The effects of consumer empowerment on risk perception and satisfaction with food consumption

This study intends to measure consumer empowerment related to food consumption and determine its effect on food risk perception and satisfaction with food consumption. Data were derived from an analysis of the “2017 Research on Food Consumption Behaviour” by the Korea Rural Economic Institute. Consumer empowerment, risk perception and satisfaction with food consumption were measured using a 5‐point Likert scale. The differences in consumer empowerment according to gender, age, educational level and monthly income were statistically significant. The factors that affected risk perception were information use, healthy eating, consumer rights, consumer responsibility and monthly income. The higher the scores for information use, healthy eating and consumer responsibility, the higher the score for satisfaction with food consumption.     

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.     

Intergenerational influence on sustainable consumer attitudes and behaviors: Roles of family communication and peer influence in environmental consumer socialization

Intergenerational research on sustainable consumption remains scarce, particularly in relation to which factors may affect the level of intergenerational similarity and the direction of intergenerational transmission. The present study addresses these gaps and adds to the growing body of literature in environmental consumer socialization by examining intergenerational influence on sustainable consumer attitudes and behaviors in a sample of 146 dyads comprised of mothers and college-age daughters. In the domain of intergenerational influence, we study two potential moderating factors suggested in past consumer research: communication effectiveness and peer conformity. Using the co-orientational model and nominal dyad method, we reveal the existence of intergenerational similarity in dyads' sustainable consumer attitudes and behaviors—after accounting for nominal effects— and show that stronger parent–child communication between mother–daughter pairs leads to greater intergenerational similarity, whereas stronger peer influence on daughters reduces intergenerational agreement. Our analysis further suggests the presence of reverse environmental socialization, in which intergenerational influence predominantly occurs from daughter to mother. Dyads' subjective knowledge regarding sustainable consumption provides empirical insights for this co-orientational model finding on reverse intergenerational transfer. Overall, outcomes of this study encourage marketing managers to leverage young-adult offspring in the process of communicating sustainable marketing strategies.     

The supreme struggle: ‘Obamacare’ and the new limits of federal regulation

On June 28, 2012, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected legal challenges to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, commonly known as ‘Obamacare,’ by a vote of 5-4. In National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius (2012), a majority of the justices affirmed Congress's power to expand Medicaid and impose an individual mandate requiring people to obtain health insurance or face increasing tax penalties. The Court's decision was widely condemned as a dramatic expansion of federal power that threatened state sovereignty and individual liberty. The Court was heavily criticized for betraying the principles of federalism and limited government in the U.S. Constitution. The harshest criticism was reserved for Chief Justice John Roberts, a Republican appointee who—though considered a conservative justice—authored the Court's opinion and cast the critical deciding vote to uphold the Act. In reality, far from dramatically expanding federal power, the Court's decision placed groundbreaking limits on Congress's power to regulate commerce and use federal funds to pressure states into doing its bidding. These aspects of the Court's decision received less attention in the popular media, but may actually prove to have a more significant impact on the scope of federal regulation in the future. This installment of Business Law & Ethics Corner explains how those aspects of the Court's decision place new limits on the nature and scope of federal regulation.     

湛江模式的启示:探索社会医疗保险与商业健康保险的合作伙伴关系

在推进全民医保的新探索中,广东省湛江市在推进社会医疗保险与商业健康保险的合作伙伴关系上呈现出独有的特色,引起了政府和社会各界广泛的关注。"湛江模式"的重要启示是,社会医疗保险与商业健康保险建立合作伙伴关系,可以有效促进双方的共同发展以及多层次医疗保障体系的形成与发展。     

The algebra of health concerns: implications of consumer perception of health loss,illness and the breakdown of the health system on anxiety

The current and expected future state of the American health care system creates much concern and anxiety at the national and individual level among Americans. This study is in response to the call of the Institute of Medicine to further study the lack of confidence among Americans about their future ability to receive high‐quality health care. This study compares perceived anxiety and its amelioration as a result of three possible health situations: illness with infectious disease, losing one's health and a breakdown of the health care system. This empirical study was conducted within the framework of conjoint analysis. We conducted an experimental design of ideas, identified attributes that increased or reduced anxiety in each of the three health‐related situations and then segmented consumers on the basis of their patterns of reactions to the attributes. We found that the highest anxiety was attributed to the breakdown of the health care system. The segmentation further suggested that the anxiety emerging from the breakdown of society's health care system generated a different extent of anxiety than that which emerged from one's illness or one's loss of own health. The attributes that drove anxiety across the health situations were, surprisingly, charities, one's company, the local hospital and supplemental insurance. Attributes that reduced anxiety differed among segments. The attributes were found to be: close friends, family, distribution of information by authorities and the belief in God. At a practical level, these data and patterns of response allow health care policy makers to enhance the coping ability of patients by understanding the nature of what reduces the anxiety of individual types of patients. The approach in this study provides a person‐centred system for communication and anxiety reduction that can be implemented as part of a public health policy.     

