Fear appeals and coping appeals for health product promotion: Impulsive purchasing or psychological distancing?

The prevalence of online health communities (OHCs) motivates health product companies to manipulate persuasion-based marketing strategies, including fear appeals and coping appeals, to promote health products. However, whether such a practice is effective remains unclear. Respondents may either impulsively purchase the recommended health products or simply distance themselves psychologically from the information. Building on protection motivation theory (PMT), this study uncovers the mechanisms behind these two coping responses to persuasive messages, namely, the impulsive purchasing and psychological distancing of OHC users. Correspondingly, we evaluated 366 valid questionnaires, and the results reveal that (1) when encountering fear appeals, perceived health threat can evoke cyberchondria, leading to psychological distancing; and (2) when encountering coping appeals, perceived response efficacy leads to product affection, fostering impulsive purchasing. This study provides new insights into the effects of persuasive messages for health product promotion in social commerce. Marketers should design appropriate persuasive messages to foster impulsive purchasing by generating individuals’ product affection and avoiding cyberchondria.     

Mitigating panic buying behavior in the epidemic: An evolutionary game perspective

The panic buying behavior under public health emergencies will lead to many adverse consequences, such as material waste, price fluctuation and uneven distribution of epidemic prevention materials, which will pose a threat to the social stability and economic development. In this paper, we construct a tripartite game model to explore the strategic choices of the public, merchants and the government in order to effectively respond to the panic buying behavior in the epidemic. The results demonstrate that: (1) Eight evolutionary stable strategies emerge in the panic buying events. The worst scenario can be improved by adjusting some relevant parameters. (2) The probability of the public choosing the strategy of “not involving in panic buying” depends on the potential benefits and losses of snapping up, rather than the extent of price rising. (3) The probability of merchants choosing the strategy of “not bid up price” depends on the intangible benefits. (4) The probability of the government choosing the strategy of “active supervision” depends on the supervision costs and government credibility, rather than the amount of fines. In addition, strategic suggestions to mitigate panic buying behavior are put forward from the perspective of each stakeholder.     

企业数字化转型程度对融资成本的影响

近年来，大量企业基于数字化转型实现了弯道超车。选取2007—2021年A股上市公司数据，利用企业年报中数字关键词的词频来描述数字化转型程度，研究企业数字化转型程度对企业融资成本的影响。研究发现：企业数字化转型与融资成本显著负相关；检验延长时间窗口发现，在企业实施数字化转型后的一段时间内，数字化转型仍然降低了融资成本；根据异质性分析，数字化转型对非国有企业降低融资成本产生的效果更好，且东部地区企业深化数字化转型降低成本的作用更显著。     

全货运航空公司单分配严格枢纽航线网络优化设计

针对全货运航空公司，研究其货运航线网络的构建问题。基于单分配严格枢纽航线网络，对传统模型进行改进。以各航线上货物的委托运输成本和自有机队的运输成本，取代传统的单位运输成本和折扣因子，考虑枢纽点的中转成本和载运率对路径选择的影响。结合航空货运夜航的特征考虑各机队夜间可用时间的限制，以总成本最小为目标，构建数学模型，采用LINGO优化软件求解，验证模型的有效性，为全货运航空公司构建货运航线网络提供参考。     

CISG视角下争议解决费用的分摊

在国际货物销售合同纠纷中,争议解决费用往往是不可忽视的内容。在此基础之上,探讨CISG视角下的争议解决费用分摊问题兼具理论和实际意义。理论和实践中就CISG能否成为分摊争议解决费用的依据存在不同做法。差异背后的深层次原因在于有关方对CISG的立法精神和解释规则存在理解上的不同。本文支持依CISG分摊争议解决费用的观点,因为这不仅更契合于公约的精神,也更能实现公约适用的统一。域外的相关公约实践对我国同样具有借鉴意义。对于我国的有关实践,本文有4点建议:通过合同条款对争议解决费用的分摊加以明确;明确争议解决费用分摊的请求权基础;裁判主体应克服国内法思维,恪守公约精神进行条款的解释与适用;进一步明确争议解决费用分摊的国内法规则,从而实现国际法与国内法适用的统一。     

Endogeneity in survey research

Endogeneity is a crucial problem in survey-based empirical research on marketing strategy (MS) and inter-organizational relationships (IORs); if not addressed, it can cause researchers to arrive at flawed conclusions and to offer poor advice to practitioners. Although the field is increasingly cognizant of endogeneity-related issues, many authors fail to properly address it, particularly in survey-based research. Emphasizing the role of essential heterogeneity, this article develops an overarching framework to help improve the understanding of endogeneity problems and how to tackle them when researchers use cross-sectional survey-based data. The authors provide explanations of and advice for how MS and IOR researchers can address six “painful” and sometimes hidden decisions: 1) Do you have an endogeneity problem? 2) What technique/estimator is appropriate? 3) What instrumental variables (IVs) should be chosen? 4) How should IVs be evaluated empirically? 5) How should the results be interpreted and evaluated? and 6) What results should you report? The authors provide a practical flowchart to guide researchers in their efforts to address endogeneity-related concerns.     

Understanding innovation

While innovation has become a pervasive term, many of today’s organizations still find innovation elusive. One reason may be that much of what is being said about innovation contributes to misunderstanding. To truly manifest innovation and reap its benefits, one must recognize that innovation is three different things: innovation is an outcome, innovation is a process, and innovation is a mindset. Innovation as an outcome emphasizes what output is sought, including product innovation, process innovation, marketing innovation, business model innovation, supply chain innovation, and organizational innovation. Innovation as a process attends to the way in which innovation should be organized so that outcomes can come to fruition; this includes an overall innovation process and a new product development process. Innovation as a mindset addresses the internalization of innovation by individual members of the organization where innovation is instilled and ingrained along with the creation of a supportive organizational culture that allows innovation to flourish. Such an understanding defines necessary elements, considerations, and vernacular surrounding the term so that better decisions can be made, thereby enabling innovation and having a greater propensity to succeed.