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This study assumes image size and location, product substitution, and product supply to be factors influencing the purchase decision. Under such assumption, shelf-space allocation and inventory theories are integrated, and operating profit and cost of the online store under the supply policy that prevent stockouts are analyzed to develop an optimal model for inventory control and product image allocation. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

The developed model takes both order cost and holding cost into account when calculating the total cost. As the model presented is an integer non-linear programming problem, this study adopts genetic algorithm to solve the problem.

Numerical examples are provided in this study to demonstrate the applicability of the model and to illustrate the search for parameters that possess greater influence over the operating profit of the store.

This study provides a mixed integer non-linear programming model for the joint optimization of graphic design and inventory control problem. Online store owners may take the results of this study as a reference for decision-making purposes.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between the strategic positioning of firms and the sustainability of firm performance. The paper argues that pursuing a differentiation strategy leads to more sustainable financial performance compared to following a cost leadership strategy. However, a differentiation strategy may also be associated with greater risk.

To investigate the research questions, the authors utilize publicly available archival data consisting of 12,849 firm-year observations for the period 1989-2003. In the first stage of the analysis, factor analysis is used to determine firms’ strategic positioning. The resulting factor scores are subsequently used in regression analysis to investigate the sustainability of performance based on the strategic positioning of firms.

The results indicate that both cost leadership and differentiation strategies have a positive impact on contemporaneous performance. However, the differentiation strategy allows a firm to sustain its current performance in the future to a greater extent than a cost leadership strategy. The differentiation strategy, though, is also associated with greater systematic risk and more unstable performance.

Sustainability of performance refers to how much a firm's current profitability can be sustained in future periods. The main contribution of this study is the comparison of generic strategies based on the sustainability of firm performance. This aspect of the strategy-performance link has not been considered in prior work. Another contribution of the study is that it considers multiple dimensions of firm performance in order to evaluate the trade-offs involved with pursuing different strategies. In particular, the authors contribute to the literature by documenting that while differentiation leads to more sustainable earnings, it also leads to riskier and more unstable earnings.

The advancement of technology opens many opportunities for retailing businesses to increase their profit through innovative strategies, such as discount offers, preorder programs and online payment services. The purpose of this study is to investigate decision-making methods for retailers who sell deteriorating products that utilize an e-commerce platform and offering preorder.

The authors study the optimum price and replenishment cycle when multiple discounts policy is implemented for customers when they purchase during the preorder period and make the payment via an online system. The proposed economic order quantity model works for noninstantaneous deteriorating items that will maximize the total profit. Moreover, it considers the effect of selling price and advertisement on customer demand. The concavity of the profit function is proved. Then, a comparison is carried out between the traditional payment system and online payment. Finally, two numerical examples and the sensitivity analysis are performed.

The results show the benefit of the system with online payment compared to the traditional one. Further analysis shows that the total profit increases when the frequency of advertisement, interest from the banking company, location perimeter and the nondeterioration time increase.

The proposed model guides e-commerce retailers optimizing the price and inventory decision when they offer a discount, preorder program and online payment service. No researcher has undergone a study with this complexity.

This paper aims to investigate how to improve the effectiveness of charitable advertising by matching emotional appeal (happy-faced vs sad-faced beneficiary) and message framing (recognition vs request) within advertising messages.

Two experiments examining real donation allocations were conducted. Study 1 established the “match-up” effect between advertising image and message. Study 2 replicated the findings of Study 1 as well as testing the mediating role of hope and sympathy.

The authors provide empirical evidence that consumers allocate a greater donation amount to a charity when they see an image of a sad-faced child combined with a request message (e.g. “please donate”), or an image of a happy-faced child combined with a recognition message (e.g. “thank you”). Notably, these effects are mediated by the emotions of hope and sympathy, respectively.

This research highlights the importance of matching images of beneficiaries with the appropriate advertising copy. Depending on whether a charity seeks to position itself in a positive perspective to evoke hope, or alternatively, portray itself in relation to a sadder landscape that elicits sympathy, the respective choice of recognition or request messages can help boost donation outcomes.

