What do we know about consumers' ontological security in disaster scenarios?

While prior consumer studies have adopted various theoretical perspectives to explain individuals' reactions to disasters, scant attention has been paid to the role of ontological security in shaping those responses. This study attempts to fill this knowledge gap by qualitatively exploring ontological security in two contexts: man-made and natural disasters. To this end, we conducted 35 focus groups in the UK, Germany, and France to address how people reacted to terrorist attacks and the COVID-19 pandemic respectively. Through thematic analysis, three themes emerged: fear versus anxiety, oneself versus others, and materialistic versus experiential purchases. Man-made disasters appear to elicit fear, concern for self, and a preference for materialistic purchases, whereas natural disasters seem to trigger anxiety, concern for others, and a preference for experiential purchases. Both types of disasters seem to evoke a desire to escape from reality. In closing, we discuss both transitory and prolonged threats to ontological security and how they shape individuals' behaviours while restoring their security.     

Trade Liberalisation and Poverty: What are the Links?

This paper asks whether a developing country's own trade liberalisation could translate into increased poverty, and what information would be required to identify whether it will do so. It plots the channels through which such effects might operate, identifying the static effects via four broad groups of institutions – households, distribution channels, factor markets and government – and the dynamic issues of volatility, long–term economic growth, and short–term adjustment stresses. An increase in the price of something a household sells (labour, good, service) increases its welfare. Thus, the paper first explores the likely effects of trade liberalisation on the prices of goods and services, taking into account the distribution sector. Also critical is whether trade reform creates or destroys markets. Trade reform is also likely to affects factor prices – of which the wages of the unskilled is the most important for poverty purposes. If reform boosts the demand for labour–intensive products, it boosts the demand for labour and wages and/or employment will increase. However, not all developing countries are relatively abundant in unskilled labour and trade can boost demand for semi–skilled rather than unskilled, labour. Hence poverty alleviation is not guaranteed. Trade reform can affect tariff revenue, but much less frequently and adversely than is popularly imagined. Even if it does, it is a political decision, not a law of nature, that the poor should suffer the resulting new taxes or cuts in government expenditure. Opening up the economy can reduce risk and variability because world markets are usually more stable than domestic ones. But sometimes it will increase them because stabilisation schemes are undermined or because residents switch to riskier activities. The non–poor can generally tide themselves over adjustment shocks from a liberalisation, so public policy should focus on whether the initially poor and near temporary, setbacks. The key to sustained poverty alleviation is economic growth. There is little reason to fear that growth will not boost the incomes of the poor. Similarly, while the argument that openness stimulates long–run growth has still not been completely proven, there is every presumption that it will.     

What about sustainability? Understanding consumers' conceptual representations through free word association

The United Nations (UN) conceptualizes sustainability as development that meets the current needs of the planet's populations, but without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Although the concept of sustainability has been widely discussed in the international political agendas, inconsistent interpretation and ambiguity of the concept by consumers is observed. In this paper, the understanding of the term sustainability amongst Brazilian consumers is reported. Using the word association projective technique, the participants were asked to write down all the words that came to their mind when thinking about “sustainability.” Thematic content analysis was performed by grouping words by similarity of meaning in categories, which were further submitted to correspondence analysis (CA) to create a perceptual map. Brazilian consumers made different associations reflecting the complexity and multidimensionality of the concept amongst different groups of consumers. The most frequently cited categories are related to environment, health and nutrition, behaviour, production and economy and sustenance. CA accounted for 76.7% of the data variance and the perceptual map evidenced that younger individuals with higher education made associations with categories related to the current concept of sustainable development, similar to that proposed by UN. Moreover, consumers with basic education were associated with categories related to food and sustenance. The findings of this study can contribute to the formulation of education strategies directed towards different social groups, besides directing further research on consumer behaviour.     

Predicting consumers' reactions to product failure: Do responsibility judgments follow from consumers' causal explanations?

Recent research in psychology suggests that people's causal attributions for an occurrence may not reflect the entirety of their beliefs about how the event transpired but rather which subset of this information has explanatory relevance given the context of the causal question. The present research examines the implications of this proposition for causal judgments about product failure and manufacturer responsibility. An experiment is presented which shows that consumers' attributions for product failure — to manufacturer-related vs. consumer-related factors — may vary with the causal background or reference case against which the occurrence is considered. These findings are discussed in light of previous research in marketing which suggests responsibility judgments should be related to the locus of consumers' attributions.     

