Internet Sales Channel and Manufacturers’ Brand: A Transaction Cost Analysis

In modern age, Internet has brought massive impact to the distribution channel management. Especially to the manufacturers, harnessing the power of Internet is deemed a strategic step to reinforce the products' awareness among consumers and further improve market share. However, the outcomes of setting up Internet sales channel are mixed. Although some organizations do exemplify the success of online sales channel, there are manufacturers who simply fail in this aspect. This paper aims to provide insights into the factors which manufacturers must take into consideration in contemplating to setting up Internet sales channel. By using transaction cost analysis (TCA), we set up a research model, which composed of various factors which are critical to the success of Internet sales channel and elaborate the role of these factors on this issue. Subsequently, appropriate propositions are instigated and investigated in order to determine the impact of these variables on the manufacturers’ decision making in this area

The Impact of COVID-19 on the Sustainable Development Goals: Achievements and Expectations

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on almost all the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), leaving no country unaffected. It has caused a shift in political agendas, but also in lines of research. At the same time, the world is trying to make the transition to a more sustainable economic model. The research objectives of this paper are to explore the impact of COVID-19 on the fulfilment of the SDGs with regard to the research of the scientific community, and to analyze the presence of the Circular Economy (CE) in the literature. To this end, this research applies bibliometric analysis and a systematic review of the literature, using VOSviewer for data visualization. Five clusters were detected and grouped according to the three dimensions of sustainability. The extent of the effects of the health, economic and social crisis resulting from the pandemic, in addition to the climate crisis, is still uncertain, but it seems clear that the main issues are inefficient waste management, supply chain issues, adaptation to online education and energy concerns. The CE has been part of the solution to this crisis, and it is seen as an ideal model to be promoted based on the opportunities detected

PromotionLens: Inspecting Promotion Strategies of Online E-commerce via Visual Analytics

Promotions are commonly used by e-commerce merchants to boost sales. The efficacy of different promotion strategies can help sellers adapt their offering to customer demand in order to survive and thrive. Current approaches to designing promotion strategies are either based on econometrics, which may not scale to large amounts of sales data, or are spontaneous and provide little explanation of sales volume. Moreover, accurately measuring the effects of promotion designs and making bootstrappable adjustments accordingly remains a challenge due to the incompleteness and complexity of the information describing promotion strategies and their market environments. We present PromotionLens, a visual analytics system for exploring, comparing, and modeling the impact of various promotion strategies. Our approach combines representative multivariant time-series forecasting models and well-designed visualizations to demonstrate and explain the impact of sales and promotional factors, and to support "what-if" analysis of promotions. Two case studies, expert feedback, and a qualitative user study demonstrate the efficacy of PromotionLens.Comment: IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics (Proc. IEEE VIS 2022

Past, present, and future research on self-service merchandising: A co-word and text mining approach

Purpose This study aims to discern emerging trends and provide a longitudinal perspective on merchandising research by identifying relationships between merchandising-related subdomains/themes. Design/methodology/approach This study sourced 657 merchandising-related articles published since 1960, from the Scopus database and 425 from Web of Science. After processing and normalizing the data, this study performed co-word and thematic network analyses. Taking a text mining approach, this study used topic modeling to identify a set of coherent topics characterized by the keywords of the articles. Findings This study identified the following merchandising-related themes: branding, retail, consumer, behavior, modeling, textile and clothing industry and visual merchandising. Although visual merchandising was the first type of merchandising to be used in-store, only recently has it become an emerging topic in the academic literature. There has been a further trend over the past decade to understand the adoption of simulation technology, such as computer-aided design, particularly in supply chain management in the clothing industry. These and other findings contribute to the discussion of the merchandising concept, approached from an evolutionary perspective. Research limitations/implications The conclusions of this study hold implications at the intersection of merchandising, sectors, new technologies, research methodologies and merchandising-practitioner education. Research trends suggest that, in the future, virtual reality and augmented reality using neuroscientific methods will be applied to the e-merchandising context. Practical implications The different dimensions of merchandising can be used to leverage store managers’ decision-making process toward an integrated store-management strategy. In particular, by adopting loyalty merchandising tactics, the store can generate emotional attachment among consumers, who will perceive its value and services as unique, thanks to merchandising items designed specifically with that aim in mind. The stimulation of unplanned purchases, the strategic location of products and duration of each merchandising activity in the store, the digitalization of merchandising and the application of findings from neuroscience studies are some of the most relevant practical applications. Originality/value This study provides the first-ever longitudinal review of the state of the art in merchandising research, taking a holistic perspective of this field of knowledge spanning a 60-year period. The work makes a valuable contribution to the development of the marketing discipline.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

Past, present, and future research on self-service merchandising: A co-word and text mining approach

