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Article
Publication date: 12 September 2016

Ji Yan, Kun Tian, Saeed Heravi and Peter Morgan

This paper aims to investigate consumers’ demand patterns for products with nutritional benefits and products with no nutritional benefits across processed healthy and unhealthy…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to investigate consumers’ demand patterns for products with nutritional benefits and products with no nutritional benefits across processed healthy and unhealthy foods. This paper integrates price changes (i.e. increases and decreases) into a demand model and quantifies their relative impact on the quantity of food purchased. First, how demand patterns vary across processed healthy and unhealthy products is investigated; second, how demand patterns vary across nutrition-benefited (NB) products and non-nutrition-benefited (NNB) products is examined; and third, how consumers respond to price increases and decreases for NB across processed healthy and unhealthy foods is investigated.

Design/methodology/approach

Here, a demand model quantifying scenarios for price changes in consumer food choice behaviour is proposed, and controlled for heterogeneity at household, store and brand levels.

Findings

Consumers exhibit greater sensitivity to price decreases and less sensitivity to price increases across both processed healthy and unhealthy foods. Moreover, the research shows that consumers’ demand sensitivity is greater for NNB products than for NB products, supporting our prediction that NB products have higher brand equity than NNB products. Furthermore, the research shows that consumers are more responsive to price decreases than price increases for processed healthy NB foods, but more responsive to price increases than price decreases for unhealthy NB foods. The findings suggest that consumers exhibit a desirable demand pattern for products with nutritional benefits.

Originality/value

Although studies on the effects of nutritional benefits on demand have proliferated in recent years, researchers have only estimated their impact without considering the effect of price changes. This paper contributes by examining consumers’ price sensitivity for NB products across processed healthy and unhealthy foods based on consumer scanner data, considering both directionalities of price changes.

Details

European Journal of Marketing, vol. 50 no. 9/10
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0309-0566

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 6 February 2019

Mauricio Palmeira, Jing Lei and Ana Valenzuela

Companies often extend brands to higher or lower quality tiers to access different market segments. However, the impact of such extensions on the brand and its subsequent…

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Abstract

Purpose

Companies often extend brands to higher or lower quality tiers to access different market segments. However, the impact of such extensions on the brand and its subsequent offerings is not yet conclusive. While some studies found an “averaging” pattern (all models contribute equally to the overall perception of the brand: a symmetric effect), others found a “best-of-brand” pattern (the positive impact of an upstream extension is much greater than the negative impact of a downstream extension: an asymmetric effect). This paper aims to reconcile these seemingly conflicting findings by assessing the conditions under which each pattern is likely to emerge.

Design/methodology/approach

Three experimental studies are presented to test the conditions under which a symmetric or asymmetric pattern of brand evaluation would merge. Study 1 examined the impact of judgment focus (quality vs expertise) on the pattern of brand evaluations. Study 2 tested the impact of having a comparative set on the assessment of specific brand dimensions. Study 3 examined the impact of the informativeness of price positioning on product quality expectations.

Findings

Brand evaluations and attitudes are determined by the presence of a comparative brand and judgment focus. When brands are evaluated without a comparison, a symmetric pattern emerges, as a low-tier extension hurts a brand as much as a high-tier extension helps it. In contrast, when brands are evaluated with a comparison, focusing the assessment on quality leads to a symmetric pattern, while focusing it on expertise leads to an asymmetric one.

Research limitations/implications

The present research specifies conditions under which a low-tier model may hurt brand perceptions. We used hypothetical brands to avoid the impact of preexisting attitudes. While we expect our results to generalize to real brands, this may be considered a limitation of the present research.

Practical implications

The current research delineates the circumstances under which vertical line extensions have positive, neutral or negative impact on brand perceptions and future product expectations. We introduce the presence of a comparison set as a key variable and show how it interacts with assessment focus to affect brand evaluations. When thinking about the impact of extensions on brand perceptions, marketers need to consider which assessment focus is likely to be triggered by environmental cues and whether comparisons are salient.

