Consumer satisfaction with a mass customized Internet apparel shopping site

The present empirically examined customer satisfaction with Internet sites that vary in the opportunity for mass customization. The expectation–disconfirmation model was used as a theatrical framework of the study. Two children's apparel sites were developed as the stimuli: one with a mid level of interactivity and the other with a high level of interactivity, for selection of clothing design options. The data from 208 respondents were analyzed using LISREL 8.72. The finding indicates that both consumers' expectations and perceived performances for the mass customized sites included positive and negative aspects. The results suggest that expectations were not a significant predictor of satisfaction for this innovative shopping experience yet satisfaction was primarily driven by the performance of the site and predicted by disconfirmation of expectations. The findings also suggest that expectations are not related to performance perceptions, possibly due to consumers' lack of familiarity with mass customization. The more interactive site yielded the more positive performance as well as overall positive satisfaction. Nevertheless, the less interactive site, which offers fewer choices than more interactive site, yielded more positive behavioural consequences. The generalization of the results of this study is limited because of lack of random sampling and use of the mock site of children's apparel product category. However, useful theoretical and managerial implications are discussed.     

Water Supply System Performance for Different Pipe Materials Part I: Water Quality Analysis

The quality of potable water has been a major issue in the water industry for the last few decades. The deterioration of treated water can be due to physical, chemical or microbiological changes that occur in the water during distribution. In addition, pipe material and decay of a disinfectant agent can affect the quality of the water being distributed. In this study the purpose was to simulate the decay of chlorine in two networks, one made of old cast iron (CI) pipes and another of polyethylene (PE) pipes. In addition the performance of the network considering chlorine concentration, velocity, water age, and an intrusion of a contaminant – in this case organic material – into the network was evaluated. The simulations were performed with EPANET software using as the simulation network an example network from the program. It was found that the CI network requires higher initial chlorine concentrations than the PE network to maintain the required minimum chlorine concentration throughout the whole network. To maintain the chlorine concentrations required by WHO (Cl must be greater than 0.2 mg/l and lesser than 0.5 mg/l) re-chlorination stations were necessary to add into both networks. The performance of both networks before re-chlorination was low due to high initial chlorine concentrations, but after the addition of the re-chlorination stations it was 100% throughout the networks. The performance of the velocities was good in both networks. The performance of the water age was dependent mainly on the tank usage, and the performance of contamination by organic material depended on the coefficient that defines the decay rate of the organic material in the bulk phase.     

Laffont and Tirole's Competition in Telecommunications : A View From the US

This article briefly reviews Competition in Telecommunications by Laffont andTirole (2000); it presents the major conclusions of the book and corrects certain errors. In addition, this article treats related topics, some specific to the US telecommunications industry. In US telecommunications access to incumbents facilities are priced based on cost model estimates. Several of the important sources of misunderstandings of telecommunications costs and cost estimates are described including: multiple meanings of 'access,'meanings of cross-subsidy; nature of loop costs; the many dimensions of marginal costs in telecommunications, misuses of long-run cost concepts; and misuses of 'most efficient' provider assumptions. The methods of cost calculations and legal and regulatory requirements in the US are described, as are the implications for incentive regulation, changing technology, efficient pricing, and measures of efficient competitive entry.     

trade figures: set fair?

Are the trade figures set to improve? Nick Parsons of Union Discount argues that although the figures are likely to improve, a structural deficit is likely to remain.     

A Gravity Model Forecast of the Potential Trade Effects of EU Enlargement: Lessons from 2004 and Path‐dependency in Integration

This paper uses a gravity model to forecast the potential impact on trade balances and trade patterns of the 2004 EU enlargement. The results suggest that gross trade creation for the accession economies is about 25 per cent of their 2003 trade. Although membership of the EU creates trade it also results in trade diversion; that is, a declining share of accession country exports and imports with non‐EU15 countries. Overall, the trade balances of the accession countries suffer larger trade deficits after accession due to import growth surpassing export growth. The extent of increase in the trade deficit due to accession is inversely related to the level of integration and income of the new members. Hence integration is path‐dependent and the EU should take this into account when preparing for further enlargements to the Balkans and Southeast Europe.     

