Potential Profitability and Decreased Consumer Welfare Through Manufacturers' Cents-Off Coupons

This paper examines the potential increase in oligopolistic manufacturers' profits due to a policy of cents-off couponing and the resulting changes in consumer welfare and resource allocation. This paper offers support to the hypothesis that the observed couponing policies of U.S. manufacturers are motivated by their desire to increase profits through third-degree price discrimination—a practice that results in welfare losses to consumers. While some conclusions reached have been dealt with by other researchers, its approach differs in that it attempts to quantify the probable magnitudes of the welfare effects and profit potential of manufacturers' couponing policies within the framework of a third-degree price discrimination model where firms are assumed to behave as Cournot oligopolists.     

Consumer loyalty to family versus non-family business: The roles of store image,trust and satisfaction

This study sheds insight on how consumers perceive and relate to family and non-family grocery stores. Using a critical incident approach we show that—compared to non-family businesses—consumers evaluate family businesses better in terms of service, frontline employee benevolence, and problem-solving orientation, and worse in terms of selection and price/value. Results further indicate higher consumer trust in family business management policies and practices, frontline employee trust, and satisfaction but no differences in loyalty. Examining an integrative loyalty framework, the study finally shows differential effects in how image elements influence customer loyalty directly as well as indirectly through trust and satisfaction. Implications focus on advancing customer relationship management in retailing, and on successfully positioning family-owned and -operated businesses.     

Consumer Education As A Means of Alleviating Dissatisfaction

In this paper the traditional approaches to Consumer Education are analyzed with respect to their possible impact on the currently wide-spread dissatisfaction among consumers. The argument is raised that the dissemination of knowledge of good buymanship alone cannot change the prevailing dissatisfaction because of the inevitable collective interdependency of consumers' fate in the marketplace and the economic benefits they can derive from their alternative role as producers, employees and wage earners. On the other hand, it is shown that greater improvements could be obtained if some of the knowledge available from studies of job satisfaction could be applied to man's satisfaction in the consumer role. Such an endeavor would enlarge the present scope of consumer education from its sole concern with competitive economics into that of interpersonal relationships and other behavioral aspects of man's life as consumer.     

The Influence of Consumer Degree of Knowledge on Consumer Behavior: The Case of Spanish Olive Oil

This article analyses the influence of perceived quality measured across intrinsic and extrinsic attributes on satisfaction and consumer loyalty for a traditional food product as with PDO (Protected Designation of Origin) olive oil “Aceite del Bajo Aragón.” In addition, the article highlights the influence of consumer's degree of knowledge on these relationships. The results suggest that the main drivers to explain consumers' satisfaction and loyalty are the perceived quality of the intrinsic attributes (color, appearance, flavor, etc.). However, when consumers are classified attending to their degree of knowledge the main explanatory variable of satisfaction and loyalty of the more experienced consumers are the extrinsic attributes of the product (brand name, place of origin, images associated to the product, etc.). These findings allow us to develop important managerial implications for building a brand image for a PDO.     

Consumer response to online apparel stockouts

In two online experiments this research investigated the process by which consumers respond to online apparel stock outages (or stockouts) and examined the effectiveness of managerial responses in mitigating the adverse impact of stockouts. Results of Experiment 1 demonstrated that negative emotions evoked by stockouts depressed perception of store image, lowered decision satisfaction, and reduced behavioral intent. In addition, the effect of negative emotion on behavioral intent was mediated by perception of store image and decision satisfaction. The results of Experiment 2 showed that financial compensation was most effective in mitigating the negative impact of out‐of‐stock occurrences on consumer responses. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

So happy for your loss: Consumer schadenfreude increases choice satisfaction

Consumers often feel schadenfreude, an emotion reflecting an experience of pleasure over misfortunes of another. Schadenfreude has found wide use in advertising, but its actual consequences for consumers have not been thoroughly documented. The present research investigates the effect of schadenfreude on consumers' satisfaction with choices they have made. Building on the feelings-as-information theory, the authors posit that consumers take their positive feelings of schadenfreude over another's unrelated bad purchase as positive information about their own choices, and through such misattribution become more satisfied with their own choices. Three experiments show that feeling schadenfreude over another consumer's bad purchase makes consumers more satisfied with their own choices (Study 1), regardless of whether the other's bad purchase is in the same or in a different product category as one's own choice (Study 2), but only so long as consumers are not aware that they are engaging in misattribution (Study 3). The present research contributes to the literature on schadenfreude and feelings-as-information theory. Its findings may be used by marketers aiming to exert an unconscious influence on consumer satisfaction.     

The Life Cycle of Consumer Sales Promotions

The history of trading stamps, manufacturers' rebate coupons, and bank premiums are studied for evidence of the exis- tence of a life cycle for consumer sales promotions similar to the well-known product life cycle. The author concludes that certain types of sales promotions do proceed through a life cycle, and hy- pothesizes that the consumer promotion life cycle consists of six stages. Ways in which marketing managers can utilize the life cycle concept to achieve their objectives are presented.     

