The impact of risk perceptions on the attitude toward multi-channel technologies

ABSTRACT

Several studies show that retailers experience favorable outcomes if consumers use multiple channels. Thus, retailers aim to encourage consumers to do so in a convenient way by offering multi-channel technologies (MCTs). However, not much is known about what affects a positive attitude toward such technologies. Our study investigates how different risk perceptions influence the attitude toward specific MCTs in comparison (check and reserve, click and collect, availability check). Moreover, we examine whether the customer’s general purchase channel preference moderates these effects. Results show that three risk dimensions have significant impacts on the attitude toward MCTs. These effects are generally worst for click and collect, as the negative effects (product quality and data risk) are highest, while the positive effect (product availability risk) is lowest, compared to the other two MCTs. Additionally, we generally find that the more a customer prefers buying via the online channel, the weaker the effects of the risk dimensions on the attitude are. Our findings provide implications on how to improve consumers’ attitudes toward the selected MCTs by influencing their perceptions of different risk dimensions.     

Defining the Abatement Cost in Presence of Learning-by-Doing: Application to the Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle

We consider a partial equilibrium model to study the optimal phasing out of polluting goods by green goods. The unit production cost of the green goods involves convexity and learning-by-doing. The total cost for the social planner includes the private cost of production and the social cost of carbon, assumed to be exogenous and growing at the social discount rate. Under these assumptions the optimization problem can be decomposed in two questions: (i) when to launch a given schedule; (ii) at which rate the transition should be completed that is, the design of a transition schedule as such. The first question can be solved using a simple indicator interpreted as the MAC of the whole schedule, possibly non optimal. The case of hydrogen vehicle (Fuel Cell Electric Vehicles) offers an illustration of our results. Using data from the German market we show that the 2015–2050 trajectory foreseen by the industry would be consistent with a carbon price at 52€/t. The transition cost to achieve a 7.5 M car park in 2050 is estimated at 21.6 billion € that is, to JEl 4% discount rate, 115 € annually for each vehicle which would abate 2.18 tCO\(_2\) per year.     

A Political Economy Model of Health Insurance Policy

This paper aims to explain the divergent path of U.S. health policy from other high-income countries. The paper develops a general framework of interest group politics to study how the organization of industry can shape health insurance coverage and greater public involvement in health insurance. Large firms face a higher degree of unionization and provide more health coverage for employees than small firms. Consequently, large firms favor the adoption of a policy of universal health care coverage as a means of divesting health care costs to the public sector. Public aversion to higher taxation counterbalances this effect.     

‘Retweet for a Chance to…’: an analysis of what triggers consumers to engage in seeded eWOM on Twitter

Twitter provides an important channel for brands to seed electronic word of mouth (eWOM) by followers retweeting brand messages, but prior research has not established a theoretical framework for how brands can maximise eWOM. This study presents and tests a theoretical model incorporating interactive, textual and visual tweet features to predict eWOM, using tweets by leading brands from three industries. Industry was found to be an important moderator of the effect of tweet features; after controlling for the reach and frequency of tweets, hashtags, retweet requests and photos were consistently associated with a higher retweet rate across industries, but the effect of URL links, non-initial mentions and video varied across industries, in some cases decreasing the retweet rate. Implications for research and practice are discussed.     

Meta-analysis categorization of EU countries in the context of corporate income tax

The corporate income tax is a corporate tax which aggregates economic, political and social aspects. The paper focuses on identification, analysis and assessment of homogenous EU countries groups, which show the common characteristics in the field of corporate taxation based on the selected segmentation criteria. Within the statistical meta-analysis in this paper some several methodical approaches were used: variants of agglomerative hierarchical cluster analysis, k-means method and fuzzy c-means and also multidimensional scaling method are implemented and compared. The purpose of this research is, in the context of theoretical implication to provide a synthesis of knowledge and empirical evidence about selected determinants of corporate taxation, and to verify the applicability of the clustering methods when gaining knowledge in the field of taxation. In the context of practical implication is the main purpose of this research the categorization of European countries into economically meaningful clusters, based on their similarity in corporate taxation, and to assess the convergence of European countries in corporate taxation. Results of provided cluster analysis are five groups of multidimensional objects with distinctive characteristics: nominal and effective corporate tax rate, economic performance and the level of debt.     

