Shopping mode choice: Physical store shopping versus e-shopping

This study aims to explore how consumers evaluate these time attributes; i.e., the value of time, when they are facing a shopping mode choice between physical store shopping and e-shopping. For this purpose, it conducts an experiment to acquire data on respondents’ stated preference choices between physical bookstore shopping and online bookstore shopping. It is finally found that the value of delivery time for a purchased book from an online bookstore to a consumer is approximately $0.53 per day, which means an online bookstore will have to lower a book’s price by $0.53 to attract a physical bookstore shopper if the delivery is delayed for one day. It is also found that in terms of monetary values, avoiding a shopping trip produces far more benefits than bearing waiting for the delivery of books for an online purchase.     

Analyzing discrepancies between willingness to pay and willingness to accept for freight transport attributes

In this paper we use discrete choice data to analyze asymmetries in the preference for freight transport attributes. A reference dependent utility specification allowed us to test for the existence of substantial asymmetries in perception of the transport cost. Hence, the re-estimation of our models in the WTP/WTA space helped us to quantify significant discrepancies between the WTP and WTA for the attributes included in the choice experiment, namely transit time, service frequency and delays in delivery time. Results are deemed essential to define alternative services to road capable to attract substantial volumes of freight.     

Modelling the preference for business charter in the cross-strait market

This paper aims at investigating business travelers' choice behavior between business charter (BC) and the business class of commercial airlines in the cross-strait market. This study applies the stated preference method and sets five scenarios with the combination of various levels of fares, waiting time, privacy and expedient clearance services and inflight communication equipment. Data were collected by purposive sampling and interviewing business travelers near the VIP centers, departure lounges, and the baggage claim areas of Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport. A sample with 420 business travelers from Taipei to Shanghai was collected. Then, the binary logit model was employed to analyze how service attributes influence Taiwanese business travelers' choice behavior between BC and business class. Estimation results indicate that fare is the most important factor. Other factors such as gender, seniority, and the number of business trips during the previous year remain significant on the probabilities of choosing BC. Additionally, five specific features of BC were set as dummy variables in the model. Those are transfer time saving, travel time controlling, client entertainment, customer visits and international conference attendance. All of them have positive effects on the preference for using BC.     

Optimal delivery service strategy for Internet shopping with time-dependent consumer demand

This study attempts to optimize a delivery service strategy for Internet shopping by considering time-dependent consumer demand, demand–supply interaction and consumer socioeconomic characteristics. A nonlinear mathematical programming model is formulated for solving the optimal number and duration of service cycles for discriminating strategy by maximizing profit subject to demand–supply interaction. An example is employed to demonstrate the application of the model. Results suggest that discriminating service strategy is a better strategy in response to time-dependent consumer demand than uniform strategy. Finally, the proposed model is demonstrated to yield more profit than models that do not consider variations in consumer demand or demand–supply interaction.     

Drone service response: Spatiotemporal heterogeneity implications

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, often called drones, have rapidly emerged for commercial and personal use in recent years. Drones are a promising and effective transportation mode because they can travel faster than traditional ground-based vehicles, particularly when obstacles limit quick response or in cases of congestion. An important consideration for drones is that travel times are impacted in various ways by real-time local conditions, including weather and terrain. While goods and supplies can be acquired at more traditional outlets (e.g., stores, warehouses, restaurants, hospitals, fire stations, etc.), drones are being increasingly relied upon to extend access, particularly for special services associated with food, drug, and equipment delivery. The reason is that they can reliably access almost anywhere, providing quick response without the need for more expensive (and larger) vehicles that are restricted to congested roadways. How to locate drone base stations and allocate service in order to optimize overall response is a challenging task, especially given spatiotemporal heterogeneity in distributed demand and service response times/costs that can vary over a day. This paper introduces an extension of p-median problem to aid in the deployment of a drone system that accounts for continuous planar travel costs. Results show that drone travel times can be significantly reduced across a region. A key feature in this work is the representation of both demand and flight trajectories across a continuous terrain.     

