Can differences in publisher size account for the relatively low prices of the journals available to master’s universities through commercial publishers’ databases? The importance of price discrimination and substitution effects

Using price quotes and invoices for thousands of full-text databases and single-journal subscriptions, this study confirms that for a typical master’s university, the journals acquired through commercial publishers’ databases cost substantially less than those acquired through the databases of scholarly societies, universities, and other nonprofits. Moreover, the lower prices of commercial publishers’ journals cannot be readily attributed to publisher size (number of journals published) or to any of several other explanatory variables. There is a weak, direct association between publisher size and price among the for-profit journals but a stronger, inverse relationship between publisher size and price among the nonprofit journals. These findings, along with the results of previous research, suggest that resource providers may have incentives to keep prices low due to the collection development strategies adopted by many teaching-oriented colleges and universities. If the library’s goal is to hold a sufficient number of high-quality journals rather than to provide immediate access to every wanted journal, particular journals and databases may be regarded as substitutes even when each product provides unique content. Many U.S. bachelor’s and master’s institutions have goals different from those of the major research universities, and commercial publishers (along with some of the larger nonprofits) seem to recognize this when setting and negotiating prices.

How do consumers choose offline shops on online platforms? An investigation of interactive consumer decision processing in diagnosis-and-cure markets

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is twofold: (1) to understand the process and consequences of the two-way communication between consumers and businesses on online-to-offline (O2O) diagnosis-and-cure services platforms and (2) to examine how consumer request-specific factors and service quote-specific factors influence consumer decisions in the interactive marketing context.Design/methodology/approachThe study analyzes a dataset of 17,878 service requests and 57,867 price quotes obtained from an O2O platform bridging consumers and automotive repair shops. On the platform, consumers request service quotes by uploading the description of automotive damage and multiple service providers suggest price quotes. The authors formulated a logit model to examine consumer decisions of responding service quotes.FindingsThis paper finds that (1) consumers receiving more severe diagnostic results are more likely to respond to the price quotes, and (2) diagnostic severity and inconsistency moderate the impacts of geographic distance, shop size, and quote price on consumers' responses to the service quotes.Research limitations/implicationsThis paper fills the gap in the literature by advancing the consumer decision processing model to address the interactive shopping experience on O2O diagnosis-and-cure services platforms. The findings are limited by the data and the research context.Practical implicationsFor marketing practitioners, the empirical results imply specific positioning and targeting strategies for markets with informational and geographic barriers to expand the market scope and customer base.Originality/valueThe present work is the first to examine the consumer decision process on O2O diagnosis-and-cure service platforms. It adds value to the literature by investigating how consumers update their problem awareness through the service request-specific factors (i.e. diagnostic severity and diagnostic inconsistency) and how the request-specific factors moderate the impacts of the quote-specific factors (i.e. shop distance, shop size and quote price) on consumers' responses to price quote. The conceptual model and empirical findings provide theoretical and practical values for e-commerce researchers and practitioners.

AI and Procurement

Problem definition: In this research, we study how buyers’ use of artificial intelligence (AI) affects suppliers’ price quoting strategies. Specifically, we study the impact of automation—that is, the buyer uses a chatbot to automatically inquire about prices instead of asking in person—and the impact of smartness—that is, the buyer signals the use of a smart AI algorithm in selecting the supplier. Academic/practical relevance: In a world advancing toward AI, we explore how AI creates and delivers value in procurement. AI has two unique abilities: automation and smartness, which are associated with physical machines or software that enable us to operate more efficiently and effectively. Methodology: We collaborate with a trading company to run a field experiment on an online platform in which we compare suppliers’ wholesale price quotes across female, male, and chatbot buyer types under AI and no recommendation conditions. Results: We find that, when not equipped with a smart control, there is price discrimination against chatbot buyers who receive a higher wholesale price quote than human buyers. In fact, without smartness, automation alone receives the highest quoted wholesale price. However, signaling the use of a smart recommendation system can effectively reduce suppliers’ price quote for chatbot buyers. We also show that AI delivers the most value when buyers adopt automation and smartness simultaneously in procurement. Managerial implications: Our results imply that automation is not very valuable when implemented without smartness, which in turn suggests that building smartness is necessary before considering high levels of autonomy. Our study unlocks the optimal steps that buyers could adopt to develop AI in procurement processes.

