Affect Consumer Demand Research Articles

Descriptive Analysis of Benchmarking in Respect to SMART/UNI-Q Systems’ Intellectual Integrations within the European Higher Education Area

Introduction. The strategy for the development of international education ERASMUS 20.30 stimulates the study of how intellectual integration programmes are introduced into the system of further education of universities around the world. The research is relevant, for studying the integration of intellectual potential in a single space of higher and further education EHEA allows to determine the efficacy of application of world benchmarking technologies in the management of SMART/UNI-Q systems and the convergence of world universities. The EU Education Department conditioned the significance of the research content by the target request to investigate the change in the benchmarking mission at the international education market and to make a thorough informational review of its application in the international activities of universities in the EU, CIS and the Russian Federation for the dissemination of information by international partner universities of ERASMUS central office. The study aims at identifying general and specific indicators of sustainable international partnerships that affect consumer demand at the international education and labour markets by means of concretization of an extensive descriptive analysis of the intellectual integration benchmarking and the description of the processes of benchmarking technology application, its scientific identification and implementation in individual universities, university alliances and consortia. Researchers were looking for an answer to the question: why, with high interest and theoretical recognition of technology benchmarking in quality management, universities show low rates of benchmarking in assessing the quality of their international activities. Materials and Methods. It is the first time that the research of benchmarking intellectual integrations in the university international activities uses the method of descriptive analysis. The study identifies active sectors of the SMART / UNI-Q benchmarking for the entire set of data voluntarily submitted by the universities participating in the projects of the Austrian Institute for Intellectual Integrations in the pre-pandemic period of 2017-2020. The participating countries have analyzed the share of key participants and the share of published benchmarking studies. The study analyzes the changes in the benchmarking mission in the international education market in accordance with the needs of global consumers. The analysis uses the data of the bases of the EU Department of Education, the ETINED platform and open-access European dissertation reviews portals. The research uses the WERGELAND European Resource Center data as the comparison point indicators. The study presents an analysis of five segments of international benchmarking: transparency, diversity, “product line”, digital activity, and digital management tools. Modus infographics shows the real, improved and ideal models. The applied comparative analysis studies the asynchrony of academic mobility during the COVID crisis. Results. The research findings show low value of efficiency indicators for the use of intellectual integration benchmarking in the international cooperation of university alliances. The predominance and stable efficiency in the use of benchmarking takes place at certain universities in Europe during periods of activity in implementing new strategies of international education and only for a short time most often during the periods of university accreditation. The model for overcoming sustainable development asynchronies in the management of SMART/UNI-Q systems according to the criterion of guaranteeing the quality of higher education in international cooperation EHEA is not final and today it is possible to characterize it through descriptive indicators. Amid the economic crisis and turbulence associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, a decline in large-scale academic mobility is an inevitable trend. However, due to the growing difference in the responses of economies and management in the field of higher vocational education between developed and less developed countries, as well as with the strengthening of general trends in economic integration, the number of academic migrants is likely to increase. Asynchrony, that is, unevenness, of opportunities and adaptation to the new digital environment of university consortia and the possibility to implement the opportunities in practice has become a psychological problem of scientific migration. Discussion and Conclusion. The materials of this article will be useful to CEO-s of international universities, heads of departments of international activities, employees of ERASMUS national offices, coordinators of ERASMUS+ projects, departments of continuing professional education and academic mobility in the development of promising strategies for external and internal benchmarking of inter-university projects of intellectual integration and international activity quality management.

Five-Star Ratings and Managerial Turnover: Evidence from the Nursing Home Industry

AbstractThe government-sponsored Five-Star Quality Rating System (FSQRS) aggregates multiple measures of nursing home quality into a standardized overall rating. Previous research has found that the FSQRS affected consumer demand and correspondingly motivated a strategic shift toward competing for higher ratings, most notably among nursing homes in more competitive markets. The primary objective of this article is to provide evidence on whether it produced a complementary change in the weight placed on quality ratings in senior management retention decisions. Using the Florida nursing home administrator files from 2007 to 2013, our analysis reveals that the FSQRS motivated a substantial and significant increase in the sensitivity of administrator turnover to star ratings, particularly in more competitive nursing home markets (JEL I18, L15, J63, G24, G34).

