The Economic Effects of New Jersey's Self-Serve Operations Ban on Retail Gasoline Markets

This paper tests the effect of the self-service ban on retail gasoline sales using a random sample of gas stations from Mercer County New Jersey. The paper finds that the self-service ban reduces the number of pumps and islands. Gas stations are smaller because the ban reduces the ability of gas stations to substitute capital for labor in the production process. In addition, the paper finds evidence that the self-serve ban decreases the rate of refiner ownership, changes the mix of ancillary services that stations offer, and prevents price discrimination. Because capital-labor ratios are lower, labor-intensive ancillary services (i.e., auto repair) are more cost effective than capital-intensive ancillary services (i.e., convenience stores). Because convenience stores are easier to monitor from a central location, the ban causes a reduction in the rate of refiner ownership.     

现代资本结构理论的演进及评析

现代资本结构理论从MM定理开始,经历了以信息对称为分析框架的旧资本结构理论阶段和以信息不对称为分析框架的新资本结构理论阶段,其中以MM理论和代理成本理论影响最大。虽然资本结构理论的研究成果不断丰富和发展,但至今未能建立起一个与实践经验相吻合的理论框架模型。     

Managing a Global Retail Brand in Different Markets: Meta-Analyses of Customer Responses to Service Encounters

This study investigates how retailers can leverage their brand to shape customers’ satisfaction with service encounters. It develops and tests hypotheses about how brand, store, and consumer factors moderate customer responses to experience clues during retail service encounters. Six meta-regression analyses synthesize and compare results from 842 satisfaction equations describing customers’ encounters with a global retailer operating 400 stores in 32 countries. The results show how customers weigh their perceptions of service encounters differently depending on brand, store, and consumer factors. In markets where customers believe the retailer has high holistic brand quality, they place less weight on experience clues within the store. In markets where customers believe the retailer’s service brand promise, they place more weight on in-store experience clues. In markets where the retailer promises utilitarian value, customers weigh functional experience clues more heavily. In markets with an online purchasing channel, the effect of experience clues common to offline and online store environments is magnified, and unique clues are diminished. In addition, customers heavily weigh experience clues that fit their goals. In general, retail success factors include high brand quality (which makes customers more forgiving), a service brand promise that is mirrored in the store image (which makes customers attend to the experience clues aligned with them), and the careful monitoring and managing of retail touchpoints (to customize experience clues to each market). In this way, retailers can use customer-based strategies to effectively design and manage their global retail brand in different markets.     

Strategy and Structure in Information-Intensive Markets: The Relationship Between Marketing and IT

This paper discusses the relationship between the traditionalfunctions of Marketing and Information Technology (IT) from theperspective of the emerging information-intensive marketsthat characterize the environment faced by most modern organizations.First, a conceptual framework is presented for understandingthe range of information-intensive strategies (built aroundexploiting the Customer Information File as the key corporateasset) that are increasingly the determinants of competitivesuccess. Next, the appropriate organizational structure to supportthese strategies is proposed—one in which the historicalseparation between marketing and IT is abandoned in favor ofa new structure organized around a core set of information-processingactivities. Finally, the characteristics of this new organizationare described—in particular its role as a market-drivenlearning organization and, increasingly, as a living, biologicalorganism.     

Fast‐Expanding Markets: The Revolution of the Microeconomy

Where will we find growth opportunities ? the kind that will take our businesses to the next level? The usual and popular choice of terms we use when looking at current markets and potential ones often include developed markets and emerging economies. These terms have inspired a new golden age of racing to the new treasure hidden in the capacities of these markets. Based on the seminal concept of “fast‐expanding markets,” this article discovers growth as residing at a new level, capable of redefining geographies and territories, often untapped or unnoticed by the most conventional macroeconomic analysis. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

