Demand-driven Market Research Articles

Do uncertain outcomes matter for ticket prices? Examination of the National Football League's secondary ticket market

PurposeThis study examines the impact of outcome uncertainty on the National Football League (NFL) secondary ticket market prices. As a demand-driven market, it is essential to comprehend how resellers respond to outcome uncertainty, one of the consumer demand factors in sports.Design/methodology/approachUsing real-time ticket prices and money lines as a proxy of the probabilities of winning, this study employs a regression analysis and examines 33,554 price observations from the NFL’s secondary ticket market partner, StubHub.FindingsThe result shows a positive relationship between outcome uncertainty and secondary market ticket prices, indicating that resellers adjust the prices in response to the level of outcome uncertainty and put more value on games with greater uncertainty. This finding confirms the demand-driven nature of the secondary ticket market, as outcome uncertainty is one of the demand factors in sports.Originality/valueThis study links the uncertainty of outcome hypothesis with secondary ticket market pricing and fills a gap in the literature by providing an important perspective on games with uncertainty in the secondary ticket market. Outcome uncertainty has limited understanding in relation to secondary ticket market pricing despite its relationship with consumer demand. The positive relationship between outcome uncertainty and the ticket prices, grounded in real-time price data and win probability from sport betting markets, enhances our understanding of price determinations in the secondary ticket market.

The European Market for Guarantees of Origin for Green Electricity: A Scenario-Based Evaluation of Trading under Uncertainty

Guarantees of Origin (GOs) were introduced in order to enhance transparency about the origin of green electricity produced in Europe, and to deliberately empower end-consumers to participate in the sustainable energy transition. The separation of electricity and the GO trade has resulted in a prosperous GO market that, however, has been characterized by non-transparency and opportunistic behavior. Historic price development has been opaque and can therefore not be used to forecast future GO prices. This paper, firstly, provides a thorough overview of the European GO market and an analysis of the historic price development; secondly, it proposes a model, the first of its kind, for determining future price developments of European GOs for different renewable energy technologies in different countries up to 2040. For household consumers, GO price determination is based on willingness-to-pay estimates from the literature, whereas for non-household consumers, the model introduces a novel approach to determine the willingness to pay for green electricity. Four different scenarios are considered (Status Quo, Sustainable Development, Full Harmonization, and Ideal Development) and annual GO data are used. The findings indicate that GO prices can be expected to increase on average in the next years, with prices ranging from 1.77 to 3.36 EUR/MWh in 2040. Sensitivity analysis shows that ‘WTP percentages’ have the highest influence on GO prices. It can be concluded that future GO prices will remain challenging to predict, even with the support of sophisticated models, due to the expected supply and demand-driven market growth affecting the market equilibrium prices for different GOs in different countries.

Members’ Intention to Participate in Farmer Producer Company Activities in Cauvery Delta Region of Tamil Nadu

Farmer Producer Company(FPC) is one of the tools to tackle the demand-driven market and march towards the development of deprived small and marginal farmers. Members’ active participation in FPC activities is essential to resolve backward and forward linkage issues. Members could easily access speciality markets and obtain better price for agricultural products in the conventional sector, if they consistently participate in FPC activities. The present study applied the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) to examine the intention of members to participate in FPC activities. The moderating role of landholdings on the relationship between various TPB factors and farmers' intentions to participate in FPC activities was also studied. The study relied on primary data collected from 382 members from the Cauvery Delta Region of Tamil Nadu using a proportionate random sampling technique. The PLS-SEM results revealed that attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioural control have a significant positive influence on the participation of the members in FPC activities. There is a significant moderating effect of landholding on the relationship between TPB factors and participation intention. The study has put forward the major implication for improving the participation of members in FPC activities.

Combining high carotenoid, grain protein content and rust resistance in wheat for food and nutritional security.

