The authors examine the implications of electronic shopping for consumers, retailers, and manufacturers. They assume that near-term technological developments will offer consumers unparalleled opportunities to locate and compare product offerings. They examine these advantages as a function of typical consumer goals and the types of products and services being sought and offer conclusions regarding consumer incentives and disincentives to purchase through interactive home shopping vis-à-vis traditional retail formats. The authors discuss implications for industry structure as they pertain to competition among retailers, competition among manufacturers, and retailer-manufacturer relationships.

Interactive home shopping: Consumer, retailer, and manufacturer incentives to participate in

With the use of census block group data on sociodemographics, land use, and travel behavior, the cutoffs suggested in the literature for trustworthy estimates and hypothesis-testing statistics were tested, and the efficacy of deleting observations as an approach to improving multivariate normality in structural equation modeling was evaluated. It was found that the deletion of enough cases to achieve multivariate normality yielded results that were substantively different from those for the full sample and required that 17% of the sample be discarded. Alternatively, after only a few true outliers were deleted (0.8% of the sample), the measures of univariate and multivariate nonnormalities fell into the acceptable range for maximum likelihood estimation to be appropriate. The pursuit of a multivariate normal distribution by the deletion of observations should be consciously weighed against the loss of model power and generalizability in the interpretation of the results. That is, the analyst should proactively find the balance between the two extremes of (a) a model on the full sample that is unreliable because of extreme nonnormality and (b) a model on a sample that has discarded so many cases to achieve multivariate normality that it is no longer fully representative of the desired population. It is further argued that the process of finding that balance should be exposed to the audience rather than ignored or suppressed.

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Nonnormality of Data in Structural Equation Models

Although the role of school engagement in influencing children’s academic competence has been recognized in past theory and research, how school engagement may mediate the relationships between ecological and personal resources and academic competence remains largely unknown. Using structural equation modeling procedures, the present study was aimed at examining the role of school engagement in mediating the associations between ecological and personal assets and academic competence. Data from 960 participants (45.6% boys) who took part in the Grades 5 and 6 assessments of the longitudinal, 4-H Study of Positive Youth Development were used. Evidence was found for a model positing two distinct school engagement components, Behavioral and Emotional, and for the role of these facets of school engagement in the relationships between developmental assets and later academic competence. Personal and ecological assets had indirect effects on later academic competence, via behavioral and emotional school engagement. Behavioral and emotional school engagement predicted academic competence differently. Emotional engagement was indirectly linked to academic competence, via behavioral engagement. Behavioral and emotional engagement also had different individual and contextual antecedents. Implications of the findings for evaluating the role of behavioral and/or emotional school engagement in academic competence and positive youth development are discussed.

Personal and ecological assets and academic competence in early adolescence: The mediating role of school engagement.

The effects of collective MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games) play on gamers' online and offline social capital

Using structural equation modeling, the relationships among travel amounts, perceptions, affections, and desires across five short-distance (one-way trips of less than 100 miles) travel categories (overall, commute, work/school-related, entertainment/social/recreation, and personal vehicle) are examined. The models are estimated using data collected in 1998 from more than 1300 working commuters in the San Francisco Bay Area. A cross-model analysis reveals three robust relationships, namely: (1) myriad measures of travel amounts work together to affect perceptions; (2) perceptions are consistently important in shaping desires; and (3) affections have a positive relationship with desires. The second finding suggests that two individuals who travel the same objective amount may not have the same desire to reduce their travel: how much individuals perceive their travel to be is important. The third point argues that the degree to which travel is enjoyed is a key determinant of shaping desires to reduce travel: the more travel is enjoyed, the less the desire to reduce it.

Modeling the structural relationships among short-distance travel amounts, perceptions, affections, and desires

This paper discusses consequences of violating the normal distribution assumption imbedded in Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). Based on real data from a large sample customer satisfaction survey we follow the procedures as suggested in leading textbooks. We document consequences of this practice and discuss its impact on decision making in marketing.

The Impact of Non-Normality and Estimation Methods in SEM on Satisfaction Research in Marketing

An assumption in the literature on defensive customer retention strategies is that customers who receive poor service quality from their current supplier are more inclined to switch to an attacking supplier. However, what to communicate to trigger switching from existing supplier to a new, previously unknown supplier is less known in this literature. This paper investigates how attacking firms can design persuasive advertising messages aiming to capture competitors' customers. In a 2 x 2 factorial experiment we find that economic advertising appeals are more persuasive than appeals stressing service quality for subjects currently receiving poor service quality. For customers who perceived service quality to be satisfactory, there was no difference in persuasiveness between the different appeals.

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Is Being Good Better Than Being Cheap, Or Is Being Cheap Better Than Being Good?

Klagehåndtering i norske bedrifter: Noen observasjoner og forslag til tiltak

The central theme of the paper is the underlying motivation and organization of relationships between companies on different levels in an industrial marketing channel The research explores the effects of both economical, behavioral, external and internal factors upon the relational structure and its accomplishment. In general, the findings suggest that transactions might be more efficiently organized in a relationship with an external supplier.

Bengt G. Lorentzen

Papers

The Impact of Non-Normality and Estimation Methods in SEM on Satisfaction Research in Marketing

Is Being Good Better Than Being Cheap, Or Is Being Cheap Better Than Being Good?

Klagehåndtering i norske bedrifter: Noen observasjoner og forslag til tiltak

Internal and External Factors Influencing The Organization Of Relationships In An Industrial Network: A Case Study