The sensitivity of the valuation of travel time savings to the specification of unobserved effects

The behavioural value of travel time savings (VTTS) remains a controversial data item in the evaluation of transport projects. Over the last 40 years we have seen numerous empirical studies on the amount that an individual or firm is willing to pay to save a unit of travel time (or more precisely transfer a fixed amount of time from one activity to another). With a few exceptions, the majority of empirical studies have used essentially the same data metric and model estimation procedure. The most popular approaches have used either revealed preference (RP) or stated preference (SP) data and a multinomial logit (MNL) choice model to identify marginal rates of substitution between travel time and price of a trip. A few more advanced studies have integrated RP and SP data and have explored the gains in behavioural power of models that relax, to varying degrees, the underlying assumptions that produce the MNL model. This paper highlights the potential gains from a more carefully considered structure of the unobserved effects which condition the form of a discrete choice model, and hence the possible misinference from the simpler MNL specification. We demonstrate the implication for VTTS estimates of serial correlation between the SP treatments, covariance amongst alternatives, presence of individual specific (random) effects or heterogeneity, and differential variance of the unobserved effects.     

Estimation of option and non-use values for intercity passenger rail services

This paper considers option and non-use values of intercity passenger rail services in Korea. The total economic value of a given transport service can be classified into use, option and non-use values, but other grouping rules can be applied, respectively. The use value is the consumer’s surplus from the actual ride of a specific mode. The option value, on the other hand, can be defined as a traveller’s willingness to pay for reserving a travel mode, which is not his or her main choice, as a standby alternative. Finally, the non-use value represents benefits that are not attributable to the actual use or option use, but to the vicarious, altruistic, functional and existing worth of a transport service. A random stated preference survey based on a double-bounded dichotomous choice is conducted. A survival model is applied to the data collected. Calculations are based on trip makers’ willingness to pay for option and non-use values, using the parameters of the estimated survival model. Some concluding remarks are also presented.     

Location of logistics companies: a stated preference study to disentangle the impact of accessibility

Due to the globalization and the fragmentation of industrial production processes, the logistics sector, organizing the linkages between different production plants and the market, is growing fast. This results in an increasing demand for suitable new business locations. Previous research has indicated that accessibility is a key factor in the location decision making process. Though the literature on this subject is extensive, little research has been done to quantify the impact of the different dimensions of accessibility on the location decision process of logistics companies. This paper aims to fill this void in the literature by means of a revealed preference study (using a Geographic Information System (GIS) analysis) and a stated preference study (using a designed discrete choice experiment) in Flanders (Belgium). The results of the revealed preference study served as input to the design of the choice situations in the stated preference study. In the stated preference study, the respondents were confronted with a series of choice situations described by means of accessibility variables as well as land rent information. An analysis of the resulting data by means of discrete choice modeling revealed that land rent is the most important factor in the location choice of logistics companies in Flanders. Access to a port is the second most important factor, followed by access to a motorway, the location in a business park and an inland navigation terminal, which are all about equally important. Access to a rail terminal plays no significant role in the location choice of logistics companies in Flanders.     

A study on pricing and delivery strategy for e-retailing systems

This study investigates the dynamics between price and lead time for an e-retailing system in which one of its commodities is offered by two duopolistic suppliers. A Stackelberg game is formulated by considering the two suppliers as the leaders and the e-retailer as the follower. The proposed model assists the channel members in getting an equilibrium relationship in a competitive environment. The results suggest that when a supplier chooses a shorter lead time as the competitive strategy, the other supplier should choose a lower price for counteraction, and channel members should understand the characteristics of demand before promoting their commodities.     

Latent class models of international air carrier choice

This paper uses a market segmentation approach to identify airline passengers’ potential segments and preferences toward international air carriers. The modeling approaches consist of the stated preference method and the latent class model. The stated choice experiments were designed based on service attributes in the international airline choice context. Empirical data was collected from airline passengers who have flown from Taipei to Tokyo or from Taipei to Hong Kong. The latent class model accommodating preference heterogeneity outperforms the multinomial logit model as indication of a better approach to analyze airline choice behavior. The latent class model with individual socioeconomic and trip characteristics in segment membership functions also improved model fit relative to the corresponding latent class model without individual characteristics. The values of willingness to pay for service attribute improvements vary across international air routes and segments. Passengers are willing to pay more for better service quality. In order to develop effective marketing and operational strategies for the international air travel market, this study highlights the importance of exploring airline choice behaviors by routes and segments.     

