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For nanostores, striving to become the community group-buying leader is gaining prominence. This paper aims to construct Hotelling linear models to investigate whether nanostores should be registered as leaders and their decisions in a competitive environment.

This paper constructs three Hotelling linear models: neither nanostore registers as community leader, only one nanostore registers as community leader and both nanostores register as community leader. The competitive operation strategies of two general nanostores under three scenarios are solved.

The study finds that nanostores without a cost advantage may benefit from being the first leader. The nanostore's preferred decisions depend on the investment cost parameters of its own and competitors which may lead to market share competition. Furthermore, consumers' sensitivity to community group-buying service has a negative effect on nanostores' profit.

The study is one of the few to consider the competition between community leaders. Besides, the study considers that the utilities functions of consumers are concurrently impacted by the service decisions, along with the price in different nanostores. It can provide nanostores useful implications in the dynamic industry.

Our aim in this study is to investigate the relative importance of the economic policy uncertainty and of the geopolitical risk on U.S. REITs (Real Estate Investment Trusts) returns with a special focus on the different real estate sectors.

We use an augmented Fama-French (1993)’s asset pricing model, including economic policy uncertainty indices (EPU), introduced by Baker et al. (2016), and geopolitical risk indices (GPR) recently developed by Caldara and Iacoviello (2022), to price the potential risk factors for U.S. Nareit indices returns. To obtain robust economic results, we correct for the problems of errors-in-variables in linear asset pricing models; we advocate the use of higher moments estimators as instruments in a generalized method of moments (GMM) framework.

Our results report that economic policy uncertainty (EPU), and geopolitical risk (GPR) are priced for the different Nareit sectors for the last three decades. The GPR index stands as a relevant risk factor. The coefficient estimates are low compared to Fama-French risk factors. They are higher for Shopping Centers, Retail and Region Malls and lower for Health Care and Lodging/Resorts. EPU indices are also priced and less statistically significant. Health Care sector, followed by Shopping Centers and Retail are the most policy-sensitive sectors.

In their “2023–2024 Top Ten Issues Affecting Real Estate” “political unrest and global economic health” is ranked 1 issue by the Counselors of Real Estate. Our results report that economic policy uncertainty and geopolitical risk are priced for the different Nareit sectors. They suggest implications for investors, insurers, bankers, policymakers and other stakeholders. The geopolitical risk index (GPR) stands as a relevant and significant risk factor for REITs returns.

Based on parsimonious robust asset pricing models, the results shed a new light on the relative importance of geopolitical risk and economic policy uncertainty in the real estate sector, with a special focus on the different U.S. REITs sectors. They suggest possible implications for investors, insurers, bankers, policymakers and other stakeholders in a context marked by higher uncertainty shocks and geopolitical risks.

Revenue management (RM) is a significant technique to improve revenue with limited resources. With the macro environment of dramatically increasing transit capacity and rapid railway transport development in China, it is necessary to involve the theory of RM into the operation and decision of railway passenger transport.

This paper proposes the theory and framework of generalized RM of railway passenger transport (RMRPT), and the thoughts and methods of the main techniques in RMRPT, involving demand forecasting, line planning, inventory control, pricing strategies and information systems, are all studied and elaborated. The involved methods and techniques provide a sequential process to help with the decision-making for each stage of RMRPT. The corresponding techniques are integrated into the information system to support practical businesses in railway passenger transport.

The combination of the whole techniques devotes to railway benefit improvement and transit resource utilization and has been applied into the practical operation and organization of railway passenger transport.

The development of RMRPT would provide theoretical and technical support for the improvement of service quality as well as railway benefits and efficiency.

Short-term rentals (STRs) (like Airbnb) are reshaping social behaviour, notably in gastronomy, altering how people dine while travelling. This study delves into revenue management, examining the impact of seasonality and dining options near guests’ Airbnb. Machine Learning analysis of Airbnb data suggests owners enhance revenue strategies by adjusting prices seasonally, taking nearby food amenities into account.

