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Online cash grain exchange: examining factors impacting the level of webbased trades and potential future adoption of mobile technologyHeikes, Kevin January 1900 (has links)
Master of Agribusiness / Department of Agricultural Economics / Jason Bergtold / In the grain industry, producers have sold grain for a long time over the telephone. This
thesis suggests significant changes in grain marketing strategies and why other methods of
selling grain may help both producers and grain merchandisers be more effective with cash
grain transactions. Specifically, the use of web-based applications that allow growers to
make, manage and monitor grain offers and use mobile technology for grain marketing
solutions.
This thesis evaluates two key technology options for agricultural producers. First, the
research evaluates factors that impact traded bushels on Farms Technology’s private
internet technology trading platform, the Dynamic Pricing Platform (DPP). The second
element of the research defines a model which examines likelihood of growers adopting
mobile trading technology to increase grain marketing opportunities. A thorough
understanding of these two marketing platforms will allow Farms Technology to increase
the number of growers opting to use technology to execute cash grain sales, which is
financially beneficial to the company.
Results indicate that a number of online variables significantly impact online grain trade, in
addition to factors that specifically influence the potential adoption of mobile technology
by agricultural producers. Results help quantify many insights which Farms Technology
has developed in relation to online grade trading and uncovered future possibilities in the
online grade trading industry. Statically significant factors that impact grain traded on the
DPP include: acres (farm size), on-farm storage, percent of grain sold over the phone, offered bushels, and whether or not farmers received text messages. With respect to
mobile application adoption, results identified factors that significantly and positively
impact the likelihood of mobile adoption, including: farmers with no cell phone, farmers
that are currently receiving text messages, farmers owning a smart phone, and customer
service rating for Farms Technology by the farmer. Variables that significantly and
negatively impacted mobile adoption included: farmers currently selling on the DPP and
farmers who believe the online DPP application is too difficult to use.
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Strategies to Sustain Small Businesses Beyond 5 YearsWani, Kayaso Cosmas 01 January 2018 (has links)
According to the U.S. Small Business Association, the failure rates for small businesses in 2014 were as high as 50% to 80% within the first 5 years of establishment. The purpose for this multiple case study was to explore the strategies that small business owners have used to sustain their businesses beyond 5 years. Guided by entrepreneurship theory as the conceptual framework, and a purposive sampling method, this qualitative case study used semistructured interviews with 3 successful, small, ethnic grocery business owners in Anchorage, AK to better understand small business strategies for survival. Member checking and triangulation with field notes, interview data, business websites, customer comments, and government documents helped ensure theoretical saturation and trustworthiness of interpretations. Using pre-coded themes for the data analysis, the 8 themes from this study were entrepreneur characteristics, education and management skills, financial planning, marketing strategies and competitive advantages, social networks and human relationships, technology and innovation, government supports and social responsibility, and motivational influence. Two key results indicated the strategies needed for small business owners were entrepreneur management skills and government support for small businesses. These findings may influence positive social change by improving small business owner competence and sustainability, rising higher business incomes, providing a better quality of life to employees and their communities welfare benefiting the entire U.S. economy.
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Dynamic Demand for New and Used Durable Goods without Physical DepreciationIshihara, Masakazu 31 August 2011 (has links)
This thesis studies the interaction between new and used durable goods without physical depreciation. In product categories such as CDs/DVDs and video games, the competition from used goods markets has been viewed as a serious problem by producers. These products physically depreciate negligibly, but owners'
consumption values could depreciate quickly due to satiation. Consequently, used goods that are almost identical to new goods may become available immediately after a new product release. However, the existence of used goods markets also provides consumers with a selling opportunity. If consumers are forward-looking and account for the future resale value of a product in their buying decision, used goods markets could increase the sales of new goods. Thus, whether used good markets are harmful or beneficial to new-good producers is an empirical question.
To tackle this question, I extend the previous literature in three ways. First, I assemble a new data set from the Japanese video game market. This unique data set includes not only the sales and prices of new and used goods, but also the resale value of used copies, the quantity of used copies retailers purchased from consumers, and the inventory level of used copies at retailers. Second, I develop a structural model of forward-looking consumers that incorporates (i) new and used goods buying decisions, (ii) used goods selling decisions, (iii) consumer expectations about future prices of new and used goods as well as resale values of used goods, and (iv) the depreciation of both owners' and potential buyers' consumption values. Third, I develop a new Bayesian estimation method to estimate my model. In particular, my method can alleviate the
computational burden of estimating non-stationary discrete choice dynamic programming models with continuous state variables that evolve stochastically over time.
