Generous Return Research Articles

New perspective of non-specific binding: A powerful mass cytometry barcoding strategy based on UIO-66(Hf/Zr) typed MOF utilizing its strong positive charge

Non-specific binding was a critical bottleneck in biosensing field and hindered the implementation of biosensors in bioassays. Thus, various approaches were developed to minimize the non-specific binding of biosensors. However, the rational utilization of non-specific binding will also produce generous returns. Herein, the first universal cell surface barcoding strategy for mass cytometry independent on particular cell surface molecules was developed based on nano-sized UIO-66 typed metal organic framework (MOF). Profiting from the 9 abundant stable isotopes of Zr and Hf, up to 84 mass barcode combinations can be achieved theoretically through the non-specific binding between positively charged UIO-66 and negatively charged cells. Clearly distinguished individual population sets were obtained when the cell samples were barcoded with UIO-66(Zr), UIO-66(Hf), and UIO-66(Zr/Hf) mixture. UIO-66 can also be used for flow cytometry barcoding and imaging after the modification with a fluorescent dye. Furthermore, the UIO-66 barcoding showed high compatibility with metal chelated polymer (MCP) mass tags in single-cell multiplexing and 16-fold higher sensitivity than MCP based barcoding agents. This work opens new opportunities for MOFs in mass cytometry applications and will also prompt people to evaluate the nasty non-specific binding in another perspective.

Strategies for the retail platform to counteract match uncertainty: Virtual showroom and return or exchange policy

In a duopoly market consisting of a brick-and-motor (BM) store and a retailer platform, we explore strategies for the platform to counteract product match uncertainty. Three counteractive strategies are proposed: introducing virtual showrooms, offering a full-refund return policy and offering an exchange policy. Accordingly, duopoly competitive models are constructed to examine the roles of these strategies in mitigating product match uncertainty. In addition, the interaction among these three counteractive strategies is also explored. Results show that: these three strategies have positive effects on the platform’s demands but adverse effects on BM store’s. Both the full-refund return policy and the exchange policy can benefit the platform, especially the exchange policy. Nevertheless, whether introducing virtual showrooms can benefit the platform mainly relies on the establishing cost. In most cases, it is more advisable for the platform to offer an exchange policy rather than a full-refund return policy. Generally, introducing virtual showrooms and offering a return policy (an exchange policy) are two complementary methods, but the refund return policy can be seen as a replaceable measure for the exchange policy. In extensions, we explore the impacts of endogenous signal accuracy, managerial optimism and the partial-refund return policy. Several findings are also achieved: it is always beneficial to establish virtual showrooms if the platform can endogenously determine the accuracy of the information disclosed by the virtual showroom. Compared with managerial pessimism, managerial optimism generates more profits for the platform. A generous return policy leads to a higher selling price and greater profits for the platform.

The power paradigm in practice: A critical review of developments in the Zambian electricity sector

• Infrastructure deficiencies in sub-Saharan Africa are typically framed in terms of a “financing gap” in need of private capital. • This paper explores how the associated policy paradigm has unfolded in the specific context of Zambia using the Systems of Provision approach. • Private investment has in part led to high-cost, dollar-denominated liabilities that risk compromising development objectives in the long term. • Conventional narratives of cost-recovery and efficiency are not neutral and their full distributional implications need to be unpicked. • Greater attention is needed to social equity and to the specific challenges faced. Sub-Saharan Africa lags behind the rest of the world in electricity access and consumption. Infrastructure deficiencies are framed in terms of a “financing gap”, with policy oriented around attracting global private capital. Recent calls for increased private infrastructure investment follow three decades of market-oriented sector reforms. This paper explores the way that this standard policy paradigm has unfolded in Zambia. Drawing on the Systems of Provision approach we focus on three core interconnected segments of the electricity system: the performance of the state utility, Zesco; private sector participation and cost-recovery pricing. The paper shows that Zesco has run into major difficulties since 2015 due to a crisis in hydro resources and adverse currency movements. In line with the policy paradigm, the utility has signed up to a number of agreements with international independent power producers (IPPs) to diversify power sources, and tariffs have been raised to improve Zesco’s financial situation. However, closer inspection reveals contradictions, biases and inconsistencies in this standard policy package when applied in practice. Zesco’s acutely debilitating financial position is a relatively recent occurrence. Short-term fluctuations in hydro power, for which intermittent back-up is needed, have instead been addressed with new decades-long contracts for fossil fuel generation. IPPs have provided generous returns for foreign investors but have created long-term, dollar-denominated liabilities for Zesco, contributing to a weakening financial position. Tariffs have been raised but households cannot afford to pay a price that covers Zesco’s increased costs. The proliferation of IPPs appears to have worsened the situation.The paper shows that energy sector policies organised around the entry of private capital are problematic and likely to contribute to a dynamic of unequal global capital accumulation. Greater attention is needed to social equity, with policies oriented around domestic circumstances and the specific challenges faced.

