Consumer Decision Making Regarding a “Green” Everyday Product

One of the techniques marketers use to convert low‐involvement products into high‐involvement ones is adding an important product feature. A case in point is the common practice of adding a “green” or environmentally friendly product feature to an everyday product, something which is often assumed to elevate consumer involvement in the choice of the product. However, there is a lack of research investigating whether adding such a “green” product attribute actually makes any difference to how consumers make choices. Does the way in which consumers make decisions about groceries change when both “green” and conventional alternatives are available? Does it make them deliberate more or do they just develop another, simple choice heuristic? Based on observation and follow‐up interviews of consumers at the milk counter in two supermarkets which stock both organic (a “green” attribute) and conventional milk, it is concluded that, rather than changing the way consumers make decisions when buying this type of product, the availability of a “green” alternative seems to make “green” consumers develop a new, simple choice heuristic that allows them to do their shopping as effortless and time‐efficient as consumers buying conventional products.     

Contrasting “complainers” with “non‐complainers” on attitude toward complaining,propensity to complain,and key personality characteristics: A nomological look

This study examines the influence of four personality characteristics (self‐efficacy, Machiavellianism, perceived control, and risk‐taking) on consumer attitude toward complaining and propensity to complain. The proposed model is tested on two groups of consumers classified as “complainers” and “non‐complainers.” The findings reveal that the two groups differ distinctly on the pattern of relationships among the variables. The implications of these differences are discussed. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Green intentions under the blue flag: Exploring differences in EU consumers’ willingness to pay more for environmentally‐friendly products

Recent research on consumer social responsibility highlights the need to examine psychological drivers of environmentally‐friendly consumption choices in a global context. This article investigates consumers’ willingness to pay (WTP) more for environmentally‐friendly products across 28 European Union (EU) countries, using a sample of 21,514 consumers. A multigroup structural equation modeling analysis reveals significantly different patterns and relationships, in how (a) subjective knowledge about the product's environmental impact, (b) environmental product attitudes, and (c) the perceived importance of the products’ environmental impact influence consumers’ WTP more for environmentally‐friendly products across countries. The hypothesized model predicts WTP for 20 out of 28 countries and the findings show that a “one‐size‐fits‐all” approach is inadequate in capturing the heterogeneity of EU consumers. Hosfstede's cultural dimensions of uncertainty tolerance and individualism explain differences in WTP for environmentally‐friendly products across EU countries. Business, marketing communications, and policy making implications are discussed.     

Self-identity and internal environmental locus of control: Comparing their influences on green purchase intentions in high-context versus low-context cultures

This study empirically examines the combined effect of two crucial internal consumer predispositions, self-identity (SI) and internal environmental locus of control (INELOC), among consumers in a collectivistic culture and an individualistic culture. The study validated the extended theory of planned behaviour to predict consumers' green purchase intentions. Structural equation modelling was used to analyse primary data collected from 365 American and 408 Indian respondents. Analysis revealed differences between the two cultures. Green self-identity influenced attitude more than perceived behavioural control among American consumers, while the reverse was true for Indian consumers. Conversely, INELOC positively and significantly affected only Indian consumers’ perceived behavioural control, not that of American consumers.     

Trends in Food Attitudes and Behaviors Among Adults with 6–11‐Year‐Old Children

This study presents an analysis of survey data measuring food attitudes and behaviors among a nationally representative sample of adults with 6–11‐year‐old children for 2002–2010 from Experian Simmons Market Research. Results show numerous significantly positive improvements in attitudes and behaviors regarding healthier diets. In general, parents report increasing fiber intake, thinking about calories, and reducing sweets consumption as well as a generic effort to eat healthier. However, some areas still needing improvement include relatively neutral views that their diet is “very healthy” and that they only snack on healthy foods. While there are a number of improvements in parents' attitudes and behaviors regarding a healthy diet, the majority of the ground gained was early, from 2002 to between 2003 and 2006. This study's results suggest that a better understanding of the parental “snacking mindset” and indulgence‐healthy diet paradox might further assist in addressing childhood obesity.     