The The Effect of Service Quality and Customer Satisfaction on Customer Loyalty

This study aims to know how service quality and customer satisfaction affect McDonald's customer loyalty. The object of this research is McDonald's fast food Restaurant. This type of research is quantitative and analysis techniques using multiple linear regression. The sample of this study was 210 respondents who were selected by the convenience sampling method. The results of this study are that Service Quality and Customer Satisfaction partially and simultaneously have a positive and significant effect on Customer Loyalty. Therefore, McDonald supposes that customers consider fast service, so they should minimize customer queues, to provide better price quotes to customers, and Mc Donald should continue to improve the quality of its services.

Nutritional plans for net energy of growing-finishing swine: economic evaluation

The energy content is the most expensive component in the diet for production of swine. In this context, the objective of this study was to evaluate the profitability of nutritional plans with different net energy (NE) levels for barrows and gilts through sensitivity analysis. Nutritional plans with variable levels of NE were evaluated (2300; 2380; 2460; 2540; 2620 and 2700 kcal of NE/kg) in diets of 144 swines. The carcasses gross profit was determined based on bonus system (CGPbs) and or based solely on live weights (CGPlw). A sensitivity analysis was performed for each NE nutritional plan with different simulations of price quotes for the ingredients in the diet. The simulations carried out for the price of corn for nutritional plans for barrows, indicate that higher levels of net energy provided the highest CGPbs and CGPlw. For degummed soybean oil, the increase in the concentration of net energy in diets provided an increase of up to 6% in CGPbs and CGPlw. For gilts, the increase of energy levels in the diets from 2460 to 2700 kcal of net energy improved the gross profit by 17% when carcasses were sold based on bonus system (CGPbs) and CGPlw was higher when fed with the diet containing 2540 kcal of NE. The increase in the net energy level from 2300 to 2700 kcal in the diet of both barrows and gilts during the growth-finishing phase generated improvements in economic gains, regardless of the way in which the animals are marketed (CGPbs and CGPlw).

Evidence on search costs under hyperinflation in Brazil: The effect of Plano Real

<p>Plano Real put an end to hyperinflation in 1994 and significantly altered price-setting behavior in Brazil. This paper investigates the impact of Plano Real on search frictions. We estimate a nonsequential search model for homogeneous goods to structurally retrieve consumers' search costs. The dataset comprises 11,673 store-level price quotes collected from 1993 to 1995 by FIPE to calculate the Consumer Price Index (CPI) in the city of São Paulo. The strategy consists of using Plano Real as a structural breakpoint in the data. We estimate the model splitting the data into before (Jan-93 to Jun-94) and after (Aug-94 to Dec-95) the plan, and we find evidence on first-order stochastic dominance of the search-cost distribution of the former into the latter; that is, search costs are higher during hyperinflation. The majority of consumers search only once or twice before buying an item, but this share is marginally higher during hyperinflation (84% vs 79%). In addition, after Plano Real, a larger share of consumers are willing to quote prices in all stores before committing to a purchase. We also document evidence of the effect of the plan on shrinking price-cost margins. When searching is less costly, stores lose market power.</p>

A logistical and economical approach to coordinating a biomass supply chain, including energy characteristics

