服装店铺服务属性层级体系的研究

作为零售终端的服装店铺,其优质健全的顾客服务对每一个服装公司来说都至关重要。建立完善的服装店铺服务属性层级体系,有助于研究哪些服装店铺服务属性对服装消费决策影响较大,帮助企业赢得顾客并获得更多利润。从"服务"的定义出发,在回顾相关文献的基础上,通过实地考察对店铺服务属性进行补充,并结合专家访谈法和问卷调研法,提出服装店铺服务属性的层级体系。研究还发现,不管是男性消费者还是女性消费者,最关注的前两位店铺服务属性都是店员服务态度和店内服务设施,男性消费者比女性消费者更加关注售后服务和店员补救能力,女性消费者则更看重店员沟通能力和商品陈列。     

A mixed-methods study of retail food waste in New Zealand

Little is known about the amount of food wasted in the retail sector. This study aimed to quantify retail food waste in New Zealand (NZ) and identify key drivers for food waste reduction, using a mixed-methods, observational study design that consisted of three parts: onsite food waste audits undertaken in 16 selected stores (complete data from 11 stores); semi-structured interviews with key retail staff from each store; and obtaining existing data from retailers. Retail food waste in NZ was estimated at 13 kg/capita/year for all food waste and diverted product (i.e. all food not sold or utilised at a retail level), which included 5 kg/capita/year designated as food waste (i.e. food directed to landfill, protein reprocessing and compost), with 3 kg/capita/year of this sent to landfill. Fresh vegetables (27%), bakery (23%), meat and fish (19%) and fresh fruit (17%) contributed the most to discarded product. The motivators for encouraging food waste reduction were: concern for the environment; making profit; caring for the community; and doing the ‘right’ thing. The barriers to food waste reduction were: training and educating staff; food safety concerns; quality standards; availability and capacity of waste diversion avenues; and lack of available resources. Audit data and food waste data recorded by retailers were similar. NZ has a number of policies and practices that successfully divert retail food waste away from landfill, in particular, retailers have established relationships with various groups that use their waste as a resource including protein reprocessors, local farmers, and food rescue charities.     

Reprint of: Platform competition in the tablet PC market: The effect of application quality

The tablet PC market is dominated by two platforms: iOS and Android. In this paper, we combine tablet-level data with data on the quality of the top 1000 mobile applications from these platforms and estimate a structural demand model. We exploit variations over three periods and five European countries to find whether the application quality affects tablet demand. We then run two counterfactuals. The first counterfactual suggests that an improvement in application quality benefits the tablet producers on that platform with a more pronounced effect on the demand for Android-based tablets. The second counterfactual discusses the policy of leveling the app quality of the two stores. It shows that such a policy favors the tablet producers adopting the lowest quality app store (Google) and stimulates the adoption of tablet PCs. This generates consumer surplus in tablet demand.     

Platform competition in the tablet PC market: The effect of application quality

The tablet PC market is dominated by two platforms: iOS and Android. In this paper, we combine tablet-level data with data on the quality of the top 1000 mobile applications from these platforms and estimate a structural demand model. We exploit variations over three periods and five European countries to find whether the application quality affects tablet demand. We then run two counterfactuals. The first counterfactual suggests that an improvement in application quality benefits the tablet producers on that platform with a more pronounced effect on the demand for Android-based tablets. The second counterfactual discusses the policy of leveling the app quality of the two stores. It shows that such a policy favors the tablet producers adopting the lowest quality app store (Google) and stimulates the adoption of tablet PCs. This generates consumer surplus in tablet demand.     