Five-Star Ratings and Managerial Turnover: Evidence from the Nursing Home Industry

The government-sponsored Five-Star Quality Rating System (FSQRS) aggregates multiple measures of nursing home quality into a standardized overall rating. Previous research has found that the FSQRS affected consumer demand and correspondingly motivated a strategic shift towards competing for higher ratings, most notably among nursing homes in more competitive markets. The primary objective of this paper is to provide evidence on whether it produced a complementary change in the weight placed on quality ratings in senior management retention decisions. Using the Florida nursing home administrator files from 2007 to 2013, our analysis reveals that the FSQRS motivated a substantial and significant increase in the sensitivity of administrator turnover to star ratings, particularly in more competitive nursing home markets.

COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF THE KEY FACTORS INFLUENCE ON CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR OF THE POPULATION TO BIO PRODUCTS IN REGIONAL MARKETS

The article is devoted to the study of population consumer behavior to “bio” products on the example of two CIS countries: Kazakhstan and Russia, compared to foreign experience in the development of organic agriculture, on the example of Bulgaria.
 It is expected that demand for organic products will grow steadily, both in domestic and international markets, which will further stimulate the development of organic agriculture in the world. Factors affecting consumer demand become important both for local markets and at the international level.
 The study is based on a survey of residents of three representative agro-industrial regions: East Kazakhstan region (Kazakhstan), Altay territory (Russia), Varna region (Bulgaria). The aim of the study is to identify factors that influence the promotion of “bio” products in these regions.
 It is assumed that the development of organic agriculture can stimulate the development of regional economies, especially in Russia and Kazakhstan.
 The analysis made it possible to identify the peculiarities of the formation of consumer demand for bio products in these countries, to determine the factors that cause it and to form a number of proposals for producers for the further development of organic agriculture.

Does Social Media Dominate Government Report Cards in Influencing Nursing Home Demand?

Social media have emerged as innovative channels to disseminate quality information to consumers in a variety of service settings. Their influence has recently spread to healthcare services, for which government report cards have long been established to disclose standardized quality information to the public. Given the presence of government report cards, do social media affect consumer demand of healthcare services? If so, which quality information channel has a stronger effect? We seek to answer these questions in the context of U.S. nursing homes by studying consumer ratings on Yelp and government ratings on Nursing Home Compare, both of which adopt a five-star quality rating scale and are accessible on the Internet. We apply the method of difference-in-differences with continuous treatment intensity and instrumental variables to conduct our analysis. Using nursing home resident admissions as the proxy for consumer demand, we find that higher Yelp ratings positively influenced consumer demand, particularly the demand of Medicare-covered consumers. Furthermore, Yelp ratings exerted a stronger effect on consumer demand than government ratings. This dominance of Yelp ratings over government ratings was stronger in markets with higher Yelp penetration or markets with lower consumer education level. Although higher Yelp ratings were associated with increased net incomes and total margins, we find little evidence that nursing homes made quality improvement in response to their Yelp ratings.

Online and offline assortment strategy for vertically differentiated products

A growing number of retailers are becoming brick-and-click retailers as they pursue a dual-channel strategy that uses both conventional retail stores and the Internet to sell products. In a brick-and-click retail environment, assortment planning in one channel has a significant impact on the demand in both channels, and consequently, influences retailers’ bottom-line performance. We developed a stylized model to address a dual-channel retailer's assortment decision for vertically differentiated products and to investigate how the product and price offerings in online and offline channels jointly affect consumer demand. We incorporated the shelf-space constraint of the brick-and-mortar store and a disutility of online purchase into the assortment optimization model. Analytically, we derived results on the structure of the optimal assortment. We demonstrated that it was more profitable for the retailer to sell through both offline and online channels. Counterintuitively, we showed that in the optimal assortment, it was not necessary to designate a high-quality product to the offline store and a low-quality product to the online channel. We also identified two effective ways to improve profit: expansion of the offline channel and reduction of online disutility.

