Four essays on the integration of revenue management and customer-centric marketing

University of Technology Sydney. Faculty of Business.The concurrent use of customer centric marketing (CCM) and perishable asset revenue management (RM) practices in capacity constrained service firms can negatively influence customer demand because the contradictory outcomes of the two systems might be perceived as unfair. This thesis establishes why and how the simultaneous employment of CCM and RM practices causes fairness concerns, negatively affects customer demand, and hinders the aim of revenue maximisation. We propose a conceptualisation embedded in expected utility theory and develop a model of customer choices which accounts for fairness judgements. According to this model, purchase decisions for services are based on the utility evaluation of service offerings and their prices. This evaluation is, in turn, influenced by fairness coding of these service offerings relative to attribute-specific reference points. The rationale underlying this coding phase is anchored in the justice and fairness literature and theories of behavioural decision making. Findings from focus group research and stated-preference choice experiments with airline passengers and hotel guests empirically confirm the existence of a reference-dependent fairness adjustment component in customers’ utility assessments in addition to utility directly generated from product attributes. Fairness related comparisons to reference points and resulting gains or losses apply not only to price, but also to product attributes induced by RM and CCM induced attributes. In accordance with prospect theory, we confirm that losses generally weigh more than gains. Customers who are exposed to comprehensive CCM practices, represented as members of frequent traveller programs, are most susceptible to perceived fairness, and have a lower willingness to pay than their counterparts. The preference coefficients for CCM and RM attributes obtained from conditional logit choice models, as well as the preference coefficients for attribute specific fairness adjustments, are then applied to predict how the attractiveness of flight or hotel options changes if a firm adapts its RM strategy to customer segments with differing levels of profitability. Predicted changes to choice probabilities, and subsequently demand and revenues, demonstrate the superiority of an integrated CCM-RM approach with segment-specific RM and suggests potential revenue increases of up to 33.15%

Single cell measurement of telomerase expression and splicing using microfluidic emulsion cultures.

Telomerase is a reverse transcriptase that maintains telomeres on the ends of chromosomes, allowing rapidly dividing cells to proliferate while avoiding senescence and apoptosis. Understanding telomerase gene expression and splicing at the single cell level could yield insights into the roles of telomerase during normal cell growth as well as cancer development. Here we use droplet-based single cell culture followed by single cell or colony transcript abundance analysis to investigate the relationship between cell growth and transcript abundance of the telomerase genes encoding the RNA component (hTR) and protein component (hTERT) as well as hTERT splicing. Jurkat and K562 cells were examined under normal cell culture conditions and during exposure to curcumin, a natural compound with anti-carcinogenic and telomerase activity-reducing properties. Individual cells predominantly express single hTERT splice variants, with the α+/β- variant exhibiting significant transcript abundance bimodality that is sustained through cell division. Sub-lethal curcumin exposure results in reduced bimodality of all hTERT splice variants and significant upregulation of alpha splicing, suggesting a possible role in cellular stress response. The single cell culture and transcript abundance analysis method presented here provides the tools necessary for multiparameter single cell analysis which will be critical for understanding phenotypes of heterogeneous cell populations, disease cell populations and their drug response

Europäische Integration aus historischer Erfahrung, Ein Zeitzeugengespräch mit Michael Gehler = European integration from a historical experience, A Discussion with Michael Gehler. ZEI Discussion Paper C227, 2015

From 1995 to 1999 Monika Wulf-Mathies served as EU commissioner responsible for regional and cohesion policy. She tells us the story of the EU Commission under President Jacques Santer with regard to the historical development of the preparation of the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU), the Union Treaty of Amsterdam (1999) and the EU-Eastern Enlargement. She touches also controversial aspects of the Santer Commission, which led to her collective demission in 1999. According to Wulf-Mathies the increase of EU's democracy deficit is result of an erosion process of the common institutions caused by the nation states which contributed to their weakness. The democratic substance of the union suffers because of the 'summarization' of the EU decision making processes. Monika Wulf-Mathies argues in favor of the community method, which needs revitalization. She proposes European democracy enforcement and transfers of the national budget und economy policies to EU bodies. This eyewitness talk offers an actual EU analysis as well as an assessment of the Santer Commission

Critical Role of Methylammonium Librational Motion in Methylammonium Lead Iodide (CH3NH3PbI3) Perovskite Photochemistry.

Raman and photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy are used to investigate dynamic structure-function relationships in methylammonium lead iodide (MAPbI3) perovskite. The intensity of the 150 cm-1 methylammonium (MA) librational Raman mode is found to be correlated with PL intensities in microstructures of MAPbI3. Because of the strong hydrogen bond between hydrogens in MA and iodine in the PbI6 perovskite octahedra, the Raman activity of MA is very sensitive to structural distortions of the inorganic framework. The structural distortions directly influence PL intensities, which in turn have been correlated with microstructure quality. Our measurements, supported with first-principles calculations, indicate how excited-state MA librational displacements mechanistically control PL efficiency and lifetime in MAPbI3-material parameters that are likely important for efficient photovoltaic devices

Forecasting direct investment equity income for the Danish balance of payments

Late and significant revisions are often observed in direct investment equity income, hampering the quality of preliminary balance of payments statistics. We test a range of models and find that forecasts for direct investment equity income based on a combination of past profitability and consensus data for changes in expected private consumption growth outperform the current forecasts solely based on historical profitability. When the refined models are applied to the Danish balance of payments, the largest improvements are observed for outward and inward direct investment separately. Revisions on net direct investment equity income only decrease marginally because the significant revisions in gross terms resulting from the historical models have a tendency to (partly) cancel out each other on a net basis

Do Loyalty Program Membership and Status Levels affect Service Customers' Choices?

This paper examines the effects of loyalty program membership as such, and impending upgrade or downgrade to a different status level, on customer brand preferences for flights and hotels. The results show that members have a significantly higher brand preference for their respective airline or hotel group than non-members, and those close to a change in status level have an even stronger brand preference compared to those who are not, which is also reflected in their willingness to pay. The empirical findings illustrates the ability of frequent traveller programs to affect purchase choices if the customer fears that earned status benefits are about to be lost