The effects of promotional package frames and price strategies on inaction inertia

Inaction inertia is the phenomenon in which people are less likely to accept a less attractive opportunity after having missed a relatively more attractive one. Previous studies have mainly explored the inaction inertia effect on single products or services, whereas this study explored how the promotional frames of sales packages influence inaction inertia toward the individual items within the sales packages and the inaction inertia effect of the target product under different price strategies. On the basis of the cost assignments of mental accounting and comparisons of the current inferior promotion with missed superior promotion, this study found evidence that when consumers encounter a freebie (bundle) condition, they assign a higher cost to the focal (supplementary) product and a lower cost to the supplementary (focal) product. Therefore, consumers who have missed a freebie (bundle) promotion exhibit lower (higher) inaction inertia toward the focal product, but higher (lower) inaction inertia toward the supplementary product. Applying a similar internal mechanism to pricing strategies, the findings also show that when consumers encounter a two‐component sales package with a surcharge promotion using a partitioned price (vs. a price discount promotion using an all‐inclusive price), they assign a higher cost to the base product and a lower cost to the surcharge. So, consumers who have missed the surcharge (vs. price discount) promotion show higher inaction inertia when the surcharge of the current inferior opportunity is salient, but show less inaction inertia when it is not salient. Moreover, the percent of a surcharge as a part of the total package value moderates the impact of promotional price strategy frames on inaction inertia. These findings have significant implications for both theoreticians and practitioners interested in inaction inertia, promotional frames, and price strategies.     

Do relative leverage and relative distress really explain size and book-to-market anomalies?

In a capital asset pricing model (CAPM) framework, Ferguson and Shockley [2003. Equilibrium “anomalies”. Journal of Finance 58, 2549–2580] propose two factors constructed on relative leverage and relative distress, and show that the two factors subsume Fama and French's [1993. Common risk factors in the returns on stocks and bonds. Journal of Financial Economics 33, 3–56] factors constructed on size and book-to-market (BM) in explaining the cross-sectional average returns of the 25 size-BM portfolios. Based on tests on individual securities, we find that all factors fail to fully explain the common asset-pricing anomalies. In the spirit of Merton's [1973. An intertemporal capital asset pricing model. Econometrica 41, 867–887] intertemporal CAPM, we propose an augmented five-factor model, which incorporates Ferguson and Shockley's [2003. Equilibrium “anomalies”. Journal of Finance 58, 2549–2580] factors into the Fama–French three-factor model. The empirical results show that a simple conditional version of the augmented model is able to explain most well-known asset-pricing anomalies.     

Understanding the impact of culinary brand equity and destination familiarity on travel intentions

This paper explores determinants of brand equity and the role of destination familiarity for travel intentions in culinary tourism from the perspective of foreign tourists. This analysis advocates four elements for brand equity (brand loyalty, brand image, perceived quality and brand awareness) for culinary travel intentions in Taiwan. Building on extensive literature, this study developed and empirically tested a model of the relationship using survey data collected from 407 foreign tourists from ten regions. The results indicate that there is a direct positive relationship between brand equity and travel intentions in culinary tourism. Moreover, the study recognizes the moderating role of destination familiarity, which positively moderates the effect of brand loyalty and perceived quality on travel intentions.     

Pregnancy outcomes for medicaid patients in mandatory managed care: The Pennsylvania HealthChoices program

A number of states have adopted mandatory managed care to provide health services to Medicaid patients, raising concerns that the care provided may be of lower quality than care provided under traditional fee‐for‐service arrangements. In this article, we study the effect of Pennsylvania's mandatory managed care program, HealthChoices, on health outcomes and the cost of care for pregnant Medicaid patients. Using difference‐in‐differences, we find evidence that the adoption of managed care resulted in fewer preventable complications, particularly for more severely ill mothers, but no general reduction in costs except in the highest decile of the cost distribution.     

