Recent Purchase Research Articles

The ethics of big data in big agriculture

This paper examines the ethics of big data in agriculture, focusing on the power asymmetry between farmers and large agribusinesses like Monsanto. Following the recent purchase of Climate Corp., Monsanto is currently the most prominent biotech agribusiness to buy into big data. With wireless sensors on tractors monitoring or dictating every decision a farmer makes, Monsanto can now aggregate large quantities of previously proprietary farming data, enabling a privileged position with unique insights on a field-by-field basis into a third or more of the US farmland. This power asymmetry may be rebalanced through open-sourced data, and publicly-funded data analytic tools which rival Climate Corp. in complexity and innovation for use in the public domain.

Strategic Thinking: Intelligent Opportunism and Emergent Strategy — The Case of Strategic Engineering Services

This case study focuses on strategic thinking and opportunistic approaches to business growth and diversification. It begins by examining the recent purchase of ‘Quickcover’, a remote-controlled sports pitch covering system, by engineering company Strategic Engineering Services and the company's current dilemma – whether to continue to develop this type of product, or sell it and concentrate on its existing engineering services business. In recent years, Strategic Engineering Services has moved away from traditional heavy engineering and diversified into related areas such as engineering services, oil and gas industry recruitment, plant and equipment hire, instrument calibration and project management. The case considers the relationship between strategic thinking and entrepreneurial approaches to opportunity recognition, exploring the concept of intelligent opportunism as an approach that enables entrepreneurs to develop emergent strategies and take advantage of new opportunities. It explores these concepts in the context of the current dilemma of Strategic Engineering Services.

How Much is Too Much? The Effect of Call Intensity on Online Purchase

Use a unique dataset collected from one of the largest classified ads website in China, we empirically examine the effect of offline call intensity on online customer purchase probability and the carryover effect of call intensity. We find that online customer purchase probability is increasing in call intensity but at a decreasing rate. In addition, there exists a strong carryover effect where the call intensity in the past 4 weeks does not fade away but have a positive effect on recent customer purchase. Our estimations show that both too much or too little call intensity will result in considerably worse outcomes. As compared with the call intensity at the optimal level, too much in call intensity may potentially result in a 30% decrease in the effect, and too little in call intensity may potentially result in a 56% loss in the effect. Furthermore, the potential effect of making calls every week for 4 weeks can increase customer purchase probability by 6.85 times as compared with just initiating calls with the customers, and by 15.70 times as compared with no calls at all to the customers.

PROSPECTS OF DEVELOPMENT OF SMALL AND MEDIUM-SIZED ENTERPRISES IN UKRAINIAN AGRICULTURE

Main directions of development of small and medium-sized enterprises in Ukrainian agriculture are examined. It is determined that entrepreneurship in agrarian sector is a driving force behind the development of agriculture, as these activities contributes to the production of quality agricultural products that satisfies the needs of society, food security, independence and improves the living standards of rural population. Potential customers of small parties of harvest in Ukrainian grain market are analyzed. The ways of mutually beneficial cooperation between Ukrainian farmers and entrepreneurs are proved. The study of foreign experience has proven that strengthening the competitiveness of Ukrainian agricultural products in the context of globalization is possible on the basis of mutually beneficial cooperation of Ukrainian farmers and entrepreneurs, where recent purchase of output at market prices for the purpose of resale or creation of agricultural cooperatives, such form of economy in agrarian relations that combines a balanced economic, social and environmental components. In particular in paper is shown that sustainable economic management provide only forms of economy that take into account the socioeconomic and geophysical specifics of agriculture, particularities of agricultural labor and methods of management. The most common among these forms are farmers.

Will Middle-Aged Korean Women Buy Jeans Again?

