Towards a better understanding of the financial donor: an examination of donor behaviour in terms of value structure and demographics

While marketing academics have long advocated the application of marketing principles by not-for-profit organisations, a review of the literature suggests that attempts to segment financial donors have primarily concentrated on demographic variables. Recently, there have been moves to gain a better understanding of more psychographic influences on individuals' propensity to contribute to charities. It is proposed that the concept of values offers potential for enhancing this understanding. Findings confirm some earlier studies in that demographics such as age, education and household income significantly discriminate between heavy and light donors. Additionally, ten of the initial 56 values tested contribute to the overall discriminant model obtained. The profiles obtained suggest that distinct promotional strategies, with emphasis on different reasons for donating, may appeal to the two groups. Copyright © 1999 Henry Stewart Publications     

Perceived value of charitable involvement: The millennial donor perspective

The importance of nonprofit relationship marketing continues to increase as organizations compete to attract and retain a younger loyal donor base. The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of six determinants of charitable giving on millennial donor's perceived value received from their involvement with the charitable organization. A conceptual model and accompanying research hypotheses are tested on a sample of millennials from the U.S_(n = 227). Structural equation modeling is used to test the relationships in the model. Results suggest that five factors have a positive effect on donor's perceived value. Social recognition is found to be the most important factor, followed by attitude towards and trust in the charitable organization and attitude towards helping others. To a lesser degree, tax benefits and mitigation of guilt are also found to have an impact on donor's perceived value from charitable involvement. Although this study is limited to the examination of millennials, practical and social implications are noted for all donors. Organizations must recognize that donors are influenced by a combination of extrinsic and intrinsic factors when evaluating their value from charitable involvement. Most of all, donors seek a degree of social recognition from giving, so organizations are encouraged to provide ways for millennial donors to display or share their charitable involvement.     

An agent-based multiattribute reverse auction approach for online secondhand commodities

Due to the price elasticity of demand for secondhand commodities, it is difficult to establish a quantitative model for the auction. This paper proposes an agent-based multiattribute reverse auction model to support multicommodity combinatorial auction. First, this paper establishes an agent-based reverse auction model and introduces the framework, procedures, and protocols of the model in detail. Second, in light of the multicommodity environment, the targets, protocols, auction strategies, and approaches are identified. Finally, by using the proposed agent-based auction model, both buyers and sellers will reach simultaneous agreements on the details of the commodities to complete the auction.     

Investigating the effectiveness of convertible bonds in reducing agency costs: A Monte-Carlo approach

Simulation and option pricing techniques are used to value the marginal effect of asset risk on stock value. I find the optimal mix of stock, debt and convertible bonds that reduces this marginal effect to zero. At this optimal point the agency costs of debt are minimized. The incentive to add risky projects that arises from ordinary debt is offset by the incentive to ignore risky projects that arises from convertible debt.     

Evaluating the value of an entrepreneurial city with a spatial hedonic approach: A case study of London

This study assesses the value of a city by using the housing price function with a geographically weighted regression model, including various social, economic, and environmental factors. To assess these values, various specific data scores—such as those related to ethnic groups, green areas, crime rates, education, unemployment rates, number of entrepreneurs, and environmental quality—were considered in a case study of London. The results indicate that some variables such as time to city center and entrepreneurship have a positive impact on the local areas’ value in London, as shown by housing prices, while those related to unemployment have a negative impact. Moreover, although the London city center has benefitted more in terms of value than its outskirts have, a few specific policies related to startups and entrepreneurship have succeeded in connecting these areas to existing companies and entrepreneurs. In general, large cities may be better equipped to promote such startup and entrepreneurship policies under local industry plans for future development.     

A semi-automated system for interoperability assessment: an ontology-based approach

ABSTRACT

A plethora of approaches to assess the ability of companies to interoperate can be found in the literature. Nevertheless, most of the current assessment approaches are following manual-conducted processes, which can be laborious, time-consuming and costly. Therefore, this paper aims at developing a knowledge-based system for supporting an interoperability assessment process using an ontology as its knowledge model. The resulting system allows identifying potential interoperability problems and related solutions based on the knowledge model including information of the assessed enterprise(s). A real business case is presented for evaluating the proposed approach.     