Urban freight demand forecasting: A mixed quantity/delivery/vehicle-based model

The research germinates from the statement that the cities have to solve the impacts due to freight transport in order to improve their sustainability implementing sets of city logistics measures. But city logistics measures involve several actors and choice dimensions. It is therefore important to have methods and models able to assess the effectiveness of the measures to be implemented. The current models were mainly developed to simulate some aspects of urban freight transport, and are not able to forecast many impacts of implementing traffic and transportation measures at an urban scale.This paper presents a modelling approach that tries to point out the relations existing among city logistics measures, actors and choice dimensions. It comprises three model sub-systems to estimate the quantity O–D matrices by transport service type (e.g. retailer on own account or wholesaler on own account or by carrier), the delivery O–D matrices by delivery time period, and the vehicle O–D matrices according to delivery tour departure time and vehicle type.This modelling system is a multi-stage model and considers a discrete choice approach for each decisional level. It was first tested using some data collected in the inner area of Rome, including traffic counts and interviews with retailers and truck-drivers. The model estimations were also compared with the experimental ones, and quite satisfactory results were obtained.     

Small community airport choice behavior analysis: A case study of GTR

The issue of airport selection attracts considerable attention. However, most studies focus on using advanced discrete choice models to analyze airport choice behavior in metropolitan areas with several closely located, competing airports. This paper addresses passengers’ choice behavior in selecting between local small community airports and more distant major commercial airport. It looks at factors affecting air travelers’ airport choice behavior in cities with small community air service. Data relating to the Golden Triangle Regional Airport in Mississippi is used in logistic regressions to identify the key factors that influence air travelers’ airport choices. Ticket price, experience with Golden Triangle Regional Airport and flight schedule were found to be the strongest effects.     

Air itinerary choice in a low-frequency market: A decision rule approach

This paper focuses on low frequency airline service patronage using the data from a survey conducted at Imam Khomeini International Airport in Tehran, Iran. It uses Dominance-based Rough Set Approach (DRSA) for modeling passengers’ choices. We compare the method with discrete choice models using a prediction potential measure. Unlike discrete choice methods, it can use qualitative and categorized data without having to transform them into dummy variables. It is found that the prediction accuracy of the proposed technique is better than that of the discrete choice model for the case under consideration.     

An utility-based decision support sustainability model in slow steaming maritime operations

This paper analyses slow steaming sustainability initiatives and generalizes the traditional discrete cost-based decision support model into novel continuous utility-based models. Two models based on logarithmic and linear utility functions are developed for risk-averse and risk-neutral decision makers respectively. The models, considering fuel consumption, carbon emission, and on time delivery, are applied to a Trans-pacific trade service route. A sensitivity analysis is conducted on parameters of sailing distance, expected transit time, quantity, and emission policies. The model contributes to ship liners on the optimal speed decisions in continuous utility-based slow steaming operations.     

Measuring the economic effects of bilateral liberalization air transport

This paper develops a model that measures the equilibrium changes and welfare consequences of liberalizing the fare, entry and service levels of a bilateral air transport agreement. The model also provides measures of the distribution of gains and losses across the consumers and airlines of each country involved in the bilateral as well as those of any third foreign country that may be affected through traffic diversion as a result of changes in the bilateral. In our model, service quality aspects are treated in the framework of hedonic price theory by specifying the quality-adjusted price (quantity) as a multiplication of the observed price (quantity) by the reciprocal quality index function (the quality index function). The model is illustrated using the Canada–Japan bilateral to assess alternative combinations of changes to fare, frequency and entry restrictions. We report the outcomes for market share, airline profits, fares and consumer welfare.     