This study analysed 220 Airbnb establishments from Madrid, Spain, using consistent monthly price data from Seetransparent and environment variables from MapInfo GIS. The Machine Learning algorithm calculated average prices, determined seasonal prices, applied factor analysis to categorise months and used cluster analysis to identify tourism-dwelling typologies with similar seasonal behaviour, considering nearby supermarkets/restaurants by factors such as proximity and availability of food options.

The findings reveal seasonal variations in three groups, using Machine Learning to improve revenue management: Group 1 has strong autumn-winter patterns and fewer restaurants; Group 2 shows higher spring seasonality, likely catering to tourists, and has more restaurants, while Group 3 has year-round stability, fewer supermarkets and active shops, potentially affecting local restaurant dynamics. Food establishments in these groups may need to adapt their strategies accordingly to capitalise on these seasonal trends.

Current literature lacks information on how seasonality, rental housing and proximity to amenities are interconnected. The originality of this study is to fill this gap by enhancing the STR price predictive model through a Machine Learning study. By examining seasonal trends, rental housing dynamics, and the proximity of supermarkets and restaurants to STR properties, the research enhances our understanding and predictions of STR price fluctuations, particularly in relation to the availability and demand for food options.

The paper is devoted to modeling a pricing policy of competitive firms in a “closed” economy framework.

The proposed model can be regarded as an analog to CGE model and is based on the intersectoral balance methodology incorporating linear demand functions for goods and services.

By performing different model experiments, we show that a certain degree of competition can bring more profit to all competing firms, than in case of complete absence of such competition, what is also supported by empirical investigation. This finding implies that monopolies may perform worse than competitive firms, what contradicts with the modern provisions of economic theory, stating that monopoly is the most lucrative type of market structure for a producer. The discovered effect occurs due to the aggressive pricing policy, adopted by monopolies, spurring up the inflation spiral, which is most obvious if monopolies are strongly interdependent in terms of production matrix. This inflation spiral drives prices too high, what negatively reflects on firms’ costs and, consequently, results in monopolies receiving less profit.

The proposed model can also be useful for understanding and assessing various economic consequences after different external or internal shocks, what is especially crucial when conducting monetary or fiscal policy.

The study aims to investigate how attribution theory in the context of pricing strategies can help tourism destinations recover from the negative impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The study adopted a qualitative research design using semi-structured interviews to address the lack of research in this area. Interview participants included tourists and tourism customers. The interview responses were then analyzed using “Nvivo” qualitative data analysis software to identify critical themes regarding applying attribution theory to pricing strategies.

The findings revealed that tourists prefer bundled and hedonic pricing strategies that integrate the service providers' pricing strategies' locus of control, stability and controllability. Tourists do not favor dual pricing strategies unless the reasons for price controllability or stability are justified. Tourists also prefer the controllable pay-what-you-want pricing strategy. Although tourists accept dynamic pricing, certain conditions related to price locus, stability and controllability must be met.

The research shows tourists prefer pricing strategies that give them control and flexibility, like bundled packages and pay-what-you-want models. Service providers should integrate pricing strategies that transparent costs and justify price fluctuations. While dynamic pricing is accepted if necessitated by external factors, tourists are wary of unnecessary price changes. Providers can build trust and satisfaction by explaining pricing rationale and offering controllable options like bundles.

The study contributes to the theory by applying attribution theory to the context of pricing strategies in tourism. It also provides innovative recommendations for tourism managers on how to use pricing strategies after the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings offer new insights that extend beyond previous research.

The goal of the study is to offer important insights into the dynamics of the cryptocurrency market by analyzing pricing data for Bitcoin. Using quantitative analytic methods, the study makes use of a Generalized Autoregressive Conditional Heteroskedasticity (GARCH) model and an Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average (ARIMA). The study looks at how predictable Bitcoin price swings and market volatility will be between 2021 and 2023.

