Direct versus indirect channels: Differentiated loss aversion in a high���involvement, non���frequently purchased hedonic product

Purpose ��� This article aims to investigate whether intermediaries reduce loss aversion in the context of a high-involvement non-frequently purchased hedonic product (tourism packages). Design/methodology/approach ��� The study incorporates the reference-dependent model into a multinomial logit model with random parameters, which controls for heterogeneity and allows representation of different correlation patterns between non-independent alternatives. Findings ��� Differentiated loss aversion is found: consumers buying high-involvement non-frequently purchased hedonic products are less loss averse when using an intermediary than when dealing with each provider separately and booking their services independently. This result can be taken as identifying consumer-based added value provided by the intermediaries. Practical implications ��� Knowing the effect of an increase in their prices is crucial for tourism collective brands (e.g. ���sun and sea���, ���inland���, ���green destinations���, ���World Heritage destinations���). This is especially applicable nowadays on account of the fact that many destinations have lowered prices to attract tourists (although, in the future, they will have to put prices back up to their normal levels). The negative effect of raising prices can be absorbed more easily via indirect channels when compared to individual providers, as the influence of loss aversion is lower for the former than the latter. The key implication is that intermediaries can ��� and should ��� add value in competition with direct e-tailing. Originality/value ��� Research on loss aversion in retailing has been prolific, exclusively focused on low-involvement and frequently purchased products without distinguishing the direct or indirect character of the distribution channel. However, less is known about other types of products such as high-involvement non-frequently purchased hedonic products. This article focuses on the latter and analyzes different patterns of loss aversion in direct and indirect channels.

The Impact of Relationship Conflict on subjective Family Firm Valuation

The present paper empirically investigates the impact of family relationship conflict on subjective firm valuation by family firm owner managers. Drawing on the emerging socioemotional wealth perspective of corporate ownership, we find a U-shaped relationship between relationship conflict inside the family firm and subjective family firm valuation. This finding suggests that negatively valenced emotions induced by the conflict, at low levels of conflict, lead to emotion congruent withdrawal behavior and hence lower valuation. With conflicts gaining in fervor and severity, owner-managers start endowing and pricing sunk costs related to the conflict. This finding suggests that emotions do indeed have spill-over effects on monetary value perceptions and that negatively valenced emotions induced by relationship conflict are not linearly appraised. Rather, to understand the impact of negative emotions on corporate ownership appraisal and attachment it is required to reconcile the emotion congruency with the prospect theory perspective.

FINAN��AS COMPORTAMENTAIS EM DECIS��ES DE JOGOS DE EMPRESA NA GRADUA����O DA UMESP

Os 799 discentes presenciais cursando entre o 5�� a 8�� semestre que utilizam os jogos de empresas, inclusos nas 225 empresas ativas distribu��das entre os cursos de Administra����o geral; Com��rcio exterior; Administra����o financeira; Ci��ncias cont��beis e Ci��ncias econ��micas no campus Rudge Ramos da Universidade Metodista de S��o Paulo, foram submetidos a 6 cen��rios virtuais, com diferentes graus de complexidade, onde suas decis��es foram investigadas sob a ��tica dos aspectos heur��sticos, contidos em finan��as comportamentais, validando a hip��tese de que suas decis��es n��o s��o tomadas utilizando a teoria de mercado eficiente contida nas finan��as tradicionais, modelo este que pressup��e que seus agentes s��o racionais e maximizadores de benef��cios esperados, mas as tomam atrav��s das heur��sticas comportamentais de efeito certeza, reflex��o e isolamento, existentes no question��rio da Teoria do Prospecto, Nobel de economia em 2002 por introduzir os insights da pesquisa psicol��gica na ci��ncia econ��mica, especialmente no que diz respeito as avalia����es e tomada de decis��o sob incerteza, sugerindo uma mudan��a na fun����o linear da predile����o de perdas �� ganhos, constantes em finan��as tradicionais, para uma concavidade da fun����o utilidade para ganhos e convexas para perdas, utilizadas em heur��sticas comportamentais de Kahneman e Tversky (1979). Foi tamb��m efetuada uma an��lise de processos das 56 empresas virtuais contidas no 1�� quartil, escalonadas em ordem decrescente, gerando duas proxys de confirma����o dos resultados tabulados. Foi constatado uma superestima����o de resultados poss��veis ao inv��s de resultados prov��veis, demonstrando fantasias das habilidades dos jogadores, equipar��veis com os resultados de Weinstein (1980), em at�� 71% acreditando serem melhores do que realmente s��o. Al��m de an��lise Qui-Quadr��tica que confirmaram que os resultados da teoria do prospecto s��o equiprov��veis e equilibrados com o trabalho original, al��m do Teste-t entre amostras de vari��ncias equivalentes que geraram signific��ncia estat��stica, refor��ando o modelo. Tamb��m foi efetuado uma an��lise das decis��es por g��nero nas respostas, para comprovar a irrelev��ncia proposta por Hanna, Gutter e Fan (2001) quanto a predile����o e aceita����o ao risco.

