The impact of sales promotions on store performance: a structural vector autoregressive (SVAR) approach.

The paper analyses the impact of sales promotions on store performance, in the short and long term, from the retailer’s point of view. Relationships among promoted and regular sales in the hypermarkets of a large-scale retail chain of national importance, are investigated by means of a structural vector autoregressive model (SVAR). Statistically significant effects of sales promotions in the heavy household section on store sales are found in the short-run; these promotions produce additional sales and thus act as an attractive factor. Promotions in textile category, on the contrary, produce an immediate negative effect on net sales. In the long-run, negative statistically significant effects on regular sales are detected when continuative promotions are implemented within perishables’ category.promotional effectiveness, retail promotions, structural VAR, short and long-term effects.

Effects of tapentadol on pain, motor symptoms and cognitive functions in Parkinson\u2019s disease

Background: Pain is a common and undertreated non-motor symptom in patients with Parkinson\u2019s disease (PD). Opioids have been seldom used in PD because they could worsen cognitive and motor functions. Objective: We aimed to assess efficacy and tolerability of tapentadol in PD patients. Methods: We retrospectively reviewed 21 PD patients treated with tapentadol extended release (ER) for chronic pain. Patients were evaluated before treatment and at 3 and 6 months during treatment for pain intensity (current, 24-hour average, and minimum and worst) with a 0-10 Numerical Rating Scale and the painDETECT questionnaire; for motor symptom severity with the Unified Parkinson\u2019s Disease Rating Scale part III and the Hoehn and Yahr scale; for cognitive functions with MiniMental Status Examination, Corsi\u2019s Block Tapping test, Digit Span, Digit-Symbol Substitution test, FAS test, Rey\u2019s Auditory Verbal Learning test, Trail Making-A and -B, and the 9 Hole-Peg Test; for anxiety and depression with the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale; and for the quality of life with the Short Form-12 for Quality of Life. Data were analyzed by one-way ANOVA and paired t-test, and by Friedman\u2019s and Wilcoxon\u2019s test. Statistical significance was taken in all cases as P < 0,05. Results: Pain intensity decreased over the course of treatment. No differences were found in PD symptom severity and dopaminergic drug dosages between pretreatment and treatment evaluations . No decrement in cognitive neuropsychological performances was found and an improvement was observed in Digit Span, Digit-Symbol Substitution test and FAS test. The levels of anxiety, depression and of quality of life improved. Overall tapentadol ER was well tolerated and most patients reported no or mild and short-lived gastroenterological and neurological side effects. Conclusions: These results indicate the potential efficacy and tolerability of medium-high dose of tapentadol ER for the treatment of pain in PD

Tapentadol: an effective option for the treatment of back pain

Back pain, including low back pain and neck pain, is the leading cause of disability worldwide. This type of pain is challenging to treat, since it presents both a nociceptive and a neuropathic component. The latter also contributes to the evolution of pain toward chronification. Treatment selection should therefore consider the ability to prevent this event. Tapentadol is characterized by a unique and innovative peculiar mechanism of action that makes it the first representative of a new class of central strong analgesics referred to as MOR-NRI. This molecule acts both on the nociceptive and neuropathic components of pain, and it can therefore be effective in the treatment of a mixed pain condition such as back pain. This narrative review discusses the rationale for the use of tapentadol in both low back pain and neck pain and presents available clinical data. Overall, data show that tapentadol prolonged release is a well-grounded treatment for chronic back pain, sustained by a strong mechanistic rationale and robust evidence. Given also the availability of long-term efficacy and safety data, we believe that this molecule should be considered as an elective therapy for chronic back pain

The effects of marketing activities on fast moving consumer good purchases : the case of yoghurt Italian market.

