A Problem Ignored: Dilution and Negation of Consumer Information by Antifactual Content

Current conceptions of consumer information do not consider types that may dilute or detract from facts available to consumers about products and services. The article discusses the nature and incidence of such antifactual content, identifies research and public policy that ignores the content but could benefit from recognizing it, and describes a role for the content in conceptualizing and better assessing consumer information, in order to provide researchers, regulators, advertisers, and consumers with more accurate evaluations.     

Local Consumer Information Systems for Services: A Test

This paper reports on a survey of consumers' experiences with local services firms that was conducted by the Montgomery County, Maryland Office of Consumer Affairs and supported by an FTC grant. Over 1,200 individuals evaluated auto repair, heating and air conditioning, home remodeling, roofing, and insulation contracting firms on three dimensions: satisfaction with work performed, price in relation to quality, and strength of recommendation. Results for the heating and air conditioning category were published and widely disseminated.     

试论信息非对称条件下的消费者主权保护

消费者主权是现代市场经济的基本特征和维护市场机制高效运行的重要保障。但由于消费信息的非对称而使消费者主权受到了诸多损害,从而不利于市场机制的高效运作和市场经济的健康发展。为此,应分析消费信息非对称对消费者主权造成的损害,采取有效措施,保护消费者主权,促进经济健康发展。     

Correlates of Consumer Information Search for Professional Services

No abstract available for this article.     

Unequal Pricing in the Information Economy: Implications for Consumer Welfare

This article presents an economic analysis of information good pricing and consumer welfare, and discusses the implications of price discrimination in the information economy. It argues that network externalities, coupled with information asymmetry, enable a dominant marketer to price unequally, extracting late adopters surplus to compensate for the loss from early adopters. In the short term, the minority early adopters benefit by paying less, but in the long term, the majority late adopters suffer by paying more. Considering that late adopters are likely to be at a disadvantage in resources, this discriminatory pricing amounts to the poor subsidizing the rich. Based on this analysis, implications for consumer welfare are discussed.     

Information,Incentives, and Proenvironmental Consumer Behavior

The article discusses the factors influencing proenvironmental consumer behaviors and the policy implications of knowledge about these influences. It presents a conceptual framework that emphasizes the determining roles of both personal and contextual factors and especially of their interactions. The practical usefulness of the framework is illustrated by evidence of the interactive effects of information and material incentives – typical interventions in the personal and contextual domains, respectively. The author concludes that incentives and information have different functions, so that efforts focused on only one are sometimes misplaced; however, properly deployed, they can have synergistic effects on behavior. Some policy conclusions are drawn for consumer and environmental policy.     

Using Content Analysis to Examine Consumer Behaviors Portrayed on Television: A Pilot Study in a Consumer Education Context

The purpose of this study was to explore the potential of content analysis methodology for clarifying the nature of one agent of consumer socialization, prime-time television. The results indicated that the consumer-related content of prime-time television programs can be identified with this technique and that it may be useful in studying a variety of issues in consumer affairs. Special issues that should be considered in using the methodology are outlined, as are some promising avenues for future research concerning the socialization of consumers.     

Business Ethics: Practical Proposals for Organisations

A review of ethical literature demonstrates that the material presented to date is largely based upon theoretical and empirical research. While this information has contributory value, the information produced is largely observational rather than practical. Managers are anxious to receive assistance with the mechanisms by which ethics can be integrated into their organisations. Utilising the recent experience of the author with a large utility company in Asia committed to developing an ethical programme to enhance ethical awareness in their organisation, this paper intends to review current systems and procedures available to managers for integrating ethics into business. In addition to reviewing mechanisms for promoting an ethical climate, where appropriate, reference will be made to prior research and specific organisations where these practices have been used successfully. The paper concludes with a set of summary recommendations for managers embarking on the introduction of an ethical programme to their organisation.     

Business Ethics: Practical Proposals for Organisations

A review of ethical literature demonstrates that the materialpresented to date is largely based upon theoretical and empiricalresearch. While this information has contributory value, theinformation produced is largely observational rather thanpractical. Managers are anxious to receive assistance with themechanisms by which ethics can be integrated into theirorganisations. Utilising the recent experience of the authorwith a large utility company in Asia committed to developing an ethical programme to enhance ethical awareness in theirorganisation, this paper intends to review current systems andprocedures available to managers for integrating ethics intobusiness. In addition to reviewing mechanisms for promoting anethical climate, where appropriate, reference will be made toprior research and specific organisations where these practiceshave been used successfully.The paper concludes with a set of summary recommendations formanagers embarking on the introduction of an ethical programme totheir organisation.     

Pointing Out Differences: Consumer Evaluations of Comparative Information Across Product Types

The purpose of this study is to investigate the impacts of comparative claims across search and experience product types. Data was obtained from 159 Taiwanese college students. Results reveal that comparative claims used in blogs (compared to those in print ads) produce lower counterarguments and consumers more easily accept claims made on a blog. Comparative claims lead to higher brand attitude and purchase intention for search products on the blog; however, noncomparative ads lead to higher brand attitude and purchase intention for experience products on the blog. For both search and experience products, there is no significant difference.     

Consumer Religiosity: Consequences for Consumer Activism in the United States

In recent times, organizations have experienced consumer backlash as a result of decisions to support controversial causes. To date, little research has attempted to explain consumers’ negative response as a function of religion. This study addresses that gap in the literature and examines consumer religious commitment and Christian consumers’ conservative beliefs in the United States as motivating factors for consumer activist behavior and boycott participation. Findings from a national sample of 531 consumers suggest that consumers evaluate seller’s actions and form ethical judgments. These judgments are a major explanatory variable in consumers’ voice complaints, third-party complaint intentions, and boycott intentions.     