Influence of food safety training on grocery store employees’ performance of food handling practices

Food safety training is a method utilized by retail food stores to provide their managers with needed knowledge on how to prevent food borne illnesses, applying Hazard Control Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) principles, and help in understanding the requirements of the FDA Food Code as well as state and local food safety policies. For food safety training to be effective, employee behavior must be assessed following training in order to reduce the risks of foodborne illness. The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of manager training and how this training impacted the grocery stores’ performance related to hot/cold self-serve bars. Three grocery store chains were recruited and each chain selected 15 stores to be observed pre- and post-training during set-up, lunch, and tear-down of the bars. After the pre-training observation, managers from eight stores per chain attended a food safety training course (training group), while managers from the remaining seven stores received no additional training (control group). Following the training, all stores were observed to collect post-training data. The information from the observations indicated that the training did not cause a significant change in store performance for a majority of the observed categories. Many state policies only call for training and certification of managers in retail food service establishments. This study showed that it may be time for these policies to be changed to include employee training and certification as well.     

The Impact of Private Label Introduction on Assortment,Prices, and Profits of Retailers*

We study how introducing private-label brands (PLs) affects retail prices and profits, accounting for assortment adjustments of national brands (NBs). We employ an event-study framework and scanner data on the US beef market. When a PL is added to the low-priced market segment, we find that retail stores further differentiate NBs from the PL and remove same-segment NBs. When a PL is added to the high-priced segment, however, NB assortment changes are limited. PL introduction and PL-driven NB assortment changes impose small price effects on NB, but strongly cannibalize NB demand and steer consumers toward PLs, likely increasing store profits.     

Tax-free digital news?

News platforms are struggling. Their printed readership is predominantly old, and their digital product struggles to win the attention of the young. For several decades tax reductions have been used in Europe to increase the circulation of printed newspapers. Would extending these reductions to digital platforms stimulate digital consumption? Using a two-sided pricing model where a print platform and a digital platform compete for multi-homing consumers and advertisers we show that the answer is no. The two-sidedness of the market means that the digital price would increase. Not only would digital circulation decrease but so too would the fraction of consumers that access news from both platforms. Key media policy goals of reach (circulation) and pluralism (multi-homing) would be harmed.     

Price effects of search advertising restrictions

Some suppliers prohibit their distributors from advertising on search engines if the consumer searches for the supplier's brand name. Such restrictions are referred to as “non-brand bidding agreements” (NBBAs). This paper investigates the effect of NBBAs on retail prices in the Dutch hotel sector, where some hotels impose NBBAs on online hotel booking platforms. An NBBA may protect the hotel's own website against competition from hotels on booking platforms because booking platforms cannot target consumers searching for the hotel with a search ad. This may lead to higher prices on the hotel website. However, an NBBA may also generate ad savings, which may lead to lower prices. We use hotel prices from a meta-search site and data on NBBAs from two hotel booking platforms. To correct for unobserved heterogeneity between hotels with and without NBBA, we apply a trajectory balancing approach within a synthetic difference-in-differences framework. Compared to non-NBBA-hotels, NBBA-hotels charge higher prices on their website relative to the price on booking platforms, suggesting a price increase. We identify cases where it is unlikely that consumers benefit from passed-on ad savings.     

The agency and wholesale models in electronic content markets

I analyze a model of dynamic competition between retail platforms in the presence of consumer lock-in. Two different revenue models are considered, one in which platforms set final retail prices and one in which the suppliers set final retail prices. Platforms have long-term (or strategic) pricing incentives but suppliers do not, which implies that the inter-temporal price path faced by consumers depends on the revenue model in place. When suppliers set prices instead of platforms, prices may be higher in early periods but lower in later periods, suggesting that appropriate antitrust enforcement ought to consider more than initial price changes when an industry shifts to the agency model. Indeed, consumers may (but need not) prefer the agency model even when prices increase in initial periods. A potential downside of the agency model is that it may align the incentives of suppliers and platforms and thereby encourage platforms to lower the competitiveness of the supplier market, harming consumers; no such incentives exist under the wholesale model. I relate my results to events in the market for electronic books.     

