Purchase Volume Research Articles

Effects of Package Size on Household Food Purchases

AbstractThis article analyzes household food purchase behavior in response to changes in product package size. In particular, we exploit food manufacturer package downsizing strategy and design a difference‐in‐difference analysis to track shifts in household purchase volume in affected and comparison product groups before and after package size changes. We use UPC‐level purchase data from a panel of households over a seven‐year period for analysis. Our empirical approach overcomes two important limitations of the extant literature: it (i) accounts for determinants of purchase behavior and (ii) produces results that elucidate the long‐term effects of package size changes. The main finding is that, on average, smaller package size significantly reduces household purchase volume, which indicates a positive correlation between package size and food‐at‐home consumption. The results also show that downsizing does not have a significant effect on the purchase volume of non‐downsized products and on the number of packages purchased. The implications of the results for policy and potential interventions are discussed.

Estimation of Impact of Quantitative Easing Policy on EUR/USD using behavioral Equilibrium Exchange Rate Model

The article examines the impact of the policy of the uSA quantitative easing and the euro area on the nominal EuR/ uSD exchange rate. After the economic crisis of 2008–2009, the policy of quantitative easing gained popularity among the world’s largest economies. The largest programs were implemented by the uS Federal Reserve (uS Federal Reserve System) and the European Central Bank (ECB). However, the impact of the actual purchase volume of securities on the EuR/uSD exchange rate within these policies has been little studied in modern literature. The author collected the data from 1999 to 2018 on the exchange rate, macroeconomic and market indicators, and calculated the monthly actual purchase volumes of securities under the asset purchase program of the united States and the euro area. The behavioral equilibrium exchange rate model was used. The linear model specification and the error correction model identified no significant impact of the ECB quantitative easing policy expressed in the actual purchase volume of securities. However, for some specifications, it has been proven that the increase in purchases of securities by the uS Federal Reserve leads to a weakening of the dollar against the euro. The cointegration test revealed a long-term dependence of the EuR/uSD exchange rate on the accumulated volumes of acquired assets. Thus, an increase in the purchase volume of securities led to a weakening of the dollar against the euro. The insignificant impact of the European Central Bank quantitative easing policy could have been caused by market expectations formed prior to the actual purchase of ECB securities in the market.

Competition games between teams vying for common resources under consensus dynamics on networks

Dynamics on complex networks and associated games have numerous practical applications for a wide range of fields. The analyses addressed in the literature frequently consider game frameworks defined between the individual nodes within a given network. However, many real situations are related to teams of agents which are external to the network but that compete over the state of the network elements. In this paper we carry out an analytical and numerical analysis of games played between two teams that compete to maximize their benefits from the resources of the same population, whose elements form a network. This population could be a group of voters in an election, a set of potential clients within a given market, or a certain species in an ecosystem, whose state favourable to one of the teams (political opinion, volume of purchases or pollination, for example) must be maximized. The dynamics of the state of each node of the network is given by a consensus function, and the steady state depends on the network structure and the external action of each team. We have found an optimal analytical solution for the team’s actions that maximize its benefit, when the network of connections with the population is fixed and equal for both teams. Additionally, we find analytically the optimal network of connections from the team agents to the population so that the achievable payoff for said optimal action is maximum over all alternative networks. Finally, we consider the case of a game played on subsets of the general population by each of the two competing teams, ultimately leading to a Nash equilibrium.

Research on Clothing Recommendation Based on Clothing Transaction Data

Clothing matching has great value. In order to solve the problem that the matching effect of clothing purchased by users is not very good, a method is proposed in this paper. When a user purchases a certain clothing, the matching clothing can be automatically recommended. In this study, the clothing is clustered according to the description text of the clothing features first, and then the association rules are mined for the clothing in the same cluster. Finally, by calculating the learning error, some ‘false matches’ are filtered out to improve the precision of the recommended clothing. According to the characteristics of clothing purchase data that the average purchase volume of clothing is small, the calculation process of Apriori algorithm is optimized. The experiments show that the proposed method can reduce the calculation time of association rules and increase the accuracy of clothing recommendation compared with the traditional association rule calculation.

