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Market Segments (market + segment)
Selected AbstractsAn Examination of Clothing Issues and Physical Limitations in the Product Development ProcessFAMILY & CONSUMER SCIENCES RESEARCH JOURNAL, Issue 1 2010Katherine Carroll The purpose of this study was to explore physical limitations and clothing problems among working women with physical disabilities to determine whether types of physical limitations are linked to specific clothing problems. The sample included 117 working women with a variety of disabilities. Principle Components Factor Analysis and Multiple Regression were used to analyze the data. Three distinct factors emerged to represent clothing problems (called Design, Materials Performance, and Dressing) and four distinct factors emerged to represent physical limitations (called Limbs/Outer Extremities, Central Core/Torso, Central Nervous System, and Intellect, Vision and Hearing). Regression analysis showed that the physical limitations impact each of the three clothing factors. The study extends research by focusing on an underserved market segment and providing the apparel industry with a potential method of addressing the needs of that market. The study also contributes to interdisciplinary research by further developing an Inclusive Design model for apparel product development. [source] How Zaynab Became the First Arabic NovelHISTORY COMPASS (ELECTRONIC), Issue 1 2009Elliott Colla This paper is part of a History Compass conference cluster tracing the formation of national culture in Egypt. Guest edited by Walter Armbrust, this cluster of articles was originally part of a conference in Oxford on January 12,13, 2007, organized by Walter Armbrust, Ronald Nettler, and Lucie Ryzova, and funded by the Middle East Centre (St. Antony's), The Faculty of Oriental Studies, The Khalid bin ,Abdullah Al-Sa'ud Professorship (Professor Clive Holes), and The Centre for Political Ideologies. The cluster is made up of the following articles: Guest Editor: Walter Armbrust ,The Formation of National Culture in Egypt in the Interwar Period: Cultural Trajectories', Walter Armbrust, History Compass 6 (2008), DOI: 10.1111/j.1478-0542.2008.00571.x,Repackaging the Egyptian Monarchy: Faruq in the Public Spotlight, 1936,1939', Matthew Ellis, History Compass 6 (2008), DOI: 10.1111/j.1478-0542.2008.00572.x,How Zaynab Became the First Arabic Novel', Elliott Colla, History Compass 6 (2008), DOI: 10.1111/j.1478-0542.2008.00573.x,Women in the Singing Business, Women in Songs', Frédéric Lagrange, History Compass 6 (2008), DOI: 10.1111/j.1478-0542.2008.00574.x,Long Live Patriarchy: Love in the Time of ,Abd al-Wahhab', Walter Armbrust, History Compass 6 (2008), DOI: 10.1111/j.1478-0542.2008.00575.x,Football as National Allegory: Al-Ahram and the Olympics in 1920s Egypt', Shaun Lopez, History Compass 6 (2008), DOI: 10.1111/j.1478-0542.2008.00576.x,The Professional Worldview of the Effendi Historian', Yoav Di-Capua, History Compass 6 (2008), DOI: 10.1111/j.1478-0542.2008.00577.x Despite a long-standing critical consensus that Muhammad Husayn Haykal's 1914 novel Zaynab was the first ,mature' Arabic novel, there is much evidence to the contrary. First, in terms of genre, Zaynab was not the first book calling itself by the term that later critics would call ,novel'; second, in terms of the bibliographic record, it was not a unique book on the cultural market in 1914; third, in terms of literary style, it was not at the time a particularly unique formal or thematic experiment in prose fiction; and finally, in terms of reception, it was not recognized as significant even by the small market segment and cultural field in which it initially appeared. This article revisits this critical debate and suggests that the canonization of Zaynab as the first Arabic novel cannot be explained by the work itself, but rather by subsequent developments , most especially, in the film adaptations of the novel and in the nationalization of university curricula during the Nasserist period. [source] Consumers' beliefs, attitudes and intentions towards genetically modified foods, based on the 'perceived safety vs. benefits' perspectiveINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF FOOD SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY, Issue 4 2005Ioannis S. Arvanitoyannis Summary It has been repeatedly claimed that the application of genetic engineering in the field of agricultural and food production is both beneficial and advantageous. However, biotechnology is developing in an environment where public concerns about food safety and environmental protection are steadily increasing. The present study aims at gaining an insight into Greek consumers' beliefs, attitudes and intentions towards genetically modified (GM) food products. The objectives of this study are summarized as follows (i) to provide evidence that consumer beliefs are built around the ,safety-benefits' axis, and (ii) to segment the Greek market in terms of consumer beliefs about GM food products and identify a number of clusters with clear-cut behavioural profiles. Although the overall attitude of Greek consumers towards GM food is negative, the research very interestingly concludes that there exists a market segment of substantial size, whose beliefs about GM food appears to be positive. This finding suggests that there is not a ,consensus' regarding the