Optimal Incentives to Foster Cross Selling: An Economic Analysis

Cross selling is the practice of selling additional products to an existing customer. It has the potential to boost revenues and can be beneficial for both the company and the customer. For many multi-divisional companies with product or service oriented organizational structures the attempt to realize the benefits of cross selling generates incentive problems. In this thesis, three problems spread over three business levels are identified. Firstly, management needs to (financially) motivate business units in fostering their cross selling efforts. Secondly, in order to make cross selling happen, business units need to cooperate and to exchange product-related information. Finally, in order to increase their short-term benefits business units might act opportunistically by selling products or services of other business units without paying attention to adding value for their customers. These incentive problems are theoretically examined by applying principal-agent theory and the theory of repeated games. Our findings suggest that an optimized incentive structure is required to make both the business units and the management better off. The thesis also analyses the circumstances and necessary prerequisites under which cross selling initiatives are beneficial for all involved parties. Apart from that cross selling sometimes may turn out to be non-beneficial. In addition to the elaborations above, risks and hazards of cross selling are presented in detail and applied for the extension of the underlying model. Bottom line, the work underlines that cross selling is to be realized holistically to ensure durable success. (author's abstract

Game theoretic modeling and analysis : A co-evolutionary, agent-based approach

Ph.DDOCTOR OF PHILOSOPH

Altruistically Inclined?: The Behavioral Sciences, Evolutionary Theory, and the Origins of Reciprocity

Altruistically Inclined? examines the implications of recent research in the natural sciences for two important social scientific approaches to individual behavior: the economic/rational choice approach and the sociological/anthropological. It considers jointly two controversial and related ideas: the operation of group selection within early human evolutionary processes and the likelihood of modularity—domain-specific adaptations in our cognitive mechanisms and behavioral predispositions. Experimental research shows that people will often cooperate in one-shot prisoner\u27s dilemma (PD) games and reject positive offers in ultimatum games, contradicting commonly accepted notions of rationality. Upon first appearance, predispositions to behave in this fashion could not have been favored by natural selection operating only at the level of the individual organism. Emphasizing universal and variable features of human culture, developing research on how the brain functions, and refinements of thinking about levels of selection in evolutionary processes, Alexander J. Field argues that humans are born with the rudiments of a PD solution module—and differentially prepared to learn norms supportive of it. His emphasis on failure to harm, as opposed to the provision of affirmative assistance, as the empirically dominant form of altruistic behavior is also novel. The point of departure and principal point of reference is economics. But Altruistically Inclined? will interest a broad range of scholars in the social and behavioral sciences, natural scientists concerned with the implications of research and debates within their fields for the conduct of work elsewhere, and educated lay readers curious about essential features of human nature.https://scholarcommons.scu.edu/faculty_books/1325/thumbnail.jp

