Promotions and Purchase Decisions in Private Clubs

Abstract

This study investigated the use of price discount promotions at private clubs. The purpose was to determine whether the promotions led club members to purchase the promoted food entree items when dining at the club, and the effect of the promotions on the purchase of regular or non-promoted food and beverage items. Over three-fourths of the members who cited the promotion as a reason for visiting the club purchased one or more regular price items. Members visiting the club for the promotion spent more money on regular price items than on promoted items. Moreover, the majority of promotional purchases were made by members who did not visit the club in response to the promotional advertisement.     

The Determinants and Consequences of Multinational Advertising Agencies

This article examines the determinants of multinational advertising agencies (MNAs) within the framework of foreign direct investment theory (FDI). The essence of FDI theory is that in deciding to go international, a company must have an advantage. Key advantages discussed here include the huge size of MNAs, their access to capital, the loyalty given to them by multinational advertisers, their knowledge and skill, and their ability to use their foreign locations to service regional markets. Internalization, the advantage of being able to coordinate markets better, provides another relevant strand to FDI theory. The key factors for MNAs involve protecting the home market as well as reacting to competition abroad, escaping contracts which forbid competitive accounts and constrain growth, maintaining quality control over international advertising, and raising profits and efficiency by controlling all or a significant part of the business of a multinational advertiser. A discussion of the consequences of MNAs is also provided.     

Interpersonal Orientation of Spouses and Household Purchase Decisions: The Case of Restaurants

Buyer Behaviour does not occur in isolation, but within a larger social context. The family being a social unit, its members are constantly influenced by a number of external agencies, including peers, friends and relatives. This paper investigates how interpersonal orientation of spouses affects their roles, children's and others' roles in five sub-decisions of visiting a fine dining restaurant. Data were collected from young, educated couples of Singapore, who, due to their affluence and spending power are the focus of marketers in the region. Interpersonal Orientation was measured by 'Susceptibility to Interpersonal Influence', as proposed by Bearden, Netemeyer and Teel [1989]. Results showed that interpersonal orientation of spouses is an important determinant of their influence in the decision of visiting a fine dining restaurant. Also, children and 'others' were seen to play negligible roles in the service sub-decisions. Implications for restaurant marketers are discussed.     

Managerial Selection Decisions in Multinational Corporations: Teaching International Business Using Problem-Based Learning

Companies face many challenges as they staff managerial positions in overseas operations, including decisions on whether to staff using expatriates, host-country nationals, or third-country nationals. We developed an exercise—designed to help students understand the differences between these three groups of employees—that requires students to develop a set of criteria that would form the basis for choosing the candidate they deem to be the best one. In addition, the exercise can serve as a springboard to discussion of the different training and compensation requirements for each of the three different types of employee. The steps involved in the exercise are presented together with suggestions for debriefing the exercise.     

Governance of Eco-Labels: Expert Opinion and Media Coverage

“Eco-labels” are an increasingly important form of private regulation for sustainability in areas such as carbon emissions, water consumption, ethical sourcing, or organic produce. The growing interest and popularity of eco-labels has also been coupled with growing concerns about their credibility, in part because the standard-setting and conformity assessment practices that eco-labels adopt exhibit striking differences. In this paper, we assess which assurance practices contribute to eco-labels being perceived as better governed, in the eyes of experts as well as the media. Unlike previous studies, which are mostly conceptual, qualitative, or focused on one or few eco-labels, we study a large set of eco-labels, combining data from three different sources. Our findings suggest that experts and media are primarily concerned about “re-assurance” practices, looking for one or preferably multiple layers of “re-assurance” that independent parties are overseeing the eco-label and the firms certified under it.     

跨国公司内部竞合的决定因素剖析

随着子公司对资源以及知识共享程度、价值链合理化程度、共同功能整合程度等的提高,无论是以双边还是多边的方式,外国子公司之间的合作性越来越强,目的是为了追逐协同效应;与此同时,它们还为了争夺母公司的资源、公司支持、系统定位以及市场扩张而进行竞争.这种跨国公司内部的"竞合"现象的出现也进一步表明了国际市场竞争的加剧,而影响跨国公司内部竞合关系的因素很多.随着跨国公司的进一步发展,对跨国公司内部子公司间的竞合会表现出越来越复杂的形式.     