Faktor-faktor yang Mempengaruhi Permintaan Konsumen terhadap Cabai Rawit di Kota Denpasar Provinsi Bali

Factors Affecting Consumer Demand for Cayenne Pepper in Denpasar City,Bali ProvinceCayenne pepper is one of the national leading commodities that is needed by thecommunity. Denpasar City, which has a high population density and per capita foodexpenditure, is a potential market for cayenne pepper production centers in BaliProvince. Consumer demand for cayenne pepper is sometimes uncertain due to theinfluence of various factors. This study aims to analyze the factors that influenceconsumer demand for cayenne pepper and analyze its demand elasticity in DenpasarCity, Bali Province.This research was carried out in Badung Market, Kreneng Market,Ketapian Market, and Sanglah Marketwhich were determined intentionally. Samplingused accidental sampling technique. The number of samples was determined by quotasampling as many as 50 respondents. This study used the Cobb-Douglas requestfunction which is transformed into multiple linear forms of natural logarithms (ln).Theresults showed that the factors that influence consumer demand for cayenne pepper inDenpasar City, Bali Province were the number of family members and tastes. Priceelasticity at D = 0 (not interested in cayenne pepper) and D = 1 (interested in cayennepepper) shows that the demand for cayenne pepper is perfectly inelastic. Cross elasticityat D = 0 (not interested in cayenne pepper) and D = 1 (interested in cayenne pepper)showed that large red chilies, tomatoes, and shallots are items that were not related tocayenne pepper. Income elasticity at D = 0 (not interested in cayenne pepper) and D = 1(interested in cayenne pepper) indicates that the demand for cayenne pepper wasinelastic to income.

Consumer demand for and effects of tax on sparkling and non-sparkling bottled water in the United States

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate the factors affecting consumer demand for and the effects on tax on sparkling and non-sparkling bottled water in the USA.Design/methodology/approachUsing nationally representative data from 62,092 households and tobit econometric procedure, conditional and unconditional factors affecting the demand for sparkling and non-sparkling bottled water were estimated.FindingsThe own-price elasticity of demand for sparkling and non-sparkling bottled water is −0.664 and −0.229, respectively. Coffee, fruit drinks, whole milk and tea are substitutes for non-sparking bottled water. Non-sparking bottled water, coffee, fruit drinks and whole milk are substitutes for sparking bottled water. Household income, race, region and presence of children significantly affect the demand for bottled water. A 10 percent increase in price due to a tax on bottled water decreased plastic use by 50 grams per household per year. This is equivalent to saving 9.5m pounds of plastic annually.Research limitations/implicationsData used in this analysis only captured at-home consumption of bottled water by US households. While tax on bottled water may reduce the consumption of bottled water, it may increase the consumption of competitive beverages such as carbonated soft drinks or fruit drinks. Although the use of plastic with regards to water bottles may go down as a result of the tax, the plastic consumption could go up with regards to consumers’ increased purchase of other beverages. This might contribute net increase plastic bottle consumption, undermining the effects of a bottled water tax.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to look at demand and tax aspects with regards to disaggregated bottled water products.

The impact of technological progress on labour markets: policy challenges

This paper gives an overview of current thinking by economists about the consequences of ongoing technological progress for labour markets, and discusses policy implications. In economics, the impact of technological progress on labour markets is understood by the following two channels: (i) the nature of interactions between differently skilled workers and new technologies affecting labour demand and (ii) the equilibrium effects of technological progress through consequent changes in labour supply and product markets. The paper explains how the ongoing Digital Revolution is characterized by a complex interplay between worker skills and digital capital in the workplace, and consequent changes in job mobility for workers and in output prices affecting consumer demand for goods and services. In particular, it explains how current worker–technology interactions and the equilibrium effects they entail combine to create economy-wide job polarization with winners and losers from ongoing technological progress. The paper therefore concludes by discussing a set of policy interventions to ensure that the benefits of the Digital Revolution are broadly shared.

