Family and Store Choice - A Conceptual Framework

Retail Store choice has traditionally been studied from the perspective of an individual. The retail offering is however consumed more by the family than by an individual. This study questions the study of store choice by an individual and argues that the family is the relevant unit of analysis. The study draws on the extensive literature available on store choice and also on the family decision making for products and services. It identifies the key factors from the literature, which might be affecting the store choice of a family. On the basis of these factors, it proposes a conceptual framework for studying the retail store choice as a family decision.

Conservation Pakage for Modal Ecorace

Conserving biodiversity is about genetic variety, species, habitats and ecosystems. All are important, but it is often most appropriate, practical and effective to focus on species. With modern conservation awareness, there is a welcome and popular commitment to maintaining the diversity of species in India. Nevertheless, over the last 50 years, we have witnessed the severe decline of many once widespread and familiar species, such as tropical Tasar silkworm Antherea mylitta D. Conservation is not just about avoiding extinctions, but about restoring or recovering species populations to secure levels and preventing other species from reaching such a perilous situation in the first place. Species, by their very nature, have specific ecological requirements. They may appear to share the same habitat with many others but each has a different, specific niche. It is what sets them apart, and makes them what they are. Habitat loss has historically been a factor in species decline. However, the way existing habitats are managed is also important

Variability In The Ecoraces Of Tropical Tasar Sillkworm Antheraea Mylitta Drury

Tropical tasar silkworm, Antheraea mylitta Drury is exploited in countries for commercial silk production and improved varieties of these silkworms can be evolved by employing various breeding techniques. As the insect has established itself in various forms of ecological populations (Commonly called as ecoraces) in different geographical niches of the country depending on food plants and micro-environmental conditions available to them, the species exists in the form of nearly 44 ecoraces (Singh and Srivastava,1997, Srivastava,2002 and Srivastava et at. 2007) distributed over different states. However, due to free interbreeding in nature for centuries, the fauna is highly heterogeneous.

Tasar culture is a forest based industry being practiced as tradition, since time immemorial by the tribes of Central India, extending from West Bengal in the East to Karnataka in South. The species A. mylitta D. is polyphagous in nature. The present study comprises the ecoraces of tropical tasar silkworm of A. mylitta D. These ecoraces are mainly restricted in the tropical moist deciduous forest area where the average rainfall varies between 1200-2000 mm and the deciduous zone of the dry tropical forest area where the average rainfall has been observed to be about 1000 mm. The Primary food plants of the insects are Terminalia tomentosa, Terminalia arjuna and Shorea robusta and secondary food plants are Terminalia chebula, T. bellerica, T. peniculata, Zizyphus jujuba etc. The phenotypic and genotypic variability is very much prominent. The present review paper comprises the extent and degree of natural variation in tropical tasar silkworm A. mylitta D

Innovative Technologies, Institutions and Policies for Successful Value Chains for Tur Farmers: A Case Study of NCDEX Spot

The electronic spot exchange provides synergy among the existing marketing systems in the country with its improvised technology and reach through the online system as it brings a variety of benefits to the existing system such as price transparency, better price realization for farmers and lot of arbitrage opportunities for trader community. These exchanges are aimed at enhancing efficiencies of the existing value chain of commodities by developing appropriate platforms for modern spot markets, financing of commodities based on credible warehouse management arrangements, reducing transaction costs, supporting Futures Exchanges, regulators and the Government with standardized and structured spot markets for compulsory delivery in all agri-commodities. Successful operation of such technologiesdriven initiatives require congenial policy support as these are largely governed under the state laws of APMC. From the case study of NCDEX SPOT market in the Gulbarga district of Karnataka state, it has been observed that for facilitating the small and marginal farmers in participating in new age marketing system, it is required that all the stakeholders work seamlessly in an integrated manner, which are state agencies (warehousing, APMC, Mandi, Board, etc.), financial institutions, other infrastructural facilities, etc. With the help of NCDEX SPOT, tur grower-farmers in the Karnataka states are able to reduce the marketing cost by 50-70 per cent and are also able to sell their produce, whenever they want by paying a small charge for warehousing. It is also evident that the farmers could realize, on an average, 5-10 per cent higher price for their produce as compared to traditional APMC market. Although the business model seems to be working successfully and showing reasonable confidence to all the stakeholders, requires for upscaling across the board customization according to the law of land of respective states. However, it is a win-win proposition for the farmers-state governments-NCDEX SPOT-banks, etc, as its creates values at every stages of value chain.Agricultural and Food Policy,