The purpose of the study was to investigate jean consumption among middle-aged Korean women and the characteristics of consumers as potential jean consumers. The data were collected from the survey of 238 Korean women aged 45 to 64 years old. The respondents prefer outlet store to other retail outlets and wear jeans mainly for travel, grocery shopping, and outing. The main reason for not wearing jeans is body change, which leads to poor fit in abdomen and waist area. The sample was clustered into two groups based on interest in jeans: high-interest and low-interest group. From the examination of group differences, the high-interest group rated conformity/brand reputation, scarcity, and attractiveness of appearance significantly higher compared to the low-interest group among the five clothing benefits pursued. No difference was found in obesity and body satisfaction. Group differences were found in recent purchase, price, number of jeans owned, and frequency of wearing jeans. The results suggest the characteristics of the potential jean market among middle-aged women in Korea. Implications are discussed.

From e-bike to car: A study on factors influencing motorization of e-bike users across China

Household car ownership has risen dramatically in China over the past decade. At the same time a disruptive transportation technology emerged, the electric bike (e-bike). Most studies investigating motorization in China focus on macro-level economic indicators like GDP, with few focusing on household, city-level, environmental, or geographic indicators, and none in the context of high e-bike ownership. This study examines household vehicle purchase decisions across 59 cities in China with broad geographic, environmental, and socio-economic characteristics. We focus on a subset of households who own e-bikes and rely on a telephone survey from an industry customer database. From these responses, we estimate two three-level hierarchical choice models to assess attributes that contribute to (1) recent car purchases and (2) the intention to buy a car in the near future. The results show that the models are dominated by household characteristics including household income, household size, household vehicle ownership, number of licensed drivers and duration of car ownership. Some geographic, environmental and socio-economic factors have significant influences on car purchase decisions. Only two city-level transportation variable have an effect – higher taxi density and higher bus density reducing car purchase. Cold weather, population density gross domestic product per capita positively influence car purchase, while urbanization rate reduces car purchase. Because of supply heterogeneity in the data set, described by publicly available urban transportation data, this is the first study that can include geographic and urban infrastructure differences that influence purchase choice and suggests potential region-specific policy approaches to managing car purchase may be necessary.

A study of interaction of materialism and money attitude and its impact on car purchase

Abstract The present study investigates how the interaction of materialism and money attitude affects individuals choice of car price range in recent purchases (i.e., within the past six months). Car purchase behavior in terms of car price range has also been tested for different income groups, age groups and gender in National Capital Region (India). The data was collected through judgment sampling from 164 respondents, who recently purchased a new car for their personal use. The findings revealed that there is a significant association between materialism and different attitudes regarding the amount of money used by the respondents to purchase a car during the last six months. Level of materialism varies across different income levels and money attitude differs between males and females. Income was found to be the only variable that had significant association with choice of car price range. Age and gender did not seem to affect the car purchase behavior. This research has implications for the automobile industry and organizations in allied business activities, policy makers and marketers.

An Exploration of Consumer Attitudes and Purchasing Patterns in Fair Trade Coffee and Tea

This study aims to understand the consistency between attitudes toward ethical brands and consistency with the respondents’ recent purchase behavior. A study of 202 respondents was carried out in order to observe consistency between claimed ethical attitudes and self-reported purchase behavior across three product categories. Panel data (n = 8000) was utilized to provide a large sample on which a duplication of purchase analysis could be conducted. Results suggest many consumers claim to have ethical attitudes, but their reported purchases suggest their behavior is not consistent. Consumers who purchase fair trade brands are just as likely to purchase other, non–fair trade brands.

The Portfolio Balance Channel of Monetary Policy: Evidence from the U.S. Financial Accounts

How does monetary policy affect the balance sheet of households? This is an important question in light of the recent large scale asset purchases that have been justified on the grounds of the portfolio balance channel. Many studies have attempted to quantify the effect of these LSAPs and find evidence for the portfolio channel. Most of these studies, however, focus only on one manifestation of the portfolio channel, the change in relative yields and typically do so in the narrow context of the zero lower bound. Little is empirically known about this channel in more conventional settings. This paper attempts to fill this gap in the literature by examining the overall validity of the channel away from the zero lower bound. We do this by examining how household portfolios responded to monetary policy shocks to the monetary base and to inflation forecasts for the period 1959:Q1 – 2007:Q4. We find strong evidence that the portfolio channel is an important part of the monetary transmission mechanism.