A STUDY OF THE AVAILABILITY OF MEDICINES FOR THE TREATMENT OF HIV-INFECTED PATIENTS IN THE REPUBLIC OF BASHKORTOSTAN

According to the order of the Government of the Russian Federation of 01.12.2004 № 715 the disease caused by the virus of immunodeficiency of the person enter the list of socially significant diseases and the list of the diseases presenting danger to people around. Therefore, the aim of the research was to study the dynamics of the volume of procurement of medicines for the treatment of HIV-infected patients and the assortment availability of antiretroviral medicines in the Republic of Bashkortostan. The studies were conducted during the period of 2010–2016 years. The objects were the materials of reporting of the State Budget Health Agency Republican Center for Prevention and Control of AIDS and infectious diseases, electronic cards of government contracts. Methods of research: statistical, marketing, logic-economic, ATC/DDDs. The average growth rate in procurement of antiretroviral medicines is relatively the basic 2010 in monetary terms amounted to 168,52%. The largest share (1⁄2 part) were domestic medicines with one active substance. In value terms, there is a significant reduction of 26,74% in the volume of purchases of imported medicines with one active substance. At the same time, the import antiretroviral medicines were more in demand among combined antiretroviral medicines: their share increased by 28,56%. In natural terms, the share of domestic medicines with one active substance increased by 49,37%, in general, the share of the volume of antiretroviral medicines purchases of domestic production increased by 2,64 times. An analysis was conducted of the levels of management of assortment based on the calculation of the coefficients of the latitude of ARVs, regional mesocontours of domestic and imported ARVs of the six of the analyzed ATCgroups 4-th level were formed. The number of average daily doses of DDDs/1000 people/day for ARVs was calculated. It is established that the dominating in 2010–2016 there were ARVs of two ATC-subgroups: non-nucleoside — reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NNRTIs) and Nucleoside — reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTIs), which corresponds to the preferred first-line regimen for patients who had not previously taken antiretroviral therapy.

A Time-Series Analysis of Firearm Purchasing After Mass Shooting Events in the United States

ImportanceIncreased understanding of public response to mass shootings could guide public health planning regarding firearms.ObjectivesTo test the hypothesis that mass shootings are associated with gun purchasing in the United States and to determine factors associated with gun purchasing changes.Design and SettingIn a cross-sectional study, monthly data on US background checks for all firearm purchases, handgun permits, and long gun permits between November 1, 1998, and April 30, 2016, were obtained from the National Instant Criminal Background Check System. All mass shootings resulting in 5 or more individuals injured or killed during the study period were also identified. Interrupted autoregressive integrated moving average time-series modeling was used to identify events associated with changes in gun purchase volume. Then, logistic regression was used to identify event characteristics associated with changes in gun purchases. Analyses were performed between June 6, 2016, and February 5, 2019.ExposuresFor the time-series analysis, each mass shooting was modeled as an exposure. In the logistic regression, examined factors were the shooter’s race/ethnicity, the region in the United States in which a shooting occurred, whether a shooting was school related, fatalities, handgun use, long gun use, automatic or semiautomatic gun use, media coverage level, and state political affiliation.Main Outcomes and MeasuresIdentification of major mass shootings significantly associated with changes in gun purchases, and the identification of event-specific factors associated with changes in gun purchases.ResultsBetween November 1998 and April 2016, 124 major mass shootings and 233 996 385 total background checks occurred. A total of 26 shootings (21.0%) were associated with increases in gun purchases and 22 shootings (17.7%) were associated with decreases in gun purchasing. Shootings receiving extensive media coverage were associated with handgun purchase increases (odds ratio, 5.28; 95% CI, 1.30-21.41; P = .02). Higher-fatality shootings had an inverse association with handgun purchase decreases (odds ratio, 0.73; 95% CI, 0.53-1.00; P = .049).Conclusions and RelevanceThe findings of this study suggest an association between mass shootings and changes in gun purchases, observed on a comprehensive timescale. Identification of media coverage and fatalities as significant factors underlying this association invites further study into the mechanisms driving gun purchase changes, holding implications for public health response to future gun violence.

