Using Groupon for health and wellness businesses

Social merchants are small business owners and entrepreneurs who adopt social shopping as a new sales channel. They employ social shopping intermediaries, such as Groupon and LivingSocial, to promote their products or services to price-sensitive customers at large discounts. The success of social merchants depends in part on the reputation they gain at merchant review sites (e.g., Yelp, TripAdvisor, Angie's List), via which consumers post online product and merchant reviews. An analysis of social shopping provides insight regarding how social shopping works and what merchants must be aware of if they utilize social shopping intermediaries. This article shares these insights in the context of a set of health and wellness merchants that were studied for five years. Specifically, this article discusses how their Groupon daily deals affect merchant reviews, and how surviving vs. failed social merchants differ in terms of their review scores and number of reviews. Finally, this article provides recommendations about merchant review management to health and wellness merchants.     

Commerce,International Trade and Management Before the “Discovery” of Europe

Abstract

This paper examines the ancient management practices of Aztec merchants (1428-1519 A.D.) within the context of contemporary management thought. The article finds substantial evidence of Aztec merchant application of management within: (1) their role in the local economy; (2) their internal organization and administration; and (3) their use of business practices, culture and rituals. This paper concludes with a brief discussion of the decline of the Aztec merchant guild and the implications for modern business organizations.     

浙商与晋商的差异——从文化心理学角度分析

浙商和晋商作为历史上势力较大的两个地方商帮,虽然都以传统文化作为立身之本,但由于他们所处的历史背景和文化环境的差异使其在文化信仰、子女教育、惩戒机制方面呈现出不同的特点,文章拟从文化心理学的角度对浙商和晋商这三方面的差异的形成做出解释,并对浙、晋商文化的当代价值进行阐述。     

"浙商"研究的分析范式--具有中国的典型意义

“浙商”是一个既有历史传统，也有现实基础，还有全国影响，又面临现代化和全球化挑战的商人群体及企业群落，“浙商”研究体现循着超越发展的规定性与要求，具有对中国的典型意义，但是缺乏相应的分析范式。“浙商”研究的分析范式所基于的理论前提是人与“三种关系”的完整统一，并直接统一于主体及其属性，间接统一于主体与环境的关系。浙商研究分析范式的逻辑结构是，以对客观环境的描述与刻画为基础，以个人和共同利益最大化假设为前提，以相关性与自主性统一的主体性理论为平台，以相关性与自主性的动态协调为参照，以相关性分析与自主性分析、科学分析与人文分析、经济分析与心理分析、角色分析与人格分析，以及共性分析与个性分析的统一等为工具，得出既具有普遍性作用又具有特殊性作用的理论。     

Liverpool slave merchant entrepreneurial networks, 1725–1807

Liverpool surpassed Bristol as Britain's premier slave trading port in the mid-eighteenth century, but the reasons for Liverpool's eventual dominance remain debated. This article utilises the theoretical framework of entrepreneurship and notions of capital applied within associational networks to determine whether or not Liverpool merchants had a ‘particular spirit of enterprise’ which enabled their success. An analysis of the trends in investment patterns of Liverpool slave voyages demonstrates that Liverpool merchants managed voyages in comparatively larger investment groups. Thus, they had greater access to knowledge, skills and resources, which allowed for more competitive advantages to their trade.     

小区渠道迎来体验营销新时代——以荣事达洁身器营销策略为例

随着经济社会的快速发展,消费者购买商品的渠道越来越多,商家开展营销争夺战的地点也随之增加。作为消费者聚集地的生活小区已然成为商家又一必争的战略要地。然而,进驻小区并非易事,即使进入了小区,所进入的产品也未必能被消费者所接受,商家开展多种多样的体验营销活动有利于加强销售力度。荣事达电子电器公司在销售洁身器产品的过程中,通过不断探索、创新、实践和总结,建立起该产品的小区体验营销模式,取得了非常显著的成效。     

Online Shoppers' Perceptions and Use of Comparison-Shopping Sites: An Exploratory Study

Comparison-shopping sites currently offer online shoppers various combinations of free services such as price comparisons, merchant ratings, links to e-tailers’ websites, and/or customer reviews in the search results page(s). The utility and market values of shopping comparison sites have attracted Internet giants such as eBay, Google, and Yahoo to the extent of developing or acquiring such sites. Scholarly research on comparison-shopping sites has focused on (1) trust in online recommendation agents, and (2) methods used by electronic agents to produce the recommendations. Our study explored how online shoppers’ attitudes toward comparison-shopping sites impact perceived credibility and usefulness of these sites. We also examined online shoppers’ merchant selection criteria and their likelihood to continue using comparison-shopping sites. One interesting finding from our study was that merchants need to be strong on site ratings and brand awareness to appeal to a wide online market. The finding dispelled the notion that e-tailers presented by shopping comparison sites need to compete, basically, only on price.     

