Contributions in Merlin

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Eine präzise Unternehmensbewertung ist in der Hotellerie unentbehrlich. Aus diesem Grund wird in dieser Arbeit das Realoptionsverfahren, welches bewusst Handlungsflexibilitäten einbezieht, bezüglich der Anwendungsmöglichkeiten und Umsetzbarkeit in dieser Branche untersucht. Dementsprechend werden auf der DCF-Methode basierende Praxisfälle erneut mittels der ROA bewertet. Zusätzlich werden Hoteliers hinsichtlich der Akzeptanz der Methode befragt sowie Interviews mit Experten aus Beratungsfirmen geführt. Daraus resultierend kann gezeigt werden, dass die ROA mittelfristig aufgrund der fehlenden Nachfrage und des mangelnden Wissensstandes seitens der Hoteliers sowie der Komplexität der Berechnung verursacht durch die schwierig definierbaren Parameter und der mangelnden Optionalität nicht in die Hotellerie umgesetzt wird

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The growth of online social networks has interested many marketing researchers. However, little research has compared multiple social networks and investigated the link between measures of network structure to commercial success. We make use of network information of online multimedia network platforms and analyze the network strategies of music artists for promoting music. Our analysis is based on 240 personal networks and relates well-established network measures to online success. Our results indicate that success is determined by the social network structure and networking activities rather than by outside popularity. The findings have implications for building successful networks for marketing purposes.

Price discounts or unit premiums? Two alternative approaches to offer and design subscription tarifs. A firm can offer subscriptions of different durations with specific price discounts, the longer a customer subscribes, the lower the price per time unit. Alternatively, a firm can design and differentiate subscriptions of different periods applying the same price per time unit and offering customers of longer subscription periods a time period of free usage (premium). In this paper, we analyze, whether these two presentations are equivalent in terms of consumers’ evaluation, or, if there are any differences that have major managerial implications for firms offering subscription plans. Our results show that consumers have different expectations when talking about price discounts or unit premiums. Further, we derive implications for firms’ optimal pricing policy of subscriptions.

The topic of marketing accountability is of great interest to marketing researchers and professionals. In this paper, we model the impact of customer-based brand equity on customer acquisition and customer retention which can be used as the basis for calculating customer equity. Using actual purchase data of 39 automobile brands sold in the US between 1999 and 2008 we derive customer acquisition and customer retention from first-order Markov brand-switching matrices. Brand equity is defined by customer mind-set measures for all 39 brands using annual survey data provided by Young & Rubicam which contains responses from over 6,000 panel members. We consider competition by applying a market share attraction model and differentiating different degrees of loyalty. Our results indicate that customer-based brand equity is a predictor of both customer acquisition and customer retention. Furthermore, we can show that brand specific effects on acquisitions and retention can be explained by customer mind set metrics.

We consider a model of evolution with mutations as in Kandori et al (1993) [Kandori,M., Mailath, G.J., Rob, R., 1993. Learning, mutation, and long run equilibria in games. Econometrica 61, 29-56], where agents follow best-response decision rules as in Sandholm (1998) [Sandholm, W., 1998. Simple and clever decision rules for a model of evolution. Economics Letters 61, 165-170]. Contrary to those papers, our model gives rise to a birth-death process, which allows explicit computation of the long-run probabilities of equilibria for given values of the mutation rate and the population size. We use this fact to provide a direct proof of the stochastic stability of riskdominant equilibria as the mutation rate tends to zero, and illustrate the outcomes of the dynamics for positive mutation rates.

While most market transactions are subject to strong incentives, transactions within firms are often not explicitly incentivized. This paper offers an explanation for this observation based on the assumption that agents are envious and suffer utility losses if others receive higher wages. We analyze the impact of envy on optimal incentive contracts in a general moral hazard model and isolate the countervailing effects of envy on the costs of providing incentives. We show that envy creates a tendency towards flat-wage contracts if agents are risk-averse and there is no limited liability. Empirical evidence suggests that social comparisons are more pronounced among employees within firms than among individuals that interact in markets. Flat-wage contracts are then more likely to be optimal in firms.