Independent Retailer Restocking Choices in Urban Goods Movement and Interaction Effects with Traditional Markets

Traditional markets play a key role in local supply chains in many countries, often influencing retailer decisions due to their inherent attractiveness. In contrast to restocking choices for retailers as part of large chains, choices of independent retailers driven by local traditional markets have not been widely researched and are not well understood. This paper analyses the factors influencing independent retailer restocking choices and investigates the interplay between the presence of traditional markets and retailer choices. Bandung city in Indonesia is chosen for the study where independent retailers are prevalent, and where a number of traditional markets are thriving. A retrospective questionnaire was used to capture independent retailer restocking behaviour and generation models were calibrated to arrive at the trip propensity. Discrete choice models were estimated to explain the retailer preferences for supplier location and transport service choice. Results indicate that trips generated by independent retailers are explained by the presence of traditional markets and retailers’ vehicle ownership, in addition to the standard variables such as number of persons employed, weekly goods demand and average shipment weight. As for restocking location choice, retailers are more likely to choose suppliers within a traditional market where the number of wholesaler units is larger. Furthermore, the choice of traditional markets has a positive influence on whether retailers choose to use their own vehicle to restock their shops.

Resource Publicness Matters in Organizational Perceptions

Publicness theory deepens our understanding of differences and similarities of organizational behavior. However, in areas in which public, nonprofit, and private organizations compete to serve people, it remains unclear how the level of dimensional publicness influences individuals' perceptions and choices of organizations. In this study, we present evidence from two online experiments examining the way people's perceptions of resource publicness (operationalized as government funding, donations, and service fees) of elderly care centers in the U.S. influence their judgment of organizations and service choices. Findings suggest that people perceive donative organizations to be the warmest and most competent, followed by government‐funded and commercial organizations. We conclude that individuals’ perceptions of resource publicness lead to different judgment that may influence their service choice decisions.

How Do Passengers with Different Using Frequencies Choose between Traditional Taxi Service and Online Car-Hailing Service? A Case Study of Nanjing, China

The rapid development of online car-hailing services (OCSs) has a huge impact on traditional taxi service (TTS) and is triggering a revolution in the taxi industry. Due to the differences in age, monthly income level, etc., travelers’ using frequencies of taxi service are different. It is necessary for online car-hailing platforms and traditional taxi companies to know the choice behavior of different types of passengers to enhance competitiveness. Based on the survey data of taxi passengers in Nanjing, China, the passengers are characterized by using frequency per week as infrequent passengers, moderately frequent passengers, and frequent passengers. The group characteristics and the differences among groups are analyzed. Further, three binary logit models are applied to analyze the taxi service choice behavior of different groups. The model results show the significant factors vary among three types of passengers. The result indicates that the impacts of safety level improvement, comfort level improvement and travel cost reduction for OCS on passengers’ choice behavior are higher than that of safety level decreasing, comfort level decreasing, and travel cost increasing. Moderately frequent passengers are more sensitive to comfort level than travel cost. The conclusions contribute to both the OCS and TTS business strategies. The results also provide insights into taxi industry management for governments.

Designing profitable joint product–service channels: case study on tablet and eBook markets

Consumers’ choice of services and the product platforms that deliver them, such as apps and mobile devices, or eBooks and eReaders, are becoming inextricably interrelated. Market viability demands that product–service combinations be compatible across multiple producers and service channels, and that the producers’ profitability must include both service and product design. Some services may be delivered contractually or physically, through a wider range of products than others. Thus, optimization of producers’ contingent products, services, and channel decisions becomes a combined decision problem. This article examines three common product–service design scenarios:exclusive,non-exclusive asymmetric, andnon-exclusive symmetric. An enterprise-wide decision framework has been proposed to optimize integrated services and products for each scenario. Optimization results provide guidelines for strategies that are mutually profitable for partner–competitor firms. The article examines an example of an eBook service and tablet, with market-level information from four firms (Amazon, Apple, Barnes & Noble, and Google) and conjoint-based product–service choice data to illustrate the proposed framework using a scalable sequential optimization algorithm. The results suggest that firms in market equilibrium can markedly differ in the services they seek to provide via other firms’ products and demonstrate the interrelationship among marketing, services, and product design.