A study on travelers' transport mode choice behavior using the mixed logit model: A case study of the Seoul-Jeju route

This study is to analyze passengers' choice of the mode of transportation when air transportation is in competition with high speed rail (HSR). The Seoul-Jeju route analyzed as an empirical case study, in which the construction of an undersea tunnel to connect Seoul and Jeju city by HSR has been considered. The study also included two new variables, ‘safety of transportation’ and ‘availability of duty free shopping’ in addition to traditional transport choice variables such as travel time, travel costs and frequency of service to reflect special characteristics of the market. As data gathering tools, SP techniques and mixed logit model, for analytical methodology, were utilized. The authors found that the goodness of fit of the models was improved with new variables. The models also showed that the characteristics of business passengers and leisure passengers in choosing the mode of transportation were different. Business passengers were apt to choose a safety secured mode of transportation regardless of fare while leisure passengers preferred to use duty free shops more than business passengers.     

The formation of the tourist's loyalty to the tourism distribution channel: how does it affect price discounts?

Given that distribution agents who wish to maximize long‐term business profits should not only attract new consumers but also keep them loyal, this study analyses the variables that determine the consumer's loyalty to distribution agents for tourism. Although retailers in the service industry employ price discounts on products to motivate short‐term sales, they often establish promotional policies without considering their effect on the long‐term business results. This paper presents an empirical study of the effect of price promotions on tourists who travelled with a package tour. The results indicate that price discounts do not erode consumer loyalty directly, and that the key to obtaining loyal consumers is to offer package tours that customers perceive as providing high‐quality service. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Estimation of traffic density from drone-based delivery in very low level urban airspace

Driven by rising consumer demand, interest is growing in the application of autonomous unmanned aerial vehicles (drones) for the last-mile delivery of small express packages and fast-food meals in cities. To be realised, this would require the Very Low Level (VLL) urban airspace to be able to cope with high traffic densities of commercial delivery drones. The potential benefits of such novel drone-based applications are a reduction of traffic congestion in cities, lower greenhouse gas emissions and more efficient transportation operations. To help realise this concept, programs such as U-Space, the unmanned traffic management system for Europe, are developing important services such as deconfliction management and dynamic capacity management. However, for several of these services, design choices will depend on how, and how extensive they will be used. It therefore becomes important to estimate how many delivery drones would operate in a typical city. This paper aims to provide an estimate by establishing a framework to determine the traffic demand for express drone-based package delivery of five European countries. In addition, a detailed case-study is presented for determining traffic density of express package drone delivery for Paris metropolitan area in order to assess the feasibility from a user's perspective. The paper also discusses the potential of fast-food meal delivery drones compared to traditional delivery modes for Paris. Results suggest that hourly traffic densities culminating from express package and fast-food meal delivery drones will exceed today's global commercial aircraft traffic of 10,000 per day by more than six-fold for just one potential metropolitan city.     

Public bike system pricing and usage in Taipei

Although widely implemented, public bike systems (PBSs) are facing a conflict between system usage and sustainable financing. The relationships between PBS pricing and usage must be clarified to formulate solutions for the conflict. This research used the Taipei PBS, YouBike, as a case study. A stated preference survey was conducted on metro passengers, and a binary logit model was applied to analyze the pricing effects of PBS on passengers’ choice of using PBS as their transfer mode. A latent class model was also used to identify segment-specific preferences. The empirical data show that whether commuters used PBS as a transfer mode was highly dependent on the basic fee and basic period, but not on the variable fee after the basic period; the basic fee mattered to a commuter's choice more than the basic period; irregular PBS users were more sensitive to the basic fee than regular PBS users; and regular PBS users were more sensitive to the basic period than irregular PBS users. The current results broaden the understanding of how PBS pricing affects its usage and illustrate a pricing policy analysis for YouBike that considers sustainable financing and system usage.     

What drives passenger loyalty to traditional and low-cost airlines? A formative partial least squares approach

Based on a case study involving passengers from Lufthansa, Croatia Airlines and Germanwings, we examine the determinants of passenger loyalty among users of traditional full-service airlines and of low-cost carriers. In particular, using formative modeling the study analyzes the effects of service quality and price on carrier choice and loyalty.