Leveraging Information Across Categories

Companies are collecting increasing amounts of information about their customers. This effort is based on the assumption that more information is better and that this information can be leveraged to predict customers' behavior in a variety of situations and product categories. For example, information about a customer's purchase behavior in one category can be helpful in predicting his potential behavior in a related category, which in turn could help a firm in its cross-selling efforts. In this paper, we present a model to better understand and predict a consumer's purchases and preferences when we may have limited or no information about him in one or more product categories. Conceptually this involves leveraging information from purchases of other consumers in multiple categories as well as partial information (e.g., purchase in one of the categories) of the target consumer. Our approach builds on the pioneering work of (Rossi et al. (1996)) who demonstrate the value of purchase information in the context of a single product category. We present results from an extensive simulation as well as an application on scanner panel data. Our simulation shows many interesting and somewhat surprising results. Specifically, we find that compared to a single-category analysis, a cross-category analysis does not lead to any significant improvement in data likelihood in most cases. Therefore, the single-category analysis of (Rossi et al. (1996)) is even more powerful than previously thought. However, we also find that a cross-category analysis does improve parameter recovery in many situations as compared to a single-category analysis. It is in these conditions that retailers can use cross-category information to better implement micro marketing programs. We demonstrate the transfer of information across categories in an application of two grocery products—Breakfast Foods and Table Syrup. In spite of a reasonable correlation (0.21) in the price parameter across these two categories, our simulation guidelines predict very little benefit of cross-category analysis over single-category analysis. Our empirical results confirm this prediction.     

DYNAMIC OUTPUT RESPONSE REVISITED: THE INDIAN CASH CROPS

Diverse instruments have been used to encourage developing agriculture. In the process, billions of dollars have been spent on providing incentives to peasants. Given scarce resources, an important concern has been the issue of what policy instruments to emphasize. In this regard, useful policy information can be gleaned from the role of expected profits (revenue and input prices), assets (irrigation and infrastructure), and relevant risks, in evoking peasant response. Using panel data for the period 1967/1968 to 1999/2000 pertaining to seven major Indian cash crops cultivated across 14 major states, we find strong evidence of a differential producer response in the post‐liberalization phase, although the important variables per se are much the same. Our results suggest that the preferred policy ought to emphasize availability of irrigation, affordable fertilizer, and rural infrastructure, rather than incessant increases in output prices.     

Customer query handling in sales interactions

Using a novel approach with video-recordings of sales interactions, this study focuses on a dynamic analysis of salesperson effectiveness in handling customer queries. We conceptualize salesperson behaviors, namely, resolving, relating, and emoting, as separate elements of customer query handling and empirically identify the distinct verbal and nonverbal cues that salespeople use to display these behaviors during sales interactions. We draw from compensation effects in social cognition theory to propose that customers’ perceptions of a salesperson’s effectiveness are prone to trade-offs between competence (resolving behaviors) and warmth (relating and emoting behaviors). Results, robust to endogeneity corrections, support the proposed tradeoffs such that the effectiveness of salesperson’s resolving behavior is significantly curtailed, even neutralized, by the salesperson’s relating and emoting behaviors. We situate these counterintuitive results within the extant theory and research on sales interactions, and outline implications for practice.     

Supplier evaluation in the context of circular economy: A forward step for resilient business and environment concern

Resource depletion is a concern for the global economy; many think that available resources on the planet will not be able to cater to an ever-growing population. Thus, economies are trying to become circular, leaving behind the linear tradition linear approach. In the circular economy (CE), physical resources and energy are made to loop back into the supply chain (SC) for a more extended period. Proper selection of suppliers is an essential criterion towards proper execution of the CE principle in SC. In this research, we have constructed a framework for evaluating the supplier concerning the CE implementation. Further, this research identifies the criterion and sub-criterion, which are pertinent for evaluating the supplier in CE context. Fuzzy-based ‘Criteria Importance Through Inter-Criteria Correlation (CRITIC)’ method is justifiably applied to determine the aggregated weights of the criteria. Finally, ‘Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS)’ method is used to determine the suppliers' ranking in the Indian automobile industry. Six criteria and 24 sub-criteria are obtained as per recent literature and then inputs from experts. ‘Environment’ criterion came out as the most favourable criterion with a subjective weight of 0.230. The current research is one of the first such attempts to provide criteria for supplier selection in a CE environment. The developed framework would help organisations in implementing CE-based supplier selection. The identified criteria and sub-criteria would provide organisations with means to evaluate suppliers and help suppliers develop an effective and efficient CE based on the SC.     