rejection of GM foods in the Greek market as one might have expected thus ,encouraging' the implementation of adequate marketing strategies to target this segment of ,early adopters' in the first place. [source] How should charitable organisations motivate young professionals to give philanthropically?INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF NONPROFIT & VOLUNTARY SECTOR MARKETING, Issue 1 2004Rita Kottasz One hundred and fifty-eight bankers, accountants and corporate lawyers, aged under 40 years, earning more than £50,000 annually and working in the City of London were questioned about their attitudes and behaviour in relation to charitable giving. A conjoint analysis of the respondents' preferences revealed strong predilections for certain types of charitable organisation; for ,social' rewards in return for donating (invitations to gala events and black tie dinners for example); and for well-known charities with established reputations. ,Planned giving' whereby donors receive tax breaks and other financial incentives to donate (as increasingly practised in the USA) did not represent a significant inducement to give so far as this particular sample was concerned. Overall the results suggest that young affluent male City employees constitute a distinct market segment for charity fundraisers, with unique characteristics that need to be addressed when developing donor products. Copyright © 2004 Henry Stewart Publications [source] A decision support system for automotive product planning and competitive market analysisINTERNATIONAL TRANSACTIONS IN OPERATIONAL RESEARCH, Issue 6 2000W. Guo Abstract A decision support system (DSS) for automotive product marketing, design and manufacturing in China is presented in this paper. The DSS is developed as a tool to support product planning, competitive market analysis, supply chain analysis and subsequent manufacturing systems planning and deployment. The system consists of a number of automotive related databases which provide information about manufacturers' performance in each market segment as well as production information of all existing market players in the Chinese auto industry. Product planning, one of the key modules of the DSS prototype, is highlighted in this paper. It supports decision makers in determining suitable strategies for market entry by analyzing existing competitors' status, growth estimation of each market segment, and competitive market analysis for new vehicle products. A case study for new market entry is included here to demonstrate the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed methodology. [source] New product introduction against a predator: A bilevel mixed-integer programming approachNAVAL RESEARCH LOGISTICS: AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL, Issue 8 2009J. Cole Smith Abstract We consider a scenario with two firms determining which products to develop and introduce to the market. In this problem, there exists a finite set of potential products and market segments. Each market segment has a preference list of products and will buy its most preferred product among those available. The firms play a Stackelberg game in which the leader firm first introduces a set of products, and the follower responds with its own set of products. The leader's goal is to maximize its profit subject to a product introduction budget, assuming that the follower will attempt to minimize the leader's profit using a budget of its own. We formulate this problem as a multistage integer program amenable to decomposition techniques. Using this formulation, we develop three variations of an exact mathematical programming method for solving the multistage problem, along with a family of heuristic procedures for estimating the follower solution. The efficacy of our approaches is demonstrated on randomly generated test instances. This article contributes to the operations research literature a multistage algorithm that directly addresses difficulties posed by degeneracy, and contributes to the product variety literature an exact optimization algorithm for a novel competitive product introduction problem. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2009 [source] PROJECT CHOICE AND RISK IN R&D*THE JOURNAL OF INDUSTRIAL ECONOMICS, Issue 1 2005Heiko A. Gerlach We introduce stochastic R&D in the Hotelling model and show that if the technical risk is sufficiently high, all firms focus on the most valuable market segment. We then endogenize technical risk by allowing firms to choose between a safe and a risky R&D technology. Firms either both target the most attractive market with at least one firm using the risky technology or they choose different niche projects and both apply the safe technology. R&D spillovers lead to more differentiated R&D projects and patent protection to less. Project coordination within an RJV implies more differentiation, and may be welfare-improving. [source] Quality safeguards and regulation of online pharmaciesHEALTH ECONOMICS, Issue 4 2004Benito ArruñadaArticle first published online: 25 JUN 200 Abstract Using econometric evidence, this article confirms that distribution of medicines online is split into two market segments of very diverse quality, and identifies the factors that drive quality and quality assurance in this activity. Unlike fraudulent, ,rogue,' websites, which offer scant guarantees and usually sell just a few medicines without prescription, online pharmacies offering insurance coverage and linked to conventional pharmacies typically sell a whole range of drugs, require third-party medical prescriptions and provide abundant information to patients. It is shown that, where online pharmacies are allowed to act legally, market forces enhance quality, as private insurers require professional standards, and specialized third parties make a business of certifying them. Furthermore, older online pharmacies and those running conventional operations offer higher quality, probably because of reputational investments. Overall, this evidence supports licensing online pharmacies, especially considering that prohibiting them is ineffective against fraudulent sites. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] The Euro and International Capital MarketsINTERNATIONAL FINANCE, Issue 1 2000Carsten Detken Long before the introduction of the euro there was an active debate among researchers, policy-makers and financial market participants over how the new European money would change the relative roles of currencies in the international monetary and financial system. A widely held view was that the euro's use in international capital markets would be the key element. Therefore, this paper provides a broad empirical examination of the major currencies' roles in international capital markets, with a special emphasis on the first year of the euro. A contribution is made as to how to measure these roles, both from the viewpoint of international financing and from that of international investment activities. Time series of these new measures are presented, including euro aggregates calculated up to six years back in time. The data allow for the identification of changes in the role of the euro during 1999 compared to the aggregate of euro predecessor currencies, net of intra-euro area assets/liabilities, since the start of stage 2 of EMU in 1994. A number of key factors determining the currency distribution of international portfolio investments, such as relative market liquidity and relative risk characteristics of assets, are also examined empirically. It turns out that for almost all important market segments for which data are available, the euro immediately became the second most widely used currency for international financing and investment. For the flow of international bond and note issuance it even slightly overtook the US dollar in the second half of 1999. The data also suggest that most of this early supply of euro bonds by non-euro area residents, clearly exceeding the euro-predecessor currency aggregate, is actually absorbed by euro area residents and not by outside investors so far. [source] Images of poverty and attributions for poverty: does higher education moderate the linkage?,INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF NONPROFIT & VOLUNTARY SECTOR MARKETING, Issue 2 2009Ishbel McWha ,Development Education' is a topical phrase describing campaigns to raise public awareness about global poverty, but how do such processes interact with more formal learning experiences, for example in Higher Education? One hundred and seventy-one final-semester Business versus Social Science University students experienced a conventionally ,cropped' (child's face only) versus ,full' (face-plus-context) campaign-like image of a child in poverty. They also completed the attribution-focused ,Causes of Third-World Poverty Questionnaire' (CTWPQ). Business students tended to disagree less than social science students with blaming-the-poor for poverty. More importantly, a cropped image condition resulted in significantly elevated blame-the-poor scores among business students, but not those in social science. Interactions like this suggest that campaign images can be psychologically tailored to differently educated market segments. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] The importance of values research for nonprofit organisations: the motivation-based values of museum visitorsINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF NONPROFIT & VOLUNTARY SECTOR MARKETING, Issue 2 2001Maree Thyne Marketing is very important to nonprofit organisations, and museums, being nonprofits, need to consider different market segments when designing and implementing their strategic and marketing plans. Marketing has traditionally been linked to concepts of profitability and providing a competitive edge, however with nonprofit organisations, marketing needs to focus on customer service. To achieve the best customer service, the organisation needs to know what the customer wants. Therefore this paper advocates that research on museums move away from demographic segmentation and factual recall, to psychographic segmentation and values. This paper discusses exploratory research undertaken on the Otago Museum, New Zealand, which looks at the motivation-based values of the museum patrons. The most important finding in this study is the prevalence of socially oriented values (being with friends and family), whereas traditionally a museum visit has been linked to more individualistic values, such as education and knowledge. These findings have important implications for museum managers (and other nonprofit organisations) in that they show the value of psychographic segmentation. A museum, and other arts organisations, can decide if they will target one particular segment, for example, families, or if they will design their museum with quite different sections that will appeal to different target markets. Copyright © 2001 Henry Stewart Publications [source] Towards a classification of cultural touristsINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF TOURISM RESEARCH, Issue 1 2002Bob McKercher Abstract This paper proposes a model to segment the cultural tourism market according to two dimensions: (i) the importance of cultural motives in the decision to visit a destination and (ii) depth of experience. The model is tested empirically using Hong Kong as a case study. The test identified five discrete cultural tourism market segments that exhibited substantially different behaviour. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Matching Technologies with Potential End Users: A Knowledge Engineering Approach for Agricultural Research ManagementJOURNAL OF AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS, Issue 1 2004J. David Reece This paper addresses the problem of priority setting that faces developing country agricultural research, a problem whose relevance has been sharpened by the current context of demands for greater efficiency and targeted impact. A new method for ex ante estimation of the impact of developing each of several alternative proposed technologies is described and illustrated through an example from West Africa. This method is based on the notion of market segmentation, which normally makes intensive use of secondary data-sets that are simply not available for rural areas of developing countries. To circumvent this lack of secondary data, the method adopts a knowledge engineering approach based on the views of an expert panel familiar with the region to be served. Descriptions of proposed technologies are matched with the interests and resources of identified market segments, together with the characteristics of their farming systems and locations, to identify those segments whose members are likely to use the proposed technology. Further development of the method is discussed. [source] Competition and the Quality of Standard Form Contracts: The Case of Software License AgreementsJOURNAL OF EMPIRICAL LEGAL STUDIES, Issue 3 2008Florencia Marotta-Wurgler Standard form contracts are pervasive. Many legal academics believe that they are unfair. Some scholars and some courts have argued that sellers with market power or facing little competitive pressure may impose one-sided standard form terms that limit their obligation to consumers. This article uses a sample of 647 software license agreements drawn from many distinct segments of the software industry to empirically investigate the relationship between competitive conditions and the quality of standard form contracts. I find little evidence for the concern that firms with market power, as measured by market concentration or firm market share, require consumers to accept particularly one-sided terms; that is, firms in both concentrated and unconcentrated software market segments, and firms with high and low market share, offer similar terms to consumers. The results have implications for the judicial analysis of standard form contract enforceability. [source] New product introduction against a predator: A bilevel mixed-integer programming approachNAVAL RESEARCH LOGISTICS: AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL, Issue 8 2009J. Cole Smith Abstract We consider a scenario with two firms determining which products to develop and introduce to the market. In this problem, there exists a finite set of potential products and market segments. Each market segment has a preference list of products and will buy its most preferred product among those available. The firms play a Stackelberg game in which the leader firm first introduces a set of products, and the follower responds with its own set of products. The leader's goal is to maximize its profit subject to a product introduction budget, assuming that the follower will attempt to minimize the leader's profit using a budget of its own. We formulate this problem as a multistage integer program amenable to decomposition techniques. Using this formulation, we develop three variations of an exact mathematical programming method for solving the multistage problem, along with a family of heuristic procedures for estimating the follower solution. The efficacy of our approaches is demonstrated on randomly generated test instances. This article contributes to the operations research literature a multistage algorithm that directly addresses difficulties posed by degeneracy, and contributes to the product variety literature an exact optimization algorithm for a novel competitive product introduction problem. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2009 [source] Investment risk allocation in decentralised electricity markets.OPEC ENERGY REVIEW, Issue 2 2008The need of long-term contracts, vertical integration None of the far-reaching experiments in electricity industry liberalisation was able to ensure the timely and optimal capacity mix development. The theoretical market model features market failures due to the specific volatility of prices, and the difficulty of creating complete markets for hedging. In this paper, we focused on a specific failure, i.e. the impossibility of allocating the various risks borne by the producer onto suppliers and consumers in order to allow capacity development. Promotion of short-term competition by mandating vertical de-integration tends to distort investments in generation by impeding efficient risk allocation. Following Joskow's (2006) line, we developed an empirical analysis of how to secure investments in generation through vertical arrangements between decentralised generators and large purchasers, suppliers or consumers. Empirical observations as risk analysis shows that adopting such arrangements may prove necessary. Various types of long-term contracts between generators and suppliers (fixed-quantity and fixed-price contract, indexed price contract, tolling contract, financial option) appear to offer effective solutions for risk allocation. Vertical integration appears to be another effective way to allocate risk. But it remains an important complementary condition to efficient risk allocation, i.e. that retail competition is sticky or legally limited in order to have a large part of risks borne by consumers on the different market segments. [source] Semi-Nonparametric Estimation of an Equilibrium Search ModelOXFORD BULLETIN OF ECONOMICS & STATISTICS, Issue 3 2000Pierre Koning We specify and estimate an equilibrium job search model with productivity differences across labour market segments. The model allows for two types of unemployment: frictional unemployment due to search frictions and structural unemployment due to wage floors. Wage floors exist because of high unemployment benefits or binding minimum wages. The productivity distribution is estimated semi-nonparametrically along the lines of Gallant-Nychka, using Hermite series approximation. We decompose the total unemployment rate and we examine the effects of changes in the minimum wage. [source] Protein and the demand for hard wheats,AUSTRALIAN JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURAL & RESOURCE ECONOMICS, Issue 2 2009William W. Wilson Wheat protein is one of the most important specifications used in domestic and import purchase contracts and is used partly as a proxy for functional quality. The purpose of this article is to analyse the demand for wheat delineated by protein class. A choice-based econometric model is specified and estimated using a novel dataset of pooled wheat shipments to individual importing countries. Buyers are importing countries that make purchase decisions among different protein levels. The model frames the choice in terms of attributes of the choice and of the importing countries. Results indicate that there have been shifts over time, and purchase probabilities are highly price elastic and vary across importing regions. Functional characteristics including wet gluten content and extraction rates have significant impacts on purchase probabilities. These results have implications for breeders as it clearly illustrates the role of protein and functional characteristics on demand. The results also have implications for analysts modelling wheat trade in that there are many factors impacting market segments that would not be captured in conventional demand specifications. [source] Organizational Slack and Corporate Greening: Broadening the DebateBRITISH JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT, Issue 4 2002Frances E. Bowen Organizational slack seems to have an ambiguous relationship with corporate greening. On the one hand, excess resources can be used to experiment with new environmental innovations, or potential green market segments. On the other, excess resources can be used to build corporate buffers against pressures for environmental improvement, such as large corporate environmental departments or environmental lobbying activity, and resist changes to the core of the organization. This paper begins to resolve these conflicting arguments by broadening the debate on organizational slack and corporate greening. It builds on recent empirical studies of slack and corporate greening, and recognizes the many potential roles that different types of slack may play in a dynamic decision,making context. Using a theoretical framework suggested by Bourgeois (1981), the paper systematizes and draws lessons from examples of the roles of slack encountered in a recent series of 35 interviews within UK public limited companies. It concludes that future treatments of slack and environmental management should incorporate a more holistic view of slack, which recognizes its dynamic, complex and often contradictory effects on decision,making in organizations. [source] Policy Development for Novel Foods: Issues and Challenges for Functional FoodCANADIAN JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS, Issue 4 2002Michele Veeman Challenges in policy development for novel foods arise from information asymmetry associated with these credence goods. Policy development reflects pressures by firms and investors to apply health claims in marketing functional food, nutraceuticals and natural health products, which are growing market segments, relative to mature food markets. However, the wordings on health claims are often misinterpreted by consumers. Despite tendencies for some convergence in approaches to health claim policies, policy differs internationally. Related issues considered include factors influencing consumer preferences for these products and uncertainties in the markets for them. [source] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||