Exploring the impact of online privacy disclosures on consumer trust

We explore the impact of privacy disclosures on online shoppers’ trust in an e-tailer through a two-phase study. In the first study, we use a between-subjects factorial design to test whether the presence of an online privacy policy influences consumer trust and find that consumers are likely to respond more favorably to a shopping site with a clearly stated privacy message than to one without it, especially when privacy risk is high. In our second experiment, we examine the effects of different forms of privacy disclosures. The results suggest that online shoppers find a short, straightforward privacy statement more comprehensible than a lengthy, legalistic one. However, how a privacy policy is presented (in terms of wording) does not affect a shopper's trust in the store to any significant degree.     

Corporate social responsibilities,consumer trust and corporate reputation: South Korean consumers' perspectives

This study proposes and tests a model of corporate social responsibility (CSR) that specifies relationships among (1) four categories of CSR initiatives as independent variables, (2) three types of consumer trust as mediating variables, and (3) corporate reputation as the dependent variable. Results show that the firm's fulfillment of economic and legal CSR initiatives had a direct positive effect on corporate reputation, whereas neither ethical nor philanthropic CSR initiatives did. In the CSR-trust link, economic performances fostered consumer expertise trust, legal and ethical CSR activities affected integrity trust, and philanthropic CSR activities influenced social benevolence trust in the firm. This study confirms that all three types of trust partially or fully mediate the effect of the four CSR initiatives on corporate reputation. This outcome indicates that CSR activities create and nurture consumers' trust in the company, which will, in turn, bring about consumers' positive or improved perceptions of the firm.     

Information technology and consumer behavior in travel and tourism: Insights from travel planning using the internet

Sustaining business success hinges upon a firm׳s ability to understand and capitalize on consumer behavior trends. Synthesizing information from a variety of sources, this paper discusses the nature of use of the Internet by American travelers. In general, the adoption of the Internet has reached a level of saturation and some traditional channels such as online travel agencies (OTAs) continue to dominate travel planning. While traditional means of Internet use for travel planning appears to be widespread across all customer segments, higher-order Internet uses (i.e., social media) are now prevalent among some segments, particularly among travelers of Generation Y. Also, there seems to be an important bifurcation in the traveler population in that the traditional online consumers remain unchanged with their pattern of use of online tools while sizable groups are adopting emergent information sources and transaction channels. This article details the particulars of these trends and offers managerial implications and future research directions.     

Consumer Support Networks: assessment of need for consumer information and advice service

Research evidence suggests that UK consumers are facing significant problems with goods and services and are in need of information and advice to avoid or redress such situations. Consumers are not always aware of their rights nor where they can access consumer advice services. In 2000, the Department of Trade and Industry launched the Consumer Support Network (CSN) programme in Great Britain to improve consumer access to expert, accurate and timely advice. One challenge faced by these Networks and many other agencies is to assess the needs of consumers for consumer information and advice services. A needs assessment is required as a key element in the effective planning and development of services in each Network at a local level. The focus of the needs assessment at the local level is to encourage Networks to consider suitable solutions to meet the needs of people in their communities. This paper provides a review of the development of Consumer Support Networks in Great Britain and discusses the importance of needs assessment to service providers such as CSNs and other agencies. It reveals the complexity associated with conducting effective needs assessments including the various aspects of needs, consumer segmentation and characteristics of consumer information and advice. Further research is being carried out at Queen Margaret University College, UK, with a view to the development of a scientific model for the assessment of need for consumer information and advice services.     

Privacy, property rights and efficiency: The economics of privacy as secrecy

There is a long history of governmental efforts to protect personal privacy and strong debates about the merits of such policies. A central element of privacy is the ability to control the dissemination of personally identifiable data to private parties. Posner, Stigler, and others have argued that privacy comes at the expense of allocative efficiency. Others have argued that privacy issues are readily resolved by proper allocation of property rights to control information. Our principal findings challenge both views. We find: (a) privacy can be efficient even when there is no “taste” for privacy per se, and (b) to be effective, a privacy policy may need to ban information transmission or use rather than simply assign individuals control rights to their personally identifiable data.