Impact of privacy concerns on resistance to smart services: does the ‘Big Brother effect’ matter?

ABSTRACT

The aim of this study is to provide a better understanding of the factors that explain consumer resistance to smart services from a privacy perspective. To this end, an exploratory qualitative study and a quantitative study were carried out. 653 French consumers answered an online questionnaire regarding smart services in the banking sector. Structural equation modelling was used to test the conceptual model. The findings show that information privacy, the unauthorised secondary use of personal information and perceived intrusion have an impact on consumer resistance to smart services. Moreover, our research highlights the major role of the ‘Big Brother effect’ as an antecedent to these various privacy concerns.     

A systematic literature review to integrate lean,agile, resilient,green and sustainable paradigms in the supply chain management

The main focus of this study is to conduct a systematic literature review to integrate lean, agile, resilient, green and sustainable (LARGS) paradigms in the supply chain (SC) domain. To achieve this aim, several research questions were designed: First, how to locate LARGS research in context of SC domain? For this, it is important to understand which types of research articles should be selected for the study? Further, where such studies were conducted (geographical location)? Second, what is the focus of research in LARGS paradigm in SCs? For this, it is important to study, which types of industries or sectors have been targeted in literature? In addition, which tools and techniques have been used mostly? Third, what are the current trends in the relationships of LARGS paradigms, among themselves, and with SC performance measures? Fourth, what are the emerging issues, unexplored areas in this field, based on these what could be future research avenues in this subject domain have been proposed? A total of 160 relevant articles published during 1999–2019 were used for analysis. Based on analysis, findings are summarised, and main research issues and possible future research directions in LARGS paradigms in SCs are highlighted.     

The dynamics of volatility transmission and information flow between ADRs and their underlying stocks

This research examines the dynamics of volatility transmission and information flow between ADRs and the underlying stocks. Using a bivariate GARCH model with BEKK parameterisation, the study investigates how changes in volatility in the ADR market affect the volatility in the underlying equity market and vice versa. The findings suggest a bidirectional volatility transmission and information flow between the ADR and underlying stock markets. ADRs and underlying stocks respond to their own innovations as well as to the innovations in each other's market. The findings are consistent for all countries in the sample as well as for different sub-periods. The evidence suggests that the differences in synchronicity of trading period between the US market and other developed markets included in the sample has had no effect on the volatility transmission and information flow between ADRs and underlying stocks.     

Decentralized capacity management and internal pricing

This paper studies the acquisition and subsequent utilization of production capacity in a multidivisional firm. In a setting where an upstream division provides capacity services for itself and a downstream division, our analysis explores whether the divisions should be structured as investment or profit centers. The choice of responsibility centers is naturally linked to the internal pricing rules for capacity services. As a benchmark, we establish the efficiency of an arrangement in which the upstream division is organized as an investment center, and capacity services to the downstream division are priced at full historical cost. Such responsibility center arrangements may, however, be vulnerable to dynamic hold-up problems whenever the divisional capacity assignments are fungible in the short-run, and therefore, it is essential to let divisional managers negotiate over their actual capacity assignments. The dynamic hold-up problem can be alleviated with more symmetric choice of responsibility centers. The firm can centralize ownership of capacity assets with the provision that both divisions rent capacity on a periodic basis from a central unit. An alternative and more decentralized solution is obtained by a system of bilateral capacity ownership in which both divisions become investment centers.