A variety of movements and social pressure have driven the need for an increase in environmental awareness, and subsequently fuels the need for individuals to reduce their ecological footprint. Firms are now trying to implement 'eco-friendly' technologies that both build and run their products. How these 'eco-friendly' products will perform in the market is strongly tied to a variety of consumer related influences and decisions, as well as personality type. This thesis presents a model of varied social influence on consumer markets. First we show how varied playing characteristics amongst opponents in the Iterated Prisoner's Dilemma yields a different distribution of strategies. Utilizing two variations of IPD, we map scores to edges based on the agents involved in each edge as one construct of influence. Other types of influence include a homogeneous influence, and a zero influence for comparison of results. We also introduce the Rate of Social Mobility as a basis for initializing random social movement in a network. We show that the social influence of the network in the consumer market plays a vital role in the dynamics of product adoption. In closing we discuss future model refinements, and advances.

We construct and examine a model of adoption of a product or policy using, firstly, a system of differential equations and then secondly, through simulation, an agent- based model. Awareness must come before adoption, and we model this as a simple epidemic type model, where information is spread through advertising and contact with other agents in the population. Adoption is then conditional on awareness and occurs only if the agent finds the perceived cost acceptable. After simulating the system using an agent-based model, we introduce heterogeneity through the model parameters, which are then considered individual attributes and include influence rates, effectiveness of advertising, price sensitivity, and speed of adoption. We also examine the effects of various network topologies by organizing individuals into lattice and preferential attachment networks. From there, we add two extra components to the adoption mechanism by introducing a social influence factor by which an agent can be influenced by the adoption patterns of their neighbourhood, as well as a green factor, which assumes an environmental product or policy being adopted and is the likelihood that an individual will adopt based on environmental reasons alone.

Yes / Throughout the developed world, consumers are increasingly being encouraged to adopt cleaner, more eco-friendly behaviours. However, hybrid car adoption remains low, which impedes the move towards a lower carbon economy. In this paper, we examine the risks and drivers of hybrid car purchases, drawing on consumer behaviour and cultural dimensions theory to account for the heterogeneous, segmented nature of the market. As risk perceptions differ across cultures, and in order to address the lack of cross cultural research on eco-friendly cars, we focus on Australian, South Korean, and Japanese consumers. Based on a survey of 817 respondents we examine how five types of risk (social, psychological, time, financial, and network externalities) and three factors that drive purchasing behaviour (product advantages, product attractiveness, and product superiority) influence consumers perceptions of hybrid cars. Four segments of consumers are identified (pessimists, realists, optimists, and casualists) that also vary according to their environmental self-image, and underlying cultural values. Our results extend theory by incorporating self-image and cultural dimension theories into a multi-country analysis of the risks and drivers of hybrid car adoption. Our findings have practical implications in terms of marketing strategies and potential policy interventions aimed at mitigating risk perceptions and promoting the factors that drive hybrid car adoption.

Diese Dissertation analysiert das optimale Zusammenspiel dynamischer Preissetzung, dynamischer Werbung und Bestandsmanagement. Wir betrachten verschiedene Optimierungsprobleme für einen monopolistischen Händler bei gegebener zeitabhängiger deterministischer Nachfrage. In Kapitel 2 erweitern wir das Modell von Rajan et al. (1992). Der Händler darf einen dynamischen Preis, eine dynamische Werberate und die Lagergröße bei fester Verkaufsdauer wählen, so dass der Barwert von Umsatz minus Lager-, Einkaufs- und (nichtlinearen) Werbekosten maximiert wird; zusätzlich zerfällt der Lagerbestand mit exponentieller Rate. Wir ermitteln die optimale Preis-Werbe-Steuerung und die optimale Lagergröße und betrachten auch semi-statische Situationen. Wir führen eine Sensitivitätsanalyse im Hinblick auf den Einfluss der Modellparameter auf die optimalen Ergebnisse durch und vergleichen die Ergebnisse des dynamischen Modells mit denen der semi-statischen Modelle. In Kapitel 3 interpretieren wir den Verkaufsprozess als gesteuerten Diffusionsprozess eines neuen Produktes und die Lagergröße als unerschlossenen Marktanteil. Der Anfangszustand ist exogen gegeben und die Nachfrage hängt zusätzlich vom gegenwärtigen Zustand des Systems ab. Ein Zerfall des Lagerbestandes und alle Kosten bis auf Werbekosten sind ausgenommen. Anders als in Helmes et al. (2013) leiten wir die optimale Steuerung mithilfe des Pontrjaginschen Maximumprinzips her. Als Anwendung betrachten wir das Modell von von Bertalanffy. In Kapitel 4 erweitern wir die Analyse von einperiodigen Modellen auf langfristige Modelle. Die Länge des Verkaufszyklus und die Lagergröße sind Entscheidungsvariablen, wobei die optimalen Steuerungen aus Kapitel 2 bzw. Kapitel 3 während eines Zyklus angewandt werden. Existenzbedingungen für ein optimales Paar aus Zykluslänge und Lagergröße werden hergeleitet. Wir analysieren verschiedene Anwendungs- und Illustrationsbeispiele und verifizieren Strukturaussagen der optimalen Entscheidungsgrößen. / This dissertation analyzes the optimal coordination of dynamic pricing, dynamic advertising, and inventory management. We consider different optimization problems for a monopolistic retailer who faces a time-dependent deterministic demand. In Chapter 2, we generalize the model of Rajan et al. (1992). The retailer is allowed to choose a dynamic price, a dynamic advertising rate, and the inventory capacity for a sales period of fixed length so that the present value of revenue minus inventory, purchasing and (nonlinear) advertising costs is maximized; in addition, the inventory deteriorates at an exponential rate. We derive the optimal dynamic price-advertising control and the optimal capacity and also consider partially static cases. For the optimally controlled dynamic model we carry out a sensitivity analysis with respect to the model parameters and we compare the results of the dynamic model with those of the partially static models. In Chapter 3, we interpret the sales process as the controlled adoption process of a new product and the inventory capacity as untapped market share. The initial state is assumed to be exogenously given and the demand depends on the current state of the system. We exclude, however, deterioration effects and any other costs but the cost of advertising. We derive the optimal controls using a different technique than Helmes et al. (2013) - we apply Pontryagin’s maximum principle. As an interesting application we consider the controlled von Bertalanffy model. In Chapter 4, we extend the analysis of one-period models to multi-period and longterm average models. Assuming that the optimal controls derived in Chapter 2 and Chapter 3 are applied throughout a cycle, we treat the cycle length and the capacity as decision variables. We derive conditions that ensure the existence of an optimal pair of cycle length and capacity. Various examples and illustrations are given, and structural properties of the optimal pair are verified.