Channel selection in e-commerce age: a strategic analysis of co-op advertising models

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to develop and compare two co-op advertising models: advertising model under traditional channel and co-op advertising model under dual channel, to select optimal channel structure to sell products for manufacturer and to derive optimal co-op advertising strategies for the manufacturer and the retailer. Design/methodology/approach: Stackelberg game theoretical is used to develop two co-op advertising models: co-op advertising model under traditional channel and co-op advertising model under dual channel. Then we compare the two models to select optimal channel structure to sell products for manufacturer and to derive optimal co-op advertising strategies for the manufacturer and the retailer. Furthermore, we analyze the impact of product web-fit on these optimal strategies and illustrate by some numeral examples. Based on our results, we provide some significant theories and managerial insights, and derive some probable paths of future research. Findings: We provide a framework for researching optimal co-op advertising strategies in a two-level supply chain considering different marketing channel structures. First, we discuss the traditional channel co-op adverting model and the dual channel co-op advertising model based on Stackelberg game theoretical, and we derive optimal co-op advertising strategies. Next, comparisons of these two channel structures are discussed and we find that the manufacturer always benefits from dual channel. But the retailer not always benefits from dual channel structure, and dual channel structure is better than retail channel with certain conditions. Also, the optimal co-op advertising strategies for the manufacturer and the retailer are obtained. Research limitations/implications: First, we focus on the aforementioned two channel structures; a further comparison with other channel structures can be investigated. Second, we ignore some factors that influence the demand of product, such as service and price. We can do some researches from the point of these factors. Third, how demand uncertainty affects the channel selection and co-op advertising strategy is another interesting research item. Practical implications: The manufacturer and the retailer know that the impact of co-op adverting on the demands of traditional channel and direct channel, both would like to choose reasonable strategies to improve the channel coordination. Therefore, it would be best if business managers conduct market survey before they start their co-op advertising campaign. Originality/value: Two new co-op advertising models in E-commerce age are developed, and the impact of product web-fit on these optimal strategies are analyzed and illustrate by some numeral examples. In addition, optimal channel structure in E-commerce age are selected for manufacturer and the retailerPeer Reviewe

Pricing multi-dimension American options by simulation

Master'sMASTER OF SCIENC

Asymmetry of Hemispheric Network Topology Reveals Dissociable Processes between Functional and Structural Brain Connectome in Community-Living Elders.

Human brain is structurally and functionally asymmetrical and the asymmetries of brain phenotypes have been shown to change in normal aging. Recent advances in graph theoretical analysis have showed topological lateralization between hemispheric networks in the human brain throughout the lifespan. Nevertheless, apparent discrepancies of hemispheric asymmetry were reported between the structural and functional brain networks, indicating the potentially complex asymmetry patterns between structural and functional networks in aging population. In this study, using multimodal neuroimaging (resting-state fMRI and structural diffusion tensor imaging), we investigated the characteristics of hemispheric network topology in 76 (male/female = 15/61, age = 70.08 ± 5.30 years) community-dwelling older adults. Hemispheric functional and structural brain networks were obtained for each participant. Graph theoretical approaches were then employed to estimate the hemispheric topological properties. We found that the optimal small-world properties were preserved in both structural and functional hemispheric networks in older adults. Moreover, a leftward asymmetry in both global and local levels were observed in structural brain networks in comparison with a symmetric pattern in functional brain network, suggesting a dissociable process of hemispheric asymmetry between structural and functional connectome in healthy older adults. Finally, the scores of hemispheric asymmetry in both structural and functional networks were associated with behavioral performance in various cognitive domains. Taken together, these findings provide new insights into the lateralized nature of multimodal brain connectivity, highlight the potentially complex relationship between structural and functional brain network alterations, and augment our understanding of asymmetric structural and functional specializations in normal aging

The Effect of Longitudinal Training on Working Memory Capacities: An Exploratory EEG Study

The study of working memory (WM) is a hot topic in recent years and accumulating literatures underlying the achievement and neural mechanism of WM. However, the effect of WM training on cognitive functions were rarely studied. In this study, nineteen healthy young subjects participated in a longitudinal design with one week N-back training (N=1,2,3,4). Experimental results demonstrated that training procedure could help the subjects master more complex psychological tasks when comparing the pre-training performance with those post-training. More specifically, the behavior accuracy increased from 68.14±9.34%, 45.09±14.90%, 39.12±12.71%, and 32.11±10.98% for 1-back, 2-back, 3-back and 4-back respectively to 73.52±4.01%, 69.14±5.28%, 69.09±6.41% and 64.41±5.12% after training. Furthermore, we applied elec-troencephalogram (EEG) power and functional connectivity to reveal the neural mechanisms of this beneficial effect and found that the EEG power of δ, θ and α band located in the left temporal and occipital lobe increased significantly. Meanwhile, the functional connectivity strength also increased obviously in δ and θ band. In sum, we showed positive effect of WM training on psychological performance and explored the neural mechanisms. Our findings may have the implications for enhancing the performance of participants who are prone to cognitive

Driving Fatigue Recognition with Functional Connectivity Based on Phase Synchronization

Accumulating evidences showed that the optimal brain network topology was altered with the progression of fatigue during car driving. However, the extent of discriminative power of functional connectivity that contribute to the driving fatigue detection is still unclear. In this study, we extracted two types of features (network properties and critical connections) to explore their usefulness in driving fatigue detection. EEG data were recorded twice from twenty healthy subjects during a simulated driving experiment. Multi-band functional connectivity matrices were established using phase lag index, which serve as input for the following graph theoretical analysis and critical connections determination between the most vigilant and fatigued states. We found a reorganisation of brain network towards less efficient architecture in fatigue state across all frequency bands. Further interrogations showed that the discriminative connections were mainly connected to frontal areas, i.e., most of the increased connections are from frontal pole to parietal or occipital regions. Moreover, we achieved a satisfactory classification accuracy (96.76%) using the discriminative connection features in β band. Our study demonstrated that graph theoretical properties and critical connections are of discriminative power for manifesting fatigue alterations and the critical connection is an efficient feature for driving fatigue detection