668 research outputs found

    Credit Card Payment Processing in Electronic Commerce: An Analysis of the Bucket Pricing Strategy

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    Credit cards have been the dominant payment method for the electronic commerce retail industry. However, online retailers, especially the small to medium ones, continue to be disadvantaged by the seemingly arbitrary bucket pricing strategy implemented by the credit card processing companies. We address the following research question: “Can the credit card processors continue to economically justify the use of bucket pricing structure, especially considering the increased competition within the industry and from competing payment alternatives?” We use an economic model as a basis of our analyses and discussions.Credit card payments; credit card processing; bucket pricing; tiered pricing; electronic commerce; online retailers.

    Incorporation of the Roadify API in Ride and Bike Sharing Systems

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    Ride and bike share companies have an interest in optimizing trips involving multi-modal transit. To make these services more user-friendly and efficient, we proposed that transit data should be integrated into them. Providing transit data to rideshare drivers in particular would increase their productivity and profits. To develop a plan for partnership between these companies and our sponsor, we developed pricing models and assessed how the APIs would work together. A tiered subscription model with a free trial base became the pricing structure of choice for a partnership with ridesharing company Uber, following research and discussions with our sponsor. Despite initial promise, we ruled out bike sharing as a possibility due to limited digital architecture and weaker financial incentives

    A STUDY OF DIGITAL MUSIC PRICING MODELS

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    The development of Internet brought in revolutions in pricing models in the music industry. Currently, there are two common schemes to sell digital music. The first one is referred to as the ownership model, under which the consumers purchase and download the singles they prefer. The second one is referred to as the subscription model, under which consumers subscribe to the streaming services by paying a subscription fee. Out paper reveals that the advertisement revenue rate impacts music service providers’ choice of pricing models. The music provider should choose the subscription model, when the advertisement revenue rate is low; the ownership model when the advertisement revenue rate is moderate; and offer the music for free and exploit profit from advertisements when the advertisement revenue rate is high

    WHO PAYS PREMIUM IN THE AGE OF FREE SERVICES? FINDINGS FROM A MEDIA WEBSITE

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    The challenge for many media websites is converting users from free to fee. In order to encourage user participation and engagement with the websites many of them have provided consumers with a virtual community wherein the user can create an on-site identity, make friends, and interact with other consumers. We study the interplay between users’ functional and social behavior on media sites and their willingness to pay for premium services. We use data from Last.fm, a site offering both music consumption and social networking features. The basic use of Last.fm is free and premium services are provided for a fixed subscription fee. While the premium services mainly improve the content consumption experience, we find that willingness to pay for premium services is strongly associated with the level of social activity of the user, and specifically, the community activity of the user. Our results represent new evidence of the importance of introducing community and social activities as drivers for consumers\u27 willingness to pay for online services

    Paying for Content or Paying for Community? The Effect of Social Involvement on Subscribing to Media Web Sites

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    Many sites have recently begun to encourage user participation and provide consumers with a virtual community wherein the user can create an on-site identity, make friends, and interact with other consumers. We study the interplay between users’ functional and social behavior on media sites and their willingness to pay for premium services. We use data from Last.fm, a site offering both music consumption and social networking features. The basic use of Last.fm is free and premium services are provided for a fixed subscription fee. While the premium services mainly improve the content consumption experience, we find that willingness to pay for premium services is strongly associated with the level of social activity of the user, and specifically, the community activity of the user. Our results represent new evidence of the importance of introducing community and social activities as drivers for consumers\u27 willingness to pay for online services

    Show Your Face! Investigating the Relationship Between Human Faces and Music’s Success

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    Streaming services are becoming the primary source for media consumption. Particularly platforms like SoundCloud, where users can disseminate user-generated content (UGC), are gaining relevance. To shed light into the drivers which positively influence the number of listeners, we draw from marketing literature related to depictions of people, which suggests that human faces can contribute to a higher degree of brand liking or brand identification. Thereupon, we propose a hypothesis which suggests that human faces on cover arts likewise generate more plays. We follow a data science approach using 1754 observations from SoundCloud and apply Google’s facial recognition API (Vision AI) to examine the impact of human faces on music’s success. We provide initial evidence that tracks with a human-face cover art yield in a higher number of plays compared to tracks with a cover art without a human face

    Illustrations of Price Discrimination in Baseball

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    Price discrimination of this nature, focused on differing degrees of quality, bundled goods, volume discounts, and other forms of second-degree price discrimination, is commonplace in MLB. Indeed, it is safe to say that every single MLB ticket is sold under some form of price discrimination. As teams grow increasingly sophisticated in their pricing strategies, price discrimination is becoming more precise, more wide-spread, and more profitable, while at the same time providing for more opportunities for more fans to find tickets at a price they are willing to pay. Unlike a baseball game, where one team must lose and one must win, price discrimination allows for win-win economic outcomes for teams and fans alike.price discrimination; bundling; variable pricing; dynamic pricing; secondary ticketing; two-part tariff; loaded ticket

    Fork in the Road: Alternative Paths to a High Performance U.S. Health System

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    Estimates the cost savings and coverage rates of three options for healthcare reform: an insurance exchange with no public plan, a public plan paying Medicare rates, and a public plan paying rates midway between Medicare and private plan rates
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