Targeted Incentives, Broad Impacts: Evidence from an E-commerce Platform

Digital platforms sometimes offer incentives to a subset of sellers to nudge behaviors, but how do these targeted incentives affect all sellers? In this paper, we study a policy change on a large e-commerce platform that offers financial incentives only to platform-certified sellers when they provide fast handling and generous return policies on their listings. We find that both the targeted and non-targeted sellers become more likely to adopt the promoted behavior after the policy change. Exploiting a large number of markets on the platform, we find that in markets with a larger proportion of the targeted population---hence more affected by the policy change---non-targeted sellers are more likely to adopt the promoted behavior and experience a larger increase in sales with little price changes. This finding is consistent with our key insight that a targeted incentive may increase demand for non-targeted sellers if both the targeted type and the promoted behavior are observed and valued by consumers. Our results have managerial implications for digital platforms that use targeted incentives.

Inequality, poverty and the privatization of essential services: A ‘systems of provision’ study of water, energy and local buses in the UK

This paper is concerned with the distributional effects of the deregulation and privatization of essential services in Britain since the 1980s, based on a cross-sector study of water, energy and local bus transport. Our approach locates end users within the structures and processes, and prevailing narratives that underpin both production and consumption. This framework highlights the ways that the provisioning of these vital services is contested, contradictory and underpinned by power relations. We show that, at one end, investors in these sectors have made generous returns on their investments but their methods of profit maximization are often not in the public interest. Meanwhile these profits are financed by end users’ payments of bills and fares. Many lower-income households face challenges in terms of affording, and even accessing, these essential services. Regulation has failed to provide adequate social protection. We argue that adverse social outcomes emerge from systemic factors embedded in these modes of provision. A narrative of politically-neutral, technocratic solutions belies the underlying contested nature of privatized monopolistic shared essential services. Moreover, a policy preoccupation with markets and competition obscures the inequality embedded in the underlying structures and processes and undermines more collective and equitable forms of provisioning.

Selection of Retirement Saving Plan for a Private-sector Employee in Pakistan

Tehmina Khan, a 35-year-old, married mother of two, had been working as an assistant professor at a private sector university, University of Management and Information (UMI), School of Business. For the last few years, she had been saving for her retirement via a provident fund (PF) with her employer. The fund had been posting generous returns for years up until July 2018, when it posted earnings well below the inflation rate for the same period. Tehmina wanted to be financially self-sufficient in her post-retirement years and sought no financial dependence on her posterity for that matter. The meagre returns heightened her concerns about the future eventualities, so she had to decide if she should switch to another retirement plan. She needed to explore alternative retirement plans and identify how she could participate in a voluntary pension system (VPS) outside her employer’s PF. Also, if she decided to go ahead with VPS, she had to decide which asset management company(s) and portfolio manager(s) to allocate her savings to. The case comprehensively discusses the details about different retirement benefits and mechanisms and distinguishes aspects of private and public sector retirement plans in Pakistan. Most importantly, the case includes data on the performance of seventeen out of a total of nineteen pension plans operating in Pakistan. It also includes data on asset allocations of pension funds; overall macroeconomic, historical and stock market performances; and yield curve for the last 10 years.

