An assessment of organic apparel,environmental beliefs and consumer preferences via fashion innovativeness

The topic of organic apparel has been widely discussed among academics and practitioners in recent years. While numerous studies have been done on the topic, few studies to date have assessed the topic of fashion innovativeness and its influence on attitudes towards organic apparel. In addition, an evaluation of consumer preferences for organic apparel from a conjoint analysis perspective has not been implemented. Thus, the purpose of the present study was to identify which organic apparel attributes are most important to high fashion innovativeness and low fashion innovativeness groups. Furthermore, the variables of environmental beliefs and attitudes towards purchasing organic apparel were assessed. An online survey was developed to measure the variables, including a full profile discrete choice design used to measure attribute preferences for t‐shirts. The data were analyzed using a multinomial logit model and desirability indices. The results indicated that the low fashion innovativeness group preferred organic and eco‐friendly apparel more than the high fashion innovativeness group. In addition, when examining high fashion innovativeness and low fashion innovativeness groups overall, the preferred t‐shirt was Dri‐Fit, Cotton Jersey Knit, Made In America, Eco‐Friendly and $25.00. However, when examining high fashion innovativeness and low fashion innovativeness groups separately for the preferred t‐shirt, differences appeared in Sustainable. The results suggest that high fashion innovativeness and low fashion innovativeness groups may desire different organic apparel attributes when considering organic apparel.     

How and when taking pictures undermines the enjoyment of experiences

The consumption of experiences (as opposed to products) has seen an increasing amount of research attention in recent years. A key aspect of the experiential consumption journey is how the experience is consumed. For instance, people almost invariably take pictures during highly enjoyable experiences such as vacations or important family events. Although past research has suggested that taking pictures may enhance the enjoyment of moderately enjoyable experiences, the effect of picture taking on the real‐time enjoyment of highly enjoyable experiences is not clear. To address this matter, the authors investigate whether taking pictures affects consumers’ enjoyment of highly enjoyable hedonic experiences. A series of laboratory studies demonstrate that taking pictures (compared with not taking pictures) can decrease enjoyment of highly enjoyable experiences. This study suggests that, by constantly striving to document their experiences, consumers may unwittingly fail to enjoy those experiences to the fullest. These results have implications for how firms may best stage experiential offerings to enhance their customers’ experiences.     

Estimating Optimal Prices for Wine Exhibition Awards Using Comparative Judgements

Abstract

Producers of bottled wine have their products evaluated at various wine exhibitions for the purpose of receiving awards that can be displayed on the bottles. This contribution introduces an approach for retailers and producers to estimate optimal prices for wine exhibition awards. A case study has been employed in cooperation with a major Czech wine company to investigate the practical application of the method. Wine exhibition awards are found to be among the important factors affecting consumer preferences for bottled wine. A Conjoint experiment allowed for estimating the relative importance of selected wine exhibitions as award origins and for determining the partial utilities of selected awards (medals). Calculating the individual price equivalents for those awards and three selected wines enables the estimation of prices for maximum turnover. According to the approach, price equivalents and markups can be estimated based on consumer preferences. Retailers as well as producers can employ the procedure for matching their offers with specifically designed prices to their target group's needs and wants in their individual markets.     

Illustrating a systematic approach to selecting motion pictures for product placements and tie-ins

Previous literature has inadequately facilitated the systematic selection of motion pictures for promotional actions. By contrast, in the present illustrative application, single-source data on movie attendance and on consumption in Spain permit the examination of a film’s suitability for promoting a product by considering the match between attending the film and consuming the relevant good or service. The illustration investigates how such suitability is predicted by movie characteristics (storyline content and country of origin) to the end of identifying what types of film best fit various product categories.     

