EXPRESS: How Insurance Prices Affect Consumers’ Purchase Decisions: Insurance Price as a Risk Signal

Retailers, service providers, and manufacturers have discovered that complementary optional insurance is an attractive source of profit and frequently charge substantial insurance prices compared to the price of the product to be insured. The implicit assumption behind this pricing strategy is that product purchase decisions are independent of the insurance offer. The authors question this assumption and propose that consumers interpret the price of insurance as a risk signal with respect to the underlying product. Perceived risk, in turn, negatively affects consumers’ decision to purchase the product in a given purchase situation. The results of a survey, three online experiments, and two studies using transactional data provide evidence for the proposed insurance price risk signal. The findings reveal that perceived risk mediates the link between the relative insurance price level and consumers’ decision to purchase the underlying product. Offering other optional add-ons and providing objective risk information weakens the insurance price risk signal

Gambled price discounts: A remedy to the negative side effects of regular price discounts

© 2015, American Marketing Association. In the context of price discounts, a special type of price promotion, in which savings depend on the outcome of a gamble and are thus uncertain, has recently achieved some popularity. The question arises as to whether such gambled price discounts (GPDs) incur the negative reference price effect-that is, a downward shift in customers' internal reference price (IRP)-which is often associated with regular price discounts (RPDs). From several studies, including two longitudinal field experiments, the authors find that GPDs indeed alleviate the negative reference price effect: IRPs and actual repurchasing tend to be lower for RPDs than for GPDs and a no-discount control condition. Moreover, the authors explore the psychological underpinnings of these effects and show that the different consequences of GPDs versus RPDs on IRPs are more pronounced if information regarding product quality is limited. The authors demonstrate that findings are robust to variations of GPD discount levels and th

Verhaltenswissenschaftliche Forschung zum organisationalen Einkaufsverhalten: Überblick über die Marketingliteratur

Die Forschung zu individuellen Konsumentenentscheidungen zeigt, dass diese oftmals nicht nur auf einer Beurteilung konkreter Attribute des Angebots beruhen, sondern ebenso durch entscheidungsvereinfachende Heuristiken beeinflusst werden. Überraschenderweise liegen diesbezüglich bislang kaum Erkenntnisse zu organisationalen Einkaufsentscheidungen im B2B-Kontext vor. Dieser Beitrag möchte hierzu Forschung initiieren. Zu diesem Zweck führen wir eine Bestandsaufnahme von Marketingstudien durch, die durch eine (zumindest implizite) Berücksichtigung von über die Kernleistung hinausgehenden Aspekten erste Erkenntnisse zu möglichen entscheidungsvereinfachenden Heuristiken im B2B-Kontext liefern können. Wir kategorisieren die identifizierten 102 Artikel in sechs Literaturfelder basierend auf Untersuchungseinheit (Individuum, Gruppe, Unternehmen) und zeitlicher Dimension (relational, transaktional). Wir beschreiben dann die zentralen Erkenntnisse in den Literaturfeldern sowie die verwendeten Methoden und Konstrukte. Basierend auf unserer Literaturbestandaufnahme schlagen wir fünf heuristische Attribute vor, von denen wir einen Einfluss auf organisationale Einkaufsentscheidungen erwarten: (1) Vertrauen, (2) Bestandslieferantenstatus, (3) Sympathie, (4) Marke und (5) Wertübereinstimmung

Optimizing the Optical and Electrical Properties of Graphene Ink Thin Films by Laser-annealing

We demonstrate a facile fabrication technique for graphene-based transparent conductive films. Highly flat and uniform graphene films are obtained through the incorporation of an efficient laser annealing technique with one-time drop casting of high-concentration graphene ink. The resulting thin films are uniform and exhibit a transparency of more than 85% at 550 nm and a sheet resistance of about 30 k{\Omega}/sq. These values constitute an increase of 45% in transparency, a reduction of surface roughness by a factor of four and a decrease of 70% in sheet resistance compared to unannealed films.Comment: 18 pages, 4 figure

Genetic diversity in terrestrial subsurface ecosystems impacted by geological degassing

Earth’s mantle releases 38.7 ± 2.9 Tg/yr CO2 along with other reduced and oxidized gases to the atmosphere shaping microbial metabolism at volcanic sites across the globe, yet little is known about its impact on microbial life under non-thermal conditions. Here, we perform comparative metagenomics coupled to geochemical measurements of deep subsurface fluids from a cold-water geyser driven by mantle degassing. Key organisms belonging to uncultivated Candidatus Altiarchaeum show a global biogeographic pattern and site-specific adaptations shaped by gene loss and inter-kingdom horizontal gene transfer. Comparison of the geyser community to 16 other publicly available deep subsurface sites demonstrate a conservation of chemolithoautotrophic metabolism across sites. In silico replication measures suggest a linear relationship of bacterial replication with ecosystems depth with the exception of impacted sites, which show near surface characteristics. Our results suggest that subsurface ecosystems affected by geological degassing are hotspots for microbial life in the deep biosphere

Neuproduktvorankündigungen : inhaltliche Gestaltung und marktbezogene Auswirkungen

Das Zeitfenster, welches zur Etablierung neuer Produkten am Markt zur Verfügung steht, wird stetig kürzer. Zahlreiche Unternehmen greifen daher Aauf das Instrument der Produktvorankündigung zurück, um die Marktdurchdringung neuer Produkte zu beschleunigen. Auf Basis einer branchenübergreifenden Unternehmensbefragung und mehrer experimenteller Studien untersucht Torsten Bornemann den Einfluss inhaltlicher Elemente von Produktankündigungen auf den Neuprodukterfolg und die Produktbeurteilung durch Kunden

Age and New Product Information Processing

An examination of how the age-related shift from growth and knowledge acquisition goals to maintenance goals affects perceptions of fear from disruption, information seeking, and consideration when a consumer needs to replace a currently used product with a new (vs. established) alternative