Competitive Targeted Advertising with Price Discrimination

This paper investigates the effects of price discrimination by means of targeted advertising in a duopolistic market where the distribution of consumers' preferences is discrete and where advertising plays two major roles. It is used by firms as a way to transmit relevant information to otherwise uninformed consumers, and it is used as a price discrimination device. We compare the firms' optimal marketing mix (advertising and pricing) when they adopt mass advertising/non-discrimination strategies and targeted advertising/price discrimination strategies. If firms are able to adopt targeted advertising strategies, we find that the symmetric price equilibrium is in mixed strategies, while the advertising is chosen deterministically. Our results also unveil that as long as we allow for imperfect substitutability between the goods, ?rms do not necessarily target more ads to their own market. In particular, firms' optimal marketing mix leads to higher advertising reach in the rival's market than in the firms' own market, provided that advertising costs are sufficiently low in relation to the consumer's reservation value. The comparison of the optimal marketing-mix under mass advertising strategies and targeted advertising strategies reveals that targeted advertising might constitute a tool to dampen price competition. In particular, if advertising costs are sufficiently low in relation to the value of the goods, we obtain that average prices with non-discrimination (mass advertising) are below those with price discrimination and targeted advertising (regardless of the market segment). Accordingly, when (i) goods are imperfect substitutes, (ii) advertising is not too expensive, and (iii) targeted advertising constitutes an effective price discrimination tool, price discrimination through targeted advertising may be detrimental to social welfare since it boosts industry profits at the expense of consumer surplus.

The importance of international students: a case study

Over recent years, there has been an increasing interest from higher education institutions (HEI) to determine their importance to the regions in which they operate. The current economic situation in Portugal is characterized with budget cuts, constant pressure over the HEIs to justify their value to society and consequently, the institutions are competing aggressively among themselves in the recruitment of students. HEI should analyse and prove the economic contribution of their presence for the region and by doing so they could compete in a more unbiased way for public funding’s and could also justify the current ones. The economic impact of HEI for the region is associated with the contribution of the national and international students. The latter represents, today, a significant share for the institutions, with the globalization of markets and societies increasing the number of international students. Thus, the present study intends to understand how the presence of international students can influence the region, not only determining the economic impact that international students have on the region, but also to understand how their are integrated in the academy and with local residents and how their culture and backgrounds can enrich local residents culture and experiences. A quantitative approach methodology was followed, with a descriptive study developed through the implementation of a survey. The population considered were the emails made available by International Relationship Office and the academic services in 2018 that reached 1,449 international students that were enrolled in the IPB. There were 478 resposnses. The sample analysis allowed us to characterize the international students and estimate the economic impact of these students through their monthly spending and to understand how they connected with their colleagues and how was their relationship with local community. The economic impact estimated for the international students who attended the Polytechnic Institute of Bragança in the studied year attained 12.3 million euros. It was also relevant to find that almost all the international students found their experience very positive, that they felt welcome by the academy and local comunity and that they valued the opportunities provided by the IPB to publicly share their culture.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Are online classes the future in higher education?

Currently, due to the COVID-19 pandemic the world has shut down and higher education institutions (HEI) were among the institutions that had to change their traditional way of lecturing classes. Traditional classes, lectured in a classroom where the teacher and the students were together and face-to-face face were no longer an option, due to effective lockdown. Portugal was one of the countries that had to pursue solutions to maintain educational institutions functioning, in order to maintain students studying and learning and to be able to minimize the effects of the pandemic. In this context, this study describes a particular case in the north of Portugal, in a school of the Polytechnic Institute of Bragança (IPB), a higher education institution that had to close the facilities during the second semester of the academic year of 2019/2020. During this semester the classes were all online, using the zoom platform. The importance of this study, was not only to understand the impact of online classes in the students, in terms of availability of resources to follow classes, motivation, knowledge acquisition, and evaluation, but also to present measures to the school management so they could prepare and prevent problems with a possible 2nd lockdown. This 2nd lockdown did happen during the second semester of the academic year of 2020/2021. From the study, we concluded that not all the students had the basic conditions to attend online classes, either they did not have a personal computer or they had internet limitations. Also, they reported that, being at home, was harder to follow the classes and to study since their families required much more of their time to make other chores. The major findings were that not all the students understood online classes the same way, in fact, older students from advanced years preferred online classes and had no restrictions on their relationships with their colleagues. However, the younger students, enrolled in the first year, and this was transversal to all courses, felt that they did not acquire the needed knowledge, found online classes harder, and, since they were freshmen, a considerable percentage reported that they could not establish social connections with their colleagues and felt demotivated and alone. Also, the majority of the students reported that the evaluation was harder, since the teachers, to prevent fraud and make cheating more difficult, reduced the evaluation time and blocked the possibility to see the entire exam, only allowing one question at a time. This was a complain from the students and a valid one, since it only negatively impacted the engaged students, it had no evidence of reducing fraudulent behaviours. With these findings it was possible for the HEI’s management to implement some measures. The HEI had to be closed for the first half of the second semester of 2020/2021. Still, as soon as it was possible to return to face-to-face classes it was established that some years could be in hybrid mode (online and onsite), however not for freshmen years. This measure would enable them to form social connections and to properly follow the classes with a closer support by the teacher. The other measure implemented was that all evaluation was onsite, hence the good students were not affected and it could also efficiently prevent fraud, when compared to online evaluations.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Personalized princing with targeted advertising : who are the winners?

