Determinants of online food purchasing: The impact of socio-demographic and situational factors

The amount of food sold online is increasing, but it accounts for a small share of total e-commerce. In this study, we investigate the factors that influence individuals' likelihood to buy food online. Applying a logit model to a sample of 34,488 respondents who participated in the Italian National Institute of Statistics multipurpose survey ‘Aspects of Italian Daily Life’, we explore the effects of socio-demographics and situational factors. We found that the food-online consumer is likely to be a young, well-educated, female, living in a small family, with a very good or adequate overall economic condition. Among situational factors, working time, being obese, having health problems, and practising a sport regularly positively affect the probability to buy food online. Surprisingly, distance from brick-and-mortar stores and car possession are not predictors of online shopping. These findings can support marketers and retailers in defining their marketing strategies and enhance the knowledge of this emerging food market.     

Investigating the role of enduring and situational involvement with the program context on advertising effectiveness

Although the effect of involvement with the program context is often cited as a key element in advertising processing, there is no consistent view concerning its role. This study attempts to clarify this point by proposing a conceptual model for the determinants of advertising effectiveness in televised sporting events that incorporates both enduring and situational involvement factors. The results of this study reveal that enduring involvement is directly and indirectly, through situational involvement, associated with advertising effectiveness. Moreover, the findings show that individual factors of enduring and situational involvement operate differently and play a distinct role in affecting the nature of advertising processing. Overall, this study suggests that involvement with the program context should be conceptualized as a function of both enduring factors and situational states, and contrary to previous assertions advertisers should not be deterred from placing commercials in involving programs.     

Shopping patterns: An exploration of some situational determinants

Given the importance of specific behaviors, particularly choice behaviors, to marketing decisions, researchers have focused much of their attention on investigating determinants of choice behavior. Broader units of analysis, namely patterns of consumer behaviors, however, may also be useful in shaping marketing strategy. In fact, some research demonstrates that definite consumer shopping patterns exist. The present study goes beyond previous research by investigating the situational influences of time pressure and gift/self shopping on prestore and store visit shopping patterns.     

Panic buying: The effect of thinking style and situational ambiguity

This paper examines the direct effect of thinking style and situational ambiguity on the panic behavior model as well as the moderating effect of information overload. A total of 255 responses were collected from QUALTRICS, but only 139 were found to be useable for further analysis. A Smart-PLS software was used for data analysis. Based on the results, it was found that situational ambiguity and the judicative thinking style increase perceived risk. In turn, perceived risk and situational ambiguity were found to be responsible for generating panic buying. In contrast, executive and legislative thinking styles were found to have no significant effect on perceived risk. Finally, information overload was found to moderate the relationship between situational ambiguity and panic buying, but not the relationship between perceived risk and panic buying. This study proposes and tests a model of panic buying and contributes to the theoretical knowledge as well as offering clear avenues for future research and suggesting managerial best practices.     

Understanding the role of situational factors on online grocery shopping among older adults

This paper seeks to identify the situational factors that drive the adoption of online grocery shopping among older adults. A two-step research process is employed. First, exploratory qualitative research is carried out to identify situational factors that older adults take into account when deciding whether to buy groceries online. This is followed by a conjoint experiment to determine which situational factors are considered most important when making such a decision. The sample consisted of 9 participants in the in-depth individual interviews and 206 respondents in the conjoint experiment. The findings indicate that health, mobility issues, and distance to a store are the most important situational factors driving older adults to buy groceries online. Moreover, the findings confirm that the adoption of online grocery shopping among older adults is a result of a complex trade-off of situational variables. The findings contribute to managerial practice by providing online grocery retailers with insight that can be applied when designing promotional programs targeted at older adults.     

The interplay of culture and situational cues in consumers' brand evaluation

This research examines the effects of situational cues in consumers' brand evaluation; more importantly, this relationship is explored across the US and Korean cultures. The findings suggest that consumers prefer brands with personality traits that are congruent with the social situations. Furthermore, as predicted, this brand‐situation congruity, for which brand preference increases when the social situational cues are congruent vs. incongruent with the brand personality, is stronger among Korean vs. American subjects.     

'One brand,three ways to shop': situational variables and multichannel consumer behaviour

To counter the growth in online retailing, high street retailers are increasingly adopting multichannel distribution strategies, seeking to target individual consumers via both physical and electronic channels as multiple routes to purchase. In order to develop successful marketing strategies within this environment, however, an understanding of consumer selection between available purchase channels is clearly needed. This paper explores the issue of shopping mode selection from an environmental psychology perspective, applying a traditional Belkian analysis of situational variables in a longitudinal study of consumer channel selection decisions. Preliminary findings from an empirical study of consumers of a leading UK fashion retailer are reported which reveal significant differences in the prevalence of different Belkian variables between shopping modes, suggesting a major role for situational influence during the channel selection process.     