The wealthy: A financial psychological profile.

Drawing from the theories of money ambivalence, cognitive dissonance, envy, and relative deprivation, this study sought to explore stereotypes of the wealthy. Specfically, it examined the financial psychology, demographics, and financial behaviors of a sample of wealthy individuals and a sample of other relatively high-income and high-net-worth individuals, and it compared these characteristics to see what, if any, differences exist. Results show that wealthy individuals exhibited significant psychological differences, including lower levels of money avoidance, loss aversion, and financial stress; higher levels of life and financial satisfaction, financial knowledge, internal locus of control; and a fundamental drive to follow their passions and increase their wealth. With regard to financial behaviors, the wealthy spent significantly more on their most recent purchases but were not more likely to be financially dependent on nonwork income and were not more reclusive. A deeper understanding of the wealthy can help mental-health providers better serve this population and help individuals aspiring to increase their income and net worth by challenging inaccurate beliefs about this population’s psychology and financial behaviors.

The Crowding-Out Effects of Real Estate Shocks Evidence from China

We investigate the impacts of real estate price changes on firms’ investment and financing using detailed real estate transaction data in China. China witnessed the real estate prices rise for more than a decade and recent housing purchase restriction policies enforced in 46 cities generated negative price shocks. Using both IV and DID approaches, we document that the rising real estate price causes land-holding firms to borrow more and invest more while the policy shocks work in the opposite direction. Further decomposition of investment into land and non-land investments shows that the rising real estate prices cause firms to only increase investment in land, especially commercial land, while decrease non-land investment. We next focus on a sub-sample of non-land owners and show that these firms borrow less and invest less if they are affected more by real estate price rise and the effects are reversed due to policy shocks. The results are consistent with the existence of a crowding-out effect. First, rising real estate price fosters more investment into the real estate sectors, which crowds out non-real estate investment. Second, rising real estate price enlarges the financial constraint gaps between firms with land and firms without land, which cause resource misallocation. To understand the aggregate effect, we investigate investment efficiency changes. We show that the increased investment associated with land price rises in fact reduces investment efficiency while policy shocks improve investment efficiency. The evidence showing that net effect would be negative calls for caution in the policy debate that advocates for investment stimulation through real estate boom.

Comments by Deborah Swenson, on A Multiple-Goal Investment Strategy for Sovereign Wealth Funds: An Application to China

The primary question in this paper is how should SWF managers allocate their assets, when their SWF is tasked with investing on behalf of multiple objectives? To answer this question the authors develop a new technical approach to provide guidelines that could be used by SWF managers. Then, to illustrate how their approach affects asset allocation decisions, the authors apply their model to the case of China. They also explore how their asset allocation recommendations are affected by the timeframe for the SWF goal structure (short-, medium-, and long-run) and how their asset allocation recommendations depend on the degree of risk aversion. I appreciate the clarity of the question, and the directness of the answer. Because the application of the problem is clean and the model and application matches the authors’ intended goals, the paper cannot be criticized for lacking internal consistency, or for failing to match the question and its analysis.

패스트 패션 브랜드에 대한 소비자의 구매 후 행동 - 기대불일치 모형을 중심으로 -

The purpose of this study is to apply the expectancy disconfirmation model to consumer post-purchase behavior toward fast fashion brands. This study incorporated repurchase intention as a result of consumer satisfaction. It was hypothesized that consumer satisfaction, which is influenced by expectation, perceived performance, and disconfirmation, influences repurchase intention. It was also hypothesized that expectation influences performance. This study examined the brands and prices of the most recent purchases of fast fashion and also examined whether the purchases were planned or unplanned. The hypothesized path was tested and the relative influences of instrumental and symbolic performance on satisfaction were identified. Data were collected from questionnaires answered by 344 university students who were selected by convenience sampling. The results were as follows: 1) Purchased brands were, in the order of frequency of purchase, Uniqlo, Zara, H&M, and Forever21, followed by domestic brands, 8seconds, Spao, and Mixxo. The frequency of unplanned purchase was more than twice higher than planned purchase. 2) Based on expectation and performance, dissatisfactory group was larger than satisfactory group, which were 35.8% and 24.7% respectively. 3) It was revealed from the expectancy disconfirmation model analysis that expectation and performance had positive influence, but cognitive dissonance had negative influence on satisfaction. Satisfaction had significant influence on repurchase intention. The path analysis showed that all hypothesized path coefficients were significant. The results suggest some effective marketing strategies for marketers in the fast fashion industry.

