Prior Sales Research Articles

Shaping foundations: Trans feminine self-fashioning, DIY and community building in the postwar United States

More than 5 million pairs of falsies, also known as bust pads, were sold in the United States in 1946, exceeding prior sales records. In the postwar United States, falsies were an increasingly popular way of shaping the body into a fashionable curvaceous silhouette and utilized the latest in wartime synthetic material developments. Falsies were an important part of trans and queer life. However, these wearers and makers have been largely omitted from histories of fashion, foundationwear and material culture. This article traces the trans feminine history of falsies and other padded foundationwear in the postwar United States. The author analyses a range of archival materials largely sourced from the Digital Transgender Archive including publications and print ephemera from the 1950s–70s to show how trans feminine, queer and gender-nonconforming people innovated falsie design through DIY practices. While the majority of individuals in the postwar United States were unable to access trans healthcare and anti-trans legislation continued to publicly police bodies, trans feminine networks circulated information on how to purchase, wear and make padded foundations. These collective efforts empowered wearers and built community in a variety of ways.

Friend or foe? The impact of refurbished products in markets with network effects and standards competition

AbstractThe practice of offering refurbished products has become increasingly prevalent, yet limited research has studied the potential consequences of this emerging product strategy on the market performance of the corresponding brand‐new products. This study addresses this gap by examining the impact of refurbished products in markets characterized by network effects and standards competition, while considering the developmental stage of the technology standard employed by the products. Introducing refurbished products, primarily remanufactured from returned items, can pose challenges such as sales cannibalization and negative perceptions of product quality. We propose that introducing refurbished products can also generate positive effects, because the availability of refurbished products can be perceived as an indication of sizable prior sales of the brand‐new counterparts, alleviating consumers' concerns regarding an insufficient user base and limited availability of complementary products. Our empirical and experimental studies consistently demonstrate that the availability of refurbished products adversely affects the market value and purchase intention of the corresponding brand‐new products employing established technology standards. In contrast, the introduction of refurbished products does not have such a detrimental effect on products utilizing unestablished standards. Moreover, for a specific group of consumers, this green product strategy increases their purchase intention of brand‐new products. The managerial implications of the findings are discussed.

매출변동 규모가 비대칭적 원가행태에 미치는 영향

ABJ focus on the current period sales-change direction and predicted asymmetric cost behavior. BBCM extended ABJ model by considering the prior period’s sales changes on asymmetric cost behavior. Recently, Ciftci and Zoubi(2019) investigated the impacts of current sales-change size on asymmetric cost behavior extending BBCM’s two-period model. The purpose of our study is to analyze the effects of current sales-change size on asymmetric cost behavior in Korea using Ciftci and Zoubi model. The results of the analysis are as follows. First, In the case of prior sales increase, current small(medium) sales change affects more significantly to the stickiness of cost than large current sales change. In addition, in the case of prior sales decrease, current small(medium) sales change lessens the stickiness of cost more significantly than large current sales change. These results are consistent with our hypotheses. However, medium-size sales change’ coefficient is large than that of small-size sales change, so the relationship between current sales change and cost stickiness is not monotonic, and the model including dummy variables’ main effect terms is somewhat unstable, and in the case of prior sales decrease, the model doesn’t show anti-stickiness. We need more additional research to find out these anomalies are due to difference of cost behavior between Korea and U.S. or defects of the model.

Scribleriana Transferred: Portraits, Manuscripts, and Books, 2020–2022.

Scribleriana Transferred: Portraits, Manuscripts, and Books, 2020–2022.

Anchoring on Historical Round Number Reference Points: Evidence from Durable Goods Resale Prices

This paper examines how people price the resale of durable goods in systematically biased ways. We show across four studies that the anchoring effect of durable goods’ prior sales prices on subsequent valuations is discontinuous at psychologically salient round number reference points (e.g., $10,000 increments) because these numbers create qualitative differences in how people perceive values below them versus values at/above them. Resellers set disproportionately larger subsequent prices when previous prices move from just below round number thresholds (e.g., $349,000) to those at or just above these thresholds (e.g., $351,000). The findings show that buyers who pay a price just below a round number, therefore, may sacrifice money because they receive disproportionately less when reselling the good. Market forces only partially attenuate this pricing bias, but valuator experience seems to play a moderating role. Archival data show that home buyers who previously paid just under a $10,000 reference point subsequently listed their homes for about 1.8% (over $3,700) less on average than did buyers selling comparable homes who previously paid at or above a round number threshold. This drop is observable controlling for home characteristics and the general relationship between previous and current prices. Three experimental studies looking at housing and used car markets replicate these findings, highlight the mechanism, and increase confidence in causality. Market mechanisms and the negotiation process attenuate discontinuities by about 30%, but lower initial listing prices persist to final sales prices. We find additional weak evidence suggesting that valuator experience may attenuate intergenerational pricing bias. Conflict of Interest: This manuscript was submitted, revised, and accepted prior to the nomination and appointment of Lamar Pierce as Editor-in-Chief. Funding: This project was supported by the University of Southern California Marshall School of Business Behavioral Laboratory. Supplemental Material: The online appendix is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.2022.1632 .