Hotel guest satisfaction among business travelers: What are the important factors?

In their quest for improved quality, hospitality industry managers often face two major obstacles: (1) They do not know what aspects the guest considers to be important when evaluating the hotel experience, and (2) they do not have reliable and valid instruments for measuring quality perceptions. The objective of this study was to examine both of these obstacles. By employing LISREL analysis to two alternative models of hotel guest satisfaction, we found that the majority of variation in overall satisfaction can be explained by the intangible and tangible dimensions of three departments of the hotel: reception, the housekeeping department, and the food and beverage department. Further, tangible aspects of the housekeeping department and intangible aspects of reception were found to have the strongest effect on overall satisfaction. This calls for a more focused approach to service quality management than the total quality management literature generally recommends. Managers are advised to concentrate attention and resources on the aspects that have the highest importance for obtaining overall satisfaction. Because of the small amount of research in this area, the study must be regarded as preliminary and exploratory. Recommendations for further research are presented.     

What are the functions of corporate home pages?

Researchers have identified a number of functions performed by corporate home pages on the World Wide Web. Although commerce and marketing functions are growing, they may be of minor importance in the evolving Internet strategies of corporations. The research presented here examined the functions of corporate home pages in the United States, Germany, and Japan, guided by theories in management studies and communications technology research. Results suggest that image creation rather than marketing, cost control, stakeholder relations, or disclosure is the major function of corporate home pages in each of the countries studied. This raises the question of why image creation is so important.     

What should we call this color? The influence of color-naming on consumers' attitude toward the product

Many companies use unique color names to differentiate products, attract consumer attention, and promote sales. This study categorizes the names of colors in detail, and uses schema incongruity and affect regulation theory to elucidate the effects of color names with different typicality and ambiguity. We identify the underlying mechanism and explore how color attribute importance and color name valence moderate the effects of the color name. The results of five studies show the following: (a) atypical-low ambiguity color names (vs. atypical-high ambiguity and typical color names) create a more favorable consumer attitude toward the product; (b) when color is the primary attribute of the product, typical color names are more effective; when color is a secondary attribute, atypical color names yield more favorable effects; (c) for positively-valenced color names, an atypical-low ambiguity naming method yields a better response, while for negatively-valenced color names, an atypical-high ambiguity naming method yields a more favorable response; and (d) the color-naming effects are mediated by perceived product uniqueness or playfulness, depending on different conditions.     

Anti‐dumping: What are the Numbers to Discuss at Doha?

While tariff barriers have decreased worldwide through various GATT rounds, anti‐dumping has surged to play a crucial role as the most important non‐tariff barrier. After much debate and opposition, anti‐dumping is on the agenda of the Doha round of multilateral trade negotiations and it is one of the most important issues, especially for developing countries as they are the main targets of this policy instrument. With this prospect, it is important to assess the relevance of anti‐dumping not only by focusing on traditional users but by analysing the experience of new users, which are now major players in the field. This paper improves upon existing studies by providing a comprehensive assessment on the use of anti‐dumping. First, data on the time pattern of worldwide implementations of anti‐dumping laws are presented. This time profile shows interesting relationships with legal developments in GATT and WTO dispositions. Second, usual sources of data are complemented with various other sources. This allows the inclusion of recent heavy users like China, Russia, Taiwan and Ukraine, which are ignored in similar studies but important for their trade volumes. This enlarged and updated dataset shows that new users are even more important than previously thought, with implications for the Doha negotiations.     

Guilt online vs. offline: What are its consequences on consumer behavior?

Although various consumption episodes, types of products, and dimensions of guilt have been examined in previous studies, the existing literature has not addressed whether guilt could arise differently depending on the purchase channel (online versus in-store). This research thus investigates the effect of the purchase channel on consumer's guilt and the consequences of that guilt on consumer's anticipated satisfaction. Two experiments conducted in different contexts show that perceived value moderates the relationship between the purchase channel and guilt. Further, we demonstrate that perceived value is also a moderator of the mediating effect of guilt in the influence of the purchase channel on anticipated satisfaction.     