Green Demarketing in Advertisements: Comparing “Buy Green” and “Buy Less” Appeals in Product and Institutional Advertising Contexts

This research compares consumer response to traditional green advertising appeals to that of less conventional, “green demarketing” (GD) appeals—messages by for-profit companies encouraging reduced category consumption for the sake of the environment. Rather than encouraging greener consumption, modern environmentalism calls for decreased consumption overall, a trend reflected in recent advertising campaigns (e.g., Patagonia's “Don't Buy This Jacket”). Despite its potential impact and unconventionality, research on GD in general is sparse, and no empirical research has examined consumer response to GD appeals relative to traditional green appeals. In three experiments, we find that, in the context of product advertising, consumers' attitudes for green ads are more favorable than those for GD ads, mediated by greater inferences of genuine environmental concern. However, we find the reverse pattern in the context of institutional ads. Further, an “anti-consumption amplifier” message embedded in the ad—espousing the potential harm of overconsumption—further boosts favorable consumer attitudes for the GD institutional ad relative to its traditional green counterpart. Importantly, we assess all effects while controlling for consumers' individual levels of green consumerism, such that implications may be applied more generally rather than to a specific segment of green consumers.     

Status Has Its Privileges: The Psychological Benefit of Status‐Reinforcing Behaviors

Many firms use loyalty programs to stratify their customers into status tiers and reward those with high status with special privileges. This research documents how consumers with high status willingly incur a cost to utilize the exclusive privileges, termed “status‐reinforcing behaviors,” that accompany their high status because doing so reinforces their high‐status identity. They do so in the absence of threats to their high status or self‐worth and also in the absence of an opportunity to conspicuously signal their high status to others through face‐to‐face interactions. This suggests that the behavior is undertaken neither for compensatory nor conspicuous reasons. Across two studies, results indicate that consumers who hold high status in a loyalty program engage in “status‐reinforcing behaviors,” even when doing so offers no material or conspicuous signaling benefit and in fact causes them to incur some costs. Engaging in status‐reinforcing behaviors yields a distinct psychological outcome—elevated feelings of prestige. Results indicate that when high status is made salient, individuals demonstrate a greater propensity to engage in status‐reinforcing behaviors. However, individuals who have a reinforced sense of status (i.e., already validated their high‐status position) are less likely to engage in status‐reinforcing behaviors, which suggests that utilizing status privileges does serve as a reinforcing behavior, even in the absence of a status threat.     

Headless: The Role of Gender and Self‐Referencing in Consumer Response to Cropped Pictures of Decorative Models

Product pictures with “headless” decorative models, whose heads have been cropped out of the pictures, are often used in online retailing. This article reports findings from three experiments comparing attitudes for clothing displayed in pictures with cropped and uncropped male and female models, focusing on the moderating effects of consumer and model gender and the mediating effects of product self‐referencing. Results indicate that the effects on product attitudes are moderated by the gender of both models and consumers and mediated by self‐referencing. Pictures with uncropped male models result in more positive product attitudes, irrespective of consumer gender. For product pictures with female models, male consumer attitudes are also more positive for products displayed with uncropped models. In fact, attitudes are only more positive for clothing shown with cropped, “headless” models when both models and consumers are female. Implications of the findings for research and practitioners are discussed.     

“Going global” and FDI inflows in China: “One Belt & One Road” initiative as a quasi‐natural experiment

This paper investigates the impact of “One Belt & One Road” as an exogenous policy shock on the utilisation of foreign capital in China in the short term. Based on provincial panel data for the years 2003–15, the empirical study is conducted with difference‐in‐differences design. The first difference is whether a province is an OBOR province, and the second is whether “One Belt & One Road” initiative has been proposed. The empirical results suggest the utilisation of foreign capital in OBOR provinces has decreased significantly compared to non‐OBOR provinces after the initiative has been proposed. The study has further shown that the OBOR construction not only means factor movements and projects but also stands for policy shock. Its impact on utilisation of foreign capital cannot be simply captured by the commonly quantifiable “going global” indicators, namely outward direct investment, overseas contracted projects or overseas labour services. The negative impact of the initiative on foreign capital utilisation is strongly reflected in the OBOR provinces with low levels of economic development, heavy fiscal burdens and high proportions of state‐owned economy. In the short term, the negative impact of the initiative on foreign capital utilisation may be due to its role in resource competition and signal delivering. The former means that the OBOR initiative may induce resource competition between “going global” and “bringing in,” and the latter suggests that this initiative is likely to be regarded as a “signal” by foreign investors that “going global,” not “bringing in,” has become the priority of the government.     

