Investigating older consumers’ acceptance factors of autonomous vehicles

Although autonomous vehicles are expected to provide various benefits for older consumers regarding physical and social health and successful aging, they do not show a high acceptance rate. This study develops the research model to explore the external and internal factors affecting baby boomers’ acceptance of autonomous vehicles based on the Automation Acceptance Model. We conducted an anonymous online survey with a professional online research company to examine the research model. Based on the results, we propose the implications of improved mobility due to autonomous vehicles on the healthy life of older consumers.     

Chronological cues and consumers’ preference for mere newness

Chronological cues are ubiquitous in retail settings, whether they come in the form of production, release, on-shelf, or purchase dates, etc. Yet, they remain relatively underexplored in the marketing literature. Could newness that arises from these chronological cues lead consumers to prefer options merely because they are newer, above and beyond any substantive benefits conferred or implied by that newness? We propose and find in a series of eight preregistered studies (n= 2,216) that consumers exhibit mere newness preference across many product domains—preferring chronologically newer options over older options with no substantive benefits to newness. We provide evidence that overgeneralization is one important driver of mere newness preference: Most consumers hold positive (negative) associations with chronological newness (oldness) in an implicit association test, and mere newness preference is reduced in domains in which the opposite association exists. Consequently, consumers are willing to pay a newness premium even for mere newness.     

User acceptance of ‘near field communication’ mobile phone service: an investigation based on the ‘unified theory of acceptance and use of technology’ model

Near-field communication (NFC) is a technology with service applications that include location-based service, mobile payment, peer gaming, and targeted advertising. Using the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology model, this study explores the factors that affect consumer acceptance of mobile phones with built-in NFC capability. The results indicate that Effort Expectancy has a positive effect on Performance Expectancy. Also, Performance Expectancy and Social Influence have a positive effect on Attitude Toward Use of Technology, but Anxiety has a negative effect on it. Finally, Attitude Toward Use of Technology is more significant than Facilitating Conditions in affecting Behavioral Intention.     

Touch vs. click: how computer interfaces polarize consumers’ evaluations

Marketing Letters - Increasingly powerful computer technologies have enabled the development and widespread growth of touchscreen devices such as computers, tablets, and smartphones in...     

Determining the main factors affecting consumers’ acceptance of ethical advertising: A review of the Jordanian market

Studying consumers’ acceptance of the main ethical issues in communication and mainly in advertising has recently been receiving much attention from scholars. It is especially noteworthy when the advertising is seen as a technology-driven communication process and should be prepared based on a sense of consumers’ social responsibility and moral assent. Using a self-reported questionnaire from 450 parents, this study examines the effects of children abuse, sexual appeals, fear appeals and deceptive advertisements on Jordanian parents’ acceptance of ethical advertising. After using the Structural Equation Modeling test, path analysis was used to test the hypothetic relationships employing the Multivariate Regression Models. The study found that sexual appeals and children abuse are the main factors that affect parents’ acceptance of ethical advertising in the Jordanian market.     

CCT applied research and the limits of consumers’ heroicisation

Abstract

The sum total of the research produced by Consumer Culture Theory (CCT) researchers has enabled a spectacular improvement in our understanding of markets and consumption. Yet, this knowledge has struggled to penetrate the business world due to a dearth of practical proposals appealing to managers looking for action-guiding toolkits. Based on a relatively small corpus of CCT-related articles published in the main applied journals with academic values, the present article traces the contours of CCT managerial knowledge revolving around the concept of cultural branding and composed of four main approaches: relationship marketing, retromarketing, tribal marketing and collaborative marketing. The article also synthesises the contributions that CCT researchers propose for each of these approaches and discusses the limits of the heroicisation of the consumers. The conclusion looks at potential research paths for the dissemination of CCT applied kind of knowledge.     