A study on the dimensions of customer expectations and their relationship with cognitive dissonance

Cognitive Dissonance is a post-purchase phenomenon where the consumers are in fix with their recent decision. It is a situation that exists when consumers who have made recent purchases feel doubts about the wisdom of their decisions. Customer expectations can be explained as the ideas and feelings of a customer about the product or service and depends on what he or she needs from the product. The relation between customers’ expectations and its relative importance in generating Cognitive Dissonance to such customers have been studied by the authors and reported in this paper. The study is conducted among the students’ belonging to the age group of 19-25 years in a University from the state of Kerala, who bought a durable product very close to the time of study (in seven days). The dimensions of customers’ expectations has been classified as expectation on quality, expectation on after sales service, expectation on customer consideration, expectation on offers/promotions, and expectation of price. The study revealed that when expectation of price, expectation of offers/promotions and expectation on after sales service are high or very strong, then the chance for cognitive dissonance are also very high, and other two expectations such as expectation on quality and expectation on customer consideration have not been found as important in generating cognitive dissonance. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4038/jm.v8i1.7547 Journal of Management 2013 8(1): 1-13

Are users’ most recent drug purchases representative?

BackgroundVarious surveys now ask respondents to describe their most recent purchase of illicit drugs, as one mechanism through which market size can be estimated. This raises the question of whether issues surrounding the timing of survey administration might make a sample of most recent purchases differ from a random sample of all purchases. We investigate these issues through a series of questions which ask about the three most recent purchases, and about drug use. MethodsData were drawn from 688 respondents in the Melbourne Injecting Drug User Cohort Study across the period 2008–2013 and 2782 respondents to the Washington Cannabis Consumption Study in 2013. Responses to questions about the most recent purchases were compared to larger subsets of all recent purchases. ResultsFor heroin, methamphetamine and cannabis no differences were found between the amount spent by participants on their most recent purchase and the average amount spent on three or more recent purchases. There were also no differences concerning the locations and types of deals, and the duration between consecutive cannabis purchases was the same for first and second most recent, and second and third most recent. ConclusionsAsking about the most recent purchase appears to be an economical way to learn about purchases more generally, with little evidence of substantial variation between the most recent purchase and other recent purchases reported by participants. In spite of consistent findings across our two surveys, further replication of the work reported in this paper involving other populations of users is warranted.

Trends in cigarette pricing and purchasing patterns in a sample of US smokers: findings from the ITC US Surveys (2002–2011)

ObjectiveThis paper examines trends in cigarette prices and corresponding purchasing patterns over a 9-year period and explores characteristics associated with the quantity and location of cigarettes purchased by adult smokers...

“Mobility-things” and consumption: conceptualizing differently mobile families on the move with recent purchases in urban space

Contemporary consumption generates mobility and even though recent understandings of consumption have moved beyond moments of purchase, it has also become complicated to discuss spatiality and mobility.1 Researchers have started to emphasize the mobilities that undergird consumer behavior and the way that virtual mobility help shape consumer practices has also been explored. But some aspects of mobility constitutive of consumption are less articulated. Focuses on the experiences of bringing items back home from the store are rare in the studies of consumption. The aim of this article is to present an understanding of differently mobile consumers on the move with recent purchases as it is negotiated in the performance of a variety of material objects or “mobility-things.” Mobility-things are co-constitutive of moving consumers in urban space and people often extend their body range, carrying capacities and ability to move across distance through enrolling devices. But they also use them for planning the route of consumption and calculating volume of goods to purchase. The results of this study point toward the important role of mobility-things in consumption and add a hitherto neglected supplement to our understanding of mundane consumer culture.