Anchoring on Historical Round Number Reference Points

Buyers typically strive to negotiate low prices for durable goods. Psychologically-salient round number reference points (e.g., $10,000) influence these purchasing decisions. However, existing research does not capture how these historical reference points influence the anchoring effect of previous sales prices on future valuations. We argue that the anchoring effect of prior sales prices on subsequent prices is discontinuous at round numbers, such that it matters disproportionately whether a previous sales price reached a round-number threshold. Buyers paying a price just below a round number may sacrifice money because they receive disproportionately less when reselling the good. We further argue that while market forces are unlikely to attenuate this effect, highly-experienced professional intermediaries may. Using data on over 13,000 repeat real estate transactions, we find that home buyers who previously paid just under a $10,000 reference point subsequently list and sell their homes for about 1.3 percent (over $2000) less on average than do buyers selling comparable homes who previously paid at or above a round number threshold. This drop is observable controlling for home characteristics and the general relationship between previous and current prices. Buyers who cross a $10,000 threshold by paying $1000 more therefore would earn a return of 215%. An experiment with 1010 participants replicates these findings and increases confidence in causality. Market mechanisms, the negotiation process, and organizational support provided to intermediaries does not correct substantively for these discontinuities: Lower initial listing prices persist to final sales prices. However, using a highly-experienced agent attenuates intergenerational pricing bias.

Changes in retrospectively recalled alcohol use pre, during and post alcohol sales prohibition during COVID pandemic in Botswana.

BackgroundThe COVID-19 pandemic has seen the implementation of unprecedented legislation and policy, including drug control measures which in some countries, like Botswana, included a temporary full alcohol sales ban. However, the association of such absolute prohibition of alcohol sales on population drinking, including hazardous drinking, during the COVID-19 period has not yet been determined. This study investigated changes in retrospectively recalled alcohol use and hazardous drinking pre (prior 5th August 2020), during (5th August to 3rd September 2020) and post (after 4th September) the second alcohol sales ban in Botswana. Predictors of hazardous drinking across the three time points were also investigated.MethodsAn online cross-sectional study involving a convenience sample of 1318 adults with a past 12 months drinking history in Botswana was conducted in October 2020 following a month long alcohol sales prohibition. Participants completed a modified Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test-Consumption (AUDIT-C) alongside demographic questions. Participants were expected to retrospectively recall their alcohol use pre, during and post the second alcohol sales ban.ResultsThe prevalence of alcohol use among participants with a past 12 months drinking history was 91.7% (95%CI= 90.1–93.1) before the second ban, 62.3% (95%CI= 59.7–64.9) during the second ban, and 90.4% (95%CI= 88.7–91.8) after the ban.. Hazardous drinking temporarily decreased by 30% during the second alcohol sales ban, and rose to the pre-ban levels of about 60% after the ban. Significant predictors of hazardous drinking at any of the three time points (pre, during and post the second ban) were being male (AOR ranging from 1.50 to 2.13 for all time points), earning between P3000-P6000 (AOR= 1.69 prior sales ban), being a student (AOR=0.56 during the sales ban), and being employed (AOR= 1.45 post the sales ban).ConclusionThe alcohol sales ban was associated with short-lived changes in alcohol consumption and hazardous drinking thereby likely contributed in providing the anticipated and much needed temporary relief to the health system sought by COVID-19 pandemic measures.

UNIQUE APPLICATION OF SALES-ORIENTATION CUSTOMER-ORIENTATION (SOCO) SCALE AS A BEHAVIORAL ASSESSMENT TOOL TO PREDICT FUTURE ORIENTATION OF STUDENTS: A STUDY

ABSTRACT Sales management students carry certain misconceptions about sales jobs, which often create confusion in their minds about the nature of the sales job- should they be customer-oriented or sales-oriented? To excel in the initial years of their careers as effective salespersons, students might emphasize sales-orientation or target achievement over customer-orientation. This might force them to choose manipulative practices in their professional lives. The orientation also depends upon the gender and prior sales experience of the students. Thus, if the instructors could assess the students’ orientation, i.e., sales-orientation or customer-orientation, which they would practice during the job in advance, they could mentor them with proper inputs. The present study is an attempt to predict such orientations of the students by using a modified version of the SOCO scale. The findings suggest that gender and prior sales experience play a significant role in predicting the students’ orientation in some cases.