业态战略、企业规模、资本结构与零售企业成长——以零售上市公司为样本

作为零售企业成长中同时存在的两种战略,多业态战略和单一业态战略本身各有其利弊。在企业规模与资本结构的共同作用下,单一业态战略相较于多业态战略对零售企业成长的影响较大;企业规模与零售企业成长显著正相关;资产负债率对零售企业成长有显著的正向作用,而长期负债率对零售企业成长则有显著的负向影响;企业年龄与零售企业成长之间存在负向关系,但关系强度较弱,且在统计上不显著;区域类型对零售企业成长没有显著影响。为了促进零售企业成长,零售企业要发展自己的主力业态,使之成为企业成长的支柱,然后在时机成熟时向多业态的盈利模式转化;要进行适度的规模扩张;要确定资本结构的合理水平,并从根本上降低长期负债率。     

Organising Corporate Responsibility Communication Through Filtration: A Study of Web Communication Patterns in Swedish Retail

Corporate responsibility (CR) communication has risen dramatically in recent years, following increased demands for transparency. One tendency noted in the literature is that CR communication is organised and structured. Corporations tend to professionalise CR communication in the sense that they provide information that corresponds to demands for transparency that are voiced by certain stakeholders. This also means that experts within the firm tend to communicate with professional stakeholders outside the firm. In this article, a particular aspect of the organisation of CR communication is examined, a phenomenon that we refer to as the ‘filtration effect’. By comparing CR communication in parent companies and their subsidiaries, we show empirically that there is considerably less CR communication on the subsidiary level compared to the parent level. We see filtration as a sign of conscious organising of CR communication that implies particular attention to certain stakeholder groups with clearly defined demands and expectations on companies. The strong filtration effect noted in the study suggests that CR communication does not seem to be very much adapted to customers, which may be problematic both from a communicative and ethical perspective. The study covers Sweden’s 206 largest retail firms.     

自动售货机:第三次零售业革命

作为一种新型商业形态和广告媒体,自动售货机从1999进入中国市场以来,受到了喜欢追逐时尚的年轻人的欢迎。大市场、大产业据统计,在世界上最大的自动售货市场——日本,已有560万台自动售货机,通过自动售货机出售的商品多达6000余种,年营业额可以达到7兆1122亿日元。每年,仅饮料的销售额就相当于1593亿元人民币。按人口计算,每23人就拥有1台自动售货机,平均每人在自动售货机上的消费达56000日元。在美国平均每40人拥有一台自动售货机,欧洲每60人一台。而目前国内的自动售卖机大约有7～8万台。根据国外发展经验,中国自动售货机专业委员会对中…     

Retail customers' self-awareness: The deindividuation effects of others

The presence of others often affects retail shopping behavior. Other customers tend to increase one's self-awareness and cause negative self-conscious emotions. This research's findings suggest fellow customers also mitigate focal customers' evaluative concerns. Deindividuation theory, which posits that other customers create anonymity and reduce self-awareness, helps explain this phenomenon. A laboratory experiment and a quasi-experimental field study in a retail setting support the notion that the presence of other customers creates a deindividuation effect on a focal customer during unwanted social evaluation from salespeople. Results show a small group of other customers resulted in lower levels of emotional discomfort and behavioral inhibition than either an empty store or a larger group size, suggesting a U shape relationship.     

Option‐Expiration Effects in Small Markets: The Spanish Stock Exchange

This study analyzes the effect of the expiration of the Ibex‐35 Index derivatives, as well as the first four stock options traded in the Spanish Equity Derivatives Exchange, on the return, conditional volatility, and trading volume of the underlying assets. The analysis covers the period from the introduction of the various derivatives to December 1995. This period has been divided into two subperiods in order to determine if there are changes in the conclusions. The expiration of the Ibex‐35 index derivatives is associated with an increase in the trading volume of the underlying asset, but it has no significant effect on either the underlying asset prices or on the level of volatility on the expiration day. However, the expiration of the stock options has significant impact on their underlying assets. We observed a downward pressure on prices and a reduction of volatility level in the week before the expiration date and a significant increase in trading volume on the expiration day. The absence of futures contracts on individual stocks, among other possible causes, may explain these differences. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Jrl Fut Mark 21:905–928, 2001     

The Changing Structure of Intercorporate Relations Among Britain's Largest Retail Firms, 1975-1997

