Category-specific coupon proneness: The impact of individual characteristics and category-specific variables

In seeking to enhance the effectiveness of coupon promotions, researchers have long sought to identify “coupon prone” consumers. Previous measures of coupon proneness have not examined differences in coupon usage across product categories and have ignored the confounding effect of coupon attractiveness. An Item Response Theory (IRT)-based framework overcomes these limitations and yields category-specific estimates of propensity to redeem coupons that are independent of coupon attractiveness. The authors utilize an IRT-based model to estimate consumers’ category-specific propensities to redeem coupons for two product and two service categories, and investigate how coupon proneness varies across consumers and across categories as a function of individual characteristics and category-specific variables.The authors find that category-specific measures of propensity to redeem coupons achieve an average accuracy of 89 percent in predicting redemption intentions. Propensity to redeem coupons is also found to be related to category-specific brand loyalty and perceived coupon availability, as well as to individual characteristics such as general coupon proneness, value consciousness and price consciousness. These findings highlight the importance of studying coupon proneness at the category level and suggest that the IRT-based approach has considerable promise as a methodology for studying coupon usage. Using the approach proposed in this study, marketers can forecast the impact coupons are likely to have in their particular category, rather than relying on general coupon proneness measures to predict coupon redemption rates at the category level. The study's findings can also be used to identify categories and consumer segments where coupon promotions are likely to have a larger impact, and have important implications for managers planning joint couponing strategies.     

Segmenting Markets Along Multiple Dimensions of Luxury Value: The Case of India

abstract

This is one of the first investigations of consumer motivations for purchasing luxury brands in India, a country with an emerging middle class. It identifies four dimensions of luxury benefits for segmenting markets. These include the financial, functional, personal, and social benefits of luxury value. Using data collected from 329 respondents in Mumbai the study identifies nine luxury factors for purchase behavior. These are used for classifying respondents into three behavioral segments using cluster analysis. The first segment appears to buy luxury goods primarily for their snob appeal, the second segment for their prestige appeal, and the third for their value appeal. The results show that while many consumers may buy the same luxury goods, their motivations for doing so differ. The findings should help marketers tailor their messages to specific luxury-seeking segments. There are many papers on luxury brands but very few are from emerging markets. The results may be of great use to global brands that are looking for expansion due to slowdown condition across globe.     

Evidence on the Joint Determination of Audit and Non-Audit Fees

In this study we investigate whether the characteristics of clients, auditors, and the auditor‐client relationship simultaneously determine audit and non‐audit fees. As done in prior studies, we maintain that fees proxy for the level of service provided and follow the physical flow of knowledge. Estimating single‐equation models of audit and non‐audit fee models, we confirm prior findings of an association between audit and non‐audit fees. Studies conclude that such evidence is consistent with knowledge spillovers between the two services. However, we document empirically that audit and non‐audit fees are simultaneously determined. Because the data indicate audit and non‐audit fees are jointly determined, we then investigate whether previously documented associations between audit and non‐audit fees are the result of biased estimation induced by using endogenous variables in single‐equation models. In contrast to results from single‐equation estimations, we find no association between audit and non‐audit fees using a simultaneous specification of the fee system, suggesting that single‐equation estimations suffer from simultaneous‐equations bias. In sum, the findings are not consistent with the existence of economies of scope from the joint performance of audit and non‐audit services after controlling for the joint behavior of audit and non‐audit fees. Given the ongoing debate over the level of allowed non‐audit services by auditors, the argument for the joint provision of audit and non‐audit services is less justified than if joint‐supply benefits had been documented.     

Food security implications of global marine catch losses due to overfishing

Excess fishing capacity and the growth in global demand for fishery products have made overfishing ubiquitous in the world’s oceans. Here we describe the potential catch losses due to unsustainable fishing in all countries’ exclusive economic zones (EEZs) and on the high seas over 1950–2004. To do so, we relied upon catch and price statistics from the Sea Around Us Project as well as an empirical relationship we derived from species stock assessments by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. In 2000 alone, estimated global catch losses amounted to 7–36% of the actual tonnage landed that year, resulting in a landed value loss of between 6.4 and 36 billion (in 2004 constant US6.4 and 36 billion (in 2004 constant US). From 1950–2004, 36–53% of commercial species in 55–66% of EEZs may have been overfished. Referring to a species-level database of intrinsic vulnerability (V) based on life-history traits, it appears that susceptible species were depleted quickly and serially, with the average V of potential catch losses declining at a similar rate to that of actual landings. The three continental regions to incur greatest losses by mass were Europe, North America, and Asia—forming a geographic progression in time. But low-income and small island nations, heavily dependent on marine resources for protein, were impacted most profoundly. Our analysis shows that without the inexorable march of overfishing, ~20 million people worldwide could have averted undernourishment in 2000. For the same year, total catch in the waters of low-income food deficit nations might have been up to 17% greater than the tonnage actually landed there. The situation may be worst for Africa, which in our analysis registered losses of about 9–49% of its actual catches by mass in year 2000, thus seriously threatening progress towards the UN Millennium Development Goals.     

On the Kuiper test for normality with mean and variance unknown

Summary A modified form of the Kuiper statistic V _n is developed for testing the composite hypothesis that a sample of size n comes from a normal population with unspecified mean and variance. Its distribution is derived using Monte Carlo methods. Power comparison with the adjusted Kuiper test proposed by L outer and K oerts [6] indicates that our test is superior with respect to certain alternatives.     

An approach to prioritize customer-based,cost-effective service enhancements

Service firms routinely enhance their offerings to satisfy and retain current customers and to attract new customers. We show theoretically that service improvements can be prioritized by simultaneously taking into account the likely incremental revenue (through increased customer value) and the incremental cost of making the improvement. The customer values obtained from a sample of respondents, and cost estimates obtained from managers of the service providing organization are combined to prioritize improvements using a ‘bang for the buck’ (i.e. value/cost) rule. Such a prioritization would be helpful to come up with a ‘short list’ of service improvements. The items on the short list can be evaluated in detail for their ‘Return on Quality’. The approach for prioritization is illustrated in the context of improving passenger train service between a pair of cities in India. An adaptive self-explicated approach is used for obtaining customer values and cost estimates. The customer values so elicited display substantial cross-validity.     

An assessment of the potential consumption impacts of WHO dietary norms in OECD countries

The member countries of the World Health Organization (WHO) have recently endorsed its global strategy on diet, physical activity and health. The strategy emphasises the need to limit the consumption of saturated fats and trans-fatty acids, salt and sugars, and to increase consumption of fruits and vegetables in order to combat the growing burden of non-communicable diseases. This paper attempts a broad quantitative assessment of the consumption impacts of these norms in OECD countries using a mathematical programming approach. We find that adherence to the WHO norms would involve a significant decrease in the consumption of vegetable oils (30%), dairy products (28%), sugar (24%), animal fats (30%) and meat (pig meat, 13.5%, mutton and goat 14.5%) and a significant increase in the human consumption of cereals (31%), fruits (25%) and vegetables (21%).