Unpacking the uncertainty construct: Implications for entrepreneurial action

Uncertainty is central to entrepreneurship; however robust and generalizable findings that explain the conditions in which uncertainty may impede [or promote] entrepreneurial action remain elusive. We operationalize uncertainty as a multi-dimensional construct composed of state, effect, and response types of uncertainty (Milliken, 1987) to investigate the relationship between uncertainty and entrepreneurial action. We decompose more than 2800 exploitation decision policies nested within a sample of new product decision-makers working in entrepreneurial software firms. We focus on the primary decision-maker's willingness to exploit a given opportunity in the face of varying combinations and manifestations of uncertainty and find that the type of uncertainty experienced influences the willingness to engage in entrepreneurial action differently. Further, we find that differences in how each type of uncertainty is manifested in the environment, the scale of exploitation (i.e. large vs. small), and the entrepreneur's expertise serve to moderate the relationship between uncertainty and action in counter-intuitive ways. We discuss the implications for both theory and practice.     

The fallacy of “only the strong survive”: The effects of extrinsic motivation on the persistence decisions for under-performing firms

Under-performing firms persist even though existing theoretical perspectives indicate that they should be selected out of the market. Building upon threshold theory [Gimeno, J., Folta, T., Cooper, A., Woo, C., 1997. Survival of the fittest? Entrepreneurial human capital and the persistence of underperforming firms. Administrative Science Quarterly 42, 750–783.] and using Staw's [Staw, B.M., 1981. The escalation of commitment to a course of action. Academy of Management Review 6 (4), 577–587.] theoretical model of commitment to a course of action, we explore and test the factors that lead entrepreneurs to persist with under-performing firms. We found environmental munificence, personal investment, personal options, previous organizational success, and perceived collective efficacy impact the decision to persist with an under-performing firm. In addition, extrinsic motivation moderates those relationships. This research adds to the growing literature on highly persistent, under-performing firms and complements and extends threshold theory.     

Applying Choice Based Conjoint Measurement to Forcast Demand for a New Restaurant Category

Discounter operated supercenters are perceived as a major competitive threat to current food retailers. Their selection of both supermarket type merchandise and discounter general merchandise is perceived as an advantage to time pressed consumers. In this study, for consumers living within a five-mile radius of a Super Krnart Center, selection was a primary reason 16 percent of the respondents considered the center as their favorite grocery store but, location was the most important reason. This is one of the first studies to find that location is a primary reason for shopping a supercenter and supports the conjecture of locational importance by some industry observers. The profile of the primary supercenter shopper is a younger more educated shopper who lives close to the supercenter and values selection. Respondents who did not consider the supercenter their primary store still liked its selection but generally found the supercenter's prices high and location inconvenient.     

Consumer preferences for rockmelons in Australia

On the demand side, consumer's decision choice for rockmelon is often compounded by a number of factors including quality, which is often not related to the visual characteristics observed in fruits such as bananas or mangoes. On the supply side, there is a general lack of understanding of consumer response towards rockmelon attributes in Australia and consequently, great fluctuations of demand and hence supply of the fruit. Thus, objectives of this study were to evaluate and compare analytical measures by instruments and sensory assessments by consumers based on sweetness levels (8–13 ^oBrix) of rockmelons. Results indicated that there was a large variation in texture, juiciness and flavour for each ^oBrix level. A significant correlation coefficient (r = 0.829) was obtained between analytical and sensory measures for sweetness. High organoleptic scores for flavour were noted among the higher sweetness levels. It is recommended that due to the change in consumer acceptability, marketing of rockmelons should not be solely based on ^oBrix levels; other attributes such as flavour, texture and juiciness should be utilized.     

The dynamics of online word-of-mouth and product sales—An empirical investigation of the movie industry

There are growing interests in understanding how word-of-mouth (WOM) on the Internet is generated and how it influences consumers’ purchase decisions at retail outlets. A unique aspect of the WOM effect is the presence of a positive feedback mechanism between WOM and retail sales. We characterize the process through a dynamic simultaneous equation system, in which we separate the effect of online WOM as both a precursor to and an outcome of retail sales. We apply our approach to the movie industry, showing that both a movie's box office revenue and WOM valence significantly influence WOM volume. WOM volume in turn leads to higher box office performance. This positive feedback mechanism highlights the importance of WOM in generating and sustaining retail revenue.     

