Measuring Cross-Category Specials Purchasing: Theory, Empirical Results, and Implications

The typical Hi-Lo grocery retailer offers consumers thousands of price specials each week to build traffic and influence economic performance. Retailer reliance on price specials may engender heavy cross-category specials purchasing by shoppers. Retailers contend that high cross-category specials purchasing can damage profitability because many of the specials presented to consumers have reduced gross margins. The present study measures the level of cross-category specials purchasing in a Hi-Lo grocery market and develops and tests a model of the determinants of cross-category specials purchasing using shopping basket level data, information from surveys of shoppers, and retailer promotions. The results of the study show about 39% of all items purchased on a shopping trip were on special and that about 30% of consumers surveyed were highly sensitive to price specials, purchasing more specials than regular priced items on their shopping trip. The findings indicate that the consumer search behaviors, such as reading flyers, significantly affected the level of cross-category specials purchasing as did the demographic variable - household income. The study concludes with a series of practical implications for managers to help them gain profitable shopping baskets and set of implications for researchers interested in developing new insights on cross-category specials purchasing.     

中国投资华尔街

今年11月下旬，中国新建主权财富基金的董事长楼继伟公开表示，需要经过最多一年的时间，该基金才能进入全面运营状态，准备好进行大规模境外投资。     

University Company Government Interaction： FAPEMIG as Propeller Agent of the Scientific-Technological Development in Minas Gerais, Brazil

This article aims to present the main indicators for Science, Technology, and Innovation （ST＆l） generated by the Fundacao de Amparo a Pesquisa do Estado de Minas Gerais （FAPEMIG） in four years （2008-2011）. The methodology used was a case study, with documentary research, held in the annual reports of activities of the foundation. The results showed that all indicators analyzed in aggregate form, evolved gradually. It is concluded that the FAPEMIG comes complying with their mission to induce and encourage research and scientific and technological innovation for the development of the State of Minas Gerais in the southeast region, maintaining the recognition as one of the main agents of development inductors ST＆I in Brazil.     

Testing for the Feldstein-Horioka hypothesis in Asia using wavelet analysis

We investigate the Feldstein-Horioka (1980) puzzle using a novel time-frequency approach. The wavelet-based retention and correlation coefficients are estimated for a cross-section of 15 Asian countries over the period 1972–2016. The countries are grouped as OCED countries (Japan and South Korea), least developed countries (like Bangladesh and Nepal), the large countries (like India and China), and the small countries (like Sri Lanka and Pakistan). Our approach reveals some interesting insights on the relationship between investment and saving rates and investment and current account deficits.     

Financial stability of Islamic banking and the global financial crisis: Evidence from the Gulf Cooperation Council

Using a sample of 76 banks from the Gulf Cooperation Council region, we use accounting- as well as market-based measures of financial stability to examine whether Islamic banks outperformed conventional banks in the time of financial shocks during the period 2000–2013. We find that the difference between the two banking types was initially not significant during the GFC. However, when the financial shock spread to the real economy during the later phases of the crisis, Islamic banks suffered a significantly higher level of financial instability than conventional banks. This result holds true for large banks but not for small Islamic banks. Small Islamic banks demonstrated a relatively better handling of the economic downturn than large Islamic banks, supporting the argument that Islamic banks are more stable when they operate at a small scale but lose this stability when they increase their scale of operations. Hence, while Islamic banks may have escaped the consequences of highly volatile financial instruments, they were not spared from a major shock in the real economic sectors.     

Institutional quality,economic freedom and stock market volatility in the MENA region

How can a government help secure low-cost equity financing? This study offers an answer that a government can secure sustainable economic progress when policies of economic freedom are well institutionalized in a way that results in low equity volatility, thus low-cost equity financing. This study examines the quantitative and empirical associations between elements of Economic Freedom Index (being treated in this study as a proxy for institutional quality) and stock market volatility. The authors classify the institutional quality into three levels: high, medium and low. The data cover the years 1996–2014 for the MENA countries. The statistical tests include fixed and random effects, linearity versus non-linearity. The results show that stock market volatility can be mitigated and reduced when economic freedom is associated with an effective enforcement of law and efficient regulations. Nevertheless, the high freedom from corruption results in active equity trading which is associated with high volatility that leads in turn to high cost of equity financing. The study contributes to the literature in terms of offering practical insights on the pillars of economic freedom that policymakers must improve in order to mitigate or reduce equity volatility, therefore cost of equity financing.     

