Search results

Crowdfunding, especially reward-based crowdfunding, has quickly evolved into a commonly used vehicle for innovating entrepreneurs to develop their products. Many crowdfunding platforms allow creators maximum flexibility in terms of the prices and rewards offered in a project to gain sufficient capital. However, creators need to understand how to design project rewards and how to select a pricing strategy, in addition to whether the creator should spend resources on designing multiple rewards of varying quality. The purpose of this paper is to address these issues by answering whether and why there are significant differences in the application of early-bird and versioning pricing strategies in crowdfunding.

This paper develops a two-stage dynamic game model with incomplete information, proposes a corollary calculated by analyzing a perfect Bayesian equilibrium, and then tests Corollary 1 by empirical analysis.

Contrary to the findings of other studies, the results show that an early-bird pricing strategy is likely better than a versioning pricing strategy for earning greater revenue in a crowdfunding context, on average. This finding means that creators do not have to spend as much in designing rewards of various qualities; rather, they should only provide multiple price options for high-quality rewards. However, if the heterogeneity of target backers’ valuations and the quality difference between two types of products are adequately high, a versioning pricing strategy may be a good choice for creators.

This paper provides a reference for creators regarding the selection of pricing strategies and the design of reward quality when launching crowdfunding projects.

This paper explains an interesting and practical issue in the design of reward quality and the selection of a pricing strategy after fully considering the role of the crowdfunding all-or-nothing mechanism and special backer behavior.

This research applies a static hedging portfolio method derived from Derman, Ergener, and Kani (1995) (henceforth Derman's SHP method) and a new SHP method with European cash-or-nothing binary options developed by Chung, Shih, and Tsai (2013) to price European continuous double barrier (ECDB) options and the rebates of the ECDB options. Our numerical results indicate that the new SHP method outperforms Derman's SHP method in terms of efficiency and effectiveness under all circumstances.

Rapid advancements in internet technology have made it possible to develop electronic commerce in general and internet shopping in particular. Easy access to a vast number of existing internet stores enables buyers to customize their shopping processes to minimize the total purchase cost. This paper aims to investigate a novel internet shopping problem, which consists of the diversification of a given list of products to buy among many stores and to use discounts offered by the stores.

The adequate discrete optimization problem referred to as internet shopping optimization problem with price sensitivity discounts (ISOPwD) is investigated, which turned out to be strongly nondeterministic polynomial (NS)-hard. Two heuristic solution algorithms have been derived using the tabu search (TS) and the simulated annealing (SA) metaheuristics for having a solution in a reasonable time. The algorithms have been assessed via computational experiments, and they have been compared with another algorithm known from the literature that has been elaborated for a simpler version of ISOPwD.

The conducted evaluation has shown the advantage of both heuristic algorithms on the algorithm known from the literature. Moreover, the TS-based algorithm outperformed the other one in terms of the total cost incurred by customers and the computational time.

The special primary piecewise linear discounting function is only taken into account. Other possible discounts connected, for example, with bundles of products and (or) coupons are not considered.

The elaborated algorithms can be recommended for internet shopping providers who want to introduce the ability to search a cost-optimized set of products in their databases or for applications that combine offers from various online retailers, e.g. internet price comparison services and auction sites.

The novelty of considered ISOPwD, in comparison with similar problems discussed in the literature, deals with an arbitrary number of purchased products, the possibility to buy an identical product in different stores and the consideration of the weight, the amount and the availability of goods as parameters of ISOPwD.

WHILE there is no doubt that the system of issuing books at “net” prices is of great benefit to booksellers, there is also no doubt that, unless care is taken, it is a serious drain upon a limited book‐purchasing income. A few years ago the position had become so serious that conferences were held with a view to securing the exemption of Public Libraries from the “net” price. The attempt, as was perhaps to be expected, failed. Since that time, the system has been growing until, at the present time, practically every non‐fictional book worth buying is issued at a “net price.”

The current and widespread view in option trading is that early exercise of call options is suboptimal unless there are large dividend payments on the underlying stock (e.g., Finucane, 1997; Hull, J. C. (2008). Options, futures and other derivatives (7th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall; Poteshman & Serbin (2003)). Our study substantially refines this view by demonstrating that U.S. tax rules governing capital gain holding periods can create incentives for early exercise under certain conditions. Hence, this study adds to the factors that investors likely consider when making option exercise decisions. We further note that recent research documents early exercises in the absence of large dividends, and refers to these option exercises as “clearly irrational.” Predictions of early exercise from our tax-based model are consistent with the observed patterns of early exercise, suggesting that the criteria for denoting an option exercise as “irrational” should be refined to incorporate capital gain holding periods.

TO the Urban District Council of Sevenoaks belongs the distinction of introducing a further variety of advertisement for a librarian. They “invite applications from persons with literary taste for the appointment of librarian, who must take sole charge of the Free Library, including the reading and news rooms, at an inclusive salary of £135 per annum. Applications from persons with experience in a library preferred. The person appointed will be required to provide at his own expense such assistance as he may find necessary in carrying out the duties, including the entire cleaning of the building to the satisfaction of the Council.” This arrangement puts the librarian into the position of either having to do all the work himself, or of having to employ assistance and labour at the most wretched minimum cost. It, of course, takes the direct responsibility of employing sweated labour from the shoulders of the Council. If the librarian has to pay for this help out of an already low salary, it will leave him with a mere pittance, and he can hardly be blamed if he tries to do the best for himself. In view of this, and taking into consideration the long hours that will have to be worked and the cleaning that has to be done, it would appear that the Sevenoaks Urban District Council, instead of advertising for “persons with literary taste,” should seek a charwoman with insomnia!

“UNDER the clock at Charing Cross Station at 8.30 p.m.” So ran our instructions for Thursday, April 13th. The weather for a fortnight past had brought snow, a wind that was nipping and eager, and weather prophets were not sanguine. One London periodical indeed had burst out with a quotation from Browning adapted to the circumstances:

Under this heading are published regularly abstracts of all Reports and Memoranda of the Aeronautical Research Committee, Reports and Technical Notes of the U.S. National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, and publications of other similar research bodies as issued

Research conducted in the early 1990s in Hungary indicated a lack of knowledgeable and influential personal sources in the cosmetics product category. The purpose of this article is to examine women cosmetics opinion leaders in Hungary approximately ten years into the country’s transition to a market economy. Because of the evolution of the cosmetics market over the past decade and Hungarian women’s increased involvement with cosmetics, we expected to see the emergence of opinion leadership in the product category. Survey data from 340 Hungarian women indicate that the incidence of cosmetics opinion leadership and self‐reported product knowledge is lower than what we might expect in more established market economies. Nonetheless, we found the relationships between cosmetics opinion leadership in Hungary and antecedent and consequent variables are similar to what we would expect in more established market economies. We discuss the implications of these results for marketing managers.

A General Statement of the Nature and Magnitude During the Course of, and Immediately after Recovery from, a True Banked Horizontal Turn and the Influence of Residual Compass Error on the A.P.I.