Segmentation and market structure when both consumer and situational characteristics are explanatory

This article addresses the problem of exploring data for useful segments (and subsequently, market structure) in markets in which demand is a function of both consumer and situational characteristics. Current exploratory segmentation methods use either persons or situations as the unit of analysis, but not both. Yet choice and needs are frequently an unknown function of both personal characteristics and situational characteristics. Under these conditions of unknown strength of sources of influence, it may be advantageous to explore data. To allow the fruitful use of data exploration, we propose the use of a unit of analysis we call the person-in-situation, sampling of these units from their population, segmentation of these units with respect to choices, and the post-hoc exploration of such segments for regularities in individual and situational characteristics.     

Consumer Motivations and Buying Behavior: The Case of the Local Food System Movement

The significant attention and growth surrounding sustainable foods has created a demand for research investigating different factors that can aid in predicting and explaining consumer behavior. This article utilized an attitude-behavior framework, the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), to identify factors that might influence consumer valuation of organic, fair trade, and local labeled food. Approximately 1,000 consumers from a 2008 nationwide survey were used in data analyses. Some TPB determinants proved successful in understanding consumer motivations (behavioral control, social norms). These results can be used by a wide variety of food marketers to connect with consumers to promote effective marketing strategies of sustainable food products     

Money resources,time demands,and situational factors as predictors of shopping time

Shopping is a major household activity; time spent shopping has opportunity costs. Linder proposed that, as income rose, time would be allocated away from shopping to more productive activities, resulting in purchase deciriom being made with less information. This paper tests money resources, time demands and situational and demographic factors as predictors of shopping time. Data from 420 family time schedules and accompanying questionnaires were analysed using Tobit analysis. Findings indicated that situational factors were the best predictors of shopping time; money resources and time-demand factors had limited predictive power; and time allocated to shopping was quite inelastic. Conclusions and implications are drawn.     

Estimation of posterior probabilities of consumer situational choices with neural network classifiers

This study shows how neural networks can be used to estimate the posterior probabilities in a consumer choice situation. We provide the theoretical basis for its use and illustrate the entire neural network modeling procedure with a situational choice data set from AT&T. Our findings supported the appropriateness of this application and clearly illustrate the nonlinear modeling capability of neural networks. The posterior probability estimates clearly add to the usefulness of the technique for marketing research.     

Ethnic identity,socialization factors,and culture‐specific consumption behavior

This study is designed to discover the degree to which ethnic identity and socialization factors influence the culture‐specific consumption behaviors of Asian American young adults, in general as well as in specific situational settings. Findings indicated that perceived parental cultural identification tended to strengthen the ethnic identity, which in turn influenced Asian American young adults' culture‐specific consumption behaviors. However, although their perceived parental acculturation level had no effect on their ethnic identity, it directly weakened the subject group's culture‐specific consumption behaviors. The ethnic‐friendship orientation was found not only to influence ethnic identity but also to influence directly the group's culture‐specific consumption behavior. Further analysis revealed that a situational factor (i.e., the presence or absence of ethnic friends) influenced culture‐specific consumption behavior, regardless of the strength of ethnic identity. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

The Impact of Public Policy on Social and Moral Norms: Some Examples

Social and moral norms may be required for a sustainable development of private consumption patterns. But how can public policy influence norm-motivated consumer behaviour? Based on a recent research project two possible mechanisms for such influence are outlined. The first focuses on behaviour motivated by social approval or disapproval; in such cases, policy can sometimes lead the economy into, or out of, "good" or "vicious" circles, with potentially dramatic consequences for aggregate behaviour. The second mechanism relates to internalized moral motivation; in this case, policy may affect consumers' perception of what morally responsible behaviour means. Explicit inclusion of such mechanisms can change the predictions from economic models in important ways; however, results may depend crucially on whether norms are enforced by social approval or through internalized self-sanctioning. Survey data on considerate smoking behaviour, recycling of household waste, and voluntary community work support several assumptions and predictions from the theoretical models discussed.     