ALTERNATIVE TESTS OF THE ZERO‐BETA CAPM

In this paper I develop an analytical Wald test of the zero‐beta capital asset pricing model (CAPM) in a simple iid (independent and identically distributed) setting and extend the Wald test to the generalized method of moments (GMM) framework that allows for a general form of serial correlation and conditional heteroskedasticity. The size and power of these tests, along with some existing tests, are investigated under normal errors and other alternative distributional specifications. The results show that, under alternative distributional assumptions for the error terms, the proposed Wald and GMM tests have reliable sizes for medium‐size samples, whereas the likelihood ratio test (LRT) rejects the efficiency too often, especially when the error terms significantly deviate from normality. However, the LRT is more powerful than both the Wald and GMM tests. JEL classification: C13, C53, G14.     

Introduction

This study decomposes the unconditional stock return volatility into two categories: systematic versus idiosyncratic risk, to re-examine the link between size and risk in the banking industry. The feasibility of the model is tested using data for US banks from 1998 to 2007. The evidence uncovered suggests that the practice of size-related diversification obtained with large banks reduces the firm-specific risk, and thus weakens stock return variances. However, rather than eliminating firm-specific risk, it is being transformed into systematic risk. Additionally, our empirical findings can potentially explain why a bank's size-related diversification does not result in a reduction in its unconditional stock return volatility reported in Demsetz and Straha [Historical patterns and recent changes in the relationship between bank size and risk. Federal Reserve Bank of New York Economic Policy Review, 1(2), 13–26 (1995); Diversification, size, and risk at bank holding companies. Journal of Money, Credit, and Banking, 29, 300–313 (1997)].     

Dividends, Values and Agency Costs in REITs

This study examines the market value of REIT dividends conditional on transparency of operating structure and effectiveness of boards. Results suggest that total, mandatory and discretionary dividends are valued by the market. Consistent with agency cost theory, results provide some evidence that discretionary dividends paid by REITs with greater principal-agent conflicts have greater market value. Specific results suggest an increased value of excess dividends paid by firms with more complex organizational structures (UPREITs) and, to some degree, less independent boards. This evidence implies the equity market recognizes REITs’ substitution of discretionary dividends for stronger governance.     

An integrate method for performance of women in science and technology based on entropy measure for objective weighting

In the 21st century the role of women in the science and technology (WIST) field is very important. Many countries are actively promoting policies of women in higher education and R&D careers. A nation’s economic growth depends heavily upon its talent base, specifically, the quantity, quality, and utilization of HRST. Therefore, assessing WIST productivity variation is important. The problem of the complexity of performance evaluation makes the development and the application of standard models more difficult. This study uses the VIKOR and entropy method to evaluate the performance of WIST and rank the priorities for them accordingly. The relative weight of different evaluation criteria for the performance of WIST comes from the entropy results. We can see that, the first two important factors for the performance of WIST are a higher education sector and government sector women researchers, as a percentage of the total researchers. The results show that the Korean alternative has the best performance of WIST followed by the Netherlands and Japan.     

创业板网下配售解禁对股价的影响

网下配售股的解禁增加了股票的供给,对股价向下的压力,给投资者带来损失,本文通过对52家创业板公司52次解禁事件的数据研究发现:在52家解禁公司中呈负股价效应的为39家,网下申购倍数、发行市盈率、上市公司利润增长率、解禁日换手率,与解禁日超额收益率正相关,其中影响最大的是解禁日换手率,并针对这个问题进行了深入分析,提出了相应的政策建议。     

Now or later: Delay's effects on post-consumption emotions and consumer loyalty

This study identifies differences in immediate and delayed post-consumption emotional assessments, triggering a dynamic shift in word-of-mouth evaluation and repurchase intention. Experiment 1 compares participants' responses to cellphone purchases in immediate and half-hour delay conditions. Experiment 2 generalizes the research scope by examining biscuit consumption and imposing an additional 24-hour delay. Results indicate that (1) products with higher hedonic value elicit excitement and cheerfulness, which intensify over time and increase consumer loyalty; (2) products with higher utilitarian value induce feelings of confidence and security, which gradually fade in intensity and diminish consumer loyalty over time; (3) products with lower hedonic value lead to dissatisfaction, which dissipates over time, and low-level consumer loyalty rises; and (4) products with lower utilitarian value generate feelings of anger, which grow over time and erode consumer loyalty.