Backpropagation Artificial Neural Network To Detect Hyperthermic Seizures In Rats

A three-layered feed-forward back-propagation Artificial Neural Network was used to classify the seizure episodes in rats. Seizure patterns were induced by subjecting anesthetized rats to a Biological Oxygen Demand incubator at 45-47ºC for 30 to 60 minutes. Selected fast Fourier transform data of one second epochs of electroencephalogram were used to train and test the network for the classification of seizure and normal patterns. The results indicate that the present network with the architecture of 40-12-1 (input-hidden-output nodes) agrees with manual scoring of seizure and normal patterns with a high recognition rate of 98.6%

Using Transaction Utility Approach for Retail Format Decision

Transaction Utility theory was propounded by Thaler to explain that the value derived by a customer from an exchange consists of two drivers: Acquisition Utilities and Transaction utilities. Acquisition utility represents the economic gain or loss from the transaction. Where as transaction utility is associated with purchase or (sale) and represents the pleasure (or displeasure) of the financial deal per se and is a function of the difference between the selling price and the reference price. Choice of a format has been studied from several dimensions including the cost and effort as well as the non-monetary values. However, the studies that present the complete picture and combine the aspects of the tangible as well as intangible values derived out of the shopping process are limited. Most of the studies, all of them from the developed economies, have focussed on the selection of a store. They represent a scenario where formats have stabilised. However, in Indian scenario formats have been found to be influencing the choice of store as well as orientation of the shoppers. Also, retailers are experimenting with alternate format with differing success rates. The author has also not found a study that has applied this theory. It is felt that the Transactional Utility Theory may provide a suitable approach for making format decisions.

Segmenting Shoppers on their Behaviour

A retail stores attracts shoppers who vary in their profiles. While some of them are serious shoppers, many of them are "visitors" to the stores. It is not possible for the store to differentiate its offerings to these segments. Classifying these shoppers on demographic and their orientation to shopping has been tried in the developed economies. However, it is felt that in an evolving market like India where shopping orientation are yet to be formed, one of the basis of understanding that shoppers could be their behaviour at the store because behavioural cues are factual data on which a retailer can develop its strategy. Through a study that involved participant observation of 284 shoppers conducted in Ahmedabad segment profiles have been developed. The shoppers were classified into 26 segments based on their behaviour. These segments have also been profiled on the basis of gender, store format and the type of product that they bought. The retail mix ingredients that could be used to deliver better value to each of the segments have been suggested. Based on the study a framework to understand shopper behaviour has been proposed.

How a "Hit" is Born: The Emergence of Popularity from the Dynamics of Collective Choice

In recent times there has been a surge of interest in seeking out patterns in the aggregate behavior of socio-economic systems. One such domain is the emergence of statistical regularities in the evolution of collective choice from individual behavior. This is manifested in the sudden emergence of popularity or "success" of certain ideas or products, compared to their numerous, often very similar, competitors. In this paper, we present an empirical study of a wide range of popularity distributions, spanning from scientific paper citations to movie gross income. Our results show that in the majority of cases, the distribution follows a log-normal form, suggesting that multiplicative stochastic processes are the basis for emergence of popular entities. This suggests the existence of some general principles of complex organization leading to the emergence of popularity. We discuss the theoretical principles needed to explain this socio-economic phenomenon, and present a model for collective behavior that exhibits bimodality, which has been observed in certain empirical popularity distributions.Comment: 17 pages, 14 figures, A version of the work is published in Econophysics and Sociophysics: Trends and Perspectives, (eds.) Bikas K. Chakrabarti, Anirban Chakraborti, Arnab Chatterjee; Wiley-VCH, Berlin (2006); Chapter-15, pages: 417-44