Consumer creations of product meaning in the context of African-style clothing

In this article, the author conducts a multisite ethnography to examine how US consumers construct product meanings and assign them to African clothing worn in different consumption settings. Contextual product meanings both emphasize the changing role of the consumption setting and reveal the consumer’s use of place. A model emerges from the data to show that consumers establish contextual product meanings through the use of interpretive frameworks, or meaning domains, and that the consumption setting influences this process by affecting consumers’ use of meaning domains and their selection of potential influences on that meaning.     

Examining the influence of control and convenience in a self-service setting

The constructs of perceived control and convenience have been identified in previous qualitative studies of self-service technology (SST) use as important factors; yet empirically their effects are relatively unknown. Based on the theory of planned behavior, this study explores how control and convenience perceptions influence customers’ utilitarian (speed of transaction) and hedonic (exploration) motivations for using an SST. In addition, we explore how trust in a service provider influences customers’ future SST intentions. Two studies were undertaken to assess both users and nonusers’ evaluations of an SST. The results revealed that perceived control and convenience do impact the intentions of customers to use an SST in the future; however, their impact was mediated through the constructs of speed of transaction, exploration, and trust. Increased control and convenience perceptions influenced exploration, trust and speed evaluations, which in turn were associated with stronger perceived value, higher SST satisfaction judgments, and increased SST usage intentions. Managerial implications stemming from the empirical findings are discussed along with directions for future research.     

Brand personality appeal: conceptualization and empirical validation

A substantial literature stream indicates there are benefits to having a favorable brand personality, such as enhanced brand attitudes and purchase intentions and higher levels of consumer trust and loyalty. Contemporary advertisements and promotional activities by a host of firms demonstrate a managerial belief in the value of establishing a brand personality that mirrors that of branding scholars. Yet extant research has yet to fully evaluate the perceived appeal of brand personality to consumers. This issue is important to managers because it is precisely this level of appeal that influences target consumers’ purchase decisions and helps to sustain the endurance of a brand’s perceived personality between promotional cycles. This article conceptualizes, develops, and validates measures for assessing a consumer’s perception of brand personality appeal (BPA). Three dimensions of BPA (favorability, originality, clarity) emerge and are empirically demonstrated to directly and positively impact consumer purchase intentions.     

Peer,parent, and media influences in teen apparel shopping

Recently developed normative versus informative interpersonal influence scales were modified and extended to explore interpersonal influences in teen apparel shopping. Three major influence sources were considered—peers, parents, and the media. Major findings indicated that teens receive significantly more parental influences during special shopping than ordinary shopping; parent- and media-informative influences exceed almost all others whereas media-normative influence is dominated by almost all other influences. These findings suggest that advertisers and marketers could avoid targeting teens with normative messages, since they are more likely to reach teens through informative messages specifically directed at their parents. Teen age, gender, family size, and gift money to teens were found to significantly affect the level and type of teen apparel shopping influences. He is also the founding Director of the Kellstadt Consumer Research Center, University of Detroit Mercy. His doctoral work has been published by Arno Publications, New York, under the titleTowards Measuring Technological Impact of Multinational Technology Transfers to Developing Countries. His recent books includeWasteland Management (Nataraj Publishers, 1982) andNew Product Development: Its Marketing Research and Development (Oxford, 1987). He has published in theJournal of Academy of Marketing Science and theJournal of Consumer Affairs, as well as various conference proceedings. His research interests are marketing ethics, marketing research philosophical orientations, and consumer behavior. Currently he is engaged in a major project related to teenage shopping behavior. She has published inInformation and Management and theJournal of Midwest Marketing, as well as various conference proceedings. Her current research interests are in the areas of consumer behavior, channel strategy, and marketing strategy. She is currently involved in research on teen shopping behavior.     