The estimation results suggest that consumers are forward-looking in the Japanese video game market and the substitutability between new and used video games is quite low. Using the estimates, I quantify the impact of eliminating the used video game market on new-game revenues. I find that the elimination of used video game market could reduce the revenue for a new game.
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Dynamic Demand for New and Used Durable Goods without Physical DepreciationIshihara, Masakazu 31 August 2011 (has links)
This thesis studies the interaction between new and used durable goods without physical depreciation. In product categories such as CDs/DVDs and video games, the competition from used goods markets has been viewed as a serious problem by producers. These products physically depreciate negligibly, but owners'
consumption values could depreciate quickly due to satiation. Consequently, used goods that are almost identical to new goods may become available immediately after a new product release. However, the existence of used goods markets also provides consumers with a selling opportunity. If consumers are forward-looking and account for the future resale value of a product in their buying decision, used goods markets could increase the sales of new goods. Thus, whether used good markets are harmful or beneficial to new-good producers is an empirical question.
To tackle this question, I extend the previous literature in three ways. First, I assemble a new data set from the Japanese video game market. This unique data set includes not only the sales and prices of new and used goods, but also the resale value of used copies, the quantity of used copies retailers purchased from consumers, and the inventory level of used copies at retailers. Second, I develop a structural model of forward-looking consumers that incorporates (i) new and used goods buying decisions, (ii) used goods selling decisions, (iii) consumer expectations about future prices of new and used goods as well as resale values of used goods, and (iv) the depreciation of both owners' and potential buyers' consumption values. Third, I develop a new Bayesian estimation method to estimate my model. In particular, my method can alleviate the
computational burden of estimating non-stationary discrete choice dynamic programming models with continuous state variables that evolve stochastically over time.
The estimation results suggest that consumers are forward-looking in the Japanese video game market and the substitutability between new and used video games is quite low. Using the estimates, I quantify the impact of eliminating the used video game market on new-game revenues. I find that the elimination of used video game market could reduce the revenue for a new game.
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An Empirical Analysis of Publicity and Advertising under Quality UncertaintyLim, Hyunwoo 17 December 2012 (has links)
Quality of a prescription drug is uncertain to patients, physicians and even the manufacturer of the drug. Because this uncertainty can deter physicians from prescribing the drug, it is important to investigate how various marketing communication activities help reveal the true quality of its product. In particular, this study investigates publicity and advertising under quality uncertainty. Chapter 1 studies the effect of publicity on consumer demand with a reduced form approach. Chapter 2 structurally investigates the roles of detailing and publicity when the information spill-over is present. Both chapters study the market of anti-cholesterol drugs (statins).
Chapter 1 investigates the effects of publicity (media coverage) on consumer demand. The main obstacle to measuring the impact of publicity is that data on media coverage are difficult to interpret. To overcome this obstacle, we propose a new way to code information presented in news articles, mapping the information to a multi-dimensional attribute space. We combine our publicity data with data on sales, detailing, medical journal advertising, direct-to-consumer advertising (DTCA) and landmark clinical trial outcomes, and estimate a demand model. Our results suggest that not all forms of publicity are equal.
In chapter 2, we study consumer learning about scientific evidence and its impact on demand for pharmaceutical products by using the Bayesian learning model. Unlike previous literature, our learning model allows consumer’s prior quality perceptions to be correlated across brands. This unique feature of the model allows us to investigate information spill-over effects across brands. The information spill-over allows late entrants to free-ride on first movers’ investment in clinical trials and marketing activities and to gain late mover advantage. In addition to using product level market share data, we supplement them with switching rates and discontinuing rates. The switching rate data are particularly useful for taking the presence of switching costs into consideration, which has been ignored in the literature using product-level data. Our estimated structural model has implications for managers in allocating resources to various types of marketing activities more efficiently and helps forecast returns of clinical trials that are sponsored by pharmaceutical firms.