Finan��as comportamentais: Diferen��as da avers��o �� perda entre alunos de administra����o de empresas e gest��o financeira

O objetivo desta disserta����o �� analisar avers��o �� perda dos estudantes do curso de administra����o de empresas e do curso de tecnologia em gest��o financeira, usando a reprodu����o do trabalho desenvolvido por Kahneman e Tversky (1979). Para tanto, foi realizada uma pesquisa em campo com estudantes em uma faculdade particular, localizada da cidade de S��o Paulo, onde pode ser aplicado o question��rio no modelo original proposto pelos pesquisadores Kahneman e Tversky (1979) e atrav��s dos resultados obtidos, foi recriada a teoria dos prospectos e constatou que um grupo de estudantes tem uma avers��o �� perda menor. Neste trabalho, foi feita uma revis��o bibliogr��fica sobre as principais mudan��as na ��rea financeira desde 1920 at�� atualidade, destacando a Teoria sobre Finan��as Modernas, a Hip��tese de Mercados Eficientes, Finan��as Comportamentais, Heur��sticas e Teoria do Prospecto. Os resultados apontam para a exist��ncia dos efeitos certeza, reflexo e isolamento. Foi poss��vel confirmar a exist��ncia de um comportamento diferente para o grupo de estudantes de administra����o. Dentre as principais conclus��es, os estudantes de administra����o, est��o reagindo de forma diferente que os estudantes de gest��o financeira. A forma����o dos respondentes mostrou-se um fator de diferencia����o entre os dois grupos. Os alunos de administra����o tem uma base de estudos sobre finan��as menor comparada com os estudantes de gest��o financeira e uma base de estudos maior em outras ��reas. Esse conhecimento mais abrangente na ��rea financeira, n��o trouxe nenhum diferencial para os estudantes de gest��o financeira, isso pode se dar por essa amostra ser basicamente de pessoas muito jovem que acabaram de sair do ensino m��dio e com pouca experi��ncia e entendimento do mercado financeiro.

The design of environmental test rigs

Product reliability and its environmental performance have become critical elements within a product's specification and design. To obtain a high level of confidence in the reliability of the design it is customary to test the design under realistic conditions in a laboratory. The objective of the work is to examine the feasibility of designing mechanical test rigs which exhibit prescribed dynamical characteristics. The design is then attached to the rig and excitation is applied to the rig, which then transmits representative vibration levels into the product. The philosophical considerations made at the outset of the project are discussed as they form the basis for the resulting design methodologies. It is attempted to directly identify the parameters of a test rig from the spatial model derived during the system identification process. It is shown to be impossible to identify a feasible test rig design using this technique. A finite dimensional optimal design methodology is developed which identifies the parameters of a discrete spring/mass system which is dynamically similar to a point coordinate on a continuous structure. This design methodology is incorporated within another procedure which derives a structure comprising a continuous element and a discrete system. This methodology is used to obtain point coordinate similarity for two planes of motion, which is validated by experimental tests. A limitation of this approach is that it is impossible to achieve multi-coordinate similarity due to an interaction of the discrete system and the continuous element at points away from the coordinate of interest. During the work the importance of the continuous element is highlighted and a design methodology is developed for continuous structures. The design methodology is based upon distributed parameter optimal design techniques and allows an initial poor design estimate to be moved in a feasible direction towards an acceptable design solution. Cumulative damage theory is used to provide a quantitative method of assessing the quality of dynamic similarity. It is shown that the combination of modal analysis techniques and cumulative damage theory provides a feasible design synthesis methodology for representative test rigs.