Open Sourcing as a Profit-Maximizing Strategy for Downstream Firms

This paper characterizes and explores a corporate strategy in which downstream firms collaborate to develop open substitute designs for proprietary hardware they would otherwise purchase from upstream suppliers. This strategy centrally involves the downstream firms distributing design costs over multiple downstream firms—a strategy that is routine to producers selling to multiple downstream firms but which has been in the past typically not practical for coalitions of downstream firms. Today, downstream firms find it increasingly feasible to codesign products they may all purchase because of two technological trends. First, computer-aided design/computer-aided manufacturing and other design technologies are lowering downstream firms’ costs to develop designs for purchased hardware inputs. Second, better communication technologies are lowering the costs of doing such projects collaboratively, even among large groups of downstream customer firms. Downstream firms collaborating to develop a design for a hardware input they can all purchase could in principle choose to protect their design as a club good. However, opening up collaboratively created designs to free riders can increase the profits of the contributing firms for several reasons we explore and model. Important among these is that free revealing draws free riders away from purchases of proprietary software or hardware to customer-developed free substitutes. This “scale-stealing” mechanism reduces the markets of upstream suppliers of competing proprietary inputs. In the case of hardware only, free riders also contribute to reducing the average manufacturing costs of the open hardware by increasing purchase volumes and so creating increased economies of scale. Resulting reduced unit purchase costs benefit downstream firms contributing to the free design as well as free riders.

The Dynamics of Online Consumers’ Response to Price Promotion

How does consumers’ price sensitivity at an online retailer change over time? And can we predict their response to price promotion by identifying the latent states of the online consumer–retailer relationship? Our quantification of transits across the consumer–retailer relationship states provides unique insights. For example, price promotion can strengthen consumers’ loyalty only for at least moderately loyal consumers whereas it is not effective at changing nonloyal consumers’ attitudes toward an online retailer (i.e., from nonloyal to loyal). Being opposed to the results from the off-line market, the consumers even in the strong relationship state are likely to seek more coupons as they increase their online shopping experience. The switching behavior observed even after online consumers reach the strong relationship state shows one aspect of the fierce price competition in the online market. Managers in online retailers pay attention to the recent change in a consumer’s buying behaviors rather than the long-term trend of the consumer’s purchase behavior. For instance, the increase of the recent purchase volume strengthens loyalty toward the retailer and/or the habit of buying without a coupon for the consumers in the strong relationship state.

Трансформация российского продовольственного рынка: эффекты дохода и замещения

Since 2014, the Russian food market has undergone a series of simultaneous shocks, including restrictions on imports from a few countries, a sharp increase in prices and a rise in the cost of raw materials due to the depreciation of the ruble. This paper presents a methodology for assessing changes in consumer welfare on the micro-data of RLMS household surveys, as well as the decomposition of these changes into income and substitution effects, that is, to reactions associated with higher prices to the real income of buyers and with a change in the supplied set of products. For calculations, an econometric model was used, which is a combination of traditional models that take into account economic and socio-demographic determinants. The evaluations show an increase in costs compared to the expected level with a decrease in the actual volume of purchases, that is, even an increase in spending did not allow the residents of Russia to maintain the required level of consumption, but the effects are different for the food groups under consideration. The monetary estimate of the losses from the transformation of the food market is approximately 900 rubles per month per family, and the reduction in consumption in 2013 prices was estimated at 560 rubles, which is a significant amount, especially if we consider that the analyzed RLMS base has a shift towards poor households.

