Latent Separability: Grouping Goods without Weak Separability

This paper develops a new concept of separability with overlapping groups—latent separability. This is shown to provide a useful empirical and theoretical framework for investigating the grouping of goods and prices. It is a generalization of weak separability in which goods are allowed to enter more than one group and where the composition of groups is identified by the choice of group specific exclusive goods. Latent separability is shown to be equivalent to weak separability in latent rather than purchased goods and provides a relationship between separability and household production theory. For the popular class of linear, almost ideal and translog demand models and their generalizations, we provide a method for choosing the number of homothetic separable groups. A detailed method for exploring the composition of the separable groups is also presented. These methods are applied to a long time series of British individual household data on the consumption of twenty two nondurable and service goods.     

Eyes on the account size: Interactions between attention and budget in consumer choice

The context surrounding a consumer decision, such as one’s overall budget available for purchases, can exert a strong effect on the subjective value of a product. Across three eye-tracking studies, we explore the attentional processes through which budget size influences consumers’ purchasing behavior. Higher budgets increased and sped up purchasing even when items were affordable at all budget sizes. Moreover, attention interacted with budget size to promote purchasing at higher budgets. Finally, individual differences in the magnitude of the budget effect related to attentional patterns: those whose decisions depended more on budget exhibited more budget-price transitions and less variability in search patterns compared to those whose decisions were less dependent on budget. These findings indicate that attention moderates the effect of budgets on purchasing decisions, allowing low budgets to serve as self-control devices and large budgets to generate impulse purchases.     

ESTIMATING WAITING TIME IN A QUEUING SYSTEM*

This study examines how customers joining a queuing system assess their waiting time in the system. Data obtained from an actual queuing system support the paradigm of Parkan and Warren [5] on the use of the observed number in the system in this assessment. It is concluded that customers overestimate mean service time but that this overestimation is not dependent on the number in the system.     

规模不经济下互惠偏好对闭环供应链的影响研究

本文考虑闭环供应链成员的互惠偏好行为,在生产规模不经济下分析互惠偏好行为对闭环供应链的影响,构建了包含供应商和规模不经济生产商的闭环供应链模型,分别探讨了无互惠偏好情形以及双向互惠偏好情形。研究发现,规模不经济会降低回收率和系统利润;系统成员的互惠偏好行为总会提高对方的利润,而降低自身的利润;供应商的互惠偏好总会提高系统利润,渠道效率和消费者剩余,而生产商互惠偏好产生的影响还取决于供应商的互惠态度;仅生产商具互惠偏好时,系统总利润不变;一定条件下,互惠偏好行为会对环境造成影响,但是,该行为能够有效提高整个社会的总福利。     

上市公司更名的市场价格反应与公司治理效应:来自中国股票市场的经验证据

上市公司更名已经成为中国股票市场的普遍现象,其对公司股票价格和经营绩效的影响受到了证券监管部门、上市公司和投资者的广泛关注。文章首先结合现有相关研究成果、从理论上分析公司更名、特别是公司基于经营范围变更、并购重组、战略调整、声誉改变和其他原因等不同动机的更名行为对其股票价格和经营绩效的影响,并提出相应研究假设。其次,在对中国上市公司更名情况及其更名原因进行统计分析的基础上,以2010—2017年中国更名上市公司在更名前后60个交易日的股票价格数据为样本,利用事件研究法实证研究上市公司更名的市场价格反应;以2010—2015年中国更名上市公司在更名前后3年的总资产收益率和每股收益等经营绩效数据、公司规模和财务杠杆等财务数据以及股权结构和董事会结构等公司治理数据为样本,利用差分T检验和多元回归模型实证研究上市公司更名的公司治理效应。研究发现,无论上市公司因何种原因更名,其在更名前后很短的时间内可能产生显著的正超额收益,但这种正超额收益将在更名后的较短时间内消失,甚至产生显著的负超额收益;同时,公司更名还可能在更名后的1~3年内显著降低其总资产收益率和每股收益,进而产生显著的公司治理负效应;公司更名的短期市场价格反应与长期公司治理效应具有较强的内在一致性。因此,公司更名并不是改善其经营绩效和治理绩效的有效途径,投资者投资于更名上市公司在长期和短期内都可能难以获得正的超额收益。证券监管部门应该出台更加详细的公司更名规定,以规范上市公司更名行为,抑制上市公司更名乱象,为营造良好的中国股票市场环境提供制度保障;上市公司在因经营范围变更、战略调整、并购重组、声誉恶化和其他原因变更公司名称时,应该根据公司实际情况作出正确决策,更名可能不仅不会提高公司经营绩效,产生正的治理效应,反而可能适得其反;投资者不要对更名上市公司进行盲目投资,更名上市公司可能既不会为投资者带来短期超额收益,也不会提高公司经营绩效和产生正的治理效应而为投资者带来长期超额收益。文章研究结果为证券监管部门规范上市公司更名行为、上市公司更名决策以及投资者对更名公司的投资决策提供了决策依据。     

