The Total Price of Mail: A Consumer Perspective

Author(s):  
Benjamin Gough ◽  
Kirk Kaneer ◽  
Margaret M. Cigno
2013 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 260-270 ◽  
Author(s):  
Azzurra Annunziata ◽  
Riccardo Vecchio

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Isabelle Pagé ◽  
Marianne Roos ◽  
Olivier Collin ◽  
Sean Dean Lynch ◽  
Marie-Eve Lamontagne ◽  
...  

BACKGROUND From the early stages of development of a new tool or device to its implementation in real-life settings, it is crucial to take the perception of potential users into consideration. A number of theories have been proposed to better understand acceptance of technology. The Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) combines eight of these theories and has been shown to accurately predict technology acceptance. An extended version, the UTAUT2, was proposed in 2012 and includes three new concepts to accurately analyze acceptance and usage of technology from a consumer perspective. No validated Canadian French version of this tool currently exists. OBJECTIVE The main objective was to cross-culturally adapt the UTAUT2-based questionnaire for use in the French-Canadian population. A cognitive debriefing involving potential users (workers) and experts (rehabilitation clinicians) was included to confirm clarity and relevance of questionnaire content. METHODS The procedure was developed in line with published guidelines and included five steps: (1) Forward translation by two bilingual members of the research team, (2) Synthesis of the translated versions by the research team, (3) Backward translation by two other bilingual members, (4) Synthesis by a multidisciplinary committee and proposal of the Pre-final Canadian French UTAUT2-based questionnaire, and (5) Cognitive debriefing. Cognitive debriefing consisted in the assessment of the clarity of the pre-final version content by a French-Canadian sample of potential responders (i.e. workers) and by an expert panel of rehabilitation professionals. Experts also appraised the relevance of each item of the pre-final version. Any questionnaire content or item not reaching an 80% inter-rater agreement for clarity or relevance was re-evaluated by the multidisciplinary committee until a final version was unanimously approved. RESULTS The multidisciplinary committee (n=6) was composed of researchers and clinicians from four different backgrounds. Twelve workers and 12 experts participated in the cognitive debriefing step. Each content or item (n=40) was judged as "clear" by at least 92% of the worker sample. When clarity was assessed by the experts, six terms/phrases did not reach 80% agreement and were therefore reviewed by the multidisciplinary committee. Four of the 27 items were also reviewed by the committee following the experts’ relevance assessment. The final version of the Canadian French UTAUT2-based questionnaire was approved unanimously by the members of the multidisciplinary committee. CONCLUSIONS The final version of the Canadian French version of the UTAUT2-based questionnaire is culturally appropriate for use in French-speaking Canada. Further studies are necessary to determine its psychometric properties.


2020 ◽  
Vol 27 (10) ◽  
pp. 3395-3414
Author(s):  
Mohammad Vahdatmanesh ◽  
Afshin Firouzi

PurposeSteel price uncertainty exposes pipeline projects that are inherently capital intensive to the risk of cost overruns. The current study proposes a hedging methodology for tackling steel pipeline price risk by deploying Asian option contracts that address the shortcomings of current risk mitigation strategies.Design/methodology/approachA stepwise methodology is introduced, which uses a closed-form formula as an Asian option valuation method for calculating this total expenditure. The scenario analysis of three price trends examines whether or not the approach is beneficial to users. The sensitivity analysis then has been conducted using the financial option Greeks to assess the effects of changes in volatility in the total price of the option contracts. The total price of the Asian options was then compared with those of the European and American options.FindingsThe results demonstrate that the Asian option expenditure was about 1.87% of the total cost of the case study project. The scenario analysis revealed that, except for when the price followed a continuous downward pattern, the use of this type of financial instrument is a practical approach for steel pipeline price risk management.Practical implicationsThis approach is founded on a well-established financial options theory and elucidates how pipeline project participants can deploy Asian option contracts to safeguard against steel price fluctuations in practice.Originality/valueAlthough the literature exists about the theory and application of financial derivative instruments for risk management in other sectors, their application to the construction industry is infrequent. In the proposed methodology, all participants involved in fixed price pipeline projects readily surmount the risk of exposure to material price fluctuations.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (10) ◽  
pp. 4488
Author(s):  
Raffaele Campo ◽  
Felipe Reinoso-Carvalho ◽  
Pierfelice Rosato

