Modeling the strategic trading of electricity assets

We analyze how strategic asset trading can be used to gain competitive advantage. In the case of electricity markets, companies seek to improve the value of their generating portfolios by acquiring, or selling, power plants. Accordingly, we derive the basic determinants of plant value, explaining how a particular productive asset may have different values for different firms. From this, we develop an evolutionary model to understand how market structure interacts with strategic asset trading to increase the competitive advantage of firms, and furthermore, how this depends upon the actual price-setting microstructure in the wholesale market itselfCompetitive advantage, computational learning, auctions, asset trading, simulation, electricity markets

Stuck in the Adoption Funnel: The Effect of Delays in the Adoption Process on Ultimate Adoption

Online applications and services automate communications and transactions between rms and consumers, promising large efficiency gains. However, consumers have been slow to use these online technologies intensively, despite widespread adoption of the internet. Customers frequently undergo a staggered adoption process that may involve sign-up, experimentation, trial, and substantial usage until they fully embrace internet services. We ask whether delays in moving through the initial stages of this adoption process contribute to consumers ultimately not using the service intensively. Such behavior would be consistent with laboratory findings on consumer memory. We explore this question using data from a German retail bank where only 24% of the customers who sign up for the bank's online banking service use it substantially. We use exogenous variation in delays in the adoption process, caused by vacations and public holidays in different German states, to identify this effect. We find that delays in the early stages of adoption significantly reduce a customer's probability of moving to substantial usage: A 10-day delay of a customer's first online login reduces the likelihood that she will ever use the technology substantially, by 33%. This eect is more severe for demographic groups with less online experience

A Critical Appraisal of Remedies in the EU Microsoft Cases

We discuss and compare the remedies from the European Union’s two cases against Microsoft. The first E.U. case ("E.U. Microsoft I") alleged that Microsoft illegally bundled the Windows Media Player with Windows and that Microsoft did not provide adequate documentation that would allow full interoperability between Windows servers and non- Microsoft servers, as well as between Windows clients and non-Microsoft servers. After finding Microsoft liable and imposing a large fine, the E.U. imposed as remedies two requirements on Microsoft: (1) to sell a version of Windows without Windows Media Player ("Windows-N") and (2) to publish and license interoperability information. Windows-N was a commercial failure, and there has been only limited cross-platform server entry. In its second investigation of Microsoft ("E.U. Microsoft II"), the E.U. alleged illegal tying of Internet Explorer with Windows. The E.U. settled with Microsoft by having them accept the "choice screen proposal": an obligation to ask consumers whose computers have Internet Explorer pre-installed to choose a browser from a menu of competing browsers through compulsory Windows updates. Thus, the E.U. imposed quite different remedies in the two cases: an unbundling remedy for the Windows Media Player but close to a must-carry requirement for Internet Explorer. We analyze and compare the different approaches

Search, Design, and Market Structure

The Internet has made consumer search much easier with consequences for competition, industry structure and product offerings. We explore these consequences in a rich but tractable model that allows for strategic design choices. We find a polarized market structure, where some firms choose designs aiming for broad-based audiences, while others target narrow niches. Such an industry structure can arise even when all firms and consumers are ex-ante identical. We perform comparative statics and show the effect of a fall in search costs on the designs, market shares, prices, and profits of different firms. In particular, a fall in search costs, through the effect on product designs, can lead to higher industry prices and profits. In characterizing sales distributions, our analysis is related to discussions of how the Internet has led to the prevalence of niche goods and the long tail and superstar phenomena

Stuck in the Adoption Funnel: The Effect of Delays in the Adoption Process on Ultimate Adoption

Online applications and services automate communications and transactions between rms and consumers, promising large efficiency gains. However, consumers have been slow to use these online technologies intensively, despite widespread adoption of the internet. Customers frequently undergo a staggered adoption process that may involve sign-up, experimentation, trial, and substantial usage until they fully embrace internet services. We ask whether delays in moving through the initial stages of this adoption process contribute to consumers ultimately not using the service intensively. Such behavior would be consistent with laboratory findings on consumer memory. We explore this question using data from a German retail bank where only 24% of the customers who sign up for the bank's online banking service use it substantially. We use exogenous variation in delays in the adoption process, caused by vacations and public holidays in different German states, to identify this effect. We find that delays in the early stages of adoption significantly reduce a customer's probability of moving to substantial usage: A 10-day delay of a customer's first online login reduces the likelihood that she will ever use the technology substantially, by 33%. This eect is more severe for demographic groups with less online experience

Search, Design, and Market Structure

The Internet has made consumer search much easier with consequences for competition, industry structure and product offerings. We explore these consequences in a rich but tractable model that allows for strategic design choices. We find a polarized market structure, where some firms choose designs aiming for broad-based audiences, while others target narrow niches. Such an industry structure can arise even when all firms and consumers are ex-ante identical. We perform comparative statics and show the effect of a fall in search costs on the designs, market shares, prices, and profits of different firms. In particular, a fall in search costs, through the effect on product designs, can lead to higher industry prices and profits. In characterizing sales distributions, our analysis is related to discussions of how the Internet has led to the prevalence of niche goods and the long tail and superstar phenomena

Host–guest interaction and sustainable consumption behaviour on sharing-accommodation platforms: using a big data analytic approach

The rapid expansion of the sharing economy has ignited diverse perspectives regarding its sustainability implications. Nevertheless, a comprehensive study examining the influence of host–guest interactions on sustainable consumption behaviour is yet to be conducted. To fill the abovementioned gap, this research crawls online data and corresponding consumer reviews of 46,360 properties listed on Muniao Short Rent. Employing latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) to model sustainable consumption reviews and conducting subsequent regression analysis using SPSS, this research empirically demonstrates that the host–guest interaction frequencies and positive emotions during interaction positively influence guests’ sustainable consumption behaviours within the sharing-accommodation context. This research proposes the significance of the host–guest relationship for green consumers and argues that factors such as price and house type negatively moderate the host–guest interactions and guests’ sustainable consumption initiatives

Acknowledgments: We are grateful to Anat Admati, Ugo Albertazzi, Cindy Alexander,

We present a model in which issuers of asset backed securities choose to release coarse information to enhance the liquidity of their primary market, at the cost of reducing secondary market liquidity. The degree of transparency is inefficiently low if the social value of secondary market liquidity exceeds its private value. We show that various types of public intervention – mandatory transparency standards, provision of liquidit

Academic research into marketing: many publications, but little impact?

This article reviews some issues associated with the way in which academic research into marketing is evaluated by UK education authorities using their Research Excellence Framework (REF), in particular the impact component of the assessment. It discusses the extent to which research by marketing academics published in leading academic journals is relevant to the concerns of marketing management and how this relevance or lack of it may be reflected in the relative paucity of impact submissions in marketing. It considers the model of impact assessment used in the REF and how this differs from how marketing academics work in practice, giving three examples of significant impact that would not be acceptable under current rules. It concludes by suggesting that alternative models for impact should be investigated and suggests that using more practical models might result in better engagement of marketing academics with business, leading to greater relevance in teaching and employability of marketing graduates

Target company cross-border effects in acquisitions into the UK

We analyse the abnormal returns to target shareholders in crossborder and domestic acquisitions of UK companies. The crossborder effect during the bid month is small (0.84%), although crossborder targets gain significantly more than domestic targets during the months surrounding the bid. We find no evidence for the level of abnormal returns in crossborder acquisitions to be associated with market access or exchange rate effects, and only limited support for an international diversification effect. However, the crossborder effect appears to be associated with significant payment effects, and there is no significant residual crossborder effect once various bid characteristics are controlled for