Tokio Otsuka

A Behavioral Economic Interpretation of the Preference for Flat Rates: The Case of Post-paid Mobile Phone Services

This paper aims to empirically test the existence of a biased preference for flat rate service plans related to mobile phones, and to examine how psychological factors can affect such preferences. We define such preference as “flat-rate preference”and interpret it in terms of behavioral economic concepts. Behavioral economics, in spite of its limitations in empirical analysis, provides deeper insights into human behavior than traditional economic models since it considers psychological factors within decision-making processes and allows for irrational choices by consumers. By applying several important concepts from behavioral economics, we seek to investigate a more reasonable explanation for mobile users’ flat-rate preference. Loss aversion, reference dependence, the shape of probability weighting function, mental accounting, ambiguity aversion and cognitive dissonance are employed to examine such preference. Non-parametric methods are applied in the empirical analysis to data that was collected through an online survey in Japan. We successfully show the existence of the flat-rate preference in terms of loss aversion and reference dependence although we failed to identify the influences of the shape of the probability weighting function. The other three concepts could also be recognized as factors conducive to preference behaviors.

Cultivation effects of mass and social media on perceptions and behavioural intentions in post-disaster recovery - The case of the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake

Mass and social media have different effects on peoples perceptions of the disaster.Effects of mass media are much stronger than effects of social media.Mass media is especially influential on those who were not affected by the disaster.Social media resonates more with those who were directly affected by the disaster.The perception of bonds is the most influential on peoples behavioural intentions. Prior research has found that both mass and social media can play an influential role in post-disaster recovery. In particular, media information has been found to encourage people to support the recovery efforts. However, the mechanisms underlying this process have not been thoroughly investigated. Such knowledge is essential for both governments and non-governmental organisations so that they may apply these findings in post-disaster recovery. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to conduct an in-depth investigation on how mass and social media can influence peoples perceptions of a disaster and their behavioural intentions with respect to post-disaster recovery activities.This study uses the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake as a case study, and employs structural equation modelling with a data set of 2047 samples collected from an original Internet survey. Through the lens of cultivation theory, we find that mass and social media can play different roles and exert different influences on peoples perceptions of the disaster. Mass media, specifically television is found to be the most influential, especially on those not directly affected by the disaster. Social media, on the other hand, although with a much weaker effect, can resonate more with those who were directly affected. Further, a positive perception of strong bonds in families and society as a result of media exposure is found to be the most effective in increasing the intention to participate in activities related to recovery such as boosting civic communications, taking altruistic actions and preparing for future disasters. The findings have implications for post-disaster recovery, in that they can provide a roadmap on how information via mass and social media can be used to motivate and connect the general public and the disaster victims.

Rich information on environmental issues and the poor reflections on consumers' green actions: A behavioral economic approach

In this study, some obstacles in using information and communication technology (ICT) for public relation activities regarding environmental protection are reviewed. While there are many ways of dispersing information on environmental hazards, people may not be very responsive. In this study, we hypothesize that the obstacles to effective information dispersion can be attributed to factors such as limited memory retention, projection bias, and urgency of the problem, which are major concepts of behavioral economics. An empirical survey supports this hypothesis and emphasizes the need to overcome these obstacles in order to improve the efficiency of dispersing information on the environment.