Intergenerational influence on sustainable consumer attitudes and behaviors: Roles of family communication and peer influence in environmental consumer socialization

Intergenerational research on sustainable consumption remains scarce, particularly in relation to which factors may affect the level of intergenerational similarity and the direction of intergenerational transmission. The present study addresses these gaps and adds to the growing body of literature in environmental consumer socialization by examining intergenerational influence on sustainable consumer attitudes and behaviors in a sample of 146 dyads comprised of mothers and college-age daughters. In the domain of intergenerational influence, we study two potential moderating factors suggested in past consumer research: communication effectiveness and peer conformity. Using the co-orientational model and nominal dyad method, we reveal the existence of intergenerational similarity in dyads' sustainable consumer attitudes and behaviors—after accounting for nominal effects— and show that stronger parent–child communication between mother–daughter pairs leads to greater intergenerational similarity, whereas stronger peer influence on daughters reduces intergenerational agreement. Our analysis further suggests the presence of reverse environmental socialization, in which intergenerational influence predominantly occurs from daughter to mother. Dyads' subjective knowledge regarding sustainable consumption provides empirical insights for this co-orientational model finding on reverse intergenerational transfer. Overall, outcomes of this study encourage marketing managers to leverage young-adult offspring in the process of communicating sustainable marketing strategies.     

Perceived situational effects on price sensitivity

In this article, the multidimensionality of price as perceived by members of a consumer panel is examined. Respondents are first classified as price-sensitive or non-price-sensitive with respect to a durable and a nondurable product. Several dimensions of price are then described within the framework of brand purchase decision situations, and consumer evaluations of the importance of each situational dimension are measured. Dimensions perceived as important by price-sensitive persons are different from those considered important by non-price-sensitive consumers. Variations exist in the importance of price dimensions based on type of product.     

Cause I'll Feel Good! An Investigation into the Effects of Anticipated Emotions and Personal Moral Norms on Consumer Pro-Environmental Behavior

Anticipated emotions and moral norms have previously been found to influence consumer adoption of pro-environmental products in different ways. However norms and emotions have seldom been combined in order to understand their relations in motivating consumers to adopt sustainable products. Despite the environmental benefits of sustainable products, consumer adoption is slow to take off. Utilizing data from an online survey (N = 576), this study finds that anticipated emotions directly influence consumer adoption and the effect of moral norms is mediated by the anticipated emotions. This study extends the norm activation model and implies communicating positive emotions for promoting sustainable products.     

The motivational dynamics of arousal and values in promoting sustainable behavior: A cognitive energetics perspective

This research applies Cognitive Energetics Theory (CET) to explain when and why consumers engage in sustainable behavior. Across six studies, we find a positive interaction effect of arousal and openness-to-change on sustainable behaviors. In particular, openness-to-change (vs conservation) increases the likelihood of engaging in effortful sustainable behaviors in a high-arousal state rather than in a low-arousal state. Interestingly, our results reveal that this interactive effect is explained by the tendency of consumers to believe that the target sustainable behavior requires less effort, when they are in a high-arousal state and endorsing openness-to-change. Moreover, perceived effort is positively related to sustainable behavior for experienced consumers but negatively related to the behavior for less experienced consumers. In addition, the effect of value and arousal on perceived effort is stronger among less experienced consumers but attenuated among more experienced consumers. Thus, arousal can serve as a catalyst to enhance value-consistent sustainable behaviors and help the less experienced consumers form habits. These findings contribute to CET by highlighting the important roles that values and arousal play in the motivational forces that drive and restrain sustainable behaviors. The results improve our understanding of how to motivate value-consistent sustainable behaviors, with implications for both marketers and policy-makers.     

基于情境理论的消费者行为影响因素研究

情境是影响消费者行为的重要因素之一。在贝克情境理论的指导下,提出17个影响消费者行为的情境变量,通过对其进行因子分析得到了六个情境因子:心理、环境、营销、时间、物质及互动因子,并进一步分析指出,情境因素对消费者行为的影响受到其他影响因素的交互作用。该研究既对以往有关消费者行为影响因素的研究进行了完善,又有利于企业更好地了解消费者行为,具有较强的理论价值与实践意义。     

Complainers versus non-complainers: a multi-national investigation of individual and situational influences on customer complaint behaviour

Abstract

One of the least understood areas in customer complaint behaviour (CCB) research is why some customers complain and others do not in similar dissatisfaction situations. Prior research has explored differences in customer characteristics between complainers and non-complainers, but not in association with relevant situational factors. This gap is addressed with a new conceptual framework incorporating two situational variables – customer dissatisfaction and involvement – and two consumer traits – impulsivity and self-monitoring. Several hypotheses about their main and interaction effects are tested in two different contexts, using a survey-based study in three countries (Singapore, South Korea, and the United States). Specifically, it is shown that CCB is positively associated with involvement and impulsivity, and negatively with self-monitoring. Involvement and impulsivity are shown to moderate the association between dissatisfaction and CCB positively, and self-monitoring moderates it negatively. Some implications and directions for future research are also discussed.