Reselling or Agency Selling? Consumer Valuation, Quality Design, and Manufacturers' Competition

In this study, we develop a series of consumer-valuation-based models to investigate the pricing and return policies of the sellers in a competitive e-commerce market. Differing from the competition models in literature, a novel two-dimensional valuation structure is built, which considers the valuations of a consumer on two products and the valuation differentiation of all consumers on each product. We consider both monopoly and duopoly (competitive) markets. In each market, two models are respectively developed, one with and one without the return policies. We derive the solutions for the four models, and conduct some analytical and numerical investigations. The results show that return policy with a partial refund is always chosen by the sellers in both monopoly and duopoly markets. Return policy benefits the seller in a monopoly market, but may not benefit the sellers in a duopoly market. In the duopoly models, one seller can be considered as a monopoly seller who meets a new competitor. Our results show that the monopoly seller will reduce its price by no more than 20% when there comes a competitor, and, counter-intuitively, it will meanwhile adopt a severer return policy to the consumers.

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Near Infrared Spectroscopy as a Green Technology for the Quality Prediction of Intact Olives

Foods ◽

10.3390/foods10051042 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 10 (5) ◽

pp. 1042

Author(s):

Silvia Grassi ◽

Olusola Samuel Jolayemi ◽

Valentina Giovenzana ◽

Alessio Tugnolo ◽

Giacomo Squeo ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Infrared Spectroscopy ◽

Olive Oil ◽

Near Infrared Spectroscopy ◽

Near Infrared ◽

Green Technology ◽

Soluble Solids ◽

Integrating Sphere ◽

Total Phenolic ◽

Handheld Device ◽

Quality Design

Poorly emphasized aspects for a sustainable olive oil system are chemical analysis replacement and quality design of the final product. In this context, near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) can play a pivotal role. Thus, this study aims at comparing performances of different NIRS systems for the prediction of moisture, oil content, soluble solids, total phenolic content, and antioxidant activity of intact olive drupes. The results obtained by a Fourier transform (FT)-NIR spectrometer, equipped with both an integrating sphere and a fiber optic probe, and a Vis/NIR handheld device are discussed. Almost all the partial least squares regression models were encouraging in predicting the quality parameters (0.64 < R2pred < 0.84), with small and comparable biases (p > 0.05). The pair-wise comparison between the standard deviations demonstrated that the FT-NIR models were always similar except for moisture (p < 0.05), whereas a slightly lower performance of the Vis/NIR models was assessed. Summarizing, while on-line or in-line applications of the FT-NIR optical probe should be promoted in oil mills in order to quickly classify the drupes for a better quality design of the olive oil, the portable and cheaper Vis/NIR device could be useful for preliminary quality evaluation of olive drupes directly in the field.

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The Selection Evaluation of Design Bidding

Applied Mechanics and Materials ◽

10.4028/www.scientific.net/amm.501-504.2638 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 501-504 ◽

pp. 2638-2641 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Peng Cheng Pan ◽

Yanan Shao ◽

Huan Liu

Keyword(s):

Index System ◽

Evaluation Index System ◽

Evaluation Index ◽

Design Teams ◽

Design Quality ◽

Quality Cost ◽

Quality Design

The quality of the project depends firstly on the design. Selected excellent design units can help the owner to realize the projects quality, cost and schedule target. The principles of the evaluation in design bidding were discussed in this paper. The design quality, design fees quotation, design teams service commitments, design teams ability, design institutions strength, and design institutions reputation were given as the six aspects of evaluation index system. last, the organization of evaluator was discusses.