Information transparency and pricing strategy in the Scottish housing market

PurposeInformation transparency is crucially important in price setting in real estate, particularly when information asymmetry is concerned. This paper aims to examine how a change in government policy in relation to information disclosure and transparency impacts residential real estate price discovery. Specially, this paper investigates how real estate traders determined asking prices in the context of the Scottish housing market before and after the implementation of the Home Report, which aimed to prevent artificially low asking prices.Design/methodology/approachThis paper uses spatial lag hedonic pricing models to empirically observe how residential asking prices are determined by property sellers in response to a change in government policy that is designed to enhance market transparency. It uses over 79,000 transaction data of the Aberdeen residential market for the period of Q2 1998 to Q2 2013 to test the models.FindingsThe empirical findings provide some novel insights in relation to the price determination within the residential market in Scotland. The spatial lag models suggest that spatial autocorrelation in property prices has increased since the Home Report came into effect, indicating that property sellers have become more prone to infer asking prices based on prior sales of dwellings in close vicinity. The once-common practice of setting artificially low asking prices seems to have dwindled to a certain extent statistically.Originality/valueThe importance of understanding the relationship between information transparency and property price determination has gathered momentum over the past decade. Although spatial hedonic techniques have been extensively used to study the impact of various property- and neighbourhood-specific attributes on residential real estate market in general, surprisingly little is known about the empirical relationship between spatial autocorrelation in real estate prices and information transparency.

Sales-Orientation and Customer-Orientation on Performance of Direct Sales Executives of Fidelity Bank, Ghana

This study focused on sales-orientation and customer-orientation of Direct Sales Executives (DSEs) on sales performance at Fidelity Bank, Ghana; which was a cross-sectional study. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics, Kendall’s coefficient of concordance, cross tabulation and chi-squared test of independence. The result showed a strong association between prior sales experience and employment status. DSEs customer orientation was influenced by customer information while the sales orientation was on convincing customers to buy. The customer-oriented culture was based on reliable market and customer information. DSEs sales performance were influenced by complete knowledge of the bank’s products and services, listening skills and empathy. The study suggests that Fidelity Bank must sensitize its DSEs on the bank philosophy on its customer orientation culture. This study appears to be the first of its kind to explore the connection between sales orientation and customer orientation on performance in the Banking Industry in Ghana, thus providing empirical evidence for academics and practitioners.

Anchoring on Historical Reference Points: How Round Number Prices from the Past Shape Future Negotiation Outcomes

Buyers typically strive to negotiate low prices for durable goods. Psychologically-salient round number reference points (e.g., $10,000) influence these purchasing decisions. However, existing research does not capture how these historical reference points influence the anchoring effect of previous sales prices on future valuations. We argue that the anchoring effect of prior sales prices on subsequent prices is discontinuous at round numbers, such that it matters disproportionately whether a previous sales price reached a round-number threshold. Buyers paying a price just below a round number may sacrifice money because they receive disproportionately less when reselling the good. We further argue that while market forces are unlikely to attenuate this effect, highly-experienced professional intermediaries may. Using data on over 13,000 repeat real estate transactions, we find that home buyers who previously paid just under a $10,000 reference point subsequently list and sell their homes for about 1.3 percent (over $2000) less on average than do buyers selling comparable homes who previously paid at or above a round number threshold. This drop is observable controlling for home characteristics and the general relationship between previous and current prices. Buyers who cross a $10,000 threshold by paying $1000 more therefore would earn a return of 215%. An experiment with 1010 participants replicates these findings and increases confidence in causality. Market mechanisms, the negotiation process, and organizational support provided to intermediaries does not correct substantively for these discontinuities: Lower initial listing prices persist to final sales prices. However, using a highly-experienced agent attenuates intergenerational pricing bias.

Modeling unobserved heterogeneity in hedonic price models

AbstractThis paper studies unobserved heterogeneity in hedonic price models, arising from missing property and locational characteristics. Specifically, commercial real estate is very heterogeneous, and data on detailed property characteristics are often lacking. We show that adding mutually independent property random effects to a hedonic price model results in more precise out‐of‐sample price predictions, both for commercial multifamily housing in Los Angeles and owner‐occupied single‐family housing in Heemstede, the Netherlands. The standard hedonic price model does not take advantage of the fact that some properties sell more than once. We subsequently show that adding spatial random effects leads to an additional increase in prediction accuracy. The increase is highest for properties without prior sales.