Essays on Experimental Economics for the Environment and Economics of Privacy

Im 21. Jahrhundert bestehen zwei Hauptherausforderungen der ökonomischen Forschung darin, effektive Lösung für die Gestaltung der digitalen Transformation und für die Eindämmung des menschengemachten Klimawandels aufzuzeigen. Die Forschung zur digitalen Transformationen ist eng mit verschiedenen Datenschutz- (oder Privatsphäre-)relevanten Fragestellungen verbunden, die sich vorwiegend auf die Präferenzen und Entscheidungen von Einzelpersonen beziehen. Im Gegensatz dazu befasst sich die Forschung zum Klimawandel damit, welche Faktoren eine effektive Kooperation zwischen mehreren Individuen erschweren und wie gemeinsame Ziele, wie die Begrenzung des Klimawandels, erreicht werden können. Die Verbindung zwischen Datenschutz- und Umweltökonomie besteht darin, dass viele digitale Technologien das Potential haben, positive externe Effekte zu erzeugen, die zur Bereitstellung oder Erhaltung öffentlicher Güter beitragen können. Oftmals sind diese digitalen Technologien jedoch dadurch gekennzeichnet, dass ihre Nutzung die Offenlegung persönlicher Informationen erfordert. Der potentielle Erfolg dieser Technologien und institutionellen Mechanismen hängt daher weitgehend von der gesellschaftlichen Akzeptanz gegenüber diesen Technologien und institutionellen Mechanismen ab. Jeder Artikel in dieser kumulativen Dissertation leistet einen Beitrag zu der übergeordneten Fragestellung, inwiefern ökonomische Experimente dazu beitragen können, die Effizienz von Institutionen und Technologien, die öffentliche Güter bereitstellen oder erhalten können, zu evaluieren und potentiell zu steigern. Im ersten Artikel wird untersucht, ob der Publikationsprozess von Fachzeitschriften im Bereich der experimentellen Ökonomik verbessert werden kann. Die weiteren fünf Artikel befassen sich direkt oder indirekt mit unterschiedlichen, aber miteinander verbundenen Problemstellungen zu öffentlichen Gütern, die eng mit Fragen zum Datenschutz oder Umweltfragen verbunden sind. Methodisch sind die sechs Artikel dadurch gekennzeichnet, dass sie die experimentelle Methode entweder direkt für ihre individuellen Forschungsfragen anwenden oder die Ergebnisse der experimentellen Literatur nutzen, um Hypothesen abzuleiten und empirische Ergebnisse in spezifischen Datenschutz-relevanten Kontexten zu erklären. Im Bereich des Datenschutzes werden in der Dissertation Faktoren identifiziert, die die Weitergabe von Daten in verschiedenen Smartphone-Apps aus Schlüsselindustrien der digitalen Transformation und auf Arbeitgeberbewertungsplattformen beeinflussen. Im Bereich der Umweltökonomie wird im ersten Artikel ein institutioneller Mechanismus vorgeschlagen, IV der die Bereitschaft erhöhen kann, zu Recyclingsystemen beizutragen und im zweiten Artikel wird gezeigt, dass die Möglichkeit, ein öffentliches Gut auszubeuten, die Kooperation zur Eindämmung des Klimawandels erschweren kann.In the 21st century, two main challenges for economic research are to propose effective solutions to shape the digital transformation and mitigate human-induced climate change. Research on digital transformation is closely linked to various privacy-related issues, which mostly relate to the preferences and decisions of individuals. In contrast, climate change research examines which factors impede effective cooperation among multiple individuals and investigates how common goals, such as limiting climate change, can be achieved. The link between economics of privacy and environmental economics is that many digital technologies have the potential to generate positive externalities that can contribute to the provision or maintenance of public goods. However, in many cases these digital technologies are characterized by the fact that their use requires the disclosure of personal information. The potential success of these technologies and institutional mechanisms therefore largely depends on social acceptance towards these technologies and institutional mechanisms. Each paper in this cumulative dissertation contributes to the broader question of how economic experiments can contribute to evaluate and potentially increase the efficiency of institutions and technologies that can provide or maintain public goods. The first paper investigates whether the publication process of journals in the field of experimental economics can potentially be improved. The remaining five papers focus directly or indirectly on different but related public goods problems which are closely linked to privacy or environmental issues. Methodologically, the six papers share the feature that they either directly apply the experimental method for their individual research questions or use the results of experimental literature to derive hypotheses and explain empirical outcomes in specific privacy-related contexts. In the field of privacy, the dissertation identifies factors that influence data sharing in several smartphone apps from key industries of the digital transformation and on employer review platforms. In the area of environmental economics, the first paper proposes an institutional mechanism that can increase the willingness to contribute to recycling systems, and the second paper shows that the ability to exploit a public good can impede cooperation to mitigate climate change

Preferences, counterfactuals and maximisation: Reasoning in game theory.

This thesis explores two kinds of foundational issues in game theory. The first is concerned with the interpretation of the basic structure of a game, especially the definitions of outcomes and payoffs. This discussion leads to the second issue; namely the nature of solution concepts and their relation to both explicit and implicit assumptions in game theory concerning hypothetical reasoning. Interpreting utility functions in game theory, I argue that the notion of revealed preferences is ill-suited for counterfactual reasoning and for taking account of the implicit normativity of instrumental rationality. An alternative interpretation is outlined that treats preferences as determinants of choice. Accordingly, outcomes have to be individuated so as to capture everything that matters to an agent. I consider whether this is problematic when properties of outcomes depend on choice processes themselves. Turning to a decision theoretic problem, I question Verbeek's (2001) claim that modal outcome individuation conflicts with axioms of consequentialism. Next, I critically assess Rabin's (1993) model of fairness equilibria. Hypothesising about unilateral deviation is shown to be incompatible with belief-dependent utility definitions. Counterfactuals in games are then analysed more generally. It proves to be crucial for solution concepts whether our formal framework allows us to differentiate between indicative and subjunctive conditionals. Stalnaker's (1996) prima facie counterexample to Aumann's (1995) theorem that common knowledge of rationality implies a subgame perfect equilibrium is questioned on the grounds of a plausibility criterion. Again drawing on what has been established about the structure of a game and the meaning of its elements, Gauthier's (1986) notion of constrained maximisation, an attempt to overcome the non-cooperative equilibrium of the finitely iterated prisoner's dilemma, is shown to be incompatible with orthodox game theoretical methodology. The approach of treating the unit of agency as endogenous is addressed