The existing multisensory literature suggests that the combination of the different human senses in a controlled fashion during food/drink experiences can provide more enjoyment to consumers. The present research reviews recent literature relating multisensory perception with wine experiences, focusing on the interaction of the five basic senses (taste, smell, vision, touch, and sound). This is mostly being assessed from a perceptual and behavioral consumer perspective. Here, the authors report different ways in which such interactions across these senses can affect the way a wine is experienced, prior to, during, and even after tasting. The authors finish this literature review by providing some insights in the context of wine and food pairing, while also generally reflecting on potential future work. These insights may be inspirational for a diverse group of organizations working with wine. Based on such multisensory approaches, it may be possible to bring unforeseen sensations to the different wine experiences, while at the same time stressing particular sensory and/or emotional attributes.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (11) ◽  
pp. 5874
Author(s):  
Marcos García-López ◽  
Joaquín Melgarejo ◽  
Borja Montano

Pollution from wastewater discharges requires the treatment of all wastewater to maintain water bodies in good condition, as well as the possibility of reusing this water. Thus, wastewater treatment is an activity that has developed significantly in the Region of Valencia and has significant costs, including energy, which represents the main economic cost and an important environmental cost. In this way, efficiency and adequate financing of this activity are essential to minimise our environmental impact. However, the main funding tool currently does not allow us to address this issue, so we have a wastewater treatment with a high environmental cost in the form of greenhouse gas emissions. This tool is part of the revenues of water services, so it is not entirely independent, but it also seeks to prevent households from paying too high a total price. This leads to a situation where changes are needed to improve the financing of the different water services, as the financial resources obtained are insufficient and do not allow the current environmental problems to be solved. The analysis shows the importance of an appropriate tariff structure, as well as the need to include aspects such as water pollution and energy costs in the wastewater treatment tariff.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 642
Author(s):  
Shuangxi Zhou ◽  
Zhenzhen Guo ◽  
Yang Ding ◽  
Jingliang Dong ◽  
Jianming Le ◽  
...  

Buildings consume many resources and generate greenhouse gases during construction. One of the main sources of greenhouse gases is carbon emission associated with buildings. This research is based on the computing rule of carbon emission at the materialization stage. By taking the features of green construction into consideration, quantitative analysis on construction carbon emission was undertaken via Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). Making use of Vensim (a system dynamics software package), we analyzed the amount of carbon emission at the materialization stage and determined the major subsystems affecting the carbon emission, then took into comprehensive consideration the differences of each subsystem’s carbon emission under different construction technologies. Under the mechanism of carbon trade at the materialization stage, the total price of carbon trades remains unchanged, while the trading price of each subsystem is adjusted. Under these conditions, a coefficient for step-wise increases in carbon price was proposed. By establishing such a system of gradient prices, construction companies are encouraged to adopt high-efficiency emission reduction technologies. Meanwhile, the system also provides a reference for the formulation of price-based policies about buildings’ carbon trading, and accelerates the process of energy conservation and emission reduction in China and the world at large.


2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 64-73 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sławomir Biruk ◽  
Piotr Jaśkowski ◽  
Agata Czarnigowska

AbstractThe authors aim to provide a set of tools to facilitate the main stages of the competitive bidding process for construction contractors. These involve 1) deciding whether to bid, 2) calculating the total price, and 3) breaking down the total price into the items of the bill of quantities or the schedule of payments to optimise contractor cash flows. To define factors that affect the decision to bid, the authors rely upon literature on the subject and put forward that multi-criteria methods are applied to calculate a single measure of contract attractiveness (utility value). An attractive contract implies that the contractor is likely to offer a lower price to increase chances of winning the competition. The total bid price is thus to be interpolated between the lowest acceptable and the highest justifiable price based on the contract attractiveness. With the total bid price established, the next step is to split it between the items of the schedule of payments. A linear programming model is proposed for this purpose. The application of the models is illustrated with a numerical example.The model produces an economically justified bid price together with its breakdown, maintaining the logical proportion between unit prices of particular items of the schedule of payment. Contrary to most methods presented in the literature, the method does not focus on the trade-off between probability of winning and the price but is solely devoted to defining the most reasonable price under project-specific circumstances.The approach proposed in the paper promotes a systematic approach to real-life bidding problems. It integrates practices observed in operation of construction enterprises and uses directly available input. It may facilitate establishing the contractor’s in-house procedures and managerial decision support systems for the pricing process.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document