Banks’ unfairness and the vulnerability of low-income unbanked consumers

This paper’s objective was to explore low-income unbanked consumers’ perceptions of bank fairness and the way these perceptions were linked to consumer experiences of vulnerability. Qualitative data were used to analyse low-income consumers’ perceptions about banks’ services and communications. The study finds that although consumers’ financial inclusion is partially hindered by their personal circumstances, the perceived unfair treatment by banks has an even more negative impact on their financial inclusion. Low-income unbanked individuals report banks avoiding them, discriminating against them and impeding their financial inclusion. Banks’ perceived unfairness towards low-income consumers leads those consumers to experience vulnerability in numerous ways. Finally, we provide public policy implications for low-income consumers’ well-being and financial inclusion and to assist them in mitigating their vulnerability.     

Study on the steady state of the propagation model of consumers’ perceived service quality in the community group-buying

The consumption stickiness relationship established by community group buying is a typical complex social network. The network structure, member size, interaction frequency and purchase quantity are determined by the effective communication of customer perceived service quality (PSQ). This paper introduces the social reinforcement effect to construct a G-SCIR model of PSQ propagation in the community group-buying, and improves the calculation method of propagation probability and node status attributes. We use numerical simulation methods to explore how the social reinforcement effect can promote the spread of PSQ and achieve a steady state by influencing recovered nodes. The simulation results show that the G-SCIR model proposed in the paper has better stability and higher coverage than the traditional SCIR model. The change trend of the attributes of each node in the network is also closer to the real one, which can effectively simulate the propagation process and evolution characteristics of PSQ in the context of community group-buying. Meanwhile, the paper verifies that the steady state of PSQ propagation is usually affected by its initial conversion probability of community group-buying, its upper limit and social reinforcement factor, and there are significant Markov properties in the propagation process of PSQ. The findings may further enrich the community business and online group buying theory, and provide theoretical reference and practical guidance for community group-buying enterprises to optimize market layout and formulate scientific communication strategies.     

Motives and barriers affecting consumers’ co-creation in the physical store

ABSTRACT

The rise of e-commerce has caused a dramatic shift in consumer behaviour, putting pressure on physical stores to offer a more personalised and service-oriented offering. This paper investigates one strategy retailers might apply in this context: in-store consumer co-creation. Research has predominantly focused on online-based consumer co-creation in new product and service development. We argue that with increased focus on digitalisation and consumer experiences in physical retail, this type of co-creation will increasingly take place in-store. Following a pre-study with practitioners, our main study uses 20 scenario-based semi-structured interviews, where we identify eight consumer motives and seven barriers that underlie consumers’ willingness and reluctance to create and select new products in-store, respectively. Some motives, such as ethical, self-efficacy, and concerted are reported as barriers when reverted, due to consumers’ concerns regarding data privacy, low levels of perceived self-efficacy and assumptions that the technology might be flawed. Other motives largely overlap existing research on motives for co-creation whereas other barriers predominantly pertain to the underlying technology and the physical setting of co-creation in-store. The findings further indicate that consumers co-create differently online versus in-store. In-store seems particularly suitable for more marketing related aspects of co-creation, with a stronger emphasis on playfulness and purchase intentions. Practical implications for retailers are therefore discussed.     

When do consumers feel betrayal and face-loss? Examining service communality and social presence types in service failures

This study investigates the importance of consumer–restaurant relationship norms (service communality) in connection with consumer–companion social presence types (business versus private) in producing consumers’ feelings of betrayal and face-loss in service failures. The results suggest that consumers felt more betrayed and face-loss in service failures as service communality increased. In addition, social presence types moderated the effect of service communality on face-loss, suggesting consumers in private social presence situations were more sensitive to face-loss as service communality increases. These findings were integrated into a discussion of theoretical and managerial implications regarding restaurant service management.     