北京老字号品牌消费心理与消费行为研究

面对经济的快速发展,曾经在中华大地上风光无限的一些＂中华老字号＂品牌逐步走向衰弱。老字号品牌日渐式微究竟是出自内因还是出自外因呢？本项目组为了了解老字号品牌的生存现状,替老字号把脉并探寻重振之路,以老字号集中度较高的北京＂中华老字号＂作为研究对象,针对消费者进行了问卷调查。从认知、消费、偏好、品牌传播等方面出发,试图发掘出针对新时代消费者的老字号品牌重振方略。     

Culture, product type, and price influences on consumer purchase intention to buy personalized products online

With personalization, consumers can choose from various product attributes and a customized product is assembled based on their preferences. Marketers often offer personalization on websites. This paper investigates consumer purchase intentions toward personalized products in an online selling situation.The research builds and tests three hypotheses: (1) intention to purchase personalized products will be affected by individualism, uncertainty avoidance, power distance, and masculinity dimensions of a national culture; (2) consumers will be more likely to buy personalized search products than experience products; and (3) intention to buy a personalized product will not be influenced by price premiums up to some level. Results indicate that individualism is the only culture dimension to have a significant effect on purchase intention. Product type and individualism by price interaction also have a significant effect, whereas price does not. Major findings and implications are discussed.     

The influence of culture,emotions, intangibility,and atmospheric cues on online behavior

This paper examines how emotions and website atmospheric cues influence service tangibility and consumer attitudes. The proposed model was compared across three cultures: North America (Canada and U.S.), China, and the Middle East. The findings support the overall model and demonstrate several non-invariant paths across the groups. Particularly, the results suggest how the influences of two emotional dimensions (pleasure and dominance) on consumer perceptions of site atmospherics vary across cultures. Moreover, the effects of service tangibility dimensions (physical tangibility, specificity, and mental tangibility) on consumers' attitudes toward the website and service vary significantly across the three cultures. Mental tangibility has the greatest influence on North American customers' attitudes, while physical tangibility and specificity have the greatest impact on Chinese and Middle Eastern customers' attitudes, respectively.     

Effects of pricing and promotion on consumer perceptions: it depends on how you frame it

This research examined the extent to which different promotional frames increased perceptions of deal value. Price discounts dominate the sales promotions employed by marketers. The framing literature suggests discounts have robust positive effects on consumer perceptions of deal value. However, the current research showed that negative quality inferences moderated discount framing effects and undermined deal value, particularly when no assurance of product quality was provided. Every-day-low-price offers were also vulnerable to negative quality inferences, while free gift frames maintained quality perceptions and increased deal value. Product trial acted to further magnify promotional framing effects, according to a confirmation bias. These findings were consistent with an attribute framing mechanism.     

How to reduce perceived risk when buying online: The interactions between intangibility,product knowledge,brand familiarity,privacy and security concerns

This paper studies how product intangibility and its moderators affect perceived risk in an online shopping setting. The moderators studied were brand familiarity, product knowledge, privacy concerns and security concerns. Student samples performed online experimental tests, wherein product intangibility was manipulated. The findings indicate that both mental intangibility and physical intangibility increased perceived risk. Mental tangibility had more impact over perceived risk than physical tangibility. This study is the first to show how intangibility, product knowledge, brand familiarity, privacy and security concerns interact and affect perceived risk. Previous studies did not have the opportunity to observe the interactions of these relevant dimensions, thus not identifying which one would have a stronger effect over the perceived risk of buying online. In short, we found that when interacting with intangibility security and privacy concerns increase perceived risk to the same degree. On the other hand, product knowledge reduces the perceived risk more than brand familiarity.     

Influences of online store perception,shopping enjoyment,and shopping involvement on consumer patronage behavior towards an online retailer

Online apparel retailers have adopted various types of image interactivity technology (IIT), such as close-up pictures or zoom-in functions, mix-and-match functions, and 3D virtual models to enhance consumers’ online shopping experience. The purpose of the present study was to examine the influence of level of IIT on consumer perception of online retail environment, shopping enjoyment, shopping involvement, a desire to stay, and patronage intention. Significant structural relationships between these research variables were found, supporting a pleasure-oriented conceptual model of consumer patronage behavior in the online retailing environment. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed.     

Time, attention, authenticity and consumer benefits of the Web

This article addresses three potential consumer behavior tendencies: perceived time scarcity, competition for consumers' attention, and quest for authenticity. It also reviews prior research results on consumer benefits of the Web, which include convenience, time savings, ease of use, cost savings, and selection of items. The most prevalent consumer concerns are safety, waiting time, and loss of human interaction. This paper concludes that both time and attention are closely related to measurable attributes of interactive environments, while the ideals of authenticity may influence behavior less directly.     

An empirical test of the Theory of Sales: Do household storage constraints affect consumer and store behavior?