Three kinds of order effects in choice-based conjoint analysis

Question and response order effects are known to occur in survey research instruments. Choice-based conjoint analysis presents respondents with multiple sets of concepts fully specified in terms of a number of attributes. Respondents choose one full-profile concept from each of the many choice sets. Thus there are three plausible order effects with respect to choice-based conjoint analysis: choice set order, profile order within choice sets, and attribute order within profiles. Three empirical studies show that statistically significant choice set order, profile order, and attribute order effects occur. Some of these order effects are significant from a practical standpoint, but none occur in a predictable way. Analysts are advised to rotate, across respondents, profile and attribute order to offset the order biases. Directions for future research are suggested.     

Attribute Range Effects in Binary Response Tasks

This paper investigates attribute range effects in binary response conjoint analysis tasks. We investigate a long-standing conjecture that the regression estimates of attributes in choice tasks are influenced by a researcher's selected range of attribute levels across choice sets. Specifically, we examine the effect(s) of varying attribute ranges systematically over two ranges of levels (1=wide range, 2=levels in the middle of the wide range) in a public bus choice context. A master 2³ design is used to vary the range (i.e., wide, middle) of three numerical attributes (fare, service and time). In each of the eight master range conditions a 2³ factorial creates bus profiles, and a ninth condition is added to test for response non-linearity. Our results suggest that attribute range impacts attribute main effects to a small degree, yet exhibit substantial and systematic effects on attribute interactions and model goodness-of-fit. Implications of these results for practical design of academic and commercial choice-based conjoint analysis tasks are discussed.     

The antecedents and consequences of restrictive age-based ratings in the global motion picture industry

This article analyzes one key characteristic shared by a growing number of industries. Specifically, their products and services are continuously monitored and evaluated by local third-party ratings systems. In this study, we focus on understanding the local drivers of restrictive age-based ratings in the motion picture industry and the effect of local ratings on a movie's performance at the box office. The results show that there is a significant negative relationship between restrictive ratings and opening weekend box-office performance. However, we find no significant effect with respect to cumulative box-office performance. In the second part of the study, we focus on the local regulatory system's role as a key driver of restrictive age-based ratings in the motion picture industry. Interestingly, the results suggest that the composition of the board that rates the movie plays a key role. Including pediatrics, psychology, or sociology experts in the evaluation board instead of only parents or laypeople has a strong effect and tends to lead to more lenient rating behavior. In addition, we find that larger ratings boards tend to be more restrictive than smaller ones and that industry representation is not necessarily associated with less restrictive ratings. Countries with cultures characterized as uncertainty avoidant, collective, and feminine also seem to be most lenient in their ratings. The implications of the results are discussed from both international marketing and public policy perspectives.     

A Comparison of Full Profile and Hierarchical Information Integration Conjoint Methods to Modeling Group Preferences

This paper presents a comparative test of full profile (FP), original hierarchical information integration (HII-O), and integrated hierarchical information integration (HII-I) conjoint methods for modeling group preferences. It is hypothesized that in settings where groups need to decide about complex multi-attribute alternatives, HII-O will predict holdout profiles better than FP, and that HII-I will perform better than HII-O. The predictive ability of the three methods is tested for the case of housing preferences of housing co-ops, which are groups consisting of three to five people who jointly own a house. The results confirm that HII-I outperforms the other two methods and further suggest that FP and HII-O perform equally well. In addition, two variations of HII-I are developed. One of these provides independent estimates of the relative influence of group members on the decision outcomes, however at the expense of requiring larger designs. The two HII-I variations are also tested and found to be equivalent in predictive ability.     

Trade barriers and trade flows with product heterogeneity: An application to US motion picture exports

We extend Melitz (2003) to allow for both global and bilateral fixed export costs. If global (bilateral) export costs dominate, the average sales ratio (import sales per product variety/domestic sales per variety), decreases (increases) in variable (fixed) trade barriers, due to adjustment along the intensive (extensive) margin of trade. Using novel data on bilateral US movie exports we find that (i) variation in box-office revenues per movie is much larger than in the number of movies exported, and (ii) the average sales ratio decreases in geographic and linguistic distance. These findings suggest that global fixed export costs dominate.     