Quality of past performance: Impact on consumers’ responses to service failure

The conceptual model developed in this paper for the airline industry examines the relationship between quality of past service performance and consumers’ responses to service failures (causal attributions, emotions and satisfaction). The empirical results obtained indicate that for those consumers with higher perceptions of quality the causes underlying service failures are seen as less stable and less controllable by the firm than the causes identified by consumers with lower perceptions of quality. Attributions about the failure not only influence satisfaction directly but also moderate the effect of quality on satisfaction. We also analyse the mediating effect of negative emotions on the relationship between service failure attributions and consumer satisfaction.

Factors influencing the consumers’ behavioural intention to use online food delivery service: Empirical evidence from Taiwan

Understanding consumer preferences is crucial in helping online food delivery services (OFDS) increase operating revenue and competitiveness while achieving sustainable development. Prior studies on OFDS employed qualitative research and methods for statistical analysis, but few researchers have discussed the importance of the primary factors influencing consumers' selection and intention of OFDS from multiple-attribute decision-making (MADM) perspective. Based on a consumer's perspective, the MADM techniques were utilised in this study to build an assessment model for consumers' selection of OFDS. First, to determine the relative weight of each evaluation criterion and dimension, the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) was utilised. Subsequently, the complex proportional assessment of alternatives (COPRAS) was utilised to analyse the feasible solutions. Lastly, the modified VlseKriterijumska Optimizacija I Kompromisno Resenje (VIKOR) was employed to discuss the performance gap between each evaluation dimension and criterion. The three methods helped identify the primary evaluation criteria and determine the rankings of feasible solutions and related performance gaps. The methods were used to conduct an empirical analysis of the data. Several conclusions and suggestions have been provided based on the findings. The findings are anticipated to serve as a reference for OFDS operators to learn from, allowing them to better understand consumers' demands and provide better service. Finally, theoretical and managerial implications are explored.     

An exploration of consumers’ experiences in physical stores: comparing consumers’ and retailers’ perspectives in past and present time

Abstract

In this paper, we explore consumers’ in-store experiences and their components, from both a consumer and retailer perspective. This is a replication of a study we performed in 2006 and thus we also examine how the role of the physical store has changed over the last decade. We use the Critical Incident Technique (CIT) to improve our understanding of consumers’ in-store experiences. Moreover, we conduct in-depth interviews with Swedish retailers to achieve an understanding of how retailers use aspects of the store environment to enhance the consumer experience. Interestingly, our results suggest that consumers’ in-store experiences to a large extent are created by the same aspects today as ten years ago (e.g. personnel, layout, atmosphere). Furthermore, while retailers today emphasize the importance of fulfilling new and more advanced consumer demands, they often still accentuate the weight and use of traditional values (e.g. personnel and layout) ahead of advanced technology.     

Health and cosmetics: Investigating consumers’ values for buying organic personal care products

In investigating consumers’ intentions to re-purchase organic personal care products (PCP), this study extends the theory of planned behaviour by including perceived value dimensions as the antecedents of attitude in the model. The findings revealed that most of the hypothesised relationships linking the consumer perceived value constructs (namely, health, safety, hedonic and environmental) with attitude towards the rebuying of organic PCP, were supported. Also, better product knowledge about organic PCP would lead to more positive attitudes towards re-purchasing the product. In contrast, social value was not important in predicting attitude. Similarly, the influence of subjective norm on rebuying intention was not supported. In terms of ranking of importance with regards to prediction of re-purchasing intention, attitude was the most important predictor followed by perceived behavioural control, product knowledge, hedonic value, environmental value and safety value.     

Do consumers use tipping to monitor service? Role of power and embarrassment

Tipping is regarded as a buyer monitoring mechanism. By rewarding good service (by giving larger tips), and punishing bad service (by giving smaller tips), consumers can contribute to enhance service quality. However, in this paper, we show that not all consumers use tipping to evaluate service. In three experiments, we demonstrate that based on the level of power consumers feel they have, they punish/reward service differently. Specifically, we show that low-power consumers are less likely than high-power consumers to punish poor service quality (Studies 1 and 2). We find that leaving small tips (in low service quality scenarios) makes low-power consumers anticipate embarrassment. These anticipations mediate the interaction effect of service quality and power on consumer tip size (Study 3).     

