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In the competitive retail marketplace, a company's market share is a key driver of profitability within a particular category. Therefore, it is important for retailers and manufacturers to understand factors that impact market share. Our study examines some of the factors that drive market share at the SKU level. Our analysis is unique because we specifically focus our analysis on a rarely studied variable in academic research: case pack quantity (number of products in a shipping case). We also examine results across different retailers. Our empirical analysis focuses on the ready-to-eat cereal category. This category was chosen because of the large number of different SKUs available and the dynamic nature of the category, thus making the study generalizable to other similar categories. Model and Data We propose the following market share model. In the model, dollar market share (SHARE) is the dependent variable. The independent variables are as follows: case pack quantity (CASE), number of facings (FACE), price per ounce (PRICE), and number of ounces (OUNCE). log SHAREi = b0 + b1 log CASEi + b2 log FACEi + b3 log PRICEi + b4 log OUNCEi + εi Where i denotes the observed SKU. Notice that we use a log-linear specification primarily for the purpose of interpretation. Forty-eight retail chains that sell food products are included in the sample. In total, six iterations of the model were analyzed. Individual iterations were run for five of the 48 retailers and an additional iteration was included to encompass the remaining retailers. The specific five retailers were chosen because they represent the top five retail outlets in terms of overall observations within the data set, are positioned throughout the U.S., and employ a varying set of strategies (EDLP, high/low). We obtained 2004 dollar market share data for the ready-to-eat cereal SKUs from 2004 ACNielsen panel data. Second, the case pack quantity information was supplied by a leading national consumer packaged goods (CPG) company that competes in the ready-to-eat cereal category. The remainder of the data was collected from in-store observations conducted in the cereal aisles of food retailers. The instore data was collected each month over a six-month period (July 2004 through December 2004). A total of 3,915 observations were used in the models. Results All six models are significant (all F-values significant at p < .001) and explain a relatively large amount of variance (R2s ranging from .18 to .49) in market share. Case pack quantity is negative and significant in all models (p < .01 except Retailer 3 where p < .05). The negative direction of case pack quantity could indicate that large case pack quantities lead to more product not able to fit on the shelf, requiring partial cases to be stored in the backroom. When more product is stored in the backroom, there is a higher probability that the product will be misplaced, lost or damaged while it is in storage. Thus, the probability of product being out-of-stock at the shelf increases and negatively impacts market share of the SKU. Smaller case pack quantities would help to alleviate the problem of extra product not fitting on the shelf and being sent to storage and positively increase market share due to fewer out-of-stocks. The number of facings was significant (p < .01) and positive, indicating that increased facings and market share are positively related as expected. Price per ounce was significant (p < .01) and negative in all six models, indicating that as the price per ounce decreases the market share for that SKU increases. The number of ounces was negative and significant (p < .01) in all models. In the last step of our analysis, we compare the six models for differences among retailers.… [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Organizations facing allegations of ethical impropriety must account for their actions in order to repair stakeholder relationships and protect organizational interests. Past research has examined the impact of different types of accounts, such as excuses, justifications, denials, and concessions, on a variety of organizational outcomes. The current study uses an experiment to explore the role of linguistic style, or the manner in which the account is conveyed, in predicting the effectiveness of the account across three national contexts - India, China, and the United States. The results show that in all three countries a consultative account style is positively related to the effectiveness of the account. In the United States, a formal account style is negatively related to its effectiveness. In India and China a formal account style is negatively related to the account's effectiveness when the magnitude of harm is high but not when the harm is low. Overall, the results of this study suggest that the manner in which in organizational account is conveyed is an important factor in determining whether or not the account will be accepted by stakeholders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An abstract of the article "Retailer Market Structure and Participation in Promotions: Intertype Competition in Major Metro Markets," by Robert E. Stassen, Matthew A. Waller and Henry Jin is presented.