Insights for a post-Brexit era: marketing the UK as a study destination – an analysis of Arab,Chinese, and Indian student choices

ABSTRACT

Britain’s scheduled exit from the European Union (‘Brexit’) has long-term ramifications for strategic marketing. Faced with new challenges and uncertainty, UK universities are increasingly looking beyond EU borders to recruit international students. In this context, we draw upon country-of-origin theory to categorise the factors that influence non-EU international student decisions to select an overseas study destination and institution. Based on the results of a survey with 317 Arab, Chinese, and Indian students attending UK universities, we identify eight factors that influence international student decisions to study in the UK (social safety, education quality, entry obstacles, environment, recommendations, knowledge of host country, work and immigration, and meeting new cultures). The results address gaps in the literature, offering new insights that will help practitioners and academics to better understand how international students select a country and university as a study location.     

WOULD AUSTRALIA–NEW ZEALAND BE A VIABLE CURRENCY UNION? EVIDENCE FROM INTERSTATE RISK‐SHARING PERFORMANCES

In this article, we first measure the potential welfare gains from perfect risk sharing among Australian states and New Zealand regions under possible unification. We show that New Zealand regions reap moderate gains from perfect risk sharing when they form a union with Australia, whereas for Australian states, the gains are somewhat similar to what they have attained at the intranational level. Second, we measure the extent of interstate risk sharing and intertemporal smoothing between the two countries. We are able to observe a substantial degree of intertemporal smoothing among Australian states and New Zealand regions, either alone or jointly, thus confirming the permanent income hypothesis. Further, unique to the risk‐sharing literature, we decompose the aggregate (nondiversifiable) output shocks into positive and negative components, in order to assess the strength of risk‐sharing mechanisms across business cycles. The study finds a virtual absence of risk sharing when Australia and New Zealand face negative aggregate fluctuations, raising doubts about the feasibility of the union, particularly during economic downturns. (JEL F41, F36)     

Monetary and fiscal policies' effect on agricultural growth: GMM estimation and simulation analysis

The concept of sustainable economic growth is closely linked with the agricultural growth. This is especially true in the context of under-developed countries. Pakistan is a typical under-developed country that has huge labor force employed in conventional rural economy and more than half of the population relies on agriculture for subsistence. The study examines the agricultural growth through developing a model using the data from agricultural sector of Pakistan for the period 1972–2010. The model is primarily based on input–output reduced form structural equations approach. It is then estimated by GMM, validated and used for deterministic simulation analyses. Finally the validated model is used to critically analyze the impact of fiscal, monetary and energy policies on the agricultural output. We conluded that recent fiscal and monetary policies should be continued, while the energy policy needs to be modified in order to improve the agricultural GDP and reduce the rural poverty situation in the country.     

A Comparative Assessment of Consumer and Non-Consumer Preference for Beef Cuts Consumption in Malaysia

Malaysia is currently enjoying an economic revival, resulting in a rising per capita income and an increasing urban population. There are consumers whose taste buds have become more accustomed to international cuisines, including meaty Western food, to satisfy their quest for diversity in their new lifestyles. This group of consumers in Malaysia plays an important role in shaping the rising trend in the consumption of meat products, and this changing attitude calls for empirical research to clarify factors shaping it. The results also indicate that there are three factors (attributes of beef cuts, quality and safety, and the variety of Malaysian dishes) that greatly influence the preference for beef consumers toward their consumption of beef cuts. It was also determined that four factors that influenced the preference for non-beef consumers are price of beef cuts, lifestyle, risk associated with beef cuts consumption, taste, and preferences influencing non-beef consumers.