Green Marketing and the Concern over the Environment: Measuring Environmental Consciousness of Jordanian Consumers

SUMMARY

The purpose of this article is to explore the attitudes of Jordanian consumers regarding both their current environmental consciousness and their willingness to adopt environmentally friendly consumption behavior. The article is based on an empirical investigation of consumer attitudes for a sample of 303 university students drawn from Jordanian universities, using a drop-off method. The article concludes that Jordanian consumers were, generally, concerned about the environment, as they demonstrated reasonably high levels of environmental consciousness relating to various environmental issues. However, this pro-environmental attitude was not sufficient to turn good intentions into actual buying actions, possibly due to several factors, such as loyalty to traditional products and weak credibility of “green” claims. The article stresses the need to link consumers' good intentions to actual buying behavior through a green marketing strategy, which focuses on the unique characteristics of green products and how they impact the environment, within the cultural context of the Jordanian consumer. Over time, we hope that these efforts can lead to a culture of green consumerism within a framework of environmental responsibility.     

Exploring Different Types of Sharing: A Proposed Segmentation of the Market for “Sharing” Businesses

Sharing instead of buying is regaining traction among today's consumers. This study aims at identifying segments of sharing consumers to unearth potentially viable clusters of a consumer behavior that is a market of growing economic relevance. By means of a qualitative study and a survey with a roughly representative sample of 1121 Swiss‐German and German consumers, a set of trait‐related, motivational, and perceived socioeconomic variables is identified that can be used to group individuals into segments that differ with regard to their approach to sharing. A cluster analysis based on these variables suggests four potential clusters of sharing consumers—sharing idealists, sharing opponents, sharing pragmatists, and sharing normatives. Two sets of testable propositions are derived that can guide further research in this domain and pave the way to a more targeted approach to the growing market of “sharing” businesses.     

Attribution Effects of Time Pressure in Retail Supply Chain Relationships: Moving From “What” to “Why”

Retail supply chains must be responsive to consumer demand and flexible in adapting to changing consumer preferences. As a result, suppliers are often expected to deal with time pressure demands from retailers. While previous research demonstrates that time pressure can have longer term relational costs that reduce collaborative behaviors and overall relationship quality, this mixed‐methods study goes further by accounting for attribution effects to explain why the time pressure occurs. Specifically, supplier perceptions for the reason of time pressure being within or beyond a retailer's control, rather than time pressure itself, appear to have a stronger effect on relational outcomes. By investigating time pressure through the lens of attribution theory, this research opens a new inquiry of research that moves away from examination of outcomes themselves (the “what”), to examining “why” the outcome occurred.     

“Retail is detail! Give consumers a gift rather than a bundle”: Promotion framing and consumer product returns

Retailers often use the promotion strategy of offering supplementary products (e.g., free gift, bundle) to attract consumers and increase sales. Despite the growing literature on the promotions that are differently framed but offer economically identical values, little research has examined the link between promotion framing and consumer product returns. The current article sheds light on this relationship, hypothesizing that a free gift promotion would be superior to a bundle promotion in reducing consumer product returns. The findings suggest that a gift‐framed promotion leads to a lower product return intention than an economically equivalent bundle promotion, because consumers tend to perceive more loss from giving up the gift‐framed (vs. bundle‐framed) deal. Further, this study examines a moderating role of brand familiarity (familiar vs. unfamiliar) and shows that the merits of free gift framing on product return intention via perceived loss are amplified (attenuated) when the promoted brand is familiar (unfamiliar). Overall, the investigations of this study imply that it is better to frame a promotion as a “free gift” than a “bundle” to increase perceived loss in returning the purchase and thus to decrease consumer product returns. This strategic intervention works especially when the gift is offered by familiar brands.     

Me,Myself, and Future Generations: The Role of Affinity and Effectiveness in the Creation of Consumer Environmental Stewardship (CENS)

Policymakers, consumer advocate groups, and researchers agree that consumers need to increase their proenvironmental behaviors if a decent standard of living is to be ensured for future generations. Despite high levels of environmental concern, consumers still refrain from large‐scale adoption of proenvironmental behaviors. Social marketers agree that a change in attitudes is not enough to stimulate the necessary behavioral change and are looking for ways to help consumers overcome the costs (e.g., price premiums, inconvenience) that are often associated with proenvironmental behaviors. Currently, consumers often see proenvironmental behavior as a trade‐off between short‐term personal benefits and longer term collective benefits. The authors contribute to the social marketing literature on proenvironmental behavior by introducing the concept of Consumer Environmental Stewardship (CENS), which centers on the use of intrinsic motivation to stimulate a personal sense of responsibility for the environment. The findings, based on a survey and three experiments, show that the stimulation of consumers’ affinity with future generations (AFGs) and perceived consumer effectiveness (PCE) can help to promote CENS, which in turn raises proenvironmental behaviors. However, this research also shows that increasing levels of AFGs can backfire and result in lower levels of CENS, if consumers experience low levels of PCE.     