Using transactions data to improve consumer returns forecasting

AbstractAlthough generous return policies have been shown to have marketing benefits, such as a higher willingness to pay and a higher purchase frequency, counterbalancing these benefits is an increased volume of consumer returns, which presents significant operational challenges for both retailers and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). Since accurate return forecasts are inputs into strategic and tactic decision support tools for operations managers, advancements in better forecast accuracy can yield significant savings from the returns management practice. We propose a forecasting approach that incorporates transaction‐level data, such as purchase and return timestamps, and predicts future return quantities using a two‐step “predict‐aggregate” process. To enhance the generalizability of our framework, we test it on two distinct datasets provided by a bricks‐and‐mortar electronics retailer and an online jewelry retailer. We find that our approach demonstrates significant forecasting error reduction, in the range of 10–20%, over benchmark models constructed from common industry practices and the existing literature. As our approach leverages the same data inputs as existing models, it can be easily adapted by practitioners. We also consider a number of extensions to generalize our approach into contexts such as restricted return time windows, new product returns, and inflated same‐day returns. Last, we discuss broad implications of return forecast accuracy improvements in the areas such as inventory management, staffing level, reverse logistics, and return recovery decisions.

Optimal production strategy for a manufacturing and remanufacturing system with return policy

This paper considers a monopolistic producer who produces new product in the first period and provides manufactured and remanufactured products in the second period. A return policy in the first period and the competition between the manufactured and the remanufactured products in the second period are jointly considered to develop the optimal production quantity strategies analytically and numerically. We find that if the two products are substitutable, the quantities of the new products manufactured in the first period and the remanufactured products produced in the second period are non-decreasing in the return policy, but the quantity of the manufactured products in the second period is decreasing in the return policy. In this case, the return rate determines the profit level, but the collection rate has little impact on the profit. If the two products are complementary, there is a critical value of the collection rate. When the collection rate is smaller than this value, the production quantities increase in the return policy; otherwise, they decrease in the return policy. In this scenario, the return policy and the collection rate mutually make a positive impact on the profit. Additionally, although a generous return policy is always profitable, it may lead to less production of manufactured and remanufactured products, especially when they are complementary.

What constrains renewable energy investment in Sub-Saharan Africa? A comparison of Kenya and Ghana

Abstract Policymakers in Sub-Saharan Africa face several choices to increase levels of access to electricity under severe budget constraints. First, they need to prioritise technologies that can supply electricity at a low cost. Second, they need to design and implement appropriate policies to attract private investment. On the first choice, renewable energy is becoming increasingly competitive with fossil fuels. Moreover, it contributes to energy security and environmental sustainability, while providing access to new sources of (sustainable) finance. On the second choice, developing countries typically face a multitude of constraints to attract investment to their energy sector. It can be daunting and expensive to address them all at once. This paper presents a new methodology to support policymakers to better target policies for the promotion of commercial-scale renewable energy investment. The methodology, which we call “Green Investment Diagnostics” draws upon the Growth Diagnostics framework, extensively used in the field of Development Economics to identify the binding constraints to economic growth. It is operationalised with a decision tree analysis that builds cumulative evidence to prioritise some constraints over others, through the review of indicators and validation through expert interviews. We apply this approach to Kenya and Ghana, finding that Ghana’s key constraints to investment in renewable energy are an unreliable off-taker, macroeconomic imbalances, regulatory uncertainty, pressures to keep prices low, as well as insufficient and costly domestic finance. Kenya instead offers generous returns to investment in renewables but faces a low demand, a lack of networking infrastructure and problems of governance and social acceptance, exacerbated by uncertain land property rights and rent-seeking.

Increasing customer purchase intention through product return policies: The pivotal impacts of retailer brand familiarity and product categories

This study gauges customer perspectives to investigate how return policy generosity (the degree to which a retailer imposes minimal restrictions on returns) influences customer-perceived value and customer purchase intention. It also examines two moderators, retailer brand familiarity (the extent to which the retailer brand is well-known) and product categories (the difference between products with respect to the magnitude of effort required to make a return). An experiment with a 2 × 2 × 2 factorial design was conducted. The results show that return policy generosity increases customer purchase intention by enhancing the perceived value of the policy. Lesser-known retailers benefit more from generous return policies than their well-known competitors, particularly when a product requires significant return effort. Well-known retailers benefit from offering generous return policies only for product categories that involve low levels of return effort. The findings of this study suggest that if a retailer formulates a return policy without considering the moderating effects of retailer brand familiarity and product category, then it will tend to over-invest if the return policy is generous.

