Iranian consumer animosity and U.S. products: A witch's brew or elixir?

This research investigates the animosity of more than 900 Iranian consumers toward the U.S. and their propensity to purchase U.S.-made products/brands in the context of a prolonged hostility between the two countries. Our results suggest that the antecedent demographic variables of education, age and foreign travel experience are inversely related to consumer animosity whereas women and students tend to hold greater consumer animosity feelings than men and non-students. Additionally we found a strong and significant inverse relationship between Iranian consumer animosity and intention to buy U.S.-made products, but no moderating effects based upon product importance or product necessity were uncovered in our consumer animosity model. The major managerial implications of our study are threefold: (1) MNCs are well advised not to ignore or underestimate the economic value of hostile markets; (2) within hostile markets, MNCs ought to be proactive and pursue alternative oversight strategies when constrained by national institutions; and (3) local and foreign competitors may exploit such animosity to better position their own products against the products of a country that is a target of consumers’ animosity.     

Street Markets Influencing Urban Consumer Behavior in Mexico

Street markets in the urban setting form the bottom of the pyramid market structure, which caters to consumers of semi-urban settlements. Consumers favor these markets for farm-fresh agricultural products and low-priced consumer goods. This study empirically investigates the role of street markets in urban sociodemographic clusters in the shift of consumer behavior against large shopping malls and supermarkets. Data were gathered from 490 respondents engaged in buying products at 373 vending stalls across 14 street market locations in Mexico City. Data were collected on 31 variables and analyzed using structural equation model. The study also addresses street markets as change agents of consumer behavior in the context of marketplace ambience, vending patterns, ethnic values, and interactive customer relations. The conventional shopping wisdom of customers, competitive gains, and socio-cultural advantages are also addressed based on an empirical survey. The study revealed that shopping behavior is largely motivated by the physical factors such as location of marketplace, distance, and vending stall type within the street market. Findings also indicate that consumers possess a strong conviction that street markets offer fresh products of farm and animal origin as well as ethnic food irrespective of hygiene standard.     

The Atkins Diet Phenomenon: How the Low Carbohydrate Lifestyle Has Revolutionized the Consumer Behavior of American Dieters

Abstract

Examined are the impact of the Atkins diet on the American diet conscious consumer and its impact on the market for consumer oriented diet foods, specifically foods low in carbohydrates and high in protein. Focusing on the fact that studies continue to show that as many as 25% of the American population is clinically obese, at least 100 pounds overweight, the recent obsession with low carbohydrate foods has created entirely new food related markets, markets for consumers products that are significantly different from the traditional food markets that have existed in the past. This paper will address the impact that the Atkins phenomenon has had on groceries, soft drinks, restaurant offerings, beer, fast food and supermarket products. It will show how these industries have been forced to modify their product lines to incorporate an ever escalating consumer demand for low carbohydrate products or risk being left behind in the expanding $42 billion food industry.     

Value chain integration of base of the pyramid consumers: An empirical study of drivers and performance outcomes

The seminal works on Base of the Pyramid (BOP) markets encourage companies to explore untapped low-income markets and to alleviate poverty by providing affordable products and services. The transition to second generation BOP strategies has centred on the integration of local consumers across value chain activities. This integration presents challenges both for firms and for low-income consumers due to the nature of informal BOP markets, severe institutional voids and lack of local knowledge of firms. In this context, little is known about the motivational drivers of firms to integrate BOP consumers in value creation activities and the impact on different performance dimensions, namely economic, social and ecological. This study adopts the perspective of micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) and investigates drivers and performance outcomes of BOP consumer integration. For this purpose, we develop a theoretical framework and test it empirically by employing a unique dataset of 142 enterprises which provide basic products and services to low-income markets. Our findings provide empirical support for the claim that BOP consumer integration enhances economic, social and ecological performance. MSMEs in our sample engage consumers mainly due to a strong intrinsic motivation to drive social impact rather than a pragmatic motivation to overcome information asymmetries. While studies of multinationals entering BOP markets almost exclusively report the need for cross-sector partner collaboration, our findings suggest that this may not be the case for MSMEs.     

