Quality disclosure strategies for small business enterprises under consumer loss aversion

In this paper,we focus on small business enterprises(SBEs)that usually have low market power but can rely on retailers to transact sales and gain the ability to disclose quality information.Moreover,consumer loss aversion(CLA)is pronounced when buying from SBEs that have yet to develop a strong reputation and uncertain quality.We focus on two competing SBEs with heterogeneous quality levels and discuss their quality disclosure strategiesd whether selling through a retailerd in the context of CLA.We study the interaction between consumers'prior belief in product quality and CLA and how these factors affect equilibrium outcomes.We show that a situation in which low-quality and high-quality SBEs both choose to disclose will not occur under a neutral consumer attitude,i.e.,it happens only when the aversion level is significant.When the aversion level is low,either the low-quality SBE or the high-quality SBE will decide to disclose,and the disclosing party depends on the prior belief.In addition,CLA significantly impacts the monotonicity of both SBEs'and retailers'prices and profits relating to the consumers'prior beliefs.

Psychological Heterogeneity in a Queue:The Impact of Loss Aversion on Service Pricing

The authors consider an M/M/1 queue with two types of customers,where customers are classified into two categories according to their psychological feelings when facing uncertainty about queue information.In the unobservable queue,experienced customers could accurately calculate their expected utilities,while first-time customers are loss-averse and the psychological feelings could incur additional gain-loss utilities.By defining customers'willingness to pay,the authors derive the equilibrium joining-balking behaviors for each type of customer and obtain the service provider's optimal pricing decision.The authors also classify the implications of the obtained results.

Supply Chain Coordination with Sales Effort Effects and Impact of Loss Aversion on Effort Decision

A new supply contract based on sharing the sales profits as well as the cost of effort was devel- oped to coordinate the supply chain with sales effort effects. The contract coordinates the supplier’s actions with voluntary compliance; the contract is symmetric in the sense that both the supplier’s and retailer’s prof- its are linearly correlated and is more easily implemented in some situations. The impact of the retailer’s loss aversion on his effort is investigated based on the contract. After characterizing the retailer’s optimal solutions, this paper demonstrates that contrary to intuition, loss aversion weakens incentives for retailer’s sales effort and the retailer’s optimal effort decreases as the loss aversion increases.

Dynamic Asset Allocation with Loss Aversion in a Jump-diffusion Model

This paper investigates a dynamic asset allocation problem for loss-averse investors in a jumpdiffusion model where there are a riskless asset and N risky assets. Specifically, the prices of risky assets are governed by jump-diffusion processes driven by an m-dimensional Brownian motion and a（N- m）-dimensional Poisson process. After converting the dynamic optimal portfolio problem to a static optimization problem in the terminal wealth, the optimal terminal wealth is first solved. Then the optimal wealth process and investment strategy are derived by using the martingale representation approach. The closed-form solutions for them are finally given in a special example.

Optimal Investment Strategy of Defined Contribution Pension Based on Bequest Motivation and Loss Aversion

Under the S-shaped utility of loss aversion,this paper considers the bequest motivation of pension plan participants,random salary income before retirement and the substitution rate between receiving pension benefits after retirement and wages before retirement,and studies the optimal investment strategy of defined contribution(DC)pension.Assuming that pension funds can invest in a financial market consisting of three assets(risk-free asset cash,rolling bonds and stocks),inflation is considered by discount.Under the S-shaped utility,the Lagrange method is used to find the terminal optimal surplus of pensions in retirement,so as to find the terminal optimal wealth,and then the martingale method is used to find the optimal wealth process and investment strategy.Finally,a sensitivity analysis is carried out on the the influence of bequest motivation and loss aversion on the optimal investment strategy of DC pension.

Asset specificity and farmers' intergenerational succession willingness of apple management

Understanding the factors behind apple farmers’willingness to pass on the management of their farms to their descendants is crucial to the continuity of apple production.Due to the high specificity of the human capital,physical assets,land assets,and geographical location in apple production,this study used a binary logistic regression and a mediating effect model to explore the impact of asset specificity on farmers’intergenerational succession willingness of apple management(FISWAM)and to examine the mediating effects of loss aversion in the impact of asset specificity on the FISWAM.The results showed that about 18.68%of the respondents expressed willingness to transfer their apple business between generations,and the FISWAM was generally weak.In addition to the negative impact of geographical location specificity(GLS),human capital specificity(HCS),physical assets specificity(PAS),and land assets specificity(LAS)can enhance the FISWAM.Loss aversion plays a partial mediating role in the impact of PAS,LAS,and GLS on the FISWAM.

