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Fifty years ago, the Federal Trade Commission stopped enforcing its fictitious reference pricing guidelines, emphasizing the search qualities of price and the belief that competition would drive out deceptive behavior. Yet this practice of posting false, inflated comparison prices alongside sale prices has proliferated. Building on prior analytic work and the documented effects of reference pricing on search behavior and consumer choice, the authors develop a descriptive model explaining why fictitious reference pricing has spread instead of being extinguished by competition. After summarizing the model with a series of generalizations, the authors consider potential regulatory solutions to the problem. They propose that disclosure of the true normal price charged may be the only solution that could plausibly influence both consumer and firm behavior. Then, based on the existing literature, interviews with practitioners and regulators, an analysis of other nations' approaches, and the results of a laboratory study of 900 consumers to examine how they integrate "true normal price" information into deal evaluations, the authors develop a set of propositions about the likely effects of requiring firms to disclose recent selling prices for goods, identifying both potential benefits and challenges associated with such a requirement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the differential impact of variances in the quality and taste comments found in online customer reviews on firm sales. Using an analytic model, the authors show that although increased variance in consumer reviews about taste mismatch normally decreases subsequent demand, it can increase demand when mean ratings are low and/or quality variance is high. In contrast, increased variance in quality always decreases subsequent demand, although this effect is moderated by the amount of variance in tastes. Since these theoretical demand effects are predicated on the assumption that consumers can differentiate between the two sources of variation in ratings, the authors conduct a survey to test this assumption, demonstrating that participants are indeed able to reliably distinguish quality from taste evaluations in two subsets of 5,000 reviews taken from larger data sets of reviews for 4,305 restaurants and 3,460 hotels. The authors use these responses to construct sets of reviews that they use in a controlled laboratory experiment on restaurant choice, finding strong support for the theoretical predictions. These responses are also used to train classifiers using a bag-of-words model to predict the degree to which each review in the larger data sets relates to quality and/or taste, allowing the authors to estimate the two types of review variances. Finally, the authors estimate the effects of these variances in overall ratings on establishment sales, again finding support for the theoretical results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Joint stiffness, lameness and reduced activity levels are common inflammatory responses observed in canines and have significant impact on quality of life (QOL). The symptoms are often ascribed to osteoarthritis (OA), for which the standard treatment is systemic anti‐inflammatories, but pharmacologic intervention can have significant short‐term and long‐term side effects. Objectives: Test the efficacy of a Food and Drug Administration (FDA)‐cleared pulsed shortwave therapy (PSWT) device as a means to modulate vagus nerve activity and initiate a systemic anti‐inflammatory response to determine its ability to improve functionality and the QOL of canines with inflammatory symptoms commonly associated with OA. Methods: A randomized, double‐blinded, placebo‐controlled 14‐day study of 60 dogs with a presumptive prior diagnosis of OA in at least one limb joint. Two outcomes assessing changes in the dog's QOL and functionality were measured: subjectively determined changes in eight behaviours associated with discomfort and objectively determined changes in passive range of motion (PROM). The device was secured near the cervico‐thoracic region of the dog's spine. PROM measures were taken at baseline and at the end of study. Behavioural measures were taken daily. Results: Forty‐nine animals completed the study. No negative side effects were reported. Average subjective discomfort scores for the treatment group (N = 26) were reduced from 3.74 to 2.10 (44%), compared to no improvement in the placebo group (N = 23) over the study period (p = 0.0001). Average PROM scores increased by 5.51 (4.59–6.23) degrees relative to the placebo group (p < 0.01). Ninety‐six per cent of the treatment group showed either increased PROM or improved behavioural changes or both, compared to 4% for the placebo group (p < 0.01). Most changes occurred within the first 8 days of treatment. Conclusions: PSWT applied at the level of the cervico‐thoracic spine to target the vagus nerve may have the potential to improve QOL in dogs manifesting behaviours commonly associated with OA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]