ANALISIS FAKTOR-FAKTOR YANG MEMPENGARUHI PERMINTAAN KONSUMEN TERHADAP TELUR AYAM RAS DI DESA TAMBON BAROH KECAMATAN DEWANTARA KABUPATEN ACEH UTARA

The purpose of this study is to analyze the factors that affect consumer demand for eggs in Tambon Baroh Village, Sub-district of Dewantara, North Aceh District The research method used is quantitative method with multiple linear regression analysis model. The results of this study indicate that simultaneously the price of eggs (X1), tempe price (X2), income (X3), the number of dependents (X4) and appetite (D) have a significant effect on the demand of eggs in Tambon Baroh Village, Dewantara Subdistrict North Aceh district because the sig value of 0.000 is smaller than the alpha value of 0.05. Partially only the price of eggs (0.000 <0,05), tempe price (0,010 <0,05) and the dependent amount (0,015 <0,05) have a significant effect on demand of chicken egg because the value of sig t is smaller than alpha 0.05. While the income (0,413> 0,05) and the taste (0,399> 0,05) had no significant effect on the demand of chicken egg in Tambon Baroh Village, Dewantara District, North Aceh Regency because the sig t value is greater than alpha 0,05.

Incentive mechanisms for price and advertising coordination in dynamic marketing channels

AbstractThis paper examines the issue of price and advertising coordination in bilateral monopolies from a dynamic perspective. Its main objectives are to design incentive mechanisms that the manufacturer can use in order to reduce double marginalization, and to investigate whether these mechanisms can be implemented by the manufacturer and accepted by the retailer. I consider a differential game where a manufacturer controls its wholesale price and its national advertising effort. The carry‐over effects of national advertising build up brand goodwill, which represents the model's state variable. The retailer controls the product's retail price and the local advertising effort, which affect consumer demand, in conjunction with the brand goodwill. I compute strategies and outcomes under three scenarios: (a) a fully coordinated scenario where channel members act as if the channel was vertically integrated; (b) a noncoordinated scenario, considered as the status quo, where the channel is decentralized; and (c) a scenario where incentive mechanisms are offered by the manufacturer. The main results indicate that two incentive mechanisms, namely, a retail‐price incentive and an advertising allowance offered by the manufacturer to the retailer can mitigate the double‐marginalization problem. With these incentives, and an appropriate choice of the channel‐coordinating wholesale price, the manufacturer can induce the retailer to fix its control variables at their channel‐coordinating levels without committing to implement the channel‐coordinating level of national advertising. Our results highlight the role of the channel‐coordinating wholesale price level on the Pareto‐optimality and the implementation of the incentives. I compute the values for the channel‐coordinating wholesale price that can be used as benchmarks by channel members in order to evaluate if the incentives should be implemented or not. I illustrate our results with numerical simulations indicating the channel‐coordinating wholesale price values where we observe an increase in both channel members' individual profits when the incentives are implemented (i.e., with respect to the status quo). These results can be explained by the decrease in retail price and the increase in local and national advertising. Both effects explain the increase in brand goodwill and demand when the incentives are implemented.

Energy efficiency to reduce residential electricity and natural gas use under climate change

Climate change could significantly affect consumer demand for energy in buildings, as changing temperatures may alter heating and cooling loads. Warming climates could also lead to the increased adoption and use of cooling technologies in buildings. We assess residential electricity and natural gas demand in Los Angeles, California under multiple climate change projections and investigate the potential for energy efficiency to offset increased demand. We calibrate residential energy use against metered data, accounting for differences in building materials and appliances. Under temperature increases, we find that without policy intervention, residential electricity demand could increase by as much as 41–87% between 2020 and 2060. However, aggressive policies aimed at upgrading heating/cooling systems and appliances could result in electricity use increases as low as 28%, potentially avoiding the installation of new generation capacity. We therefore recommend aggressive energy efficiency, in combination with low-carbon generation sources, to offset projected increases in residential energy demand.

