Determinants of Consumer’s Willingness to Purchase Gray-Market Smartphones

The study analyzes the influential factors of consumers’ willingness to purchase gray-market smartphones by considering the model of novelty seeking, status consumption, integrity, and perceived risk. Attitude toward counterfeit is used as mediation in the model. The causalities in the model of problematic willingness of consumer to purchase gray-market smartphones are hypothesized. A total sample of 350 respondents with 238 effective samples is collected by interviewing with questionnaires at the service counters of telecommunications operators. Structure equation modeling (SEM) is adopted in the analysis. Consumers’ attitude toward counterfeit goods is found to be positively related to the willingness of consumers to purchase gray-market smartphones, but perceived risk is negatively related to consumers’ willingness to purchase. As for personality constructs, integrity and status consumption are found to be negatively related to consumers’ attitude toward counterfeit goods, but novelty seeking is positively related to the attitude. Further, managerial implications for branded smartphone manufacturers and telecommunications regulators are provided by the research.     

Relational Consequences of Perceived Deception in Online Shopping: The Moderating Roles of Type of Product,Consumer’s Attitude Toward the Internet and Consumer’s Demographics

Appropriate enablers are essential for management of intellectual capital. Through the use of structural equation modeling, we investigate whether organic renewal environments, interactive behaviors, and trust are conducive to intellectual capital management processes, as they each depend upon the establishment of a climate emphasizing mutual respect. Owing to a lack of clarity in the literature, we tested the ordering of the variables and found statistical significance for two ordering alternatives. However, the sequence presented in this article provides the best statistical fit: an organic renewal environment provides a foundation for interactive behaviors, which leads to trust, and thus is consistent with the development of intellectual capital management pro- cesses within the organization.     

Meaning or Sound? The Effects of Brand Name Fluency on Brand Recall and Willingness to Buy

This research argues that both meaning fluency (conceptual fluency) and sound fluency (perceptual fluency) of a brand name affect brand evaluations. Specifically, this research investigates the effects of brand name meaning and sound fluency through an application of information processing fluency theory. The results provide insight into previously unexplained findings in the brand management literature. Two experiments demonstrate that perceptually more fluent brand names lead to higher brand recall, for perceptually less fluent brands names, high conceptual fluency leads to higher brand recall and in cases of low consumer involvement, high perceptual fluency leads to higher willingness to buy.     

The Influence of Business School’s Ethical Climate on Students’ Unethical Behavior

Business schools play an instrumental role in laying the foundations for ethical behavior and socially responsible actions in the business community. Drawing on social learning and identity theories and using data collected from undergraduate business students (n = 318), we found that ethical climate was a significant predictor of unethical behavior, such that students with positive perceptions about their business school’s ethical climate were more likely to refrain from unethical behaviors. Moreover, we found that high moral and institutional identities strengthened the effect of ethical climate on unethical behavior. In addition to novel theoretical contributions to the business ethics and socio-psychology literature, this study offers practical pathways through which business schools can nurture and instill the values and behaviors that ultimately help shape positive organizational ethics. Directions for future research are provided.     

“If It’s Easy to Read,It’s Easy to Claim”—The Effect of the Readability of Insurance Contracts on Consumer Expectations and Conflict Behaviour

In the area of financial services, lawmakers and regulators increasingly promote the use of plain language in business-to-consumer contracts. Although such efforts are undoubtedly welcomed by consumers, as they promote better comprehension, not much is known about the actual effects of improved readability on consumer attitudes and cognitive processes. Does improved readability in general contract terms have an impact on the consumer’s perception of their contractual position? Do contracts that are easier to read influence the steps or actions taken by consumers in the wake of conflict? In response to these questions, we present data from an experiment that investigates the relationship between the reading ease of general contract terms on the one hand and consumer expectations and willingness to engage in conflict on the other. Our findings suggest that readability increases the trust and confidence of the consumer in the sense that it increases their expectations of the claim. Moreover, we have found partial evidence to suggest that reading ease also increases the consumer’s willingness to engage in legal action in the case of subsequent claim denial.     

