Simulated Attention-Tracking Methodologies: An Examination of Measurement Efficacy

This study introduces and examines a simulated attention-tracking methodology as an emerging technique to improve the study of in-store shopper behavior and decision making. To assess the viability of this new methodology, we examine its efficacy in producing consumer behavior data consistent with results predicted by the marketing literature. Empirical data across five grocery categories are used to examine the influence of personal, product, and situational differences on external information search. Findings show that the attention-tracking methodology is able to demonstrate expected results in almost all cases. The methodology is also able to provide a more complete view of external information search through tracing the observed search behavior preceding decision making. This proof of methodology responds directly to calls in the marketing and retailing literature to test new and emerging methodologies in support of research on in-store marketing and shopper behavior. Findings also provide managers with a methodology to examine the actual impact of marketing actions intended to capture shoppers’ attention at the retail shelf and to influence behavior.     

Why do not you read the label? – an integrated framework of consumer label information search

This article facilitates deeper insight into label‐related consumer information acquisition behaviour. An integrated framework of label information search (LIS) has been developed based on a synthesis of related literature and explorative research conducted by analysing online discussions among customers (netnography). The framework focuses on three main groups of personal factors that serve as antecedents of LIS: general personal factors (e.g. health consciousness and socio‐demographics), label‐related personal factors (e.g. label‐related self‐efficacy, trust in labels and the perceived usefulness of labels) and product category‐related personal factors (trust in food products, enduring involvement, experience and perceived quality differences). Important characteristics of the framework are its process‐oriented nature and the dynamically changing relationships among its concepts. LIS is an antecedent to and a consequence of influencing factors. This article offers managerial implications and serves to incite future inquiry in this field.     

Online Price Search: Impact of Price Comparison Sites on Offline Price Evaluations

Consumers increasingly rely on Internet price comparison sites (PCS) to gain knowledge about the market. The prices generated by a PCS search can act as contextual reference prices and influence the attractiveness of prices encountered later as consumers shop offline at local stores. This paper demonstrates that both PCS retailer ratings and the shape of the PCS price distribution influence the impact of PCS search results on later price evaluations. A favorable PCS retailer rating increases the perceived validity of the price associated with that retailer, enhancing the impact of that PCS price on offline price evaluations (Study 1). The shape of the PCS price distribution can also influence later price evaluations, however this effect depends on the information provided by the PCS retailer ratings. When PCS retailer ratings are similar, implying similar validity for the associated prices, low PCS prices and those appearing more frequently in the PCS price distribution have more impact (Studies 2 and 3). When PCS retailer ratings are variable (some high and some low), the PCS price distribution effect occurs only when the PCS retailer ratings provide congruent information about price validity — that is, the most frequent price is offered by retailers with more favorable ratings. Study 3 shows that price validity inferences do mediate this result. Finally, we depart from the offline shopping context to show that when consumers choose a retailer directly from the PCS search results, the effect of PCS retailer ratings is stronger for high-priced retailers and for consumers who rely less on the retailer price as a heuristic to infer retailer service level. Based on our findings we offer insights for online and offline retailers when considering strategic responses, such as price matching guarantees.     

Sources of knowledge and process innovation: The moderating role of perceived competitive intensity

Global competition means that firms are under pressure to systematically develop the efficiency of their manufacturing processes. However, little has been said in the international business literature about how firms, especially those subject to severe barriers, can search for knowledge within and across national boundaries to help in the development of process innovation. We build on key aspects of the innovation and search strategy literature to develop our conceptual model and hypotheses, which we test in the context of a less-developed, isolated, and closed economy, using data from 171 automotive component suppliers in Iran. We find that foreign knowledge search is positively related to process innovation, even in an economy that operates under severe economic sanctions. This contributes to the international business field by providing evidence that, while economic sanctions are increasingly used in modern geopolitics by the world’s most powerful countries, these actions may fail to achieve their goals with respect to individual businesses.     

