High-end Segment Research Articles

Access to credit for real estate transactions in emerging markets - Empirical evidence from Vietnam

The growing disparity between the wealthy and the poor has become more evident than ever, as reflected in residents’ housing conditions. Meanwhile, real estate credit is mainly directed towards the high-end segment, but mortgage cash flow for social and commercial housing in the low-mid range segment is still insufficient. Consequently, there is an asymmetry between the requirements for meeting housing needs and household income. This study investigates the impact of attitudes, credit accessibility, and policies on individuals’ borrowing intentions in real estate transactions. Structural equation modeling was employed to analyze the data obtained from 889 Vietnamese respondents. The results show that policies and attitudes directly impact people’s intentions to access credit. Meanwhile, credit accessibility indirectly affects this intention. These findings can serve as the basis for financial institutions to devise secure, accessible, and efficient loan policies for individuals with legitimate needs. Specifically, lending institutions should improve the quality of their services and increase their assistance to borrowers. The government should enact a stronger legal framework to address public housing demand and efficiently regulate the real estate market.

Tracing metal footprints via global renewable power value chains

The globally booming renewable power industry has stimulated an unprecedented interest in metals as key infrastructure components. Many economies with different endowments and levels of technology participate in various production stages and cultivate value in global renewable power industry production networks, known as global renewable power value chains (RPVCs), complicating the identification of metal supply for the subsequent low-carbon power generation and demand. Here, we use a multi-regional input-output model (MRIO) combined with a value chain decomposition model to trace the metal footprints (MFs) and value-added of major global economies’ renewable power sectors. We find that the MFs of the global renewable power demand increased by 97% during 2005—2015. Developed economies occupy the high-end segments of RPVCs while allocating metal-intensive (but low value-added) production activities to developing economies. The fast-growing demand for renewable power in developed economies or developing economies with upper middle income, particularly China, is a major contributor to the embodied metal transfer increment within RPVCs, which is partly offset by the declining metal intensities in developing economies. Therefore, it is urgent to establish a metal-efficient and green supply chain for upstream suppliers as well as downstream renewable power installers for just transition in the power sector across the globe.

Connecting Gaiwan Hipsters and Premium Chinese Tea: The Attitudes, Habits, and Purchasing Behaviour of Boutique Tea Consumers

Chinese tea production quality is increasingly able to satisfy the needs of the highvalue global market, yet product communication remains challenging for producers. Through a literature review and series of econometric tests constructed with novel data from 408 international respondents, we explore consumer attitudes, habits, and purchasing behaviour. We observed that the green tea consumption frequency was negatively correlated with average purchase value and there was no correlation between consideration of organic status and purchasing behaviour. Based on these findings, we offered straightforward and practical suggestions for those tea producers who are interested in accessing the global tea market’s high-end segment.

Optimal Strategies of Customization and Information Sharing in the Presence of Feature Creep

Feature creep captures the phenomenon that additional features result in product complexity and even decrease the usability of products. According to consumers’ heterogeneous tastes for products’ sophisticated features, we divide them into the low-end segment and the high-end segment. The proportions of the two segments are uninformed as to the manufacturer, but known to the platform. We take into account feature creep, and consider a supply chain consisting of a manufacturer and a platform. The manufacturer decides whether to adopt customization strategy, and the platform decides whether to share its private information. By formulating several sequential game models, we explore both firms’ optimal strategies and then examine the impacts of customization production and information sharing on environmental performance. Our findings reveal that adopting customization strategy can drive the manufacturer to improve its innovation efforts and raise the wholesale price. Additionally, if the low-end consumers’ proportion exceeds the manufacturer’s expectations, this improvement can be enhanced when the platform shares its private information, and vice versa. Furthermore, if the cost that the manufacturer takes to embed various functions in the product is quite small, it is environmentally friendly for the manufacturer to adopt customization strategy. While, if the cost is relatively large, taking customization strategy causes even greater negative effects on the environment. In addition to generating higher profits for both parties, the platform sharing its private information also contributes to lowering the environmental performance in certain conditions.