How much do online consumers really value free product returns? Evidence from eBay

Consumer return rates have been steadily rising in recent years, resulting in growing costs for retailers who must manage the returns process and the disposition of returned products. This cost pressure is driven in part by extremely generous return policies, such as giving consumers a full refund upon return. Interestingly, this common retail practice of full refunds is inconsistent with the recommendations of many analytical models of returns, which nearly always show that a partial refund is optimal. Such inconsistencies between theory and practice might arise when the decision drivers included in the analytical models do not match the decision drivers in practice. It might also be the case that retailers are overly optimistic about the value that consumers assign to a full refund, and thus assume that the value of such a policy outweighs its costs. In this paper, we use data collected from eBay, where identical products are sold with different return policies, to investigate these open questions in the literature. We analyze both the return policy drivers from the retailer's perspective and the return policy value from the consumer's perspective. Our results suggest that the value of a full refund policy to consumers may not be as large as one might expect, and it also exhibits a large heterogeneity across buyers with different levels of online purchase experience. In addition, we provide empirical evidence for what has long been suspected by online retailers – that a non-refundable forward shipping charge quickly erodes any value that consumers assign to return policies. The generality of our results is limited by the fact that eBay differs from traditional retail contexts in many respects, including the fact that eBay buyers may not be representative of the general buyer population. However, our study of how eBay consumers value free returns provides new insights into an understudied area, and it can serve as a starting point for future studies of the value of return policies in other retail contexts.

Goodwill Can Hurt: A theoretical and experimental investigation of return policies in auctions

Will generous return policies in auctions benefit bidders? We investigate this issue using second-price common-value auctions. Theoretically, we find that the symmetric bidding equilibrium is unique unless returns are free, and when returns are free there exist multiple equilibria with different implications for sellers. Moreover, more generous return policies mitigate the winner's curse, but also push the bids higher, thus hurting bidders by eroding their surplus. In the experiment, bids increase and bidders' earnings decrease with more generous return policies as predicted. With free returns, many bidders bid above the highest possible value, subsequently returning the item regardless of value. Though consistent with equilibrium behavior, this is not optimal for sellers.

Product quality and return policy in a supply chain under risk aversion of a supplier

This study aims to identify the relationship between return policy and product quality decisions in a decentralized system. We consider a supply chain situation, as in a retail or OEM supply chain system, where a buyer decides a return policy for consumers and delegates the product quality decision to a supplier. We consider the supplier׳s different risk attitudes, whether risk averse or risk neutral. A penalty contract is introduced to control the supplier׳s hidden action, conveying external failures due to returns to the supplier. We show the conditions for supply chain coordination and demonstrate that product quality enhancement needs to precede a generous return policy setting in view of the prevalent business environment and current supply chain management practices. Moreover, we indicate the optimal conditions for a generous return policy setting without quality enhancement.

Price Competition with Optimal Product Demonstrations

We develop a game theoretic model of price competition in which an innovating firm can offer product demonstrations. Placing minimal restriction on the firm’s ability to design demonstrations, we show that the equilibrium demonstration resolves some but not all customer valuation uncertainty and allows the innovating firm to attract customers while maintaining a high price. Consumer surplus may be lower with endogenous demonstrations than without demonstrations. Regulation requiring firms to provide fully-informative demonstrations (e.g., generous return policies or inspection periods) can further reduce consumer surplus. The ability to design demonstrations also creates incentives for innovating firms to limit the market appeal of their products, suggesting another mechanism through which product demonstrations can reduce market efficiency. The results have implications for firm management and pricing strategies and for consumer protection.