Consumer Reactions to Unethical Service Recovery

Ethical business practices have been widely prescribed, but why? Consumer’s views on unethical business practices have been studied, but possibly more important to marketers and researchers are consumer actions and reactions to unethical business practices and the businesses themselves. Do consumers react negatively, or in such a way as to "punish" the unethical business? If so, what is the nature and extent of the punishment? This research seeks answers to these questions by examining consumer reactions, such as complaining and switching, to instances of unethical business practices. Using equity theory, this research proposes that consumers should be willing to tolerate some unethical behavior as long as they feel their investments and outcomes remain proportionately equal. Consumers who perceive that their outcome/investment ratio is proportionately unequal to their comparison other will respond by switching or complaining. In this research consumers were exposed to two types of service failures with different levels of service recovery in vignettes. Costs incurred by the consumer during the service transaction were also manipulated in the vignettes. Significant differences were found for complaint behavior in the failure recovery vignettes tested. Specifically, voice complaint was higher in the high cost service encounters in both types of services tested. The recovery attempt used (ethical, unethical, or none) led to significance differences in the variables of complaint, voice complaint, satisfaction, and quality. Higher satisfaction and quality ratings were found for the ethical recovery attempt and higher intentions to use complaint and voice complaint in the unethical recovery attempts. One significant interaction between cost and recovery attempt was found. Intentions to use voice complaint were higher in the high cost situations of ethical and unethical recovery, while approaching equality at the no recovery attempt.     

Consumer perceptions to support IoT based smart parcel locker logistics in China

In recent years, the adoption of Internet of Things (IoT) based smart parcel lockers has developed very rapidly in Asia due to the wider applications from retailers, e-commerce companies, logistics companies, and consumers. The revolution of smart technologies has transformed the traditional way of last-mile delivery from logistics outlets to IoT-based parcel lockers due to the flexibility, convenience, and 24/7 accessibility. However, there are still many obstacles affecting the transformation of last-mile delivery especially in consumers perceptions towards the smart technologies. Therefore, in this study, we performed research based on the theory of service quality and customer satisfaction in the adoption of relevant technologies. This article divides the smart parcel lockers' service quality into five dimensions: service price, service reliability, convenience, fault handling capability, and service diversity. In this study, 272 valid questionnaires were collected from China to investigate consumer satisfaction with the smart parcel locker services. Statistical analysis, including the reliability and validity, was performed, followed by confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). The correlation between variables and the degree of influence on customer satisfaction and regression analysis was also undertaken in this study. The results revealed that the service price does not positively affect consumer satisfaction, and the other four underlying factors have a positive effect on consumer satisfaction. This research has significant impacts by determining the parcel lockers' core factors so as to foster the further development of last-mile services in the future.     

Consumers between supermarket shelves: The influence of inter-personal distance on consumer behavior

Recent research underlines the important influence on consumer behavior of the mere presence of consumers on other consumers in retail businesses. While these results mainly relate to overall behavior, it is largely unknown how consumers behave in stores and how they react to customers present around them. This study examines the impact of an encounter between two consumers, directly in front of the same shelf row, on diverse consumer behavior. By means of two pilot studies we gained initial insights into the mutual influence. An image-based scenario study shows that the proximal distance is important for consumers' emotional state. In addition, the results indicate that these triggered negative and positive emotions mediate the effects of the distance on shopping satisfaction, aversive behavioral tendencies, willingness to buy, and number of alternatives considered.     

Entrepreneurial Orientation and Service Innovation on Consumer Response: A B&B Case

Extant studies have documented the effect of entrepreneurial orientation (EO) and innovation performance on firm‐level outcomes. However, the underlying mechanisms of the specific aspects of EO (i.e., autonomy, risk‐taking, and proactiveness) and innovative performance affecting consumer‐level responses remain unexplored. A total of 401 dyadic sample data were collected from both bed‐and‐breakfast (B&B) innkeepers and corresponding consumers. We used structural equation modeling to test the research framework and hypotheses. The statistically significant paths extended from risk‐taking and proactiveness to service innovation performance, then to consumer‐perceived service value and consumer satisfaction, and finally to repatronage intentions. To retain consumers, B&B innkeepers must enhance service innovation performance by reshaping their risk‐taking and proactiveness.     

Effects of Chinese consumers' relationship benefits and satisfaction on attitudes toward foreign fashion brands:The moderating role of country of salesperson

The paper examines the various responses of consumers depending on the country of salesperson (COS) and to look into the effects that consumer–salesperson relationship benefits have on consumer satisfaction and brand attitude. The results suggest that consumers' perceived social benefit and functional benefit positively influenced their satisfaction with salesperson, and a significant positive effect of consumers' satisfaction with salesperson on consumers' brand attitude is found. This positive relationship was moderated by COS. These findings suggest that COS will serve as an important retail mix for global marketers. Other results and management implications are also discussed.     