Globally, malnutrition has given birth to an alarming predicament, especially in developing countries, and has extensively shifted consumer preferences from conventional high-energy diets to a nutritionally balanced, cost-effective, sustainable, and healthy lifestyle. In keeping with this view and the mandate for developing high-yielding, disease-resistant biofortified staple food (wheat) for catering to the demand-driven market, the current research aimed at stacking together the enhanced grain protein content, carotenoid content, and disease resistance in an elite bread wheat background. The Y gene (PsyE1) and the GpcB1 gene were used as novel sources for enhancing the grain carotenoid and protein content in the commercial elite bread wheat cultivar HD2967. The combination also led to the stacking of resistance against all three foliar rusts owing to linked resistance genes. A stepwise hybridization using Parent 1 (HD2967 + PsyE1/Lr19/Sr25) with Parent 2 (PBW550 + GpcB1/Yr36+ Yr15), coupled with a phenotypic-biochemical selection, narrowed down 2748 F2 individuals to a subset of 649 F2 plants for molecular screening. The gene-specific markers PsyE1, PsyD1, Xucw108, and Xbarc8 for the genes PsyE1, PsyD1, GpcB1, and Yr15, respectively, were employed for forward selection. Four bread wheat lines positive for all the desired genes with high carotenoid (>8ppm) and protein (>13%) content were raised to the F5 generation and will be evaluated for yield potential after bulking. These improved advanced breeding lines developed following multipronged efforts should prove a valuable and unique source for the development of cultivars with improved nutritional quality and rust resistance in wheat breeding programs.

Multi-level conceptual model of efficiency control in supply chain management

Modern tendencies of rapid economic growth, demand-driven market, highly uncertain economic environment with various disruption sources simultaneously with targets for sustainable development explains the increased interest to advanced solutions in supply chain management. The research paper presents a multi-level efficiency control model presenting analytical sequences and integral method of factor analysis for logistics performance indicators planning, controlling and analyzing. The numerical example has demonstrated that the proposed approach works for real economic processes and provides agile options of efficiency control. The designed approach assumes customization for a particular company’ requirements and provides at least 59 options of analytical models sets. This allows claiming the new approach toward decision support enhancement in supply chains.

Review of building energy performance certification schemes towards future improvement

The building sector accounts for 40% of the total energy consumption in the EU. It faces great challenges to meet the goal of transforming the existing building stocks into near zero-energy buildings by 2050. The development of Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) schemes in the EU provides a powerful and comprehensive information tool to quantitatively predict annual energy demand from the building stock, creating a demand-driven market for energy-effective buildings. Properties with improved energy rating have had a positive impact on property investments and rental return because of the reduced energy bills. In addition, the EPC databases have been applied to energy planning and building renovations. However, it should be mentioned that the current evaluation system faces problems, such as not being fully implemented, delivering low quality and insufficient information to stimulate renovation, therefore requiring improvements to be made. This paper provides a review of the current EPC situations in the EU and discusses the direction of future improvements. The next generation EPC should rely on BIM technology, benefit from big data techniques and use building smart-readiness indicators to create a more reliable, affordable, comprehensive and customer-tailored instrument, which could better represent energy efficiency, together with occupants’ perceived comfort, and air quality. Improved EPC schemes are expected to play an active role in monitoring building performance, future energy planning and quantifying building renovation rates, promoting energy conservation and sustainability.

Traditional thinking: the impact of international aid on social structures and cultural traditions in agrifood chains in Tonga and Solomon Islands

Aid agencies provide significant funding for the development of modern market systems in subsistence societies. Despite the advantages generated by aid partnerships, aid agencies are often unsuccessful in producing the market changes they aim to realise. This project investigates barriers to the development of demand-driven agrifood market systems at the local level in Solomon Islands and Tonga. We demonstrate that performances that imply a readiness to expand into a capitalist market economy elide the everyday social relations and cultural traditions of local village actors. These villagers would need to move away from their own traditional thinking about food production, and deny their customary subsistence and market narratives, to meet the requirements of externally imposed, modern market systems that drive the modern market development thinking of aid donors. The reality is that village-based socio-cultural, economic and religious obligations obstruct the basic demand-driven market practices required for a successful formal market environment. We conclude that a critical anthropological understanding of local market systems is essential to the generation of modern market opportunities at village levels.

Attitude and consumption of Bangladeshi professionals toward biotechnological products

BackgroundTo expand the biotechnology market, the opinions of professionals toward biotechnological products are highly valuable for the industry personnel, government policy-makers, and others for taking appropriate decision. Bangladesh is considered as a highly potential country for marketing biotechnological products. It is indispensable to know the present status and future potentiality of biotechnological products to develop a demand-driven market in Bangladesh. This study aimed to assess attitude and consumption of professionals working in public and private organizations in Bangladesh toward biotechnological products.MethodsThe data were collected by simple random sampling model, while structured questionnaire provided by the researchers. Collected data were analysed by using Chi-square and logistic regression tests.ResultsFindings reveal that Bangladeshi professionals have an optimistic viewpoint about biotechnology and its products. However, age and education of the respondents had a significant effect on their attitude towards biotechnological products. The most common biotechnological products used by respondents were genetically modified (GM) soybean oil, antibiotics, skin care cream, stress-resistant hybrid rice and vaccine in Bangladesh. Most of the respondents demonstrated a pessimistic consumption level of biotechnological products that showed a menace toward the progress of biotechnology in Bangladesh. However, none of the socio-demographic characteristics of the respondents had a significant effect on the consumption of biotechnological products, but private-sector respondents had a more sanguine stance to consume biotechnological products compared to public-sector respondents.ConclusionThe favourable attitude and marginal consumption of professional toward biotechnological products reveal that it is important to expand the application of biotechnology to ensure food and nutritional security of Bangladesh. This study includes a limited number of professionals from public and private sectors who have been involved in biotechnological products in Bangladesh. The findings and suggestions for this study might be useful for food producers, industry and food policy makers involved in biotechnological production in Bangladesh.