Discovering valuable frequent patterns based on RFM analysis without customer identification information

RFM analysis and market basket analysis (i.e., frequent pattern mining) are two most important tasks in database marketing. Based on customers’ historical purchasing behavior, RFM analysis can identify a valuable customer group, while market basket analysis can find interesting purchasing patterns. Previous studies reveal that recency, frequency and monetary (RFM) analysis and frequent pattern mining can be successfully integrated to discover valuable patterns, denoted as RFM-customer-patterns. However, since many retailers record transactions without collecting customer information, the RFM-customer-patterns cannot be discovered by existing approaches. Therefore, the aim of this study was to define the RFM-pattern and develop a novel algorithm to discover complete set of RFM-patterns that can approximate the set of RFM-customer-patterns without customer identification information. Instead of evaluating values of patterns from a customer point of view, this study directly measures pattern ratings by considering RFM features. An RFM-pattern is defined as a pattern that is not only occurs frequently, but involves a recent purchase and a higher percentage of revenue. This study also proposes a tree structure, called an RFM-pattern-tree, to compress and store entire transactional database, and develops a pattern growth-based algorithm, called RFMP-growth, to discover all the RFM-patterns in an RFM-pattern-tree. Experimental results show that the proposed approach is efficient and can effectively discover the greater part of RFM-customer-patterns.

Use of Silk Road, the online drug marketplace, in the United Kingdom, Australia and the United States

To investigate the prevalence of awareness of the online illicit drug marketplace Silk Road (SR), consumption of drugs purchased from SR and reasons for use and non-use of SR. Global Drug Survey: purposive sample collected in late 2012. The base sample (n = 9470) reported recent drug purchase and resided in the United Kingdom (n = 4315, median age 24, 76% male), Australia (n = 2761, median age 32, 76% male) or the United States (n = 2394, median age 21, 80% male). Online questionnaire. A total of 65% of US, 53% of Australian and 40% of UK respondents had heard of SR; 18% of US, 10% of UK and 7% of Australian respondents had consumed drugs purchased through SR. Across the three countries, 3,4-methylenedioxy-N-methylamphetamine (MDMA) was the most commonly purchased drug (53-60%), followed by cannabis (34-51%), lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) (29-45%) and the 2C family (16%-27%). The most common reasons for purchasing from SR were wider range (75-89%), better quality (72-77%), greater convenience (67-69%) and the use of vendor rating systems (60-65%). The most common reasons for avoiding SR purchase were adequate drug access (63-68%) and fear of being caught (41-53%). Logistic regressions found that, compared with people from the UK, Australians [odds ratio (OR) = 3.37; 95% confidence interval (CI) = 2.29, 4.97) and Americans (OR = 1.46; 95% CI = 1.10, 1.94) were more likely to use SR due to lower prices; and to avoid SR purchase due to fear of being caught (Australia: OR = 1.65; 95% CI = 1.39, 1.96; USA: OR = 1.62; 95% CI = 1.37, 1.92). While reasons for Silk Road use accord with broader online commerce trends (range, quality, convenience, ratings), its appeal to drug purchasers is moderated by country-specific deterrents and market characteristics.

Official Demand for U.S. Debt: Implications for U.S. Real Interest Rates

By constructing and estimating a structural arbitrage-free model of demand pressures on US real rates, we find that recent purchases of US government debt securities by the Fed and foreign officials have significantly affected the level and the dynamics of US real rates. In particular, by 2008, foreign purchases of US Treasuries are estimated to have had cumulatively reduced long term real yields by around 80 basis points. The subsequent total impact of Fed purchases in 2008-2012 has been even larger: the quantitative easing (QE) has depressed real 10-year yields by around 140 basis points. Our findings also reveal that the Fed policy interventions and foreign official purchases affect longer term real bonds mostly through a reduction in the bond premium.