Determinants of Russia's Informal Economy: The Impact of Corruption and Multinational Firms

Based on the electricity consumption approach, this study examined empirically (among other determinants) the impact of corruption and multinational firms (MNEs) on the relative size of the informal economy in Russia's regions in 1995–2012. Strong evidence is provided of the positive effect of corruption on the informal regional economies. The significant role of MNEs and regulation in curbing informal activities is revealed. A larger informal economic sector is observed in regions with a higher number of local firms and unemployment. An integrated strategy of dealing with corruption and informal businesses is suggested to be more effective in reducing informal practices.     

The Role of Price in the Behavior and Purchase Decisions of Compulsive Buyers

The present research examines the relationship between consumers’ tendencies to buy compulsively and their response to price based on a survey of customers of an Internet clothing retailer. The research findings suggest that compulsive buyers possess greater knowledge of store prices and are more brand conscious and prestige sensitive in comparison with non-compulsive buyers. Moreover, compulsive buyers derive greater transaction value from price promotions and are more price conscious and sale prone than non-compulsive buyers.     

The Importance of Place of Origin in Purchase Decisions for Agricultural Products

Abstract

The evolution of the “global marketplace” has increased the number of product choices competing for consumer patronage. The purpose of this study was to explore whether competitive advantages exist for agricultural products produced locally rather than coming from elsewhere. The findings suggest that consumers have not thought about the issues associated with place of origin, think all produce is about the same, or trust their grocers to make the right purchase decisions. Marketing efforts need to educate consumers that not all produce is the same relative to quality and safety issues, and that they need to consider place of origin before making purchase decisions.     

Regret and Satisfaction as Determinants of Lapsed Donor Recommencement Decisions

Although a large amount of research has been undertaken into donor acquisition, relationship development, and the reasons why certain donors terminate their support for fundraising charities, few studies have examined the factors that encourage lapsed donors to resume giving to the organizations they have deserted. This empirical investigation sought to contribute to contemporary knowledge concerning this important matter via a survey of 310 lapsed donors (some of whom had resumed giving) to a hospice charity in the south east of England. The variables hypothesized to influence donor revival decisions comprised a person's satisfaction with the charity's work, past communications received from the organization, communications associated with the charity's revival efforts, the individual's donation history and reason for initial lapse, and the ex‐donor's degree of involvement with charity giving. A person's feelings of regret were posited to represent a critical mediating variable between several of the abovementioned factors and a lapsed donor's decision to resume or not to resume giving. The results suggest that regret did indeed play a major role in lapsed donors' revival processes and that an individual's satisfaction with the quality of a charity's communications requesting the recommencement of the individual's support was a crucial determinant of restart decisions.     

Acquisition Entry Strategy of Nordic Multinational Enterprises in China: An Analysis of Key Determinants

ABSTRACT

This article addresses the key determinants of acquisition entry strategy (i.e., the choice between full versus partial acquisition) of Nordic multinational enterprises (MNEs) in China. Although general establishment and entry mode strategies have been a highly researched area in international business studies, acquisitions as a specific entry strategy and its different aspects have been scarcely researched. Therefore, the current study aims to fill the gap in literature by analyzing determinants of acquisition entry strategy based on three important theoretical bases: transaction cost economics, resource-based view, and institutional theory. Our study is one of the first to analyze acquisition entry strategy of MNEs from all four Nordic economies (Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden) in China during 1987 through 2012, and this unique empirical context adds further value to the study findings. The empirical results show that high target country experience, high cultural distance, high level of product diversification, and subsidiary location in institutionally developed and open cities of China were positively associated with choice of full acquisitions by Nordic MNEs. On the other hand, high industry research and development intensity and timing of acquisition led to the choice of partial acquisitions by the investing Nordic MNEs.     

Product Attributes as Purchase Determinants of Imported Fruits in Indian Consumers

This study aims to investigate the consumer perceptions and purchase determinants of imported fruits in an emerging economy such as India. A consumer survey was conducted in one of the major urban cities of India. Item measures were related to consumer perceptions, purchase determinants, and consumer-reported willingness to pay price premiums. The data analysis was undertaken using techniques like exploratory factor analysis, logistic regression, and analysis of variance. Consumers associate imported fruits with health, safety, taste, and free from chemicals, whereas extrinsic factors such as storage conditions, store image, appearance, label, country of origin, and price also influence the willingness to purchase imported fruits. The demographic factors having the most impact on consumers’ attribute ratings for imported fruits are age, gender, income, and education. This study highlights the significant purchase determinants that can help marketers of imported fruits to gain higher share in Indian markets.     