Development of technology for gourmet smoked products from cod species using enzyme preparation from hepatopancreas of snow crab Chionoecetes opilio

At the Food Production Department of Murmansk State Technical University (MSTU) was developed a technology of production of smoked fish products with the use of air-flue mixture, produced in an infrared smoke generator under conditions of low-temperature pyrolysis of wood chips with an initial moisture content of 40 to 60% and a bulk density of from 104 to 154 kg/m3. A method of producing smoke and its hardware design enabled to securely control the temperature of the smoke receiving smoking environment, which guarantees a minimum content of threat to human health of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (РАНs). The developed technology involves short cycle smoked salted semi – fish fillets and allows to obtain finished products with excellent organoleptic properties. The content of РАНs in finished products less than 0.0002 microgram/kg, which is significantly below the maximum permissible concentrations (MPC) according to the requirements of SаnРiN 2.3.2.1078 (less than 0.001 mg/kg product) and according to the requirements of TR CU 021/2011 (0.005 mg/kg product). This technology successfully implemented in production at fish processing plants in Murmansk region. However, marketing research has shown that the market for smoked fish in the Murmansk region is characterized by a narrow range, which affects consumer demand and reduces the competitiveness of the regional enterprises-manufacturers of smoked products. To solve this problem it is offered to expand the range of smoked fish products due to use of non-traditional Smoking techniques raw materials – fillet of cod fish (saithe, haddock, cod). To improve consumer properties of products, in particular, to improve the indicator of “consistency: and juiciness of the proposed use on the stage of the salting of prefabricated enzyme preparation from hepatopancreas of snow crab (Chionoecetes opilio), added to brine with density of 1.18 to 1.2 g/сm3 at a dosage of 0.04%, the curing time of the mix in the brine for 15 minutes. When optimizing technological regimes of the salting process with the enzyme preparation we used the method of fuzzy modeling implemented in the MatLab calculating software.

The Impact of Fiscal Policy on Rural Economic Development in Romania

Agriculture played a major role in the development of society since old times. The new paradigm of sustainable growth emphasizes the role of agriculture in economic growth, in ensuring food security, in poverty reduction, in the reduction of income disparities, in the development of the rural area and environmental protection. Fiscal policy is the means by which the government of a country interferes within the economy to stimulate or soothe its growth. Because the application of tax policy affects consumer demand of the society, it is considered that the fiscal policy operates on the market of goods and services units. Romanian Government's vision fiscal policy is focused on ensuring a stimulating role of taxes in order to increase the economic growth, to fiscal consolidation and to development and strengthening the middle class. The purpose of this article is to identify and highlight the impact of fiscal policy on sustainable rural economic development of Romania, in the context of Romanian rural economy realities and needs of the economic and social environment to become competitive on the European market. In order to reach our objective, we have used fundamental research methods consisting in reading of the specialized literature in this field and some articles and studies covering this topic. One of the most important decisions to make is that individual entities become legal entities with legal personality. There are necessary internal and external financing in agriculture based on investment (investment projects), involving agricultural companies and agricultural associations (not individuals bodies). Last but not least, we appreciate that the taxation of agricultural incomes is still a necessity, given the principle of universality tax, leaving it to the experts to determine the dimensions of income rules.

A restricted Liu estimator for binary regression models and its application to an applied demand system

In this article, we propose a restricted Liu regression estimator (RLRE) for estimating the parameter vector, β, in the presence of multicollinearity, when the dependent variable is binary and it is suspected that β may belong to a linear subspace defined by Rβ = r. First, we investigate the mean squared error (MSE) properties of the new estimator and compare them with those of the restricted maximum likelihood estimator (RMLE). Then we suggest some estimators of the shrinkage parameter, and a simulation study is conducted to compare the performance of the different estimators. Finally, we show the benefit of using RLRE instead of RMLE when estimating how changes in price affect consumer demand for a specific product.

Reforming Wakame Aquaculture in Japan with Relaxed Processing Standards: From Consumer and Producer Viewpoints

This study investigated potential production reforms of wakame aquaculture in Japan through modification of processing standards. The research focused on the destemming process and examined both the consumers’ and producers’ perspectives. An auction experiment was conducted to measure consumer preferences for wakame with different destemming standards (1, 4, 7, and 10 mm). It was found that, although consumer preferences were diverse, there was no preference between the present (1-mm) and 4-mm standards. In addition, a production experiment was used to measure the amount of labor that could be saved (and thereby the improvement in profit) by relaxing the standard from 1 mm to 4 mm. It was concluded that this new standard would increase productivity by 13.3% without affecting consumer demand, which will improve the structure of this industry for competition against cheaper foreign products.

