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34331. The Role of Effort Advantage in Consumer Response to Loyalty Programs: The Idiosyncratic Fit Heuristic

Author:
Ran Kivetz and Itamar Simpson
Publication Date:
12-2002
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute for Social and Economic Research and Policy at Columbia University
Abstract:
Over the past few years, customer relationship management and loyalty programs (LPs) have been widely adopted by companies and have received a great deal of attention from marketers, consultants, and, to a lesser degree, academics. In this research, we examine the effect of the level of effort required to obtain a LP's reward on consumers' perception of the LP's attractiveness. We propose that, under certain conditions, increasing the program requirements can enhance consumers' likelihood of joining the program, thus leading consumers to prefer a dominated option. Specifically, we hypothesize that consumer s often evaluate LPs based on their individual effort to obtain the reward relative to the relevant reference effort (e.g., the effort of typical other consumers). When consumers believe they have an effort advantage relative to typical others (i.e., an idiosyncratic fit with the LP), higher program requirements manify this perception of advantage and can therefore increase the overall perceived value of the program. This proposition was supported in a series of studies in which the perceived idiosyncratic fit was manipulated either by reducing the individual effort or by raising the reference effort. The findings also indicate that (a) idiosyncratic fit considerations are elicited spontaneously, (b) idiosyncratic fit mediates the effect of effort on consumer response to LPs, and (c) an alternative account for the results based on signaling is not supported. We conclude that these findings are part of a broader phenomenon, which we term the idiosyncratic fit heuristic, whereby a key factor that affects consumers' response to marketing programs and promotional offers is the perceived relative advantage or fit with the individual's idiosyncratic conditions and preferences.
Topic:
Development, Economics, Emerging Markets, and Industrial Policy

34332. Permanently Beta: Responsive Organization in the Internet Era

Author:
Gina Neff and David Strark
Publication Date:
12-2002
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute for Social and Economic Research and Policy at Columbia University
Abstract:
How has the Internet influenced economic organization? Many approach this question strictly economically by examining the productivity gains from particular technological advances or the roles that dot-coms and other Internet-based organizations play with the economy. We approach this question differently—we move away from a macro-social analysis to consider the co-evolution of new technologies and organizational forms. In other words, how has the process of technological change in the Internet era influenced the way we organize economic activities? In this chapter we discuss how information technologies foster the emergent design and user-driven design of websites and other online media, as well as products and organizations off-line. We also consider how to mitigate the social costs of these changes.
Topic:
Economics, Industrial Policy, and Science and Technology

34333. Negotiating the End of Transition: A Network Approach to Political Discourse Dynamics, Hungary 1997

Author:
Péter Csigó and Balázs Vedres
Publication Date:
12-2002
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute for Social and Economic Research and Policy at Columbia University
Abstract:
The initial question of this paper is how the large scale social process of postsocialist transition ends. We argue that transition is closed by discursive innovations in the political field, rather than just spontaneous crystallization. The political field is depicted as a dynamic symbolic structure that is an arena of local action. First the possible discourse positions are extracted from the two mode network of speech acts and statements. Then using these typical positions the dynamics of responses and responses to responses is explored. We give an account of an emergent univocal government position that represents a successful role claim (an exit from the loops of local action) on the government's side to coherently frame the end of transition.
Topic:
Government
Political Geography:
Europe

34334. The Influence of Women and Racial Minorities Under Panel Decision Making on the U.S. Court of Appeals

Author:
Sean Farhang and Gregory Wawro
Publication Date:
12-2002
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute for Social and Economic Research and Policy at Columbia University
Abstract:
This paper assesses the impact of gender and race on judicial decisions on the federal Court of Appeals, paying particular attention to the institutional nuances of decision-making on three-judge appellate panels within circuits. Our central question is whether and how racial minority and women judges influence legal policy on issues thought to be of particular concern to women and minorities. Proper analysis of this question requires investigating whether women and minority judges influence the decisions of other panel members. We find that the norm of unanimity on panels grants women influence over outcomes even when they are outnumbered on a panel.
Topic:
Ethnic Conflict, Gender Issues, and Government
Political Geography:
United States