“Four Bright Coins Shining at Me”: Financial Education in Childhood,Financial Confidence in Adulthood

We analyze the relation between receiving an allowance (pocket money) in childhood and financial confidence in adulthood. We measure this confidence using self‐reported financial knowledge. Our empirical exercise is based on information provided by a Dutch survey carried out in 2015. We compute our estimates by controlling for parental attitudes and by using a “within‐family” fixed effect model. The results are robust and suggest a long‐lasting effect of pocket money as an easily implementable and informal educational vehicle to help children acquire basic financial concepts and develop good habits, such as budgeting.     

Why Do We Read On‐Pack Nutrition Information so Differently? A Typology of Reading Heuristics Based on Food Consumption Goals

While prior research has extensively studied nutrition labeling use and consumer errors of judgment in the nutrition evaluation process, less attention has been paid to the consumer motivations that simplify the reading of on‐pack nutrition information. To address this gap, this study examines how food consumption goals affect consumer reading of this information. On the basis of a qualitative study, eight food consumption goals have been identified and classified into four types of motivations which impact reading behaviors: “Food Optimization,” “Food Regulation,” “Food Gratification,” and “Food as Mere Necessity.” From this typology, we derive eight on‐pack nutrition information reading heuristics as well as specific inference biases resulting from these simplifying reading strategies. This research also provides guidelines for policymakers so that nutritional messages given to consumers will be more targeted in order to promote better reading of on‐pack nutrition information at the point of sales.     

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.     

Consumer Readings of Green Appeals in Advertisements

This study evaluates consumers’ interpretation of green advertisements. The overarching theme that surfaced from the findings was that of “convenience.” The themes brought out by respondents of “not compromising your lifestyle,” a “simple-fix,” and a “collective participation/minor changes” all reiterated the theme of convenience. This suggests that the environmental initiatives of many companies/brands are focusing on minor green activities rather than sustainable activities. Additionally, all advertisements alluded to anthropocentric considerations, a human-centered system of values that regards nature as subject to the demands of human-utility, as opposed to ecocentric considerations that provide a non-contingent basis for protecting the natural world.     

Ethical Consumerism: A View From the Food Industry in Morocco

Both consumers and firms are now more concerned about ethics as a way to make business transactions a win–win deal. As consumers ensure profitability to businesses, they expect fair practices and honest behaviors toward society. The study reported here attempts to investigate Moroccans’ perceptions and attitudes toward ethical consumerism of food. Consumers’ willingness to buy those products and their motives for such purchases as well as factors preventing ethical purchases is investigated. Besides price, which drives most their decision to buy a food or not, Moroccans are driven by ethical claims such as “healthy,” “no fat,” “pasteurized,” etc. It was shown that consumers trust information on the labels of products besides information provided by consumer authorities. In relation to ethical aspects, Moroccans are mostly concerned about the environment and religion. Older men with high income are shown to be a good target for the ethical food market.     

Measuring consumer understanding and perception of eco‐labelling: Item selection and scale validation

The use of “eco‐labels” by businesses, both as communication and positioning strategies, is increasing. For these eco‐labels to be effective, however, it requires consumers to understand and value what eco‐labels are communicating. Research suggests that there are many factors impeding consumers’ understanding of eco‐labels . Most of these studies have focused on single dimensions of a complex phenomenon and in doing so they have ignored the multifaceted aspects of the construct, suggesting that a more integrated representation is warranted. The work herein undertakes four studies to empirically test and validate a multidimensional measure that can be used to assess how consumers psychometrically understand and perceive eco‐labelling. The four‐study process involves qualitative interviews to extend the issues identified within the literature, followed by two studies using principal component analysis, confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modelling analysis, each using separate samples, to test the reliability and validity of the proposed eight‐dimensional 27‐item ECOLSCALE. Another study is then undertaken to assess the nomological validity of the scale regarding to consumers’ environmental orientation. The ECOLSCALE developed in this work can be used to assist marketers, policy makers and researchers to evaluate the impact of eco‐labelling schemes on consumers’ understanding of eco‐labels, thereby enabling consumers to make more environmentally informed decisions.