The role of country,regional and global market risks in the dynamics of Latin American yield spreads

We analyze the joint impact of country, regional and global market risks on daily changes in yield spreads of Mexico, Colombia and Brazil. In contrast to previous studies, we consider a homogenous set of liquid Eurobonds which are representative of current emerging bond markets. All risk-factor groups are significant but country-specific differences exist. Spread changes of all three countries are mainly driven by global risk. The second most important contributor to spread changes is country risk for Mexico and Brazil but regional risk for Colombia. The sensitivity of spread changes to risk factors varies with bond maturity.     

Competing Voices: Marketing and Counter-Marketing Alcohol on Twitter

Excessive alcohol consumption constitutes a global health problem, and despite increasing efforts to promote safe drinking, spending on alcohol advertising far outweighs spending on safe-drinking messages. Twitter represents a new channel for social marketing, but its use to promote safe drinking has not been examined. In this study, six Twitter accounts maintained by advocates of safe drinking and/or abstinence were compared with six accounts maintained by alcohol companies using a mixed-method design. The Twitter accounts of alcohol companies were followed by more people, and their tweets were more likely to use interactive features such as hashtags, to be forwarded to others, and to be associated with positive stimuli, suggesting greater interactivity and influence than prohealth Twitter messages. The results suggest social marketers may benefit from adopting the practices of for-profit marketers to increase the visibility of, engagement with, and influence of their tweets.     

Cost Benefit Analysis of European Air Quality Targets for Sulphur Dioxide, Nitrogen Dioxide and Fine and Suspended Particulate Matter in Cities

The European Commission has proposed air quality standards for NO₂, SO₂ and PM₁₀ to be in force by 2010. The present paper presents a study that gauged their costs and benefits. An analysis of the expected emissions for 2010 (reference emission scenario), using simplified air quality models, showed that non-compliance with these standards will occur in cities only, not in rural areas. Most compliance problems are expected for PM₁₀, least for SO₂. Central estimates of the costs to meet standards range from 21 MECU (SO₂), to 79 MECU (NO₂) to 87--225 MECU (PM₁₀). The estimated benefits are 83--3783 MECU (SO₂), 408--5900 MECU (NO₂), and 5007--51247 MECU (PM₁₀). Uncertainties are high, due to errors and incertitude in various steps of the methodology, mainly the estimation of the human health effects, in particular effects on mortality, and in the valuation of a statistical life. In the case of PM₁₀, additional uncertainty results from the small size of the air quality database. Notwithstanding the uncertainties, the indications are that the benefits exceed the costs.     

Designing multi-channel technologies – the mediating role of risk perceptions

ABSTRACT

The integration of online and offline distribution channels has become a major topic in practice and research. Several studies reveal beneficial outcomes for retailers if consumers use multiple channels. Therefore, many retailers offer multi-channel technologies (MCTs), i.e. click & collect, check & reserve and the availability check, which encourage this behavior. However, research is still sparse on how retailers should design these MCTs to provide the highest usefulness for consumers. Our study thus analyzes the impact of different MCT design characteristics on consumers’ perceived usefulness of these MCTs. Moreover, we examine how consumers’ perceived time and product availability risk mediate these effects. The results show that some MCT design characteristics exhibit the expected positive impacts on consumers’ perceived usefulness of the MCTs, while others seem to be less relevant and even counterproductive. In particular, a certain (vs. unspecified) product pick-up time and a high (vs. low) displayed inventory status lead to a higher perceived usefulness of the MCTs via the two risk dimensions. However, the immediate (vs. delayed) confirmation of product reservations does not have any positive effects. In fact, it even decreases the perceived usefulness of click & collect. These findings provide implications for the design of MCTs.