Advertising and brand attitudes: Evidence from 575 brands over five years

Quantitative Marketing and Economics - Little is known about how different types of advertising affect brand attitudes. We investigate the relationships between three brand attitude variables...     

Pan-European Advertising: Think Europe—Act Local

Changes in Europe resulting from the unification of EC countries and the accessibility of new Eastern European markets have fundamentally altered the trading environment in which advertising agencies operate. As the advertising industry attempts to get to grips with legislative and media changes, agencies are working hard to create alliances and develop networks which encompass markets in which they did not traditionally have a presence. This article draws on a combination of quantitative and qualitative information collected from secondary sources and extended personal interviews with key agency personnel, advertisers and representatives from the UK's Advertising Association and The Advertising Standards Authority. The objective is to show how the advertising industry and agencies are continuing to gear up to meeting the new demands of the Europeanized market.     

Bridge,Focus, Attack,or Stimulate: Retail Category Management Strategies with a Store Brand

We investigate a monopolist retailer's category management strategy where the main strategic decisions are how to horizontally position a store brand relative to the incumbent national brands and how to price the store and national brands for retail category profit maximization. We analyze a market composed of two consumer segments with differing tastes and heterogeneity with respect to willingness to pay and a product category consisting of two competing national brands and one store brand. We find that contrary to the existing literature, it is not always optimal for a retailer to position its store brand against the leading national brand; instead there are many situations where it is best to position the store brand close to the weaker national brand or to position it in the “middle” so it appeals to both national brands' target segments. In the process we identify four distinct category management strategies that a retailer can use with a store brand. In three of these the optimal store brand price is the brand's monopoly price, while in the remaining one strategy the price is lower. We also suggest an easy to implement means for a retailer to determine which strategy is best to use, depending on the particular competitive environment present before the introduction of the store brand and the relative quality of the store brand. We find that the store brand entry is most beneficial to the retailer when the national brands are moderately differentiated. Finally we show that introducing a store brand not only allows the retailer to garner a higher share of the channel profits through higher retail margins, but also often provides the retailer the benefit of increases in national brand unit sales as well as incremental sales from the store brand. JEL Classification: M310     

Applications of parks management information systems

The paper presents a conceptual model of an integrated management information system for municipal parks maintenance and operations. Research efforts in management information systems are presented in three categories: Business Research, Federally Sponsored Research, and Park and Recreation Systems Research. A case is made for further empirical research, the development of normative models, and evaluative criteria in an attempt to realize the full potential of electronic data processing in parks and recreation.     

一种深度残差网络构建的5G无线智能传播模型

为建立更为准确的全覆盖、全应用、全频谱的5G无线信道模型，提出通过认知无线电与深度神经网络相结合的方法研究无线电波传播特性。根据传统无线传播模型并考虑到不同传播环境，根据信道大尺度衰落特性（包括路径损耗、阴影衰落和小尺度衰落特性）的统计结果，通过BP算法提取特征，并应用FeatureTools进行深度特征综合建立特征方程，计算特征变量与传播损耗的相关系数，进行相关系数的置信区间及变量独立性检验，最终筛选出22个特征并排序。基于深度残差网络建立传播路径损耗的回归模型，结合批正则化过拟合测算平均接收功率，为建立更精确的无线信道模型提供了量化依据，并最终在测试数据集上取得均方根误差8.36（本地）和10.03（云端）的成绩，对工程实践具有较强的参考价值。     

The Business Cycle and Profitability of Trading Strategies

Recent studies show that investor participation in the stock market rises during economic expansion and drops in economic recession. When investor participation is high, investors’ cognitive and behavioral biases are likely to have a strong influence on stock prices. We consider four trading strategies that are based on well-known market anomalies and examine their profitability under different economic conditions. For all four strategies, the portfolios that are formed in the months when the economy is expanding obtain significant profits, whereas the portfolios formed in economic recession months are not profitable. This finding is robust to different ways of classifying recession months.     

Rational plunging and the option value of sequential investment: The case of petroleum exploration

The potential to invest sequentially in related assets creates a tradeoff between diversification and concentration. Loading a portfolio with correlated assets has the potential to inflate variance, but also creates information spillovers and real options that may augment total return and mitigate variance. We examine this tradeoff in the context of petroleum exploration. Using a simple model of geological dependence, we show that the value of learning options creates incentives for investors to plunge into dependence; i.e., to assemble portfolios of highly correlated exploration prospects. Risk-neutral and risk-averse investors are distinguished not by the plunging phenomenon, but by the threshold level of dependence that triggers such behavior. Aversion to risk does not imply aversion to dependence. Indeed the potential to plunge should be larger for risk-averse investors than for risk-neutral investors. We test the empirical validity of our theory by examining bidding activity in petroleum lease sales. We find significant plunging behavior across a broad sample of oil companies. We also find that privately-held firms pursue even more concentrated (less diversified) prospect portfolios than publicly-held firms—which we attribute to risk aversion rather than size.     

Partially anticipated events: A model of stock price reactions with an application to corporate acquisitions

This paper presents a model of stock price reactions to partially anticipated events. The model formalizes the intuition that stock price reactions reflect both the economic importance of events and the extent to which events are surprises. Unbiased estimates of the economic importance of partially anticipated events must combine stock price reactions to events with stock price movements in periods when no event occurs. The model is used to estimate the value of acquisition attempts made by frequently acquiring firms. For a sample of thirty active acquirers, the evidence indicates that acquisition attempts were profitable investment projects.     

当前我国国家、精英和大众间关系存在的问题及解决路径

近年来,我国的群体性事件频频发生,这些事件从一个侧面折射出我国改革过程中精英、大众和国家之间在互动过程中存在的种种问题,主要表现为以下三方面：国家强势下的困境：精英联盟;精英优势中的阻力：大众抗争;大众弱势上的滥觞：国家干涉。这三个方面的问题若得不到有效的解决,将会进一步影响我国的社会稳定。因此,为解决上述问题,应从制度和精神层面进行思考。