This paper examines whether sales promotions effectiveness depends upon the consumer’s brand loyalty and her buying behaviour and whether consumer’s behavioural characteristics in term of purchase frequency and level affect the response to promotional activities and moderate the effect of brand loyalty during the consumer choice process. Different specifications for the utility function, exploiting information on selling price, promotional activities such as displays usage, ad features in the store, 3x2 and discount, and differently brand loyalty measures have been estimated into a discrete choice framework, that is into the rational brand choice paradigm, paying attention to their effects on individuals’ probabilities to choose the specific brand during each purchase occasion. The application is run on a ACNielsen dataset of Italian households consumer panel, observed to buy at least two yoghurt packages during a year, matched to store panel data with respect to quantities, prices and promotions.promotional effectiveness, brand loyalty, purchase volume, purchase frequency, random utility model, multinomial logit,

The impact of sales promotions on store performance: a structural vector autoregressive (SVAR) approach

The present paper analyses the impact of sales promotions on store performance, in the short and long term, from the retailer’s point of view. Relationships among promoted and regular sales in the hypermarkets of a large-scale retail chain of national importance, are investigated by means of a structural vector autoregressive model (SVAR). Statistically significant effects of sales promotions in the heavy household section on store sales are found in the short-run; these promotions produce additional sales and thus act as an attractive factor. Promotions in textile category, on the contrary, produce an immediate negative effect on net sales. In the long-run, negative statistically significant effects on regular sales are detected when continuative promotions are implemented within perishables’ category

An analysis of the role of liking on the memorial response to advertising

After the publication of the results of the Advertising Research Foundation’s Copy Research Validity Project, ad liking has been extensively used as copy test predictor of campaign’s performance. Less favourable findings have been recently presented on the basis of its delayed effects. This paper addresses the question of carryover effects of ad liking on the recall, jointly modelling the patterns of recall, ad pressure and ad liking, by means of the specification of a vector autoregressive model with GRPs acting as exogenous variable. The approach is innovative since literature has mainly investigated until now only the simultaneous relationship between advertising, recall and liking. The analysis is carried out for the markets of small automobiles, deodorants and shampoos. Main empirical findings for the analysed categories highlight that: 1) carryover effects of ad liking on the recall measures may be detected but not systematically, and 2) the ad liking role of ad likeability on memorial responses varies among product categories. Moreover 3) a further finding shows that, whereas positive influences are thoroughly retrievable (in the small car category), ad likeability influences more advertising than brand awareness and more total than unaided awareness.Advertising effectiveness; Ad Liking; Recall; VARX models;

Static NLO susceptibilities: testing approximation schemes against exact results

The reliability of the approximations commonly adopted in the calculation of static optical (hyper)polarizabilities is tested against exact results obtained for an interesting toy-model. The model accounts for the principal features of typical nonlinear organic materials with mobile electrons strongly coupled to molecular vibrations. The approximations introduced in sum over states and finite field schemes are analyzed in detail. Both the Born-Oppenheimer and the clamped nucleus approximations turn out to be safe for molecules, whereas for donor-acceptor charge transfer complexes deviations from adiabaticity are expected. In the regime of low vibrational frequency, static susceptibilities are strongly dominated by the successive derivatives of the potential energy and large vibrational contributions to hyperpolarizabilities are found. In this regime anharmonic corrections to hyperpolarizabilities are very large, and the harmonic approximation, exact for the linear polarizability, turns out totally inadequate for nonlinear responses. With increasing phonon frequency the role of vibrations smoothly decreases, until, in the antiadiabatic (infinite vibrational frequency) regime, vibrations do not contribute anymore to static susceptibilities, and the purely electronic responses are regained.Comment: 9 pages, including 3 figure

Studio e caratterizzazione del comportamento magnetico dell'acciaio Fe-9Cr in funzione della temperatura

Allestimento del setup sperimentale per la misura dei cicli di isteresi magnetica di acciai magnetici (Fe-9Cr) in funzione della temperatura e valutazione del comportamento magnetico secondo la teoria classica di Curie-Weiss e Langevin. Presentazione del modello di Ising e confronto con i risultati sperimentali ottenuti e le teorie classiche del magnetismo

Analysis of european stock returns: evidence of a new risk factor

Due to increasing importance of industry diversification we analyse the sector risk structure of European stock markets. The presence of a new factor correlated to the new economy statistically explains returns variability in recent years.