New insights in the moderating effect of switching costs on the satisfaction-repurchase behavior link

Existing studies on the role of switching costs (SC) as moderator of the relationship between satisfaction and repurchase behavior are inconclusive. We attempt to explain these inconclusive findings by synthesizing an amplifying and a lock-in effect, and hypothesize a nonlinear moderating effect. In Study 1 (a main study and three replications), we find strong evidence for an inverted u-shaped moderating effect of overall SC. Our results suggest that satisfaction is a particularly important predictor of repurchase behavior in situations characterized by medium-levels of SC. Based on Prospect Theory, Study 2 (a main study and one replication) reveals that this inverted u-shaped moderating effect of SC is stronger for positive (relational and financial) SC than for negative (procedural) SC. We conclude with recommendations for satisfaction management of different customer segments, and describe possibilities to influence customer switching costs in various industries. �� 2014 New York University.

Food Swamps, Obesity & Health Zoning Restrictions on Fast Food Restaurants

<p>Protecting public health is the most legitimate use of zoning, and yet there is minimal progress in applying it to the obesity problem. Zoning could potentially be used to address both unhealthy and healthy food retailers, but lack of evidence regarding the impact of zoning and public opinion on zoning changes are barriers to implementing zoning restrictions on fast food on a larger scale. My dissertation addresses these gaps in our understanding of health zoning as a policy option for altering built, food environments. </p><p>Chapter 1 examines the relationship between food swamps and obesity and whether spatial mapping might be useful in identifying priority geographic areas for zoning interventions. I employ an instrumental variables (IV) strategy to correct for the endogeneity problems associated with food environments, namely that individuals may self-select into certain neighborhoods and may consider food availability in their decision process. I utilize highway exits as a source of exogenous variation .Using secondary data from the USDA Food Environment Atlas, ordinary least squares (OLS) and IV regression models were employed to analyze cross-sectional associations between local food environments and the prevalence of obesity. I find even after controlling for food desert effects, food swamps have a positive, statistically significant effect on adult obesity rates.</p><p>Chapter 2 applies theories of message framing and prospect theory to the emerging discussion around health zoning policies targeting food environments and to explore public opinion toward a list of potential zoning restrictions on fast-food restaurants (beyond moratoriums on new establishments). In order to explore causality, I employ an online survey experiment manipulating exposure to vignettes with different message frames about health zoning restrictions with two national samples of adult Americans age 18 and over (N1=2,768 and N2=3,236). The second sample oversamples Black Americans (N=1,000) and individuals with high school as their highest level of education. Respondents were randomly assigned to one of six conditions where they were primed with different message frames about the benefits of zoning restrictions on fast food retailers. Participants were then asked to indicate their support for six zoning policies on a Likert scale. Subjects also answered questions about their food store access, eating behaviors, health status and perceptions of food stores by type. </p><p>I find that a message frame about Nutrition and increasing Equity in the food system was particularly effective at increasing support for health zoning policies targeting fast food outlets across policy categories (Conditional, Youth-related, Performance and Incentive) and across racial groups. This finding is consistent with an influential environmental justice scholar���s description of ���injustice frames��� as effective in mobilizing supporters around environmental issues (Taylor 2000). I extend this rationale to food environment obesity prevention efforts and identify Nutrition combined with Equity frames as an arguably universal campaign strategy for bolstering public support of zoning restrictions on fast food retailers.</p><p>Bridging my findings from both Chapters 1 and 2, using food swamps as a spatial metaphor may work to identify priority areas for policy intervention, but only if there is an equitable distribution of resources and mobilization efforts to improve consumer food environments. If the structural forces which ration access to land-use planning persist (arguably including the media as gatekeepers to information and producers of message frames) disparities in obesity are likely to widen.</p>

Evaluating consumer price perception: a mental accounting and frame dependent perspective

