Decomposing the sales promotion bump accounting for cross-category effects

Extant research on the decomposition of unit sales bumps due to price promotions considers these effects only within a single product category. This article introduces a framework that accommodates specific cross-category effects. Empirical results based on daily data measured at the item/SKU level show that the effects of promotions on sales in other categories are modest. Between-category complementary effects (20%) are, on average, substantially larger than between-category substitution effects (11%). Hence, a promotion of an item has an average net spin-off effect of (20 − 11 =) 9% of its own effect. The number of significant cross-category effects is low, which means that we expect that, most of the time, it is sufficient to look at within-category effects only. We also find within-category complementary effects, which implies that competitive items within the category may benefit from a promotion. We find small stockpiling effects (6%), modest cross-item effects (22%), and substantial category-expansion effects (72%). The cross-item effects are the result of cross-item substitution effects within the category (26%) and within-category complementary effects (4%). Approximately 15% (= 11% / 72%) of the category-expansion effect is due to between-category substitution effects of dependent categories.     

中国制造的创意运动

在上世纪50年代的美国，如果你想推销产品，就要通过电视去做：早年香烟公司尤其热衷于这个新媒体，有时会获得令人惊奇的成果：国际香烟品牌“Old Gold”的广告就用了这样的一个广告：“Old Gold”牌长腿版香烟包装在布幕前翩翩起舞，再配上配音员的吟诵：“由香烟人制造，不是医生？”这当然是因为没有人想他们的香烟是由医生制造的!     

BIG QUESTIONS IN AUSTRALIAN ECONOMIC HISTORY: FROM THE OUTSIDE LOOKING IN1

The conventional story of Australian economic history is worth challenging. Rather than just assuming a national economy with conventional turning points such as Federation, economic historians would do well to investigate more complex processes like the interplay between regions, races and development, and the changing patterns of interaction with the outside world. The big question for economic historians is whether in the future they can undertake economic research which informs history and so contributes to the national debate.     

Socio-economic and demographic determinants of consumer problem perception

Studies on consumer satisfaction, dissatisfaction, and complaining behaviour provide no consistent picture of the socio-economic and demographic characteristics of the consumers involved. This study indicates that consumers with different socio-economic characteristics perceive and experience different numbers and types of consumer problems.Younger people experience more problems with commercial information. Persons of lower income and full nest families report more problems with usage costs and product quality. Problems with after-sales service are more often experienced by male and upper class consumers. Differences in problem perception may affect subsequent satisfaction, dissatisfaction, and complaining behaviour.

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Sozioökonomische und demographische Einflüsse auf die Wahrnehmung von Verbraucherproblemen

Zusammenfassung Untersuchungen zur Zufriedenheit, zur Unzufriedenheit und zum Beschwerdeverhalten von Konsumenten ergeben kein konsistentes Bild der sozioökonomischen und demographischen Eigenschaften der untersuchten Konsumenten. Die vorliegende Studie deutet darauf hin, daß Konsumenten mit unterschiedlichen sozioökonomischen Eigenschaften sich hinsichtlich der Anzahl und der Art der wahrgenommenen Verbraucherprobleme unterscheiden.Jüngere Verbraucher empfinden mehr Probleme mit kommerzieller Information. Verbraucher mit niedrigerem Einkommen und Familien mit Kindern nehmen mehr Probleme mit den Gebrauchskosten und mit der Produktqualität wahr. Probleme mit dem Kundendienst treten dagegen häufiger bei männlichen Konsumenten und solchen aus höheren Schichten auf. Unterschiede in der Problemwahrnehmung wirken sich auf die Zufriedenheit und das Beschwerdeverhalten von Konsumenten aus.

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Dick A. Francken is a Research Fellow at SWOKA, Institute for Scientific Research on Consumer Affairs, Kon. Emmakade 192–195, NL-2518 JP The Hague, The Netherlands. W. Fred van Raaij is Professor of Economic Psychology at Erasmus University, Department of Economics, P.O. Box 1738, NL-3000 DR Rotterdam, The Netherlands.     

Regulatory impact assessment: a survey of selected developing and emerging economies

This paper reports on a survey of regulatory impact assessment (RIA) in 16 developing and emerging economies. RIA was playing an increasing role in these countries: eight had introduced RIA in the past 10 years; one had recently redesigned its existing RIA system; another had a long-standing RIA system in place. However, RIA was at an early stage of development in the majority of cases and six countries did not practise RIA.     

A dynamic model of inflation of Kenya, 1974-96

This paper analyses the dynamics of inflation in Kenya between1974 and 1996, a period characterised by eternal shocks andinternal disequilibria. By developing a parsimonious and empiricallyconstant model, we find that the exchange rate, foreign pricesand terms of trade have long-run effects on inflation, whilemoney supply and interest rate only have short-run effects.Inertia is found to be important up until 1993, when about 40%of the current inflation was carried over to the next quarter.After 1993, inertia drops to about 10%. Moreover, inflationis also influenced by changes in maize-grain prices, indicatinga non-negligible role for agricultural supply constraints inthe inflation process.     

A segmentation study of pedestrian weekend activity patterns in a central business district

Initiatives for the regeneration (or renewal) of Central Business Districts (CBD) could benefit from knowledge about how pedestrians interact with the environment. This study examined both cross-sectional and sequential information embedded in weekend activity patterns of pedestrians in the CBD of Hiroshima City (Japan). A multidimensional sequence alignment method was used that accounted for the types of facilities where pedestrians stopped, and whether or not stops occurred in the main street. A subsequent cluster analysis identified five distinctive pedestrian segments. The findings illustrate that, despite the complexities underlying pedestrian behavior, meaningful regularities in activity patterns can be found.