Pick a card: Price ranges and gift card choice

Gift cards are wildly popular with consumers. Vast assortments of gift cards are available at many regional and national retail stores (e.g., grocery, convenience, home improvement). The present research examines consumer reactions to price range amounts displayed on gift cards (e.g., $20-$100; $25-$250). Commonly affixed to gift cards to convey possible purchase loads, price ranges appear to serve as contextual information for a desired purchase load as a gift that can affect beliefs about the recipient's views of the gift card i.e., metaperceptions. Specifically, these metaperceptions tend to be more negative for a gift card displaying a price range when the desired purchase load is the lower bound rather than the upper bound. These beliefs can, in turn, affect gift card choice, but only when social risk is applicable. Four studies provide support for the theory.     

Consumer knowledge of the world wide web: Conceptualization and measurement

User‐directed technologies such as the Web are becoming more prevalent. To understand the usage of these technologies the characteristics of users need to be studied. The focus here is on one user characteristic: consumer knowledge content. Based on qualitative and quantitative analyses, four scales are developed to measure common declarative, common procedural, specialized declarative, and specialized procedural knowledge content of the Web. In addition, an illustration is provided to show how these scales might be used for segmenting consumers. The procedures used may be of value in a wide range of studies where the focus is on investigating users of user‐directed electronic technologies. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

A model of consumer information search and online network externalities

This article looks at a consumer who faces a choice between two sources of information: conventional and online. The online source is different from the conventional one because consumers care about how many people are using it along with them. Generally, the more users the better (positive network externality), but, on the other hand, the presence of more users implies a reduction of available capacity, about which consumers also care. We assume that consumers maximize their utility, which is modeled as a function of all other consumption, knowledge, and network externalities. Knowledge is conceptualized as a function of the amount of information spent both on the online network and on conventional sources. Since consumer information searches may differ according to demographic differences, this may result in consumers’ differences in their usage of online networks and conventional sources. We include these externalities in our model to better understand consumer choice behavior for the online network. The consumer utility function is estimated by using the model estimation method developed in this article, since the interactions implied by the consumer utility function are more complex than one could hope to estimate econometrically. We use survey data to regress the demand for online information depending on income, education, the number of users, and remaining capacity. We introduce a methodology to simulate how consumers’ representative utilities will behave in different network environments and derive implications for online network suppliers.     

Competent consumers? Consumer competence profiles in Norway

Consumer competence is increasingly important in today’s commercialized society. This paper refers to some main findings from a national representative survey on consumer competences and practices in Norway. To be a competent consumer, it is decisive to be informed about products and to be familiar with how markets function. In this paper, consumers’ self‐reported efforts to keep themselves informed about specific markets is treated as an indicator of consumer competence. First, the results indicate that Norwegian consumers’ competence, according to their own judgement, is rather mediocre. Second, different groups of consumers seem to have different consumer competence profiles. Accordingly, we find that some consumers are price‐conscious in their daily purchases, others are price‐conscious when they make their yearly dispositions in the financial markets, while a third group is community‐oriented and active in the environmentally friendly and ethical product markets. Third, the analysis indicates that consumer competence is an important indicator of how market‐rational and reflective consumers’ choices and practices are.     

Consumer Network Wales

The Welsh Consumer Council launched its online interactive consumer network in July 2001 with the aim of linking up individual consumers across the country, stimulating discussion and debate on consumer issues and strengthening the voice of consumers in Wales. By October 2002, the network had recruited 300 members. The Council aims to reach a membership of 1000 by 2004. As well as individual consumers, the network has recruited 34 voluntary and community organisations that are committed to working with the Council to ensure that disadvantaged consumers without home Internet access can participate in the network At the heart of the network is a bilingual discussion area within the Council's one‐stop consumer information website where members can post their views, comments and observations on any consumer issue that concerns them. Over the past year, lively discussions have developed on subjects as diverse as IT and electronic communications, customer call centres, recycling, money‐making schemes and energy saving in the home. Early in 2002, the network began to run regular online surveys on topical consumer issues. The first survey asked about members’ experiences of returning goods and their knowledge of consumer rights. The second asked about members’ attitudes to recycling and reducing waste. Both surveys received a high level of response and provided valuable and up to date information on the experiences and views of consumers from all parts of Wales on these important issues. The continuing expansion of the consumer network is central to the Council work in helping to foster a consumer movement in Wales which is informed, responsible, demanding and assertive.     