FCT (Fundação para a CiŒncia e a Tecnologia) within the projects PTDC/IIM-ECO/2280/2014 and POCI-01-0145-FEDER006890.This paper investigates who wins and who loses when rms depart from a mass advertising/uniform pricing strategy (benchmark model) to a targeted advertising/price discrimination one. We characterize the equilibrium outcomes in both settings. Then, we address the competitive and welfare e⁄ects of personalized pricing with targeted advertising by comparing the results obtained under this business strategy to the ones arising under the mass strategy. We show that all segment consumers are expected to pay higher average prices under the personalized advertising/pricing strategy. We also show that the personalized strategy might be a winning strategy for rms. The overall welfare e⁄ects of the personalized strategy are ambiguous. However, even when the personalized strategy boosts overall welfare, consumers might all be worse-o⁄. Thus the paper gives support to concerns that have been raised regarding the rmsability to adopt personalized strategies to boost prots at the expense of consumers.Compete 2020, Feder, Portugal 2020, FC

Competitive targeted advertising with price discrimination

This paper investigates the effects of price discrimination by means of targeted advertising in a duopolistic market in which advertising plays two major roles. It transmits relevant information to otherwise uninformed consumers and it acts as a price discrimination device. We look at the firms' optimal advertising and pricing decisions in two settings, namely mass advertising/non-discrimination strategies and targeted advertising/price discrimination strategies. In the case of targeted advertising, we show that firms advertise more in its weak market than in its strong market. The analysis highlights that targeted advertising might constitute a tool to dampen price competition. We show that average prices with mass advertising/non-discrimination can be below those with targeted advertising/price discrimination (regardless of the market segment). We also fi nd that, when advertising costs are not too high, price discrimination by means of targeted advertising can boost industry pro fits at the expense of consumer and overall welfare. Finally, we show that overall welfare and consumer surplus falls when firms use targeted advertising instead of mass advertising.COMPETE; QREN; FEDER; Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT

Criação de recursos didáticos para quadros interativos multimédia

Os Quadros Interativos Multimédia (QIM) são ferramentas inovadoras que vieram aumentar a dinâmica das aulas. Numa altura em que a maior parte das escolas já se encontra equipada com esta ferramenta, faz todo o sentido que os docentes adiram à sua utilização. No entanto, a maioria utiliza-os ainda como simples projetores. As principais razões são, nas suas palavras, a falta de formação e a falta de disponibilidade de recursos multimédia que possam ser usados nos QIM. Com este trabalho pretendemos contribuir para a alteração desta situação. Seguindo uma metodologia de Development Research, criamos um protótipo multimédia que, por um lado, os professores possam usar nas suas aulas e, por outro, que possa servir como orientação para a construção de flipcharts. Depois de caracterizarmos o nosso público-alvo, começamos o nosso processo de construção do protótipo, passando pelas diversas etapas da metodologia adotada. Sujeitámo-lo a avaliações heurísticas e de usabilidade com utilizadores semelhantes aos utilizadores finais. Estes testes permitiram aperfeiçoar o protótipo. Por último, alojámo-lo na Internet para aumentar a sua disseminação