Crisis at the summit

An unrecognized affliction is striking certain gifted performers at the top of their game. Its cause, paradoxically, is success itself. These stars, who thrive on conquering new challenges, can lose their bearings and question their purpose once a job has been mastered. A vague dissatisfaction gives way to confusion and then to inner turmoil. Left unattended, this summit syndrome can derail promising careers. The syndrome has three phases. In the approach phase, when most of the challenges of a current job have been met, sufferers tend to push harder in a vain attempt to recapture the adrenaline rush of the climb. Then, in the plateauing phase, when virtually all the challenges have been conquered, these individuals, who are incapable of coasting, bear down to try to produce ever more stellar results, but to less effect and greater dissatisfaction. This leads to the terminal descending phase, when performance slips noticeably. As their superstar status fades, they jump ship, accept demotions, or take lateral transfers. It's a terrible waste, for if the syndrome is recognized, steps can be taken before performance slips to dispel the confusion and set the stage for productive growth to the next assignment. There are four parts to this process: First, understand your "winning formula"--the characteristic way you approach a situation--and the vital part it plays in feeling stale or losing your edge. Second, reconnect with your core purpose in life. Third, recast your current, or future, job to better align your inner aspirations with the external requirements of your work. And fourth, create a developmental path by honing a handful of core leadership competencies. None of this is easy, but for talented individuals--and the organizations that rely on them--the vaccine of preventive awareness is far better than gambling on an after-the-fact cure once the crisis is full-blown.     

Bayesian estimation of inefficiency heterogeneity in stochastic frontier models

Estimation of the one sided error component in stochastic frontier models may erroneously attribute firm characteristics to inefficiency if heterogeneity is unaccounted for. However, unobserved inefficiency heterogeneity has been little explored. In this work, we propose to capture it through a random parameter which may affect the location, scale, or both parameters of a truncated normal inefficiency distribution using a Bayesian approach. Our findings using two real data sets, suggest that the inclusion of a random parameter in the inefficiency distribution is able to capture latent heterogeneity and can be used to validate the suitability of observed covariates to distinguish heterogeneity from inefficiency. Relevant effects are also found on separating and shrinking individual posterior efficiency distributions when heterogeneity affects the location and scale parameters of the one-sided error distribution, and consequently affecting the estimated mean efficiency scores and rankings. In particular, including heterogeneity simultaneously in both parameters of the inefficiency distribution in models that satisfy the scaling property leads to a decrease in the uncertainty around the mean scores and less overlapping of the posterior efficiency distributions, which provides both more reliable efficiency scores and rankings.     

PLAYING THE FERTILITY GAME AT WORK: AN EQUILIBRIUM MODEL OF PEER EFFECTS

We study workplace peer effects in fertility decisions using a game theory model of strategic interactions among coworkers that allows for multiple equilibria. Using register‐based data on fertile‐aged women working in medium‐sized establishments in Denmark, we uncover negative average peer effects. Allowing for heterogeneous effects by worker type, we find that positive effects dominate across worker types defined by age or education. Negative effects dominate within age groups and among low‐education types. Policy simulations show that these estimated effects make the distribution of where women work an important consideration, beyond simply if they work, in predicting population fertility.     

Using the Hicks formula to evaluate an estimate of the elasticity of derived demand for toll-free numbers

Duffy-Deno & Parsons D-D & P (2012) estimated the coefficient for the price elasticity of demand for toll-free numbers (TFNs) at between −0.04 and −0.05. Here, the Hicks formula for derived demand is used to check the range of likely demand elasticity for TFNs given the special characteristics of this market. This approach suggests that the demand for TFNs is likely not more elastic than estimated by D-D & P. Therefore, the premise is sound for D-D & P's discussion of the public policy implications of highly inelastic demand for TFNs. The use of industry information for all four parameters of the Hicks formula to check a derived demand elasticity is the first of its kind in the published literature.