Operations research - contemporary role in managerial decision making

As the global environment becomes most competitive, Operations Research has gained significance in applications like world - class Manufacturing systems (WCM), Lean production, six - sigma quality management, Benchmarking, Just – in - Time (JIT) inventory techniques. The growth of global markets and the resulting increase in competition have highlighted the need for Operation Research. To survive and lead the today‘s highly competitive and demand drivenmarket, pressure is on management to make economic decisions. One of the essential managerial skills is ability to allocate and utilize resources appropriately in the efforts of achieving the optimal performance efficiently. In some cases such as small - scale low complexity environment, decision based on intuition with minimal quantitative basis may be reasonably acceptable and practical in achieving the goal of the organization. However, for a large - scale system, both quantitative and qualitative (i.e. intuition, experience, common sense) analyses are required to make the most economical decisions. Using Operations Research techniques including Linear Programming, Discrete Event Simulation and Queuing Theory, organization leaders can make high quality decisions. Operations managers are not expected to be experts in any decision science tools; however, he or she must have fundamental knowledge of such tools to acquire right resources and to make the most economically sounding decisions for the company as a whole. Present paper is an attempt to study the importance of Operations research and various techniques used to improve the operational efficiency of the organization.

Solar photovoltaic projects in China: High investment risks and the need for institutional response

The Chinese government identifies the renewable energy sector as a core strategic industry. Since 2009, China is the country with the highest annual investment into renewable energy, predominantly wind and solar photovoltaic projects. Due to rapid cost decline, industrial transformation, and policy support, the relative share of solar project investment is growing at a disproportionate rate. However, there is no systematic analysis of how efficiently these investments are allocated; or the underlying risk and return characteristics. Based on structured interviews with 69 market participants, this paper identifies severe cash-flow uncertainty, unreliable supply chains and a weak regulatory environment as most prominent risk factors that currently inhibit sustainable and demand-driven market development. Expanding on the interview results, this study discusses the origins of risk in China and how the institutional response to investment risk currently fails to address the core problems.

An empirical analysis of the characteristics of residential location choice in the rapidly changing Korean housing market

This study examines the factors of residential location choice by considering the characteristics of the Korean housing market. From various factors of the residential location choice of a household, this study focuses on the effect of opportunities to engage in other activities, represented by accessibility, and the variety of housing tenure types—i.e., owner-occupied, Chonsei, and monthly rent—and the change of each type’s share of the market. The results of this empirical study indicate that households will most often choose to live in districts with more accessibility (a representative variable of demand-driven market), more permitted housing floor space (that of supply-driven one), higher rents, and lower housing prices in the Seoul Metropolitan Area (SMA). That is to say, the rapidly changing Korean housing market indicates a transition phase from a supply-driven to a demand-driven one. The significance of the variables and their effects were different for each housing tenure type. This means that the tenure type choice of a household is influenced by the level of income and assets. The results of this study are significant in understanding the characteristics of residential location choices of Korea and the countries in the transition as well.

Samaritans, Family Builders, and the Politics of Intercountry Adoption

Critics of intercountry adoption define it as a demand-driven market for babies, from which parents in rich countries benefit at the expense of those in poor countries. Advocates hold that it often provides the best chance for orphaned children to grow up in a family. This paper investigates these opposing claims. It develops a theory that outlines the circumstances under which intercountry adoption is likely to result in a “baby trade,” and evaluates expectations derived from that theory on the basis of data on adoptions to the United States. The findings suggest that sending countries with large and fast-growing adoption programs may be particularly vulnerable to the temptation to supply a demand-driven market. However, sending countries do not simply respond to international incentives. Instead, the variation in participation in intercountry adoption between sending countries is partially driven by domestic incentives. The paper ends with suggestions for future research and policy.

Approaching a dynamic view on the availability of mineral resources: What we may learn from the case of phosphorus?