Originality/value

Brand extension is an important area of investigation as evidenced by the vast literature dedicated to the subject. The present paper advances knowledge in this area by identifying key factors affecting the impact of vertical extensions on brand perceptions.

Details

European Journal of Marketing, vol. 53 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0309-0566

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 18 April 2017

Hisham Al Refai, Mohamed Abdelaziz Eissa and Rami Zeitun

The risk-return relationship is one of the most widely investigated topics in finance, yet this relationship remains one of the most controversial topics. The purpose of this…

Abstract

Purpose

The risk-return relationship is one of the most widely investigated topics in finance, yet this relationship remains one of the most controversial topics. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the asymmetric volatility and the risk-return tradeoff at the sector level in the emerging stock market of Jordan.

Design/methodology/approach

Data consist of daily prices for 22 sub-sectors spanning from August 1, 2006, to September 30, 2015, covering the periods of pre, during, and after the global financial crisis. The EGARCH-M model is used to document the patterns of asymmetric volatility of sub-sector returns and the risk-return tradeoff during the non-overlapping three sub-sample periods.

Findings

The major findings of this study are as follows. In the pre-crisis period, the results suggest some evidence of a positive relationship between risk and return. The results also reveal that good news has more effect than bad news during the same period. In the crisis period, there is a negative but insignificant risk-return relationship and negative shocks have more impact than positive ones. In the post-crisis period, the authors find positive but insignificant risk-return tradeoff with weak evidence of volatility asymmetry.

Practical implications

The results have major implications for investors willing to engage their investment decisions in the Amman Stock Exchange (ASE) and for policymakers who seek to attract and retain regional and international investors. Since the empirical investigation is conducted at the sector level, the study may aid investors to target specific sub-sectors with positive and significant risk-return tradeoff. In addition, investors need to monitor the asymmetric patterns which make the level of risk-aversion more susceptible to coming news. For policymakers, the latest infrastructure reforms are crucial to achieving the potential for growth but the ASE market authority needs to undergo further reforms and provide various promotional incentives.

Originality/value

Although there are numerous studies on asymmetric volatility and risk-return tradeoff, there is a lack of parallel studies at the sector level for both developed and emerging stock markets. Such assessment at the sector level is crucial for international investors after their choice of countries or markets for better choice of portfolio diversification and allocation of financial resources.

Details

International Journal of Emerging Markets, vol. 12 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1746-8809

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 25 February 2014

Azeem Malik and Wing Lon Ng

Algorithmic trading attempts to reduce trading costs by selecting optimal trade execution and scheduling algorithms. Whilst many common approaches only consider the bid-ask spread…

Abstract

Purpose

Algorithmic trading attempts to reduce trading costs by selecting optimal trade execution and scheduling algorithms. Whilst many common approaches only consider the bid-ask spread when measuring market impact, the authors aim to analyse the detailed limit order book data, which has more informational content.

Design/methodology/approach

Using data from the London Stock Exchange's electronic SETS platform, the authors transform limit order book compositions into volume-weighted average price curves and accordingly estimate market impact. The regression coefficients of these curves are estimated, and their intraday patterns are revealed using a nonparametric kernel regression model.

Findings

The authors find that market impact is nonlinear, time-varying, and asymmetric. Inferences drawn from marginal probabilities regarding Granger-causality do not show a significant impact of slope coefficients on the opposite side of the limit order book, thus implying that each side of the market is simultaneously rather than sequentially influenced by prevailing market conditions.

Research limitations/implications

Results show that intraday seasonality patterns of liquidity may be exploited through trade scheduling algorithms in an attempt to minimise the trading costs associated with large institutional trades.

Originality/value

The use of the detailed limit order book to reveal intraday patterns in liquidity provision offers better insight into the interactions of market participants. Such valuable information cannot be fully recovered from the traditional transaction data-based approaches.