Utility‐consistent Brand Demand Systems with Endogenous Category Consumption: Principles and Marketing Applications*

This paper introduces the design and implementation of utility‐consistent, brand, and category demand systems. It extends formal demand analysis to the area of brand and category demand, which directly concerns marketing researchers and managers. The proposed brand demand system is a set of interrelated demand functions that are derived explicitly from a utility function describing consumer preferences. The model generalizes by the integration of category expenditures, which are determined endogenously. The theoretical plausibility of the proposed demand model is demonstrated first and, subsequently, brand and category level systems are derived. Econometric methods for estimating the systems are also developed and illustrated in empirical data. The results yield empirically determined, quantitative insights into the structure of consumer demand for brands and product categories. The proposed approach has the attractive feature of structuring the interdependencies of consumer decisions and ensuring an explicit role for theory in applied research.     

How Long Should a Customer Wait for Service?

A major concern for service managers is the determination of how long a customer should wait to be served. Services, due to the customer's direct interaction with the process, must face a trade-off between minimizing the cost of having a customer wait and the cost of providing good service. A total cost model is presented for determining how long a customer should wait when these two conflicting cost components are considered. An integral part of this model includes a measure of customer satisfaction with waiting time which is used to develop a waiting cost function. The model is then applied to a major fast food chain, using data collected at several locations. Analysis of the data reveals that the “ideal” waiting time for this firm is significantly less than the current corporate waiting time policy. Thus, as indicated by the model, a corporate policy change is recommended to provide much faster service. The adoption of such a policy would result in increased labor costs, and would simultaneously increase the firm's overall profits. Although appearing contradictory, increases in current labor costs and long-term profits are both possible when management takes the long-range perspective suggested in this paper.     

A relational approach to social impact: Moving beyond instrumental and consumer approaches

Social impact can be understood as the real or perceived, intended or unintended, relational and agentic consequences that emerge from organizational decisions or actions for individuals, communities, and societies. Inherent here is the recognition that social impact aligns with consequences, whether it be on individuals, communities, and societies, and that these consequences stem from organizational decisions and behaviors. Drawing on wider social impact scholarship, this paper identifies two approaches—instrumental and consumer—that have provided lenses on how organizations make decisions about social impact and related consequences, and the level of involvement stakeholders have in these decisions. This paper proposes that the understanding of social impact should evolve to reflect the relational worldview advocated in the public relations discipline, which is one that emphasizes the importance of organizations, individuals, and communities contributing to a fully functioning society. A relational lens shows that social impact can be understood as changes—whether they be intended or unintended, anticipated or unanticipated, positive or negative—in the way people live, experience, sustain, and function within their society, resulting from organizational decisions and consequent behaviors as co-determined by organizations and their stakeholders. The relational approach requires the adoption of a relational perspective on identifying, predicting, evaluating, managing, and reporting on social impact, operationalized via the seven-step Relational Framework of Social Impact conceptualized in this paper. While social impact is a relatively new term in the public relations literature, this paper highlights how public relations scholarship is well placed to enrich the social impact discipline due its emphasis on fostering a fully functioning society.