Why buy new when one can share? Exploring collaborative consumption motivations for consumer goods

The notion of collaborative consumption or sharing economy—where consumers share access to ownership of properties such as cars, clothes and accommodations—has gained tremendous popularity in recent years. Development of communication technologies and peer‐to‐peer communities has enabled consumers to coordinate sharing activities through various online platforms. Collaborative consumption involves sharing of both intangible (e.g., music, space and car rides) and tangible assets (e.g., household items, clothes and furniture). Activities such as renting, swapping, trading and purchasing/selling used consumer goods are included in the latter. Despite increasing academic attention on collaborative consumption, little research has been pursued in the context of consumer goods. The nature of consumption for tangible goods can be entirely different from that of intangible goods because people can exercise greater control over tangible goods, which results in greater psychological ownership than that for intangible goods. To address this gap, the objective of this study is to develop a scale that examines consumer motivations for collaborative consumption of consumer goods. Following Churchill's paradigm of scale development, the procedures of scale item generation, purification and validation were conducted via in‐depth interviews, literature review and surveys. The study identified five underlying dimensions of collaborative consumption of consumer goods: concern‐for‐sustainability, social, variety‐seeking, fun and cost‐saving. Study findings and implications are discussed, and future research avenues are suggested.     

Carbon information on vegetables: How does it affect the buying process?

Information on the climate impact of a food product has practically not been communicated in Germany, even though it could provide important acknowledgement of producers’ actions in low‐carbon production. So far, carbon labelling has predominantly been discussed without taking into account German consumers’ opinions (proven by empirical data) on this issue, even though involving the consumer in the considerations of a Carbon Label is essential for its success. Especially the question, if information on the product carbon footprint is a considerable factor within the search process of a purchase decision, was of special interest in this work. To answer these questions, we analysed consumers’ information‐seeking behaviour using an information display matrix (IDM) experiment with 232 participants. The IDM is a process tracing technique which allows to track the information search in a buying process. Our results show that basically the place of origin is the most important criterion for the purchase decision, followed by price and production method (conventional/organic). In contrast, the sustainability information (i.e., carbon footprint and water consumption) are at a low level of importance. Comparing two locally produced products with the help of a multinominal logistic regression‐model, it seems that the group of consumers preferring organic products is influenced in the purchase decision by the carbon footprint information. In summary it can be stated that although some people may be basically interested in carbon labelling of fresh food, the purchase decision would probably be hardly influenced by a carbon label on vegetables at present. The majority of people are more concerned about factors like origin and price so that Carbon Labelling would only be a viable option for a small group of consumers.     

对人类消费行为的再认识

随着人口的不断增长与人类进入大规模消费的时代 ,全球资源、环境与生态问题日益突出。对于中国这个拥有 13亿人口的大国来说 ,要保证社会经济的可持续发展 ,不仅要严格地控制人口增长 ,而且还需要从经济发展、生态平衡、社会发展等多个角度重新审视我们的消费行为 ,给予消费正确的价值判断 ,并在实现可持续消费的问题上达成共识     

Human–machine trans roles conflict in the organization: How sensitive are customers to intelligent robots replacing the human workforce?

In organizations facing digital transformation, intelligent technologies are starting to replace the human workforce. At present, managers delegate tasks to an artificial agent and rarely consider the customer reception of such decisions. This arouses tensions between the main stakeholders of the organization. This paper shows that the rash adaptation of the digital workforce may be perceived as an irresponsible innovation that brings negative consequences for companies. If a task is regarded by customers as dedicated to humans, and managers delegate it to machines, a new type of conflict – human-machine trans roles conflict (HMTRC), appears. This paper intends to show that customers are sensitive to HMTRC. This research uses quantitative methods and consists of three stages. First, people were asked to indicate which tasks in an organization should be performed by (a) humans and (b) machines. According to these results, two leaflets for customers were designed (low vs. high HMTRC). In the second stage, standard procedures were used to construct a scale measuring customer reactions to HMTRC on three dimensions: cognitive, emotional and behavioural. Ultimately, the scale and two leaflets were used to check how customers react to different intensities of HMTRC. The research results show that customers are aware when HMTRC occurs and perceive it negatively (cognitive response). Moreover, it evokes negative emotions (emotional response) and prompts customers to take action against the company in which this conflict takes place (behavioural response). The practical contribution of this research is the three-dimensional scale. It may predict customers' reactions to task delegation with different intensities of HMTRC and help build a technologically sustainable organization.     

一种新的服务开发理念:可持续服务创新

随着环保和可持续发展的观念日益深入人心,环保意识和环保消费创造了新的市场需求,不仅在制造业领域,而且在服务业领域都应当重视和实践可持续发展式的经营管理。将可持续发展的思想用于服务创新理论的理念,对实施可持续服务创新具有重要意义。归纳总结可持续服务创新的主要途径,旨在引起服务业对可持续发展思想的足够重视,为实施可持续服务创新提供一定的参考。     

区域可持续发展的动态衡量与评价

本文通过对国内外可持续发展衡量方法进行简单评价 ,认为现有的衡量与评价方法主要是一种静态的方法 ,难以反映可持续发展的动态特征。本文提出了一种动态的衡量方法 ,并进行了实际的应用。     

中国居民消费的特点、影响因素以及发展趋势分析

本文采用西方相关文献分析消费问题,首先讨论中国居民的消费概况,然后用凯恩斯理论分析中国人高储蓄率、低消费率的原因,探讨消费信贷在中国的发展,并且对中国私人消费的发展趋势作出客观预测。     

基于SEAM的河南省经济可持续发展实证分析

经济可持续发展是经济发展的内在要求。运用社会生态核算矩阵对河南省近年的经济可持续发展能力进行评估,结果发现虽然该省经济可持续发展能力逐渐增强,但仍然处于偏弱的范围,存在人口、经济结构和环境资源等制约因素,并提出统一认识、优化经济结构和统筹人口、资源、环境和经济发展等政策建议。     

基于消费者预期的在线零售企业社会责任行为研究--量表开发与验证

通过文献回顾、访谈、预试和大样本调查,从消费者预期视角对我国在线零售企业社会责任行为的维度结构和测量量表进行实证研究。其中,运用筛选条目和预测试等程序初步确定在线零售企业社会责任行为的测量量表,并经由探索性因子分析与验证性因子分析发现,消费者预期的在线零售企业社会责任行为包括经济责任、消费者责任、员工责任、法律责任、公益慈善责任五个维度,其测量量表具有良好信度和效度。结果还显示,消费者最看重在线零售企业承担消费者责任,其次才是法律责任、员工责任、公益慈善责任,相对不看重经济责任。另外,不同性别、年龄、受教育程度、网购频率的消费者所预期的在线零售企业社会责任行为存在差异。     

Plastic bag politics: modifying consumer behaviour for sustainable development

The adverse environmental impacts of plastic bags, including production energy costs, limited lifespan, increasing landfill content and inability to biodegrade, provide symbolic and practical evidence of a ‘throwaway’ consumer culture which acts as a significant barrier to sustainable consumption in particular and sustainable development in general. Decoupling consumer behaviour from plastic bag use is therefore an important challenge in the pursuit of sustainable consumption as a precursor to achieving sustainable development. This article provides a critical evaluation of that challenge, set within the theoretical framework of sustainable development. It examines the adverse environmental impacts of plastic bag use and evaluates initiatives by governments and businesses internationally to change consumer behaviour regarding the use of plastic bags in line with sustainable development principles. The politics of this agenda are analysed using a combination of consumer policy and public policy perspectives. Finally, the article draws conclusions regarding the earlier analysis.