The Effect of Sales Assistance on Purchase Decisions: An analysis using retail video data

Quantitative Marketing and Economics - We investigate the role of sales assistance in driving customer’s purchase decision using unique observational video data from a cosmetics retail chain....     

Firm-Level Determinants of the Financing Decisions of Small and Medium Enterprises: Evidence from Argentina

This article studies the determinants of the financing decisions of small and medium enterprises (SMEs), which we characterize through three cases: trade-off behavior, pecking order, and extreme aversion to debt. We test our hypotheses using a dataset of firms from Bahía Blanca (Argentina) for two years: 2006 and 2010. We find that firm characteristics related to information asymmetries, such as firm age, size, and legal form; and personal factors, such as owner’s age and education; and perception of emotional bankruptcy costs, are relevant variables in SME financing behavior. The recognition of extreme aversion to debt motivates reconsideration of the underleverage problem of SMEs.     

Ethical Decision Making in Multinational Organizations: A Culture-Based Model

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the relationship between national culture and ethical decision making. Established theories of ethics and moral development are reviewed and a culture-based model of ethical decision making in organizations is derived. Although the body of knowledge in both cross-cultural management and ethics is well documented, researchers have failed to integrate the influence of cultural values into the ethical decision-making paradigm. A conceptual understanding of how managers from different nations make decisions about highly ethical issues will provide business ethics researchers with a sound theoretical foundation upon which future empirical inquiry can be based.     

Determinants of Consumers’ Decisions to Seek Third Party Redress: An Empirical Study of Dissatisfied Patients

A dissatisfied consumer's decision to seek redress from third parties has significant implications for society in general and the focal industry in particular, yet little is known about why consumers choose such actions. To address this gap, a generalizable, comprehensive, and testable model of the processes that result in consumers’ decisions (not) to engage in one or more third party actions is developed. In addition, results from an empirical investigation of a portion of the proposed model are presented. The empirical model explains 65 percent of the variance in the dependent construct. Several implications and avenues for future research are discussed.     

How 3D Virtual Reality Stores Can Shape Consumer Purchase Decisions: The Roles of Informativeness and Playfulness

The recent rise of consumer virtual reality (VR) hardware raises important questions in the field of online marketing: what makes 3D VR more informative and playful than conventional 2D media such as a still image and a video, and how it affects the online purchase decision-making process. In this study, we mainly focus on three interface features—interactivity, visual–spatial cues, and graphics quality. We explore how each of these three interface features enhances playfulness and informativeness of shopping interface and further influences subsequent product evaluation and purchase intention. The results of the study provide two meaningful insights. First, interactivity and visual–spatial cues significantly enhance perceived informativeness and playfulness; however, the role of graphics quality was found to be more critical for 2D displays than for 3D VR environment. Second, informativeness and playfulness influence the purchase decision-making process in distinct ways. More specifically, a playful interface may enhance consumers' preference for hedonic product benefits (e.g., a stylish and attractive design), whereas informativeness is a more important explanatory variable for subsequent purchase intentions. We discuss the theoretical contribution and managerial insights the research provides for online retailers and designers.     

Role of Forgetting in Memory-Based Choice Decisions: A Structural Model

We propose a structural model to investigate the impact of forgetting on consumers' brand choice decisions in frequently purchased products. Forgetting results in consumers imperfectly recalling their prior brand evaluations when making a purchase decision in the category. We conceptualize the imperfect recall by positing that consumers recall their prior evaluations with noise. Based on prior research in the behavioral area, we characterize the extent of forgetting as an increasing and concave function of time. Our framework generates analytical results on the impact of forgetting on consumers' brand evaluations and their consequent purchase behavior. We calibrate our model using scanner panel data for liquid detergents. Furthermore, we obtain insights into the consumers' extent of forgetting in the category, extent of learning, predicted price elasticities and implications on state dependence and habit persistence. Our results underscore the importance of modeling consumers' ability to recall only imperfectly.     

促进后向联系:跨国企业与当地供应商的发展

从外国子公司到本国企业的后向联系是东道国提高吸引外资效率的关键;而本国供应商的可得性、成本与质量是决定有效联系的基本要素。通过实地调研外国子公司与当地配套企业联系的具体情况,分析二者后向联系中存在的现实问题,文章提出了相应的政策建议。