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Multi-unit discounts (MUDs, e.g. “3 for $4”) typically increase sales relative to other discounting frames. This study demonstrates the value of MUDs by showing that positive multi-unit price/quantity signals are potent enough to match and even exceed the sales produced by larger discounts on single items. However, there is reason to believe that MUDs can produce neutral effects in some cases (e.g. among consumers interested in only single-unit purchases) and even negative effects in others. In addition, the study considers whether MUDs can, in some cases, reduce purchase quantities by signaling smaller-than-otherwise-planned purchase amounts and/or lower-quality products.

The effectiveness of MUDs is tested in both the field and lab. Study 1 models purchase quantities stemming from 2,374 purchases of discounted items at a mass retailer. Purchased products ranged in type from pantry items to apparel and electronics, and ranged in price from 44¢ to $99.99. There were 1,530 single-unit discounts, 596 two-unit discounts and 248 discounts, involving three or more units. Study 2 consists of a laboratory experiment that overcomes the shortcomings of Study 1 by accounting for non-purchasers, controlling for product classes and testing whether smaller MUDs can lead to lower purchase quantities for larger-purchase-quantity products.

The results of both the field study and the laboratory experiment indicate that MUDs’ monetary cue (savings) and purchase-quantity cue (volume) increase purchase quantities. Generally, purchase quantities increased monotonically with the number of units offered in the discount. In fact, the quantity cue is so effective that it can increase sales enough as to substitute for larger discounts. However, in some instances, MUDs can decrease intended purchase quantities. The negative effect of MUDs is the most pronounced for larger unit deals, offering deeper discounts on perishable goods.

This research is the first to demonstrate that the power of the signals provided by MUDs may be so positive as to lead them to be more effective than discounts of substantially larger value but also so negative as to render them less effective than single-units discounts. This negative outcome poses a threat beyond those typically associated with discounts, in that rather than consumers simply discounting a discount, in which case the discount remains positive even if their impact at the margin wanes, the MUD frame may actually reduce sales.

In this chapter, we evaluate the dollar amount spent on advertising relative to sales, profit margin, and growth rates to study the effectiveness of advertising in today’s retail environment, and whether it leads directly to higher sales and increased profits affording positive earnings for the investor. The study illustrates the use of data envelopment analysis (DEA) technique to benchmark 16 apparel firms to evaluate the effectiveness of their advertising dollars on the sales, profit margin, growth, return on assets (ROA), return on equity (ROE), and return on investment (ROI).

This study aims to shed light on driving factors of research and development (R&D) investments by considering financial statement-based characteristics, audit quality, and Schumpeterian variables. This study distinguishes between capitalized R&D investments and expensed R&D investments by taking different accounting treatments into account. Based on a sample of listed manufacturing firms on Borsa Istanbul over 2013–2018, this study concludes that (i) competition (size) decreases (increases) R&D investments, (ii) big4 auditors pay more attention to the proper accounting treatment of R&D investments, (iii) internal financing does not affect R&D investments, and (iv) liquidity (leverage and marketing expenditures) plays a positive (negative) role in only capitalized R&D investments.

The chapters emphasise the importance of data management from the perspective of the business management process, where big data is the most crucial and pressing technical and business issue in the modern realm of technology. The same data has a significant influence on the current financial environment. Organisations are facing challenges in explicating complicated financial data manually and using it to drive their decision-making processes. Data-driven decision-making is a dominant tool for any professional. It enhances precision, alleviates risk, improves efficacy, aids financial management, offers customer insights, provides a competitive edge, supports strategic planning, enables performance tracking, fosters innovation and has predictive capabilities. The power of data makes the organisation more prosperous and resilient in the face of change. By making informed decisions based on data and analytics, organisations can unlock their full potential and achieve sustainable growth. The chapter suggests a data-driven culture in the organisation with the help of strategising in terms of data collection, analytics and data management by establishing governance and regulatory practices to ensure data security and integrity. The latter part covers the forecasting and transformative ability of data by integrating machine learning and deep learning models. The chapter also covers the visualisation perspective of the data by transforming the information into a visual setting, illuminating the hidden insights and making them tangible and relatable. The chapter closes with a suggestion for managers to stay competitive, make more reasoned and sound decisions and adapt to the evolving business environment.

This action research explored the use of structured writing formats including writing frames and writing guides to improve high school student historical writing.

Collected data involved the result of a pre-test and post-test comparing writing scores of students before and after the intervention, students' survey and co-teacher's interview.

