Post-script—Retail forecasting: Research and practice

This note updates the 2019 review article “Retail forecasting: Research and practice” in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and the substantial new research on machine-learning algorithms, when applied to retail. It offers new conclusions and challenges for both research and practice in retail demand forecasting.     

The formation of habit and word-of-mouth intention of over-the-top platforms

The current study examines how video content on over-the-top (OTT) platforms and the enjoyment from watching them form habits and word-of-mouth (WOM) intentions. We propose a research model that integrates elements from the Self-Determination Theory (SDT) and the concept of “habit loop” from the Interest-Driven Creator (IDC) theory. The model was analyzed using PLS-SEM on 302 responses from OTT users. The study elucidates how video content availability helps in habit formation indirectly through perceived enjoyment. The results also demonstrated that the WOM of OTT platforms is explained by perceived enjoyment, affective commitment, and the habit of using the OTT platforms. The study highlights that habit is a significant predictor of affective commitment and WOM intention of hedonic apps. This is the first study to illustrate how video content availability affects users’ enjoyment, habitual use, and WOM intentions. Habit as a significant predictor of affective commitment and WOM intention of hedonic apps, like OTT platforms, is unprecedented.     

Toward a new business model of retail industry: The role of brand experience and brand authenticity

While the customer-to-manufacturer (C2M) business model has received increasing attention as a new business model for e-commerce and retail industry, little is still known about it and the effect of its approach. This study aims to understand how brand-related stimuli in C2M environments affect customer responses as the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic. The outcomes reveal that the Sensory, affective, and intellectual aspects of brand experience positively influence brand authenticity. Brand authenticity has a positive effect on behavioral intention, such as reuse intention and word-of-mouth. Additionally, this research finds that social presence moderates the association between the sensory aspect of brand experience. Thus, this study can suggest a C2M business model as a means of sustainable operation of the retail industry to both researchers and practitioners in relation to the retail industry.     

Chief Audit Executive as Supervisory Board Member and Executive Compensation Contracts

This paper studies a unique phenomenon in China's corporate governance—that chief audit executives (CAEs) sit on supervisory boards (CAE duality)—and examines its effects on executive compensation contracts. Using a sample of listed firms between 2010 and 2018, we find a significant positive relation between CAE duality and pay-for-performance sensitivity, which suggests that the dual position helps integrate monitoring resources and reduces agency costs. This positive relation is more pronounced when companies face a stricter monitoring environment and in non-state-owned enterprises (non-SOEs) than in SOEs. In addition, we find that the recent reforms on compensation strengthen the role of CAE duality in SOEs. Further analysis identifies the reliability of performance information (i.e., earnings quality) and reduced executive self-interested behaviours (i.e., perquisite consumption) as the influencing mechanisms that increase the demand for performance-based compensation and thus improve pay-for-performance sensitivity.     

Exploring the multi-dimensionality of authenticity in dining experiences using online reviews

The quest for authenticity in dining experiences has become increasingly important. This paper explores authenticity dimensions that are of value to customers in dining experiences, and by that gains a multi-dimensional understanding of authenticity in this context. Following an integrated learning approach using text mining and classification techniques, this paper explores and confirms different dimensions of authenticity by identifying and classifying authenticity judgements in online restaurant reviews. The results suggest that authenticity is a multi-dimensional concept encompassing Authenticity of the Other, Authenticity of the Producer, and Authenticity of the Self as first-level dimensions. Additionally, besides historical and categorical authenticity which have been previously explored in the literature, a new type of authenticity - Deviated Authenticity - emerged as a second-level dimension falling under Authenticity of the Other. This paper enhances existing conceptualisations of authenticity and establishes avenues for exploring the multi-dimensionality of other consumer research concepts using user-generated content.     

Air-travelers' concerns emerging from online comments during the COVID-19 outbreak

This research aims to assess air travelers' concerns affected by the Coronavirus pandemic, expressed in the comments they wrote online. A sample of 639 comments written on the Italian National Consumer Union website and related to the airline industry was assessed through an automated sentiment analysis in this study. The achieved results showed that travelers' concerns were directed mainly towards compensations, cancellations, and COVID-19 and at the same time, they had mixed and unpredictable feelings. This element suggests that consumers may have understood that airline companies are facing unsustainable cash-flow and revenue situations. Moreover, all our hypotheses, grounded on existing literature, were refuted. Accordingly, we argue that the actual context prevents assessments based on previous assumptions, and studies related to the impact of COVID-19 need to be conducted anew.     

The effects of crowdedness and safety measures on restaurant patronage choices and perceptions in the COVID-19 pandemic

This paper investigates the effects of crowdedness and in-restaurant safety measures on consumers’ restaurant patronage choices (eat-in vs. order takeaway vs. not patronize) and their perceptions during the COVID-19 pandemic. In an online experiment with 593 US consumers and 591 Australian consumers, we assess the effects of three levels of crowdedness (low vs. medium vs. high crowdedness) and four types of in-restaurant safety measures (none vs. partition vs. increasing distances between tables vs. not using in-between tables) by showing participants an image of the restaurant setting. Results show that US consumers are more sensitive to crowdedness, whereas Australian consumers are more sensitive to different types of safety measures, which greatly influence their patronage choices. In general, safety measures featuring social distancing are preferred over partitions, and there is no preferential difference between the measure of increasing distances between tables and the measure of not using in-between tables.     

疫情防控常态化下的世界经济战略走向

新冠疫情的出现冲击了世界经济,从经济全球化和全球经济治理体系两个维度分析疫情对世界经济的影响以及世界经济未来走向,研究发现:(1)新冠疫情通过影响全球价值链、贸易投资和就业环境阻碍经济全球化进程,中美矛盾升级、原有治理体系规则未与时俱进和激进政策的不确定性对全球经济治理体系提出新的挑战;(2)新冠疫情强化了世界各国对人类命运共同体的认识,将人类命运共同体融入全球治理体系将是未来治理的重要趋势;(3)新冠疫情可能会使世界经济格局出现新的变化,而中国在此次疫情中高效率的抗疫举措将进一步提升自身在世界经济格局中的地位和参与度。     

Verification results for age-structured models of economic–epidemics dynamics

In this paper we propose a macro-dynamic age-structured set-up for the analysis of epidemics/economic dynamics in continuous time.The resulting optimal control problem is reformulated in an infinite dimensional Hilbert space framework where we perform the basic steps of dynamic programming approach.Our main result is a verification theorem which allows to guess the feedback form of optimal strategies. This will be a departure point to discuss the behavior of the models of the family we introduce and their policy implications.