Does What Happens in Virtual Worlds Stay in Virtual Worlds? a Theory of Planned Behavior Approach to the Examination of Cognitive Transference in Virtual Marketing Channels

Online virtual environments, such as Second Life, are emerging as potential marketing channels that may affect consumer cognitions (e.g., beliefs, attitudes, behaviors). The Theory of Planned Behavior model is employed and extended in this paper for explaining how virtual world brand experience affects real world purchase intentions and behavior. Survey data is collected from users of the popular virtual world Second Life. The study results indicate that virtual world behavior may impact real world intentions and behavior. Selfimage congruency and perceived diagnosticity are found to strengthen the relationship between virtual world behavior and real world purchase intentions

The Impact of Online Influence Strategies on Consumer Response and Privacy Expectations

Identifying effective strategies for encouraging individuals to disclose their personal information on the Internet is important for marketers. In today\u27s informationbased economy, access to consumer data is imperative for organizations in conducting marketing activities. However, the extant privacy literature has found conflicting results regarding the effectiveness of safety cues (e.g., privacy policies) and rewards (e.g., discounts) for encouraging consumers to provide their personal information to Web sites (Andrade et al. 2002). There is also scant research on the implications of compensating consumers for their information, and its subsequent impact on privacy control expectations. This dissertation consists of two essays that examine how consumers respond to marketers\u27 strategies for encouraging self-disclosure on the Internet, and how these strategies affect expectations for privacy control. Essay 1 employs regulatory focus theory for investigating the impact of consumers\u27 goals (privacy protection vs. acquisition of benefits) on how they respond to marketers’ online influence strategies and brand reputation. The use of safety cues, rewards, and brand reputation have been identified in vii the privacy literature as important factors that influence consumers\u27 trust, privacy concern, and willingness to provide personal information (Milne and Culnan 2004). Essay 2 draws on theories of social exchange and social contracts for examining how the value and type of compensation received influences the degree to which consumers believe they own the information provided to marketers and their expectations for control over how their information is used. Although consumers frequently trade their personal information for benefits online, it has been suggested in the privacy literature that the point at which consumers own and control information about themselves and when that information becomes the property of marketers is unclear (Sheehan and Hoy 2000). This dissertation employs a mixed methods approach that includes a series of scenario-based experiments using survey panel data, and in-depth interviews. The results of essay 1 provide evidence of the importance of consumer goals in decisions to disclose personal information to marketers. Findings from essay 2 reveal that privacy exchanges may affect the degree to which consumers believe ownership and control over their information is shared with marketers

Delayed information flow effect in economy systems. An ACP model study

Applying any strategy requires some knowledge about the past state of the system. Unfortunately in the case of economy collecting information is a difficult, expensive and time consuming process. Therefore the information about the system is known at the end of some well defined intervals, e. g. company reports, inflation data, GDP etc. They describe a (market) situation in the past. The time delay is specific to the market branch. It can be very short (e.g. stock market offer is updated every minute or so and this information is immediately available) or long, like months in the case of agricultural market, when the decisions are taken based on the results from the previous harvest. The analysis of the information flow delay can be based on the ACP model of spatial evolution of economic systems. The entities can move on a square lattice and when meeting take one of the two following decisions: merge or create a new entity. The decision is based on the system state, which is known with some time delay. The effect of system's feedback is investigated. We consider the case of company distribution evolution in a heterogenous field. The information flow time delay implies different final states, including cycles.Comment: Presented at APFA

A logistic map approach to economic cycles I. The best adapted companies

A birth-death lattice gas model about the influence of an environment on the fitness and concentration evolution of economic entities is analytically examined. The model can be mapped onto a high order logistic map. The control parameter is a (scalar) "business plan". Conditions are searched for growth and decay processes, stable states, upper and lower bounds, bifurcations, periodic and chaotic solutions. The evolution equation of the economic population for the best fitted companies indicates "microscopic conditions" for cycling. The evolution of a dynamic exponent is shown as a function of the business plan parameters.Comment: 10 pages, 5 postscript figure

Learning, heterogeneity, and complexity in the new Keynesian model

We present a New Keynesian model in which a fraction n of agents are fully rational, and a fraction 1 − n of agents are bounded rational. After deriving a simple reduced form, we demonstrate that the Taylor condition is sufficient for determinacy and stability, both when the proportion of fully rational agents is held fixed, and when it is allowed to vary according to reinforcement learning. However, this result relies on the absence of persistence in the monetary policy rule, and we demonstrate that the Taylor condition is not sufficient for determinacy and stability in the presence of interest rate smoothing. For monetary policy rules that imply indeterminacy, we demonstrate the existence of limit cycles via Hopf bifurcation, and explore a rational route to randomness numerically. Our results support the broader literature on behavioural New Keynesian models, in which the Taylor condition is known to be a useful guide to monetary policy, despite not always being sufficient for determinacy and/or stability

Handel - Wozu?

The analysis of steady state paths in the dynamic 2 x 2 x 2-model of international trade leads to the following results: (a) trade may lower the per capita consumtion, (b) trading partners cannot simultaneously increase their per capita consumption as compared to the optimal path in autarky, (c) if both trading partners simultaneously maximize their per capita consumption trade will vanish. A game-theoretic analysis of these results proofs that a Wash-equilibrium in pure strategies exists. For general equilibrium paths optimal time profiles for per capita consumption can be derived. By introducing differential games into this model the Heckscher-Ohlin model can be generalized. Different rates of time preference will lead to international trade in the long run. The lower rate is in the long run associated with the higher capital labour ratio and with the export of the capital intensive commodity