Search results

Marketers often combine products in bundles to increase demand. Research has shown that itemizing the prices of the individual products in the bundle raises evaluations in some situations. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how bundle size influences the effect itemizing prices have on bundle evaluation.

The authors conduct two experiments. In the first, they test the effects of price presentation formats (itemized vs consolidated) and bundle size on consumers’ evaluations of product bundles. In the second experiment, they test the proposed mechanism that itemizing the price leads to a more realistic price expectation which in turn enhances evaluation. The authors also test whether this effect is stronger for larger bundles.

In Study 1, the authors find that large, but not small, bundles are evaluated more positive when presented with itemized prices. In Study 2, mediated moderation analysis supports the prediction that price expectation mediates the effect of the price presentation × bundle size interaction on bundle evaluations. The findings show that itemizing prices results in more realistic price expectations and that this effect is stronger for larger bundles. In turn, more realistic price expectations lead to higher evaluation.

The implication of this research is that by directing attention to individual items in the bundle, consumers are better able to assess bundle benefits. More research is needed to investigate other potential explanations for the findings in Study 1. Further research should also investigate whether the findings reported here holds in other settings, with other products and with other types and size of bundles.

Managers are recommended to itemize the prices of product bundles, particularly when bundles are large.

This paper extends our knowledge about the effect itemizing the prices of individual items in a bundle has on consumer evaluation by demonstrating the moderating effect of bundle size and showing that more realistic price expectation explains these effects.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of service flexibility in addressing consumer vulnerability for chronically-traumatized consumers within the funerary context.

Using phenomenological philosophy and a grounded approach, data was collected and analyzed through 12 depth interviews with funeral service providers, coupled with observations and photographs of three second-line funeral processionals.

Study results include the following three primary roles of service providers in supporting chronically-traumatized consumers: the role of service fluidity in addressing trauma, mitigating vulnerability via service providers as community members and alleviating suffering through compassionate service. Service flexibility and value co-creation efforts were executed through an expansive service ecosystem of vendors.

When consumers experience vulnerability that demands reliance upon service industries, service providers can intentionally implement fluidity and agility in service design, adopt understanding and altruistic practices, and operate with empathy and compassion to orchestrate mutually-beneficial service outcomes.

Rooted in transformative service research, providers are advised to consider modifying services to improve well-being and mitigate vulnerability for chronically-traumatized consumers via fluidity, community and compassion.

This study contributes originality to the body of service marketing literature by illustrating how service providers alleviate vulnerability for chronically-traumatized consumers through three adaptive service strategies.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relation between the utilization of the customization strategy and the availability of the online toolkit and its features with the commercial variables of businesses.

The sample used in this paper consists of 134 cases of corporate brands in the automobile industry; their sales correspond to 49.12 percent of vehicles produced in 2012. The logistic regression analysis was then applied to the sample.

This paper confirmed the relationship between the use of toolkits for customization and business variables, like vehicle sales.

The generated model allows the prediction of market conditions which recommended to provide the toolkit for customization, and if implemented, what combination of features it must have.

The purpose of this paper is to establish the progress of information and communication technology (ICT) based on a review of papers published in tourism and hospitality journals between 2009 and 2013.

Based on three major databases, 107 journal papers were retrieved and reviewed. The papers were grouped into two major categories, consumer and supplier, which generally comprise the key players in the industries.

A content analysis showed that hospitality and tourism industries use ICT in different functional units and for different applications. This, in turn, indicates their wide adoption in the industry. Industrial implications are discussed.

On the basis of the content analysis, industry practitioners can learn about up-to-date practices and decide how to take advantage of recent technological developments.

A major contribution of this paper is the comprehensive review of recently published papers in tourism and hospitality journals from the perspectives of consumer and supplier.

Early in 2008, Tony Truesdale, President of the Vitamin Shoppe, was preparing for a meeting with the company's investment bankers. In particular, he was wrestling with supply chain issues that were becoming increasingly pronounced in light of the company's aggressive growth plan. Truesdale recognized that it was nearly impossible to effectively manage the company's large and fragmented supply base, resulting in higher than necessary costs and lower than desired performance. The company also relied too heavily on one supplier for a significant amount of the company's volume. Truesdale recognized that it was nearly impossible to effectively manage the company's large and fragmented supply base, resulting in higher than necessary costs and lower than desired performance. The company also relied too heavily on one supplier for a significant amount of the company's volume.