The Country-of-Origin Effect and Consumer Attitudes to “Buy Local” Campaign

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to investigate the relationship between ethnocentrism of Ghanaian consumers and their attitudes toward a “buy local” campaign. Two hundred and thirty three consumers were interviewed in Cape Coast, the capital city and administrative centre of the Central region of Ghana. Data for the study were collected through interviewing using the mall intercept approach and factor analysed. Our findings show a relationship between ethnocentrism and attitudes of Ghanaian consumers toward the “buy local” campaign. Furthermore, the factor analysis results indicate that the attitudes of the Ghanaian consumers to the buy locally-made products can be characterized as protectionist, nationalistic, and self-interest. Implicitly, the consumers will buy Ghanaian-made products where they are of comparable quality and price as foreign-made products. This requires companies to ensure that their products are of high quality and prices are commensurate with quality. This study contributes to the ethnocentrism and country of origin literature pertaining to the African region, which is sorely under-researched.     

A Multidimensional Approach to the Influence of Environmental Marketing and Orientation on the Firm’s Organizational Performance

Since it implies a reduction in the quality and the quantity of the natural resources, environmental degradation is a present day problem that requires immediate solutions. This situation is driving firms to undertake an environmental transformation process with the purpose of reducing the negative externalities that come from their economic activities. Within this context, environmental marketing is an emerging business philosophy by which organizations can address sustainability issues. Moreover, environmental marketing and orientation are seen as valuable strategies to improve a firm’s competitiveness. However, the literature that has analyzed the link between environmental strategies and firms’ results has been inconclusive and contradictory. In this study, we propose and test a model that analyses how the implementation of ecological issues within a firm’s marketing strategy and orientation influences organizational results. Data were obtained through a survey sent to Spanish manufacturing firms. The results show that environmental marketing positively affects firms’ operational and commercial performance and this improvement will influence their economic results. Moreover, environmental marketing is revealed as an excellent strategy to obtain competitive advantages in costs and in product differentiation. Thus, this study agrees with the researchers who affirm that environmental strategies positively affect firm’s competitiveness while reducing environmental impact.     

The Importance of the Indirect Transfer Mechanism for Consumer Willingness to Pay for Fair Trade Products—Evidence from a Natural Field Experiment

A natural field experiment is conducted on the determinants of consumer’s willingness to pay for “fair trade” (FT) products. In four treatments, subjects are offered different choices in connection with a coffee purchase, such as buying regular coffee or FT coffee at a premium, regular coffee with or without a premium, or donating directly or not donating. Depending on the treatment, the premium or direct donations are either given to FT or a well-known charity. A large part of the willingness to pay a premium for FT coffee over regular coffee is shown to be not related to the specific attributes of FT coffee but rather caused by the indirect transfer mechanism that FT uses, i.e., selling products at a premium which goes to the cause of FT.     

The Influence of an Organisation’s Corporate Values on Employees Personal Buying Behaviour

This article explores the influence that an organisation’s corporate values have on employees’ behaviour and values both within and outside the work environment. In particular, it focuses on the impact of these values on the personal buying behaviour of employees. The empirical research was undertaken within a case study organisation that produces wine in Spain and involved interviews with senior management, an analysis of company documentation, as well as group discussions with employees supported by an employee survey. The article argues that an organisation’s corporate values influence not only its employees’ behaviour within the work environment, but also impacts on their global values system outside of the work environment. In particular, this was evident within the employees’ buying behaviour practices in relation to supplier loyalty and environmental concern. This has implications for business ethics as an organisation’s value system may go beyond the purely business context. Organisations need to be aware of their impact on employees’ behaviour outside of the work environment; this is particularly the case for multinational companies working across many cultures.     

The Impact of Cause Branding on Consumer Reactions to Products: Does Product/Cause 'Fit' Really Matter?

This paper examines the issue of 'fit' between causes, companies, products and brands in the field of Cause Related Marketing (CRM). The linking of charitable causes and commercial ventures via their branded identities has become very widespread in the last ten years. The literature states that obtaining a good 'fit', in terms of the positioning and objectives of both product and charity, is very important to the success of CRM initiatives. However, there is no empirical support for this common assertion. This paper describes an experiment that was designed to test the assumption that 'fit' is important. The results of the experiment indicate that the degree of 'fit' between products and causes does have a significant effect on consumers' evaluations of products that carry a cause 'brand identity' as part of a CRM campaign. The results also indicate that cause cues in low involvement purchase situations create their impact by disrupting existing decision heuristics, rather than by the creation of new heuristics of assessment. This finding has implications for commercial managers when they are assessing the 'fit' and potential benefits of CRM associations.     