Mobile Commerce Website Success: Antecedents of Consumer Satisfaction and Purchase Intention

With the rapid development of apparel mobile commerce in the United States, more companies view mobile commerce as a new source of competitive advantage. Despite the importance of apparel mobile website quality and its effect on consumer satisfaction and future purchase stimulus, extant research has paid little attention to these topics. This study proposes a website quality–consumer satisfaction–purchase intention research model based on the self-regulatory process theory. Six dimensions of apparel mobile website quality—website visual appeal, apparel visual appeal, brand trust, website information quality, website response time, and website security—were investigated. In all, 293 eligible responses were collected via an online survey. Multiple regression analysis was utilized to test the proposed relationships. Results reveal that website information quality, website visual appeal, apparel visual appeal, and website security positively affect consumer satisfaction toward apparel mobile commerce websites, while website response time and brand trust show insignificant impacts on consumer satisfaction. With higher satisfaction on an apparel mobile commerce website, consumers are more likely to purchase apparel through the website.     

Consumer spirituality

ABSTRACT

Consumers increasingly turn to the marketplace in search of spiritual well-being. In this introduction to the special issue, we unpack the concept of consumer spirituality. We define consumer spirituality as the interrelated practices and processes engaged in when consuming market offerings (products, services, places) that yield 'spiritual utility'. The market offerings are purposely designed to quench consumers’ thirst for meaningful encounters with one’s inner self or a higher external power. We identify three vehicles – materiality, embodiment, and technology – that consumers engage with to access consumer spirituality. By unpacking the concept of consumer spirituality along three themes - (1) shaping markets for consumer spirituality, (2) the means for accessing consumer spirituality, and (3) making sense of and researching consumer spirituality - we provide a future research agenda to advance scholarly explorations of consumer spirituality and to facilitate a systematic development of this nascent body of literature in marketing and consumer research.     

葡萄酒消费行为影响因素分析

葡萄酒是一种健康的酒精饮料,在我国潜在消费市场巨大,发展前景良好。葡萄酒的消费行为受外在因素、内在因素、营销因素三个方面的影响。葡萄酒企业制定营销计划应以消费者为中心,针对葡萄酒消费市场的特点以及消费者的需求,巧妙灵活、广泛宣传葡萄酒健康功能、美容功能、社交功能,刺激消费者的购买欲望,建立消费者对葡萄酒的认知度和忠诚度。同时,结合我国传统文化、各区域历史、民族、饮食等文化,建立具有中国特色的葡萄酒文化,使葡萄酒真正的走进消费者的生活中。     

Consumer Mindfulness and Marketing Implications

The aim of this study was to examine the role of mindfulness in consumer behavior and service marketing in Australia and Malaysia. Two studies were conducted; first to identify and characterize consumers on the basis of mindfulness, and to obtain data on the dimensions of relationship quality and consumer loyalty from the groups. Results from a standard analysis of data confirmed five of the six hypotheses tested. There are significant differences in the three dimensions of relationship quality (i.e., trust, satisfaction, and commitment), and in two of three dimensions of consumer loyalty (namely, attitudinal and behavioral loyalty) between the two consumer groups—high and low mindful consumers. There is no significant difference in consumer switching restraint between the groups. These findings lead to research and managerial implications that conclude the paper.     

Consumer satisfaction in retail stores: theory and implications

The substitution of small retail stores by the large stores has been a topic of debate among academics, practitioners, retailers and general public, especially in the context of foreign firms entering emerging markets such as China and India. The purpose of this research is to find out the determinants of consumer satisfaction in small and large retail stores in an emerging market, with a sample from India. Data were collected using a 39‐item structured questionnaire developed by the authors. The sample consists of 225 consumers who shop at retail outlets (Convenience sample of 125 consumers from small and 100 consumers from large stores respectively). Exploratory factor analysis grouped the 39 variables into 14 factors. Further, regression analysis revealed that six of the factors (Social desirability, staff friendliness, shopping economy, shopping ambience, family shopping and deal proneness) were major predictors of consumer satisfaction as they were found to be significant at 5% level. The significance of factors such as social desirability and staff friendliness imply that many consumers prefer those typical features of small stores, which in turn results in the likely coexistence of small retail formats in spite of the entry and proliferation of large retail stores from different countries. We posit three theoretical propositions to stimulate further research in this area.     

Implications of Consumer Information Processing Research for the Design of Consumer Information Systems

The commercial success of computerized consumer information systems will depend heavily on the extent to which they help consumers make choices. A system's usefulness will be a function of both the information it contains and the capabilities it offers to process this information. These capabilities will be incorporated in the system's access “language.” This paper reviews research on how consumers process information to make choices, and discusses the implications of this research for the design of consumer information system languages. A hypothetical example is presented and contrasted briefly with available access languages.     

Informational Inputs as Influences on Efficient Consumer Decision-Making

The effects of consumer information and consumer sophistication on the ability of consumers to make purchases offering the greatest benefits were examined. It was found that consumer information enhances the likelihood that consumers will make efficient choices of products. Consumer sophistication was also found to be an intervening variable in consumers' use of information.