E-tailers versus Retailers: Which Factors Determine Consumer Preferences

The growth of Internet technology and electronic commerce has not been matched by theoretically-guided social science research. Clear and well designed consumer research is needed to describe, explain, and predict what will happen to this changing landscape. The primary purpose of this study is to investigate the structure for consumer preferences to make product purchases through three available retail formats - store, catalog, and the Internet. Conjoint analysis was used to assess the structure of the decision and the importance of the attributes in the decision-making process. The results from this study noticeably show that the structure of the consumer decision-making process was found to be primarily one of choosing the retail format (store, catalog, or Internet) and price of product (set at low, medium or high) desired. The strength of the retail store format suggests that fears that the Internet will take over the retail arena seem, at least at this point in time, overblown and exaggerated. However, there seems to be an identifiable segment of customers that has a preference for the Internet as a retail shopping alternative.Economics ;

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead

The attribute structure of Internet shopping: What is important and what tradeoffs are possible between Internet, retail, and catalog formats?

The growth of Internet technology and electronic commerce has not been matched by theoretically-guided social science research. Well-developed consumer research is needed to illustrate the nature and possible scope of the Internet retail choice in the marketplace. The primary purpose of this study was to examine and identify the attribute structure for consumers\u27 behavioral intentions to use available retail formats—stores, catalogs, and the Internet. By identifying key behavioral characteristics of why consumers choose a particular retail alternative, this research is designed to illuminate understanding of consumer choice of Internet/electronic formats. Key elements from two extensions of the theory of reasoned action were used to identify behavioral intentions of consumers\u27 use of particular retail formats: (1) subjective norms, (2) attitude, (3) perceived behavioral control, (4) ease of use, and (5) price. Conjoint analysis was used to assess the structure of the decision and the importance of the five attributes in the decision. The conjoint technique uniquely allows this determination as well as a look how Internet retailers may pull from store and/or catalog shopping. Conjoint analysis also identifies the trade-offs that are made to increase the attractiveness of Internet alternatives to store and catalog shoppers. Using a sample of college students and mall shoppers, the research showed that, as predicted, price and prior experience had the greatest importance in the structure of the decision about where to shop. Ease of use, control, and subjective norm were predicted and found to be secondary influences. The results showed that the Internet will likely pull market share from the catalog industry. Therefore, traditional brick and mortar stores have less to be concerned about than cataloguers do with this new retail alternative. The findings fill a large vacuum in that theoretically-guided research has not been a part of the Internet revolution. Clear and well designed consumer research using other research tools and techniques at our disposal (rather than simply conjoint) is needed to describe, explain, predict, and integrate what we know about the consumer in the Internet age and what will happen to this changing landscape