Consumer Willingness-to-Pay for Food Safety in Taiwan: A Binary-Ordinal Probit Model of Analysis

A probit model for whether or not consumers are willing to pay a premium for hydroponically grown vegetables (HGV) is estimated jointly with an ordered probit model analyzing the magnitude of such premiums for consumers who would pay them. Results of the joint estimation and the conventional single equation ordered probit model were presented for comparison. Unlike the single equation approach, the joint estimation allows the flexibility of parameterizing separately the probability and level of premiums that a consumer is willing to pay for a safer food. The results show that family health status and household income are the most important and significant factors that determine the amount of premium a consumer is willing to pay for HGV. However, they are insignificant in predicting the likelihood of a consumer's willingness-to-pay a higher price. In addition, marginal probabilities were calculated to assess the influence of various socioeconomic and attitudinal variables on the likelihood that a consumer would be willing to pay a premium for HGV and the additional amount of premiums.     

Culture and Consumer Ethics

Disparity in consumer ethics reflects cultural variations; these are differences in the collective programming of the mind that distinguishes one culture from another. This study explores the differences in consumer ethics across cultural dimensions using Hofstede??s (in Culture??s consequences: international differences in work-related values, Sage, Beverly Hills, 1980) model (collectivism, masculinity, power distance, and uncertainty avoidance) and Muncy and Vitell (in J Bus Res 24(4):297?C311, 1992) consumer ethics model (i.e., illegal, active, passive, and no harm). This is the first study to empirically explore consumer ethics using these two major constructs. Seven hundred sixty one African American consumers were used to test the four major hypotheses developed in this study. Current research has revealed that there are significant differences in ethics between consumers who score high and consumers who score low on Hofstede??s four cultural dimensions. In general, this research revealed that consumers who score high on collectivism, high on uncertainty avoidance, low on masculinity, and low on power distance scales reject questionable activities more than consumers who score low on collectivism, low on uncertainty avoidance, high on masculinity, and high on power distance. This study should prove valuable to international marketers because the Hofstede cultural model allows managers to identify differences in consumer ethics across different cultures and thus provides a theoretical base for designing effective marketing strategies.     

Surrogate Money Managers in the 1990s: Marketing Strategy for Financial Services Retailers

This paper presents a study of financial surrogate usage among adult consumers. A scale to discriminate between heavy users and non-users the Desire for Financial Surrogacy Scale (DFSS) is developed and tested in a mail survey. Financial surrogacy usage is found significantly associated with biological sex, income, degree of financial opinion leadership, but not significantly associated with need for financial control, anxiety about money management, and risk-aversiveness. The DFSS is found to be the best discriminator between user groups. Marketing implicatiom of increased knowledge of who heavy users are and what they want are discussed in reference to new consumer segments, product innovation, and promotion.     

Consumer Focus in Cross-National Research

This article points out the need for a consumer focus in cross-national research to aid multi-national marketers in developing relevant strategies and executions for each market. Two major constructs are discussed which reinforce the consumer focus. The first construct is “Life Style” research to gain a more human profile of consumers in a market. The underlying theory for “Life Style” research is presented and how the research has been done in over fourteen countries is described. The second major construct in this article are three analytic models for comparing consumers across markets. The three analytic models are (1) Shared cultural norms (2) Segmentation within cultures and (3) Correlates of usage. Illustrative findings of each model are presented.     

Consumer multihoming predisposition on food platforms: Does gender matter?

Although food platforms are witnessing greater competition and shrinking margins in emerging markets, consumer multihoming remains an underexplored phenomenon. Previous studies highlight the inverse relationship between consumers' commitment to service providers and their multihoming behaviour. Also, behavioural studies confirm the relationship between consumers' commitment and gender. In this vein, we ask a fundamental question: whether gender is associated with user multihoming predisposition? Based on the questionnaire survey of 493 food platform users and the Kruskal–Wallis H (K–W–H) analysis used, we establish a direct association between gender and multihoming. The probit analysis suggests higher multihoming promiscuousness among male consumers than among female consumers. Moreover, we conclude that the frequency of platform usage positively affects multihoming behaviour among female consumers, while education affects multihoming in males. The study thus builds upon existing food platform literature and provides an epistemological connection between gender and multihoming. Further, it outlines strategies that platform firms can use to restrain their clientele from multihoming.     