The findings indicated that the intervention of writing frames and writing guides had a positive effect on student writing performances. Discussions and implications for further studies were also included.

The findings informed the teacher that general writing skills could be applied across the curriculum.

Cuteness has grown to be a global phenomenon fueled by the explosive usage of social media. Cute stimuli are ubiquitous, but few have explored their effects on consumer decision-making; direct evidence is particularly lacking in the area of risky choices. In this research, the authors theorize and demonstrate the unintended effects of cuteness exposure on people’s risk preference.

Across five experimental studies situated in various risk contexts, including health, financial and safety, the authors demonstrate that exposure to cuteness makes consumers more risk-seeking due to the reduction of situational conscientiousness. Study 1 used an experimental lab study with a real circumstance to test the effect on the risk associated with food consumption. Study 2 used a classical gambling experiment to test the effect on financial risk. Studies 3a and 3b used a mass shooting news article to test the effect on safety risk. Lastly, study 4 tested the mediating role of low conscientiousness with the classical gambling experiment.

The findings show that exposure to cuteness makes people more likely to take risks in various domains (e.g. food consumption, safety and financial decisions).

This study tested the effect of cuteness on risk-seeking with a limited number of domains of risk. In addition, the authors tested the effect with visual cuteness stimuli, while individuals may perceive cuteness through other senses, such as sound.

The findings have implications for business owners and marketers when deciding whether and how to use cuteness to promote their products and brands, as well as to avoid potential repercussions. For example, a marketer for a new extreme sports company could use videos or images of cute animals participating in sports on the company’s social media channels to expand its market share. In addition, findings from this research would make consumers more attentive when facing cute appeals as they gain a better understanding of how exposure to cuteness could impact their own decision-making.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this research is the first to demonstrate that exposure to subtle, cute environmental cues has a robust effect on consumers’ risk preferences across various domains, regardless of age and gender.

Legal intermediation is an emerging theoretical concept developed to grasp the importance of the process and actors who contribute to legal endogenization, in particular in the field of economic activities and work governed by various public regulations. This chapter proposes to extend the analytical category of legal intermediary to all actors who, even if they are not legal professionals, deal on a daily basis with legal categories and provisions. In order to deepen our understanding of these actors and their contribution to how organizations frame legality, this chapter investigates four examples of legal intermediaries who are not legal professionals. Based on field surveys conducted over the past 15 years in France on employment policy, industrial relations, occupational health and safety regulation, and forensic economics, I make three contributions. First, the cases show the diversity of legal intermediaries and their growing and increasingly reflexive roles in our complex economies. Second, while they are not legal professionals per se, to different degrees, these legal intermediaries assume roles similar to those of legal professionals such as legislators, judges, lawyers, inspectors, cops, and even clerks. Finally, depending on their level of legitimacy and power, I show how legal intermediaries take part in the process of legal endogenization and how they more broadly frame ordinary legality.

The purpose of this paper is to try to reach the main factors that could put national security at risk as a result of government cloud computing programs.

The paper adopts the analytical approach to first lay foundations of the relation between national security, cybersecurity and cloud computing, then it moves to analyze the main vulnerabilities that could affect national security in cases of government cloud computing usage.

The paper reached several findings such as the relation between cybersecurity and national security as well as a group of factors that may affect national security when governments shift to cloud computing mainly pertaining to storing data over the internet, the involvement of a third party, the lack of clear regulatory frameworks inside and between countries.

Governments are continuously working on developing their digital capacities to meet citizens’ demands. One of the most trending technologies adopted by governments is “cloud computing”, because of the tremendous advantages that the technology provides; such as huge cost-cutting, huge storage and computing capabilities. However, shifting to cloud computing raises a lot of security concerns.

The value of the paper resides in the novelty of the topic, which is a new contribution to the theoretical literature on relations between new technologies and national security. It is empirically important as well to help governments stay safe while enjoying the advantages of cloud computing.

WE wish for our readers a Good New Year. Whether it would be appropriate to wish readers a Happy New Year at this stage will depend upon many factors. Even before these words appear in type we may be involved in the more intense struggle for the very existence of our country which everyone seems to think must come sooner or later. The ultimate outcome of that we do not doubt, but while it continues we shall need all the strength, spiritual, mental and physical, that we possess. Nevertheless, it will be a good new year if we remain sensitive to all the needs and opportunities that surround us.