nep-mkt New Economics Papers
on Marketing
Issue of 2015‒12‒01
nine papers chosen by
João Carlos Correia Leitão
Universidade da Beira Interior

  1. Is Advertising for Losers? An Empirical Study from a Value Creation– Value Capturing Perspective By Koen Tackx; Sandra Rothenberger; Paul Verdin
  2. Is There a Market for Branded Gulf of Mexico Oysters? By Petrolia, Daniel; Walton, William; Yehouenou, Lauriane
  3. Economic Incentives to Supply Safe Chicken to the National School Lunch Program By Ollinger, Michael; Bovay, John; Guthrie, Joanne; Benicio, Casiano
  4. Information Provision and Consumer Search By Jay Lu; Simon Board
  5. EMPHASIS USE ACTIVITY MARKETING IN THE BANKING SYSTEM By Valeria Arina MIRCEA (BALACEANU); Dana Gabriela SISEA
  6. Resale price maintenance in two-sided markets By Gabrielsen, Tommy S.; Johansen, Bjørn Olav; Lømo, Teis L.
  7. Net Neutrality, Vertical Integration, and Competition Between Content Providers By Juliane Fudickar
  8. Can Reputation Discipline the Gig Economy? Experimental Evidence from an Online Labor Market By Benson, Alan; Sojourner, Aaron J.; Umyarov, Akhmed
  9. Economies of Scale, the Lunch-Breakfast Ratio, and the Cost of USDA School Breakfasts and Lunches By Ollinger, Michael; Guthrie, Joanne

