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William Barnett Ii, Walter E. Block
The Antimathematicality of Demand Curves
Summary:
Mathematics has proven so helpful in the physical sciences such as physics that it has been improperly applied to economics. The dismal science studies purposeful human action, while purpose in the hard sciences is properly dismissed as anthropomorphic. The present paper takes the demand curve as a case in point. It demonstrates that this tool of analysis is fundamentally flawed in that it violates its own economic assumption of ceteris paribus, and also the mathematical requirement that only the proper number of variables may vary along a given graph in two-dimensional space.
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Daniela Sotirova
Business Ethics and Economic Citizenship
Summary:
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Pavlina Peeva
Effects of the Consumer Positioning of Life Insurance Companies in Bulgaria
Summary:
Life insurance has become a contemporary topic in specialized literature, which is attracting the interest of practitioners and scientists. The life insurance market in most EU countries has been growing over the years. Despite the growth of 600% in 2017, compared to 2003, only 3% of the Bulgarian population owns life insurance, which opposes the European trends. A Western European citizen usually spends 1,188 EUR a month on life insurance products compared to a Bulgarian, who spends an average of 33.4 BGN (about 17 EUR). In this regard, the purpose of this study is to present the effects of consumer attitudes on the demand for life insurance products and on the positioning of life insurance companies in Varna. For this purpose, data were gathered using a questionnaire survey of life insurance in Varna and it was analyzed using descriptive and deductive statistical methods. The results obtained show that the demand for life insurance products is influenced by economic, psychological and socio-demographic factors, and each of these groups has specific effects on the development of life insurance products trade.
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Dimitar Trendafilov
Communication properties of brand
Summary:
The article is dedicated to brand as a communication device in marketing practice and, thence, it attempts to define in clearer manner why and how brand serves to companies’ sale objectives, and how could be used more successfully as a tool. The main thesis is that brand deserves the whole responsibility and attention of the management since in the contemporary business environment it is superb, but not one and only, instrument for taking hard-to-copy competitive advantages and it provides the much needed dialogue with consumer, who on her/his side has more and more opportunities to influence brand’s life in the market. Also the most important tasks of brand in terms of communication are listed, and by means of two diagrams its main elements and their functions are illustrated in different perspectives.
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Dimitar Trendafilov
Meme, Brand and Pop-Culture
Summary:
Being a social animal human demonstrates unusual aptitude to imitation which is peculiar to his/her ‘natural’ roots but rather, in a large extend, it is a result of the ‘cultural’ submersion. For that reason the following text makes brief review of the R. Dawkins’ theory of memes in order to apply it later to the contemporary market context and especially in terms of brands. Several examples are given concerning prominent brands as Apple, Doc Martens and some others since they build the argumentation in favor of the thesis that, in principal, brands are among the strongest memes we could encounter in culture and nowadays they take advantage of the highly intensive global communication flow via Internet. Given ideas, behavior and practices of consumption are greatly transferable at least between the limits of certain subculture networks if only there is available powerful enough mechanism to put the meme in motion.
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Nadezhda Dimova
Pop-Up Shops - the New Trend in Retail
Summary:
New trends in retail impose new paradigms and new challenges not only on marketing activity but also on business successes of companies as a whole. Sometimes online sales are not enough to meet consumer needs. A new strategic approach lies in the creation of the pop up shops. They are new, interesting, evoke emotions, create consumers a sense of expressiveness and urgency of the purchase, and at the same time provide good profits to companies that risk creating them. Only the future will show how successful the combination of traditional retail and pop stores are.
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Borislav Atanasov
Providing of Consumer Value Through the Price
Summary:
The price is an element which is present in every sale-trade. It is a source of information for the price offering of goods from the same or similar commodity groups, and it is a criterion when the different alternatives are compared and chosen. Therefore it participates in the process of creating and providing of consumer value. Different approaches of providing of value through the price, published in the literature and applicable to the retail trade are presented in the article. Based on that, the differentiated value through the price for every approach derived from the end users in the purchase process is also brought out.
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Georgi Tihomirov Lichev
Study of the Behaviour of Bulgarian Costumers in the Purchase of Sugar and Chocolate Products
Summary:
The activation of the scientific interest in the field of consumer behaviour is dictated by the immediate practical necessity on the contemporary stage. This article focuses on studying the behaviour of Bulgarian consumers in relation to the product group "sugar and chocolate products". This is based on an empirical survey conducted on consumers in Bulgaria. The effort to gain insight into the depth of consumer motivation and to work to increase satisfaction is well-founded, coupled with the gaining of competitive advantages. The complex situation of the consumer market is a prerequisite for many controversies, difficulties, challenges to which commercial enterprises should take a responsible attitude.
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Nadezhda Dimova
Contemporary Aspects of Sustainable Design of the Food Supply Chain
Summary:
The rapid development of technology and digitalisation pose a number of problems for food supply chains. Sustainability in itself is a challenge that enters all areas and in particular in business. In this sense, a special challenge is the modern aspects of sustainable design of the food supply chain, which makes managers make quick, flexible and adequate decisions. Digitalization, in turn, provides excellent conditions for the realization of the sustainable design of the food supply chain.
The article highlights and presents the modern aspects of the sustainable design of the food supply chain. The hypothesis of the need to comply with modern changes, which require the construction of a sustainable design of the food supply chain, has been proven.
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Mariana Kuteva
Theoretical and Practical Aspects of Omnichannel Retailing
Summary:
This article focuses on the essence of omnichannel retailing. The author explains the benefits of omnichannel retailing from the viewpoint of the consumers and from the viewpoint of the retailers. The claim is supported that the integration of „brick and mortar” and digital channels to reach end customers as a retail development strategy favors maintaining stable competitive positions on the market and putting new competitive advantages.
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Borislav Atanasov
Fragmentary Analysis of the Market of Fast-Moving Consumer Goods in Bulgaria
Summary:
For its purpose, the fast-moving consumer goods satisfy mainly the basic needs, and unlike the consumer durables, distinguish with relatively high frequency of consumption. Based on data of the National Statistical Institute, the change of retail sales for the period 2010-2018, the average expenditures of the households for purchasing of foods, the change of number of retail sales premises - for the country and statistical regions, the change of number of retail sales premises of the leading trade chains selling fast-moving consumer goods are presented in the article. On the basis of the author’s own researches of the consumer’s behaviour when they purchase fast-moving consumer goods, a comparative analysis through one-dimensional frequency distributions is made and trends of consumers’ behaviour during the purchase are brought out.
