Modelling purchases as a function of advertising and promotion

This article describes the preliminary studies of the effect of advertising and promotion on purchases. The British single-source database Adlab has been the basis for this study of advertising and promotion effectiveness. The ST AS measure and logit modelling have been used to estimate the effect of advertising. The results from the two measures have been compared to determine the extent to which the two measures give occasion for the same conclusions. To indicate the accuracy of the two measures, their respective levels of significance have been studied. Two logit models have been estimated; one only includes the effect of TV exposure, while the other also includes the effect of promotions. The results from the two logit models are compared to determine which model gives the most accurate estimate of the effect of advertising. When comparing the results from the STAS measure with the parameter estimates from the second logit model, it is found that these two different measures largely lead to similar conclusions. Suggestions for further research and developments of the models are given.     

The Impact of Private Interest Contributions on RPS Adoption

In the last two decades, many U.S. states introduced policies to promote electricity generation from renewable energy sources (RES‐E). Renewable portfolio standards (RPS) are considered to be the key RES‐E policy tool to date. This article tackles the question on why some state legislators were front‐running the trend of RPS implementation whereas others adopted policies just recently, and why others have not adopted them at all. We compile data on financial contributions of conventional energy interest groups (CEI) and renewable energy interest groups (REI) to state‐level policy‐makers between 1998 and 2010. By means of hazard and tobit regressions, we test the effect of these financial contributions on the probability of RPS adoption and on RPS stringency. The article provides evidence in favor of interest group theory. First, CEI have donated more to state‐level legislators affiliated with the Republican Party than to Democrats while contributions from REI went largely to the latter. Second, there are statistically significant links between the likelihood of RPS adoption and private interest contributions. Contributions from CEI have a negative effect on the likelihood of RPS adoption whereas REI contributions have a positive effect.     

Which past returns affect trading volume?

Anecdotal evidence suggests and recent theoretical models argue that past stock returns affect subsequent stock trading volume. We study 3,000 individual investors over a 51 month period to test this apparent link between past returns and volume using several different panel regression models (linear panel regressions, negative binomial panel regressions, Tobit panel regressions). We find that both past market returns as well as past portfolio returns affect trading activity of individual investors (as measured by stock portfolio turnover, the number of stock transactions, and the propensity to trade stocks in a given month). After high portfolio returns, investors buy high risk stocks and reduce the number of stocks in their portfolio. High past market returns do not lead to higher risk taking or underdiversification. We argue that the only explanations for our findings are overconfidence theories based on biased self-attribution and differences of opinion explanations for high levels of trading activity.     

Freeing work from the constraints of location and time

Information technology makes possible working patterns with flexibility in location and time. But traditional assumptions of managerial control serve as a strong deterrent. This article deals with these issues through an analysis of interviews at ICL and Texaco UK, with managers and high-level employees who work partially at home. Rank Xerox networkers are used as a point of comparison .     

Simulation study of a closed-loop job shop

This study investigates the behavior of a job shop depicted as an integral component of a firm. A market places demands for the firm's products by dynamically evaluating the organization's quoted delivery times and actual delivery performance. The closed-loop model simulated in this study is described and the salient research results are reported. These experimental outcomes suggest that other conventional open-loop job shop studies tend to neglect important interactions with factors external to the shop itself.     

Consumer understanding of food labels: toward a generic tool for identifying the average consumer

The ‘average consumer’ is referred to as a standard in regulatory contexts when attempts are made to benchmark how consumers are expected to reason while decoding food labels. An attempt is made to operationalize this hypothetical ‘average consumer’ by proposing a tool for measuring the level of informedness of an individual consumer against the national median at any time. Informedness, i.e. the individual consumer's ability to interpret correctly the meaning of the words and signs on a food label is isolated as one essential dimension for dividing consumers into three groups: less-informed, informed, and highly informed consumers. Consumer informedness is assessed using a 60-question test related to information found on a variety of Danish everyday food products and divided into factual questions and informedness about signpost labels. A test was made with 407 respondents who participated in four independent studies on fairness in consumer communication, and the average score for all was 57.6% of correct answers. A score of 64% and beyond would place a consumer in the upper quartile (the group of highly informed consumers), whereas a score of 52% or below would place the individual in the lower quartile (the group of less-informed consumers). Female respondents performed better than males on label recognition, and those around 40 years of age irrespective of gender performed best on factual knowledge, whereas those aged around 30 performed best on label recognition. It is foreseen that independent future studies of consumer behavior and decision making in relation to food products in different contexts could benefit from this type of benchmarking tool.     

Gemeinkostencontrolling bei interdependenten Leistungstransfers auf Basis von ?QUATTRO“?

Probleme des Gemeinkostencontrolling bzw. des Kostenstellencontrolling werden in der Literatur überwiegend in Form jeweils isolierter Ist-Sollvergleiche und Abweichungsanalysen unter Bezugnahme auf die Prim?rkosten behandelt.     

Guidelines for commercial negotiators

Most negotiators would be happy to sharpen and refine their bargaining skills. The following points, drawn from practical experience, can help them do so.     

Framing Effects in Stock Market Forecasts: The Difference Between Asking for Prices and Asking for Returns

Studies analyzing return expectations of financial market participantslike fund managers, CFOs or individual investors are highlyinfluential in academia and practice. We argue and show thatthe results in these surveys above are easily influenced bythe elicitation mode of return expectations. Surveys that askfor future stock price levels are more likely to produce meanreverting expectations than surveys that directly ask for futurereturns. Furthermore, we conduct a questionnaire study thatexplicitly analyzes whether the specific elicitation mode affectsreturn expectations in the above direction. In our study, subjectswere asked to state mean forecasts for seven time series. Usinga between subject design, one half of the subjects was askedto state future price levels, the other group was directly askedfor returns. We observe a highly significant framing effect.For upward sloping time series, the return forecasts statedby investors in the return forecast mode are significantly higherthan those derived for investors in the price forecast mode.For downward sloping time series, the return forecasts givenby investors in the return forecast mode are significantly lowerthan those derived for investors in the price forecast mode.We argue that this finding is consistent with behavioral theoriesof investor expectation formation based on the representativenessheuristic.     

Solar energy—An alternative source for power generation

Diminishing fossil fuel resources, and the serious doubts involved with nuclear power production, demand an unexploited and non-polluting power source. Advances in space technology and research have provided an answer-solar energy conversion. The technical and scientific possibilities of satellite conversion systems are outlined and evaluated.