A tale of three cities: Large,medium, and small consumer markets compared

In what size consumer markets does the consumer fare best — those of large, medium-sized, or small cities/towns? This is the general question that this article seeks to answer through analysis of price-quality data pertaining to Minneapolis (a large city), Ann Arbor, MI, and Ithaca, NY (a small town). While differences were smaller than expected, limited evidence from this pilot study support the notion that small markets are most efficient. At the same time the analysis confirms others' findings that most consumer markets are chaotic.     

‘Better safe than sorry’: consumer perceptions of and deliberations on nanotechnologies

Although nanotechnologies are considered key technologies that can drive growth‐generating innovations in well‐saturated markets, worldwide investment in nanotechnologies has to date focused largely on technology‐related development programmes and little effort has been expended to research associated risks. As a result, even though prior discourses have sensitized western consumers to potential health‐related dangers, solid knowledge on, for example, the toxicological and eco‐toxicological risks and unintended side effects of nanotechnology are scarce. This paper therefore presents an overview of the current evidence on consumer knowledge and perceptions of nanotechnology and public engagement with it, with a focus on the US, the UK and Germany. Overall, even though survey data suggest that awareness of the term ‘nanotechnology’ has risen slightly, today's consumers are generally ill informed about its nature and its applications in consumer‐related products. Hence, based on our analysis of these data, we argue that early political engagement in the nanotechnology issue – for example, consumer policy options that support consumer interest in the marketing of ‘nanos’– would facilitate objective public discourse.     

Market segmentation of fresh meat shoppers in Taiwan

Fresh meat product retailing at traditional markets in Taiwan causes concerns over meat safety issues.The agricultural administration has established programmes to raise consumer awareness of potential risks of fresh meat that have remained at room temperature for several hours. Although supermarkets sell chilled and frozen meat products, the majority of grocery shoppers in Taiwan still prefer purchasing fresh meat products at traditional markets where meat is displayed on counters or hung on hooks. This study utilizes survey data to segment meat shoppers in Taiwan. Results indicate the shoppers who purchase meat products at supermarkets tend to continue shopping at that location. Potential shoppers of supermarkets, who may switch from traditional markets to supermarkets for meat products, are identified and the major concerns of this group are the meat safety issues. Factors that influence the possibilities of selecting supermarkets for meat products are examined.     

Competent consumers? Consumer competence profiles in Norway

Consumer competence is increasingly important in today’s commercialized society. This paper refers to some main findings from a national representative survey on consumer competences and practices in Norway. To be a competent consumer, it is decisive to be informed about products and to be familiar with how markets function. In this paper, consumers’ self‐reported efforts to keep themselves informed about specific markets is treated as an indicator of consumer competence. First, the results indicate that Norwegian consumers’ competence, according to their own judgement, is rather mediocre. Second, different groups of consumers seem to have different consumer competence profiles. Accordingly, we find that some consumers are price‐conscious in their daily purchases, others are price‐conscious when they make their yearly dispositions in the financial markets, while a third group is community‐oriented and active in the environmentally friendly and ethical product markets. Third, the analysis indicates that consumer competence is an important indicator of how market‐rational and reflective consumers’ choices and practices are.     

欧盟消费者法对商业创新的法律影响力评析

欧盟主要施行的消费者法和相关指令强调的是不仅保护消费者也鼓励竞争和支持创新。法律在竞争性的市场中应为消费者的保护提供一个基本的框架,即"授权"给消费者,让消费者愿意也能够在市场上对商品和服务进行选择,并且根据对商品和服务的质量和安全性的合理预期而确立起足够充分的消费者信心,而其中消费者法对实现这样的目标应该起到基础和关键性的作用。     

Financial literacy education and behaviour unhinged: combating bias and poor product design

The growth of products available in the consumer financial market has provided more choice and formal control over household financial decisions than ever before. Financial literacy education programs are generally assumed to improve consumer behaviour in relation to financial products and services. However, there is scant evidence that demonstrates the causal link between education, literacy and behaviour. Through the use of a sample study, we show that the actions of individuals who are financially literate do not necessarily mean they will demonstrate good financial behaviour. We propose that in order to improve the financial behaviour of consumers, two critical areas need to be addressed. Firstly, the objectives of financial literacy programs should be not only to educate consumers about financial markets and products but highlight to individuals the psychological biases and limitations that they as humans cannot easily avoid. Secondly, the regulation of financial products sold to consumers needs alteration to meet the aim of protecting retail consumers from complex financial products that are confusing, ambiguous and inappropriate. We propose regulation and redesign of product information offerings using techniques employed in ecological interface design models to derive a suitability test for consumer financial products.     

