Choice and the Internet: From Clickstream to Research Stream

The authors discuss research progress and future opportunities for modeling consumer choice on the Internet using clickstream data (the electronic records of Internet usage recorded by company web servers and syndicated data services). The authors compare the nature of Internet choice (as captured by clickstream data) with supermarket choice (as captured by UPC scanner panel data), highlighting the differences relevant to choice modelers. Though the application of choice models to clickstream data is relatively new, the authors review existing early work and provide a two-by-two categorization of the applications studied to date (delineating search versus purchase on the one hand and within-site versus across-site choices on the other). The paper offers directions for further research in these areas and discusses additional opportunities afforded by clickstream information, including personalization, data mining, automation, and customer valuation. Notwithstanding the numerous challenges associated with clickstream data research, the authors conclude that the detailed nature of the information tracked about Internet usage and e-commerce transactions presents an enormous opportunity for empirical modelers to enhance the understanding and prediction of choice behavior.     

Strategies to prevent economic recessions from causing business failure

An average of more than 500,000 businesses failed in the United States during each of the 10 recessions that have occurred since the end of World War II. Yet, scholar and practitioner understanding of how to prepare for and respond to the challenges of an economic downturn remains extremely limited. This article analyzes and synthesizes the information from academic theory and business experience on managing through an economic recession. To assist firms in successfully navigating economic recessions, we suggest a program that involves positioning by investing in multiple markets and geographies, planning by developing a turnaround plan for facing sharply declining sales, promoting by maintaining marketing initiatives, and preparing by acting in anticipation of economic recovery.     

Carving and tourism: A maori perspective

Maori retained high levels of self determination under the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840, although much of the subsequent history of the 19th century involved attempts both formal and informal by the colonial powers to subvert the Act. Therefore, while tourism has brought significant economic advantages for some tribes (iwi), and promises economic returns for others, Maori are insistent that they retain control over the process. The paper describes some of the significant impacts of tourism on Maori culture, but it is concluded that the truths of tourist impacts are plural, and can only be understood within an understanding of Maori cosmology. As such, Maori are adept at distinguishing between the signs and symbols of tourist artifacts.     

Insights into the repeat vacation phenomenon

The study focused upon the repeat visitor. Data were collected with a structured questionnaire at two Texas Highway Visitor Centers and through indepth personal interviews with a small sample. A majority of the sample were returning to a destination that had been visited before. Compared to those visiting a destination for the first time, repeat visitors were more likely to be older individuals seeking relaxation and visiting a friend and/or relatives on their vacation. The qualitative component of the study uncovered five factors which contributed to people returning to a familiar destination. They were a reduced risk that an unsatisfactory experience would be forthcoming; an assurance that they would find “their kind of people” there; emotional childhood attachment; to experience some aspects of the destination which had been omitted on a previous occasion; and to expose others to an experience which had previously been satisfying to respondents.     

Interstate banking,bank consolidation,and bank lending to small business

Proponents and critics of interstate banking argue over the implications of nationwide banking for bank lending to small business. This study explores the patterns of (1) bank consolidation at the national level and (2) the share of domestic-bank commercial lending extended to small firms, specifically, small manufacturing firms, over the period 1976–90. The evidence indicates that despite the trend toward fewer banking organizations and increased aggregate bank concentration due largely to cross-state expansion by superregional banking organizations, no significant downtrend is observed in the share of domestic-bank credit extended to small manufacturing firms. Nor is there any discernible downtrend in banks' share of borrowing by small manufacturing firms. These results are consistent with the thesis that banking industry consolidation hasnot led to a reduction in the supply of bank credit to small firms, at least within the manufacturing sector.     

Impact of internal and external environmental stability on the existence of determinant buying rules

The environment of the buying center is conceptualized as having two components. One is external to the buying center but internal organization. The other is external to both the buying center and the organization. The stability of these environments explains a significant amount of variation in the existence of organizational rules that determine the outcomes of organizational buying decisions. A comparison of global and attribute- specific measures of environmental stability indicates the environmental attributes that underlie respondents' global judgements about stability.