The data used in this study are the daily closing prices of Bitcoin from Jan 17th, 2021 to Dec 17th, 2023, which corresponds to a total of 1065 observations. The estimation process is run using 3 years of data (2021–2023), while the remaining (Jan 1st 2024 to Jan 17th 2024) is used for forecasting. The ARIMA-GARCH method is a robust framework for forecasting time series data with non-seasonal components. The model was selected based on the Akaike Information Criteria corrected (AICc) minimum values and maximum log-likelihood. Model adequacy was checked using plots of residuals and the Ljung–Box test.

Using the Box–Jenkins method, various AR and MA lags were tested to determine the most optimal lags. ARIMA (12,1,12) is the most appropriate model obtained from the various models using AIC. As financial time series, such as Bitcoin returns, can be volatile, an attempt is made to model this volatility using GARCH (1,1).

The study used partially processed secondary data to fit for time series analysis using the ARIMA (12,1,12)-GARCH(1,1) model and hence reliable and conclusive results.

Art return indices are usually estimated based only on a few means of artistic expression (mainly paintings and drawings). Other forms of expression (e.g. sculptures and installations) are generally ignored, in part because they are three-dimensional and, hence, more difficult to measure. We analyze the price determinants as well as the return and risk of three artistic expressions (paintings, drawings and sculptures) executed by Fernando Botero, the most expensive living Latin American artist, to analyze the degree to which their risk and return attributes differ throughout a 20-year period.

We analyzed all paintings, drawings and sculptures executed by Botero and sold at Sotheby’s and Christie’s between 2000 and 2020 (a total of 707 artworks). The data and the images of each artwork were obtained from the web pages of these two auction houses. A hedonic regression was run to explain the price of each artwork and use explanatory variables that are standard in the literature. Art price indices for paintings, drawings and sculptures were constructed using the year-dummy variables estimated in the regressions. We performed a similar analysis for another artist, Carlos Cruz-Diez, as a robustness to our results.

The performance of Botero’s sculptures through time differs markedly from that of his paintings and drawings. Our results suggest that it is possible that returns estimated in the literature could suffer from a bias, as they have usually ignored the performance of sculptures and other artistic expressions. Botero’s paintings provided a return that was comparable to those of his sculptures (3.36% and 3.20%, respectively), they were two times as high as those of his drawings (1.68%). On the other hand, whereas paintings and drawings had similar annual standard deviations (26% and 25.22%, respectively), sculptures had a much smaller standard deviation (16.96%).

A limitation of the hedonic regression method lies in the need to have a significant and diverse sample to identify the true effect of each variable on the price of a good. Another limitation is that we were only able to use art prices from auctions, as this is the only comprehensive source of art price data that is publicly available. These two limitations are shared by all the studies that use the hedonic pricing model.

Our results have practical applications for art collectors and investors, as well as for artists, galleries and, in general, for the whole art market ecosystem. The risk and return attributes of the various artistic expressions of an artist can be different, and thus it makes sense to analyze each one of them individually, as well as their correlations with the other artistic expressions and with traditional and other alternative investments.

The art market is part of what is known as the “orange economy” (also known as the Creative Economy). According to the World Bank, the economic value of the creative sector is not well known or appreciated, even though cultural, creative and artistic activities are vital for our sense of well-being.

To the best of our knowledge, this is the first paper that compares the financial performance of paintings, drawings and sculptures for the case of a specific artist. We chose Botero for three reasons. First, he is a Latin American living artist who has achieved the highest levels of international sales. Second, Botero has worked extensively on various artistic expressions (oil paintings, drawings on different materials and sculptures) throughout his life, a characteristic that is essential to be able to carry out our study. Third, there is a long record of auction sales for each of Botero’s artistic expressions.