Product Involvement and the Relative Importance of Health Endorsements

Product involvement is a fundamental part of the buyer decision processes, during supermarket visits, as individuals respond differently to stimuli under differing involvement conditions. This study aims to provide a better understanding of the role of nutritional endorsements in consumers’ food purchasing decisions, when evaluated across high and low involvement products. Although past research in this area does exist, a major limitation is that nutritional endorsements have been studied only for their direct effect as a single, isolated product cue on product perception—rather than its importance relative to other product cues, such as price and product branding. This study overcomes this limitation through a conjoint analysis involving a sample of supermarket consumers. The findings suggest that a health endorsement plays a smaller role in influencing consumer decision-making relative to brand or price, but it is stronger for the higher involvement product. These findings provide nutritional foundations and product managers with quantifiable evidence of nutritional programs’ influence in consumer decision-making, justifying the relevance of such endorsements and giving nutritional foundations specific leads for adaptions in their marketing and educational efforts.     

Studying the level-effect in conjoint analysis: An application of efficient experimental designs for hyper-parameter estimation

Research in marketing, and business in general, involves understanding when effect-sizes are expected to be large and when they are expected to be small. An example is the understanding of the level-effect in marketing, where the effect of product attributes on utility is positively related to the number of levels present among choice alternatives. Knowing when consumers are sensitive to the competing levels of attributes is an important aspect of merchandising, selling and promotion. In this paper, we propose a model and a method for studying the level-effect in conjoint analysis. The model combines perceptual theories in psychology to arrive at a non-linear specification of hyper-parameters in a hierarchical model. The method applies an experimental design criterion for efficient estimation of hyper-parameters. The proposed model and method are validated using a national sample of respondents.      

How do restaurant customers make trade-offs among rate fences?

This study examines how restaurant customers make trade-offs among several restaurant rate fences using a sample of mainland Chinese travelers to Hong Kong. A total of six restaurant rate fences (i.e., lunch/dinner pricing, weekday/weekend pricing, table location pricing, restricted coupon pricing, meal period, and reservation and seating policy) and menu price were selected, and a conjoint analysis was performed. Findings reveal that price, restricted coupon pricing, and meal period are the most important attributes when restaurant customers select a restaurant. This study is the first attempt to examine the relative importance of different types of restaurant rate fences. The findings will help restaurant operators to better understand the decision-making process of Chinese travelers and design appropriate rate fences accordingly.     

Asymmetric cultural discounting and pattern of trade in cultural products: Empirical evidence in motion pictures

We extend the seminal home market effect model of Helpman and Krugman (Market structure and foreign trade, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 1985) by incorporating asymmetric cultural discounting. In addition to the home market effect, our model predicts that a country subject to a relatively lower cultural discount factor becomes a net exporter as trade liberalisation accelerates. Using international box office revenues in the motion picture industry and developing a measure of asymmetric cultural discount based on tourist‐arrival statistics, we find empirical support for this hypothesis. Our model provides an explanation for the continued cultural dominance of smaller English‐speaking countries in larger non‐English‐speaking countries, which cannot be explained by the home market effect alone.     

Family Members' Projections of Each Other's Preference and Influence: A Two-Stage Conjoint Approach

Two important sources of error that may limit the accuracy of individual family members' projections of joint family preferences are: (i) misperceptions of other members' preferences, and (ii) misperceptions of other members' influence in joint family evaluations. We propose a two-stage conjoint approach to study these potential errors. Stage one compares family members' projections of each other's preferences to members' self-reported preferences. Stage two compares family members' projections of each other's influence to observed influence in joint family preferences. An empirical illustration shows that family members are relatively poor predictors of preference, but fairly accurate predictors of influence, in the area of family holiday preferences.     

Knowledge based resources, property based resources and supplier bargaining power in Hollywood motion picture projects

Supplier bargaining power is a factor that must be considered in resource based theories of dynamic capability. As competitors develop capabilities for dynamically changing resource configurations, they become more reliant on suppliers and allies. Because different types of supplier will have more or less bargaining power, some resource configurations will be more attractive to buyers. Hypotheses are developed and tested using data on star power, intellectual property, knowledge based resource quality, costs and revenues for 278 motion pictures released in the United States in 2000 and 2001. Suppliers appear to fully appropriate returns to knowledge and property based services, while buyers benefit from control of intellectual property and from the combination of intellectual property and talent behind the camera.