消费信用与消费者破产研究

消费信用与消费者破产之间存在密切的联系。进入消费者破产程序的消费者必然有无法偿还的债务,而消费者只有接受了消费信用,才可能成为债务人,因此,消费信用是消费者破产的根本原因。消费信用越容易获得,消费者过度负债的可能性就越高,相应地,消费者对宽松的消费者破产制度的需求就越强烈。从消费市场的繁荣程度和消费者破产数量的关系来看,二者是成正比关系的。消费者破产制度作为消费信用的回收制度将影响消费信用的供给与需求,促进信用体系的建设。消费信用在我国进入快速发展时代,从控制社会危机的角度来看,消费者破产制度的建立已经迫在眉睫。     

Consumer complaints and redress: an important mechanism for protecting and empowering consumers1

This paper explores a consumer complaint programme as a tool for empowering consumers, using the consumer complaint programme of a United States federal agency as a case study. After describing the structure and role of the Federal Reserve System (the central bank of the United States) in handling complaints, the paper follows a complaint through the System, looks at trends in complaints and provides a profile of consumers who complain. The paper concludes with information on the economic impact of complaint resolution and consumer satisfaction with third‐party complaint investigation.     

Entrepreneurial Orientation and Service Innovation on Consumer Response: A B&B Case

Extant studies have documented the effect of entrepreneurial orientation (EO) and innovation performance on firm‐level outcomes. However, the underlying mechanisms of the specific aspects of EO (i.e., autonomy, risk‐taking, and proactiveness) and innovative performance affecting consumer‐level responses remain unexplored. A total of 401 dyadic sample data were collected from both bed‐and‐breakfast (B&B) innkeepers and corresponding consumers. We used structural equation modeling to test the research framework and hypotheses. The statistically significant paths extended from risk‐taking and proactiveness to service innovation performance, then to consumer‐perceived service value and consumer satisfaction, and finally to repatronage intentions. To retain consumers, B&B innkeepers must enhance service innovation performance by reshaping their risk‐taking and proactiveness.     

Consumer spirituality

ABSTRACT

Consumers increasingly turn to the marketplace in search of spiritual well-being. In this introduction to the special issue, we unpack the concept of consumer spirituality. We define consumer spirituality as the interrelated practices and processes engaged in when consuming market offerings (products, services, places) that yield 'spiritual utility'. The market offerings are purposely designed to quench consumers’ thirst for meaningful encounters with one’s inner self or a higher external power. We identify three vehicles – materiality, embodiment, and technology – that consumers engage with to access consumer spirituality. By unpacking the concept of consumer spirituality along three themes - (1) shaping markets for consumer spirituality, (2) the means for accessing consumer spirituality, and (3) making sense of and researching consumer spirituality - we provide a future research agenda to advance scholarly explorations of consumer spirituality and to facilitate a systematic development of this nascent body of literature in marketing and consumer research.     

Consumer fraud and Latino immigrant consumers in the United States

Disadvantaged consumers are often the victims of consumer fraud; low‐income Latino a immigrants are especially likely to be victims due to their lack of English proficiency and inexperience in the local marketplace. A qualitative research study using purposeful sampling was conducted to identify areas of consumer fraud experienced by 45 Latino immigrants. Types of unscrupulous practices are identified, including sales of automobiles, prepaid telephone cards and counterfeit documents. Problems with fraud are discussed in terms of a model of disadvantaged consumers and implications for education are suggested to counteract the identified problems.     

Consumer trust relations with payment cards and banks: an exploratory study

The article focuses on the ways in which consumer complaints reflect the trust relationship between consumers, payment cards and banks from the consumers' point of view. The empirical data consist of consumer complaints from Finland and are analysed with qualitative method. The data show that consumers use payment cards in various places for different purposes at home and abroad at least until something unexpected and problematic happens. According to the consumer complaints, in problem situations, the banks blame the consumers and categorically deny their responsibility. Negligence on the part of the consumers and questions concerning technology are the major reason for distrust concerning the reliability of payment cards. These findings provide bases for practical guidelines to increase trust in payment cards and, finally, implications for consumer education are discussed.     