Charities and non-profit organizations can develop more effective charitable advertising by purposively matching specific emotional appeals and message framings when designing advertisements.

The research illustrates a novel mechanism that shows when and how combining image and message can influence the effectiveness of charitable advertising.

To achieve a full understanding of the role of marketing from plan to profit requires a knowledge of the basic building blocks. This textbook introduces the key concepts in the art or science of marketing to practising managers. Understanding your customers and consumers, the 4 Ps (Product, Place, Price and Promotion) provides the basic tools for effective marketing. Deploying your resources and informing your managerial decision making is dealt with in Unit VII introducing marketing intelligence, competition, budgeting and organisational issues. The logical conclusion of this effort is achieving sales and the particular techniques involved are explored in the final section.

Brand managers in packaged goods firms are under pressure to increase or maintain high sales promotion spending at the expense of media advertising. This study investigates the antecedents and outcomes of brand managers’ advertising and sales promotion budget allocations by adopting a bounded rationality perspective. Based on survey data collected from 165 brand managers in the USA, higher advertising (vs sales promotion) allocations are associated with: single, relatively high priced brands in the early phases of the product life cycle; and more experienced brand managers who are subject to less retail influence. Also, brands with higher budget allocations to advertising, relative to sales promotion, tend to have more favorable consumer attitudes, stronger brand equity, and higher market share increases and profits. Managerial implications and areas for future study are discussed.

A counterintuitive finding of existing research is that negative reviews can produce positive effects; for example, they can increase purchase likelihood and sales by increasing product awareness. It is important to continue highlighting this fact and to develop further insights into this positive effect, as a more thorough analysis can provide online retailers with a more comprehensive understanding of how to effectively manage and use negative reviews. Thus, by using an eye-tracking method, this paper attempts to provide a further thorough analysis of positive effects of negative reviews from a cognitive perspective.

An eye-tracking experiment with two tests over a time delay was performed to examine whether negative reviews have some positive effects. Review valence (positive vs. negative), brand popularity (popular vs. unpopular) and advertising exposure (no repetition vs. repetition) were considered in the experiment.

The results show that a cognitive process of attention allocation happens when consumers deal with brand popularity cues and that arousal evoking and attention allocation occur when handling review valence. Allocation of more attention to unpopular brands helps improve brand awareness and enhance brand memory, and larger arousal from negative reviews narrows attention and leads to a better memory of products and brands. However, with the passage of time, the memory of review valence can dissociate and fade, and the remaining awareness of and familiarity with unpopular brands with negative reviews contribute to a positive reversion, which leads to the production of positive effects from negative reviews.

This paper contributes to the literature on online reviews by examining the visual processing of review valence and brand popularity with an eye-tracking method and by revealing the cognitive mechanism of positive effects of negative reviews from a visual attention perspective.

The purpose of this paper is to present the use of activity-based costing (ABC) approach as an alternative option to the traditional cost accounting system. The contribution of this study is to demonstrate, through a simple example, the application of that costing system in a service (maintenance) industry, i.e. the paper intended to develop a procedure for a cost model that help in calculating any maintenance job cost, to a reasonable degree of accuracy, based on the actual activities performed.

This research uses a simple example whereby hypothetical activities and cost data of maintaining an injector and a pump, of an internal combustion engine, are used, presented and analyzed based on the use of the developed procedure.