Impact of country-of-origin cues on consumer judgments in multi-cue situations: a covariance analysis

The effect of country-of-origin labelling on consumers’ assessments of product quality, risk to purchase, perceived value and likelihood of purchasing was tested experimentally in a multi-product, multi-cue setting. Country-of-origin information was found to be more important in affecting product quality assessments than were price and brand information. Price was important in value assessment while brand was significant in a few product specific cases. Age, education, sex, and perceptions of ability to judge products were variously related to consumers’ ratings of quality, risk, value and likelihood of purchase especially when the product was more complex and difficult to judge. However, much of the variation in consumer judgments was not accounted for by the variables employed in this study, suggesting that future research should include more detailed studies of information processing whereby intrinsic and extrinsic product cues and a wide range of consumer characteristics are taken into consideration.     

The negative effect of policy restrictions on consumers’ post-purchase reactions to price-matching guarantees

Price-Matching Guarantees (PMGs) are a mechanism by which retailers can reassure consumers of the competitive price of products they offer. While current research in marketing has studied consumers’ pre-purchase perceptions of the retailer as a result of offering price-matching guarantees, research on the post-purchase impact of PMGs has been relatively limited. While price-matching guarantees are typically assumed to result in positive consumer perceptions of the retailer, no study to date has examined the potentially negative post-purchase impact of PMGs. This paper examines the potential negative effect of policy restrictions which may prevent the disbursement of a price-matching refund, on consumer perceptions. Two experiments (Experiment 1 n = 120, Experiment 2 n = 50) are utilized to dissect the impact of policy restrictions on consumers’ perceptions of service quality, price, and loyalty. The paper concludes with a discussion of the managerial implications of the findings on price-matching guarantee policies. All authors contributed equally to the paper and are listed in alphabetical order. This research has been supported by a research grant from the Fordham University Graduate School of Business, the Babson Board of Research, and the Marketing Science Institute.     

A longitudinal study of the impact of market structure,firm structure,strategy, and market orientation culture on dimensions of small-firm performance

The purpose of this article is to determine market orientation’s relative impact on small-business performance, compared to other influences, in an integrated model using longitudinal data. Contrary to expectations based on the management literature, the results indicate weak causal relationships between market environment, small-firm structure, and small-firm strategy. The results further indicate weak influences of these variables, but strong and consistent influences of market orientation, on various measures of small-firm performance. Contrary to expectations based on business policy literature, relative product quality and new product success were not significant influences on profitability, perhaps due to the significant influence of market orientation on these variables. In addition, although increases in growth/share had a significant short-term influence on increases in profitability, high levels of previous years’ firm growth/share had a negative influence on current profitability. The previous year’s level of firm coordinating systems and market competitive intensity has a significant impact on the level of small-firm market orientation.     

Situation variation in consumers’ media channel consideration

In this article, the authors investigate consumers’ consideration of media channels during different usage situations. They develop a model that explains consumers’ media channel consideration as a function of the media channel’s perceived benefits. In addition, they hypothesize that the usage situation affects consumers’ media channel consideration and that situation-based benefit requirements moderate the effect of the benefits on their channel consideration. The authors test the hypothesized relationships using survey data from 341 consumers regarding their consideration of 12 different media channels used by manufacturers to communicate product information across three product-related usage situations. The results of the analyses support the proposed model structure and confirm the expected relationships among perceived media channel benefits, usage situations, media channel requirements, and consumers’ media channel consideration. Sonja Wendel (s.wendel@mw.unimaas.nl) is currently a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Marketing at Maastricht University, the Netherlands. Her research interests lie in the area of consumer behavior, services marketing, and communications. She is particularly interested in exploring manufacturer-consumer communications. Benedict G. C. Dellaert (b.dellaert@mw.unimaas.nl) is Meteor Research Chair and a professor in the Department of Marketing at Maastricht University, the Netherlands. His research interests are in consumer decision making, consumer-producer interaction, customization and personalization, retailing, and tourism. His work has appeared in journals such as theInternational Journal of Research in Marketing, theJournal of Interactive Marketing, theJournal of Marketing Research, andMarketing Letters.     

How consumers’ assessments of the difficulty of manufacturing a product influence quality perceptions

This research shows that the perceived difficulty of manufacturing a product influences consumers’ perceptions of the firm’s other products. In three experiments (with 152 participants in Study 1, 86 in Study 2, and 91 in Study 3), participants received information about the quality of a firm’s product and then inferred the quality of another product from the firm. When participants believed that the initial product was relatively more difficult to manufacture than the second product, they inferred that the second product would be high in quality. However, when participants believed that the initial product was relatively easy to manufacture, they inferred that the second product would be low in quality. These effects occurred when perceived difficulty of manufacture was manipulated (Study 2) and occurred regardless of whether both products had dissimilar product benefits (Study 1) or whether brand names were present (Study 3). Allison R. Johnson and Valerie S. Folkes contributed equally to this article.     

Enough is enough! When identification no longer prevents negative corporate associations

Negative publicity has the potential to create negative corporate associations. However, consumers’ identification with a company might moderate the extent of this effect. This article examines the impact of consumer-company identification on reactions to variable levels of negative publicity about a company. Exposing consumers who had strong identification with a company to moderately negative publicity was found to result in less negative corporate associations than for consumers who had relatively weak identification. In contrast, consumers’ levels of identification did not affect reactions to extremely negative information, resulting in equally negative corporate associations for those with strong versus weak consumer-company identification. Thus, strong identification mitigates the effects of moderately negative publicity but does not attenuate the effects of extremely negative publicity. Consumers’ perceptions of and thoughts regarding negative information about a company partially mediated the effect of identification on attitudes and behavioral intentions. Sabine A. Einwiller (sabine.einwiller@fhso.ch) is a lecturer and researcher at the University of Applied Sciences Northwestern Switzerland. She worked on this research as a visiting scholar at the University of Southern California, visiting from the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland, where she received her Ph.D. She has published in journals such as theJournal of Consumer Psychology and thePersonality and Social Psychology Bulletin. Her research interests include causes and the measurement of corporate reputation and stakeholder-company identification. Alexander Fedorikhin (sfedorik@iupui.edu) is an associate professor in the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University. His research focuses on the intersection of affect and cognition in consumer decision making. He has published in such journals as theJournal of Consumer Research, theJournal of Consumer Psychology, andOrganizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes. Allison R. Johnson (ajohnson@business.queensu.ca) is an assistant professor of marketing in Queen’s School of Business, Queen’s University. She received her Ph.D. from the Marshall School of Business, University of Southern California. Her research interests include corporate social responsibility, customer-company identification, and consumer emotion. Michael A. Kamins (mkamins@marshall.usc.edu) is an associate professor at the University of Southern California, Marshall School of Business. Dr. Kamins’s current research interests he in pricing strategy in the context of online auctions as well as in the impact of color on consumers’ perceptions of products. He has published over 40 academic articles and proceedings in major academic journals, including theJournal of Marketing, theJournal of Marketing Research, theJournal of Consumer Research, theJournal of Consumer Psychology, theJournal of Advertising, and theJournal of Advertising Research.     

An examination of consumer sentiment toward offshored services

This research identifies and analyzes the underlying elements and consequences of consumer sentiment toward offshored services. This is accomplished by initially conceptualizing consumer sentiment toward offshored services, then developing and validating a multi-dimensional scale (OFFSERVSENT) to measure the construct. This research determines that consumer sentiment toward offshored services is instrumental in explaining consumers’ commitment to and global attitudes toward firms that offshore services as well as consumers’ word-of-mouth behavior. The strength of these relationships varies depending upon the type of service being offshored. The results of this research contribute to the study of services offshoring, an emerging and fertile area of research for the services and marketing disciplines, and provide practitioners with increased knowledge regarding offshoring decisions.     

