Opening the online marketplace: An examination of hotel pricing and travel agency on-line distribution of rooms

This paper studies the optimal pricing strategy of a hotel that establishes an online distribution channel through cooperation with an online travel agency (OTA). The OTA promotes the hotel and sells hotel rooms through its website and receives commission from the hotel for rooms sold. Through a sequence game model, this paper derives the optimal decision on the unit commission of the hotel and the optimal response of the OTA to that commission. The paper notes management implications, including (1) occupancy rate of a hotel before opening online marketing is an important metric for securing cooperation with an OTA; that is, a hotel with lower occupancy rates is more inclined to cooperate with an OTA to achieve an improvement in profits; and (2) a hotel is inclined to establish an online channel through an OTA with many online customers and/or few listed hotels.     

童装陈列发展现状及其改进措施

本文从研究百货中品牌童装陈列入手,通过分析目前品牌童装陈列现状及存在问题,提出对应的解决方案。     

Electronic marketplace definition and classification: literature review and clarifications

The definitions and classifications of any new phenomenon build a strong foundation for further research. Although research on electronic marketplaces (EMs) has proliferated in recent years, related definitions and classifications are still confusing and misleading. The purpose of this paper is to perform a review of the EM literature, and to clarify and explain published information about electronic marketplaces. For EM definitions, we emphasise (1) the difference between EMs as governance structures and as business models, and (2) EMs at different levels of centralisation. For EM classifications, we summarise nine of the most commonly mentioned classifications, and examine the differences and correlations among them. By doing so, potential confusion and common misunderstanding about the different EM definitions and classifications are clarified.     

The persistent link between growing talent and growing the top line: lessons from fast-growing firms in the COVID-19 recession

We examined Fortune Magazine’s 100 Fastest Growing Companies of 2018 and found 32 firms still listed in Fortune’s updated 2019 list. The "Persistent 32" are still growing in the first half of 2020, as the COVID-19 recession continues. As a whole they have added to headcount over the long expansion (2013–2019) and continue to hire aggressively. We focus on how a commitment to building talent and growth sets them apart in this pandemic, how they represent a focus on human capabilities; how their investments contribute to organizational change and renewal; and how the leader plays new roles as marketplace insight visionary and chief safety officer. We draw lessons from the "Persistent 32" and outline steps top teams can take now to build talent and grow the firm.     

基于第三方电子交易平台的供应链金融服务创新——云仓及其运作模式初探

针对中小企业“融资难”现象,对比分析传统供应链金融与交易型电子商务平台的交易方式和融资模式,将传统供应链金融服务拓展到现货电子交易平台上,提出“云仓”——这一新型商业模式,该模式提供供应链一体化服务,既可线上交易担保和商机拓展,又可线下融资支持和仓储物流服务,同时具有现货连续交易的价格发现机制,能更有效地解决中小企业融资瓶颈,提高商品流通效率,降低融资风险。该文为供应链金融业务和现货电子交易市场持续健康发展提供理论支撑和行业指导。     

Marketplace icons: shopping malls

ABSTRACT

This article considers shopping malls as marketplace icons. We suggest that shopping malls can be regarded as a significant symbol of consumption in an age of late modernity, and highlight key aspects of their development. The role of the shopping mall as an agent of creative destruction, influencing the nature of the retail landscape (especially with regard to the implications of – stereotypically suburban – malls for traditional urban retail provision), is discussed. We also consider the implications for notions of “place” (in terms of authenticity and meaning, etc.) arising from the fundamental characteristics of shopping malls, and end by suggesting that the shopping mall, as a marketplace icon, continues to dynamically and iteratively define and refine the ongoing interactions between consumers, the act of consumption, and place and space     

Tattoo: marketplace icon

ABSTRACT

The tattoo may be considered iconic in terms of its ability to reflect and contribute to consumer culture. It encapsulates contemporary tensions between the paradigm of plasticity that has engulfed the body and skin and a disavowal of that paradigm by marking the body in a permanent fashion. Tattoos also manage to articulate discourses of deviance and the mainstream, difference and sameness. Further, the “invariant processual contour” of tattoo remains the same across cultures and histories while also managing to evidence differences in emphasis. Similarly, the functions of tattoo in terms of decoration, ritual, identification, and protection continue to trace the boundaries of their possibilities. Ultimately, in a culture that values individuality, these coordinates of tattoo offer a clear opportunity to (re)story the self in infinitely customizable ways.     

Skin color shades in advertising to ethnic audiences: The case of African Americans

Two experimental studies were conducted to examine African Americans' (AA) perceptions and attitudes toward light-skinned and dark-skinned AA female models in print advertisements. Using convenience student samples from three universities in the southeastern USA, the first study examined the perceptions and attitudes of 299 AA males toward the advertising stimuli, while the second study explored the perceptions and attitudes of 251 AA females to the same stimuli. In Study 1, consistent with marketplace, evolutionary and reinforcement theories, AA males evaluated light-skinned AA female models higher on physical attractiveness and more favorably on ad- and brand-based evaluations than dark-skinned AA female models. The exploratory results of Study 2 found that AA females evaluated dark-skinned AA female models higher on physical attractiveness than light-skinned AA female models, but no significant differences on ad- and brand-based evaluations were reported. The authors discuss the findings, limitations and directions for future research.     

Marketplace literacy education and coping behaviors among subsistence consumer–entrepreneurs during demonetization in India

We study the impact of marketplace literacy education on marketplace coping behaviors in the face of systemic shock due to demonetization, deriving important implications for consumer affairs from this radically distinct context. We study whether and how such education can have positive impact even in the face of such macrolevel disruption that disproportionately affects those with the least resources and renders them even more vulnerable. Marketplace literacy education encompasses awareness and knowledge about marketing as well as self‐confidence and awareness of rights as buyers and sellers. We examine the influence of marketplace literacy in urban and rural areas on coping behaviors of low‐income women consumer–entrepreneurs during demonetization in India, using a retrospective survey. We derive implications to mitigate the effect of future shocks on consumers and entrepreneurs at the vulnerable end of the income spectrum.     

客观地呈现中国消费者在全球旅游市场中的特性及形象

本文在对一位西方学者的新书进行简单评论的基础上,指出了对中国旅游消费者,尤其是中国出境游客进行研究的紧迫性和必要性.在这本出版于2006年的新书中,中国旅游者被描述成一个被动、无知的群体,而且这个群体在文化上受中国政府左右,缺少像西方游客一般的行为准则,缺乏欣赏西方景观的能力.该书集中代表了西方国家中对中国旅游业及中国旅游者普遍存在的偏见,以及对迅速发展的中国出境游的否定和不安.本文指出,作为扎根于这一崭新的消费群体的中国旅游研究者,是有责任而且有自身的优势向全世界客观地呈现中国旅游消费者的特征和形象的.为此,本文建议对3个迫在眉睫的研究课题,即对中国旅游者的出游动机、中国旅游者的组成成分及中国出境游客的需求进行多方位高层次的分析和研究.