Recommendation and repurchase intention thresholds: A joint heterogeneity response estimation

Recommendation and repurchase intentions are the two most important dimensions of customer loyalty. Latent satisfaction thresholds at the individual level, if obtained, can function as an additional valid and effective criterion for satisfaction ratings in determining customer loyalty. To improve the existing estimation methodology on satisfaction thresholds, this paper proposes a joint heterogeneity response model to simultaneously calibrate the individual-level recommendation and repurchase thresholds through a joint specification over the heterogeneity. It conducts a simulation study to examine the parameter recovery and model validation. This paper further applies the method to two different datasets of satisfaction surveys in the automotive industry, with the first involving owners of vehicles of a single brand, and the second involving owners of vehicles of multiple brands. The results from the two empirical studies show that the proposed model consistently outperforms the two competing models and the extant approach. In addition, the results provide different insights into enhancing customer loyalty by using a new segmentation scheme based on estimated satisfaction thresholds.     

Estimating the effects of higher coupon face values on the timing of redemptions,the mix of coupon redeemers,and purchase quantity

One of the key decisions a manager must make in designing a coupon promotion is to decide on the face value. In this study we examine the effects of higher face values on coupon redemption timing, category purchase timing, the mix of buyers who redeem the coupon, and purchase quantity. Data from a field experiment on coupon face values are used to test the hypotheses. A new method of measuring the effects of a coupon on category purchase timing is proposed. We find that coupons per se tend to advance category purchase timing, but higher face values do not increase the magnitude of this effect. Surprisingly, higher face values appear to increase redemption rates for both the prior nonbuyers and prior buyers of the brand in a similar way. However, higher face values have little effect on the package size purchased, the number of units purchased, or the total quantity (package size times units) purchased.     

Co-creation and service recovery process communication: effects on satisfaction,repurchase intentions,and word of mouth

After service failure situations, firms often carry out transactional activities to achieve customer recovery (CR), using corrective actions to restore the exchange (e.g., economic and social compensations). Furthermore, during the service recovery process, firms can encourage activities of co-creation (CC) to prevent similar future failures. This paper discusses the importance of CC and service recovery process communication (RPC), in which customers are informed of the adoption of solutions to address the cause of the failure, so as to avoid the same problem happening again. Experimental studies investigate the impact, individually and together, of CR, CC, and RPC on satisfaction, repurchase intentions, and word of mouth. The results indicate that CC and RPC improve customer’s satisfaction, repurchase intentions, and word of mouth. Firms that want to maximize the return on their efforts to prevent service failures, should encourage CC, develop solutions to prevent future failure recurrence, and implement strategies of RPC. Firms must decide how to promote CC and which media to use for RPC.     

The different faces of coupon elasticity

Coupons account for over two-thirds of all consumer promotional efforts initiated by the manufacturers of consumer goods. In this study, the impact of coupons on brand sales is investigated and how that impact decays over the life of the coupon is demonstrated. Specifically, we present an econometric model that can capture coupon effects in terms of equivalent price reduction, account for coupon effects over time, allow inference of coupon effects when retailers decide to double or triple the coupon value, and provide both self-coupon and cross-coupon elasticities at different levels of aggregation. A widely used sales response model is adapted, and an analytical model is proposed to estimate both the self-coupon and cross-coupon (face value) elasticities of sales at the store level. From the store-level elasticity estimates for a given week, the authors analytically derive the coupon elasticities for the chain level by aggregating across stores, and over the life of the coupon by aggregating over time. The proposed sales response model is estimated with the data obtained from three markets for various product categories, and the coupon elasticities are computed. The proposed framework allows one to demonstrate the hypothetical equivalence of a shelf-price reduction for a given coupon face value in each week. Also, the effect of doubling the face value of a coupon results in more than a proportionate increase in elasticity. The authors find that both self and cross-coupon elasticities are much smaller in magnitude than the average self and cross-price elasticity measures reported in the literature.     

A coupon is more than a low price: Evidence from a shopping-simulation study

To maximize consumer response to a price promotion, the manager needs to identify characteristics of the promotion that are critical to its effectiveness. This article describes a technique for doing this and applies the technique to an analysis of cents-off coupons. The result is an exploration of some of the characteristics of coupons, beyond their offer of a low price, that lead to their ability to influence brand trial.     

