) research. It is increasingly used in literature reviews to assess extant knowledge and understand intellectual structures. However, it is often poorly understood and incorrectly applied. In this article, we identify benchmark criteria and develop coding schemes that IB scholars can use in review studies. We also demonstrate the application of content analysis through a review of content analysis–based articles, published in the top eight IB journals from 1991 to 2015.     

上海自贸区跨境服务贸易负面清单制定的法律问题

上海自贸区跨境服务贸易负面清单的制定是落实《全面深化中国(上海)自由贸易试验区改革开放方案》,顺应国际服务贸易规则重构的重要举措之一。国民待遇的例外、市场准入的例外以及当地存在的要求是跨境服务贸易负面清单的涵盖范围;市场准入的例外不仅包括形式上的管理措施,还包括效果上的管理措施;当地存在与商业存在既有联系又有区别;跨境货物贸易与跨境服务贸易之间的界限值得厘清;兜底条款可纳入清单但适用应当谨慎。     

Incorporating a Short-Term Study Abroad Service Trip for Educating International Entrepreneurship in the BOP Market

ABSTRACT

The bottom of the pyramid (BOP) market has gained importance in international entrepreneurship due to its large market potential. Drawing on the literature of international business education, as well as social entrepreneurship and international entrepreneurship education, we propose a course to educate students how to develop business intimacy with the BOP community. We employ the experiential-learning pedagogical framework and design elements including a short-term study abroad service trip, an entrepreneurship project, and structured reflections. Using both qualitative and quantitative data, we demonstrate that the course facilitates students’ learning in the key areas of international and social entrepreneurship, including the economic and social value of community embeddedness for BOP ventures, the emotional intelligence in interacting with BOP communities, and the attitude toward social entrepreneurship.     

Strategic entry or strategic exit? International presence by emerging economy enterprises

By proposing an integrated strategic choice framework, we theorize the distinctive dynamics of international expansion by emerging economy enterprises. Specifically, we explicate how these firms build international presence based on combined strategic entry (i.e., prompted by internal capabilities such as innovation and diversification) and strategic exit (i.e., pushed out by external handicaps at home such as institutional obstacles and market competition). Further, a firm’s cooperative ties with foreign multinationals in the former’s home country fortify the strategic entry intent, while ties with home government institutions weaken the strategic exit intent. We also demonstrate that building international presence helps bolster firm performance, highlighting the economic catch-up consequence of international expansion. Analyses of a two-year imbalanced panel data of 2136 firms statistically support our hypotheses.     

我国省级区域金融发展对经常项目的影响研究——基于货物贸易视角的分析

本文选取我国大陆31个省(市、自治区)2007年-2018年的面板数据,综合运用系统GMM和差分GMM估计方法,实证检验了沿海与内陆、沿边与非沿边、享受优惠政策高与低、金融控制强与弱等4类不同省区金融发展对经常项目余额的影响。研究结果表明:使用全部样本估计时,金融发展显著负向影响经常项目余额,这一结论经稳健性检验后依然成立。使用不同区域的子样本估计时,金融发展对沿海省区、非沿边省区、享受优惠政策高以及金融控制弱省区的经常项目余额的抑制作用较大,而在其他省区作用较小。因此,各地区应充分利用金融手段来调整进出口余额,以保证经常项目的持续平衡。