This paper compares the responses of consumers who submitted answers to a survey instrument focusing on Internet purchasing patterns both electronically and using traditional paper response methods. We present the results of a controlled experiment within a larger data collection effort. The same survey instrument was completed by 416 Internet customers of a major office supplies company, with approximately 60% receiving the survey in paper form and 40% receiving the electronic version. In order to evaluate the efficacy of electronic surveys relative to traditional, printed surveys we conduct two levels of analysis. On a macro-level, we compare the two groups for similarity in terms of fairly aggregate, coarse data characteristics such as response rates, proportion of missing data, scale means and inter-item reliability. On a more fine-grained, micro-level, we compare the two groups for aspects of data integrity such as the presence of data runs and measurement errors. This deeper, finer-grained analysis allows an examination of the potential benefits and flaws of electronic data collection.Our findings suggest that electronic surveys are generally comparable to print surveys in most respects, but that there are a few key advantages and challenges that researchers should evaluate. Notably, our sample indicates that electronic surveys have fewer missing responses and can be coded/presented in a more flexible manner (namely, contingent coding with different respondents receiving different questions depending on the response to earlier questions) that offers researchers new capabilities.
Two Grey parrots (Psittacus erithacus) were tested on various types of mirror use: mirror image stimulation, mirror-mediated object discrimination, and a simple form of mirror-mediated spatial locating. During exposure to a mirror, neither bird clearly demonstrated self-exploratory behavior but responded instead in ways similar to those of marmosets, monkeys, dolphins, extremely young children(<18 months), and to the initial responses of orangutans and young chimpanzees. The parrots' behavior was not a consequence of an inability to process mirrored information, because in subsequent tasks they used mirrors to discriminate among exemplars and to locate hidden objects; these birds are the first nonmammalian subjects to exhibit all these behavior patterns. Their behavior on all the tasks can be compared to that of humans, great apes, dolphins, monkeys, and Asian elephants.
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; margin: 0in 0.5in 0pt; mso-pagination: none;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 10pt; mso-themecolor: text1;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">There is some question as to whether or not consumers use price as an indicator of product quality. In the case of non-durable goods there is some evidence that consumers do equate higher price products with higher quality products. These products are those that the consumer must experience personally before making a judgment on the product quality. In the case of durable goods there is less empirical evidence to support the price-quality connection. This paper develops a dynamic game model to investigate the price-quality connection in the presence of competition.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Specifically, the paper investigates whether or not the optimal pricing strategy in the case of a durable good, where consumers may collect quality information about the product as units diffuse into the market, should be a high quality-high price strategy or a high quality-low price strategy. This question is examined by means of a dynamic game model, which is an extension of the Narasimhan-Ghosh-Mendez (NGM) quality diffusion model. The paper explicitly incorporates competition into the NGM model. Price trajectories for two competing firms are derived so that profits are maximized for the two competitors. It is shown that the price trajectory for the firm using quality as a strategic lever is shown to be lower than that of the firm that was not using a quality strategy. This result strongly suggests that a firm pursuing a quality strategy should couple this strategy with a lower price than its competition and should not couple high prices with high quality in an effort to signal the product’s superior quality to consumers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></p>
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