What's in a Name? Merchants,Merchant Bankers,Accepting Houses,Issuing Houses,Industrial Bankers and Investment Bankers

The subject of this article is the terminology of the merchant banking industry over the last century and a half. It identifies when and why the terms ‘merchants’, ‘merchant bankers’, ‘accepting houses’, ‘issuing houses’, ‘industrial bankers’ and ‘investment bankers’ came into use, and in some cases fell into disuse. The pattern of terminological usage is related to phases in the evolution of the activities and prosperity of the industry. Explanations are advanced for the shift in the generic term from ‘merchants’ to ‘merchant bankers’ around the turn of the century, and for the multiplicity of overlapping terms in the era from World War I to the 1960s. It is speculated that ‘merchant bankers’ will be supplanted by ‘investment bankers’ in the not too distant future.     

Adam Smith's invisible hand argument

Adam Smith is usually thought to argue that the result of everyone pursuing their own interests will be the maximization of the interests of society. The invisible hand of the free market will transform the individual's pursuit of gain into the general utility of society. This is the invisible hand argument. Many people, although Smith did not, draw a moral corollary from this argument, and use it to defend the moral acceptability of pursuing one's own self-interest. Smith does use the invisible hand argument; however, a close reading of theWealth of Nations reveals that Smith thought the interests of merchants and manufacturers were fundamentally opposed to those of society in general, and that they had an inherent tendency to deceive and oppress society while pursuing their own interests. How can these two views of what results when merchants and manufactures pursue their self-interest be made compatible? It is argued that the invisible hand argument when applied to merchants and manufacturers, (its application to labour and landlords is only mentioned briefly), is extremely restrictive, and that similar restrictions must apply to the moral corollary. In particular, the invisible hand argument applies only to investing capital in one's own country for maximum profit.     

Supplier Relationships:

Merchant/wholesaler sales forces are extensions of the mill/supplier marketing organization they represent. The Sales Force Effectiveness Study revealed significant areas of the supplier/vendor relationship that are critical to merchant sales force effectiveness: formal supplier evaluations, coordination to reach target markets, partnership agreements, and coordination of policies and procedures. Effective supplier relations propel merchant sales forces to top performance ranks. Research results suggest that improving sales force effectiveness is a channel-wide effort. To achieve these desired results, mills and merchants must work together to clearly define the role, structure, and functions of the sales forces operating throughout the marketing channel.     

An Investigation on Incentive Strategies in Community Building in Business-to-Business Electronic Markets

ABSTRACT

Purpose: Community building is recognized as an important governance mechanism in business-to-business (B-to-B) electronic markets by enhancing firms’ participation in these platform markets. However, little research has been done regarding the role of incentive strategies in community building. The main purpose of this paper is to understand how to motivate merchants to participate in a merchant community with incentive strategies.

Methodology: Data were collected in a community of a large B-to-B electronic platform market in China. We randomly chose a sample of 605 participants from among all merchant firms registered in this community, and track their behaviors for 2 weeks. Their behaviors are recorded based on our research design.

Findings: With the empirical analysis from a community of a large B-to-B electronic platform market in China, our results show that (1) both platform and peer incentive strategies can significantly enhance community participation, while platform incentives is more effective in general; (2) platform incentive strategy is a more effective strategy as seller firm uncertainty increases; (3) peer incentive strategy is a more effective strategy as buyer firm uncertainty increases.

Originality: This paper is among the first to investigate two types of incentive strategies in community building, platform level and peer level. We also investigate the moderating role of market uncertainties due to market participants from seller and buyer when examining the effectiveness of these two incentive strategies.     

徽商文化与民营企业财务管理现代化建设研究

由于现代民营企业与古代位居十大商帮之首的徽商在经营内容和家族式经营性质上存在许多共性,因此民营企业要想在新的经济环境下奋力崛起就必须借鉴徽商成功的理财经验,改进企业财务管理。文章从理财观、道德观、经营策略三个方面分析了徽商文化与民营企业财务管理的协同性,揭示了当前民营企业财务管理尚未达到和谐和主要表现,然后提出了徽商文化对民营企业财务管理现代化建设的积极启示及经验教训,并给出了完善民营企业财务管理体系的对策建议。     

The organisation of British textile exports to the River Plate and Chile: Merchant houses in operation,c. 1810–59

During c. 1810–59 over 260 British merchant houses operated in the River Plate or Chile, and many more in the rest of Latin America. These were times when Anglo-Latin American economic relations remained largely commercial, since the region was an important commercial partner of Britain. British investment was unimportant during this period in the region. The main economic activity of these mercantile houses was the import of textiles in exchange for bullion, specie, bills of exchange and local produce. Yet the textile trade has received little attention, despite the importance of the region as a market for British manufacturers. This paper describes in detail the relations between textile manufacturers and/or merchants in Britain and merchants on the spot, in particular for the marketing oftextiles, the backbone of the business of British merchants operating in Latin America. This paper focuses on the particular case of the Southern Cone during c. 1810–59.     

