Price Comparison, Price Competition, And The Effects Of ShopBots

Two ShopBots were used to determine high-to-low price dispersion for identical models of 25 consumer durables, in 2007 and again in 2011, revealing substantial but declining price dispersion ratios. A survey of 1,135 American online shoppers revealed their dependence on ShopBots and frequency of other online shopping actions. Typical respondent reported they "very often" used search sites to locate what they wanted. Nearly 30 percent used the most often named price comparison site, Yahoo! Shopping, in the past year, suggesting substantial potential for future price rationalization. Several customer relationship management tools online merchants might use to avoid the resulting direct price competition are discussed. Finally, the impact of m-commerce, tablets, and apps on online price comparison behavior is explored

Images Of Online Versus Store Shopping: Have The Attitudes Of Men And Women, Young And Old Really Changed?

This study examines the effect of the consumers' sex and age on their perceptions of the problems and the benefits of shopping and buying online, compared to doing so in a traditional retail store. Overall image profiles can be viewed, but the principal focus is on the similarities and differences between gender and age groups. Along with perceptions of problems and benefits of online buying, a direct comparison between store versus online buying sharply reveals the contrasts among men and women of different ages

Tolerance Of Intellectual Property Theft

A survey of the public tested the proposition that the degree to which theft is tolerable or reprehensible is significantly determined by whether the owner/victim is or is not directly deprived by the theft. Respondents registered their degree of condemnation of theft of physical goods from an individual and from a company, as well as theft of physical property and of intellectual property by copying the content. The findings indicate that theft of physical, personal property is regarded as significantly more reprehensible than either theft of physical goods from a non-personal owner or theft of intellectual property by copying content

Time Pressure, Time Saving And Online Shopping: Exploring A Contradiction

Previous survey research revealed that consumers perceived online shopping and buying to be a time saving practice. Paradoxically, they only rarely reported using that tactic to save time, introducing a contradiction. Focus group research and unstructured interviews among active, time-pressured consumers provide partial solutions to the puzzle. Two types of online shopping benefits appeal to two types of consumers: Those experiencing situational time pressure respond well to "time-saving" appeals. Another, larger proportion, whose personal inclinations or personality traits result in time pressure are more interested in doing more tasks quickly or engaging in polychronic activities. These findings suggest online merchants simultaneously promote both time-saving and quicker accomplishment of more tasks. Though they are two sides of the same coin, time-pressured consumers tend to see only one side or the other. Both types of time-pressured shoppers eschew Websites requiring substantial "up-front" investment of time; complex, multi-option initial or home pages, and early insistence for "registration" that requires revealing personal information. This suggests clean, clear, uncluttered introductory pages and delay in urging registration until rapport has been established. Inexpensive, rapid delivery times and liberal return privileges were also highly valued by all time-pressured participants. Cost restrictions limit the degree to which online merchants can accommodate these preferences

Transcriptional recapitulation and subversion of embryonic colon development by mouse colon tumor models and human colon cancer

Colon tumors from four independent mouse models and 100 human colorectal cancers all exhibited striking recapitulation of embryonic colon gene expression from embryonic days 13.5-18.5

Physiological Correlates of Volunteering

We review research on physiological correlates of volunteering, a neglected but promising research field. Some of these correlates seem to be causal factors influencing volunteering. Volunteers tend to have better physical health, both self-reported and expert-assessed, better mental health, and perform better on cognitive tasks. Research thus far has rarely examined neurological, neurochemical, hormonal, and genetic correlates of volunteering to any significant extent, especially controlling for other factors as potential confounds. Evolutionary theory and behavioral genetic research suggest the importance of such physiological factors in humans. Basically, many aspects of social relationships and social activities have effects on health (e.g., Newman and Roberts 2013; Uchino 2004), as the widely used biopsychosocial (BPS) model suggests (Institute of Medicine 2001). Studies of formal volunteering (FV), charitable giving, and altruistic behavior suggest that physiological characteristics are related to volunteering, including specific genes (such as oxytocin receptor [OXTR] genes, Arginine vasopressin receptor [AVPR] genes, dopamine D4 receptor [DRD4] genes, and 5-HTTLPR). We recommend that future research on physiological factors be extended to non-Western populations, focusing specifically on volunteering, and differentiating between different forms and types of volunteering and civic participation

Transcriptional recapitulation and subversion of embryonic colon development by mouse colon tumor models and human colon cancer

Abstract Background The expression of carcino-embryonic antigen by colorectal cancer is an example of oncogenic activation of embryonic gene expression. Hypothesizing that oncogenesis-recapitulating-ontogenesis may represent a broad programmatic commitment, we compared gene expression patterns of human colorectal cancers (CRCs) and mouse colon tumor models to those of mouse colon development embryonic days 13.5-18.5. Results We report here that 39 colon tumors from four independent mouse models and 100 human CRCs encompassing all clinical stages shared a striking recapitulation of embryonic colon gene expression. Compared to normal adult colon, all mouse and human tumors over-expressed a large cluster of genes highly enriched for functional association to the control of cell cycle progression, proliferation, and migration, including those encoding MYC, AKT2, PLK1 and SPARC. Mouse tumors positive for nuclear β-catenin shifted the shared embryonic pattern to that of early development. Human and mouse tumors differed from normal embryonic colon by their loss of expression modules enriched for tumor suppressors (EDNRB, HSPE, KIT and LSP1). Human CRC adenocarcinomas lost an additional suppressor module (IGFBP4, MAP4K1, PDGFRA, STAB1 and WNT4). Many human tumor samples also gained expression of a coordinately regulated module associated with advanced malignancy (ABCC1, FOXO3A, LIF, PIK3R1, PRNP, TNC, TIMP3 and VEGF). Conclusion Cross-species, developmental, and multi-model gene expression patterning comparisons provide an integrated and versatile framework for definition of transcriptional programs associated with oncogenesis. This approach also provides a general method for identifying pattern-specific biomarkers and therapeutic targets. This delineation and categorization of developmental and non-developmental activator and suppressor gene modules can thus facilitate the formulation of sophisticated hypotheses to evaluate potential synergistic effects of targeting within- and between-modules for next-generation combinatorial therapeutics and improved mouse models

The survey research handbook

xxv, 463 p. : ill. ; 24 c

The Survey Research Handbook

470 hal.;xxvi.;23c