Los índices de rentabilidad del arte generalmente se estiman basándose únicamente en unos pocos medios de expresión artística (principalmente pinturas y dibujos). Otras formas de expresión artística (por ejemplo, esculturas e instalaciones) generalmente se ignoran, en parte porque son tridimensionales y, por tanto, más difíciles de medir. Analizamos los determinantes del precio, así como el retorno y el riesgo de tres expresiones artísticas (pinturas, dibujos y esculturas) ejecutadas por Fernando Botero, el artista latinoamericano vivo más caro, para analizar en qué medida sus atributos de riesgo y retorno difieren a lo largo del tiempo, en un período de 20 años.

Analizamos todas las pinturas, dibujos y esculturas ejecutadas por Botero y vendidas en Sotheby’s y Christie’s entre 2000 y 2020 (un total de 707 obras de arte). Los datos y las imágenes de cada obra se obtuvieron de las páginas web de estas dos casas de subastas. Se realizó una regresión hedonante para explicar el precio de cada obra de arte y se utilizaron variables explicativas estándar en la literatura. Los índices de precios de arte para pinturas, dibujos y esculturas se construyeron utilizando variables ficticias anuales estimadas en las regresiones. Realizamos un análisis similar para otro artista, Carlos Cruz-Diez, como análisis de robustez de nuestros resultados.

El desempeño de las esculturas de Botero a través del tiempo difiere marcadamente del de sus pinturas y dibujos. Nuestros resultados sugieren que es posible que los retornos estimados en la literatura sufran un sesgo, ya que generalmente han ignorado el desempeño de esculturas y otras expresiones artísticas. Las pinturas de Botero proporcionaron un retorno comparable al de sus esculturas (3.36% y 3.20%, respectivamente), pero fueron dos veces superiores a los de sus dibujos (1.68%). Por otro lado, mientras que las pinturas y los dibujos tuvieron desviaciones estándar anuales similares (26% y 25.22%, respectivamente), las esculturas tuvieron una desviación estándar mucho menor (16.96%).

Una limitación del método de regresión hedónica radica en la necesidad de contar con una muestra significativa y diversa para identificar el verdadero efecto de cada variable sobre el precio de un bien. Otra limitación consiste en que solo pudimos utilizar precios de arte de subastas, ya que esta es la única fuente completa de datos sobre precios de arte que está disponible públicamente. Estas dos limitaciones son compartidas por todos los estudios que utilizan el modelo de precios hedónico.

Nuestros resultados tienen aplicaciones prácticas para coleccionistas e inversores de arte, así como también para artistas, galerías y, en general, para todo el ecosistema del mercado del arte. Los atributos de riesgo y retorno de las diversas expresiones de un artista pueden ser diferentes, por lo que tiene sentido analizar cada una de ellas individualmente, así como sus correlaciones con las otras expresiones artísticas y con las inversiones tradicionales y otras alternativas.

El mercado del arte forma parte de lo que se conoce como “economía naranja” (también conocida como Economía Creativa). Según el Banco Mundial, el valor económico del sector creativo no es bien conocido ni apreciado, a pesar de que las actividades culturales, creativas y artísticas son vitales para nuestra sensación de bienestar.

Hasta donde hemos podido comprobar, este es el primer artículo que compara el desempeño financiero de pinturas, dibujos y esculturas para el caso de un artista específico. Elegimos a Botero por tres razones. En primer lugar, es el artista vivo latinoamericano que ha alcanzado los mayores niveles de ventas internacionales. En segundo lugar, Botero ha trabajado extensamente en diversas expresiones artísticas (óleos, dibujos sobre distintos materiales y esculturas) a lo largo de su vida, característica que resulta fundamental para poder realizar nuestro estudio. En tercer lugar, existe un largo historial de ventas en subasta de cada una de las expresiones artísticas de Botero.