Automated Service Negotiation Between Autonomous Computational Agents

PhDMulti-agent systems are a new computational approach for solving real world, dynamic and open system problems. Problems are conceptualized as a collection of decentralised autonomous agents that collaborate to reach the overall solution. Because of the agents autonomy, their limited rationality, and the distributed nature of most real world problems, the key issue in multi-agent system research is how to model interactions between agents. Negotiation models have emerged as suitable candidates to solve this interaction problem due to their decentralised nature, emphasis on mutual selection of an action, and the prevalence of negotiation in real social systems. The central problem addressed in this thesis is the design and engineering of a negotiation model for autonomous agents for sharing tasks and/or resources. To solve this problem a negotiation protocol and a set of deliberation mechanisms are presented which together coordinate the actions of a multiple agent system. In more detail, the negotiation protocol constrains the action selection problem solving of the agents through the use of normative rules of interaction. These rules temporally order, according to the agents' roles, communication utterances by specifying both who can say what, as well as when. Specifically, the presented protocol is a repeated, sequential model where offers are iteratively exchanged. Under this protocol, agents are assumed to be fully committed to their utterances and utterances are private between the two agents. The protocol is distributed, symmetric, supports bi and/or multi-agent negotiation as well as distributive and integrative negotiation. In addition to coordinating the agent interactions through normative rules, a set of mechanisms are presented that coordinate the deliberation process of the agents during the ongoing negotiation. Whereas the protocol normatively describes the orderings of actions, the mechanisms describe the possible set of agent strategies in using the protocol. These strategies are captured by a negotiation architecture that is composed of responsive and deliberative decision mechanisms. Decision making with the former mechanism is based on a linear combination of simple functions called tactics, which manipulate the utility of deals. The latter mechanisms are subdivided into trade-off and issue manipulation mechanisms. The trade-off mechanism generates offers that manipulate the value, rather than the overall utility, of the offer. The issue manipulation mechanism aims to increase the likelihood of an agreement by adding and removing issues into the negotiation set. When taken together, these mechanisms represent a continuum of possible decision making capabilities: ranging from behaviours that exhibit greater awareness of environmental resources and less to solution quality, to behaviours that attempt to acquire a given solution quality independently of the resource consumption. The protocol and mechanisms are empirically evaluated and have been applied to real world task distribution problems in the domains of business process management and telecommunication management. The main contribution and novelty of this research are: i) a domain independent computational model of negotiation that agents can use to support a wide variety of decision making strategies, ii) an empirical evaluation of the negotiation model for a given agent architecture in a number of different negotiation environments, and iii) the application of the developed model to a number of target domains. An increased strategy set is needed because the developed protocol is less restrictive and less constrained than the traditional ones, thus supporting development of strategic interaction models that belong more to open systems. Furthermore, because of the combination of the large number of environmental possibilities and the size of the set of possible strategies, the model has been empirically investigated to evaluate the success of strategies in different environments. These experiments have facilitated the development of general guidelines that can be used by designers interested in developing strategic negotiating agents. The developed model is grounded from the requirement considerations from both the business process management and telecommunication application domains. It has also been successfully applied to five other real world scenarios

Transdisciplinary Literature Reviews and Research-based Practice for Designing an Original Novella and Original Prisoner’s Dilemma Model with an Ending to Criminal Motivations and the Selfish Binary