Low price signal default: an empirical investigation of its consequences

Low-price guarantees (LPG) signal the market position of a seller’s offer price and promise to compensate consumers in case that information is erroneous. In this research, we demonstrate that when retailers default on the information provided by an LPG, consumer perceptions of the retailer suffer, but the extent of the damage depends on the conditions associated with the default. On the basis of attribution theory, we posit that consumers may attribute default to the retailer’s opportunism but emphasize this attribution differently in various default conditions. Furthermore, we show that the restoration of consumer perceptions after a refund depends on consumers’ focus in terms of the signal itself. If they consider the protective, compensatory function of a low price signal, their post-refund outcomes are more favorable; when they focus on the informational function, these outcomes are less favorable. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of these findings.

Consumer and provider expectations and experiences in evaluating professional service quality

Providers of professional services have recently awakened to consumer challenges, competition and the realities of marketing. Looking at the expectations and experiences of providers and consumers can provide special insight into the services evaluation process and perceived service quality. By evaluating both professionals’ and consumers’ perspectives, differences in perceptions can be identified and characterized. Inconsistencies in perceptions between two parties to an exchange may result in dissatisfaction, while positive consistencies in these assessments aid in building on-going relationships.     

Protecting relational assets: a pre and post field study of a horizontal business combination

A variety of theoretical frameworks including social exchange theory, relational exchange theory, and contracting theory are used to investigate how to protect relational assets in a marketing channel when an upstream horizontal business combination between key suppliers arises. In this study, we ascertain downstream channel members’ perceptions of a supplier’s horizontal business combination both prior to and after such a combination. Our findings indicate that a normative contract breach resulting from a horizontal business combination influences downstream channel members by reducing their performance, decreasing their satisfaction, and increasing their likelihood of exiting the channel. Consequently, both the relational assets of the upstream supplier and their downstream customers are harmed. Importantly, these influences can be partially offset through the moderating effect of channel identification.     

Corporate social responsibility: attributions,loyalty, and the mediating role of trust

This study investigates whether consumers’ perceptions of motives influence their evaluation of corporate social responsibility (CSR) efforts. The study reveals the mediating role of consumer trust in CSR evaluation frameworks; managers should monitor consumer trust, which seems to be an important subprocess regulating the effect of consumer attributions on patronage and recommendation intentions. Further, managers may allay the negative effects of profit-motivated giving by doing well on service quality perceptions. On the other hand, appropriately motivated giving continues to positively affect trust regardless of the performance of the firm on service quality provision.     

论欧元对世界经济的影响

重点探讨今后欧元对世界经济的影响 ,认为 :欧元会大大降低欧元区内部的交易成本 ,促进区内的生产、贸易和投资 ,有利于区内国家物价的稳定以及提高欧元区国家在国际经济竞争中的地位等 ;欧元将对国际货币体系、国际贸易等产生深远影响 ,对世界经济一体化的发展起到积极的推动作用 ;同时 ,欧元也将对中国的外贸、外汇储备、中国金融国际化以及中欧双边投资等产生影响。     

The moderating role of the price frame on the effects of price range and the number of Competitors on consumers’ search intentions

The Internet and Internet shopping agents (ISAs) are likely to have a substantial impact on the way consumers shop and conduct price searches. This article examines how the price frame (the relative position of a retailer’s price presented by ISAs) moderates the effects of the price range and the number of competitors carrying a product on consumers’ search intentions. Building on prospect theory and range theory, the authors predicted that the effects of price range and the number of competitors on consumers’ search intentions would be more pronounced in a negative price frame than in a positive price frame. The results of two experiments provide support for these predictions. Dhruv Grewal (dgrewal@babson.edu), Ph.D., is the Toyota Chair in Commerce and Electronic Business and a Professor of Marketing at Babson College. He is currently co-editor ofJournal of Retailing (2001-present). His research and teaching interests focus on e-business, retailing, global marketing, pricing, and value-based marketing strategies. He has published over 65 articles in journals such asJournal of Marketing, Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of Retailing, and Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science. He cochaired the 1993 AMS Conference, the 1998 Winter AMA Conference, and the 2001 AMA Doctoral consortium. He will be cochairing the AMA 2006 Summer Educator’s Conference. Joan Lindsey-Mullikin (jmullikin@babson.edu), Ph.D., is an assistant professor of marketing at Babson College. Her research and teaching interests focus on pricing, retailing, and consumer behavior. She has published in journals such asJournal of Retailing, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Consumer Affairs, Journal of Social Psychology, andJournal of Product and Brand Management. She serves on the review board ofJournal of Product and Brand Management.     

