Giving consumers short time limits on offers means they are less likely to take them up, according to new research. Making time-limited offers is a common retail pricing strategy. Examples include the doorstep seller who claims that they are currently ‘in the area’ but will not be returning; the telephone seller who makes a ‘special...
Startups and entrepreneurs should spend the effort and money to obtain trademarks, because trademarks help them succeed in both product and financial markets, researchers say. In a paper presented today at the Financial Management Association annual meeting in New Orleans, researchers said the trademark portfolio held by an entrepreneurial firm is an important determinant of...
Consumers discount a positive product recommendation when a product has a large variety. Firms can ensure products are liked by influencers by increasing the variety, but it may benefit them to limit variety to make a recommendation more “persuasive.” Firms can adjust the product variety to influence consumers’ quality inference, and in turn their purchase...
A new study shows that two key factors can make freshly appointed CEOs more vulnerable and raise the odds they’ll get fired. The job security of a new CEO tends to suffer when the stock market reacts badly or when the previous CEO stays on as board chair, according to the study by Rice University...
For decades, luxury retailers around the world have conveyed the message that cold temperatures are a sign of status with descriptions like “icy steel Swiss watches,” “cool silk scarves” and “icy bling.” But researchers have never studied whether people truly associate cold temperatures with status and luxury. To investigate whether this association could be substantiated...
Optimizing delivery driver shifts can reduce pick-up time by 50%. Choosing restaurants closer to the drop-off location rather than where a meal was just delivered can reduce delivery time by 17%. Order bundling has an average cost improvement of less than half a percent. The food delivery business, popularized by mobile online services such as...
Shoppers who win retail discounts through scratch-off tickets or other games of chance are more likely to make a purchase, and spend more money, than customers offered standard discounts that apply to everyone, according to a new study led by the University of Connecticut. Games of chance are potential goldmines for both brick-and-mortar stores and...
Researchers from the University of San Diego and University of Arizona published a new paper in the Journal of Marketing, which examines the rise of deal collectives that exploit ill-designed deals that give away more than companies intended. The study is titled “Let’s Make a “Deal”: How Deal Collectives Co-Produce Unintended Value from Sales Promotions” and...
Artificial intelligence can increase sales by four times more than inexperienced workers. If a customer is told about the use of artificial intelligence before purchasing, sales drop by nearly 80%. The majority of the problem in using artificial intelligence is customer pushback. Chatbots, which use artificial intelligence to simulate human conversation through voice commands or...
Job sharing offers a route to increase the number of women in senior leadership roles in higher education. Research from Lancaster University Management School, published in a special issue of Social Sciences, shows the potential for job sharing to provide new routes into senior management positions and to increase female presence in the upper echelons of...