Further, in the company's single distribution center, 95 percent of the available storage capacity was utilized throughout most of 2007; well above what was considered optimal. The lack of space was driving excessive product handling and increasing operating expenses. The company's inbound and outbound transportation strategies also contributed to inefficiencies and unnecessary costs. Operating efficiencies could be achieved if all transportation needs were brought together under one strategic umbrella. Truesdale was certain that in order to reach the company's growth targets and maintain its competitive advantage, addressing these supply chain issues was critical. Students are asked to describe the specific issues affecting supply chain performance and recommend approaches to solving the problems

Marketing eschatology judges marketing’s sins of omission and commission and describes the future state where “good” triumphs over that which led us to error. Begins by presenting the argument that the future will reject methodological exclusivism involving the two rival claims of methodological monism to the effect that there is just one method for all the sciences and the rival claim that the study of human beings requires a methodology of its own, distinct from that of the natural sciences. Methodological exclusivism should be replaced with methodological pluralism which will be objective pluralism and not a matter of “anything goes”. Continues by arguing that marketing, in drawing theories from the behavioural sciences, has paid insufficient attention to the questions and problems to be addressed resulting in illicit grafts with dysfunctional consequences. Marketing in the future will avoid such errors. The third part discusses the status of the principles of marketing and shows how such principles will be justified in the future, other than by disavowing all such principles, unless they are the result of formal empirical inquiry. Finally, discusses marketing’s traditional vain obsession with mechanistic approaches and the belief in the universality of universal “laws” and why the future will eschew such beliefs.

Significant number of consumers in Australia patronizes non‐scanning stores in spite of not being issued itemized receipts for the goods they purchase. In order to understand the attitude of consumers to receipts that give only limited information, shoppers exiting non‐scanning stores were surveyed for their use of purchase receipts. This study compares consumers' use of purchase receipts issued by non‐price scanning stores and those issued by price scanning stores. It appears that shoppers are largely indifferent to the details on the purchase receipt except when they are concerned with returning or exchanging the item(s) purchased.

There has been increased interest in expanding the Medicare Prospective Payment System (PPS) to non-Medicare payers to provide incentives for hospitals to contain costs and to concentrate in those Diagnosis-Related Groups (DRGs) which they can provide efficiently. However, this should not force low-volume, low-cost payers to subsidize high cost payers and should not penalize low Length-of-Stay (LOS), low-cost hospitals. This article proposes a new method proportional pricing to expand PPS incentives to non-Medicare payers with equity for payers and hospitals. It would also allow all-payer rate setting and premium price competition among payers to coexist.

User-generated content (UGC), i.e. the feedback from consumers in the electronic market, including structured and unstructured types, has become increasingly important in improving online businesses. However, the ambiguity and heterogeneity, and even the conflict between the two types of UGC, require a better understanding from the perspective of human cognitive psychology. By using online feedback on hotel services, the purpose of this paper is to explore the effects of satisfaction level, opinion dispersion and cultural context background on the interrelationship between structured and unstructured UGC.

Natural language processing techniques – specifically, topic classification and sentiment analysis on the sentence level – are adopted to retrieve consumer sentiment polarity on five attributes relative to itemized ratings. Canonical correlation analyses are conducted to empirically validate the interplay between structured and unstructured UGC among different populations segmented by the mean-variance approach.

The variety of cognitions displayed by individuals affects the general significant interrelationship between structured and unstructured UGC. Extremely dissatisfied consumers or those with heterogeneous opinions tend to have a closer interconnection, and the interaction between valence and dispersion further strengthens or loosens the relationship. The satisfied or neutral consumers tend to show confounding sentiment signals in relation to the two different UGC. Chinese consumers behave differently from non-Chinese consumers, resulting in a relatively looser interplay.

By identifying consistent opinion providers and promoting more valuable UGC, UGC platforms can raise the quality of information generated. Hotels will then be able to enhance their services through the strategic use of UGC by analyzing reviews with dispersed low-itemized rating and by addressing the differences exhibited by non-Chinese customers. This analytical method can also help to create richly structured sentiment information from unstructured UGC.

This paper investigates the variety of cognitive behaviors in the process when UGC are contributed by online reviewers, focussing on the consistency between structured and unstructured UGC. The study helps researchers understanding emotion recognition and affective computing in social media analytics, which is achieved by exploring the variety of UGC information and its relationship to the contributors’ cognitions. The analytical framework adopted also improves the prior techniques.

Intercountry adoptions (hereafter ICAs) in the USA are a form of sale of children. According to international policy, sale of children is an illicit social practice that involves improper financial gains by at least one party. Sale of children is a threat to legitimate ICA. The purpose of this paper is to analyse the policy and practice of ICAs in the USA, including pricing arrangements, demonstrate that US ICAs, which can have humanitarian aims and be legitimate forms of family development, comprise sale of children.

Internet searches and e-mail inquiries were used to obtain ICA cost data for a randomised sample of 10 per cent of the agencies in the USA that facilitate ICAs.

Cost information was obtained from only 25 per cent of the sample, suggesting lack of transparency in and available information about monetary costs of US ICAs. A range of US$12,000 to $40,000 suggests that US ICAs are expensive and costs vary. Large, undisclosed fees in the form of “required donations”, agency fees, and extensive foreign travel requirements imply third party economic gains are made through US ICA transactions.

US ICA agencies should disclose costs and employ transparent practices. US policies regulating ICAs should be clarified and strengthened. The US Government should ratify, implement, and enforce major children’s rights international policy standards.

International demand for adopted children may encourage child trafficking, child laundering, and kidnapping for profit (see Smolin, 2005), putting children, adoptive families, and birth communities at risk of breaches of basic human rights.

No study has offered systematic analysis of monetary costs of US ICAs and linked this analysis to policy and legitimacy of social practices.