The Effect and the Countermeasure of Bank Financial Product on China＇s Monetary Policy

近年来,银行理财产品发展迅速,对货币政策的影响日益明显。要建立健全银行理财产品统计信息制度,完善货币政策工具,改变货币政策中介目标。     

Amending China’s Notion of a “Consumer”: Lessons from Comparative Analysis of the PRC Consumer Protection Law

Who does the law treat as a “consumer” and why does it matter? How should China’s notion of a “consumer” best be articulated within the law and applied in practice? This article will attempt to answer these intriguing questions by first focusing on the approach taken to define a “consumer” in China’s Law on the Protection of Consumer Rights and Interests before examining the legal notion of a “consumer” in comparative perspective, in order to further understand the competing rationales behind the consumer protection law. This article will explore this Chinese definition of a “consumer” to propose how China’s vague and unworkable statutory definition of a ‘consumer’ should be amended in future.

     

The Influence of Historical Socialismand Communism on the Shaping of a Society’s Economic Ethos: An Exploratory Study of Central and Eastern Europe

This study utilizes an exploratory research design to investigate the influence of historical socialism and communism on the shaping of a society’s economic ethos. The discussion of ethics and economics has a very long history across multiple disciplines including the founder of modern economics, Adam Smith. However, with the growth of economic science, academic consideration has shifted toward positive analysis while normative analysis has been left mainly to philosophers. By utilizing the newly developed Morality of Profit-Making (MPM) scale, the authors sought to understand how historical socialism and communism influences respondents’ economic ethical worldview utilizing an exploratory research design. Data were collected from respondents in the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Slovakia, Serbia, Poland, and Hungary.     

The Ethnographer’s Apprentice: Trying Consumer Culture from the Outside In

Anthropologists have long wrestled with their impact upon the people they study. Historically, the discipline has served and subverted colonial agendas, but views itself traditionally as an advocate for the disempowered and as an instrument of public policy. Marketing is now among the pre-eminent institutions of cultural stability and change at work on the planet. Currently, ethnography is assuming a growing importance in the marketer’s effort to influence the accommodation and resistance of consumers to the neocolonial forces of globalization. The ethical consequences of market-oriented ethnography are explored in this essay. John F. Sherry, Jr., Herrick Professor and Chairman of the Department of Marketing at the University of Notre Dame, is an anthropologist who studies the sociocultural and symbolic dimensions of consumption, and the cultural ecology of marketing. His work appears in numerous journals, book chapters, professional manuals and proceedings. Sherry has edited Contemporary Marketing and Consumer Behavior: An Anthropological Sourcebook, as well as Servicescapes: The Concept of Place in Contemporary Markets; he is co-editor of Advances in Consumer Research (Vol. 19), Time, Space and the Market: Retroscapes Rising, and Consumer Culture Theory.     

The Effects of Management’s Preannouncement Strategies on Investors’ Judgments of the Trustworthiness of Management

This paper examines the role of management’s earnings preannouncements on judgments about its trustworthiness by nonprofessional investors. We predict that management’s preannouncement decision and the resulting direction (e.g., favorable vs. unfavorable) of the earnings surprise influence investors’ ethical judgments about management’s trustworthiness; these judgments, in turn, are associated with investors’ other investment related judgments. We test our predictions in an experiment in which MBA students make investment-related judgments under four different preannouncement strategies. Consistent with our predictions, the results of our study show that managers’ preannouncement decisions are significantly associated with investors’ evaluations of management’s trustworthiness. Specifically, holding the size of the earnings surprise constant, we find that judgments of management’s trustworthiness are damaged more following (a) a negative as opposed to a positive earnings surprise, and (b) the release of a preannouncement compared to when management does not issue a preannouncement. Also consistent with our predictions, we find that evaluations of management’s trustworthiness are significantly and positively associated with judgments of the attractiveness of the firm’s equity as an investment. Based on our findings, we encourage further research to explore whether managers understand the trust implications associated with their preannouncement decisions and the extent to which this understanding influences their disclosure decisions. Anna M. Cianci is an Assistant Professor in the Accounting Department at Drexel University. She received her Ph.D. from Duke University in Accounting. Her primary research interests are judgement and decision making issues in financial accounting and auditing. Steve Kaplan is a Professor of Accounting at Arizona State University, where he has been a member of the faculty since 1981. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Illinois. He␣has published widely in journals such as The Accounting Review, Journal of Accounting Research, Journal of Accounting and Public Policy, Business Ethics Quarterly and Journal of Business Ethics. He is the Previous editor of Behavioral Research in Accounting, a section journal of the American Accounting Association. His primary research interests are behavioral issues, judgment and decision making, and ethics     

