The role of positive emotions in experiential decisions

This research examines how consumers experience decision making for experiential products such as vacations. We combine data from 1) ethnographic interviews, 2) online community discussion forums, and 3) an introspective vacation-planning task to explore the experience of emotion in the decision process and to develop a new model of decision making that extends extant decision theories. We find that consumers experience a variety of positive emotions as they plan vacations, from facilitative feelings that guide the plan to fantasy feelings consumed for pleasure. Positive emotions are most evident in reaction to imagery and when the consumer's self identity is salient, and often precede more analytic information processing. Overall, this research offers a richer understanding of the emotional nature of consumer decision making for experiential products and services.     

Formal and Informal Markets for Water: Institutions, Performance, and Constraints

Water markets—either formal or informal—can be anefficient method for reallocating scarce water supplies. Atthe same time certain constraints can raise the transactioncosts of trading water. This paper reviews the conditions necessaryto establish successful water markets, identifies potentialproblems, and offers mitigating strategies. It also uses examplesof several informal and formal water markets already in operationto illustrate these problems and the solutions to them.      

Is social class still working? Revisiting the social class division in tourist consumption

The effects of social class division have been extensively examined in tourist behaviour studies, but mostly on specific tourism forms, attractions, or activities. Limited empirical research has looked into the effects of social class difference (as well as other demographic variables) on tourists' destination consumption in a holistic and comprehensive way. To revisit the role of social class in today's tourist consumption, this study stratified a group of American tourists based on their social class and compared their participation patterns in four types of destination activities: cultural, hedonic, nature-based, and shopping-related. The empirical data were from a conversion and destination branding study conducted for Thoroughbred Country, South Carolina. The analysis gained mixed results, as social class was found to have significant impacts on tourists' consumption of certain destination products/activities, but not on others. It was expected that this study could not only contribute to the research endeavours in tourist consuming behaviour, but also provide practical implications for more effective destination marketing and market segmentation strategies.     

Concept testing

This paper is a review of concept testing based on the published literature and a series of personal interviews with leading practitioners. While there is considerable agreement on the usefulness of concept testing, practitioners disagree on the best way to perform them. In addition to highlighting these disagreements, the paper covers general suggestions for improving concept testing.     

Consumer evaluations of different promotion types and price presentations: the moderating role of promotional benefit level

The effects of promotion type (i.e., price discounts and bonus packs) and price presentation (i.e., dollars and percentages) across promotional benefit levels were investigated in three experimental studies. The results suggest, for the products considered, that price discounts and bonus packs were valued similarly for both low and moderate promotional benefit levels, while price discounts were preferred when high promotional benefit levels were employed. Additionally, promotions presented in percentage terms were preferred when the benefit level was high. The implications of these results for retailers and manufacturers are that percentage price presentations should be used when large discounts are being offered. Furthermore, it appears that bonus packs are a viable alternative to price discounts when promotion levels are small or moderate since they have less of a deleterious effect on the brand.     

Benchmarks,characteristics and trends of U.S. graduate tax programs awarding a Master of Science in Taxation (MST) degree

Survey data gathered from graduate tax program directors at 26 universities, a response rate of about 43% of all programs contacted, is used to benchmark characteristics and trends of U.S. programs awarding a Master of Science in Taxation (MST) degree. The impetus for this paper was the absence of current literature regarding curriculum, enrollment, and delivery of graduate tax programs in the United States, and it is the first study to compile information on MST program trends.     

When loyalties clash purchase behavior when a preferred brand is stocked out: The tradeoff between brand and store loyalty

The interplay between brand and store loyalty is investigated in the situation of stockout of a preferred brand at a preferred store through three studies. A four-item scale for measuring store loyalty is developed and tested. While brand loyalty influences between-store substitution and within-store substitution in a stockout, store loyalty does not have any influence, suggesting the dominance of brand loyalty over store loyalty in a stockout. Relevance and implications of the results are discussed.     

The impact of institutional sources of capital upon the minority-oriented venture capital industry

Venture capital (VC) funds specializing in investing equity capital in minority-owned businesses have grown rapidly over the past decade, fueled by the willingness of major institutional investors to support this traditionally neglected niche. We investigate impacts of public pension funds upon the minority VC sector. These funds, providing over half of all capital invested in minority VCs, selectively invest, seeking to fund only those VCs likely to generate high returns. Although they attempt to pick the winners, our findings indicate that they have failed to do so. The influence of public pension funds upon the minority VCs is nonetheless real, skewing investing away from traditional practices and toward those of the venture capital mainstream. In the process, minority VCs funded by pension fund money invest in high-tech fields more than other minority-oriented VC funds do. Further, they are less likely to fund minority-owned small firms, focusing increasingly upon firms owned by nonminority Whites. Neither of these trends has resulted in increased returns. Rather, diverting minority-oriented VCs away from their traditional mission of investing in minority firms operating in a broad range of industries has resulted in lower returns over the years studied.     

Management structure and the performance of funds of mutual funds

A rapidly growing mutual fund category is funds of funds (FOFs) which invest in other mutual funds instead of individual securities. This study reports on FOFs' characteristics and performance relative to traditional equity mutual funds and finds that FOFs compare favorably. FOFs with identified managers outperform their unidentified counterparts, and FOFs that invest in-family outperform both traditional equity funds and those FOFs investing out-of-family. Finally, replicating FOFs' holdings can be prohibitively expensive since they commonly hold funds with high minimum initial investments, closed funds and/or funds that are restricted to a particular investor type.