Details

Studies in Economics and Finance, vol. 31 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1086-7376

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 15 April 2019

Panos Fousekis and Vasilis Grigoriadis

This paper aims to investigate empirically the linkages between stock and commodity futures markets.

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to investigate empirically the linkages between stock and commodity futures markets.

Design/methodology/approach

It involves the application of a flexible copula approach to weekly total returns from the S&P 500 index and from three commodity sub-indices (agriculture, metals and energy) from 1995 to 2017.

Findings

Co-movement is by no means frequent and symmetric. It was predominantly zero before the last financial crisis, and since then, it is positive and asymmetric. The pattern of asymmetry is consistent with transmission of shocks under extreme negative shocks only. Recently, total returns of commodity futures are very poor. At the same time, commodity futures markets move in step (out of step) with stock markets when the latter plunge (rise), pointing to limited diversification benefits. These appear to justify the concerns of investors and researchers whether including commodities in a portfolio of assets is still a prudent investment strategy.

Originality/value

It is the only manuscript that combines a flexible copula approach and co-movement measurement along both the positive and negative diagonals. The findings are in sharp contrast with those reported by Delatte and Lopez (2013) and are very important for portfolio management.

Details

Studies in Economics and Finance, vol. 36 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1086-7376

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 24 February 2020

Joseph W. Chang

This study aims to examine the impacts of brand structure (i.e. brand cohesiveness and similarity) on brand perceptions and the adverse effects of brand extensions.

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to examine the impacts of brand structure (i.e. brand cohesiveness and similarity) on brand perceptions and the adverse effects of brand extensions.

Design/methodology/approach

Data were collected online via Amazon Mechanical Turk. Overall, 188 US residents participated in the 2 (extension typicality: typical and atypical) × 3 (brand cohesiveness: high, medium and low) between-subject experimental design.

Findings

Narrow brands are favored over cohesive broad brands, and cohesive broad brands are favored over incohesive broad brands. When new extensions are typical, brand cohesiveness dominates brand similarity in terms of adverse extension effects. Negative extension information exerts more salient adverse effects on narrow brands and cohesive broad brands than on incohesive broad brands. Conversely, when new extensions are atypical, brand similarity dominates brand cohesiveness on adverse extension effects. Negative extension information exerts more salient adverse effects on narrow brands than on cohesive and incohesive broad brands.

Research limitations/implications

Brand cohesiveness is more impactful than brand similarity on brand perceptions. The identical adverse effects of typical extensions on narrow, and broad brands exist only when the portfolio products of the broad brands are cohesive.

Practical implications

Cohesive broad brands have the advantages of being more favored than incohesive broad brands and being less vulnerable to negative atypical extension information than are narrow brands.

Originality/value

This study advances brand research by examining the interplay between brand structure (i.e. category cohesiveness and similarity) and extension typicality on adverse extension effects.

Details

Journal of Product & Brand Management, vol. 29 no. 7
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1061-0421

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 2 October 2017

Zimeng Wang, Fabrice Colin, Guigao Le and Junfeng Zhang

The purpose of this paper is to develop a counter-extrapolation approach for computational heat and mass transfer with the interfacial discontinuity considered at conjugate…

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to develop a counter-extrapolation approach for computational heat and mass transfer with the interfacial discontinuity considered at conjugate interfaces.

Design/methodology/approach

By applying finite-difference approximations for the interfacial gradients along the local normal direction, the conjugate system can be simplified to the Dirichlet boundary problems for individual domains. A suitable method for the Dirichlet boundary value condition can then be used. The lattice Boltzmann method has been used to demonstrate the method. The model has been carefully validated by comparing the simulation results and theoretical solutions for steady and unsteady systems with flat or circular interfaces. Furthermore, the cooling process of a hot cylinder in a cold flow, which involves unsteady flow and heat transfer across a curved interface, has been simulated as an example to illustrate the practical usefulness of this model.