Conceptualising Destination Membership Cards for Elite Travellers

Abstract This study explores two different destination membership card models with the aim of developing a comprehensive framework for understanding this aspect of elite travel. Through a comparative analysis of the different types of destination membership cards, we develop a model that situates tourism knowledge and suggests areas of further research in this under-explored area. Two important destination membership card models are identified: state supported and private sector based. The state-supported agent offers privileged membership, consolidates resources, and creates exclusive experiences. Conversely, the private-sector-based agent tends to amass the resources offered by destination businesses to create exclusive services and provide special access to resources. Both types are significant agents that channel and empower travellers in the high-end segment, thereby creating further differentiation in products and services in the context of market segmentation.

Buying behavior and brand loyalty of biscuit consumers in India

In this research article author tries to identify the customer brand loyalty and buying behavior of consumers for fast moving consumer goods, especially biscuits. Two parameters gender and age are considered to verify health and brand consciousness of consumers while buying biscuits. The researcher collected the data by using observation method and questionnaire method. In the observation method researcher collect the data of actual timing taken by the consumer for buying biscuits. The sample size covered for this survey was 319 customers. Retail outlets covered in the survey are Reliance fresh, Dorabjees, Big Bazaar, and D-mart. It was found out that customers are health conscious irrespective of gender while purchasing the product especially biscuits. Gender of customer and time taken to buy plays an important role while buying biscuits. Also age of customer and their brand consciousness plays an important role while buying biscuits. Consumer decisions, in contrast, often involve many alternatives that are provided by the purchase environment, any of which may provide information useful for evaluating one's purchase. This is especially true in the case of purchase-timing decisions. Suppose that you have been monitoring the price of airline fares waiting for a good time to buy tickets. Keeping in mind the fact that a substantial percentage of Indian population stays in rural and semi-urban areas, biscuits, because of their economic pricing, become the most affordable snacks for this segment. For the high-end segment also, the affordability factor and the hygiene and convenience that biscuits offer, become a driving force. It was observed that age group of 31–40 are more brand conscious than any other age group, while age group of 21–30 are least brand conscious than any other age. It was also observed that there is significant association between age and brand consciousness while buying biscuits. Hence researcher concludes that consumers are brand conscious where age plays an important role while buying biscuits.

Kajian Desain Perhiasan Tulola Jewelry Dengan Inspirasi Budaya Bali

The potential of jewelry Indonesia in the international high-end segment is Tulola Jewelry that resemble the culture of the archipelago through the inspiration of Balinese culture , thus successfully penetrate the world market .The purpose of this paper is first, Tulola jewelry to produce products worldwide . Secondly, Tulola jewelry inspired by the culture of Bali. Third, how to design visualization of Tulola Jewelry The method used is the qualitative approach to the study of iconography as identification, description and interpretation of icons based on the attributes of the marker .The end result of this research collaboration Tulola Jewelry is a traditional Indonesian jewelry with a modern twist , excellence Tulola Design Jewelry as jewelry Indonesia has a distinctive feature compared with jewelry from other countries . A blend of modern technology and traditional Balinese motifs make jewelry look artistic .

Measuring market power when firms price discriminate

We propose conduct parameter-based market power measures within a model of price discrimination, extending work by Hazledine (Econ Lett 93:413–420, 2006) and Kutlu (Econ Lett 117:540–543, 2012) to certain forms of second-degree price discrimination. We use our model to estimate the market power of US airlines in a price discrimination environment. We find that a slightly modified version of our original theoretical measure is positively related to market concentration. Moreover, on average, market power for high-end segment is greater than that of low-end segment.

Measuring Market Power When Firms Price Discriminate

We propose conduct parameter based market power measures within a model of price discrimination, extending work by Hazledine (2006) and Kutlu (2012) to certain forms of second degree price discrimination. We use our model to estimate the market power of U.S. airlines in a price discrimination environment. We find that a slightly modified version of our original theoretical measure is positively related with market concentration. Moreover, on average, market power for high-end segment is greater than that of low-end segment.

Specialist versus Generalist Positioning: Demand Heterogeneity, Technology Scalability and Endogenous Market Segmentation

At the heart of competitive strategy is the question of where firms choose to position themselves within an industry. We characterize when generalists desegment markets, and when they are “stuck in the middle” because they are outcompeted by specialists. In our formal equilibrium model, firms face a positioning trade-off between cost and quality that is moderated by a choice of technologies that vary in their scalability. On the demand side, we incorporate consumer heterogeneity via two segments that vary in their willingness to pay for quality. Specialists in our model correspond to Porter’s generic strategies, with a “cost leader” targeting the low-end segment and a “differentiator” targeting the high-end segment. Generalists target both segments and hence have greater ability to exploit economies of scale. Central to our analysis is the interplay between the extent of demand heterogeneity and technology scalability. We show that this interplay determines when a Generalist is stuck in the middle; when it dominates from the middle with an intermediate quality level that outcompetes Specialist firms optimally positioned for cost leadership and differentiation; and when it dominates from above with a quality level greater than even that of a Differentiator. We explicitly link positioning on a cost-quality frontier to the value-bar analysis that is widely used in strategy teaching, and show how cost allocation rules impact positioning choices and competitive outcomes.