为展会提供一体化信息技术解决方案——专访浙江控控科技股份有限公司CEO刘永亮

浙江控控科技股份有限公司作为一家集渠道分销、零售连锁、网络工程、技术培训、维修服务于一体的综合性IT企业,提供了公共安全管理、出入口管理系统等技术支持和规划方案,对展览和会议的组织工作十分重要,不仅可以区分不同群体,还能实现对门禁的区域管理、时间段管理、人员权限管理、反潜及防尾随等复杂功能。     

An Information Processing Interpretation of Cross-National Consumer Characteristics

The identification of a valid interpretation of the similarities and differences in the behavior of consumers in different nations is impossible without a comprehensive theory of consumer behavior that explicitly takes into account differences in the characteristics of the consumer, the marketplace, the social environment, and the physical environment of these nations. Newell and Simon's version of information processing theory is advocated as the one theory that is capable of providing a solution to this basic problem of cross-national research.     

会计盈余信息含量与股利信息含量关系的实证研究

2001年以后,我国证券市场制度建设不断推进,对投资者利益的保护日益受到广泛重视,上市公司的现金股利政策发生了显著变化。同时,我国上市公司的盈利信息和股利信息是同时公布的,因此有必要对上市公司的现金股利信息含量,以及会计盈余信息含量与股利信息含量的确证效应进行检验。实证结果发现:现金股利的变动与股价变动正相关,股利信息具有信息含量;盈利信息与股利信息之间具有一定的确证效应,但投资者不能根据股利信息判断企业未来盈利状况。     

Consumer profiles section: Consumer profiles for conventional bed and waterbed owners in Canada

This study examines consumer profile data on waterbed and conventional bed consumers. Five hundred conventional and waterbed consumers in Canada were randomly selected from two national lists of waterbed/mattress purchasers from 1981 to the present. A 73-item questionnaire was sent by mail to all of the selected respondents. The cover letter stated the purpose of the project; to study why people bought the bed that they are presently using. One hundred and sixty-two completed, useable questionnaires were returned, yielding a response rate of 37%. Following a series of multivariate analyses, a consumer profile for the two bed users was developed. Both groups tended to be married. The conventional bed consumers had: (a) either no children or one child at home; (b) a mean age of 44; and, (c) an average income in the $30,000-$40,000 range. Waterbed consumers had: (a) a mean age of 36, (b) one child living at home; and, (c) an average income in the $20,000-$30,000 range. On the Adorno F scale, the conventional bed user was found to be more conservative and authoritarian as compared to the waterbed user. The results did not support the notion that waterbed users are abnormally sexually-oriented or “kinky”. For both groups, the price paid for the purchased bed fell in the $600 to $650 range. Implications for retailers were discussed.     

Quantity of Information and Information Display Type as Predictors of Consumer Choice of Product Brands

Research has shown that consumers like large quantities of product information and believe that it helps them to make better purchase decisions. In light of this finding, it is quite possible that consumers might make brand choice decisions based on the amount of information provided. In cases where brands differ in amount of information, consumers may choose those brands that provide the most information. This article reports the results of exploratory research designed to examine this question as well as the effects of two information display types on brand choice in situations of varying information quantity. The findings revealed evidence to support the hypothesized consumer preference for high-information brands over low-information brands. The magnitude of the effect was also found to differ by type of information display.     

Consumer Attitudes toward and use of Advertising Content in a Small Daily Newspaper

Results of the study indicate that the advertising content of the newspaper in the present study is viewed as local news by its subscribers and consequently has the highest readership of any type of content in this paper. While it was assumed that the advertising content of this newspaper would be well-read, the magnitude of readership and reader-interest in advertising was surprising.

In regard to questions concerning the reader's attitude toward the amount of advertising carried by the newspaper under study, it was found that rather than feeling there was too much advertising in the paper, the majority felt that it was either “just right” or that they wanted more advertising in the future.

This article is based in part on a paper presented for the Advertising Division at the Association for Education in Journalism convention in Ottawa, Canada, August 16–20, 1975.     

Media Mergers with Preference Externalities and Their Implications for Content Diversity,Consumer Welfare,and Policy

One of the primary concerns regarding media mergers involves their potential adverse effect on content/viewpoint diversity. This paper presents a formal treatment of the influence that within-group consumer preference externalities over media content have on a media outlet’s incentive to engage in product repositioning both before and after merging with another media outlet. We first present a model of consumer behavior under preference externalities and derive aggregate consumer expenditure functions for media output. It is shown that even assuming the merged entity sets a uniform price and content mix across market areas, the relative access to some minority (majority) group subscribers will increase (decrease) post-merger (and vice versa). We derive sufficient conditions under which the merged entity will in fact have an incentive to homogenize its post-merger price/content mix. And while the post-merger repositioning effects arguably suggest the consumer welfare implications of such mergers are ambiguous a priori, it is posited that the observed idiosyncratic preferences for media content among demographic groups may translate into significant losses to consumer welfare in some instances and may also adversely affect some individuals’ participation in civil affairs, such as voting. Finally, the relation of the model to previous empirical work on media mergers and diversity, and the potential for non-traditional policy interventions to offset the competitive harms of such transactions, are also discussed.