This original Creative Writing transdisciplinary hybrid exegesis-thesis ('thesis') and study, was produced as content for developing a highly original science fiction novella that critically 'deluminates' the Prisoner’s Dilemma and Iterated Prisoner’s Dilemma models (the 'PD models') and legal system assumptions. Research structures, processes and techniques relevant to this researcher’s research questions are thoroughly investigated. Structural transdisciplinary inquiry and disciplinary literature review methods are deconstructed and applied. The Research-based Practice research and literature review method developed herein, is a highly portable and creative method applicable to traditional research frameworks, enabled the researcher to incorporate divergent knowledges and creatively fuse them within a transdisciplinary framework. The knowledge produced critically deluminates the PD models. Research-based Practice is built upon the researcher’s grounded theory derivation of Aristotle Knowledge Development Theory, and likewise, Practice Research Theory. Examining the PD models through broad and specific knowledge angles and differing research lenses enabled the researcher to deconstruct them and their real life contributions for the purposes of examining their broader implications in an original novella 'factoring' the PD models, an original PD model and this original thesis content. Creative writing disciplinary ('Creative Writing') researchers are found to contribute towards multiple disciplinary debates. They efficiently apply multiple disciplinary research in creative texts examining the broad implications of a change in society, effectively testing the strengths and weakness of existing research and their own research. Creative Writing researchers expressly or impliedly examine solutions to problems. 'Knowing', mediated through knowledge, multi-sensory data and their embodiment, is the highest and most fundamental form of knowledge used by Creative Writing researchers and claimed by the researcher and applies across all research products. Four Creative Writing researchers’ works are explored. They are found to varying degrees to reject real-life legal system models and assumptions, and two explicitly reject the PD models’ assumptions. No new legal system model was proposed, however. This researcher goes further by applying knowledge generated in this original thesis to develop an original 'legal system' PD model, the cultural impact of which is efficiently explored in the novella. This researcher finds terminal flaws existing with the PD models’ binary legal system and real-life assumptions. The PD models contain selfish binary parties and strongly motivate a 'tough-on-crime' legal culture towards 'alleged' offenders and grossly affect, limit and dispense with crucial real-life decision-making information. The PD models press towards imprisonment! The psychology applied in the PD models, the payoffs and prison focus are found to be examples of economic violence and includes workplace violence. The emphasis on interrogation confessions has resulted in the PD models’ imprisonment focus and is found to motivate 'cultures of imprisonment', trauma and suffering as evidenced in the PD models’ symbols. The PD models’ motivations are shown to result in younger people making false confessions, being wrongfully convicted and experiencing fatal retributions. The PD interrogations and prison motivations result in significant justice and workforce participation costs, increase civil unrest and increase crime. Notwithstanding these finding, the researcher considers it necessary to create an original new PD model due to the potential benefits of positive 'economic morality'. These findings had profound implications for the researcher’s development of the original novella. This study highlights that not only mathematical modellers, but also science fiction and crime writers should engage with and reflect on multiple disciplinary knowledges and expertise prior to forming mathematical or creative writing models. In addition, mathematicians and writers should engage with non-binary theory and narratives to limit binary harms. This research adds to Creative Writing research regarding non-linear geometric writing through the development of a new formulaic, 2-dimensional geometric and narrative original PD model, designed for real-world applications especially eradicating or reducing crime. The original novella, PD model and thesis hold the potential to eliminate or reduce binary thinking and harms. The PD models, and a cultural shift towards the non-binary original PD model, are explored in the novella’s cultural world. The shift from a binary to a new complex non-binary society is addressed through the original PD model’s 'overbearing influences' factors. Other binary thinking is identified and explored in the novella, including within the sciences for science fiction purposes. The researcher found it necessary to conduct 'science fiction' research experiments and found key Einstein and Darwin theories contained 'harmful myths' of reality. Binary mythologies evident across society, including structural, social and religious binaries, are investigated in the original novella. Mythologised cultural binaries are fundamentally deconstructed by the researcher, which has the effect of dramatically improving human experience of 'society'

Proceedings, MSVSCC 2013

Proceedings of the 7th Annual Modeling, Simulation & Visualization Student Capstone Conference held on April 11, 2013 at VMASC in Suffolk, Virginia

The Political Economy of the Wagner Act: Power, Symbol, and Workplace Cooperation

To shed light on the legal debate over new forms of workplace collaboration, this Article reexamines the origins of the National Labor Relations Act of 1935. Professor Barenberg concludes that the Wagner Act scheme was profoundly cooperationist, not adversarial as is conventionally assumed. Revisionist historiography shows that, contrary to the claims of public choice theorists, Senator Wagner\u27s network of political entrepreneurs was the decisive force in the conception and enactment of the new labor policy, amidst interest group paralysis and popular unrest. Drawing on original archival materials and oral histories, Professor Barenberg reconstructs the progressive ideology of Wagner and his circle. That elite network understood, consonant with recent critical theories, that legal symbols could shape worker consciousness. Their goal, however, was not to pacify but rather to galvanize workers to seek the collective empowerment that alone could secure democratic consent and cooperation in both the enterprise and in the polity in the era of mass production. Wagner rejected the leading interwar model of workplace cooperation – company unionism – because he believed it could not combine high-trust cooperation with protection of workers against instrumental and symbolic domination by employers. Unlike recent legal-economic theorists who presume a world of self-interested, rational behavior, Wagner understood that workplace hierarchies generate cultural contests over trust and resentment. Wagner\u27s model is more akin to current theories that maintain that human interests and perceptions – including dispositions toward trusting cooperation – are constituted intersubjectively and self-reflexively