Building corporate associations: Consumer attributions for corporate socially responsible programs

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is often used as a key criterion in gauging corporate reputation. This research examined the influence of consumers’ attributions on corporate outcomes in response to CSR. Researchers and managers have considered consumers’ beliefs about CSR initiatives to be simplistic, serving either economic ends or reflecting sincere social concerns. The results of two studies established that consumers’ attributions were more complex than traditionally viewed, mirroring many of the motives ascribed to companies by managers and researchers. Rather than viewing corporate efforts along a self- or other-centered continuum, consumers differentiated four types of motives: self-centered motives that are strategic and egoistic and other-centered motives that are values driven and stakeholder driven. Consumers responded most positively to CSR efforts they judged as values driven and strategic while responding negatively to efforts perceived as stakeholder driven or egoistic. Attributions were shown to affect purchase intent as well as mediate the structure of an offer. Pam Scholder Ellen (pellen@gsu.edu) is an associate professor of marketing at the Robinson College of Business at Georgia State University. Her research focuses on perceptual biases in the way consumers respond to marketplace offers, particularly in the public policy arena. In addition to theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, her research has been published in theJournal of Consumer Research, theJournal of Public Policy & Marketing, theJournal of Consumer Affairs, and theJournal of Retailing. Deborah J. Webb (dwebb@westga.edu) is an assistant professor of marketing at the Richards College of Business at the University of West Georgia. Her research interests include consumers’ responses to prosocial corporate behaviors, marketing and society issues, and donation behavior. Her research has been published in theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, theJournal of Retailing, theJournal of Public Policy & Marketing, theJournal of Consumer Affairs, andMarketing Education Review, among others. Lois A. Mohr is a retired associate professor of marketing from the Robinson College of Business at Georgia State University. Her research interests focus on consumer responses to corporate social responsibility and services marketing. She has published in theJournal of Marketing, theJournal of Retailing, theJournal ofBusiness Research, the Journal of Public Policy & Marketing, theJournal of Consumer Affairs, and theJournal of Services Marketing.     

农村居民应用和推广清洁能源意愿影响因素研究——采用江西省695份样本数据的经验分析

积极应用和推广清洁能源是实现乡村生态宜居的必然要求。将农村居民应用和推广清洁能源的意愿分为使用意愿、投资意愿、购买意愿和人际促进意愿,采用对江西省农村居民的695份调研问卷数据,运用多元有序Probit模型分别对4种意愿的影响因素及层次结构进行分析,结果表明：农村居民的环境责任感、行为控制感知、清洁能源知识对4种意愿均有显著正向影响,家中有60岁以上老人对使用意愿、投资意愿和购买意愿有显著正向影响,环境价值观对使用意愿和人际促进意愿有显著正向影响,婚姻状况对使用意愿有显著正向影响,从众心理对投资意愿有显著正向影响,清洁能源示范县、效用感知对人际促进意愿有显著正向影响,而行为便利对投资意愿有显著负向影响。     

The effects of perceived scarcity on consumers’ processing of price information

This research examines how perceived scarcity influences consumers’ processing of price information. To explain the effects of scarcity, a conceptual framework which incorporates both the motivational and the interference effects of scarcity on information processing is developed. The results from two studies show that under scarcity, consumers’ perceptions of quality and monetary sacrifice exhibit different response patterns, depending on the relative price level and consumers’ motivation to process information. We provide insights into how these perceptions of quality and sacrifice are integrated to form perceptions of value. Additional analyses of thought measures provided further understanding of the underlying processes that influenced the evaluation of price information under scarcity.