Does media influence consumer demand? The case of lean finely textured beef in the United States

In 2012, the media paid extra attention to lean finely textured beef (LFTB), an inexpensive lean beef product extracted from low-valued fatty trim. The media’s negative portrayal of LFTB as an unnecessary and unsavory additive to ground beef products corresponded with a spike in reports over a 6-month period. Since LFTB is often used in ground beef, it is likely that consumption of LFTB-based ground beef products and other meats could be affected. This paper used weekly meat production and sales data to assess how media depictions of LFTB affect consumer demand. We used a Central Bureau of Statistics model to test whether media portrayal affects the consumption of aggregate meats and beef cuts: pork, chicken, turkey, Choice beef, Prime beef, Select beef and ground beef. Results indicate that media portrayal of LFTB, measured by the number of articles on the subject weighted by consumer readership, did not lead to significant changes in consumer demand across meats or within the beef category immediately. However, consumer purchases of pork, turkey and Prime beef were affected two weeks or greater after news reports of LFTB surfaced. Nevertheless, those effects were temporary and waned or disappeared during later weeks. Our look at the LFTB controversy informs food policy by studying the media sources from which consumers obtain their information. As the temporary effects of news media on consumer demand for aggregate meats and disaggregate beef cuts suggest, consumers may benefit from receiving their news from industry and government sources instead.

Demand for functional and nutritional enhancements in specialty milk products

This article investigates the socio-demographic determinants affecting the demand for functional and nutritional enhancements in milk products based on a two-stage model. In order to derive the implicit market values of these enhancements, first we estimated the relationship between the prices of differentiated dairy products and the amount or respectively the presence of specific characteristics in these products. Next, using these implicit prices along with the information on households' demographic background, we analyzed the socio-demographic factors that affect consumer demand for specific functional and nutritional enhancements. The model is estimated using a combined panel data set based on AC Nielsen Retail Homescan Panel and the USDA Nutrient Database. Our results indicate that being lactose/cholesterol free (LFCF) and organic implies substantially higher price premiums, whereas soy has a negative price. Socio-demographic factors such as income, racial profile, presence of children; education level and age have significant effects on the demand for functional enhancements. Specialty milk consumption increases with age, education, and presence of kids, whereas it declines with income. The ratio of specialty milk consumption to total milk consumption is substantially higher among Hispanic, Asian and African-American households.

How Does Price Presentation Influence Consumer Choice? The Case of Life Insurance Products

AbstractLife insurance is an important product for many individuals, both to protect dependents against the premature death of an income producer and to provide savings in later retirement years. These kinds of products, however, can be quite complex. Regulatory authorities and consumers currently ask for more cost transparency with respect to product components (e.g., risk premium for death benefits, savings premium, cost of investment guarantee) and administration costs. The aim of this article is to measure the effects of different forms of presenting the price of life insurance contract components and especially of embedded investment guarantees on consumer evaluation of those products. The intention is to understand the extent to which price presentation affects consumer demand. This is done by means of an experimental study and by focusing on unit‐linked life insurance products. Our findings reveal that contrary to other consumer products, there are no precise effects of “price bundling” and “price optic” on consumer evaluation and purchase intention in the case of life insurance. Consumer experience and price perception, however, yield a significant moderating effect.

On the impact of advertising initiatives in supply chains

Advertising plays an important role in affecting consumer demand. Socially responsible firms are expected to use advertising judiciously, limiting advertising of “bad” products. An example is the advertising initiative adopted by several major food manufacturers to limit the advertising of unhealthy food categories to children. Such initiatives are based on the belief that less advertising will lead to less consumption of these unhealthy food categories. However, food manufacturers usually distribute products to consumers through retailers whose advertising is not restricted by those initiative programs. In this paper, we examine the effectiveness of such advertising initiative in a leader–follower supply chain with one manufacturer and one retailer. We assume that both the manufacturer and the retailer can choose to participate in the advertising initiative by reducing their advertising levels. The problem is formulated as a Stackelberg game. We show that the effectiveness of the advertising initiative critically depends on the leader’s participation in the initiative. If the leader is willing to reduce the advertising level below a threshold, the market coverage of the product can drop significantly. On the other hand, if only the follower participates in the initiative, the market coverage is likely to expand in the majority of cases. Managerial implications of this research are also discussed.