Empirical studies of the structure of intercorporate relations among large firms in Britain and elsewhere have revealed extensive networks of interconections through interlocking directorships. Although the significance of such linkages has been much discussed, they are widely held to constitute important communication channels which may play a significant role in firms' strategic decision-making. However, these issues have not been examined previously in the case of Britain's retail sector. This paper explores the links, via shared directors, between Britain's twenty largest retail companies over the last two decades. The retailers' connections with other major financial and industrial concerns are also explored. The results indicate that intercorporate relations in the retail sector have been radically transformed as these firms have become progressively integrated into Britain's wider business network.     

Retail sales of consumer goods:＞RMB 10 trln

Chinese Academy of Social Sciences(CASS)forecasted the retail sales of consumer goods in 2008 at RMB 10.67 trillion(about US＄1.57 trillion),up 12.8 percent as consumption grows. The figure would reach RMB 12.48 trillion in 2009,up 12.5 percent,said a report released by the CASS.     

The Impacts of Retail Promotions on the Demand for Orange Juice: A Study of a Retail Chain

This study examined the impacts of retail promotions on the demand for five brands of orange juices for a retail chain (referred to as Retailer X) and its competitors using the Rotterdam model. Results show that the combination of feature ads and displays had the largest impacts on retail revenue among the four promotional tactics considered, whereas temporary price reductions had no advertising impacts on retail revenue. Results also show that when Retailer X promotes an orange juice (OJ) brand using any of the tactics, a larger portion of the increased demand for the promoted brand comes from reduced demand for other brands of OJ in the same store or chain.A smaller portion comes from the decreased demand in Retailer X's competing stores in the same trading area.     

中国产业结构的演变轨迹、σ-收敛性与空间集聚格局

随着经济的发展,第一产业在社会生产总量中的比重不断下降,第二产业、第三产业的比重则不断上升,社会的主导产业将由第一产业转移到第二产业,再转移到第三产业。中国产业结构演变的轨迹显示:现代中国的主导产业是第二产业而不是第三产业,中国的产业结构还处于由低级阶段向高级阶段演变的过程中;中国产业结构存在σ-收敛性,中国的第三产业还没有得到长足发展,中国经济仍处在工业化中期阶段,还未进入完全工业化时代;中国产业的空间集聚与地域的资源存在明显的相关关系,具备显著的地域特色。     

Epic Aspects of Retail Encounters: The Iliad of Hollister

Much has been written about myth and the marketplace. Consumer research has added immeasurably to academics’ appreciation of the myths that inhere in fabulous flagship stores and experiential retailing more generally. Studies of consumer mythopoeia, however, have tended to muffle the martial side of retailing, the heroic struggles that some customers undergo in-store. This article argues that the epic offers valuable insights into martial matters, and more. Although epic and myth overlap, they are far from identical. The former is characterized by conventions that can help illuminate consumers’ quests, not least their disturbing journeys through the underworld. These are considered in relation to Hollister (HCo), a phenomenally successful retail chain that’s renowned for its antithetical atmospherics and inky interior design. A qualitative study of Hollister lovers and haters casts light on the epic in action and adds to scholars’ understanding of immersive retailing experiences.     

Retail atmospherics: The impact of a brand dictated theme

Although retail atmospherics has been an active area of study, a glance around a typical mall indicates many retailers still do not actively differentiate their retail environment from competitors. This is likely due to retailers considering the atmospheric elements (lighting, music, etc.) individually and making decisions regarding the elements based on what is “standard” for their customers, merchandise, and format. This approach leads to very little differentiation and fails to consider that today’s consumer is often expecting a more multi-sensory, interactive, and holistic shopping experience. This paper considers an alternative approach, where a brand dictated “theme” is used to guide the manipulation of the atmospheric elements. This allows retail brands to break free from standard design to create a more interactive, immersive, and authentic environment. Outcomes include increases in shopping enjoyment, positive brand attitudes, and brand loyalty. T-tests are utilized to compare the two approaches within both the apparel (Study 1) and restaurant (Study 2) industries.