David Bell

Bio: David Bell is an academic researcher from University of Leeds. The author has contributed to research in topics: Tourism & Queer. The author has an hindex of 52, co-authored 214 publications receiving 14873 citations. Previous affiliations of David Bell include University of California, Los Angeles & Staffordshire University.

A Parsimonious Model of SKU Choice: Familiarity-based Reinforcement and Response Sensitivity

Abstract: We develop a highly parsimonious model to describe and predict stock-keeping unit (SKU) choice in any frequently-bought consumer packaged good category. The model has 20 parameters for a category that has 3 salient attributes, and in general it has 8 + 4 ¢ k parameters for a k-attribute product category. This parsimony is accomplished by neither discarding part of the data nor aggregating the level of analysis. Unlike previous choice models, the number of parameters is neither a function of the number of SKUs nor a function of the number of attribute levels in the category. Consequently, it is particularly useful for modeling product choice in categories that have many SKUs and attribute levels. The model assumes that a product consists of multiple attributes and the consumer derives utility from both consuming and shopping for each attribute. While consumption occurs only for the chosen attribute level, shopping experience applies to all attribute levels. The consumer is also allowed to respond di®erently to a product's marketing mix activities over time. The model incorporates three key features: 1. The consumer's marginal utility from consuming an attribute level depends on her level of familiarity with it. This allows us to capture potential satiation with a familiar attribute level that has been consumed previously. 2. The consumer accumulates a shopping experience, which also depends on attribute-level familiarity. If shopping experience increases with familiarity, the consumer retrieves more familiar attribute levels more readily during shopping and chooses products based on memory cues. Both the attribute-level product satiation and shopping experience provide a natural way to model variety-seeking behavior commonly found in these product categories. Our model reveals which product attribute becomes more readily satiated and predicts that the consumer is more likely to switch to an attribute level that has a stronger shopping experience. 3. The consumer's response sensitivity to a product's marketing mix activities depends on her familiarity with the product. This allows the consumer to respond di®erently to di®erent SKUs's marketing mix activities during her purchase history. Using an extensive panel-level data set of 10 food and 6 non-food categories, we benchmark our model with that of Fader and Hardie (1996) (FH), which outperforms Guadagni and Little (1983)'s model. The empirical results are summarized as follows: 1. Our model on average ¯ts 5.16% better in-sample and predicts 6.50% better out-of-sample in log-likelihood than the FH model. Moreover, this superior performance uses only one-¯fth …

Winter wonderlands: public outdoor ice rinks, entrepreneurial display and festive socialities in UK cities

Abstract: This paper provides a critical discussion of the uses and meanings of temporary outdoor ice rinks, which have become increasingly popular in UK cities over the last decade. The installation of ice rinks in cities in winter time is framed in a number of contexts, including entrepreneurial governance and civic boosterism, the uses of culture by the local state, invented winter and Christmas traditions, the effects of cold winter weather on sociality and other forms of embodied play argued to be reshaping urban socialities. Conceiving ice rinks as a form of ‘entrepreneurial display’, the paper also draws on theories of ‘expressive embodiment’ to explore how rinks also encourage particular ways of performing and interacting that contest current critiques of the effects of entrepreneurial urban governance.

Bowling alone: The collapse and revival of American community

Abstract: The present historical moment may seem a particularly inopportune time to review Bowling Alone, Robert Putnam's latest exploration of civic decline in America. After all, the outpouring of volunteerism, solidarity, patriotism, and self-sacrifice displayed by Americans in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks appears to fly in the face of Putnam's central argument: that \"social capital\" -defined as \"social networks and the norms of reciprocity and trustworthiness that arise from them\" (p. 19)'has declined to dangerously low levels in America over the last three decades. However, Putnam is not fazed in the least by the recent effusion of solidarity. Quite the contrary, he sees in it the potential to \"reverse what has been a 30to 40-year steady decline in most measures of connectedness or community.\"' As an example of how the current \"war on terrorism\" could generate a durable civic renewal, Putnam points to the burst in civic practices that occurred during and after World War II, which he says \"permanently marked\" the generation that lived through it and had a \"terrific effect on American public life over the last half-century.\" 3 If Americans can follow this example and channel their current civic

Economics of Information

Abstract: The author systematically examines one of the important issues of information — establishing the market price. He introduces the concept of «search» — where a buyer wanting to get a better price, is forced to question sellers. The article deals with various aspects of finding the necessary information.

Boundary-Work and the Demarcation of Science from Non-Science: Strains and Interests in Professional Ideologies of Scientists

Abstract: The demarcation of science from other intellectual activities-long an analytic problem for philosophers and sociologists-is here examined as a practical problem for scientists. Construction of a boundary between science and varieties of non-science is useful for scientists' pursuit of professional goals: acquisition of intellectual authority and career opportunities; denial of these resources to "pseudoscientists"; and protection of the autonomy of scientific research from political interference. "Boundary-work" describes an ideological style found in scientists' attempts to create a public image for science by contrasting it favorably to non-scientific intellectual or technical activities. Alternative sets of characteristics available for ideological attribution to science reflect ambivalences or strains within the institution: science can be made to look empirical or theoretical, pure or applied. However, selection of one or another description depends on which characteristics best achieve the demarcation in a way that justifies scientists' claims to authority or resources. Thus, "science" is no single thing: its boundaries are drawn and redrawn inflexible, historically changing and sometimes ambiguous ways.