Category-specific coupon proneness: The impact of individual characteristics and category-specific variables

In seeking to enhance the effectiveness of coupon promotions, researchers have long sought to identify “coupon prone” consumers. Previous measures of coupon proneness have not examined differences in coupon usage across product categories and have ignored the confounding effect of coupon attractiveness. An Item Response Theory (IRT)-based framework overcomes these limitations and yields category-specific estimates of propensity to redeem coupons that are independent of coupon attractiveness. The authors utilize an IRT-based model to estimate consumers’ category-specific propensities to redeem coupons for two product and two service categories, and investigate how coupon proneness varies across consumers and across categories as a function of individual characteristics and category-specific variables.The authors find that category-specific measures of propensity to redeem coupons achieve an average accuracy of 89 percent in predicting redemption intentions. Propensity to redeem coupons is also found to be related to category-specific brand loyalty and perceived coupon availability, as well as to individual characteristics such as general coupon proneness, value consciousness and price consciousness. These findings highlight the importance of studying coupon proneness at the category level and suggest that the IRT-based approach has considerable promise as a methodology for studying coupon usage. Using the approach proposed in this study, marketers can forecast the impact coupons are likely to have in their particular category, rather than relying on general coupon proneness measures to predict coupon redemption rates at the category level. The study's findings can also be used to identify categories and consumer segments where coupon promotions are likely to have a larger impact, and have important implications for managers planning joint couponing strategies.     

Hispanic coupon usage: The impact of strong and weak ethnic identification

The fragmentation of mass markets and its economic importance has dramatically increased the need to better target and understand ethnic markets. This article argues that the strength of ethnic identification, which measures the strength to which a person feels tied to the culture of origin, is a key variable in understanding the impact of ethnicity on responses to marketing mixes. The major hypothesis driving this study therefore states that, when the strength of ethnic identification is high, the ethnic consumer will respond to marketing the way their parents' culture does. This study analyzes Hispanic consumers and demonstrates that Weak Hispanic identifiers are quite different from Strong Hispanic identifiers in their coupon usage, and that Weak Hispanic identifiers are more like the dominant culture. Specifically, this study shows that cultural reasons may overshadow economic reasons in explaining coupon usage and brand loyalty.     

Increasing pay transparency: A guide for change

The gender pay gap is an important issue today in the U.S. The lack of transparency surrounding pay in businesses is viewed as one cause of this gap. The first section of this article explores the origins of the gender pay gap and presents a brief history of pay transparency. Then, I propose a framework built from three continua that breaks the concept of pay transparency into types and levels. Using this framework, I offer guidance to organizations that want to increase pay transparency. The article concludes with a discussion of the risks associated with increased pay transparency and suggestions for future research.     

Risk factors at the travel destination: their impact on air travel satisfaction and repurchase intention

The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of four travel risk factors (natural disaster risk, physical risk, political risk, and performance risk) on traveler groups with different characteristics and the relationship among these risk factors, travel satisfaction, and travelers’ repurchase intention. For the research purpose, this study analyzed the data from passengers of a major international airline. The results suggest that traveler groups with different characteristics (gender, airline seat class, travel purpose, travel destination, travel duration, travel companion, and income level) respond differently to some risk factors, while they show the same response to other risk factors. The results also show that each risk factor affects travel satisfaction and repurchase intention differently. These findings imply that airlines should develop different strategies based on risk factors and travelers’ characteristics.     

The effects of mortgage laws on home mortgage rates

Mortgage rates differ between regions because of usury laws, not import of mortgage funds, loan-to-value ratios, and mortgage laws. This study focuses on the effects that state laws regarding foreclosure have on regional mortgage rates.     

Possible effects of EMU on German long-term interest rates

It is often argued that long-term German bonds suffer from an inflation premium caused by EMU. A decomposition of long rates shows that factors besides inflationary expectations and conversion risk affect the long bond yield. The following paper therefore discusses a more complete set of channels through which currency union affects interest rates and argues that they do not all point in the direction of rising rates. Data generating processes for long-term bonds are specified and tested for structural breaks. Absence of a structural break is interpreted as evidence against a premium caused by EMU. The authors would like to thank the participants of the German American Academic Council (GAAC) workshop “The Political Economy of European Integration” in Bremen, August 1996, and especially Paul Bergin for their helpful comments. Financial support from the GAAC is gratefully acknowledged.     

