The Spanish act on the protection of the rights of consumers and users

The paper informs about the promulgation and the contents of the new Spanish Consumer Protection Act of 1984. This Act was motivated by the so-called toxic syndrome in 1981, when many people were killed or severely injured due to the use of degenerated olive oil. The Act establishes certain basic substantive and procedural rights for consumers and consumer organizations. It provides for an institutional structure to implement the Act, a structure which is, however, characterized by a remarkable degree of imprecision. Despite certain critical observations, the author concludes that the Act must be regarded as a success for the Spanish consumer movement.

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Zusammenfassung Der Aufsatz berichtet über Erlaß und Inhalt des neuen spanischen Gesetzes zum Schutz der Verbraucher von 1984. Das Gesetz wurde ausgelöst durch die Folgen des Genusses vergifteten Olivenöls im Jahre 1981, an dem zahlreiche Menschen starben. Das Gesetz kodifiziert zentrale materielle Rechte und verfahrensrechliche Beteiligungsmöglichkeiten von Konsumenten und Verbraucherorganisationen. Es schafft einen institutionellen Rahmen zur Rechtsdurchsetzung, der allerdings nur vage und unpräzise ausgefüllt ist. Bei aller Kritik bedeutet das Gesetz nach überzeugung des Autors einen wichtigen Erfolg der spanischen Verbraucherschutzbewegung.

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Ignacio Uriarte Bofarull is a lawyer with the Spanish consumer organization Organizaci%on de consumidores y usuarios (O.C.U.), Serrano 78/5 dcha, Madrid 6, Spain. The paper was translated from Spanish to English by Norbert Reich.     

城市电网10kV配电系统继电保护分析探讨

文章介绍了城市电网10kV配电系统在电力系统中的重要位置及城市电网10kV配电系统继电保护的基本类型,着重介绍了几种目前国内常用的电流保护:反时限过电流保护、定时限过电流保护,并分析了各类保护装置的基本构成、保护范围、动作原理、配合方法、优缺点,给出了详细的整定计算过程.     

Experience with joint-ventures in Yugoslavia

Yugoslavia laid the legal foundations for capital investments by foreign firms in 1967. It was the first socialist country to permit foreign investments and apart from Roumania and Hungary is still the only one which has done so. Prerequisites have thereby been provided for very close relations between enterprises belonging to different economic systems. The foreign capital participation must as a rule not exceed 49 p.c. of the total capital.     

民主政治教育与学生自我管理

大学生的民主政治教育,是思想政治课的主要内容。学生对学习政治理论课的疑问,应当在理论运用的实效中得到解答。针对目前大学生自我管理能力弱的现状,理论的运用应落实在提高大学生的民主意识、管理能力上。教师在教学过程中应当融入培养学生自我管理的能力,引领和带动班级工作的开展,解答学生遇到的实际问题,就可达到教学相长的实际效果。     

Profiling consumers: A study of Qatari consumers’ shopping motivations

The paper investigates reasons consumers go shopping in Doha, Qatar. Four hundred supermarket shoppers completed self-administered surveys regarding their attitudes toward 57 individual shopping motivation items. The paper first uses both exploratory (EFA) and confirmatory (CFA) factor analysis to examine the factor structure and psychometric properties of these items. Using cluster analysis, the paper then identifies and discusses six homogeneous groups with different emphasis on specific reasons for shopping. The paper profiles clusters on demographics and ethnic group membership to examine similarities and differences among cluster members. The paper discusses implications for brand managers and suggests future research directions.     

An analysis of child consumers in Turkey

This research was conducted on 402 children going to kindergarten and primary schools with the purpose of analysing the children's interests, responsibilities, economic resources, purchasing activities, and socialization agents and purchase influences as consumers. Data were collected using a questionnaire, which was prepared by considering some previous research. The questionnaire was applied to subjects through face‐to‐face individual interview. The data were analysed by using explanatory variables, including age, gender, socio‐economic status and family type. Findings indicated that consumer socialization of children was connected to selected demographic characteristics, especially age, and they were surprisingly independent and influential consumers. The results of this study are important for those involved in children's and adults’ markets, and for consumer educators.     

走近中国新兴城市消费者——中国消费力2.0研究

2009年8月27日一位中国政府高官在接受ChinaDaily采访时表示,预计未来20年内中国将出现大规模城市化浪潮,大约3亿人口将从偏远农村地区移居到城市。＂我觉得三四级城市的消费能力或者说可支配收入,可能比一二级城市更强,比我们想像的要强。＂麦肯锡全球董事合伙人及大中华地区消费品咨询业务负责人马思默在接受《中国企业家》采访时也如是说。三四级城市令人惊喜的消费能力和巨大的潜在市场,已经成为发展中国市场的新契机。与一二线城市不同,在这里有一套全新的市场与品牌的规则。因此,深入了解新兴城市消费者内心最真实的心态和想法,才能在新兴市场做出正确的营销决策,为企业在新兴市场腾飞助力。     

Financial behaviours of consumers in credit counselling

Positive financial behaviours of consumers are examined using a national sample of consumers who use credit counselling services in the US from a behavioural economic perspective. The findings indicate that consumers in credit counselling may follow a hierarchical pattern in their financial behaviours, paying off debts and adjusting spending before considering saving. Consumers who are older, have a part‐time job (vs. the unemployed), and report a more secure retirement, a better family relationship, and a higher score of self‐evaluation of financial behaviours are likely to report more positive financial behaviours. Reporting more financial behaviours and a higher score of self‐evaluation of financial behaviours, along with several demographic and perception variables, tend to reduce financial stress and increase financial satisfaction among consumers who use credit counselling services.     