The Protective Dimension of Product Warranty Policies and Practices

In consumer good markets, wide variations occur in warranty policies and practices between products, firms and industries. In this paper, those warranty policies designed to provide self-protection for the seller are examined. The protective facet of warranties carefully delimits the responsibility of the manufacturer for post-sale product performance and quality and hence stabilizes the firm's future costs and profits. The author has striven to conceptualize the association which may exist between a firm's products and markets and the policy objectives of its warranty. Several hypotheses concerning the conditions under which the warranty may be viewed by the seller as a tool of self-protection are suggested; these hypotheses are tested through an analysis of survey data collected from industry executives.     

An empirical assessment of the Consumer Agency Model: Evidence from India and China

Abstract

This research empirically validates the Consumer Agency Model which illustrates consumer reactions to the introduction of new Western products to emerging markets. This study represents the first quantitative effort to test the framework in a comparative field study of consumer attitudes towards a franchised business in the two largest emerging markets globally, China and India. It builds on the original model with McDonald’s as the prototypical representative of the Western franchise industry. The analysis confirms existence of the Consumer Agency Model with remarkable similarity in both countries. Implications for franchise companies as they target the two investigated markets are provided.     

“Nobody Told Me I was a Nano-Consumer:” How Nanotechnologies Might Challenge the Notion of Consumer Rights

Regarding nanotechnologies and the consumer, a central paradox is the absence of a regulatory framework while more than 1,000 nano-enabled products are already available on the consumer markets. This represents a serious challenge for the consumer interest. Even though the prospects of nanotechnologies are truly fascinating and represent possibilities to solve major problems—for instance in the realms of health, energy and poverty—it is important to also discuss the potential risks of nano-enabled products. The present study reports on a Norwegian study with data derived from focus groups, a content analysis of advertisements, packaging and labels for cosmetics as well as on a Norwegian consumer survey. Conceptually, the paper is based on the notion of consumer rights introduced by President J.F. Kennedy in 1962. Based on the results of these studies, consumer policy implications are sketched.     

Purchase behavior in favor of domestic products in the West Balkans

Despite the long tradition of research on country-of-origin and consumer ethnocentrism, many of the issues remain unresolved in the literature, most notably the relationship between cognitive, affective and normative mechanisms in consumer choice behavior, and generalizability of existing research findings to non-traditional emerging and/or small country markets. This study responds to the current gaps in knowledge in that it examines behavioral manifestations of consumers’ choice of domestic vs. foreign products in four transitioning post-war markets in the West Balkans. Data were collected via personal interviews with 1954 adult urban consumers. The model of domestic purchase behavior was tested using SEM analysis. The results for all four country samples indicate that consumer ethnocentrism has affected domestic purchase behavior both directly and indirectly through domestic product appraisal. Moreover, we found consumer worldliness, a controversial construct in previous studies, to be uniformly negatively related to ethnocentrism. On the other hand, the findings related to the role of national identification as an antecedent to consumer ethnocentrism and domestic product appraisal were inconsistent across the samples. The implications of these findings for the validity and generalizability of existing models of consumer behavior in a new cultural context are considered, and implications for marketers interested in exploiting opportunities in the region are discussed.     