We revisit and test Salop and Stiglitz (1982) Theory of Sales. Equilibrium comparative static predictions are that greater consumer storage constraints lead to: (1) higher average prices, (2) fewer promotions, and (3) shallower promotions. In equilibrium, price dispersion is nonlinear in storage constraints, first increasing then decreasing. Empirical estimates of storage constraints are developed for approximately 1,000 households using the American Housing Survey (1989), United States Census (1990), and Stanford Market Basket Database (1991–1993). We find consumers with greater storage constraints shop more often and purchase smaller quantities per visit; moreover, the comparative static predictions are supported and evidence consistent with the equilibrium dispersion prediction is observed. Estimated quantitative effects are economically important. JEL Classification D12 · D40 · M3     

Opportunities for active stock-out management in online stores: The impact of the stock-out policy on online stock-out reactions

This paper investigates the impact of an online retailer's stock-out policy on consumers’ category purchase and choice decisions. We investigate three different policies: (1) stock-outs are immediately visible and there are no replacement suggestions, (2) stock-outs are only visible after purchase attempts and (3) stock-outs are immediately visible but a replacement item is suggested. Results from an online grocery shopping experiment reveal that the adopted stock-out policy has a significant impact on both decisions. Making stock-outs not immediately visible creates confusion and intensifies the consumer's loss experience, thereby reducing the tendency to buy in the category. Suggesting a replacement item, in contrast, facilitates the substitution decision and slightly reduces the purchase cancellation rate. It also substantially increases the suggested item's choice probability. Yet, this effect disappears when higher-priced - suspicious - items are suggested. Overall, these results indicate that online grocery retailers have an interest in pursuing open and convenience-oriented stock-out policies.     

Replicating,validating, and reducing the length of the consumer perceived value scale

This research reports an assessment of Sweeney and Soutar's (2001) consumer perceived value (PERVAL) scale. The PERVAL scale contains four dimensions: quality, emotional, price, and social values. The present study develops and evaluates two short forms of the original 19-item PERVAL scale based on Sweeney and Soutar's (2001) original data and three other studies in two different countries. In comparison with the full scale, the short 12-item and 8-item forms have equally good dimensional properties and equivalent predictive validity. The discussion includes implications, both for research and for retail managers.     

Narrative and metacognition as consumer mystery: A comment on Hill, Gaines, and Wilson and animal companions

Hill, Gaines, and Wilson [Hill RP, Gaines, J, Wilson RM. Consumer behavior, extended self, and sacred consumption: An alternative perspective from our animal companions, J Bus Res this issue.] provide us with a stimulating, moving account of consumers' relationships with their animal companions while ostensibly taking the latter's point of view. However, even though their approach likely reflects the viewpoint of many consumers and has value as fable or metaphor, I suggest, based on insights from comparative psychology and ethology, that greater metacognitive understanding of animal consciousness could produce fuller narratives as well as better reflecting consumer mystery. In concluding, I encourage readers to explore the dynamics of their own human-animal mystery through an introspective exercise.     

Advertising time expansion, compression, and cognitive processing influences on consumer acceptance of message and brand

This article examines the nature of consumer process involvement and cognitive processing of advertising content as mediating variables between commercial message executions (e.g., broadcast time compression and expansion and using broadcast versus print media) on attitude and behavioral intentions. The article proposes a framework that builds on the prior work of Krugman, Wright, and MacInnis and colleagues; the framework includes hypotheses of an advertising execution and processing involvement interaction effect on cognitive processing of commercial messages and a substantial direct effect of cognitive processing on attitude and behavioral intention. The article includes details of an experiment testing hypotheses in the framework. The findings provide strong support of the hypotheses. Implications for advertising strategy include adopting a conservative view on the use of time compression in advertising commercials and nurturing low consumer processing involvement of commercial messages.     

Country-of-origin, animosity and consumer response: Marketing implications of anti-Americanism and Francophobia

Anti-Americanism and Francophobia express a consistent hostility toward the government, culture, history or people of the US and France or the Francophonie (the global community of French-speaking peoples). This study explores interactions between country-of-origin (COO) effects and animosity expressed through anti-Americanism and Francophobia through analysis of scholarly studies, several decades of articles from the general and online press in the US and France, and ethnographic fieldwork in France and the US results reveal interesting inconsistencies and variability in national expressions of consumer animosity and response to COO cues over the time of the study, underlining the need for further longitudinal study of animosity, COO effects and consumer response. Implications of findings are examined with reference to theory development, marketing practice, and public policy.     

Linking corporate logo,corporate image,and reputation: An examination of consumer perceptions in the financial setting

This study aims to fill a gap in marketing studies concerning the effect of a logo on consumer evaluations. The research addresses two questions: (1) what are the factors that influence the favorability of the corporate logo; and (2) what are the main influences of this favorability on corporate image and corporate reputation? The favorability of a corporate logo is reflected by the extent to which consumers positively regard that logo. The findings from the consumers' perspectives in the context of a financial setting, suggest that the main factors that bear influence on a favorable corporate logo (antecedents) are: corporate name, design, and typeface. The findings reveal the importance of the company's corporate logo in enhancing the corporate image, attitude toward advertisements, recognizability, familiarity, and corporate reputation. Key implications for managers and researchers are highlighted.