When the purpose lies within: Maximizers and satisfaction with autotelic choices

Are maximizers less satisfied with their choices than satisficers? This research provides a novel perspective on this question by distinguishing between two types of consumer goals: autotelic, when choice is a goal in itself, and instrumental, when a choice is a means to achieving other goals. Study 1 showed that maximizers value autotelic experiences more than satisficers. Study 2 experimentally manipulated the choice goal and found that maximizers compared to satisficers experience higher choice satisfaction when the choice goal is autotelic rather than instrumental. Additionally, evidence is provided for the underlying mechanism (perceived ease of choice) as well as downstream consequences (consumers’ willingness to pay for their chosen option). These findings advance a conceptualization of maximizers as consumers seeking self-contained meaning in choice and provide new insights into the relation between maximizing and choice satisfaction. Theoretical and practical implications for consumer decision-making are discussed.     

Effect of Message Interactivity on Product Attitudes and Purchase Intentions

ABSTRACT

Social media increasingly allows consumers to interact with businesses, although the effects of this novel technology in the context of public relations are under-examined. Consistent with the ideas proposed by the Elaboration Likelihood Model, the present study conducted a 2 × 3 online experiment with a sample of 131 participants to examine the effect of message interactivity and source authority on consumers' ad attitudes, brand attitudes, and purchase intentions. Message interactivity had a positive effect on ad effectiveness via the indirect pathway of perceived informativeness. These findings relate to the ELM in that they suggest that users processed information more centrally than peripherally, or that interactivity had a larger effect on consumer attitudes than authority. Theoretical and practical implications of study results are discussed.     

Techno-economic modeling of value network configurations for public wireless local area access

The growing amount of mobile data traffic increases the demand for local area network deployments, and therefore is likely to have an effect on the mobile communications ecosystem. Several alternative value network configurations exist giving new business opportunities to different actors, but the attractiveness and success of local area access provisioning remains uncertain. This article analyzes the business of public local area access from the point of view of two potential providers: service application providers, i.e. companies whose core business is to provide information and content services in the Internet, and mobile operators. A quantitative techno-economic model is constructed to quantify the costs and required revenues of operating viable public local area access networks. The results show that the revenue requirements vary between public venue types and value network configurations.     

Investigation of the Greek – Turkish Military Spending Relation

In this paper, the relation between the Greek and Turkish military spending is investigated, examining first the identification of its exact statistical form, and second, a diachronically constant ratio between the two magnitudes. Using annual nominal data over the period from 1949 to 2008, the stationarity of the series is tested by performing a sequential Augmented Dickey-Fuller (ADF) and a Kwiatkowski?CPhillips?CSchmidt?CShin (KPSS) unit root test. Both the long?Crun equilibrium relation among the series of the Greek and Turkish military spending and their diachronically constant ratio are estimated following a Johansen cointegration analysis.     

What if they had not Gone Negative? A Counterfactual Assessment of the Impact from Negative Interest Rates

The counterfactual estimation technique of Pesaran and Smith ( 2016 ) is employed to provide an assessment of the impact stemming from the implementation of negative interest rates in three European economies (Denmark, Sweden and Switzerland). The analysis indicates that negative interest rates did not have a significant effect on bank lending growth or inflation in any country. This failure to reject the policy ineffectiveness hypothesis most likely lies in the fact that negative interest rates did not ease the situation for the factors restricting the supply of bank lending, namely bank funding costs and Return‐on‐Equity.     

Optimal investment,derivative demand,and arbitrage under price impact

This paper studies the optimal investment problem with random endowment in an inventory‐based price impact model with competitive market makers. Our goal is to analyze how price impact affects optimal policies, as well as both pricing rules and demand schedules for contingent claims. For exponential market makers preferences, we establish two effects due to price impact: constrained trading and nonlinear hedging costs. To the former, wealth processes in the impact model are identified with those in a model without impact, but with constrained trading, where the (random) constraint set is generically neither closed nor convex. Regarding hedging, nonlinear hedging costs motivate the study of arbitrage free prices for the claim. We provide three such notions, which coincide in the frictionless case, but which dramatically differ in the presence of price impact. Additionally, we show arbitrage opportunities, should they arise from claim prices, can be exploited only for limited position sizes, and may be ignored if outweighed by hedging considerations. We also show that arbitrage‐inducing prices may arise endogenously in equilibrium, and that equilibrium positions are inversely proportional to the market makers' representative risk aversion. Therefore, large positions endogenously arise in the limit of either market maker risk neutrality, or a large number of market makers.     

Economies of scale,cost minimization and productivity in telecom markets under economic crisis: evidence from Greece

Telecommunications has entered a new age of development with advanced technology and increased competition with established players. The main focus of telecom operators is to maintain and increase their market shares by creating a loyal customer base and technology advancements. However, it remains difficult for telecom operators to evaluate their performance and competence within a fast-changing environment, especially since the telecom business is complex and involves unknown trade-offs. The current study proposes a series of methods in order to evaluate the performance of telecommunication companies, using as a case study the Hellenic Telecommunications Organization (OTE). OTE’s importance lies on its role as one of the leading companies in Greece affecting the economy. On the methodological side, this paper applies the linear regression analysis to measure and evaluate the performance of OTE. The results show that during the period 2005-2015 there are events which affect the operation of OTE and create conditions for cost optimization which are of great importance and they determine the future evolution of the organization. The results of this study are expected to be utilized as guidelines for the telecom operators as well as for regulators and decision makers in general.     

Using Attribute Importance Rankings Within Discrete Choice Experiments: An Application to Valuing Bread Attributes

We present a new Bayesian econometric specification for a hypothetical Discrete Choice Experiment (DCE) incorporating respondent ranking information about attribute importance. Our results indicate that a DCE debriefing question that asks respondents to rank the importance of attributes helps to explain the resulting choices. We also examine how mode of survey delivery (online and mail) impacts model performance, finding that results are not substantively affected by the mode of survey delivery. We conclude that the ranking data are a complementary source of information about respondent utility functions within hypothetical DCEs.     

Have the GIPSI settled down? Breaks and multivariate stochastic volatility models for,and not against,the European financial integration

We investigate the integration of the European peripheral financial markets with Germany, France, and the UK using a combination of tests for structural breaks and return correlations derived from several multivariate stochastic volatility models. Our findings suggest that financial integration intensified in anticipation of the Euro, further strengthened by the EMU inception, and amplified in response to the 2007/2008 financial crisis. Hence, no evidence is found of decoupling of the equity markets in more troubled European countries from the core. Interestingly, the UK, despite staying outside the EMU, is not worse integrated with the GIPSI than Germany or France.     

Sense and sensibility in personalized e‐commerce: How emotions rebalance the purchase intentions of persuaded customers

This research develops and tests a theoretical model of customer persuasion in personalized online shopping, building on information processing theory, and addressing cognitive and affective stages of the persuasion process. Data from 582 experienced online customers were used to validate the proposed model through structural equation modeling and multigroup analysis. Results show that quality of personalization, message quality, and benefits of the personalized recommendations are important in the persuasion process. Positive emotions increase the effect of persuasion on purchase intentions, contrary to negative emotions. The study extends online personalization theory, offers an in‐depth analysis of the persuasion process in online shopping, and provides valuable recommendations for personalized online marketing.