CLUSTERIZATION OF MACHINE-BUILDING ENTERPRISES OF THE SUMY REGION AS A CONVERGENCE OF BUSINESS AND SCIENCE

The introduction of the Cluster of enterprises of machine-building industry of Sumy region is caused by a number of problems that the machine-building industry has faced recently, namely the unprofitable maintenance of large machine-building enterprises in Sumy region due to the unloaded production and downtime of production sites. This leads to job cuts, the removal of highly qualified personnel from the region and the country and, as a consequence, to the lack of income in the city budget. Therefore, there is an urgent need to implement a policy to support the economic development of the region, namely the machine-building industry as the foundation of the Sumy economy. Also, the Cluster approach as a form of organization of the national economy is widely used today by the leading countries of the world, and it is an effective tool for the development of the economy of the regions, this can be seen on the example of the economies of Japan, the USA, South Korea and other countries. Studies have shown that the formation of a Cluster in the machine building industry of the Sumy region is possible in the form of a triad (state - science - business). In Sumy region there are innovative and active enterprises that are dynamically developing in the field of mechanical engineering. At the same time, they have high scientific and technical potential and developed production bases. These enterprises can successfully operate and develop in the field of import substitution. A distinctive feature of their activities is the significant scientific and technical potential in the development of production of products for the oil and gas complex and the chemical industry. Therefore, the introduction of a Cluster of enterprises in the machine-building industry of Sumy region will help to increase the competitiveness of the national economy by achieving a balanced interaction between economic entities (business - state - science) and creating favorable conditions for the development and production of import-substituting compressor equipment for Ukrainian enterprises. The functioning of the Cluster involves improving the quality of both basic and vocational education to form a skilled workforce capable of introducing innovation, establishing synergies between research institutions and business structures for the purpose of knowledge transfer. The interaction between educational institutions and business entities should include: ensuring demand in the labor market (training specialists in the required professions); Improving the quality of educational services (concluding contracts with leading companies to acquire practical skills during training (internships and internships), attracting heads of leading companies to state examinations committees, which will facilitate a more objective assessment of educational services. The Cluster is that the state is one of three equal parties, each of which exercises its specific functions. The role of the state is to actively mediate and, as a consequence, eliminate a number of market failures (divergence of private and public costs and benefits). Thus, the main expected result of the Cluster creation is an increase in the share of compressor equipment produced by domestic manufacturers and is characterized by a high degree of localization of production in the territory of Ukraine, in the total volume of purchases of equipment for the needs of the economy of Ukraine and foreign trade. Keywords: cluster, business-science convergence, machine-building industry, import-substitution equipment.

Inventory and Transportation Models for Multi-item Single-Supplier through Purchasing Consortium for the Fishpond Manager

Purchasing Consortium (PC) is the merger of two or more organisations with separate legal entities or independently or through the third party using division and union of the purchase volume, information, and resources owned. This merger aims to increase the bargaining power so that the product or service purchase price can be lower than a supplier. This research tried to conduct modelling to minimise the annual total cost of several buyers doing multi-item through PC at single supplier offering a fixed discount rate by shipping union. In this study, an analytical method was employed to solve the problems using the optimisation approach. From numerical experiment results, by making purchases through PC with shipping unification, the total cost generated was better compared to the purchase without going through PC or PC without shipping union.

Extending the Queue Question to Customer Purchase Rate to Predict the Probability of Customer Inactive

In the rapidly changing market, there is a never-ending sequence of marketing actions and competitive reactions. Customer may consume much volume to stockpile more than they need when the price promotion or some benefit that retail gives. Thus this paper explores the customer purchase rate, the speed of product consumption and the inactive probability with extending queue model. A real data set from the customer purchase behavior in two electronic business retailers website includes purchase volume, the duration of customer consumption (which is the interpurchase time between purchase behavior with the same product in the same brand) and the duration of variety-seeking (which is defined as customer purchase the same categories but different brand of product) to estimate the parameters and calculate the expectation value of product consumption and product stockpile volume. This result can make application for other industries such as e-commerce.