Zhongguan Village, China's Silicon Valley

In 1999,driven by the dream of using technology to change people‘s lives, Li Yanhong,returned to Zhongguan- cun (Zhongguan Village in Chinese), Beijing from Silicon Valley in the U.S.to create Baidu.com.Over the years,Baidu has become the most frequently hitted website in China as well as the largest Chinese search engine and Chinese lan- guage website in the world.In August     

机载传感器无引导搜索策略研究

针对机载传感器搜索任务,将无引导搜索问题分为搜索区域目标出现概率未知和已知两种情况进行了讨论。在搜索区域仅有一个目标和忽略传感器搜索视场切换的前提假设下,在搜索时间最短的要求下,提出了一种最优搜索策略,即任一视场的搜索次数与该视场中目标出现概率的平方根成正比。并通过仿真实例表现了该搜索策略：未知目标出现概率的情况下是一种顺序搜索,而已知目标出现概率的情况下是优先、多次搜索目标出现概率较大视场的同时,还无遗漏的兼顾搜索其他视场。该策略使传感器尽快满足任务要求,缩减工作时间。     

Opportunity Identification and Pursuit: Does an Entrepreneur’s Human Capital Matter?

Extending human capital approaches to entrepreneurship, an entrepreneur’s “inputs” relating to their general (i.e. education and work experience) and entrepreneurship-specific human capital profile (i.e. business ownership experience, managerial capabilities, entrepreneurial capabilities and technical capabilities) are presumed to be related to entrepreneurial “outputs” in the form of business opportunity identification and pursuit. Valid and reliable independent variables were gathered from a stratified random sample of 588 owners of private firms. Ordered logit analysis was used to test several theoretically derived hypotheses. With regard to the number of business opportunities identified and pursued, entrepreneurship-specific rather than general human capital variables “explained” more of the variance. Entrepreneurs reporting higher information search intensity identified significantly more business opportunities, but they did not pursue markedly more or less opportunities. The use of publications as a source of information was positively associated with the probability of identifying more opportunities, while information emanating from personal, professional and business networks was not. Implications for practitioners and researchers are discussed.      

The default heuristic in strategic decision making: When is it optimal to choose the default without investing in information search?

Many studies have shown that decision makers have a tendency to choose the default or standard action among several possible actions. The article develops a model to explore under what conditions it is optimal for a firm facing a strategic decision problem to choose the default action without investing in obtaining more information that allows a more accurate decision. The model shows that the strategy to follow the default without additional information (“the default heuristic”) is more likely to be optimal when the cost of obtaining information is higher, and when the variation in possible outcomes is lower. The model also analyzes the optimal level of information search, showing that if the firm chooses to obtain information at all, it will invest in more accurate information when the cost of obtaining information is lower and when the variation in possible outcomes is lower.     

The effect of shopping goals and in-store mobile device use on purchase outcomes in brick-and-mortar stores

The present study examines the effect of using a mobile device on search and evaluation by a shopper in a brick-and-mortar store. A conceptual model that proposes inter-relationships between shopping goals, the amount and type of in-store mobile device use, and purchase outcomes is developed. Data from a national quota sample of 1034 mobile shoppers is used to test hypotheses derived from the proposed model. The findings provide several new insights into the impact of in-store mobile device use on the consumer decision journey in a brick-and-mortar store. Depending upon the shopping goals of the consumer, the use of a mobile device by shoppers in a brick-and-mortar store can either decrease or increase search, lead to more deferred purchases or in-store-now purchases, and more online or physical store purchases. The study is among the first to model the pathway to purchase for mobile device assisted shoppers in brick-and-mortar stores.     

跳频信号的归一化多普勒频差最大似然估计

针对双站定位涉及的跳频信号多普勒频差估计问题,提出了归一化的频差最大似然估计算法,利用两个定位站接收到的跳频脉冲串信号,构建一个关于基准跳频频率多普勒频差的似然函数,通过网格搜索得到使似然函数最大的多普勒频差估计,既解决了跳频信号在不同跳频频率上多普勒频差不一致的问题,又充分利用在不同频率的脉冲串信号提高了多普勒频差估计精度。通过仿真对算法的性能进行了评估,结果表明,与基于子空间的算法比较,在脉冲数达到240个时,所提算法执行效率提升30%以上。