Evaluation strategies of American and Thai consumers

The effects of two factors (congruity of product information with consumer expectations and perceived risk associated with the product) on strategies used by consumers to evaluate products are tested in the United States and Thailand. When product information does not match expectations, consumers in both cultures increase evaluation effort and shift from using summary representations stored in memory to evaluation based on actual product attributes. Perceived risk also enhances evaluation effort in both cultures, but does not result in a similar shift from category-based to attribute-based processing. © 1994 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Elderly consumers: problems and behaviours

The purpose of this study was to explore older consumers' problems and behaviour. Data were collected by interviewing. Responses of 150 older Wisconsin residents were analysed using chi square to determine significant differences in consumer problems and behaviour related to the demographic variables: age, sex, place of residence, marital status and education. The distribution of responses was most frequently influenced by marital status. The demographic variables of age, sex and place of residence were also found to influence the response distribution, although less frequently than marital status; there were no significant differences in responses by education. Based on the findings, recommendations are made for consumer education programmes designed specifically for older persons.     

Socializing consumers in a global marketplace

Abstract: People now make consumption decisions in a global marketplace. Slowly, society is collectively gaining painful awareness of the impact of these decisions. Contemporary consumerism is the product of long-term historical changes and, by implication, can be further changed. This paper develops the position that enriching our conventional understanding of consumer socialization from a global perspective is one way that family and consumer scientists can impact the future direction of modern consumption in a global market. By adopting this role within civil society, members of the profession can contribute to the process of resocializing the existing generation, and socializing entire new generations, of consumers to be globally conscious. By implication, business and governments’ trade, production and foreign policies will be challenged as well, leading to an even more profound change in consumption patterns around the world.     

Blessings and the spiritual life of consumers

The growing social phenomenon of ritually blessed animal companions suggests that the concept of the blessing should receive more attention in the field of consumer behavior. By documenting the importance of perceived sacred power and by capturing the words, gestures, and artifacts of the animal-blessing ritual, Holak highlights the role that these factors can play in the efforts of individuals and businesses to express, to those they care about, the wish that good should follow.     

Cognitive competence of older consumers

Older adult memory performance declines with age. However, memory for newly learned material is only one measure of cognitive competence. This article reviews research that measured older adult cognitive performance using tasks that tap crystallized abilities, everyday problem solving, and those that used older expert subjects. The results indicate that many cognitive functions remain stable from middle age onward. This suggests that cognitive decline is not an inevitable result of aging per se. This implies that antecedents of cognitive decline, such as health, should be used as a segmentation variable for the older adult market. © 1995 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

中国消费者的意识状态

乐现的中国消费者中国消费者对自己目前的生活水平普遍较为满意。认为自己属于“中等以上”的人群明显高于发达国家的日本（中国：34.1％;日本：10.8％）。     

Heterogeneous consumers,search and retail formats

This paper proposes a model featuring the heterogeneity of consumer preferences and analyzes the multiple equilibrium of retail formats by building a map of the relationships between consumer heterogeneity and retail formats. The key questions analyzed in this paper are how the retailer adjusts its combination of marketing elements through repositioning and how innovation in retail formats is implemented to match consumers’ heterogeneous preferences in a market with consumer search costs. Unlike recent research, our model, by taking different consumer preference structures into account, introduces consumer psychological costs into the Ehrlich-Fisher model and deduces the existence of different retail formats and their multiple equilibriums. We find that consumer heterogeneity, retailers’ diversified transfer costs and economies of scale are endogenous drivers of prosperous retail formats. Accordingly, diversified retail formats with complementary functions and differentiated services can be described as the horizontal extensions and interface changes of the retailing industry.     

Educating and empowering consumers to avoid bankruptcy

The US has the highest consumer bankruptcy rate in the world and Utah is the state with the highest rate. Bankruptcy filings are rising rapidly due to uninsured medical expenses, job loss, family break‐up and rising consumer and mortgage debt burdens. Lending standards are extremely lax among mainstream creditors while predatory and sub‐prime lending are growing. Utah State University Extension is addressing this problem by creating a new Extension educator position to focus on financial education and by training county Extension educators to mount an extensive consumer education campaign. The ‘Take Charge of Your Money’ programme, developed by the Extension specialist, is being taught throughout the state by satellite distance education. Each educator is being trained to use the Power Pay debt reduction software developed by two Utah Extension educators. As part of the emphasis on empowerment, consumers are being taught to make their own decisions on debt load rather than accepting credit because it is available. Heavy dependence of lenders on credit scores mean consumers are taking on debt that they do not have the cash flow to repay. Grant money available from the state was used to provide training for an Extension bankruptcy prevention team and to provide funding for laptop computers for Power Pay so educators can take the programme to the citizens at county fairs and other public events. While it is too soon to measure the results of the programme, Utah State University's Cooperative Extension project is an example of an aggressive response to the highest bankruptcy rate in the nation. The bankruptcy prevention team is an example of the power of the Extension Service to extend the resources of the university to improve the quality of life for the citizens of the state.