Consumer Awareness of the Legal Obligations of Funeral Providers

The results from a consumer survey that examined consumer knowledge of some parameters of the Funeral Rule are presented. Currently, all funeral home activities are regulated under the Funeral Industry Practices Rule of the Federal Trade Commission. The rule is premised on the assumption that it is difficult for consumers to make careful, informed purchase decisions in at‐need situations because of emotional stress, time pressure, and lack of familiarity with available goods and services. However, limited research has assessed how much consumers know about the legal obligations of funeral providers as provided for by the Funeral Rule. Implications for consumer protection and policy are discussed.     

Consumer willingness to pay for sustainable apparel: the influence of labelling for fibre origin and production methods

This study of value‐based labelling for apparel products examined consumer willingness to pay (WTP) for three credence attributes of fibre: origin, type and production method. Experimental auctions were conducted with student subjects in Texas and used socks made from cotton and polylactic acid (PLA), a fibre manufactured from corn. The bid results of two rounds were compared. The first round was conducted without information about the credence attributes of the socks. The second round included varying levels of three types of attributes: fibre origin (imported, US and Texas), fibre type (cotton and corn) and production method [conventional, organic and non‐genetically modified (GM)]. Tobit regression analysis was performed using the attributes and subject demographics to determine consumer WTP for the various attribute levels and to profile consumers with interest in the attributes. In terms of origin, results show that participants were willing to pay a premium for socks with fibres produced in Texas, but not for those produced in the US. Fibre type mattered, with participants requiring a discount once they learned that socks were made with PLA fibre. The greatest premium ($1.86) was placed on socks labelled as organic, slightly more than the premium for socks labelled as non‐GM. The results also indicate that women were less willing to pay for US fibres than men, and Hispanics were less willing to pay for organic or non‐GM fibre production. A key finding of this study is that consumers value information about the local origin of fibres. The premium for organic fibres is not unexpected, given the success of the organic apparel market, but the premium on non‐GM fibres suggests that sustainable production systems that are not organic may be successful if they emphasize other attributes such as local or non‐GM.     

Consumer attitude toward US versus domestic apparel in Taiwan

This study investigates whether or not consumer attitudes toward domestic‐ vs. US‐made apparel differ among consumers in Taiwan. Variables to be examined include (1) apparel attributes; (2) self‐concept; and (3) demographics. The Fishbein attitude model was used to measure consumer attitudes. The mall‐intercept method was used to collect most data in four major cities of Taiwan. A total of 485 Taiwanese consumers completed and returned useable questionnaires. Results indicated that consumer attitudes toward Taiwan vs. US‐made apparel differed significantly among consumers in Taiwan. Consumers had an overall more positive attitude towards US‐made apparel compared with Taiwan‐made apparel with regards to care instruction label, colour, quality, apparel fibre content, fashionableness, attractiveness, brand name, and comfort apparel attributes. For self‐concept variables only modest/vain and thrifty/indulgent had a significant difference between consumers who preferred US‐ over Taiwan‐made apparel. Demographic factors of age, gender, education, residence area, travelled abroad and country‐of‐origin preference had a significant relationship with consumer attitudes toward apparel. This study is aimed at understanding Taiwanese consumers’ attitudes toward foreign‐made apparel. Overall, Taiwanese consumers preferred US‐made apparel; however, the apparel attribute of size range needed improvement to increase customers’ satisfaction.     

Consumers as innovators in the electricity sector? Consumer perceptions on smart grid services

This article assesses the possibilities of using consumer innovation in the electricity sector, which is slow‐moving, yet faced with huge challenges and opportunities to become “smart” and “low carbon.” We study the benefits of engaging innovative consumers (“lead users”) in product, service, and business innovation in terms of (a) the capacity of lead user‐consumers to innovate in the highly regulated electricity market, (b) the attractiveness of such lead‐user generated ideas for mainstream consumers, (c) the usefulness of lead‐user engagement for companies in the energy industry, and (d) the usefulness of lead user engagement for the necessary broader societal transition processes. We conclude that consumers can stimulate industry‐wide innovation even in challenging contexts like “smart” and “low‐carbon” solutions and the highly regulated energy industry. Lead user‐consumers can also articulate societal and social responsibility concerns that are relevant for the entire market.