ASSESSING THE IMPACT OF RETAILER STORE BRAND PRESENCE ON MANUFACTURER BRANDS IN AN EQUILIBRIUM FRAMEWORK*

This article assesses the impact of retailer store brand products on manufacturer brand prices, profitability and consumer welfare in Boston's white fluid milk market. Estimates from a random coefficients logit demand model are used to specify and test a set of pricing games. Under the selected model, milk manufacturers are Stackelberg leaders to retailers, and store brand milks are procured by retailers at cost. The model is used to investigate counterfactual markets without retailer store brand milks. Counterfactual Simulation results indicate that store brands increase channel profits, retailer profits and consumer welfare, while having mixed effects on equilibrium retail prices.     

Connecting at the edge: Cycles of commodification and labour control within food delivery platform work in Belgium

In this paper we examine how commodification and labour control unfold within a digital labour platform, focusing on the connections between the platform, its users and workers. Based on a qualitative study covering couriers, clients, restaurants and the management of a food delivery platform in Belgium, we shed light on the complexity of commodification, explaining how the platform simultaneously empowers and disempowers all participants. We illustrate how the platform fosters commodification by granting access to transactions and fuelling competition, while at the same time increasing dependency through withholding information from users and workers. In so doing, we contribute to understanding how platforms exert control and create, extract and capture value by connecting users and workers with each other through the use of digital technology.     

Platform most-favored-customer clauses and investment incentives

This paper examines the effects of platform most-favored-customer (PMFC) clauses on incentives for platforms to invest in demand-enhancing investments that might involve spillover effects. In a bilateral duopoly model incorporating competition between sellers and between platforms, we show that the industry-wide adoption of PMFC clauses raises the platforms’ investment level and the resulting retail price if the substitution between platforms is large compared to the substitution between sellers. Additionally, we assess the respective effects of PMFC clauses on the demand, profit of sellers, profit of platforms, consumer surplus, and social welfare. The results suggest a possible conflict between platforms and competition authorities.     

Consumer willingness to pay for traditional food products

Reflecting the growing interest from both consumers and policymakers, and building on recent developments in Willingness to Pay (WTP) methodologies, we evaluate consumer preferences for an archetypal traditional food product. Specifically we draw on stated preference data from a discrete choice experiment, considering the traditional Hungarian mangalitza salami. A WTP space specification of the generalized multinomial logit model is employed, which accounts for not only heterogeneity in preferences but also differences in the scale of the idiosyncratic error term. Results indicate that traditional food products can command a substantial premium, albeit contingent on effective quality certification, authentic product composition and effective choice of retail outlet. Promising consumer segments and policy implications are identified.     

Biases in demand analysis due to variation in retail distribution

Aggregate demand models typically assume that consumers choose between all available products. Since consumers may be unwilling to search across every store in a given market for a particular item, this assumption is problematic when product assortments vary across stores. Using supermarket scanner data for five product categories we demonstrate that approximately one third of products have limited retail distribution, which account for one fourth of dollar sales. Monte Carlo analysis demonstrates that the level of limited product availability observed in the data can significantly bias the results of aggregate demand models that incorrectly assume all consumers in a given market face the same choice set.     

Dynamic Spatial Competition Between Multi‐Store Retailers

We propose a dynamic model of an oligopoly industry characterized by spatial competition between multi‐store retailers. Firms compete in prices and decide where to open or close stores depending on demand and cost conditions, the number of competitors at different locations, and on location‐specific private‐information shocks. The model distinguishes multiple forces in the spatial configuration of store networks, such as cannibalization of revenue between stores of the same retail chain, economies of density, competition, consumer transportation costs, or positive demand spillovers from other stores. We develop an algorithm to approximate a Markov Perfect Equilibrium in our model, and propose a procedure for the estimation of the parameters of the model using panel data on number of stores, prices, and quantities at multiple geographic locations within a city. We also present a numerical example to illustrate the model and algorithm.     