Consumers' Environmental Perceptions of Children's Furniture in China

Abstract China's rapid economic development has improved people's living standards and has thus raised people's health awareness and environmental consciousness. Today, more and more Chinese parents have realized the growing importance of healthy and eco-friendly products for children's growth. In the past 10 years, the Chinese children's furniture market has developed rapidly, making up 9 percent of the entire furniture market in China in 2011. Because of a lack of research on the analysis of consumers' environmental perceptions of children's furniture in China, a survey in two coastal metropolitan cities of China (Shanghai and Shenzhen) was conducted at the turn of 2012 to 2013. Results indicate that 83 percent of 299 valid respondents chose solid wood as their preferred raw material for children's furniture. From the Chinese consumers' perspective, eco-friendly furniture contains the following key attributes: natural, nonpoisonous, and scentless material; adoption of environmental certification; and verification of legal origin of wood. Furthermore, there is some evidence on the linkage between consumers' lifestyle of health and sustainability and sex (females), location (Shanghai), and income (higher income). Although Chinese consumers still have low brand awareness and their price expectations on solid wood furniture are below current market prices, the market for children's furniture presents a growing high-end segment with business potential for both furniture producers and wood raw material suppliers.

Uncertainty, Disagreement and Expert Price Estimates in Art Markets.

This study finds that auction house art experts' relative estimate range positively affects realized prices. The effect is robust across the mid- low- and high-end segments of the international scu ...

Customers’ Mode Choice Behaviors of Express Service Based on Latent Class Analysis and Logit Model

As the parcel delivery service is booming in China, the competition among express companies intensifies. This paper employed multinomial logit model (MNL) and latent class model (LCM) to investigate customers’ express service choice behavior, using data from a SP survey. The attributes and attribute levels that matter most to express customers are identified. Meanwhile, the customers are divided into two segments (penny pincher segment and high-end segment) characterized by their taste heterogeneity. The results indicate that the LCM performs statistically better than MNL in our sample. Therefore, more attention should be paid to the taste heterogeneity, especially for further academic and policy research in freight choice behavior.

Nonlinear electro-thermal and light output modeling and simulation of OLEDs

Lighting application of Organic Light Emitting Diodes (OLEDs) has been forecasted and such applications appear already in the high end segment of the market. These devices should provide homogeneous luminance – homogeneity is one of the quality metrics of such devices. Local light generation depends on both the local temperature and the local voltage drop across the light emitting polymer(s) in the device. Due to the large area of these devices the coupled optical, electrical and thermal simulation problem is of distributed nature. Electrical characteristics of organic semiconductor materials used in OLED devices are nonlinear, and their nonlinear temperature-dependence is significant. Measurement and temperature-dependent electrical and optical modeling of OLEDs is presented in this study. The paper addresses the special needs of OLEDs in distributed electro-thermal field simulation. These needs are not handled appropriately yet in the widely used, commercially available simulation tools. However the latest version of our SUNRED field solver algorithm is capable of handling these coupled, non-linear optical-electrical-thermal problems. The new features of the algorithm are demonstrated by modeling some research OLED samples available to us in the Fast2Light project – this way simulation results are compared against measured data. The results suggest that the models and the simulation tool can be used well in OLED design.

High Technology Merchandise Exports: Where does India Stand?

By and large, India’s performance on the high-technology manufacturing trade front is not too impressive. India is a small player in most of the product categories barring pharmacy sector. In the last 10 years’ period of observation, India has not been able to increase her presence significantly in most of the segment. By contrast, China, starting from a similar base like India in some of the segments, has exhibited marked improvement. It should also be mentioned that unlike China, India has not been able to enter high-end segment of product in most of the categories. Of course, India’s performance would have been better if India would have concentrated on products which have low NTBs. China has done the same in some cases.