Retail price and availability of illicit cannabis in Canada

IntroductionThis study sought to estimate the number of illicit retailers and the average price of cannabis in the largest municipality in each province and territory in Canada by obtaining information from retailers. MethodsOnline search engines were used to identify retailers in each municipality. The advertised prices for various volumes of the least expensive, most expensive, and most popular dry herb were determined using the retailer's website, Weedmaps, or Leafly. Data was collected between October 2017 and May 2018, including two waves in Toronto to examine changes over a five-month period. ResultsAcross the 13 municipalities, 997 cannabis retailers were identified, including 215 physical storefronts. The average price per gram of cannabis was $10.02, $7.80, and $12.30 for the most popular, least expensive, and most expensive strains, respectively. The price-per-gram decreased as purchase volume increased: purchasing one-eighth of an ounce and one ounce of cannabis led to savings of up to 9% and 27%, respectively. Prices were consistent across municipalities, although the number of outlets varied greatly. Prices were similar between storefronts and delivery-only services; however, delivery services offered larger discounts for cannabis purchased by the ounce. The five-month comparison in Toronto revealed modest changes in the number of retailers and more pronounced changes in the price of the most popular and least expensive strains. ConclusionThe findings depict a well-established retail cannabis market in Canada in the year prior to legalization. The average advertised price of the most popular cannabis varieties was approximately $10, which aligns with the projected retail price of cannabis from licensed sources following legalization in Canada.

Does stronger corporate governance constrain insider trading? Asymmetric evidence from Australia

AbstractWe investigate the role of internal corporate governance in limiting opportunities for ASX company ‘insiders’ to extract abnormal returns from trading ‘own shares’. We show that stronger governance translates into more restrictive insider trading policies and, while not resulting in lower insider purchase volumes, values or profits, it does reduce insider selling profitability. Firm size and increasing trading policy restrictiveness is associated with reduced insider purchase profitability while insider sale profitability is reduced by aggregate governance, trading restrictions and increasing trading policy restrictiveness. We conclude that internal firm governance constrains insider sales but not purchases, providing contrarian trading signals.

US Food and Drug Administration Disruption of Generic Drug Market Increases Hospital Costs.

The purpose of the US Food and Drug Administration's Marketed Unapproved Drugs Initiative is to decrease marketing of older unapproved medications. The administration has recently extended its rulings by including sterile injectable drugs administered in the inpatient environment. The impact of this initiative on the inpatient environment has been minimally studied. Consecutive retrospective purchase data of vasopressin for injection (vasopressin) and neostigmine methylsulfate for injection (neostigmine) from 720 hospitals and 746 hospitals, respectively, were included. Purchases occurred from January 1, 2010 to December 31, 2016. The average noncontract drug price was calculated and compared to the purchase data during the impact of the initiative. Comparison was made of hospital purchases made before and after the initiative. The year 2014 was considered a washout transition year due to the large amounts of discontinued unapproved formulations that were still available and purchased by hospitals. The analysis was completed using a matched paired t test. The noncontract price for vasopressin increased from $12.83 per vial to $158.83 per vial (1138% increase) and for neostigmine from $27.74 per vial to $175.14 per vial (531% increase) across the pre- and postinitiative intervals; however, purchase volumes after the price increases were not found to have a statistically significant difference compared to purchases before the price increases (P = .98 and P = .4, respectively). Health systems have experienced a significant cost increase of vasopressin and neostigmine and are absorbing price increases for these older, generic sterile injectable drugs.

Monthly electricity purchase and decomposition optimization considering wind power accommodation and day-ahead schedule

With the development of wind power generation, energy storage and demand side management technology, the schedule of monthly electricity purchase is more uncertain and risky. To enhance the executability and economy of the monthly market and reserve enough space to accommodate wind power, a bi-level decision model, which integrates demand side responses, energy storage, wind power accommodation and day-ahead electricity purchase schedules, is proposed in this paper. In the first layer, the monthly purchase volume and its hourly decomposition schedule are optimized. In the second layer, factors of uncertain day-ahead prices and economic risk are examined, and the corresponding dispatching schedule of energy storage system and thermal power in the day-ahead markets are further optimized to promote the monthly market benefit. The proposed methodology is illustrated using a realistic case study and related affecting factors are analyzed in detail.

