Antecedents of mobile app usage among smartphone users

Although mobile apps are already an influential medium in the new media industry as a whole, these apps have received little academic attention within the communication and marketing literature. This study develops and tests a hypothesized model to explain antecedents affecting app usage among smartphone users. The analysis of the structural equation model determined a final model with four significant factors (perceived informative and entertaining usefulness, perceived ease of use, and user review). Cost-effectiveness, a key variable of this study due to the particularity of 99-cent app price, had no influence on app usage. This study not only includes marketing implications but also offers insight into various theoretical applications to the field of mobile communication research by suggesting a conceptual model for the acceptance of mobile apps.     

The influence of seller strategy on the winning price in online auctions: A moderated mediation model

This paper examines the impact of seller strategy on winning prices in online auctions. In our conceptual model, three strategic choices made by the seller - minimum opening price, auction length, and use of a hidden reserve price - are mediated by the number of bids placed during the auction and moderated by product type. Our tests analyze eBay auction data for four consumer products through two matched studies (two products per study). In particular, we compare products for which value is easily determined with those for which value is less clear. Overall, we find strong evidence of the effects of minimum opening price and hidden reserve prices on final winning prices. The impact of auction length on winning price is less clear. In general, our tests support the idea that potential buyers rely more on signals such as opening price and reserve price for products for which reference prices are less available.     

Consumer responses to characteristics of price-matching guarantees: The moderating role of price consciousness

The present study develops and tests a conceptual model of consumer response to different types of price-matching characteristics (i.e., refund depth, length, and scope) across consumer segments with varying levels of price consciousness. A computer shopping simulation results show that a deep refund is interpreted as a signal of low prices by nonprice conscious consumers. However, price conscious consumers are found to associate deep refunds with increased prices, an unintended outcome for the retailer. The effects of price-matching characteristics on search and purchase behavior were also found to vary across more and less price conscious consumer segments.     

质量、顾客满意和价格容忍度关系的实证研究

顾客满意已经成为新世纪企业管理理论和实践研究的热点问题。本文从顾客价格容忍度的角度研究顾客满意为企业带来的效益，并进一步比较不同品牌的产品，顾客满意对价格容忍度影响的差异。实证研究表明，顾客满意、产品质量和服务质量对价格容忍度均有显著的正向影响：品牌的服务质量越高，顾客满意对价格容忍度的影响越大。     

The Effect of Perceived Value and Switching Barriers on Customer Price Tolerance in Industrial Energy Markets

Purpose: This article analyzes the effects of perceived value, satisfaction, and switching barriers on price tolerance. It also examines the moderating effect of switching barriers.

Methodology/Approach: Empirical research was conducted by collecting information from a sample of 326 major gas and electricity consumers in a newly liberalized industrial market with a high concentration of suppliers.

Findings: Switching barriers are the main antecedent to price tolerance. Price tolerance of industrial customers depends directly on switching barriers more than on satisfaction. The customer satisfaction construct is a necessary but not sufficient predictor of price tolerance. While satisfaction has an effect on price tolerance, the effect of perceived value on price tolerance is only indirect through satisfaction, even though it may produce positive direct effects when there are high switching barriers.

Originality/Value/Contribution: For the first time in a B2B framework, the moderating effects of switching barriers on the relationship between perceived value, satisfaction, and price tolerance have been analyzed.     

Customer satisfaction and price tolerance

This study investigates the association between customer satisfaction and willingness-to-pay or price tolerance. The goal is not only to determine whether the association between customer satisfaction and price tolerance is positive or negative but also to gauge the degree of association. The Swedish Customer Satisfaction Barometer provides the data. The empirical analysis indicates a negative association between the level of customer satisfaction provided by the firm and the degree of price tolerance exhibited by its customers. However, a positive association is found between year-to-year changes in the levels of customer satisfaction and price tolerance.     

城市污水处理行业的激励性价格管制

本文在借鉴雪理佛和巴杰夫特提出的区域间比较竞争模型基础上,引入利润率和质量系数,构建了两阶段污水处理区域间比较竞争定价模型,主要运用数据包络分析方法确定标杆企业,以促进污水处理企业之间的比较竞争。并以浙江省污水处理行业为例,运用聚类分析方法对污水处理企业的异质性进行区分与分类,对典型的污水处理企业进行价格测算,为污水处理行业实行激励性价格管制提供理论依据。     

Getting a feel for price affect: A conceptual framework and empirical investigation of consumers' emotional responses to price information

Behavioral pricing research is cognitively biased. Therefore, the research agenda for this paper is to examine consumers' emotional responses to price information, or price affect. A conceptual framework of price affect based on appraisal theory is proposed. Moreover, a psychometric measure of price affect capturing positive and negative emotions is derived. A field experiment involving N = 1533 consumers reveals that a price increase leads to changes in price affect. Also, negative price affect is related to passive consumer behavior, whereas positive price affect is associated with proactive consumer behavior. Yet, a price increase reduces the importance of price affect in predicting consumer behavior. In addition, both price cognitions and price affect mediate the effect of a price increase on consumer behavior. Consistent with appraisal theory, a price increase exerts its causal influence on price affect through changes in price cognitions. Similarly, price affect mediates the effect of price cognitions on consumer behavior. Finally, price affect improves the prediction of consumer behavior beyond price cognitions. Results suggest that price affect is a stand alone, previously overlooked predictor of consumer behavior. Implications are discussed. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

From the Digital Internet to the Physical Internet: A Conceptual Framework With a Stylized Network Model

Despite the increasing academic interest and financial support for the Physical Internet (PI), surprisingly little is known about its operationalization and implementation. In this paper, we suggest studying the PI on the basis of the Digital Internet (DI), which is a well‐established entity. We propose a conceptual framework for the PI network using the DI as a starting point, and find that the PI network not only needs to solve the reachability problem, that is, how to route an item from A to B, but also must confront a more complicated optimality problem, that is, how to dynamically optimize a set of additional logistics‐related metrics such as cost, emissions and time for a shipment. These last issues are less critical for the DI and handled using relatively simpler procedures. Based on our conceptual framework, we then propose a simple network model using graph theory to support the operationalization of the PI. The model covers the characteristics of the PI raised in the current literature and suggests future directions for further quantitative analyses.     

我国房地产价格与通货膨胀关系的实证分析

近年来,我国房地产等资产的价格高涨所引起的“资产泡沫型通货膨胀”现象比较明显。通过观察我国近年来房屋销售价格指数和居民消费价格指数的走势发现,房地产高涨与通货膨胀之间具有很大的联动作用。因此,研究房地产价格与通货膨胀的关系,寻找破解房地产价格高涨、缓解通货膨胀压力的方法,具有重要的学术研究价值和现实意义。本文利用Granger因果关系检验模型,验证了我国房地产价格与通货膨胀关系之间存在Granger因果关系,并围绕高房价是怎样影响通货膨胀的逻辑思路,提出破解高房价、缓解“资产泡沫型通货膨胀”压力的解决方法。     

Opening the black box of gameful experience: Implications for gamification process design

Gamification is attracting the attention of practitioners and researchers because of its power to generate experiential value for users. However, despite its wide adoption by managers, the practice is poorly conceptualized. In response to this theoretical gap, we propose a set of foundational propositions developed using a microfoundational approach. We explain gameful experience, and we construct a conceptual framework that depicts the underlying process. We expand prior research on the topic through the notion of gameplay. Our conceptual discussion of gamification suggests a research agenda that can stimulate further academic efforts.     

Understanding Customers' Intention to Seek for a Better Deal in Electronic Marketplace: The Role of Tolerance for Sacrifice Gap

ABSTRACT

Online consumers make frequent use of the Internet to search for product and price information. In this study, an online model is proposed and empirically tested in investigating the role of tolerance for sacrifice gap in understanding customers' intention to seek for a better deal. Data was collected through an online survey. Structural equation modeling was employed to test hypotheses. The results show that tolerance for sacrifice gap was not only a strong predictor of intention for continuing search but also itself being related to consumer product knowledge, perceived control, and consumer product involvement. Direct relationship between another construct “perceived reduction in sacrifice gap” and “intention to seek for a better deal” was also found. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed.     

Promotional Strategies of Brand Leaders,Challengers, and Followers

Sales promotion tools are assuming increasingly im- portant roles in brand marketing strategies. A conceptual promotion model is proposed to capture the similarities and differences in the price and display based promotional practices and their effects on market shares for brand leaders. challengers and followers. Using a two stage econometric analysis, we observe a clear gradation in the effects of promotions on the market shares of these three categories of brands, respectively. The way in which price-promotion and dis- play decisions are coordinated is also found to be different for these three brand categories.     

SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT COORDINATION MECHANISMS

There is growing interest from industry and academic disciplines regarding coordination in supply chains, particularly addressing coordination mechanisms available to eliminate sub‐optimization within supply chains. However, there is a disconnect between what is known in academic research about coordination mechanisms and what mechanisms practitioners apply and consider useful. This research fills a gap in the literature by conducting an in‐depth qualitative study of supply chain coordination mechanisms, primarily price, non‐price, and flow coordination mechanisms. Results suggest that: (1) managers prefer flow coordination mechanisms over price and non‐price coordination mechanisms; (2) supply chain orientation and learning orientation are important for the implementation of flow coordination mechanisms; and (3) technology, capital, and volume are not pre‐requisites for flow coordination mechanisms.     

Defining Conceptual Understanding for Teaching in International Business

The aim of this exploratory study is to develop a definition of conceptual understanding for teaching in international business. In international business, professionals face complex problems like what to produce, where to manufacture, which markets to target, and when to expand abroad. A clear definition of conceptual understanding needed to solve such problems would provide design input for international business education. In three cycles, two independent expert panels with backgrounds in academic research, international business education, and international business practice identified and validated key components of conceptual understanding in international business. Key components are the global and local contexts, general and specific business practices, and theoretical business concepts and mechanisms. Other key characteristics include factual knowledge, explanation, and out-of-the-box thinking.     

Antecedents of private label attitude and national brand promotion attitude: similarities and differences

A model that addresses the similarities and differences in conceptual antecedents of attitudes toward private label grocery products and national brand promotions is proposed and tested. The proposed model is tested using a sample of 300 consumers who were recruited from grocery stores, provided behavioral data from sales receipts of their shopping trip, and responded to a survey that contained multi-item construct measures. We predict and find in the study that both price and nonprice related constructs impact both private label attitude and national brand promotion attitude, but the directionality and strength of several of these relationships differ. Implications of these findings for retailers and national manufacturers are discussed.     

Countervailing Power and Input Pricing: When is a Waterbed Effect Likely?

A downstream firm with countervailing power can extract a reduced price from an input supplier. A waterbed effect occurs if this price reduction leads the input supplier to raise the price that it charges another downstream firm. Policy makers have been concerned that this waterbed effect could undermine downstream competition and it was considered in detail in the 2008 UK grocery inquiry. This paper presents a simple but parsimonious model to investigate if and when a waterbed effect may arise. It shows that the effect may arise through optimal pricing behaviour, but that this critically depends on the nature of upstream technology, downstream competition and consumer demand. In particular, downstream competition tends to work against a waterbed effect, but convex upstream costs support the effect. The analysis is complementary to recent academic work on the waterbed effect that focuses on bargaining constraints.     

Retail location: the post hierarchical challenge

Location, like every other element of the retailing mix, is in a constant state of change. Yet academic conceptualizations of retailing location have changed little in the last thirty years. Indeed, this conceptual stasis stands in marked contrast to the dramatic methodological developments that have recently taken place. This paper examines the traditional, hierarchical model of urban retail location and presents an alternative, post-hierarchical perspective. A distinction is drawn between the shape or form of retailing locations and the functions found therein. A classification of urban retail locations is also proposed and a synthesis with the hierarchical model recommended.     

资产价格波动与金融稳定研究述评

资产价格波动与金融稳定的关系,一直是学术界研究的热点问题。近年来的研究认为资产价格波动与银行信贷的相互作用加强,进而日趋影响金融稳定;资产价格波动直接影响银行资本金和金融机构经营环境从而影响金融稳定;理论研究日益强调信息不对称以及“委托一代理”问题在资产价格波动影响金融稳定过程中的重要性。同时,大部份的实证研究都支持了资产价格波动对金融稳定具有重要影响的观点。一些学者就如何应对资产价格波动从而保持金融稳定的问题提出了针对性的建议。     

The Drivers of E-tailers' Price Levels

One of the most important topics in online pricing is understanding the drivers of online price levels for different types of retailers, in order to better understand competition across retail channels. We developed a conceptual framework and conducted an empirical analysis on price levels in the books category among different e-tailers (pure play and multichannel) in Italy and obtained a dataset comprising 5,400 price quotes during 2002. We ran a correlation analysis that showed that e-tailer graphics, branding and trust, and shipping services are highly correlated to price levels. Moreover, we developed a regression analysis that showed that first impact attributes like graphics and navigability are the most important drivers of online price levels. We identify some areas of future research and offer some managerial insights.