High-end disruptive technologies with an inferior performance

The literature on disruptive technologies has previously stated that those innovations often emerge in low-end segments or in new markets and as the performance improves it eventually displaces the old technology. This article aims to explain how and why a technology may prosper in high-end or mainstream markets despite its initially lower performance and does so through three in-depth case studies. The findings suggest that those technologies may compensate the inferior performance by simplifying and removing work for customers. For instance, digital imaging emerged in high-end segments since these customers were willing to trade-off the initially lower image quality in order to remove the usage of film. Based upon these results, the paper concludes that the literature on disruptive technologies needs to maintain a more nuanced view of value and how it is created and distributed inside the customer's organisation.

Disruptive Internet-service innovation diffusion

A disruptive innovation strategy (DIS) entails innovation that makes customers embrace new value propositions shifting the basis of competition. Prevalent in fast-changing Internet and IT markets, DIS challenges incumbent firms and has the potential to transform industry structure. This article contributes toward rigorous DIS theory building with a system dynamics (SD) simulation model of disruptive innovation diffusion. The model shows disruptive innovation diffusion as a replicable process that can enable business growth for disruptive innovators. It builds on diffusion processes in marketing and epidemiology to show customer switching in the market segments that disruptive innovators exploit. Multiple computed scenarios examine the dynamic performance effects of disrupters' attack on high-end market segments and incumbent retaliation. Data from firm d, an entrant Internet-services provider, enable model calibration and examination of the strategic concerns of a real start-up firm, providing multiple insights into disruptive Internet-service innovation management.

Introduction Sequence with Functionality Threshold and Real Option

Existing literature on introduction sequence mostly argues against introducing a low-end product before a high-end product. In this paper, we present a simple model to show when it can be optimal to introduce a low-end product first. Based on some observations in industry, high-end consumers are not only wealthier, but also more demanding in quality. With this property, introducing a low-end product first without commitment would not cannibalize the high-end segment because it does not satisfy the quality requirements of the high-end consumers. We also allow for a stochastic environment: the firm may find it valuable to retain flexibility, or the so-called “real options”, rather than make commitment about forthcoming products. With this model setup, we add a different perspective that it can be optimal to introduce a low-quality product first for purely marketing reasons. We show that functionality thresholds can play the same role as Piguovian third degree discrimination.

Pricing and Revenue Management: The Value of Coordination

The integration of systems for pricing and revenue management must trade off potential revenue gains against significant practical and technical challenges. This dilemma motivates us to investigate the value of coordinating decisions on prices and capacity allocation in a stylized setting. We propose two pairs of sequential policies for making static decisions—on pricing and revenue management—that differ in their degree of integration (hierarchical versus coordinated) and their pricing inputs (deterministic versus stochastic). For a large class of stochastic, price-dependent demand models, we prove that these four heuristics admit tractable solutions satisfying intuitive sensitivity properties. We further evaluate numerically the performance of these policies relative to a fully coordinated model, which is generally intractable. We find it interesting that near-optimal performance is usually achieved by a simple hierarchical policy that sets prices first, based on a nonnested stochastic model, and then uses these prices to optimize nested capacity allocation. This tractable policy largely outperforms its counterpart based on a deterministic pricing model. Jointly optimizing price and allocation decisions for the high-end segment improves performance, but the largest revenue benefits stem from adjusting prices to account for demand risk. This paper was accepted by Yossi Aviv, operations management.

Pricing and Revenue Management: The Value of Coordination

The integration of systems for pricing and revenue management must trade off potential revenue gains against significant practical and technical challenges. This dilemma motivates us to investigate the value of coordinating decisions on prices and capacity allocation in a stylized setting. We propose two pairs of sequential policies for making static decisions — on pricing and revenue management — that differ in their degree of integration (hierarchical versus coordinated) and their pricing inputs (deterministic versus stochastic). For a large class of stochastic, price-dependent demand models, we prove that these four heuristics admit tractable solutions satisfying intuitive sensitivity properties. We further evaluate numerically the performance of these policies relative to a fully coordinated model, which is generally intractable. We find it interesting that near-optimal performance is usually achieved by a simple hierarchical policy which sets prices first, based on a non-nested stochastic model, and then uses these prices to optimize nested capacity allocation. This tractable policy largely outperforms its counterpart based on a deterministic pricing model. Jointly optimizing price and allocation decisions for the high-end segment improves performance, but the largest revenue benefits stem from adjusting prices to account for demand risk.