Understanding consumer repurchase intention on O2O platforms: an integrated model of network externalities and trust transfer theory

The purpose of this study is to propose a theoretical model to explain consumer repurchase intentions in O2O commerce context by integrating network externalities theory and trust transfer theory. The model was tested using the data collected from 376 customers of an O2O platform in China. The results showed that different types of trust, direct and peer network externalities, all have impacts on consumer repurchase intentions. Trust transfer processes occur in O2O commerce. Furthermore, three components of network externalities all impact on trust in O2O platform. The implications of this study from both research and practice perspectives are discussed.     

A reappraisal of the forecasting performance of corn and soybean new crop futures

Forecasting performance of December corn and November soybean futures contracts during the previous spring was evaluated using the commonly specified price-level and percent-change models. These models invoke different assumptions regarding stationarity. Using Stein's analytical framework, results for the price-level model suggest avoidable social loss existed in the soybean market since 1973, because November futures provided biased forecasts. Regression R²s for both corn and soybeans declined substantially between 1952–1972 and 1973–1997, suggesting total social loss increased. By contrast, results from the percent-change model suggest only unavoidable social loss existed in the corn and soybean markets, because the futures provided unbiased forecasts. R² increased for corn but declined for soybeans, suggesting unavoidable social loss declined for corn, but increased for soybeans. The important, conflicting nature of the results from the two models underscores the importance of examining alternative model specifications when evaluating price forecasting performance. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Jrl Fut Mark 19: 604–618, 1999     

增加农民收入要有新思路

一、农民收入增长现状及负面影响 自1997年以来,农民收入增长速度持续下降.据统计,1992～1996年,农村居民人均纯收入年均增长29.14%,但1997～2000年年均增长速度仅为1.95%.2000年农民人均纯收入2253元,仅比1999年增长1.9%,是改革开放以来农民收入增长最慢的一年.尤其引人关注的是,农民家庭经营绝对收入水平近年日益下降.人均家庭经营收入1997年为2346.7元,1998年为2286.8元,1999年为2211.6元,2000年为2168.6元.     

Increasing Returns and Intensification: A Reprise on Ester Boserup's Model of Agricultural Growth

The dynamics of Ester Boserup's model of intensification of ``primitive'' (non-chemical, non-mechanized) agriculture have been worked out in three papers by Darity, Pryor and Maurer, and Salehi-Isfahani under conditions where techniques generating higher levels of food production require longer hours of work. But Boserup's theory suggests that continued intensification can lead to productivity increases in food production. Here the long run implications for agricultural productivity are explored when increasing returns evolve from Boserup's intensification process. Variations in the dynamics of a Boserupian economy are considered under different patterns of response to falling incomes and changing work requirements.     

Protectionism and the case for flexible exchange rates: A reexamination

This paper reexamines the arguments by early proponents that flexible exchange rates would lessen the incentives for protectionism and also permit countries to pursue independent monetary policies. We argue that there is a basic inconsistency between these two arguments; the pursuit of independent monetary policy can lead to situations which involve very strong pressures on policy-makers to engage in protection. A theoretical analysis supporting our argument is developed, and some circumstantial evidence is presented.     

居民递增型阶梯气价的福利分析

在尝试构建三级阶梯的居民递增型阶梯气价模型的基础上,从福利视角对居民递增阶梯气价政策进行分析.结果发现:相对于单一气价,当基准气价不变时,阶梯气价政策下的中等需求用户和高需求用户的福利会减少并产生福利的无谓损失;当基准气价提高时,三种类型用户的福利都会减少并同时产生无谓损失,表明递增型阶梯气价政策缺乏经济效率.     

A new assessment of floating exchange rates

The switch to floating exchange rates during the 1970s has given economists the first comprehensive opportunity to assess the arguments for and against floating. Much new work has been done on various aspects of floating exchange rate behaviour. This article attempts a limited survey of the evidence concerning two important issues—whether floating exchange rates are inherently unstable and whether they harm international trade.     

消费决策参与程度提升研究

一、消费者参与程度决定的市场细分 消费者消费决策参与程度是指消费者在购买活动中,愿意做多大的努力将其消费决策建立在搜寻信息、评估品牌和选择方案等行为的基础上.参与程度是和消费者导向相关联的,这在消费行为的分析中是个非常重要的概念,我们可以通过消费者参与程度和购买动机进行市场细分.