ABC system provides more accurate cost estimates rather than the traditional “order costing” methods that uses unit-level costs which are variable in relation to change in service volume. Traditional cost methods distort the costs by applying overhead uniformly over different jobs of varied complexities and activities scope. On the other hand, ABC is a useful means to distribute the overhead costs in proportion (fairly) to the actual activities performed in a specific job and, hence, enhance the rationality of decision making, i.e. will not distort the accounting information used for cost reduction, pricing, and evaluation matters. The results obtained from the analysis showed that allocating costs to the maintained injector decreased from $83.55 to $71.95 and, finally, to $67.57 when using the workshop-wide, two-stage and ABC overhead allocation methods, respectively; while that of the pump increased from $298.90 to $340.34 and, finally, to $359.48 when using the same three methods, in the same order, respectively. The result is quite fair when considering the complexity of the fuel pump, in terms of design and maintenance, when compared with the injector. Notice that using volume to allocate overhead costs results in over costing high-volume products, e.g. injectors (simple in terms of design and operation) and under costing low-volume products, e.g. pumps (more complex in terms of design and operation). The paper recommends to use ABC as a more accurate and fair method when charging maintenance job orders based on the analysis of costing two maintained items in the same premise while consuming different overhead resources.

This study attempts to analyze different methods to calculate a specific corrective maintenance job order. It strives to remedy the drawbacks of the traditional overhead costing of a job order when using principles related to the size of service, such as the direct labor cost/hours, as an allocation base. Consequently, the study proposed a new costing method, i.e. application of ABC. The traditional costing approach is considered by many firms as the best costing method. Nevertheless, it allocates overhead cost over job performed uniformly (equally) not differentiating between the complexity of the job and variety of the activities performed, e.g. using the same allocation base for “oil change” and “fuel pump adjustment” activities. So, ABC prevents cost distortions (unfairness) that could not be prevented by traditional cost accounting system. The author believes that the method presented in this paper will provide a useful management tool for costing maintenance jobs based on the appropriate selected activity drivers in maintenance workshops. The method could be applied for costing maintenance activities in maintenance of all industrial sectors.

The use of traditional costing method has proven to be distorted by applying overhead uniformly over different jobs of varied complexities and activities scope. In this paper the authors strive to present an effective costing alternative that outperforms the traditional ones with regard to overhead allocation. The paper aims to find reliable and fair maintenance costing method, i.e. to find out the relationships between maintenance activities and cost drivers. Although, ABC is widely used in manufacturing industry, no application or current research has presented an applicable thorough worked-out example, with the exception, to the author’s knowledge, of one in the aeronautical industry, to implement ABC method in maintenance industry. The importance of using this method comes from the fact that it provides, relatively, accurate and fair maintenance bills that provide customer satisfaction and firm good image. Hence, the paper is relevant in this respect and intended to contribute to the practice of maintenance management.

Metaverse, that is extended reality (XR)-based technologies such as augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR), are increasingly believed to facilitate fundamental human practice in the future. One of the vanguards of this development has been the consumption domain, where the multi-modal and multi-sensory technology-mediated immersion is expected to enrich consumers' experience. However, it remains unclear whether these expectations have been warranted in reality and whether, rather than enhancing the experience, metaverse technologies inhibit the functioning and experience, such as cognitive functioning and experience.

This study utilizes a 2 (VR: yes vs no) × 2 (AR: yes vs no) between-subjects laboratory experiment. A total of 159 student participants are randomly assigned to one condition — a brick-and-mortar store, a VR store, an AR store and an augmented virtuality (AV) store — to complete a typical shopping task. Four spatial attention indicators — visit shift, duration shift, visit variation and duration variation — are compared based on attention allocation data converted from head movements extracted from recorded videos during the experiments.

This study identifies three essential effects of XR technologies on consumers' spatial attention allocation: the inattention effect, acceleration effect and imbalance effect. Specifically, the inattention effect (the attentional visit shift from showcased products to the environmental periphery) appears when VR or AR technology is applied to virtualize the store and disappears when AR and VR are used together. The acceleration effect (the attentional duration shift from showcased products to the environmental periphery) exists in the VR store. Additionally, AR causes an imbalance effect (the attentional duration variation increases horizontally among the showcased products).

This study provides valuable empirical evidence of how VR and AR influence consumers' spatial bias in attention allocation, filling the research gap on cognitive function in the metaverse. This study also provides practical guidelines for retailers and XR designers and developers.