Avaliação da usabilidade do protótipo web QIMTERATIVO

O QIMTERATIVO é um recurso didático de Biologia construído com o intuito de apoiar os professores na sua prática letiva pela utilização de quadros interativos multimédia. Durante a sua construção foi sujeito a vários testes de avaliação da usabilidade, realizados com peritos e com utilizadores semelhantes aos finais, com o objetivo de melhorar o protótipo do ponto de vista da eficácia e da eficiência. Recorrendo a métodos como inquérito por questionário, com heurísticas de Nielsen e teste de grau de severidade, walkthrough e think aloud, com observação direta, recolhemos informações diferentes. Os peritos alertaram para problemas funcionais e estéticos. As sugestões foram aceites, na tentativa de tornar o recurso agradável e funcional para os utilizadores. Pela realização de uma tarefa, estes consideraram o recurso em estudo prático e acessível, podendo ser utilizado nas aulas pelos professores de Biologia ou como forma de iniciação aos quadros interativos multimédia ou para relembrar conhecimentos, pelos professores em geral.QIMTERATIVO is a Biology teaching resource constructed in order to support teachers in their teaching practice, by using multimedia interactive whiteboards (MIW). During construction it was subjected to several tests of usability, conducted by experts and people with the characteristics of an end user, with the objective of improving the prototype in terms of effectiveness and efficiency. Using methods such as questionnaire survey, with Nielsen heuristics and test severity, walkthrough and think aloud, with direct observation, we collected different information. Experts warned us of functional and aesthetic problems. The suggestions were accepted, in an attempt to make the resource pleasing and functional for users. For performing a task, they considered the resource under consideration practical and affordable, to be used in classrooms by Biology teachers or as an approach to the introduction into multimedia interactive whiteboards or for knowledge recall, by teachers in general.CIEC - Centro de Investigação em Estudos da Criança, UM (UI 317 da FCT

The influence of online shopping determinants on customer satisfaction in the portuguese market

To analyze the factors that influence customer’s online shopping satisfaction, quantitative research is used through a survey. Six factors are used as independent variables in this study, namely: security, information availability, shipping, quality, pricing and time. The study, conducted in Portugal, uses primary data in the form of a survey with a questionnaire as a research instrument, using a five-point Likert scale. The sampling technique in this study uses convenience sampling. The data (n=193) were analyzed using Confirmatory Factor Analysis and Multiple Regression. The analysis carried out reveals the main factors that influence specific online shopping satisfaction, in the Portuguese market. The obtained result analysis confirmed that quality, information availability, pricing, and shipping have a significant effect on online shopping customer satisfaction, while security have no significant effect on online shopping customer’s satisfaction and time presented an unacceptable internal consistency, and so it was not possible to conclude about this factor.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Um olhar para além das grades

Os conflitos sociais, emergentes do comportamento humano ou de grupos organizados, são uma constante na sociedade atual. Resultantes do divórcio entre a economia e o desenvolvimento humano, assentam numa crise de valores, em que a ética e os direitos humanos devem reforçar o seu papel como instrumentos dinamizadores na construção de novos preceitos comportamentais. Com base nesta temática foi dado corpo a um projeto, implementado num estabelecimento prisional, como o objetivo geral de dotar os participantes reclusos de instrumentos necessários para o regresso à sociedade e à procura de emprego, treinando competências pessoais e sociais. Segundo a Direcção-Geral de Reinserção Social a reclusão tem sido geradora de uma crise que pressiona processos de mudança familiar, mas a crise tanto pode conduzir a um bloqueio como ser a mola propulsora de momentos criativos que se podem tornar em oportunidades. Para o efeito foram utilizadas estratégias apoiadas em trabalho individual, dinâmicas de grupo, role playing e meios audiovisuais. A amostra era constituída por 11 participantes, com os quais foram realizadas 17 sessões, com atividades divididas em três grupos. No primeiro grupo, foram trabalhados três temas – os sentimentos, o mundo do crime e a solidariedade -, cada um com três sessões. O segundo grupo, com 5 sessões, abordou a temática sobre o mundo do trabalho e o terceiro grupo, com 3 sessões, permitiu criar um espaço lúdico. Os instrumentos avaliativos do projeto apoiaram-se em uma entrevista, dois questionários e na observação de uma dinâmica de grupo, aplicados no acompanhamento e no final do projeto. Apesar de a intervenção ter sido realizada com um grupo privado de liberdade, com regras muito precisas e uma rotina delineada e imposta pelo estabelecimento prisional, foi possível incutir novas regras e mudança de atitudes alicerçada na tolerância, paciência, confiança e autocontrolo.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio