InShopnito: an advanced yet privacy-friendly mobile shopping application

Mobile Shopping Applications (MSAs) are rapidly gaining popularity. They enhance the shopping experience, by offering customized recommendations or incorporating customer loyalty programs. Although MSAs are quite effective at attracting new customers and binding existing ones to a retailer's services, existing MSAs have several shortcomings. The data collection practices involved in MSAs and the lack of transparency thereof are important concerns for many customers. This paper presents inShopnito, a privacy-preserving mobile shopping application. All transactions made in inShopnito are unlinkable and anonymous. However, the system still offers the expected features from a modern MSA. Customers can take part in loyalty programs and earn or spend loyalty points and electronic vouchers. Furthermore, the MSA can suggest personalized recommendations even though the retailer cannot construct rich customer profiles. These profiles are managed on the smartphone and can be partially disclosed in order to get better, customized recommendations. Finally, we present an implementation called inShopnito, of which the security and performance is analyzed. In doing so, we show that it is possible to have a privacy-preserving MSA without having to sacrifice practicality

The Impact of Internet Referral Services on a Supply Chain

In many industries, Internet referral services, hosted either by independent third-party infomediaries or by manufacturers, serve as digitally enabled lead generators in electronic markets, directing consumer traffic to downstream retailers in a distribution network. This reshapes the extended enterprise from the traditional network of upstream manufacturers and downstream retailers to include midstream third-party and manufacturerowned referral services in the supply chain. We model competition between retailers in a supply chain with such digitally enabled institutions and consider their impact on the optimal contracts among the manufacturer, referral intermediary, and the retailers. Offline, retailers face a higher customer discovery cost. In return, they can engage in price discrimination based on consumer valuations. Online, they save on the discovery costs but lose the ability to identify consumer valuations. This critical trade-off drives firms’ equilibrium strategies. We derive the optimal contracts for different entities in the supply chain and highlight how these contracts change with the entry of independent and manufacturer-owned referral services. The establishment of a referral service is a strategic decision by the manufacturer. It leads to diversion of supply chain profit from a third-party infomediary to the manufacturer. Further, it enables the manufacturer to respond to an infomediary, by giving itself greater flexibility in setting the unit wholesale fee to the profit-maximizing level. Both third-party and manufacturer-sponsored referral services play a critical role in enabling retailers to discriminate across consumers’ different valuations. Retailers use online referral services to screen out low-valuation consumers and sell only to high-valuation consumers in the online channel. Our model thus endogenously derives a correlation between consumer valuation and online purchase behavior. Finally, we show that under some circumstances, it is too costly for the manufacturer to eliminate the referral infomediaryNYU, Stern School of Business, IOMS Department, Center for Digital Economy Researc

The internet of everything sustainable advantages and synergies in clustered retail

The Internet of Everything (IoE) is a concept introduced by Cisco as the succeeding phase of the Internet of Things (IoT), consisting in creating a network connection of objects, people, processes and data (Cisco 2013). The novelty in this concept is that instead of referring simply to the network connection of physical objects, the IoE allows for connected ‘things’ to send higher-level information back to machines, computers, and people for further evaluation and decision making (Cisco 2013). ! This dissertation aims to analyze the IoE concept’s strategic impact in clustered retails. In order to contextualize the concept and, later, perform the correct analysis of the subject, a review of the technologies at its core and Cisco’s perspective of IoE’s realization in retail is made. Furthermore, making up the core of sustainable strategic advantage analysis, a review is made regarding Resource-based View (RBV) model according to Barney’s framework and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) through Payne and Frow’s framework. In the subsequent chapter, the model of analysis is explained, incorporating the proposition that a smartphone application is, at a first phase, the optimal presentation layer for consumers. Empirical data collection is then performed through a questionnaire intended to give answer to the dissertation’s research question of sustainable competitive advantage. The results, collected from a population sample of 120 respondents, ascertained the importance of the smartphone app and its most appealing features. The strategic applicability of IoE in clustered retail is, then, confirmed through the application of both RBV and CRM models, which verify the system’s potential to generate sustained competitive advantage, confirming the dissertation’s main objective.A Internet of Everything (IoE) – ou a Internet de Tudo - é um conceito introduzido pela Cisco como fase sucessora da Internet of Things (IoT) – ou a Internet das Coisas -, caracterizada por criar uma rede de conectiva de objectos, pessoas, processos e informação (Cisco 2013). A novidade introduzida por este conceito é de que, em vez de fazer referência apenas à rede de conexões de objectos físicos, o IoE permite à rede de ‘coisas’ o envio de informação de qualidade superior de volta para máquinas, computadores, e pessoas para avaliações e decisões adicionais (Cisco 2013). O objectivo desta dissertação assenta na análise do impacto estratégico do conceito de IoE em retalho conglomerado. De modo a contextualizar o conceito e, mais tarde, proceder à correcta análise do tópico, uma revisão da tecnologia basilar e da perspectiva da Cisco em relação à implementação da IoE em retalho é realizada. Ademais, constituindo a origem da análise à vantagem estratégica sustentável, uma revisão é feita a ambos os modelo de Resource-base View (RBV), de acordo com enquadramento de Barney, e Customer Relationship Management (CRM) – ou Gestão de Relacionamento com o Cliente -, através do enquadramento de Payne e Frow. No capítulo subsequente, o modelo de análise é explicado, incluindo a proposição que uma aplicação para smartphone seria, numa primeira fase, o canal de ligação e apresentação ao consumidor ideal. A recolha de dados empíricos é, de seguida, executada através de um questionário, pretendendo dar resposta dar resposta à pergunta central da dissertação relativa à vantagem competitiva sustentável. Os resultados, recolhidos de uma amostra populacional de 120 inquiridos, determinaram a importância da aplicação para smartphones e quais as suas características mais apelativas. A aplicabilidade estratégica da IoE em retalho conglomerado é, assim, confirmada através da aplicação de ambos os modelos de RBV e CRM, que certificam o potencial do sistema em gerar vantagem competitiva sustentável, confirmando assim o objectivo principal da dissertação

IMPACT OF EFFICIENT CONSUMER RESPONSE (ECR) ON MARKETING

Consumer/Household Economics, Marketing,

To share or not to share: the optimal advertising effort with asymmetric advertising effectiveness

In this paper, we study a two-stage model in which a manufacturer expands to a new market through a local retailer and has private information on the advertising effectiveness. The manufacturer chooses the information sharing format with the retailer, either no information sharing or mandatory information sharing. Under no information sharing format, the manufacturer and the retailer play a signaling game. We derive both separating and pooling equilibria and conduct equilibrium refinements for the signaling game. Under mandatory information sharing format, the manufacturer simply informs the retailer the advertising effectiveness. We also establish the stylized model and derive the optimal advertising effort. By comparing the manufacturer’s ex ante profit under the two information sharing formats, we find that the manufacturer always prefers mandatory information sharing, under which both the advertising effort and profit can be higher. We also observe that unlike the common case that the channel members may have different preference over the information sharing formats, the manufacturer and the retailer can actually achieve alignment. While some previous studies suggest that the manufacturer and the retailer may have different preference over the information sharing formats, we find that they can actually achieve alignment with asymmetric information on advertising effectiveness

Digital places: location-based digital practices in higher education using Bluetooth Beacons

The physical campus is a shared space that enables staff and students, industry and the public, to collaborate in the acquisition, construction and consolidation of knowledge. However, its position as the primary place for learning is being challenged by blended modes of study that range from learning experiences from fully online to more traditional campus-based approaches. Bluetooth beacons offer the potential to combine the strengths of both the digital world and the traditional university campus by augmenting physical spaces to enhance learning opportunities, and the student experience more generally. This simple technology offers new possibilities to extend and enrich opportunities for learning by exploiting the near-ubiquitous nature of personal technology. This paper provides a high-level overview of Bluetooth beacon technology, along with an indication of some of the ways in which it is developing, and ways that it could be used to support learning in higher education

Carting Away the Oceans 9

The Carting Away the Oceans report, released annually since 2008, identifies which major grocery chains are leaders in sustainable seafood and which are falling behind.The findings are telling.In the latest update, Whole Foods, Wegmans, Hy-Vee, and Safeway topped the list for their sustainable seafood practices. Roundy's, Publix, A&P, and Save Mart were the worst ranked companies. Publix and Kroger, both top ten supermarkets based on their annual sales, sell more Red List species than any other U.S. grocery chain.Applauding industry leaders and exposing those lagging behind is key to getting supermarkets to take responsibility and play their part in protecting our oceans and the people who depend on the

Information Sharing in a Green Supply Chain with a Common Retailer

In the paper, we analyze the problem of information sharing in a green supply chain with two competing manufacturers selling environmentally friendly substitutable products in markets through a common retailer. We develop a game-theoretic framework of a network supply chain structure. The study shows that (a) the manufacturer is better off while the retailer is worse off when the retailer shares his private information with the manufacturer; (b) the equilibrium greening levels are the highest when both the manufacturers are informed; (c) under intense competition, the retailer has an incentive to share the information with the manufacturer; (d) the equilibrium greening levels decrease with information inaccuracy. This study shows the existence of a contracting mechanism the manufacturers can employ to induce information sharing. This study’s results will be helpful to managers of green supply chain structures to make marketing and operational decisions under uncertain situations. The main contribution of this study is that it explores the problem of information sharing in a green supply chain under competition