349,821 research outputs found
Ensuring Trust in One Time Exchanges: Solving the QoS Problem
We describe a pricing structure for the provision of IT services that ensures
trust without requiring repeated interactions between service providers and
users. It does so by offering a pricing structure that elicits truthful
reporting of quality of service (QoS) by providers while making them
profitable. This mechanism also induces truth-telling on the part of users
reserving the service
The determinants of full-service carriers airfares in European hub-to-hub markets
This paper explores the factors influencing the pricing behaviour of full-service carriers in European hub-to-hub markets. Drawing on a 2009 dataset containing route and airfare information, we establish an econometric model to estimate the impact of route structure, alliances, and market concentration on the pricing of European full-service carriers in these markets. The results suggest that alliances on routes connecting two primary hubs, airport concentration, market share inequality and competition from low-cost carriers influence average airfares of full-service carriers in the European hub-to-hub markets
Multilevel Pricing Schemes in a Deregulated Wireless Network Market
Typically the cost of a product, a good or a service has many components.
Those components come from different complex steps in the supply chain of the
product from sourcing to distribution. This economic point of view also takes
place in the determination of goods and services in wireless networks. Indeed,
before transmitting customer data, a network operator has to lease some
frequency range from a spectrum owner and also has to establish agreements with
electricity suppliers. The goal of this paper is to compare two pricing
schemes, namely a power-based and a flat rate, and give a possible explanation
why flat rate pricing schemes are more common than power based pricing ones in
a deregulated wireless market. We suggest a hierarchical game-theoretical model
of a three level supply chain: the end users, the service provider and the
spectrum owner. The end users intend to transmit data on a wireless network.
The amount of traffic sent by the end users depends on the available frequency
bandwidth as well as the price they have to pay for their transmission. A
natural question arises for the service provider: how to design an efficient
pricing scheme in order to maximize his profit. Moreover he has to take into
account the lease charge he has to pay to the spectrum owner and how many
frequency bandwidth to rent. The spectrum owner itself also looks for
maximizing its profit and has to determine the lease price to the service
provider. The equilibrium at each level of our supply chain model are
established and several properties are investigated. In particular, in the case
of a power-based pricing scheme, the service provider and the spectrum owner
tend to share the gross provider profit. Whereas, considering the flat rate
pricing scheme, if the end users are going to exploit the network intensively,
then the tariffs of the suppliers (spectrum owner and service provider)
explode.Comment: This is the last draft version of the paper. Revised version of the
paper accepted by ValueTools 2013 can be found in Proceedings of the 7th
International Conference on Performance Evaluation Methodologies and Tools
(ValueTools '13), December 10-12, 2013, Turin, Ital
Subscriber churn in the Australian ISP market
Rapid growth in Internet use, combined with easy market entry by Internet service providers (ISPs), has resulted in a highly competitive supply of Internet services. Australian ISPs range in size from a few large national operators to niche ISPs focused on specialised service. With many ISPs currently not profitable, subscriber retention is an important aspect of survival. This study develops a model which relates the probability of subscriber churn to various service attributes and subscriber characteristics. Estimation results show that churn probability is positively associated with monthly ISP expenditure, but inversely related to household income. Pricing also matters with subscribers preferring ISPs which offer flat-rate pricing arrangements.Internet; customer churn; pricing
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