Manual dishwashing process – a pre‐assigned behaviour?

Global studies have observed many techniques of manual dishwashing causing different levels of performance and using quite different amounts of water, energy, time and detergent. It is not known, however, if these techniques are pre‐assigned to a person and persist when dishes are washed under different conditions, or are adapted to the specific type of dish‐cleaning process. Here we explored this question in a study with 40 test subjects selected equally from Germany and East European countries by asking them to wash two place settings of dishes with different amounts of soil three times. The results showed that the test subjects did not adapt their washing‐up behaviour to the amount of soil. In general, no significant differences were found in the water, energy and detergent consumption for all test subjects. Only the time used by the German test subjects to wash the fully soiled dishes was significantly longer compared with the dishes with only a quarter the quantity of soil, and no significant difference was observed for all other parts. The only significant difference found between the level of soiling of the dishes was the cleaning result achieved: The less soiled the dishes were, the better the final cleaning result was, and this related to all test subjects. This lends support to the proposition that the consumers did not adapt their washing‐up behaviour to the specific circumstances of the dishwashing job to be done but retained some pre‐assigned behaviour.     

关于消费者信心研究的评述

20世纪90年代以来,学者们对消费者信心的研究已经取得了重要的进展。这里所选取的文献可以概括出国际上对于消费者信心问题理论研究和经验分析的成果,包括消费者信心指数能够预测消费支出的观点,对消费者信心指数的消费预测力持怀疑态度的观点,还有关于消费信心与价格预期对家庭借贷行为的影响研究等有待进一步开展。     

Application of Best Practice Tips in manual dishwashing in Germany and Spain

Investigations on the consumer behaviour of manual dishwashing have shown that there is a large variety of ways of how to wash up by hand, and the corresponding resource consumption is affected accordingly. In order to reduce resource consumption in manual dishwashing while achieving an acceptably good cleaning result, Best Practice Tips have been established (published in Fuss et al.) on the basis of laboratory experiments and the knowledge of everyday behaviour. This study is aimed at verifying the potential to save resources in real life when consumers are applying Best Practice Tips for manual dishwashing. A 4‐week in‐house study was run in two European countries, and data of the manual dishwashing behaviour were acquired before and after training on the Best Practice Tips. The results of both periods were compared with each other and between the countries. The test participants in Germany needed approximately 30% less water and 40% less energy, on average, in the period in which they applied the Best Practice Tips; in Spain, nearly 50% less water and 60% less energy for dishwashing in the period after the training. It has to be taken into consideration, however, that individual savings are very different due to specific living conditions, household sizes, practices in dishwashing and more or less prejudice against the Best Practice Tips.     

中国城乡居民消费持续低迷的心理因素分析

消费心理是消费需求的具体表现 ,又是消费行为的内在因素 ,同时居民消费行为将对经济运行产生一定的影响。城乡居民消费持续低迷固然是由多方面的原因造成的 ,其中心理因素发挥着重要的不容忽视的作用。了解、分析消费者心理 ,对正确地引导居民消费是十分必要的。     

Are nutrition labels useful for the purchase of a familiar food? Evidence from Chinese consumers�� purchase of rice

Nutrition labeling has been accepted by Chinese consumers as an information source to learn about food quality and safety. This paper uses Chinese consumers’ rice purchase as an example to study how consumers use food nutrition labels to make purchase decision of a familiar food product. The goal is to understand how consumers seek information from the labels to make purchase when extensive experience with the food has been developed. Survey data from 400 random respondents in Beijing were analyzed using an empirical framework and a Mont Carlo integral econometrics model. We find that more than 50% of the consumers in Beijing have heard of food nutrition labels in general, 36.50% carefully use label information even if they are familiar with the food, and nearly 70% consider mandatory food nutrition labels as beneficial. Those who are more knowledgeable about rice nutrition labels are more likely to use the labels when purchasing rice, no matter how familiar they are with the product. Frequent users of nutrition labels are more likely to consider food mandatory nutrition labels as beneficial. This study suggests that consumers still use the label information to reassure the quality and safety of food despite a history of consumption.     

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.     

促进消费者合理消费的研究

随着经济的快速发展,我国消费者的心理与行为较以往发生了很大的变化。由于受西方消费主义和舆论宣传等方面因素的影响,消费领域存在许多不合理的消费现象,奢侈消费、炫耀性消费、盲目从众消费及冲动性消费等。政府、企业都应采取积极措施如正确引导消费,促使消费者树立科学的消费观,使消费行为趋于理性,从而进行合理消费。     

消费者心理特征对新产品购买的影响作用研究

消费者新产品购买意向对企业新产品开发和营销策划具有重要参考价值。在理论探讨和实证研究基础上 ,从消费者行为特征和产品特征两个方面 ,分析了新产品购买意向的主要影响因素和新产品购买意向强弱程度不同的消费者群体的主要特征。此外对新产品的营销策划提出了一些建议。     

基于女性消费者行为下的化妆品营销策略研究

当前女性化妆品市场日趋庞大且具有广阔的发展前景,女性消费者行为的研究已经成为化妆品企业能否成功销售产品的关键因素。通过对女性消费者行为的分析,总结出女性化妆品消费行为具有追求美丽与时尚、非理性消费等特征,据此,在女性化妆品的营销上应通过营造良好的购物环境、积极运用化妆品广告等吸引女性消费者的购买欲望。     

Differential Effects of Chinese Women's Sexual Self-Schema on Responses to Sex Appeal in Advertising

Despite the increased use of sex appeal in advertising, little is known about the influence of individual personality differences on responses to sexual information. This study examines the effects of the “sexual self-schema” personality trait on Chinese women's responses to advertisements using sex appeal. Regardless of the type of sexual information used, attitudes toward these advertisements mediate the effect of sexual self-schema on the purchase intentions of women with lower sexual self-schema while this mediating effect was not observed in women with higher sexual self-schema. The theoretical and practical implications of sex appeal in advertising for Chinese women are discussed.