Are You a Chocolate Lover? An Investigation of the Repurchase Behavior of Chocolate Consumers

This study aimed to understand the factors affecting repurchase behavior of chocolate brands and, consequently, customer retention and acquisition. The study adopted a qualitative, inductive approach using in-depth interviews with 31 Australian consumers. The factors identified in the extant literature as antecedents of customers’ repurchase intention in the chocolate industry, including brand recognition, sales promotion, product price value, variety, taste, texture, size, packaging, and customer satisfaction, were confirmed. The results also indicated that functional value, product selection value, self-gratification value, socialization value, and transactional value were also considered during the consumer decision-making process. Implications for practitioners are provided.     

Stores

Summary There is scope and incentive for stores to endogenously arise in an exchange economy when agents possess different levels of bargaining power and coalition formation is costly. In the absence of stores, agents face a trading lottery where the expected outcome for an individual agent depends upon his relative bargaining strength. By setting appropriate, preannounced prices, a store can profitably offer relatively weak bargainers trading opportunities which they prefer to the trading lottery. While relatively weak bargainers are attracted to the store, relatively strong bargainers prefer the trading lottery to the store. Thus, the simultaneous existence of barter and mediated trade is explained.The work reported here was conceived while both authors were visiting the University of Southern California. We thank Martine Quinzii and two anonymous referees for helpful comments.     

Heterogeneity in Food Demand among Rural Indian Households: The Role of Demographics

Food expenditures, influenced by social, demographic, and economic factors, constitute a significant proportion of the typical rural Indian's household income. Based on cross‐sectional household data, this study employs the Quadratic Almost Ideal Demand System to estimate food demand among rural Indian households. Special attention is given to the rural household's two‐stage budgeting in total food expenditure and then to a demand for a specific food item. Conditional and unconditional expenditure and price elasticities for seven food groups are estimated. Results indicate that own‐price elasticities for each group are negative ranging from fairly inelastic to elastic range. Expenditure elasticities indicate that food items are a normal necessity to luxury goods. Additionally, socio‐demographic factors play a significant role in food consumption patterns. Based on our unconditional expenditure elasticities, we also project food demand from rural Indian households for next two decades. Les dépenses alimentaires, qui sont influencées par des facteurs socioéconomiques et démographiques, absorbent une partie considérable du revenu des ménages ruraux typiques en Inde. Dans la présente étude, nous avons utilisé le modèle de demande quasi idéal quadratique pour estimer, à l'aide de données transversales sur les ménages, la demande alimentaire des ménages ruraux en Inde. Nous avons accordé une attention spéciale à la budgétisation en deux étapes des dépenses alimentaires totales et à la demande d'un produit alimentaire particulier du ménage rural. Nous avons estimé les dépenses conditionnelles et inconditionnelles et l’élasticité‐prix de sept groupes alimentaires. Les résultats de notre étude indiquent que l’élasticité‐prix de chaque groupe est négative et qu'elle varie de plutôt inélastique à divers degrés d’élasticité. L’élasticité des dépenses indique que les produits alimentaires varient de nécessités de base à produits de luxe. Les facteurs sociodémographiques jouent également un rôle important dans les habitudes de consommation alimentaire. D'après les élasticités des dépenses établies dans notre étude, nous avons estimé la demande alimentaire des ménages ruraux en Inde pour les deux prochaines décennies.     

Price transmission,asymmetric adjustment and threshold effects in the cotton supply chain: a case study for Vidarbha,India

This study examines price transmission asymmetries in Vidarbha's (India) cotton supply chain from 2002 to 2012. The analysis takes account of thresholds in price adjustments toward their long‐run equilibrium. The first stage considers the price dynamics between international and Indian domestic cotton prices. The second stage considers price transmission from domestic to farm gate cotton prices in Vidarbha. Results from the first stage indicate that Indian and international cotton markets are well‐integrated. In contrast, the second stage reveals significant threshold‐type nonlinearities as well as asymmetries in price transmission between domestic and farm gate prices. The short‐run dynamics suggest that the pass‐through from domestic to farm gate prices is larger when domestic prices decrease than when they increase. Moreover, back of the envelope calculations suggest that the loss in revenue for a typical farmer from a decrease in domestic price is larger than the gains from an increase in domestic price of the same magnitude. The implication is that traders benefit from price fluctuations at the expense of farmers. Evidence from fieldwork in Vidarbha suggest that asymmetries revealed in this analysis may be linked to trader's market power and inadequate market information among farmers.     

<Emphasis Type="Italic">Sylvania’s</Emphasis> Indian Precursor and Its Legacy

The starting point of this paper is a January 1977 judgment of the Indian Supreme Court, which applied the rule of reason to vertical restraints and anticipated many of the arguments of the Sylvania judgment. After summarizing the background of the Indian case, I set out the main points of similarity and difference between the two judgments, and finally assess the somewhat erratic influence of post-Sylvania antitrust thinking on Indian competition law and jurisprudence.     

Growth models and analysis of development

This paper deals with remnants of neoclassical elements in Keynesian and post- Keynesian throught, and attempts to demonstrate that the elimination of these elements from our modes of thinking would not impoverish economic analysis as a means of solving real problems.In the Keynesian analysis the causation from investment to savings is exhibited in terms of income determination. When put in terms of a capital theory model, the vector of savings is represented in two ways: firstly, real savings, and secondly, counterpart real savings. The former coincides with the investment vector and the latter with the vector of consumption goods foregone for diverting resources towards equipment making. Thus the Keynesian causation in capital theory terms makes the concept of national savings as an independent variable redundant.The Robinsonian causation in a golden age with full employment and its reversal of direction in a steady state with non-employment are then considered. But in each of these, variables like rate of savings and output-capital ratio are found to be dormat variables. They are termed as null variables which, being of no account in both full-employment and unemployment situations, could, without loss, be deleted from the repertory of analytical tools. The Harrod formula of warranted rate of growth, when put in causal form, thus becomes a redundant portion of economics of growth. The real determinants of the growth rate and real wage rate on which the analysis of growth or of development should be based, are also depicted.     

Demand Curves for Stocks Do Slope Down: New Evidence from an Index Weights Adjustment

Weights in the Toronto Stock Exchange 300 index are determined by the market values of the included stocks' public floats. In November 1996, the exchange implemented a previously announced revision of its definition of the public float. This revision, which increased the floats and the index weights of 31 stocks, conveyed no information and had no effect on the legal duties of shareholders. Affected stocks experienced statistically significant excess returns of 2.3 percent during the event week, and no price reversal occurred as trading volume returned to normal levels. These findings support downward sloping demand curves for stocks.     

Linkages Between Switching Barriers and Service Recovery Evaluation: An Indian Exploration

ABSTRACT

This study attempts to investigate the relationship between switching barriers and service recovery evaluation of consumers in Indian context. Empirical findings of the present study provided useful insights. The primary statistical techniques used in the study were correlation analysis and exploratory factor analysis. A total of 347 respondents completed the field survey, and the survey was conducted in Dehradun, Uttrakhand. It was found from the results of correlation analysis that compensation and promptness constructs had comparatively high correlation coefficients with overall service recovery evaluation in comparison to employee behavior construct. Another insightful finding of the study provided evidence for a significant relationship between service recovery evaluation and positive switching barriers, but at the same time there was no evidence for a relationship between service recovery evaluation and negative switching barriers.