  1. By: Koen Tackx; Sandra Rothenberger; Paul Verdin
    Abstract: Does advertising lead to higher profits? This question has occupied both academic researchers and company executives for many decades. Arguments have gone in both directions, and evidence is mixed at best. Re-examining the question from a value creation and value capturing perspective as introduced in the strategic management and marketing literature, this article attempts to re-interpret and reconcile the different views and empirically validate the resulting hypotheses. Using a database of the top 500 brands of established companies during the period 2008–2012, we find that advertising spending has no significant impact on profitability, in contrast with brand value and innovation(the latter also positively affects brand value creation). In addition, advertising spending actually weakens the positive effect of innovation on profitability. These findings provide support for the view that advertising in and of itself does not improve profitability. Rather, its effect is positive only when it acts to support customer value creation, based on brand value and/or innovation activities.
    Keywords: advertising effectiveness; brand value; effectiveness of research and development; profitability drivers; innovation; value creation; value capturing
    JEL: M10 M20 M30
    Date: 2015–08–28
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sol:wpaper:2013/208406&r=mkt
  2. By: Petrolia, Daniel; Walton, William; Yehouenou, Lauriane
    Abstract: We administered an online choice experiment to a sample of U.S. raw oyster consumers to identify factors influencing preferences for Gulf of Mexico oysters, and to estimate willingness-to-pay for specific attributes, including harvest location / brand, price, size, taste (saltiness), and cultivation method (wild vs. farm-raised). This work was complemented by taste panels conducted in Point Clear (Alabama), Houston, and Chicago. During taste panels, local branded varieties dominate consumer choice, although these same varieties fare no better than other varieties under blind taste-tests. Online survey results indicate that Non-Gulf respondents are likely to require a price discount on Gulf varieties relative to local varieties, on the order of $3-9 per half-dozen, depending on the specific variety and other factors. Although most Gulf respondents chose the cheaper generic Gulf oyster over branded Gulf varieties, we still estimate positive price premia for branded Gulf varieties of up to $5 per half-dozen.
    Keywords: branding, choice experiment, consumer preferences, economics, labeling, survey, willingness to pay, Consumer/Household Economics, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Marketing, D12, Q22,
    Date: 2015–11
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:misswp:212482&r=mkt
  3. By: Ollinger, Michael; Bovay, John; Guthrie, Joanne; Benicio, Casiano
    Abstract: This report examines the food safety performance of establishments supplying raw chicken to the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) through the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Agricultural Marketing Service’s (AMS) Poultry Products Purchase Program over 2006–12. This report focuses on the effectiveness of reputation as an incentive for producers to control Salmonella. To sell chicken through the Poultry Products Purchase Program, establishments must be registered with AMS and be in compliance with the standards imposed on all slaughter establishments by the USDA, Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS). Suppliers may exceed the FSIS standard, depending on their incentives. Raw chicken suppliers to AMS for the NSLP have an incentive to attain strong performance on Salmonella tests in order to ensure that they do not suffer product recalls, which, being associated with a highly visible customer, could harm their reputations for food safety and adversely affect profitability. However, suppliers also have an incentive to reduce costs, including those associated with food safety practices, to improve their profit margins. Findings indicate that AMS supplier concerns about increased scrutiny and the associated reputation effects when supplying the NSLP offset any incentive to underinvest in food safety to lower the costs of production.
    Keywords: food safety, chicken, Salmonella, National School Lunch Program, regulation, probit analyses, Agribusiness, Agricultural and Food Policy, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Health Economics and Policy, Industrial Organization, Marketing,
    Date: 2015–11
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:uersrr:212888&r=mkt
  4. By: Jay Lu (Cornell University); Simon Board (University of California - Los Angeles)
    Abstract: Buyers often search across multiple retailers or websites to learn which product best fits their needs. We study how sellers manage these search incentives through their disclosure policies (e.g. advertisements, product trials and reviews), and ask whether competition leads sellers to provide more information. We first show that if sellers can track buyers (e.g. they can observe buyers' search history via their cookies), then in a broad range of environments, there is a unique equilibrium in which all sellers provide the 'monopoly level' of information. However, if buyers are anonymous and the search cost is small, then all sellers provide full information about their products. Tracking software thus enables sellers to implicitly collude, providing a motivation for regulation.
    Date: 2015
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:red:sed015:1427&r=mkt
  5. By: Valeria Arina MIRCEA (BALACEANU) (Faculty of Economics, Ecological University of Bucharest); Dana Gabriela SISEA (Faculty of Economics, Ecological University of Bucharest)
    Abstract: XXI Century came with major changes in all fields, but especially in domestic and international banking. In the future, banking marketing will be increasingly influenced by the evolution of gross and structure of banking activities, both national and international. Today, the banking sector is a buyer's market. The organization of marketing activities determines the performance of the banking institution in the market, therefore, the creation and development of optimal organizational structure becomes an imperative of the time. Marketing research provide informational support needed at all stages of decision making. Through the use of concepts, methods and techniques of market research is done specifying the measurement, collection, analysis and interpretation of marketing information. All this leads to a better understanding of the environment in which the banking institution, and for identifying opportunities, evaluating alternative marketing actions and their effects. Marketing research on the banking market is a complex process that includes two basic directions: banking market research and market strategy development and implementation.
    Keywords: lending, credit policy, individual credit risk, global credit risk management
    JEL: M31 G21
    Date: 2014–01
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eub:wp2014:2014-07&r=mkt
  6. By: Gabrielsen, Tommy S. (Department of Economics, University of Bergen); Johansen, Bjørn Olav (Department of Economics, University of Bergen); Lømo, Teis L. (Department of Economics, University of Bergen)
    Abstract: In many two-sided markets, platforms use intermediary agents to reach consumers at one side of the market. In addition to the usual externalities in two-sided markets, the use of agents creates an additional externality for the platforms. We study if and how competing platforms can internalize the externalities by imposing resale price maintenance (RPM) on the agents. By the appropriate use of RPM, the platforms can induce the fully integrated outcome. Using a speci…c example, we show that consumers’surplus is reduced when the equilibrium involves the use of minimum RPM, and consumers benefi…t when maximum RPM is used.
    Keywords: Two-sided markets; resale price maintenance
    JEL: L13 L41 L42
    Date: 2015–11–25
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:bergec:2015_008&r=mkt
  7. By: Juliane Fudickar (Freie Universität Berlin)
    Abstract: This paper investigates the effects of a net neutrality regulation on the competition between content providers and the investment incentives of the internet service provider. We consider a situation where the monopoly internet service provider is vertically integrated with one of the content providers, and content providers compete in prices. Without net neutrality the vertical integrated firm can prioritise the delivery of its own content. We find that, under prioritisation, the integrated internet service provider and consumers as a whole are unambiguously better off. The competing content providers might also be better off under prioritisation if the congestion intensity is high. From a social welfare perspective prioritisation is also desirable unless product differentiation and congestion intensity are low. Contrary to some claims by internet service providers, we find that investment incentives are not always higher under prioritisation.
    Keywords: Vertical integration, Network neutrality, Competition, Investment
    JEL: L13 L41 L42 L88
    Date: 2015–09–07
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bdp:wpaper:2015014&r=mkt
  8. By: Benson, Alan (University of Minnesota); Sojourner, Aaron J. (University of Minnesota); Umyarov, Akhmed (University of Minnesota)
    Abstract: In two experiments, we examine the effects of employer reputation in an online labor market (Amazon Mechanical Turk) in which employers may decline to pay workers while keeping their work product. First, in an audit study of employers by a blinded worker, we find that working only for good employers yields 40% higher wages. Second, in an experiment that varied reputation, we find that good-reputation employers attract work of the same quality but at twice the rate as bad-reputation employers. This is the first clean, field evidence on the value of employer reputation. It can serve as collateral against opportunism in the absence of contract enforcement.
    Keywords: labor, personnel, contracts, online labor markets, job search, screening, reputation, online ratings
    JEL: L14 M55 J41 J2 L86 D82 K12 K42
    Date: 2015–11
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp9501&r=mkt
  9. By: Ollinger, Michael; Guthrie, Joanne
    Abstract: Through USDA’s National School Lunch and Breakfast Programs, schools receive financial support to assist them in serving nutritious meals to students. Meal reimbursements are provided to a school food authority (SFA) on the basis of a child’s financial need, allowing schools to provide healthy meals to low-income students for free or at a reduced price. Reimbursement rates are set nationwide, yet variation in school location, size, and other factors may influence the costs to schools for providing meals, with implications for the adequacy of reimbursement. Previous ERS research using data from the 2002-03 school year found that school food service costs vary by location. This study uses those same data to build on that research by examining breakfast and lunch costs separately to assess how economies of scale and the balance between the number of breakfasts and lunches served affect costs. Costs of both breakfasts and lunches vary considerably across SFAs. Economies of scale exist for both breakfasts and lunches but are much stronger for breakfasts. The balance between breakfasts and lunches served also affects costs, with the cost per breakfast dropping dramatically as the number of breakfasts and lunches served become more balanced.
    Keywords: National School Lunch Program, School Breakfast Program, school meals, school food service costs per meal, Agribusiness, Agricultural and Food Policy, Community/Rural/Urban Development, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Food Security and Poverty, Industrial Organization,
    Date: 2015–11
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:uersrr:212480&r=mkt

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