Segmenting Markets by Bagged Clustering: Young Chinese Travelers to Western Europe.

Market segmentation is ubiquitous in marketing. Hierarchical and nonhierarchical methods are popular for segmenting tourism markets. These methods are not without controversy. In this study, we use bagged clustering on the push and pull factors of Western Europe to segment potential young Chinese travelers. Bagged clustering overcomes some of the limitations of hierarchical and nonhierarchical methods. A sample of 403 travelers revealed the existence of four clusters of potential visitors. The clusters were subsequently profiled on sociodemographics and travel characteristics. The findings suggest a nascent young Chinese independent travel segment that cannot be distinguished on push factors but can be differentiated on perceptions of the current independent travel infrastructure in Western Europe. Managerial implications are offered on marketing and service provision to the young Chinese outbound travel market

Effective risk relievers for dimensional perceived risks on mail-order purchase: a case study on speciality foods in the UK

This article examines the effective risk relievers for different dimensions of perceived risk on mail-order purchase of food products. The sample comprised 1,600 active and inactive mail-order specialty food shoppers in the UK. The analysis focused on the correlation coefficients between consumers' levels of perceived risk and their weight on the importance of the risk relievers. Amongst 15 risk relievers, the results implied that there are certain risk relievers attached to higher levels of importance by consumers, who perceive higher levels of risks in certain aspects of mail-order purchase. Therefore, mail-order companies should promote the effective risk relievers to reduce specific dimensions of perceived risks

Psoriasis and Hypertension Severity: Results from a Case-Control Study

BACKGROUND: Epidemiologic studies have provided new insights into the association between psoriasis and cardiovascular diseases. Previous population studies have examined hypertension frequency in psoriasis patients. However, the relationship between severity of hypertension and psoriasis has not been characterized. OBJECTIVE: We sought to investigate whether patients with psoriasis have more difficult-to-manage hypertension compared to non-psoriatic hypertensive patients. APPROACH: We performed a case-control study using the University of California Davis electronic medical records. The cases were defined as patients diagnosed with both psoriasis and hypertension, and controls were defined as patients with hypertension and without psoriasis. In this identified population, 835 cases were matched on age, sex, and body mass index (BMI) to 2418 control patients. KEY RESULTS: Treatment with multiple anti-hypertensives was significantly associated with the presence of psoriasis using univariate (p < 0.0001) and multivariable analysis, after adjusting for diabetes, hyperlipidemia, and race (p < 0.0001). Compared to hypertensive patients without psoriasis, psoriasis patients with hypertension were 5 times more likely to be on a monotherapy antihypertensive regimen (95% CI 3.607.05), 9.5 times more likely to be on dual antihypertensive therapy (95% CI 6.68-13.65), 16.5 times more likely to be on triple antihypertensive regimen (95% CI 11.01-24.84), and 19.9 times more likely to be on quadruple therapy or centrally-acting agent (95% CI 10.58-37.33) in multivariable analysis after adjusting for traditional cardiac risk factors. CONCLUSIONS: Psoriasis patients appear to have more difficult-to-control hypertension compared to non-psoriatic, hypertensive patients

Tscale: A new multidimensional scaling procedure based on tversky's contrast model

Tversky's contrast model of proximity was initially formulated to account for the observed violations of the metric axioms often found in empirical proximity data. This set-theoretic approach models the similarity/dissimilarity between any two stimuli as a linear (or ratio) combination of measures of the common and distinctive features of the two stimuli. This paper proposes a new spatial multidimensional scaling (MDS) procedure called TSCALE based on Tversky's linear contrast model for the analysis of generally asymmetric three-way, two-mode proximity data. We first review the basic structure of Tversky's conceptual contrast model. A brief discussion of alternative MDS procedures to accommodate asymmetric proximity data is also provided. The technical details of the TSCALE procedure are given, as well as the program options that allow for the estimation of a number of different model specifications. The nonlinear estimation framework is discussed, as are the results of a modest Monte Carlo analysis. Two consumer psychology applications are provided: one involving perceptions of fast-food restaurants and the other regarding perceptions of various competitive brands of cola soft-drinks. Finally, other applications and directions for future research are mentioned.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/45750/1/11336_2005_Article_BF02294658.pd

Mitigating risk in ecommerce transactions: perceptions of information credibility and the role of user-generated ratings in product quality and purchase intention

Although extremely popular, electronic commerce environments often lack information that has traditionally served to ensure trust among exchange partners. Digital technologies, however, have created new forms of "electronic word-of-mouth," which offer new potential for gathering credible information that guides consumer behaviors. We conducted a nationally representative survey and a focused experiment to assess how individuals perceive the credibility of online commercial information, particularly as compared to information available through more traditional channels, and to evaluate the specific aspects of ratings information that affect people's attitudes toward ecommerce. Survey results show that consumers rely heavily on web-based information as compared to other channels, and that ratings information is critical in the evaluation of the credibility of online commercial information. Experimental results indicate that ratings are positively associated with perceptions of product quality and purchase intention, but that people attend to average product ratings, but not to the number of ratings or to the combination of the average and the number of ratings together. Thus suggests that in spite of valuing the web and ratings as sources of commercial information, people use ratings information suboptimally by potentially privileging small numbers of ratings that could be idiosyncratic. In addition, product quality is shown to mediate the relationship between user ratings and purchase intention. The practical and theoretical implications of these findings are considered for ecommerce scholars, consumers, and vendors. © 2014 Springer Science+Business Media New York