34335. Link, Search, Interact: The Co-Evolution of NGOs and Interactive Technology

Author:
Jonathan Bach and David Strark
Publication Date:
04-2002
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute for Social and Economic Research and Policy at Columbia University
Abstract:
Interactive technology is a key factor used to explain the recent growth and prominence of NGOs, who today are engaged in the transformation of national, international and transnational political space. Yet technology cannot explain NGOs' rise, for technology is but a context which afford opportunities. We ask what it is that allows NGOs to take advantage of new circumstances, and focus our discussion on the co-evolution of NGOs with interactive technology. Our approach is part of a growing body of social science research that seeks to overcome the artificial divide between “society” and “technology” by viewing the social as consisting of humans and non-humans (objects, things, artifacts). Viewing technology not as a tool but as part of a co-evolutionary process that shapes organizational forms and practices will help us understand why NGOs have, given the opportunities provided by the retrenchment of the welfare state and the end of the cold war, been able to assume a more powerful and controversial role as co-constituents of global transformation.
Topic:
Economics, Industrial Policy, Non-Governmental Organization, and Science and Technology

34336. Substitutability Cross-Stream Between Oriented Markets: Conventions in the Wine Sector of France

Author:
Harrison C. White
Publication Date:
03-2002
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute for Social and Economic Research and Policy at Columbia University
Abstract:
I explicitly model the social mechanism that constructs markets. Producers array along a market profile along which buyers trade off quality for volume. Outcome features can be predicted from two ratios of parameters, yielding a MAP. Five distinct families of market cultures correspond to its regions. As previous work showed, Supply equaling Demand is transmuted into matchings across local variabilities of valuation with volume and with quality. Such matching is vulnerable to unraveling, but it can be achieved with market oriented either upstream or downstream.
Topic:
Economics and Industrial Policy
Political Geography:
Europe and France

34337. Achieving a Final Status Settlement for Kosovo

Author:
Janusz Bugajski, R. Bruce Hitchner, and Paul Williams
Publication Date:
08-2002
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Public International Law Policy Group
Abstract:
On November 19, 2002, the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), the National Albanian American Council, and the Dayton Peace Accords Project held a one-day conference in Washington, D.C., at CSIS, entitled “The Future of Kosovo.” The conference was attended by U.S. policymakers, congressional representatives, regional specialists, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), business leaders, journalists, as well as key activists and analysts from Kosovo. The vital question of Kosovo's emerging status was discussed openly with a view to producing a subsequent report offering concrete recommendations to the U.S. administration, U.S. legislators, and major international organizations on the question of Kosovo's future status.
Topic:
Democratization, Government, and Politics
Political Geography:
America, Europe, Washington, Kosovo, and Albania

34338. A Private Hero for a Privatized Country

Author:
Leon Aron
Publication Date:
06-2002
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
Abstract:
The most interesting phenomenon on Russia's literary scene today is the popularity of the Erast Fandorin mysteries by Grigoriy Shalvovich Chkhartishvili, who writes as Boris Akunin.
Topic:
Democratization, Economics, and Emerging Markets
Political Geography:
Russia, Europe, and Asia

34339. Risk and Reward: U.S. - E.U. Regulatory Cooperation on Food Safety and the Environment

Author:
David L. Aaron and C. Boyden Gray
Publication Date:
11-2002
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Atlantic Council
Abstract:
In recent years, environmental protection and food safety have been among the most volatile issues in the U.S.-European relationship. While they are now overshadowed somewhat by the transatlantic debate over Iraq and other political and military matters, tensions over environment and food safety are just below the surface, and — if not addressed — w ill have enduring corrosive and divisive effects. Indeed, the current acrimony over these issues has contributed to concern about an erosion of shared transatlantic values and a deterioration in U.S.-European relations generally. Moreover, as recently demonstrated at the Johannesburg UN summit on sustainable development, the failure of the United States and Europe to work together on these issues does not just have bilateral consequences. It represents a significant lost opportunity to provide leadership in addressing environment and food safety on a global level. The United States and Europe have both been leaders in these areas — a fact that is overlooked far too often in the current debate. The impact of their current differences has been felt most concretely in the transatlantic trade arena, in a series of persistent disputes. But these differences represent far more than just another transatlantic trading issue. Unless they now find a way to reconcile their different perspectives and approaches, the United States and the European Union will miss real opportunities to work together in addressing global environmental and public health issues.
Topic:
Environment and Human Welfare
Political Geography:
United States and Europe

34340. The Twain Shall Meet: The Prospect for Russia - West Relations

Author:
Charles Grant, Christopher J. Makins, Sergey Rogov, Christoph Bertram, and Robert Nurick
Publication Date:
09-2002
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Atlantic Council
Abstract:
The integration of Russia into the West will be one of the most important, and most difficult, tasks facing the United States and Europe during the next decade. Yet a closer relationship with the West will be key to the development of Russian prosperity, democracy, and stability – achievements that will benefit the West as well as Russia. The attacks on September 11 and the resulting campaign against terrorism have given a decisive push to this effort, providing the political will for closer cooperation between Russia and the West.
Topic:
Development
Political Geography:
Russia, United States, Europe, and Asia