Does Air Pollution Affect Consumption Behavior? Evidence from Korean Retail Sales*

Using monthly regional panel data on air quality and large retail store sales in Korea, we empirically examine the effect of air pollution on retail sales. We account for regional heterogeneity in air pollution and control for various macroeconomic and climatic factors that can affect retail sales. We also use the air quality indicator in the west coastal islands (affected by trans‐border pollution but uncorrelated with the economic activity in the mainland) as an instrumental variable. The estimation results show that, in general, 1 additional day of PM₁₀ level higher than 80 μg/m³ reduces monthly retail sales by approximately 0.1 percent. Nonetheless, an adaptive pattern emerges over time, particularly when the level of air pollution in the previous month was severe.     

Revisiting the Purpose of Selling: Toward a Model of Responsible Selling

Selling as a profession and sales management as an organizational function have undergone major changes that were driven by the evolutionary journey of the marketing discipline. The extant value cocreation paradigm is recrafting the purpose of selling. This paper explores the conceptual development of a selling paradigm that is more responsible to its customers. Specifically, in Business-to-Business (B2B) context, the cost of any selling behavior that compromises customer interest could be of disastrous proportions. Building on the theoretical foundations of self-regulation and job demands-resources theory, this paper develops a conceptual model of responsible selling by integrating self-leadership literature with the emerging paradigm of value-based selling. The conceptual model outlines several research propositions for empirical validation and discusses its potential implications for sales managers and sales organizations.     

Asymmetric Inventory Management and the Direction of Sales Changes*

We study manufacturing firms' asymmetric inventory investment in response to sales changes. Focusing on the costs of resource adjustment and stockout that likely differ in sales‐increasing and sales‐decreasing periods, we predict and find that inventory investment declines less during periods with sales decreases than it rises during periods with sales increases. We validate this claim by showing that managers' expectations of future demand and desire to avoid inventory stockouts are important determinants of this asymmetry. In addition, we find that asymmetric inventory investment provides useful information for predicting future sales growth, and that both managers' and analysts' sales forecasts are positively associated with the asymmetry. Lastly, we document that forecasts of future sales growth that incorporate asymmetric inventory investment are associated with lower absolute forecast errors than benchmark forecasts. Overall, we highlight the importance of inventory information in understanding managers' resource adjustment and utilization decisions that have implications for forecasting future demand. Our findings on asymmetric inventory management provide new insights to fundamental analysis based on inventory signals.     

Consumer Perceptions of Precise vs. Just-Below Prices in Retail Settings

Consumer perceptions of the effectiveness of precise prices in communicating good value are compared to that of just-below prices in a retail context. Two studies demonstrate that a retailer employing a precise pricing strategy is seen as offering lower prices relative to one using just-below prices. The likelihood of consumers going to a competitor in hope of finding a better deal was also lower with precise compared to just-below prices. However, this precision effect disappeared when two prices—an original and a discount one—were displayed as part of a promotional discount.     

Product information and consumer choice confidence in multi-item sales promotions

This research augments efforts to produce a richer understanding of the drivers of consumer choice confidence. It examines the interplay between two marketing interventions that consumers encounter in retail marketplaces, diagnostic product information and multi-item sales promotions. Results indicate that the influence of product information varies as a function of sales promotion format. The information effect is weaker when consumers are allowed to select the products that will be included in the promotion. Perception of information adequacy is revealed as a mediator of the information diagnosticity effect. The implications for marketing theory and promotional strategy are discussed.     

Women count: Perceptions of forecasting in sales

This study identifies sales managers’ perceptions of sales forecasting. We surveyed close to 400 business-to-business sales managers, split about equally by gender, and concluded forecasting-related preferences, beliefs, and desires. Herein, we evaluate gender differences and identify some critical perceptions of women that differ from the perceptions of their male counterparts. We also compare attitudes, behaviors, and demographics of women and men. We conclude with organizational recommendations and implications for firms concerning hiring practices, forecasting tool selection, training and development, and the use of an employee resource group.     

耐贮大路货性果蔬品销售策略的探讨——以湖南石门柑桔销售为例讨论

对耐贮大路货性的果蔬品的销售策略有五条：树立果蔬的地方品牌和加强其食补价值的宣传;发展鲜品加工工业：扩大国际市场销售：政府适当的指导价及公示鲜果的平均种植成本：果蔬的物流增值——近／远距销售．应／延时销售。建立了销售价格g,销售成本c与物流距离x,销售延时t之间利润计算公式,并用示意图表明x和t与利润厂之间的关系,对销售经纪人有指导意义。     

基于“AIDA”模式的超市自有品牌商品店堂销售策略

超市开发自有品牌只是完成了营销策略的第一步。基于"AIDA"模式的店堂销售策略的设计与实施会成为自有品牌在终端销售中取得成功的有利保障。本文基于此制定了有针对性的销售策略。     

基于轴—辐理论的奇瑞整车销售物流网络构建

轴-辐网络是降低整车销售物流成本的有效网络结构。以奇瑞整车销售物流为研究对象,基于轴-辐理论构建整车销售物流网络。首先运用主成分分析法结合三个定性原则从全国337个地市级以上行政区域中甄选出24个整车销售物流枢纽节点,其次借鉴Dijkstra算法将枢纽节点分为中心枢纽节点、混合枢纽节点、区域枢纽节点三个空间层次,最后引用轴-辐网络原理构建了奇瑞整车销售物流网络,其中干线网络分为主干线、干线、一般干线三个空间层次。分析表明,水运、铁运比重将分别提高34．19％、10．39％,而公路运输比重则下降62．47％,水铁联运的比重占到17．89％,干线物流成本较原先下降16．53％。     

Credit default swaps and the UK 2008–09 short sales ban

Most studies of the short sales ban of UK financial stocks from September 2008 to January 2009 fail to control for the UK’s worst ever banking crisis and the underlying increase in risk. This paper studies the ban’s impact on the 13 large financials with credit default swaps (CDS) and 20 smaller stocks without CDS. The results reveal that returns of banned stocks Granger cause CDS returns in the pre- and post-ban periods, but causality runs from CDS to stock returns during the ban period. Underlying risk proxied by the CDS probability of default increased during the ban and the immediate pre- and post-ban periods which highlights an endogeneity problem ignored in some studies. This increased risk provides a plausible rationale for why CDS and related equity bid-ask spreads - which increased during the ban period – failed to fall significantly in the post-ban period. Panel regression results indicate that probability of default was an important economic determinant of stock bid-ask spreads during the ban period. Finally, our results suggest that the ban offered direct price support for the smaller non-CDS stocks during the ban period and indirect support for CDS stocks from their pre-ban to their post-ban levels.