Engaging the unengaged customer: The value of a retailer mobile app

Mobile apps are becoming a go-to tactic for retailers because they offer the promise of highly convenient digital engagement. We hypothesize that two types of customers are best served by these apps — “offline-only” customers currently purchasing exclusively from the retailer's physical store, and “distant” customers who reside far from the physical store. For offline-only customers, the app complements the physical engagement they currently have. For distant customers, the app offers convenient engagement their remoteness currently precludes. We model app access and purchase behavior of 629 customers who downloaded a retailer's app. We find that apps generate more incremental sales among distant customers compared to near customers, and more incremental sales among offline-only customers compared to online customers. On an illustrative base of 100 K app users, we find accessing the app would generate $2.3 M in incremental sales. Consistent with our segmentation results, we find that the users with the greatest purchase lift (9.5%) due to app usage are those that are distant and offline-only. Our results confirm the economic value of retailer apps and their role as a segmentation strategy to enhance customer engagement.     

Productivity differences in an interdependent world

This paper studies cross-country differences in productivity from an open economy perspective by using a Helpman-Krugman-Heckscher-Ohlin model that embraces the single-cone model and a one-sector economy with factor deepening as particular cases. To estimate the model, I combine tools from development accounting and the factor content of trade literature. When simultaneously fitting data on income, factor prices and the factor content of trade, I find that the one-sector model is by far better supported by the data than the single-cone model. Rich countries have far higher productivities of human capital than poor ones, while differences in physical capital productivity are not related to income per worker. Finally, I estimate an aggregate elasticity of substitution between human and physical capital that is significantly below one.     

Fiscal Rules and Twin Deficits: The Link between Fiscal and External Balances

This paper investigates the relationship between countries' fiscal balances and current accounts with an emphasis on the role of fiscal rules. The direct effect of fiscal policy on the current account via aggregate (import) demand is potentially amplified by indirect effects, materialising through interest rate effects and intergenerational transfers that reduce savings. On the other hand, the implied positive relation between fiscal and external balances is potentially attenuated by offsetting changes in savings through Ricardian equivalence considerations. We expect this attenuation effect to be stronger in countries with more stringent fiscal rules and test this hypothesis using a panel of 73 countries over the period 1985–2012. As with previous studies, we find a positive effect of fiscal balances on the current account, supporting the twin deficit hypothesis. However, the effect of fiscal balances on the current account depends on the stringency of fiscal (budget balance or debt) rules in place; it is reduced by one‐third on average and virtually eliminated for countries with the most stringent fiscal rules.     

Stress Appraisal and Coping Response to Hassles Experienced in Outdoor Recreation Settings

The purpose of this article was to report recreationists' coping response to stress experienced in outdoor recreation settings. Stress was defined as daily hassles. The most frequent sources of hassles were litter, noise from other people, damage to the resource, and too many people at campsites. Recreationists used a coping scheme that combined problem and emotion-focused coping mechanisms. Intensity of stress moderately predicted coping response and frequency of stress weakly predicted coping. The use of coping had a moderately positive relationship with negative impacts to the recreation experience resulting from the hassle situation. The results were interpreted using psychological stress theory to offer refinement and future research directions in recreation-stress research.     

Leisure,culture and action research: the case of Sweden

Although there is reluctance in Sweden to recognize class divisions, there are in reality different cultures: those of the peasants, the upper or middle class, and the working class. Reasoning in the upper/middle class takes two forms: there are those who accept the culture barrier as inevitable and those who think the gap between ‘fine’ culture and working-class culture can be bridged. These types of reasoning are paralleled in the working class, there being believers in class solidarity and ‘climbers’. One reason for failing to bridge the cultural gap and alter the pattern of leisure life is the existence of an authorized national culture and leisure.     

Controlling im Kloster — ein Praxisbericht aus der Benediktinerabtei Plankstetten

Ohne Zusammenfassung Dipl.-Kfm. Wolfgang Gehra ist Gesch?ftsführer der Klosterbetriebe Plankstetten GmbH Bischof Dr. Gregor M. Hanke OSB ¹ ist Bischof des Bistums Eichst?tt, Bisch?fliches Sekretariat Prof. Dr. Hans-Ludwig Schmidt ist Inhaber des Lehrstuhls für Sozialund Gesundheitsp?dagogik Pater Godehard Schuster OSB ¹ ist Gesch?ftsführer der Klosterbetriebe Plankstetten GmbH, Prior der Benediktinerabtei Plankstetten und Dekan in der Di?zese Eichst?tt