Partnering to create IT-based value: A contextual ambidexterity approach

Going beyond the boundary of the firm and traditional notions of how IT contributes to value creation, scholars have started to investigate under what conditions, in what ways, and with which results firms can co-create IT-based value. However, we lack comprehensive insights into how firms can develop such collaborative partnerships and the types of value they create at different stages of the process. Using a qualitative case study, we analyze in detail how a mining company, a manufacturer of mining machinery, and an IT provider developed a joint venture over a ten-year period. Drawing on ambidexterity theory, we show how the three firms successfully built a context that encouraged alignment of interests and allowed the participants to adapt to emerging conditions as they collaborated to create IT-based value. Moreover, we uncover the different types of value they created over the various stages of developing the collaboration. As a result, we contribute to the literature on IT-based value co-creation with insights into how inter-firm collaboration can be developed to create different types of IT-based value. In addition, we advance contextual ambidexterity theory by demonstrating how it applies to developing new partnerships between firms.     

An approximate long-memory range-based approach for value at risk estimation

This paper proposes new approximate long-memory VaR models that incorporate intra-day price ranges. These models use lagged intra-day range with the feature of considering different range components calculated over different time horizons. We also investigate the impact of the market overnight return on the VaR forecasts, which has not yet been considered with the range in VaR estimation. Model estimation is performed using linear quantile regression. An empirical analysis is conducted on 18 market indices. In spite of the simplicity of the proposed methods, the empirical results show that they successfully capture the main features of the financial returns and are competitive with established benchmark methods. The empirical results also show that several of the proposed range-based VaR models, utilizing both the intra-day range and the overnight returns, are able to outperform GARCH-based methods and CAViaR models.     

Simulations, case studies, and an online text: a web-based resource for teaching statistics

The Rice Virtual Laboratory in Statistics is an integrated combination of simulations/demonstrations, case studies, statistical analysis capabilities, and an electronic textbook. The simulations and demonstrations help make abstract concepts concrete and allow students to investigate various aspects of statistical tests and distributions. Case studies demonstrate the real-world applicability of statistical methods. The electronic textbook covers basic concepts in statistics and data analysis and contains links to data analysis tools, instructional simulations/demonstrations, and other on-line texts. An experiment with undergraduate students found that learning by simulation led to better transfer of statistical principles to everyday problems. Materials are available on the World Wide Web at .     

Cost Malmquist productivity index: an output-specific approach for group comparison

The cost Malmquist productivity index (CMPI) has been proposed to capture the performance change of cost minimizing Decision Making Units (DMUs). Recently, two alternative uses of the CMPI have been suggested: (1) using the CMPI to compare groups of DMUs, and (2) using the CMPI to compare DMUs for each output separately. In this paper, we propose a new CMPI that combines both procedures. The resulting methodology provides group-specific indexes for each output separately, and therefore offers the option to identify the sources of cost performance change. We also define our index when input prices are not observed and establish, in that case, a duality with a new technical productivity index, which takes the form of a Malmquist productivity index. We illustrate our new methodology with a numerical example and an application to the US electricity plant districts.     

Productivity and unemployment: an ABM approach

Journal of Economic Interaction and Coordination - We investigate the relationship between productivity and unemployment with an ABM approach. In particular, we use the framework of Riccetti et al....     

Dynamic bank runs: an agent-based approach

Journal of Economic Interaction and Coordination - This paper simulates bank runs by using an agent-based approach to assess the depositors’ behavior under various scenarios in a...     

Multi-level governance for sustainable innovation in smart communities: an ecosystems approach

International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal - This paper analyses the TrentoSmartCity project to redefine Trento (an Italian municipality) as a smart community according to an ecosystems...     

From solicitation to search: a study of monitoring costs as a driver of donor giving behavior in online portal websites

This study focuses on market contexts, in particular online giving portals, where donors are able to search and select organizations to contribute to instead of responding to solicitations. To understand donor behavior in this context, we construct and test a two-stage donor search model. A relationship between the behavior of the donor and that of the charitable organization is sought along two dimensions: how organizational behavior involving the reduction of monitoring costs affects the amount that a donor gives and the likelihood that donors will make a subsequent contribution. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.