Small investment in school nurses could bring a ‘generous return’ in Scotland

Small investment in school nurses could bring a ‘generous return’ in Scotland

The bargaining power of teachers’ unions and the allocation of school resources

This paper examines how district size affects the bargaining power of teachers’ unions and the allocation of school resources. Our identification strategy exploits the fact that 33 states mandate collective bargaining while 5 states prohibited it. In states that mandate collective bargaining, we find that beginning salaries and the premium paid to experienced teachers increase with district size while the teacher–pupil ratio declines with district size. In contrast, in states that prohibit collective bargaining we find a negative relationship between district size and the premium paid to experienced teachers. District size also has a stronger positive effect on beginning salaries and a weaker negative effect on teacher–pupil ratios in states that prohibit collective bargaining. Collectively, our results suggest that more powerful unions bargain for more generous returns to teacher seniority at the expense of staffing ratios and base salaries.

Sales Talk, Cancellation Terms and the Role of Consumer Protection

This article analyses contract cancellation and product return policies in markets in which sellers advise customers about the suitability of their offering. When customers are fully rational, it is optimal for sellers to offer the right to cancel or return on favourable terms. A generous return policy makes the seller's “cheap talk” at the point of sale credible. This observation provides a possible explanation for the excess refund puzzle and also has implications for the management of customer reviews. When customers are credulous, instead, sellers have an incentive to set unfavourable terms to exploit the inflated beliefs they induce in their customers. The imposition of a minimum statutory standard improves welfare and consumer surplus when customers are credulous. In contrast, competition policy reduces contractual inefficiencies with rational customers, but it is not effective with credulous customers.

Adult and adolescent social reciprocity: Experimental data from the Trust Game

Twenty-four adults (aged 19–35) and 27 adolescents (aged 13–14) played as ‘Trustee’ in an iterated Trust Game against a pre-programmed set of ‘Investor’ moves, said to belong to an unknown co-player. Trustee behaviour was examined first in response to normative Investor cooperation, and then in response to a period of social rupture caused by reduced investments. Adolescents were motivated by inequity aversion during normative Investor cooperation, whereas adults over-compensated the Investor. Participants were also identified as coaxers or non-coaxers based on how they responded to social rupture: ‘coaxers’ were individuals who made at least one relatively generous return to the Investor during this phase. A single coaxing move predicted consistently higher returns to Investors across both normative and reduced investments. Adults showed greater polarisation between coaxing and non-coaxing strategies than did adolescents. These data suggest that adults and adolescents may respond differently to periods of possible social rupture.

Returns Policy and Quality Risk in E‐Business

In this article, we investigate the interplay between returns policy, pricing strategy, and quality risk. We define quality risk as the possibility of product misfit, defect, or unconformity with the consumers’ perception. These notions of quality risks differ in return policy restriction, residual values, and whether it is possible to unambiguously reduce the probability of mismatch. Using a stylized two‐segment market setting, we demonstrate that consumer returns are offered only when the high‐segment consumers incur a higher hassle cost, and both the quality risk and the valuation of the low segment are moderate. Moreover, it is possible to wisely design the returns policy that eliminates all inappropriate returns. Furthermore, the seller with a high‐quality risk may offer a refund that exceeds the selling price, which provides a theoretical ground and specific operating regime for the satisfaction guaranteed policy used in some e‐tailers. In contrast, when the quality risk is relatively low, further improvement on mitigating the quality risk may not necessarily benefit the seller. Finally, we observe that the restocking fee may be non‐monotonic in product quality; thus, a more generous returns policy does not necessarily indicate a lower quality risk.

Product categories, returns policy and pricing strategy for e‐marketers

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide a framework to help e‐marketers to find an optimal returns policy and pricing strategy in order to maximize their profits.Design/methodology/approach – A profit‐maximization model is developed to determine the optimal returns policy and pricing strategy for e‐marketers.Findings – The author demonstrates that an optimal returns policy and pricing strategy exists when firms sell products through an e‐market. When a firm uses an e‐market to sell its product, its optimal returns policy and pricing strategy is to offer a more generous returns policy and to charge a higher price when the product web‐fit is strong. Furthermore, the results also show that while the returns policy always is valuable for the e‐marketer, the value of returns policy increases with the product web‐fit.Research limitations/implications – The present study assumed that all consumers have perfect information. However, information to the consumers could be incomplete. It is recommended tha...