Search and price dispersion in online grocery markets

Consumers often purchase multiple products at a time from retailers, creating multi-product incentives for search. In this paper we consider how product variety affects consumer search intensity and the dispersion of prices in multi-product retail markets. We employ online grocery pricing data from four large retailers in the UK to estimate search costs and equilibrium price dispersion for food products under circumstances where: (i) consumers search for single products; and (ii) consumers search for multiple products at once. We compare estimates in each case between a model in which utility increases with product variety and a model in which utility is not a function of variety. Relative to our preferred specification with variety effects in utility, we find estimates of both search cost and search frequency to be biased upwards in single product settings when variety effects are ignored; however, we find estimates of search costs are biased upwards while search frequency is biased downwards in multi-product settings when variety effects in utility are ignored.     

Research trends of digital platforms: A survey of the literature from 2018 to 2021

In recent years, there has been a vigorous discussion about digital platforms due to their emerging significance in the digital ecosystem. However, despite common interests in the digital platform, comprehensive literature reviews on the topic are still limited. Therefore, this study offers a systematic and interdisciplinary review of the literature on digital platforms by collecting and analyzing a sample of 1,224 articles published from January 2018 to December 2021. In particular, this study focuses on which country leads platform research. By interpreting the concentration of research fields that study platforms and financial funding for platform research, this article provides a new perspective on the countries leading academic platform research. Our findings show that those holding platform hegemony in the real world are also active leaders in platform research. Amid fierce competition among major countries and continents surrounding the platform industry, this paper aims to provide an understanding of the ongoing research trend regarding platforms and be a guideline for future research.     

Complementors as connectors: managing open innovation around digital product platforms

In the digital age, open innovation is increasingly organized around platform ecosystems. This paper investigates how firms can coordinate open innovation as a platform strategy for the development of complementary products by independent third parties. We draw on a qualitative case study of Philips Hue – a connected lighting platform for consumers with its variety of complementary products. We identify three increasingly complex ways in which independent complements connect to a focal platform. Our findings show that managing these connections requires a hybrid open innovation approach that combines arm’s length coordination, with a large number of complementors through open interfaces, and intensive bilateral collaboration, with a selected number of partners. Our findings demonstrate that complex interconnections across digital platforms and products lead to the management challenge of navigating an ‘ecology of platforms’, which warrants future research.     

When prohibiting wholesale price-parity agreements may harm consumers

We study the competitive and welfare effects of wholesale price-parity agreements. These contracts prevent a monopolist, who sells its product to final consumers both directly and indirectly through alternative distribution channels, to charge different input (wholesale) prices to competing intermediaries (e.g., platforms). In a multi-channel and multi-layered industry, organized as an agency business model, we find that the monopolist and the intermediaries do not necessarily have aligned incentives concerning the introduction of wholesale price-parity. While these agreements always hurt the monopolist, they may benefit the intermediaries when competition between the direct and the indirect distribution channels is sufficiently intense. Moreover, when this is the case, in contrast to retail price-parity agreements that typically reduce consumer welfare, wholesale price-parity may also benefit consumers.     

The impact of expiration dates labels on hedonic markets for perishable products

This study draws inferences from a pre-registered field experiment to investigate how expiration dates impact consumer preferences for food products with different ages. Based on a power analysis, we recruited 373 adult participants for the experiment. The results demonstrate that expiration dates largely influenced the perceived freshness of a food product as they seem to indicate a quality standard. When no explicit expiration date was present, consumers believed that the product’s quality decreased monotonically as time passed. However, in the presence of an expiration-date label, consumers initially perceived the product as more acceptable, but then that perception changed quickly after the date of expiration to levels more consistent with what they would perceive if the expiration date was not present. These results support policies that label expiration dates for consumers, as these labels benefit consumers, producers, and the public, especially for times prior to the expiration date. These results also suggest that it is important to craft policy and market strategies for products that are past the expiration date, but are still safe to consume. Policies that set the expiration dates to the time where the taste quality begins to worsen would likely benefit both consumers and producers, while policies that set the expiration dates to the time where the food is no longer safe probably improve the public outcomes as it minimizes food waste.