This paper elaborates in what way a dynamic perspective on reserves, resources and geopotential is necessary to provide robust estimates on resource availability. We introduce concepts of essentiality, criticality and economic scarcity and discuss for the case of phosphorus (P) how they are defined and may be measured. The case of P is considered in detail as P an essential element for global food security with a highly dissipative use and is geographically unevenly distributed across the globe. We distinguish and relate the complementarity between physical and economic scarcity and discuss limits and potential of static indicators such as static lifetime, Hubbert curve applications, and the Herfindahl–Hirschman-Index of P for predicting future availability of these resources. We reveal that these static indicators are – in general – not valid approaches to predict physical scarcity of resources. Geological data show that though the P reserves have not been systematically and completely assessed on a global scale, the static lifetime of P is high. When acknowledging socio-economic and technological dynamics, and available geological facts, statements predicting physical scarcity or a peak in P production within a few decades are unlikely to be accurate or valid. We elaborate that some simplified indicators such as static lifetime or the Hubbert curve based prediction of peaks may serve as screening indicators preceding early warning research, which may induce increased mining activities, technology innovation or other actions. However, in general, these simplified indicators are not valid approaches to predict physical scarcity of resources. Although one day there may be a supply-driven P production peak, demand-driven production plateaus and multiple peaks are probable in the near future. Given its geopotential, essentiality, and the learning curve of efficient fertilizer use, P is subject to demand-driven market dynamics. Thus, a symmetric decline and unavoidable shortage of P in the next decades are unlikely. This insight does not refute the need to close the anthropogenic P loop. Activities associated with P production and consumption use has a significant pollution potential in part because of the dissipative nature. The paper reveals the necessity to mitigate risks (such as economic scarcity, especially for poor farmers) of both short-term price peaks and longer lasting step-changes in price, e.g. due to knowledge gaps of technological adaptation in energy and water management or other reasons of insufficient supply-demand dynamics management. The complexity of this task necessitates a transdisciplinary approach.

Success and Failure in Flexible Building

In the present demand-driven market, consumers play a key role. Players in the house-building market, as in other sectors, need to listen to the consumer's requirements – and these are continually changing. The real estate sector is rather rigid in its practices, yet those working in it will need to respond to the fluctuating wishes and demands of their consumers. One possible response is to adopt a flexible building strategy. Industrial Flexible Demountable (IFD) building has recently been a subject of debate in the Dutch construction sector. This is a special type of construction involving experimental projects, experimentation being the first step in optimising a renewed production process or product. The building process is currently subject to various construction-related and organisational obstacles. This means that, in some cases, the objectives (which are focused on consumer-oriented building practices) were not being achieved. It was necessary to identify the problem areas and to consider the available opportunities for optimising the building process in future IFD house-building projects. The results of this study have been incorporated into guidelines containing a step-by-step plan. This plan sets out practical recommendations for market actors who wish to initiate an IFD house-building project. This study's conclusions and recommendations form the basis for the seven stages that such parties will need to complete before starting on such a project.

Seedless Watermelon Production: Extension's Role in Supporting a New Crop Enterprise

In response to a national increase in the consumption of triploid (seedless) watermelons, seedless watermelon production in Delaware has increased to 43% of the total watermelon acreage. Cultural practices for triploid watermelon production are similar to seeded (diploid) types. However, poor seed germination, high seed costs, erratic performance, and inadequate varieties limited their adoption until the early 1990s in Delaware. Univ. of Delaware Cooperative Extension has worked with Delaware growers to develop a “recipe” for successful triploid production. Extension programs, such as on-farm demonstrations, research trials, educational seminars, and one-on-one consultations, have enabled producers to provide high-quality fruit and yields. Intensive management and marketing are the keys tosuccess as Delaware producers have become leaders of triploid production in the Northeast region. As demand for triploid watermelon continues to increase, extension will remain a vital part of the $4.5 million industry. Growers continually deal with marketing issues in a supply and demand-driven market. As more seedless are on the market and profits lessen, growers will have to be diligent in their marketing and management practices.

Market for ideas and reception of physiocracy in Spain: some analytical and historical suggestions

This essay aims to situate the phenomenon of the international spread of the economic ideas of a particular school of thought within the framework of the ‘market for ideas' approach outlined by George Stigler. On the one hand, the paper attempts to amplify the theoretical model of a demand-driven market for ideas, introducing the concepts of public goods, utility, transaction costs and other institutional variables, and on the other this analytical approach is applied to the Spanish market for ideas of the 18th century and its reception of physiocracy, obtaining a new perspective on the spread of ideas of the iconomistes in comparison with the existing literature.