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Influence of Information About Agrochemicals Provided via Internet-Enabled Mobile Phones on Consumer Valuation of Food

Journal of Agricultural & Food Information ◽

10.1080/10496505.2010.490509 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 11 (3) ◽

pp. 209-221 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Hideo Aizaki ◽

Yasuhiro Nakashima ◽

Kiyokazu Ujiie ◽

Hironobu Takeshita ◽

Kengo Tahara

Keyword(s):

Mobile Phones ◽

Consumer Valuation

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Research on commercial vehicle sound quality objective evaluation

INTER-NOISE and NOISE-CON Congress and Conference Proceedings ◽

10.3397/in-2021-2727 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 263 (2) ◽

pp. 4526-4531

Author(s):

Kun Qian ◽

Zhichao Hou ◽

Ruixue Liu ◽

Dengke Sun ◽

Rongkang Luo

Keyword(s):

Evaluation Method ◽

Commercial Vehicle ◽

Objective Evaluation ◽

Sound Quality ◽

Subjective Perception ◽

Commercial Vehicles ◽

Comfort Evaluation ◽

Quality Design ◽

Increasing Demand ◽

And Control

With the increasing demand of users for the acoustical comfort of commercial vehicles, the sound quality has become one of the important indicators of comfort evaluation. The research focuses on the objective evaluation method of the subjective perception of the sound quality in commercial vehicle. The interior noises of commercial vehicle with an inline six diesel engine are measured. The five psychoacoustic parameters (loudness, roughness, sharpness, fluctuation strength, tonality and articulation index) are applied to the evaluation and analysis of the interior noises of the commercial vehicle. Using psychoacoustic parameters to evaluate the noises in commercial vehicle, it is of great significance for the analysis and control of the noises in commercial vehicle. The research results provide a theoretical basis for guiding the sound quality design and development of commercial vehicles.

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Quality of Design Documentation in the Construction Industry: A Review Using Meta-Synthesis Approach

International Journal of Innovation and Technology Management ◽

10.1142/s0219877021300032 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 18 (06) ◽

Author(s):

Peter Dodzi Kwasi Agbaxode ◽

Sitsabo Dlamini ◽

Ehsan Saghatforoush

Keyword(s):

Construction Industry ◽

Influencing Factors ◽

Construction Projects ◽

Poor Quality ◽

Improve Design ◽

Documentation Quality ◽

Design Documentation ◽

Quality Design ◽

Synthesis Approach

A meta-synthesis approach was used to identify, synthesize, and categorize appropriately factors in the literature that contribute to design documentation quality. The categories include factors on quality attributes, quality indicators, and quality-influencing factors. Findings indicate that the quality of design documentation in practice is unsatisfactory, therefore, there is a need for collaboration between the owner, designers, and end-users to improve design documentation quality. The results offer pragmatic data on design documentation quality in the construction industry between the years 1992 and 2019. However, further research on the significant impacts of poor-quality design documentation on construction projects is recommended.

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The moderating role of competitive strategy in relating firm performance to quality management and government support

Journal on Chain and Network Science ◽

10.3920/jcns2010.x105 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 10 (1) ◽

pp. 59-76 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Jiqin Han ◽

S.W.F. (Onno) Omta ◽

Jacques Trienekens ◽

Ron Kemp

Keyword(s):

Firm Performance ◽

Quality Management ◽

Competitive Strategy ◽

Process Management ◽

Management Practices ◽

Business Environment ◽

Government Support ◽

Supplier Quality Management ◽

Quality Design

One of the main concerns in companies is quality management and its relationship to firm performance. Recently a growing interest in research is the important role of the business environment in the competitive strategy choices of companies. By proposing a conceptual framework for a general model that explains the quality management practices-firm performance link and the business environment-firm performance link, we test the moderating role of competitive strategy in the two links empirically. A survey was conducted of 229 pork-processing firms in the emerging economy of China. We find that specific quality management practices contributing to higher performance include in-company quality management, supplier quality management, employee involvement in quality management and process management, while quality design and customer quality management are not included. Findings also indicate that the business environment (government support in our research) has a positive relationship to firm performance. Competitive strategy only strengthens the relationship between firm performance and quality design, process management, supplier quality management and customer quality management.

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