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An Empirical Analysis of Publicity and Advertising under Quality UncertaintyLim, Hyunwoo 17 December 2012 (has links)
Quality of a prescription drug is uncertain to patients, physicians and even the manufacturer of the drug. Because this uncertainty can deter physicians from prescribing the drug, it is important to investigate how various marketing communication activities help reveal the true quality of its product. In particular, this study investigates publicity and advertising under quality uncertainty. Chapter 1 studies the effect of publicity on consumer demand with a reduced form approach. Chapter 2 structurally investigates the roles of detailing and publicity when the information spill-over is present. Both chapters study the market of anti-cholesterol drugs (statins).
Chapter 1 investigates the effects of publicity (media coverage) on consumer demand. The main obstacle to measuring the impact of publicity is that data on media coverage are difficult to interpret. To overcome this obstacle, we propose a new way to code information presented in news articles, mapping the information to a multi-dimensional attribute space. We combine our publicity data with data on sales, detailing, medical journal advertising, direct-to-consumer advertising (DTCA) and landmark clinical trial outcomes, and estimate a demand model. Our results suggest that not all forms of publicity are equal.
In chapter 2, we study consumer learning about scientific evidence and its impact on demand for pharmaceutical products by using the Bayesian learning model. Unlike previous literature, our learning model allows consumer’s prior quality perceptions to be correlated across brands. This unique feature of the model allows us to investigate information spill-over effects across brands. The information spill-over allows late entrants to free-ride on first movers’ investment in clinical trials and marketing activities and to gain late mover advantage. In addition to using product level market share data, we supplement them with switching rates and discontinuing rates. The switching rate data are particularly useful for taking the presence of switching costs into consideration, which has been ignored in the literature using product-level data. Our estimated structural model has implications for managers in allocating resources to various types of marketing activities more efficiently and helps forecast returns of clinical trials that are sponsored by pharmaceutical firms.
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The impact of emotion on the formation of customers’ repeat visit intentions in the lodging industryHan, Heesup January 1900 (has links)
Master of Science / Department of Hotel, Restaurant, Institution Management & Dietetics / Ki-Joon Back / The objectives of this research were to address the impacts of positive and negative emotions on customers’ satisfaction and customers’ repeat visit intentions, and to investigate the mediating effect of customer satisfaction on the relationship between emotion and customers’ repeat visit intentions. A theoretical model of the formation of repeat visit intentions was proposed through a comprehensive review of the literature.
Richins’ Consumption Emotion Set (1997) was modified to make it suitable for application in the lodging industry. The modifications were based on the participants’ responses to each emotion descriptor in the pilot test. Surveys were completed by graduate students and faculty members, undergraduate students at a Midwestern university, and conference attendees. Of 259 surveys returned, 248 responses were used for data analysis. Data were analyzed using factor analysis and a series of regression analysis.
Positive and negative consumption emotions were found to have a significant effect on customer satisfaction and repeat visit intentions. Results also provided evidence of a significant association between customer satisfaction and repeat visit intentions. Customer satisfaction was found to be a full mediator in the relationship between customers’ positive and negative consumption emotions and repeat visit intentions.
The loss aversion of the prospect theory was empirically supported in the formation of customers’ repeat visit intentions since results indicate that negative emotion has a greater influence on customer satisfaction and customers’ repeat visit intentions. Results support the importance of considering the impact of customers’ emotions on post-purchasing behaviors when developing better marketing and service strategies to achieve higher occupancy rate and retain customers.
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Determining effective communication strategies for Kansas wheat producers to improve willingness to pay for servicesBoswell, Marsha January 1900 (has links)
Master of Agribusiness / Department of Agricultural Economics / Vincent R. Amanor-Boadu / The Kansas Wheat Commission and the Kansas Association of Wheat Growers offer a number of services to Kansas wheat producers. Kansas wheat producers will be willing to pay more if they perceive they are getting more value from the Kansas wheat organizations. However, Kansas wheat producers are unaware of what the Kansas wheat organizations are doing on their behalf. It is believed that if Kansas wheat producers were more aware of what their organizations were doing on their behalf, they would be willing to contribute more. The overall objective is to improve Kansas wheat producer knowledge of Kansas Wheat activities.
A survey of Kansas wheat producers provided data about willingness to pay, importance of services, channel preferences and producer demographics.