In this thesis, we evaluate consumer purchase behaviour from the perspective of heuristic decision making. Heuristic decision processes are quick and easy mental shortcuts, adopted by individuals to reduce the amount of time spent in decision making. In particular, we examine those heuristics which are caused by framing ��� prospect theory and mental accounting, and examine these within price related decision scenarios. The impact of price framing on consumer behaviour has been studied under the broad umbrella of reference price, which suggests that decision makers use reference points as standards of comparison when making a purchase decision. We investigate four reference points - a retailer's past prices, a competitor's current prices, a competitor's past prices, and consumers' expectation of immediate future price changes, to further our understanding of the impact of price framing on mental accounting, and in turn, contribute to the growing body of reference price literature in Marketing research. We carry out experiments in which levels of price frame and monetary outcomes are manipulated in repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA). Our results show that where these reference points are clearly specified in decision problems, price framing significantly affects consumers' perceptions of monetary gains derived through discounts, and leads to reversals in consumer preferences. We also found that monetary losses were not sensitive to price frame manipulations.

El exceso de confianza y el statu quo dentro de la estructuraci��n de capital: una perspectiva de las finanzas corporativas del comportamiento

El presente art��culo, presenta un an��lisis de las decisiones de estructuraci��n de capital de la compa����a Merck Sharp & Dome S.A.S, desde la perspectiva de las finanzas comportamentales, comparando los m��todos utilizados actualmente por la compa����a seleccionada con la teor��a tradicional de las finanzas, para as�� poder evaluar el desempe��o te��rico y real. Incorporar elementos comportamentales dentro del estudio permite profundizar m��s sobre de las decisiones corporativas en un contexto m��s cercano a los avances investigativos de las finanzas del comportamiento, lo cual lleva a que el an��lisis de este art��culo se enfoque en la identificaci��n y entendimiento de los sesgos de exceso de confianza y statu quo, pero sobre todo su implicaci��n en las decisiones de financiaci��n. Seg��n la teor��a tradicional el proceso de estructuraci��n de capital se gu��a por los costos, pero este estudio de caso permiti�� observar que en la pr��ctica esta relaci��n de costo-decisi��n est�� en un segundo lugar, despu��s de la relaci��n riesgo-decisi��n a la hora del proceso de estructuraci��n de capital.

A quarter century of cumulative bibliography: retrospect and prospect ...

Mode of access: Internet.

Cumulative cultural dynamics and the coevolution of cultural innovation and transmission: an ESS model for panmictic and structured populations.

When individuals in a population can acquire traits through learning, each individual may express a certain number of distinct cultural traits. These traits may have been either invented by the individual himself or acquired from others in the population. Here, we develop a game theoretic model for the accumulation of cultural traits through individual and social learning. We explore how the rates of innovation, decay, and transmission of cultural traits affect the evolutionary stable (ES) levels of individual and social learning and the number of cultural traits expressed by an individual when cultural dynamics are at a steady-state. We explore the evolution of these phenotypes in both panmictic and structured population settings. Our results suggest that in panmictic populations, the ES level of learning and number of traits tend to be independent of the social transmission rate of cultural traits and is mainly affected by the innovation and decay rates. By contrast, in structured populations, where interactions occur between relatives, the ES level of learning and the number of traits per individual can be increased (relative to the panmictic case) and may then markedly depend on the transmission rate of cultural traits. This suggests that kin selection may be one additional solution to Rogers's paradox of nonadaptive culture.

Cumulative frequency-dependent selective episodes allow for rapid morph cycles and rock-paper-scissors dynamics in species with overlapping generations.

Rock-paper-scissors (RPS) dynamics, which maintain genetic polymorphisms over time through negative frequency-dependent (FD) selection, can evolve in short-lived species with no generational overlap, where they produce rapid morph frequency cycles. However, most species have overlapping generations and thus, rapid RPS dynamics are thought to require stronger FD selection, the existence of which yet needs to be proved. Here, we experimentally demonstrate that two cumulative selective episodes, FD sexual selection reinforced by FD selection on offspring survival, generate sufficiently strong selection to generate rapid morph frequency cycles in the European common lizard Zootoca vivipara, a multi-annual species with major generational overlap. These findings show that the conditions required for the evolution of RPS games are fulfilled by almost all species exhibiting genetic polymorphisms and suggest that RPS games may be responsible for the maintenance of genetic diversity in a wide range of species.