What drives the sales of paid knowledge products? A two-phase approach

Knowledge-sharing services in virtual communities have enjoyed tremendous growth in recent years. These communities enable content creators (i.e., speakers) to share knowledge by broadcasting “lives” to which audiences can pay to listen. Our study explores the key antecedents of the sales of paid knowledge products. Data were obtained from the Zhihu Live community to verify the hypotheses. On the Zhihu Live platform, knowledge products are provided in the form of audio broadcasts. A potential listener can choose to purchase a live either before (phase 1) or after (phase 2) it is broadcasted. Accordingly, this study proposes a two-phase approach to investigate the effects of key factors that affect the sales of lives in each phase. Our results suggest that price negatively affects a live’s sales and cumulative prior sales positively affect next-day sales in both phases. Furthermore, review score and speaker–audience interactions have significant effects on sales after a live is broadcasted. The contributions and implications of the results are discussed.

To sell or not to sell: the impact of managers' sales experience on organisational financial performance

Selecting a manager is an important decision for any organisation. If done right, the organisation should thrive with strong productivity and financial performance. If the wrong person is selected, negative issues such as low employee morale and low productivity can lead to poor sales and profits. While experience is an important factor in hiring, some organisations place a disproportionate amount of weight on certain kinds of experience. In particular, this study examined a Fortune 500 firm in North America that anecdotally believed that those individuals with prior experience in sales made better managers. Thus, we quantitatively examined if managers at this firm with prior sales experience produced higher sales revenue, profitability (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation; EBITDA), and return on controllable assets (ROCA) compared to those managers without prior sales experience. The results of our analysis indicate that skill sets, other than those provided by prior sales experience, are necessary for managers to generate and manage revenue.

TO SELL OR NOT TO SELL: THE IMPACT OF MANAGERS’ SALES EXPERIENCE ON ORGANIZATIONAL FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE

Selecting a manager is an important decision for any organisation. If done right, the organisation should thrive with strong productivity and financial performance. If the wrong person is selected, negative issues such as low employee morale and low productivity can lead to poor sales and profits. While experience is an important factor in hiring, some organisations place a disproportionate amount of weight on certain kinds of experience. In particular, this study examined a Fortune 500 firm in North America that anecdotally believed that those individuals with prior experience in sales made better managers. Thus, we quantitatively examined if managers at this firm with prior sales experience produced higher sales revenue, profitability (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation; EBITDA), and return on controllable assets (ROCA) compared to those managers without prior sales experience. The results of our analysis indicate that skill sets, other than those provided by prior sales experience, are necessary for managers to generate and manage revenue.

전기 매출액 변동이 원가의 비대칭성에 미치는 영향 －한국, 일본 제조기업을 중심으로－

전기 매출액 변동이 원가의 비대칭성에 미치는 영향 －한국, 일본 제조기업을 중심으로－

Making sense of soft information: interpretation bias and loan quality

We explore whether cognitive constraints and behavioral biases impede the processing and interpretation of soft information in private lending. Using data from a credit union's internal reporting system, we delineate three constraints and biases likely to affect lending decisions: limited attention, task-specific human capital and common identity. We find that soft information leads to worse loan quality when loan officers are busy or before weekends and around national holidays; when they have prior sales experience; and when both the officers and borrowers are men. We provide evidence of non-agency-related costs in the use of soft information in lending decisions.

The Effects of Prior Sales Change on Asymmetric Cost Behavior of R&D Costs

The Effects of Prior Sales Change on Asymmetric Cost Behavior of R&D Costs

The Magnitude of Sales Change and Asymmetric Cost Behavior

ABSTRACTWe investigate the impact of the magnitude of current sales changes on asymmetric cost behavior. We expect that managers are likely to consider small (large) current sales decreases as temporary (permanent). Therefore, they will be less (more) likely to cut costs for small (large) current sales decreases. Accordingly, we predict and find that, conditional on a prior sales increase, cost stickiness is greater for small current sales changes than for large current sales changes. In addition, prior research suggests that, conditional on a prior sales decrease, slack resources retained from the prior period might lead to cost anti-stickiness. We expect that slack resources retained from the prior period will have a greater (smaller) impact on cost behavior for small (large) current sales changes. Accordingly, we predict and find that, conditional on a prior sales decrease, cost anti-stickiness is greater for small current sales changes than for large current sales changes.JEL Classifications: M41; M46; G12.

Dealing with Unobserved Heterogeneity in Hedonic Price Models

This paper deals with unobserved heterogeneity in hedonic price models, arising from missing property and locational characteristics. In specific, commercial real estate is very heterogeneous, and data on detailed property characteristics are often lacking. We show that adding mutually independent property random effects to a hedonic price model results in more precise out-of-sample price predictions, both for commercial multifamily housing in Los Angeles and owner-occupied single family housing in Heemstede, the Netherlands. The standard hedonic price model does not take advantage of the fact that some properties sell more than once. We subsequently show that adding spatial random effects leads to an additional increase in prediction accuracy. The increase is highest for properties without prior sales.