Competition between Private Labels and National Brands in a Multichannel Retailer

This chapter analyzes private label and national brand competition across online and offline channels. We analyze competition using three measures: market share, a loyalty index, and what is called in the literature conquesting power (a measure of the ability of a brand to capture nonloyal consumers). We first provide a brief theoretical introduction and literature research about the topic. We also do an empirical analysis using data of a multichannel grocery retailer that sells both its own private label and national brands, through physical stores and an online store. The data include the purchases made by a sample of multichannel consumers. We find that the private label increases, in general, its competitive position in the online channel, compared to the offline channel. However, this result does not hold for all the product categories. We discuss some drivers of this general improvement, as well as potential causes for the differences between categories. We conclude with some recommendations for multichannel retailers and manufacturers

Musical Narrativities: Symbolising intertextualities and the musical characterization of the Tragic Hero in "An Equal Music" by Vikram Seth

Abstract The main purpose of this paper is to provide an in-depth analysis of the literary and musical references concerning symbolism and intertextuality in Vikram Seth’s An Equal Music as well as a portrayal of the tragic hero’s identity by means of musical associations. Hence, the analysis presents a point of connection between two disciplines that share blurred boundaries. Therefore, the approach taken in this paper aims to examine how music is represented in literature and how they are interrelated by means of allusions to both musical and literary works, concretely in the novel to deal with. Resumen El principal propósito de trabajo es mostrar un análisis exhaustivo de las referencias literarias y musicales con respecto al simbolismo e intertextualidad en An Equal Music de Vikram Seth, así como una descripción de la identidad del héroe trágico a través de asociaciones musicales. Así, el análisis presenta un punto de conexión entre dos disciplinas que comparten fronteras indefinidas. Por lo tanto, el enfoque adoptado en este trabajo tiene por objetivo estudiar cómo se representa la música en la literatura y cómo se interrelacionan ambas ambos por medio de alusiones a obras tanto musicales como literarias, concretamente en la novela a tratar

Online reviews and product sales: the role of review visibility

When studying the impact of online reviews on product sales, previous scholars have usually assumed that every review for a product has the same probability of being viewed by consumers. However, decision-making and information processing theories underline that the accessibility of information plays a role in consumer decision-making. We incorporate the notion of review visibility to study the relationship between online reviews and product sales, which is proxied by sales rank information, studying three different cases: (1) when every online review isassumed to have the same probability of being viewed; (2) when we assume that consumers sort online reviews by the most helpful mechanism; and (3) when we assume that consumers sort online reviews by the most recent mechanism. Review non-textual and textual variables are analyzed. The empirical analysis is conducted using a panel of 119 cosmetic products over a period of nine weeks. Using the system generalized method of moments (system GMM) method for dynamic models of panel data, our findings reveal that review variables influence product sales, but the magnitude, and even the direction of the effect, vary amongst visibility cases. Overall, the characteristics of the most helpful reviews have a higher impact on sales.This work was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation grant number ECO2015-65393-

Molecular Dynamics Simulations for Genetic Interpretation in Protein Coding Regions: Where we Are, Where to Go and When

The increasing ease with which massive genetic information can be obtained from patients or healthy individuals has stimulated the development of interpretive bioinformatics tools as aids in clinical practice. Most such tools analyze evolutionary information and simple physical–chemical properties to predict whether replacement of one amino acid residue with another will be tolerated or cause disease. Those approaches achieve up to 80–85% accuracy as binary classifiers (neutral/pathogenic). As such accuracy is insufficient for medical decision to be based on, and it does not appear to be increasing, more precise methods, such as full-atom molecular dynamics (MD) simulations in explicit solvent, are also discussed. Then, to describe the goal of interpreting human genetic variations at large scale through MD simulations, we restrictively refer to all possible protein variants carrying single-amino-acid substitutions arising from single-nucleotide variations as the human variome. We calculate its size and develop a simple model that allows calculating the simulation time needed to have a 0.99 probability of observing unfolding events of any unstable variant. The knowledge of that time enables performing a binary classification of the variants (stable-potentially neutral/unstable-pathogenic). Our model indicates that the human variome cannot be simulated with present computing capabilities. However, if they continue to increase as per Moore’s law, it could be simulated (at 65°C) spending only 3 years in the task if we started in 2031. The simulation of individual protein variomes is achievable in short times starting at present. International coordination seems appropriate to embark upon massive MD simulations of protein variants

An empirical analysis of shopping behavior across online and offline channels for grocery products: the moderating effects of household and product characteristics

We study the moderating effects of household (e.g., shopping frequency) and product (e.g., sensory nature) characteristics on household brand loyalty, size loyalty and price sensitivity across online and offline channels for grocery products. We analyze the shopping behavior of the same households that shop interchangeably in the online and offline stores of the same grocery chain in 93 categories of food, nonfood, sensory and nonsensory products. We find that households are more brand loyal, more size loyal but less price sensitive in the online channel than in the offline channel. Brand loyalty, size loyalty and price sensitivity are closely related to household and product characteristics. Light online shoppers exhibit the highest brand and size loyalties, but the lowest price sensitivity in the online channel. Heavy online shoppers display the lowest brand and size loyalties, but the highest price sensitivity in the online channel. Moderate online shoppers exhibit the highest price sensitivity in the offline channel. The online-offline differences in brand loyalty and price sensitivity are largest for light online shoppers and smallest for heavy online shoppers. The online-offline differences in brand loyalty, size loyalty and price sensitivity are larger for food products and for sensory products.This project is partially supported by the Singapore Ministry of Education Research Project R-317-000- 073-113 and the Government of Navarre and the Spanish Ministry of Science Research Project SEC2002- 04321-C02-02

Construcción, caracterización hidráulica y estudio de aplicación de una bomba de ariete para el riego de una finca agrícola

La bomba de ariete es un sistema de impulsión que aprovecha la energía potencial gravitatoria del agua para la elevación de una porción de la misma, mediante la transformación de la energía potencial, primero, en energía cinética y posteriormente en ondas de presión, conocidas como golpes de ariete. La bomba de ariete ha estado en desuso en los países desarrollados durante el siglo XX, debido a los bajos costes de la electricidad y de los combustibles fósiles. Por otra parte, su campo de aplicación es limitado, ya que requiere una cantidad excedentaria de agua capaz de ceder su energía potencial al agua impulsada. No obstante, la bomba de ariete continúa presente, ya sea en países en vías de desarrollo o bien en determinados usos agrícolas a pequeña escala en países desarrollados, donde se suele utilizar por razones de sensibilidad ambiental, o también por ahorro de costes energéticos, siempre en lugares donde se puedan dar las condiciones apropiadas. Por ello, desde el documento que tienes entre tus manos se ha realizado un trabajo de consulta bibliográfica sobre el funcionamiento y los aspectos relacionados con las bombas de ariete, además de construir y caracterizar hidráulicamente un prototipo realizado mediante piezas de fontanería, para después estudiar teóricamente su aplicación al riego de una finca agrícola