Findings

Good agreement has been observed in comparisons of simulations and theoretical solutions. The convergence and stability of the method have also been examined and satisfactory results have been obtained. Results of the cylinder cooling process show that a surface insulation layer can effectively reduce the heat transfer process and slow down the cooling process.

Originality/value

This method possesses several technical advantages, including the simple and straightforward algorithm, and accurate representation of the interface geometry. The basic idea and algorithm of the counter-extrapolation procedure presented here can be readily extended to other lattice Boltzmann models and even other computational technologies for heat and mass transfer systems with interface discontinuity.

Details

International Journal of Numerical Methods for Heat & Fluid Flow, vol. 27 no. 10
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0961-5539

Keywords

Abstract

Details

Functional Structure Inference
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-0-44453-061-5

Book part
Publication date: 29 January 2018

Huat Bin (Andy) Ang and Arch G. Woodside

This study applies asymmetric rather than conventional symmetric analysis to advance theory in occupational psychology. The study applies systematic case-based analyses to model…

Abstract

This study applies asymmetric rather than conventional symmetric analysis to advance theory in occupational psychology. The study applies systematic case-based analyses to model complex relations among conditions (i.e., configurations of high and low scores for variables) in terms of set memberships of managers. The study uses Boolean algebra to identify configurations (i.e., recipes) reflecting complex conditions sufficient for the occurrence of outcomes of interest (e.g., high versus low financial job stress, job strain, and job satisfaction). The study applies complexity theory tenets to offer a nuanced perspective concerning the occurrence of contrarian cases – for example, in identifying different cases (e.g., managers) with high membership scores in a variable (e.g., core self-evaluation) who have low job satisfaction scores and when different cases with low membership scores in the same variable have high job satisfaction. In a large-scale empirical study of managers (n = 928) in four (contextual) segments of the farm industry in New Zealand, this study tests the fit and predictive validities of set membership configurations for simple and complex antecedent conditions that indicate high/low core self-evaluations, job stress, and high/low job satisfaction. The findings support the conclusion that complexity theory in combination with configural analysis offers useful insights for explaining nuances in the causes and outcomes to high stress as well as low stress among farm managers. Some findings support and some are contrary to symmetric relationship findings (i.e., highly significant correlations that support main effect hypotheses).

Details

Improving the Marriage of Modeling and Theory for Accurate Forecasts of Outcomes
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78635-122-7

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 19 December 2018

Huthaifa Alqaralleh

This paper aims to examine asymmetries in the house price cycle and to understand the dynamic of housing prices, incorporating macroeconomic variables at regional and country…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to examine asymmetries in the house price cycle and to understand the dynamic of housing prices, incorporating macroeconomic variables at regional and country level, namely, housing affordability, the unemployment rate, mortgage rate and inflation rate.

Design/methodology/approach

To highlight significant differences in the asymmetric patterns of house prices between regions, the STAR model is adopted.

Findings

The authors highlight significant differences in the asymmetric patterns of house prices between regions, in which some areas showed asymmetric response over the housing cycle; here the LSTAR model outperforms other models. In contrast, some regions (the South West and the North West) showed symmetric properties in the tails of the cycle; therefore, the ESTAR model was adopted in their case.

Practical implications

Being limited to a few fundamentals, this study opens an avenue for further research to investigate this dynamic using in addition such demand-supply factors as land supply, construction cost and loans made for housing. These findings can also be used to examine whether other models such as ARIMA, exponential smoothing or artificial neural networks can more accurately forecast housing prices.

Originality/value

The present paper aims to highlight housing affordability as a cause of asymmetric behaviour in house prices. Put differently, the authors seek to understand the dynamics of housing prices with other fundamentals incorporating macroeconomic variables in regions and country level data as a means of achieving a more concise result.

Details

International Journal of Housing Markets and Analysis, vol. 12 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1753-8270

Keywords

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