Ispol'zovanie metodov teorii vosstanovleniia v modeliakh optimal'nogo dobyvaniia pishchi [Restoration theory in models of optimal feeding behavior]

The method of stochastic dynamic programming is widely used in ecology of behavior, but has some imperfections because of use of temporal limits. The authors presented an alternative approach based on the methods of the theory of restoration. Suggested method uses cumulative energy reserves per time unit as a criterium, that leads to stationary cycles in the area of states. This approach allows to study the optimal feeding by analytic methods.

Debating the centre : the theory of principal qualificand (mukhyavisesya) in classical Indian philosophy

The theory of language has occupied a special place in the history of Indian thought. Indian philosophers give particular attention to the analysis of the cognition obtained from language, known under the generic name of &#347;&#257;bdabodha. This term is used to denote, among other things, the cognition episode of the hearer, the content of which is described in the form of a paraphrase of a sentence represented as a hierarchical structure. Philosophers submit the meaning of the component items of a sentence and their relationship to a thorough examination, and represent the content of the resulting cognition as a paraphrase centred on a meaning element, that is taken as principal qualificand (mukhyavi&#347;esya) which is qualified by the other meaning elements. This analysis is the object of continuous debate over a period of more than a thousand years between the philosophers of the schools of Mim&#257;ms&#257;, Ny&#257;ya (mainly in its Navya form) and Vy&#257;karana. While these philosophers are in complete agreement on the idea that the cognition of sentence meaning has a hierarchical structure and share the concept of a single principal qualificand (qualified by other meaning elements), they strongly disagree on the question which meaning element has this role and by which morphological item it is expressed. This disagreement is the central point of their debate and gives rise to competing versions of this theory. The M��m&#257;msakas argue that the principal qualificand is what they call bh&#257;van&#257; &#786;bringing into being&#786;, &#786;efficient force&#786; or &#786;productive operation&#786;, expressed by the verbal affix, and distinct from the specific procedures signified by the verbal root; the Naiy&#257;yikas generally take it to be the meaning of the word with the first case ending, while the Vaiy&#257;karanas take it to be the operation expressed by the verbal root. All the participants rely on the P&#257;ninian grammar, insofar as the Mim&#257;msakas and Naiy&#257;yikas do not compose a new grammar of Sanskrit, but use different interpretive strategies in order to justify their views, that are often in overt contradiction with the interpretation of the P&#257;ninian rules accepted by the Vaiy&#257;karanas. In each of the three positions, weakness in one area is compensated by strength in another, and the cumulative force of the total argumentation shows that no position can be declared as correct or overall superior to the others. This book is an attempt to understand this debate, and to show that, to make full sense of the irreconcilable positions of the three schools, one must go beyond linguistic factors and consider the very beginnings of each school's concern with the issue under scrutiny. The texts, and particularly the late texts of each school present very complex versions of the theory, yet the key to understanding why these positions remain irreconcilable seems to lie elsewhere, this in spite of extensive argumentation involving a great deal of linguistic and logical technicalities. Historically, this theory arises in Mim&#257;ms&#257; (with Sabara and Kum&#257;rila), then in Ny&#257;ya (with Udayana), in a doctrinal and theological context, as a byproduct of the debate over Vedic authority. The Navya-Vaiy&#257;karanas enter this debate last (with Bhattoji D��ksita and Kaunda Bhatta), with the declared aim of refuting the arguments of the M��m&#257;msakas and Naiy&#257;yikas by bringing to light the shortcomings in their understanding of P&#257;ninian grammar. The central argument has focused on the capacity of the initial contexts, with the network of issues to which the principal qualificand theory is connected, to render intelligible the presuppositions and aims behind the complex linguistic justification of the classical and late stages of this debate. Reading the debate in this light not only reveals the rationality and internal coherence of each position beyond the linguistic arguments, but makes it possible to understand why the thinkers of the three schools have continued to hold on to three mutually exclusive positions. They are defending not only their version of the principal qualificand theory, but (though not openly acknowledged) the entire network of arguments, linguistic and/or extra-linguistic, to which this theory is connected, as well as the presuppositions and aims underlying these arguments.