What drives customer loyalty in grocery retail? Exploring shoppers' perceptions through associative networks

Mental associations play a key role in shaping customer-brand relationships and are critical to the development of favourable attitudes and emotional attachment towards a brand. By exploring shoppers’ knowledge structures, this study identifies what drivers of customer loyalty are more relevant to customers in the context of grocery retail. A mix-method study on shoppers’ perceptions and values associated to their most patronised grocery store is presented. Through focus group discussions, concept maps and associative network analysis, three types of associations are identified: functional, relational and premium store associations. Salience and relationships among these dimensions are also discussed.     

What kind of donor are you? Uncovering complexity in donor identity

Identity is a useful lens to understand donation behavior. However, studies have typically conceptualized and examined donor identity as a generic, unidimensional concept. Through in‐depth interviews with 52 blood donors, this study sets out to discover if there is more complexity to donor identity, and what implications this might have for marketing communications, in the context of donation of the self (e.g., blood, organs, time, and effort). We use sentiment polarity and amplification analysis of inductive themes to uncover distinct patterns reflective of four different donor identities. We label these the Savior, Communitarian, Pragmatist, and Elitist, which are underpinned by theories of gift‐giving, sharing, pragmatism, and signaling, respectively. The typology offers a theory‐building mechanism to anticipate the effects of marketing stimuli on donation behavior. We conclude by presenting four theoretical propositions, for which we provide preliminary empirical evidence. The survey data is suggestive of action readiness for donation behavior when a marketing communication message is aligned with its intended donor identity.     

Inequality in Europe: What can be done? What should be done?

As economic inequality in Europe has continued to rise, it has become the subject of increasing academic attention. What are the drivers of inequality? How does it affect intergenerational economic and social mobility? At what point does inequality become a drag on economic growth or a threat to social order? What economic policy tools are available to reduce inequality? This Forum addresses these and other aspects of this complex and disturbing trend. Case studies of Ireland, Germany and Spain also highlight the impact of economic inequality on individual member states.     

Ethics in Nanotechnology: What’s Being Done? What’s Missing?

Nanotechnology shows great promise in a variety of applications with attractive economic and societal benefits. However, societal issues associated with nanotechnology are still a concern to the general public. While numerous technological advancements in nanotechnology have been achieved over the past decade, research into the broader societal issues of nanotechnology is still in its early phases. Based on the data from the Web of Science database, we applied the main path analysis, cluster analysis and text mining tools to explore the main research fronts and hierarchical structure of these societal issues. We found that the research studies fell into four categories: “General Toxicity and EHS (Environment, Health and Safety),” “Medicine and Cytotoxicity,” “Assessment and Regulation,” and “Environment and Ecotoxicity.” These research studies have disclosed much information about the potential effect of nanotechnology on public health and the environment. Relatively speaking, the studies on the assessment, regulation, preventive solutions, and environmental protection are just emerging. This finding indicates that an abundance of effort should be conducted on these emerging themes to maximize the benefits of nanotechnology while minimizing its potential harm. The implications for various parties in this domain are also presented.     

Employing brand governance mechanisms with export channel partners: What are the performance consequences and contingent effects?

For decades leading international business scholars have assessed the benefits accruing from successful governance mechanisms. Although the critical importance of initiating and maintaining good relationships with export channel partners is recognized within the literature, there has been little research focus placed on the optimal approach for governing intangible aspects of these relationships. We offer the first integrated definition of export brand governance of channel partners (EBGoCP) and investigate its influence on export performance. Drawing from relational governance theory and contingency theory, we develop and test a model of the contingent effects of different country specific advantages and firm characteristics on the performance upshots of EBGoCP. Using survey data from UK exporters, our findings validate the hypothesized enhancing effects of EBGoCP on export performance outcomes. Furthermore, consistent with our contingency based predictions, we find country-of-origin-image, firm size and scope of exporting moderate the impact of EBGoCP on export performance. Along with providing fresh insights from the results, this study opens up a new stream of international business governance research and offers productive future research paths to follow.