The use of biomass energy is increasingly widespread among industries. There is a growing demand for the purchase of biomass aiming at the generation of thermal and electric energy, as in the case of the sugar and energy sectors, pulp and paper and wood panels. The aim of this article is to analyze a biomass supply chain considering the offer, distance and energy characteristics of biomass. The demand for biofuel is from a panel industry located in the Metropolitan Region of Sorocaba. The final cost was calculated based on price quotes, freights and energy properties of each biomass. The biomasses chosen for analysis were: sawdust, wood chips, briquettes, firewood, standing eucalyptus forest (log) and rice husks. It was found that the largest supply of biomass at the lowest cost is in the distances between 50 km and 250 km. The best materials were wood chips and eucalyptus log. Freight was not a determining factor in the final cost of biomass, even for the longest distances. It was concluded that the chip and the log had advantages for different distances.

IMPROVED PREDICTING NICKEL PRICE BY AVERAGING RESULTS OF PREDICTED VALUES

The paper focuses on the fact that Russia is one of the main exporters of ferrous and non-ferrous metals on the world market. A large sector of producers and traders with this raw material is represented in the country. For successful trading it is necessary to know the prices in the future, when the contract is concluded for the export delivery of a consignment of goods, the parties often fix the price at the time of signing the treaty. By the time of cargo shipment the price may suddenly change, so that the transaction would be disadvantageous for the exporter. Today, companies are actively using forecasting and, in the case of the global market, they are guided by global stock quotes. The prices on base metals correlate well with each other, for simplicity, and forecasting nickel price quotes is more available to take as an example. It has been stated that from the time of making the contract to the time of delivery there pass 14 days, which requires forecasting 14 steps ahead (long warning period). This fact causes the main difficulty in achieving the required accuracy. The prediction accuracy is suggested by using simple and weighted averaging of the predicted values of several models. The results of using several models of common statistical forecasting and developed in the course of the research are presented. The mean forecasting error of nickel price quotations for the period from March, 2015 to March, 2016 for 14 days ahead for the best of the given values made 6.48%, for the worst value - 14.88%. The simple averaging value has shown a prediction error of 6.01%, and the weighted value - 3.58%. It has been inferred that using this technique improves the accuracy of the available forecasting models in practice.

STRATEGI DALAM PENINGKATAN JUMLAH NASABAH ASURANSI JIWA DI AJB BUMIPUTERA 1912 MEULABOH

AJB Bumiputera 1912 Meulaboh is an insurance company that has been established for decades until now, it still remains one of the insurance companies that are in demand by the people of Meulaboh. Many products offered by the AJB Bumiputera 1912 Meulaboh is expected to increase the number of life insurance customers and it is is one of the strategies used in the process of increasing the number of insurance customers. As for the results of the study, AJB Bumiputera 1912 followed several stages, namely offering superior products to prospective customers, insurance product price quotes that are tailored to all layers of prospective insurance customers, promotion of insurance products to various prospective insurance customers, the selection of office locations that are very appropriate in the center of Meulaboh City, the selection of employees who work is carried out with a variety of processes in accordance with the applicable operational standards in AJB Bumiputera 1912 throughout Indonesia.

PENGARUH PEMBERIAN HARGA DISKON TERHADAP VOLUME PENJUALAN PADA PT.SEPATU BATA Tbk.CABANG PEMATANGSIANTAR

This study learns to study and analyze bid prices on sales volumes at PT. Sepatu Bata Tbk. Pematangsiantar Branch, in this case about how to provide discounted prices to people who can be applied, the author shows how to make sales volume transactions before and after being given a discounted price, and after conducting research, use price quotes on sales volumes so that they can be adjusted to the average sales volume every month in Toko Bata Jl, Sutomo No.79 is 37.3% in one year or in one month the price bidding program for customers can increase the average sales by 3.3%. while at Toko Bata Jl. The Sutomo No.132 program gives discount prices to customers who can increase store sales volume by 33.1% in 2015 or every month to provide discounted prices to consumers who are able to buy 2.7% on average. And it can be concluded that the price proved positive for sales volume at PT. Sepatu Bata Tbk. Pematangsiantar Branch.