Purpose: This study aims to discern emerging trends and provide a longitudinal perspective on merchandising research by identifying relationships between merchandising-related subdomains/themes. Design/methodology/approach: We sourced 657 merchandising-related articles published since 1960, from the Scopus database and 425 from Web of Science. After processing and normalizing the data, we performed co-word and thematic network analyses. Taking a text mining approach, we used topic modeling to identify a set of coherent topics characterized by the keywords of the articles. Findings: We identified the following merchandising-related themes: branding, retail, consumer, behavior, modeling, textile and clothing industry, and visual merchandising. Although visual merchandising was the first type of merchandising to be used in-store, only recently has it become an emerging topic in the academic literature. There has been a further trend over the last decade to understand the adoption of simulation technology, such as computer-aided design, particularly in supply chain management in the clothing industry. These and other findings contribute to our discussion of the merchandising concept, approached from an evolutionary perspective. Research limitations/implications: The conclusions of the study hold implications at the intersection of merchandising, sectors, new technologies, research methodologies, and merchandising-practitioner education. Research trends suggest that, in the future, virtual reality and augmented reality using neuroscientific methods will be applied to the emerchandising context. Practical implications: The different dimensions of merchandising can be used to leverage store managers’ decision-making process toward an integrated store-management strategy. In particular, by adopting loyalty merchandising tactics, the store can generate emotional attachment among consumers, who will perceive its value and services as unique, thanks to merchandising items designed specifically with that aim in mind. The stimulation of unplanned purchases, the strategic location of products and duration of each merchandising activity in the store, the digitalization of merchandising, and the application of findings from neuroscience studies are some of the most relevant practical applications. Originality/value: The study provides the first-ever longitudinal review of the state of the art in merchandising research, taking a holistic perspective of this field of knowledge spanning a 60-year period. The work makes a valuable contribution to the development of the marketing discipline

Identifying social aspects related to the hydrogen economy: Review, synthesis, and research perspectives

Energy transition will reshape the power sector, and hydrogen is a key energy carrier that could contribute to energy security. The inclusion of sustainability criteria is crucial for the adequate design/deployment of resilient hydrogen networks. While cost and environmental metrics are commonly included in hydrogen models, social aspects are rarely considered. This paper aims to identify the social criteria related to the hydrogen economy by using a systematic hybrid literature review. The main contribution is the identification of twelve social aspects which are described, ranked, and discussed. “Accessibility”, “Information”, “H2 markets”, and “Acceptability” are now emerging as the main themes of hydrogen-related social research. Identified gaps are e.g., lack of the definition of the value of H2 for society, insufficient research for “socio-political” aspects (e.g., geopolitics, wellbeing), scarce application of social lifecycle assessment, and the low amount of works with a focus on social practices and cultural issues

4th. International Conference on Advanced Research Methods and Analytics (CARMA 2022)

Research methods in economics and social sciences are evolving with the increasing availability of Internet and Big Data sources of information. As these sources, methods, and applications become more interdisciplinary, the 4th International Conference on Advanced Research Methods and Analytics (CARMA) is a forum for researchers and practitioners to exchange ideas and advances on how emerging research methods and sources are applied to different fields of social sciences as well as to discuss current and future challenges. Due to the covid pandemic, CARMA 2022 is planned as a virtual and face-to-face conference, simultaneouslyDoménech I De Soria, J.; Vicente Cuervo, MR. (2022). 4th. International Conference on Advanced Research Methods and Analytics (CARMA 2022). Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/CARMA2022.2022.1595

Evaluating carbon inequality by household type and income level across prefectures in Japan

Affected by income level, household type, and other socioeconomic factors, carbon inequality among households substantially differs across prefectures in Japan, thereby profoundly affecting the country’s sustainable development. Therefore, it is necessary to explore the carbon footprint of different households on the basis of systematically grouped income levels and evaluate carbon inequality in all prefectures. Using the 2005 multiregional input–output table of Japan, we identified detailed structures of household carbon footprint (HCF) across single- and multi-person households of different income levels in Japan’s 47 prefectures. We elucidated carbon inequality across prefectures through the carbon footprint Gini coefficients of the aforementioned households. The results showed that substantial differences in HCF exist among prefectures, thus contributing to variances in carbon inequality levels. Multi-person households are currently the main contributors to Japan’s HCF, but the contribution of single-person households has considerable potential to grow. Income level has the most direct influence on HCF, which considerably determines the amount and structure of household consumption. Changes in carbon inequality among prefectures indicate that the aggravation of income inequality widens the HCF gap among income groups—a situation inconducive to the reduction of per-household CF during climate mitigation

VIABILITY OF ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING FOR PRODUCTION AND TOOLING APPLICATIONS: A DEVELOPMENT OF THE BUSINESS CASE

As marketplace competition drives industrial innovation to increase product value and decrease production costs, emerging technologies foster a new era through Industry 4.0. One aspect of the movement, additive manufacturing, or 3D [three-dimensional] printing, contains potential to revolutionize traditional manufacturing techniques and approach to design. However, uncertainties within the processes and high investment costs deter corporations from implementing and developing the technology. While several industries are benefitting from additive manufacturing’s current state, as the technology continues to progress, more companies will need to evaluate it for industrial viability and adoption. As such, there exists a need for a framework to evaluate the business case for investment review. While many papers in the literature provide cost estimation models for additively manufactured parts, there does not exist a thorough guide for decision making. This master’s thesis report introduces a process to evaluate machine investment and part production between additive manufacturing and traditional manufacturing technologies using operational and financial key performance indicators. A case study application of the process yielded suspect part unit costs 3.71% higher than its literature basis, indicating a viable methodology. The present value total investment cost for an EOSINT M 270 machine tool, with a five-year lifespan, was determined to be $3,241,710 in the case context; breakeven point occurs beyond investment life at 2.28 years. Results were dependent on product valuation and assumptions made. Key output metrics indicated the suspect machine could generate 5,238 units annually at a 1.4 part per hour throughput rate. As part production was deemed feasible under the provided constraints, sensitivity analysis indicated material and equipment costs as cost drivers. Similarly, production drivers were found to be scan rate and machine utilization. Results were consistent with common belief that additive manufacturing is currently viable for small-to-mid series production, or parts of high complexity value. These findings indicate areas of improvement for the additive manufacturing industry for commercialization purposes, and demonstrate a useful methodology for assessing the business case of additive manufacturing