Dynamic Multi-Attribute Decision-Making Method with Double Reference Points and Its Application

To better reflect the psychological behavior characteristics of loss aversion,this paper builds a double reference point decision making method for dynamic multi-attribute decision-making(DMADM)problem,taking bottom-line and target as reference pints.First,the gain/loss function is given,and the state is divided according to the relationship between the gain/loss value and the reference point.Second,the attitude function is constructed based on the results of state division to establish the utility function.Third,the comprehensive utility value is calculated as the basis for alternatives classification and ranking.Finally,the new method is used to evaluate the development level of smart cities.The results show that the new method can judge the degree to which the alternatives meet the requirements of the decision-maker.While the new method can effectively screen out the unsatisfactory alternatives,the ranking results of other alternatives are consistent with those of traditional methods.

Testing for Sources of Irreversible Consumer Demand

The existence of irreversible demand is tested, whereby price increases induce a different absolute magnitude of quantity change than price decreases. Irreversibility is potentially likely in retail food settings for storable products that are consumed regularly and can affect pricing strategy performance. If irreversibility exists, the subsequent research question for storable product demand is whether loss aversion effects dominate stockpiling effects, or vice versa. A two-period theoretical model is developed, which predicts more elastic responses to downward price movements via stockpiling, but empirical tests on secondary data are needed to evaluate offsetting loss aversion effects. A variant of the Rotterdam demand model is developed to allow differential response to price increases and decreases. The model is applied to scanner data of short periodicity （weekly in this case）, which are necessary to measure meaningful demand responses to food price changes. The products selected are U.S. cheeses and table spreads that are storable over multiple weeks. The results suggest that stockpiling dominates loss aversion. One potential cause of this behavior may be that marketers asymmetrically provide consumers with more reference price information when lowering prices, but not when raising prices. When stockpiling effects dominate, given the typically price-elastic store-level demand for food products, high-low pricing strategies should produce higher revenue. Regarding measurement of average demand response, reversible demand models applied to weekly data may overestimate own-price elasticities.

Winner determination problem with loss-averse buyers in reverse auctions

Reverse auctions have been widely adopted for purchasing goods and services. This paper considers a novel winner determination problem in a multiple-object reverse auction in which the buyer involves loss-averse behavior due to uncertain attributes. A corresponding winner determination model based on cumulative prospect theory is proposed. Due to the NP-hard characteristic, a loaded route strategy is proposed to ensure the feasibility of the model. Then, an improved ant colony algorithm that consists of a dynamic transition strategy and a Max-Min pheromone strategy is designed. Numerical experiments are conducted to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed model and algorithm. We find that under the loaded route strategy, the improved ant colony algorithm performs better than the basic ant colony algorithm. In addition, the proposed model can effectively characterize the buyer's loss-averse behavior.

FROM HEDGING TO SPECULATION-AN EXPLANATION BASED ON PROSPECT THEORY

This paper studies the impact of the reference point on a hedger＇s decision based upon prospect theory and experimental evidence on how prior outcomes affect risky choice. The authors show that in the futures market, a hedger who does not adjust his reference point timely would increase his positions continually as his accumulated losses increase, and finally become a speculator. Numerical simulation results under the normal distribution also lend support to the results. The model can help explain why the hedging behavior of firms turns into speculative activities and can offer some new insights into hedging behavior.

An Analysis of State-Owned Banks’Behavior in NPL Disposition

Thispaper examines the phenomenon whereby state-owned banksin China tend to notonly reducetheirnon-performingloans(NPLs)throughacceptingsettled assets,butalsoovervalue and delay liquidating settled assets. Theresults implythatthe state-owned banksexhibitan obvious book loss aversion behavior when disposing their NPLs, i.e. they minimize book loss and hide real credit loss by settling their NPLs with overvalued assets. This paper suggests that this results mainly from improper regulations, weak financial strength, and over-restrictions on NPL disposition. Since introducing a valuation allowance on settled assets, as suggested by the regulatory body, will notproduce the desired effect, this paper proposesthata performance measurementand penaltymechanism basedon non-performing assets instead of NPLs will change the banks’ attitude towards NPL-asset settlement. In addition, a new internal control method governing the entire process from settlement to liquidation isalso suggested.