Funds provided by the Kansas wheat assessment are used for a number of projects and programs. Current programs can be categorized into four areas: research; education, communications, and meetings supporting Kansas wheat growers; domestic market development; and international market development. When asked to rank those four areas from highest to lowest priority, respondents overwhelmingly chose research as the highest priority investment of the Kansas wheat assessment.
The survey results indicated that Kansas wheat producers were willing to pay an amount above the current level of 10 mills per bushel for the Kansas wheat assessment. The mean response was 12.42 mills. Members of the Kansas Association of Wheat Growers were willing to pay more for the assessment (15.13 mills per bushel) than non-members.
In general, radio is the preferred channel of Kansas wheat producers; however, the two most listed publications and radio stations they rely on for information about wheat were High Plains Journal (33%) and Kansas Farmer (30%), both industry publications.
Other producer demographics such as location in the state, type of producer, and acreage also affect producers' willingness to pay.
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The millennial generation and wine purchasing beliefs in casual dining restaurantsThompson, Kelly R. January 1900 (has links)
Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Hospitality Management and Dietetics / Elizabeth B. Barrett / The primary purposes of this research were to 1) use the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB)to assess Millennial generation wine consumers attitudes, perceived behavioral controls, and subjective norms related to purchasing wine in casual dining restaurants (CDR), and 2) use Conjoint Analysis (CA) to analyze Millennials’ preferences for wine information on the restaurant menu. An instrument was designed based on the TPB and CA and was sent online to 216 consumers using the database of a market research firm (e-rewards).
Independent variables (attitude, perceived behavioral control, and subjective norms) were analyzed to predict behavioral intentions to purchase wine. Principal component analysis was combined with multiple linear regression to assess intention. Results identified attitudes and subjective norms as being significant in predicting behavioral intention, perceived behavioral controls was partially significant. Millennial’s believe ordering wine with their friends and family in casual dining restaurants will make them feel smart and sophisticated and will increase the enjoyment of food. However, they do not believe wine consumption is appropriate in CDR’s; they had strong perceptions that wine is purchased for special occasions and consumed in fine dining restaurants.
Part II of the study employed conjoint analysis to determine Millennials preferences for wine information on the menu. Results indicated that Millennials prefer menus that provide wine/food pairing information, wine flavor descriptors located near food listings and quality wines at an affordable price.
Millennials attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral controls support previous research that this generation is interested in wine and wine is a social experience that increases their enjoyment of food and time spent with their friends and family. Through the use of CA, the present study suggests wine information on the menu is important to this segment of consumers. Additional research should be conducted to understand the stereotypes this generation has about wine consumption in casual dining restaurants. These operators and owners should consider focusing their marketing efforts showing Millennials enjoying wine while celebrating special occasions with their friends and family. In addition, redeveloping menus in their operations to add wine information may increase interest in wine and generate profit.
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Contrasting multiple models of brand equity’s role in consumer decision makingHilgenkamp, Heather January 1900 (has links)
Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Psychological Sciences / Gary Brase / Brand Equity is a common phrase in consumer research, but there is still a lot of ambiguity surrounding the measurement of this concept (Keller, 2008). Several methods of measurement have been proposed over the years, but no one method has been adopted as the ideal way to predict purchase intent and measure brand equity. The current research tested three theories—Social Exchange Theory (SET), Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), and the Yoo and Donthu model—to see which is the best predictor of purchase intent and brand equity. SET assumes consumers weigh the costs and rewards of purchasing the product. TPB uses consumers’ attitudes over purchasing the product, subjective norms of what others would do, and the perceived behavioral control consumers have in actually purchasing the product. The Yoo and Donthu model has been used most often of the three theories in measuring brand equity and includes measures of brand loyalty, perceived quality, brand awareness/associations, and overall brand equity.
Study 1 assessed consumer durable products (TV and athletic shoes) and Study 2 assessed consumer non-durable products (soap and toothpaste). Consumers evaluated these products online based on a picture of the product, the brand name, price, customer reviews, quality ratings, and an advertisement and then indicated their likelihood to purchase the product. Theory of Planned Behavior was the best predictor of purchase intent across all four products assessed indicating that consumers look at external factors such as what others would do as well as how much control they have over purchasing the product as much as they consider their own attitudes.
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