Gillette’s historically successful “razor and blade” business model (RBM) has been a promising benchmark for multiple businesses across diverse industries worldwide in the past several decades. The extant literature deals with very few nuances of this business model notwithstanding the fact that there are several variants of this business model being put to practical use by firms in diverse industries in grossly metaphorically equivalent situations.

This study adopts the 2 × 2 truth table framework from the domains of mathematical logic and combinatorics in fleshing out all possible (four logical possibilities) variants of the razor and blade business model for further analysis. This application presents four mutually exclusive yet collectively exhaustive possibilities on any chosen dimension. Two major dimensions (viz., provision of subsidy and intra- or extra-firm involvement in the making of razors or blades or both) form part of the discussion in this paper. In addition, this study synthesizes and streamlines entrepreneurial wisdom from multiple intra-industry and inter-industry benchmarks in terms of real-time firms explicitly or implicitly adopting several variants of the RBM that suit their unique context and idiosyncratic trajectory of evolution in situations that are grossly reflective of the metaphorically equivalent scenario of razor and recurrent blades. Inductive method of research is carried out with real-time cases from diverse industries with a pivotally common pattern of razor and blade model in some form or the other.

Several new variants of the razor and blade model (much beyond what the extant literature explicitly projects) have been discovered from the multiple metaphorically equivalent cases of RBM across industries. All of these expand the portfolio of options that relevant entrepreneurial firms can explore and exploit the best possible option chosen from them, given their unique context and idiosyncratic trajectory of growth.

This study has enriched the literature by presenting and analyzing a more inclusive or perhaps comprehensive palette of explicit choices in the form of several variants of the RBM for the relevant entrepreneurial firms to choose from. Future research can undertake the task of comparing these variants of RBM with those of upcoming servitization business models such as guaranteed availability, subscription and performance-based contracting and exploring the prospects of diverse combinations.

Smart entrepreneurial firms identify and adopt inspiring benchmarks (like razor and blade model whenever appropriate) duly tweaked and blended into a gestalt benchmark for optimal profits and attractive market shares. They target diverse market segments for tied-goods with different variants or combinations of the relevant benchmarks in the form of variegated customer value propositions (CVPs) that have unique and enticing appeal to the respective market segments.

Value-sensitive customers on the rise globally choose the option that best suits them from among multiple alternatives offered by competing firms in the market. As long as the ratio of utility to price of such an offer is among the highest, even a no-frills CVP may be most appealing to one market segment while a plush CVP may be tempting to yet another market segment simultaneously. While professional business firms embrace resource leverage practices consciously, amateur customers do so subconsciously. Each party subliminally desires to have the maximum bang-to-buck ratio as the optimal return on investment, given their priorities ceteris paribus.

Prior studies on the RBM have explicitly captured only a few variants of the razor and blade model. This study is perhaps the first of its kind that ferrets out many other variants (more than ten) of the razor and blade model with due simplification and exemplification, justification and demystification.

The objective of the study is to shed light on the notion of quality investing in the Indian stock market. The study also attempts to combine the value and quality metrics to test their ability to generate a higher risk-adjusted return.

The paper employs asset pricing models to examine the excess risk-adjusted returns and panel regression model (random estimates) to determine the price of quality in the cross-section of Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) listed stocks from 2003 to 2020.

The results indicate that the quality-only strategy failed to produce substantial risk-adjusted returns in the Indian stock market. The returns to long/short hedging strategy quality-minus-junk (QMJ) are significantly positive with the majority of the returns attributable to the short leg of the stock portfolio. The findings further discovered that the explanatory effect of quality on prices is limited. In particular, a strategy that combines value and quality investing generated positive and significant alphas as well as a higher Sharpe ratio.

The study provides investors and portfolio managers with valuable insights for navigating undervalued high-quality equities in the Indian stock market.

This is the first research of its kind to examine the performance of quality (Q score indicator) combined with value investing in the Indian stock market. As majority of research have concentrated on developed economies, this study offers out-of-sample evidence to validate the strategy’s success in an emerging market.