Augmenting the eye of the beholder: exploring the strategic potential of augmented reality to enhance online service experiences

Driven by the proliferation of augmented reality (AR) technologies, many firms are pursuing a strategy of service augmentation to enhance customers’ online service experiences. Drawing on situated cognition theory, the authors show that AR-based service augmentation enhances customer value perceptions by simultaneously providing simulated physical control and environmental embedding. The resulting authentic situated experience, manifested in a feeling of spatial presence, functions as a mediator and also predicts customer decision comfort. Furthermore, the effect of spatial presence on utilitarian value perceptions is greater for customers who are disposed toward verbal rather than visual information processing, and the positive effect on decision comfort is attenuated by customers’ privacy concerns.     

A new fluctuation test for constant variances with applications to finance

We present a test to determine whether variances of time series are constant over time. The test statistic is a suitably standardized maximum of cumulative first and second moments. We apply the test to time series of various assets and find that the test performs well in applications. Moreover, we propose a portfolio strategy based on our test which hedges against potential financial crises and show that it works in practice.     

eCCIq: The quality of electronic customer-to-customer interaction

Electronic customer-to-customer interaction (eCCI) becomes crucial in innovative business models (e.g., Ebay, Facebook) that are either intentionally built on such eCCI occurring completely on purpose or for providers that are embedding web 2.0 and social media techniques in their service offering. To enable a more active application and purposeful management of eCCI, it is essential to conceptualize its quality (eCCIq) as a start. In doing so we identify seven factors that constitute the domain of eCCIq: ‘Content’, ‘Security’, ‘Hedonic’, ‘Quantity’, ‘Atmosphere’, ‘Convenience’ and ‘Social’. Construct development is based on existing literature on CCI and various closely-related constructs as well as on an empirical study assessing eCCIq in a qualitative and quantitative manner. Our results enable firms to more selectively influence and control eCCIq and provide the basis to conduct any further research on the impact of eCCI and its quality.     

Procurement of logistics services and sustainable development in Europe: Fields of activity and empirical results

This paper strives to answer the general question; how far purchasers of logistics services take into account aspects of sustainable development. Modeled on the German Sustainable Development Strategy, which is based on the EU Sustainable Development plan, five fields of activity are defined: the reduction of transport intensity and emission, the reduction of land use, the choice of carrier under consideration of sustainable aspects, the permanent improvement of working conditions, and the enhancement of qualified employment. Then, propositions for purchasing companies of logistics services are developed, which contribute to safeguard ecological as well as social sustainability. In order to conduct an explorative study, a questionnaire was sent to 750 purchase and logistics managers. It was found that purchasing companies place high value on ecological and social aspects. But the perceived importance is not associated with purchasing companies' own contributions to logistics service providers' sustainable activities. Additionally, it was seen that purchasing companies exert only a minor influence on logistics service providers regarding ecologically and socially sustainable actions. A fundamental precondition for a sustainably oriented procurement of logistics services can be seen in the purchasing companies' awareness of the need for integrating sustainable aspects in economic decisions.     

A compound option approach to model the interrelation between banking crises and country defaults: The case of Hungary 2008

We analyze the Hungarian financial crisis of 2008 in a stochastic framework that advances structural credit risk models for country defaults: by applying compound option theory we consider payments for bailing-out the banking sector together with debt service payments in a joint crisis model. We estimate the model parameters by applying the time series maximum-likelihood approach of Duan (1994) on yield spreads of Hungarian Bonds. We find that difficulties in acquiring funds for debt servicing in combination with high outstanding debt triggered the crisis, rather than problems in the domestic banking sector. The estimated crisis probabilities dramatically rise during 2008.     

Optimal Tariffs and Subsidies and Changes in Market Structure

The paper presents a unified treatment of optimal trade policy for a small country. The well‐known results for duopoly and competitive markets emerge as benchmark cases of the authors’ model. In addition, it is shown that changes in market structure have nonmonotonic effects on optimal tariffs. The results suggest that the recent reduction of tariffs in eastern Europe is consistent with welfare‐maximizing trade policy in response to the substantial changes in the market structure of these countries.     

Entscheidungsproblem,Entscheidungskriterien bei völliger Ungewißheit und Chernoffsches Axiomensystem

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