Dynamic and Competitive Effects of Direct Mailings

We propose a dynamic direct mailing response model with competitive effects, where purchase and promotion history are incorporated. We then map the dynamic competitive interactions amongst the firms sending the mailings. We investigate the short- and long-run impact of a direct mailing on the revenues of the firm sending the mailing and on the revenues of its competitors. The model accounts for unobserved heterogeneity across households. We estimate the model in the charitable giving setting, as sending direct mailings represents a large part of charitable fundraising activity. Households often receive direct mailings of different charities within a short period of time and competition is highly relevant. We construct a unique database by merging the databases of three large charity organizations in the Netherlands. This results in household level data on the direct mailings received and the donations made by each household to each charity. Our results show that charitable direct mailings are short-run complements, that is, the direct mailings tend to increase the total pie that is divided among the charities. At the same time, the charitable direct mailings are long-run substitutes. In the long run they fight for a piece of the pie that households have available for charitable giving.Competition;Dynamics;Direct Mailings

Does Irritation Induced by Charitable Direct Mailings Reduce Donations?

Charities mainly rely on direct mailings to attract the attention of potential donators. Individuals may feel irritated by these mailings, in particular when they receive many mailings. We study the consequences of perceived irritation on stated behavior and on actual behavior. Target selection by charities likely results in good donators receiving many mailings and hence they might also be most irritated. Therefore, irritation with direct mailings might be endogenously determined. To create exogenous variation in irritation, we design a unique controlled field experiment in cooperation with five of the largest charities in the Netherlands. Our analysis reveals that direct mailings do result in irritation, but surprisingly this affects neither stated nor actual donating behavior.direct marketing;field experiment;charity donations;irritation

Efficient orthogonal control of tunnel couplings in a quantum dot array

Electrostatically-defined semiconductor quantum dot arrays offer a promising platform for quantum computation and quantum simulation. However, crosstalk of gate voltages to dot potentials and inter-dot tunnel couplings complicates the tuning of the device parameters. To date, crosstalk to the dot potentials is routinely and efficiently compensated using so-called virtual gates, which are specific linear combinations of physical gate voltages. However, due to exponential dependence of tunnel couplings on gate voltages, crosstalk to the tunnel barriers is currently compensated through a slow iterative process. In this work, we show that the crosstalk on tunnel barriers can be efficiently characterized and compensated for, using the fact that the same exponential dependence applies to all gates. We demonstrate efficient calibration of crosstalk in a quadruple quantum dot array and define a set of virtual barrier gates, with which we show orthogonal control of all inter-dot tunnel couplings. Our method marks a key step forward in the scalability of the tuning process of large-scale quantum dot arrays.Comment: 8 pages, 7 figure

Dynamics and Competition in Charitable Giving

Nowadays potential donors receive many direct mailings from many different charities, all soliciting their donations. As charities depend for a large part on their revenues from direct mail it is important to uncover the precise effects of charitable direct mailings on donating behavior. Existing studies on donating behavior generally focus on a single decision context, that is, a single donation to a single charitable cause. In reality, however, people receive many donation requests, and the responses to these requests may not be independent. In this thesis we study the dynamic and competitive effects of charitable direct mailings on donating behavior. We present two direct mailing response models, with the first focusing primarily on the competitive dimension, and the second focusing mainly on the dynamic dimension. To calibrate these models we have access to a unique dataset consisting of the databases of multiple charity organizations, providing us wi

Verteerbaarheid en voederwaarde van eiwitrijke grondstoffen bij biologische biggen

Op Varkensproefbedrijf Raalte is onderzocht wat de nutriëntensamenstelling, verteerbaarheid en EW is van raapzaadeiwit concentraat, erwteneiwit concentraat, tarweglutenmeel en veldboneneiwitconcentraat bij biologisch gehouden gespeende biggen. De resultaten van het onderzoek zijn in dit rapport beschreven

Does Irritation Induced by Charitable Direct Mailings Reduce Donations?

Charities mainly rely on direct mailings to attract the attention of potential donators. Individuals may feel irritated by these mailings, in particular when they receive many mailings. We study the consequences of perceived irritation on stated behavior and on actual behavior. Target selection by charities likely results in good donators receiving many mailings and hence they might also be most irritated. Therefore, irritation with direct mailings might be endogenously determined. To create exogenous variation in irritation, we design a unique controlled field experiment in cooperation with five of the largest charities in the Netherlands. Our analysis reveals that direct mailings do result in irritation, but surprisingly this affects neither stated nor actual donating behavior

Zorgboer past werkwijze en bedrijfsvoering aan

De zorgvraag is zeer divers. Op een zorgboerderij wordt daarom zorg geboden in de vorm van dagbesteding, arbeidsintegratie, wonen of behandeling. Om goed in te kunnen spelen op de behoeften van de deelnemers, past de zorgboer(in) bovendien zijn werkwijze en bedrijfsvoering aan. In dit artikel een overzicht van de aanpassingen die zorgboeren deden op hun bedrijve