Online anthropomorphism and consumers’ privacy concern: Moderating roles of need for interaction and social exclusion

Online privacy concern has become a critical ethical and managerial issue for online retailing. However, we know limited information about what marketing practices may exacerbate consumers’ privacy concern. This study intends to examine the undesirable intertwining effect of online anthropomorphism and individual features on consumers’ privacy concern and downstream variables. Three experiments were conducted to test hypotheses. The results suggest that consumers who have a low need for interaction in business encounters and who experience social exclusion indicate a higher privacy concern and lower willingness to register online in anthropomorphic (vs. non-anthropomorphic) websites. Moreover, the interactive effect of online anthropomorphism and social exclusion extends to consumers’ online purchase intention, which works via privacy concern as a mediator in this process. The findings suggest that incorporating anthropomorphic elements online may exacerbate consumers’ perceptions of privacy risk and detract their behavioral intention toward the websites and thus individual features should be taken into account. We conclude by discussing the implications, limitations, and directions for future research.     

Assessing the impact of a retailer's relationship efforts on consumers’ attitudes and behavior

This study focuses at the impact of different relationship efforts made by a retailer (direct mail, preferential treatment, and tangible rewards) on key relationship marketing outcomes (trust, relationship commitment, and behavioral loyalty). A cross-sectional study in a retail clothing setting was conducted based on two consumer samples drawn from Belgium and the Netherlands. SEM results indicate that retailers undertaking relationship efforts to loyal consumers can positively affect these consumers’ attitudes and behavior. Consequently, managers and employees of retail companies need to be trained, motivated, and rewarded for making relationship efforts to regular customers.     

The terror of death and consumers’ sustainability attitudes

Applying Terror Management Theory, this research attempts to investigate how the terror of death perception affects consumers' sustainability attitudes under the contingent condition of religiosity. This field study was conducted in Malang, Indonesia. The findings disclose that both mortality salience and self-esteem increase materialism. Materialism is found to intensify consumers’ sustainability attitudes of green concern and consumer social responsibility (CnSR). It is also found that religiosity strengthens the effect of mortality salience on materialism and that of materialism on CnSR. Contrarily, religiosity weakens the effects of materialism on green concern. However, there is no statistical support for the moderating effect of religiosity on the linkage between self-esteem and materialism.     

How money priming affects consumers in an advertising context: the role of product conspicuousness and consumers’ signalling needs

ABSTRACT

Effects of money priming on basic psychological processes are well established in the literature. However, research that investigates money priming in an advertising context is scarce. This article presents two empirical studies examining consumer reactions after being primed with money and exposed to advertisements presenting either conspicuous or non-conspicuous products. Consumer reactions were investigated with respect to their attitude towards the ad, product evaluation and signalling needs. The findings indicate that the evaluation of a conspicuous product, and the respective ad promoting it, benefit from money priming while the evaluation of a non-conspicuous product is not affected. Moreover, money priming elicits signalling needs in situations where consumers are confronted with conspicuous products. Our moderated mediation models show that these signalling needs mediate the positive effects of money priming in conspicuous situations.     

Consumers’ brand heritage experience: between acceptance and resistance

ABSTRACT

The literature dedicated to heritage experience and brand heritage defends the idea that it is a source of significant value creation for consumers and brands. By contrast, the aim of this article is to propose a more complete view of the consequences of the heritage strategy for brands and consumers by exploring how consumers perceive a brand heritage experience and by identifying potential resistances that may emerge during their visits. In consequence, this research examines the features of a brand heritage experience through extended case studies in two brand museums with narratives of 47 visitors. By unpacking a brand heritage experience, the study highlights its acceptance by a majority of visitors as a real heritage experience since they give scientific, authentic and aesthetic values to the industrial and commercial features of the brand. However, some visitors do not accept – partially or totally – the brand as part of the heritage corpus insofar as they exhibit scepticism or even reject the experience.