How perceived trust mediates merchant's intention to use a mobile wallet technology

As mobile wallets are in constant demand and growing over the past few years, there is a need to identify views of different stakeholders involved in the process. Several studies have been done to investigate consumers' perspective intensively. On the other hand, review of perception and adoption of wallet services by other participants, in particular merchants, is often neglected. The present study aims to fill this gap. This study used an empirical model to measure merchant's intention to use a mobile wallet technology. The study includes the variables, perceived compatibility, perceived usefulness, awareness, perceived cost, perceived customer value addition and perceived trust, and aims to determine their influence on intention to use. Our study also tested the mediating effect of perceived trust on the influence of perceived usefulness to predict merchant's intention. The study includes results of the survey of 315 Indian merchants by an online survey method. We find the highest effect of perceived customer value addition on merchant's intention, followed by perceived usefulness of technology. The proposed mediation effect of perceived trust was small but significant on perceived usefulness. The results of the study can help mobile payment companies to understand factors that are relevant to increase adoption of technology in the context of merchants.     

Social shopping promotions from a social merchant's perspective

Taking advantage of Web 2.0's user-participation and social networking capabilities, social shopping intermediaries have emerged as a promising online liaison between merchants and consumers by offering group discount deals to price-sensitive customers and early technology adopters. Our study compares the two most popular types of social merchants—restaurants and healthcare services—in terms of seven key factors that influence a merchant's sales using a Groupon promotion. We find that these two types of social merchants show significantly different characteristics for successful promotions. Based on a new proposed lifetime value model for social shopping promotions, this study also discusses its applicability with an illustration of the model and presents guidelines for social merchants who want to achieve the maximum lifetime value from a social shopping promotion. Finally, we discuss implications of our study for social merchants and social shopping intermediaries.     

亳州中药材企业集群的发展阶段及治理

亳州中药材企业集群在假药事件之后,客商发生了转移,面临着“飞地”的危险。文章通过对该集群发展阶段的判定,尝试研究较科学合理的治理方案,以便创造更多的集群剩余,留住客商,促进该集群健康快速地发展。     

The No Surcharge Rule and Merchant Competition

We analyze the no surcharge rule (NSR) and its impact on merchant competition by comparing different surcharging regimes. Any constraint on surcharging, including the NSR is shown to be a competition-softening device. A NSR may induce socially excessive card use. Allowing imperfectly competitive merchants to surcharge may lead to socially too little card use. Under a NSR, increased cost of card acceptance increases all prices, even the prices of a merchant not accepting cards. Under the NSR cards yielding no social surplus may be viable. This is not the case without the NSR. Card-use rewards may hurt consumers.     

Corporate citizenship in Germany and the United States – differing perceptions and practices in transatlantic comparison

Because of the declining fiscal capabilities of the German welfare state and the resulting reductions in social services provided by the government, increasing attention has been given to the voluntary social engagement of businesses, often referred to as corporate citizenship. In that context, scholars and politicians alike have pointed to the United States as a country with a strong corporate citizenship culture and advocated a transatlantic transfer of the respective practices. Against this background, it is the first aim of this paper to examine the socio‐economic environment for corporate citizenship in both countries. Second, it will be investigated if corporate citizenship is really practiced more widely in the United States than in Germany and what forms of corporate citizenship are used by businesses. For that purpose, the corporate citizenship activities of the 100 largest companies in the United States and Germany each will be analyzed. Results show that more US than German companies undertake corporate citizenship activities and apply a wider variety of different forms. The possibilities for a transatlantic transfer are limited because of the differences in the cultural and political systems of both countries.     

Drivers and barriers of mobile payment adoption: Malaysian merchants' perspective

The Malaysian market consists of a large consumer-base carrying mobile phones. However, the adoption and proliferation of mobile (m-) payments remain dismal. Evidence from the literature necessitates the need for elucidating the adoption barriers and drivers from multiple perspectives. There has been much research on consumer adoption and usage of mobile payment systems, but there is a lack of research on this subject from the merchants' perspective. Taking into account the critical role merchants play in promoting a sustainable m-payment ecosystem, this work elucidates the perspective of merchants in Malaysia vis-à-vis m-payment systems. In-depth interviews with merchants from multiple retail categories were conducted to gain insight into their motivational drives, barriers, and challenges in the context of the adoption and implementation of m-payment systems in Malaysia. The results confirmed that the relative advantage of decreasing payment processing time and fees, convenience, and enhanced payment security features are some of the factors motivating merchants to adopt m-payment, while technological incompatibility, complexity, the cost of investment, and the lack of critical mass and knowledge are some of the factors discouraging merchants from doing so. Our findings further expand the limited knowledge of m-payment systems in the context of Malaysian merchants, which is valuable for industries and policymakers. The results of this study can be generalised to other m-payment systems in other countries - Apple Pay, Samsung Pay, and Android Pay, with Apple Pay, Alipay, and WeChat.     

传统儒商文化与现代商人理想人格的型塑

传统儒商文化与现代社会的重要结合点之一,即是从传统商业文化的现代转型出发,将儒商文化作为现代商人理想人格型塑的必要思想资源,从商人精神的觉醒与儒商身份意识的自觉,以地方商帮为依托进行商业文化生态的现代性重建。