Consumer Power: A Comparison of the Old Economy and the Internet Economy

From the very beginning of the Internet, a decisive shift from supplier power to consumer power was predicted by several authors and is still maintained in recent literature. Although the Internet has grown rapidly within the last years and electronic markets have evolved, a theoretical framework for consumer power on the Internet still cannot be identified. Few authors have taken efforts to apply common concepts of power theory to the characteristics of the Internet. Based on the concept of French and Raven, this paper analyses consumer power in traditional markets and then compares it to the situation on the Internet. This comparison shows that the Internet enables consumers (a) to overcome most information asymmetries that characterize traditional consumer markets and thus obtain high levels of market transparency, (b) to easily band together against companies and impose sanctions via exit and voice, and (c) to take on a more active role in the value chain and influence products and prices according to individual preferences. A broad literature review reveals that empirical findings confirm these hypotheses to a great extent. The authors conclude by summarizing the results and drawing implications from two different angles, namely from a marketing and a consumer policy perspective.     

Trustmarks: Strategies for exploiting their full potential in e-commerce

Internet-based commerce has undergone explosive growth over the past decade and is expected to keep growing. With the increasing popularity of online marketplaces, trust is seen as a key foundation for consumers’ willingness to purchase, in particular, from unknown sellers. While trust has been examined in various contexts, limited focus has been placed on the importance of displaying institutional trust assurances such as trustmarks on retailers’ websites. We conducted two studies into how the use of trustmarks impacts consumer trust, consumer risk perceptions, and, consequently, influences consumer purchase intentions. The results of the two studies suggest that the use of trustmarks increases consumer online trust and purchase intentions, as well as reducing their perceived risk. We use these results to inform managerial decision making in e-commerce, particularly for marketers and e-retailers. We provide three important managerial lessons to be learned from our insights. Our implications are important not only for mature e-commerce markets to create a competitive advantage but also for growing and emerging e-commerce markets, where new retailers are trying to establish trust among their consumers to increase market share.     

A “New Approach” to Standards and Consumer Protection

As consumer use of information and communication technology (ICT) products grows, the importance of ICT standards in consumer markets also grows. While standards for manufactured products were once developed at the national level in formal standards bodies, standards for ICT products today are more likely to be developed by informal standards bodies that target global markets, creating new challenges for national consumer protection laws. As part of the process of creating a single market, the EU developed an innovative and successful form of “coregulation” known as the “New Approach” that coordinated the work of legislators and standards developers to reduce technical barriers to trade in the internal market. In order to protect consumer interests in markets for ICT products effectively, another “New Approach” is needed to coordinate the work of global ICT standard-developing organizations with the goals of national and regional consumer protection laws, but the institutional challenges facing such a strategy are daunting. The French DADVSI legislation represents progress in this direction; further progress may be possible by adopting “better regulation” strategies.

The Determinants of Pricing Strategies for Industrial Products in International Markets

ABSTRACT

The global marketplace is becoming increasingly complex in which to conduct business. Firms marketing consumer goods have a somewhat easier time than those selling industrial products, since more has been written about them and the international consumer goods have been analyzed for a longer period of time. In addition, the international marketing literature, has looked more at the elements of product, promotion and place than price. This literature gap has created a void in the understanding of marketers as to how to effectively price industrial products in international markets.

The paper identifies the important industrial pricing strategies in international marketing and examines the underlying determinants that affect their outcome. In addition, the specific causal relationships between the determinants and pricing strategies are examined through a logistic regression analysis.     

Mitigating consumer ethnocentrism via advertising and media consumption in a transitional market

Consumer ethnocentrism is considered an important barrier to consumption in the global marketplace. Although the concept of consumer ethnocentrism has been investigated over many years in developed markets, there is little research addressing the mitigation of consumer ethnocentrism in transitional economies, which are becoming increasingly important in the global marketplace. One such market, Russia, represents a major potential investment opportunity for global marketers. In this study, we undertake an exploratory study investigating consumer ethnocentrism’s negative influence on Russians’ attitudes towards foreign products and their frequency of purchase of foreign products. We also demonstrate that the influence of consumer ethnocentrism on the frequency of purchase of foreign products is moderated by consumers’ exposure to mass communication (i.e. exposure to television, exposure to foreign movies) and by marketing communication efforts (i.e. exposure to foreign product advertising, involvement with foreign product advertising). In addition to extending theoretical research to a transitional, non-Western context, the empirical results also provide implications for international advertising practitioners.