The Influence of Cultural Values on Perceptions of Corporate Social Responsibility: Application of Hofstede’s Dimensions to Korean Public Relations Practitioners

This study explores the relationship between Hofstede’s cultural dimensions and public relations practitioners’ perceptions of corporate social respon-sibility (CSR) in South Korea. The survey on Korean public relations practitioners revealed that, although Hofstede’s dimensions significantly affect public relations practitioners’ perceptions of CSR, social traditionalism values had more explanatory power than cultural dimensions in explaining CSR attitudes. The results suggest that practitioners’ fundamental ideas about the corporation’s role in society seem to be more important than their cultural values to understand public relations practitioners’ CSR attitudes in Korea.     

Effects of Adverse Selection on a Multinational Firm’s Decision on where to Subcontract

This paper analyses the effects of adverse selection on a multinational firm’s decision on where to subcontract. Adverse selection arises since subcontractor firms have more information than the multinational concerning their production costs. The results obtained show that adverse selection confers to subcontractor firms an advantage in their relationship with the multinational, inducing the multinational to subcontract in more than one country. In this way, adverse selection modelling outcomes justify, and are coherent with, the empirical evidence such as, the diversity of countries that multinational firms subcontract and the fast production relocation between countries.      

The Influence of an Observer’s Value Orientation and Personality Type on Attitudes Toward Whistleblowing

This study examines the influence of an observer’s value orientation and personality type on attitudes toward whistleblowing. Based on a review of the literature we generated three hypotheses to explain the relationship between these two factors and attitudes toward whistleblowing, and these were tested using data collected from 490 university students in South Korea. The survey comprises two parts, a measure of MBTI personality types, and a section assessing value orientations and attitudes toward whistleblowing. Regression analysis was conducted to clarify the influence of the independent variables. The study offers two main contributions. First, it examines what role an observer’s value orientation and personality type play in determining the attitudes. Second, it provides insights into designing customized ethical training programs and developing policy aimed at changing negative attitudes toward whistleblowing.     

The Impact of Cause-Related Marketing on Millennials’ Product Attitudes and Purchase Intentions

This study, using scenarios, examined the impact of two kinds of cause-related marketing (CRM) efforts (a traditional donation of a portion of sales to a related cause and a more strategic one-for-one donation of donating a product to a related cause when that product was purchased) on millennials’ (those born between 1982 and 2000) attitudes and purchase intentions for four different consumer product categories. The four different consumer product categories selected included a specialty good (laptop), a shopping good (hat), a convenience good (bottled water), and a service (food restaurant). Given the importance of social media to millennials, this research also examined the role of social media on CRM awareness. While millennials had relatively low awareness of CRM campaigns, there was a positive correlation between social media use and CRM awareness. Additionally, CRM efforts may not work for all products as there was no impact on attitude or purchase intention for the product category of laptops. Additionally, the positive attitudes created by marketers’ CRM efforts will not always translate to increased purchase intentions. The use of a strategic one-for-one CRM effort though had a greater impact, specifically for products that deal with needed fundamentals, such as food and water.     

The role of a municipality’s financial health in a firm’s siting decision

When deciding where to locate a new facility, a firm needs to consider the financial health of the municipality where its activities will take place. Unless it sites its facility in a financially viable community, a firm is putting a substantial investment at risk. Despite the importance of this issue, many firms pay insufficient attention to a municipality’s financial condition. Instead, they focus on matters such as the tax rate, the quality of the school system, or the absence of regulatory constraints. All of these features are important, but unless a municipality is financially healthy, they can evaporate before a company has attained its expected return on investment. There are 5 financial statements and 10 financial ratios that can be used to create a financial health template, which can help a firm to assess a municipality’s financial strength, or its counterpart financial weakness. The template goes beyond the debt-repayment focus of credit rating agencies to matters such as financial autonomy, cash flows, and borrowing capacity. We use data from three cities—Barcelona, Dublin, and Detroit (pre- and post-bankruptcy)—to demonstrate the template’s ability to facilitate comparisons among cities that are in different countries and that use different accounting systems.