Impact of price elasticity on the healthfulness of food choices by gender

Objective: To extend findings from experimental price elasticity studies by examining these effects in a field setting and identifying gender differences in purchasing behaviour in response to variations in the cost of lower energy-dense (ED) and higher ED foods. Setting: Data were collected from low- and median-income male and female grocery shoppers at a supermarket in the Western New York region. Design: Using a procedure adapted from experimental economics, participants were given a debit card in a grocery store setting and allowed to purchase any foods from two pricing conditions. Conditions were identical, except one had lower ED foods low priced, and the other had lower ED foods higher priced. The design was fully counterbalanced. Results: Overall, when lower ED foods were more expensive, fewer lower ED foods were purchased (95% confidence interval [CI]: −1.0, −.40). Gender differences revealed that men spent more money (in dollars) when higher ED foods were higher priced (95% CI: US$0.51, US$1.73) and women spent more money when lower ED foods were higher priced (95% CI: − US$2.21, − US$0.11). Furthermore, women, but not men, increased spending when lower ED foods were higher priced (95% CI: − US$2.85, − US$0.73). Conclusion: Higher costs for fruits and vegetables among consumers can adversely affect the purchase volume of these foods, with men being most susceptible to pricing manipulations. Results contribute to an understanding of how perceptions of price impact consumer choice and suggest that efforts aimed to increase the perceived value of health over cost should be tailored towards men.

Diversification of Transit Risks of Russia as a Basis for Economic and Energy Security in European Countries

The paper examines the dependence of energy security against the European Union (EU) and Russia, where the main threats are the insufficient diversification of supplies, the difficulties in gas transportation and the high transit tariffs. It covers the threats of location of the gas transportation system in Ukraine, through the territory of which a significant volume of gas purchases to the EU countries is delivered. The ways of diversifying transit risks have been identified through the Yamal-Europe, Blue Stream, and Nord Stream gas pipelines, as well as by the implementation of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline. This will allow diversifying the EU transit risks and supplying gas to Austria through the territory of Germany, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. In turn could be determined by political and economic instability. In the methodological part of the paper, an analysis of gas consumption in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe was made, which showed fairly stable consumption with a slight decrease in demand.

Evaluation of Factors Influencing Exclusive Brand Store Choice: An Investigation in the Indian Retail Sector

This research investigated the determinant factors of store choice. The study is an effort to understand the current positions of the organized exclusive brand outlets (EBOs) among shoppers in select cities of Madhya Pradesh (MP), India. In this view, the researcher approached shoppers of select EBOs and then identified the positions and effect of identified attributes on store choice. A total of 480 participants were approached, among which 328 respondents completely filled the questionnaire. This exploratory study used exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) before the psychometric test (i.e., reliability and validity) of the instrument. Further, the multidimensional perceptual maps show the pictorial positions of the eight ready-to-wear EBOs operating in MP, the central Indian market. Further, it also revealed those attributes which shoppers perceived as important with respect to store selection. It found that organized retail stores must lay emphasis on customer service, promotion, physical aspects, return policies, assortment of merchandise, physical comforts, convenience facilities, perceived risk and purchase volume. The contribution of this study is that the outcomes are extremely useful to store managers and strategy makers in understanding the Indian retail market and tailoring their marketing tactics.

Do brands compete or coexist? How persistence of brand loyalty segments the market

PurposeThis study aims to question the conventional wisdom that brands compete for customers, especially in mature industries such as soft drinks. Rather than engaging in price wars or promotion wars, brands coexist in the markets by focusing on their own brand loyal customers.Design/methodology/approachConsumer panel data of carbonated beverages are examined using Markov chains to measure switching between two brands: Coke and Pepsi. Switching rates are conducted for all Coke households (n = 10,474) and Pepsi households (n = 7,227). This is further examined with respect to heavy half (upper median) consumers of each brand who make up approximately 86 per cent of volume purchases.FindingsHouseholds that made a majority of their purchase volume in either Coke or Pepsi products stayed with their preferred brands in subsequent quarters: 85 to 97 per cent of households. These findings are validated at all levels of the brand architecture (family brands, product brands and modified brands), even though both brands engage in similar marketing mix tactics (advertising, price cuts, distribution, product offerings). Loyalty was even higher among the heavy user households.Research limitations/implicationsThe research was conducted using two well-known brands in a mature industry. Services or non-mature markets may exhibit different loyalty patterns.Originality/valueThe study extends prior research on competition, loyalty and branded offerings to show that brand loyalty remains high despite marketing efforts to switch the brand buying behavior.