The influence of terrorism risk perception on purchase involvement and safety concern of international travellers

Abstract

Using a sample of 600 international tourists travelling in Portugal, Spain and Italy, this study identifies key issues related with terrorism, risk perception, involvement and safety concerns of international tourists. A structural equation model reveals that tourists are motivated to acquire information about terrorism in the media, revealing attention to and interest in news regarding this topic, which in turn influences directly their risk perception. This risk perception influences directly the tourist’s involvement in trip planning, specifically information seeking before and during the trip. Tourists’ risk perception and involvement finally influences their safety concern. Discussion centres on the implications of this model for both theory and tourism management strategies. Last, recommendations are proposed to tourism service and destination managers and promoters regarding ways to deal with terrorism and tourists’ safety concerns.     

‘Better safe than sorry’: consumer perceptions of and deliberations on nanotechnologies

Although nanotechnologies are considered key technologies that can drive growth‐generating innovations in well‐saturated markets, worldwide investment in nanotechnologies has to date focused largely on technology‐related development programmes and little effort has been expended to research associated risks. As a result, even though prior discourses have sensitized western consumers to potential health‐related dangers, solid knowledge on, for example, the toxicological and eco‐toxicological risks and unintended side effects of nanotechnology are scarce. This paper therefore presents an overview of the current evidence on consumer knowledge and perceptions of nanotechnology and public engagement with it, with a focus on the US, the UK and Germany. Overall, even though survey data suggest that awareness of the term ‘nanotechnology’ has risen slightly, today's consumers are generally ill informed about its nature and its applications in consumer‐related products. Hence, based on our analysis of these data, we argue that early political engagement in the nanotechnology issue – for example, consumer policy options that support consumer interest in the marketing of ‘nanos’– would facilitate objective public discourse.     

The influence of service orientation and interaction orientation on consumer identification

A service orientation aims to provide professional and comprehensive service items to consumers in a sale or a non-sale situation, while an interaction orientation has the goal of creating good interaction ability with individual customers in order to maintain long-term, profitable customer relationships, and in the process obtaining valuable information about individual customers. These orientations build customer-centric operations and develop competitive advantages, thus enhancing firm performance and customer value. The main purpose of this study was to examine the relative and collective contributions of different strategic orientations on a firm's performance, with a focus on consumer–company identification. The structural equation model results indicate that (1) both service orientation and interaction orientation positively influence consumer–company identification and (2) interaction orientation results in higher perceived consumer identification.     

Understanding the effect of stigmatization on food consumer knowledge,perception and behaviour in Northern Ireland

Stigmatization has only recently been linked with the perception of risk, and research into this area has mainly concentrated on measuring the differences between nationalities, gender and socio‐economic status. The concept of stigmatization helps us understand why the public views certain places, products, technology and environments as dangerous and in a negative manner. To date, little has been done to assess the relationships between the effects of stigmatization on situations and people's decision‐making capabilities with regard to food. The aim of this research is to examine food consumers’ knowledge of food‐related risk issues to provide insight into the process of stigmatization and its relationship to food risk management, thereby improving awareness of the information consumers require from food risk communication. To meet this aim, two phases of data collection were implemented. Phase 1 used a baseline survey to investigate consumer knowledge of food‐risk‐related issues, identify how much attention consumers pay to information and what they remember about the particular issues. Factors affecting participant's recollection included how recently the event associated with the issue occurred, the level of media coverage and the reported severity of risk outcome. Phase 2 involved a follow‐up survey to investigate consumer knowledge of food risk issues and determine any changes in consumer behaviour. Research results and conclusions of Phases 1 and 2 of the study will be presented to highlight the relationships between participant recollection of particular food issues and whether knowledge of such issues caused any change in behaviour.     

Remnants of the U.S. Civil War and modern consumer behavior

This research introduces a construct termed regional animosity. Regional animosity represents individuals' preference for their own (ingroup) geographic region and incorporates elements of animosity toward people from an outgroup region. The construct emanates from an investigation of the historical divide between the northern and southern regions of the United States. The interrelated theories of social identity, stereotype activation, and consumer animosity provide theoretical rationale for the existence of regional animosity and its role in affecting consumers' evaluative judgments and price sensitivity. Data from three studies demonstrate that research respondents showed strong preference for products/services that originate in their home region. Results further reveal that scores on a scale measuring regional animosity correlated with the extent to which consumers chose products/services from their own region and the degree to which they were willing to pay premium prices to obtain these items. These findings support prior theory in a novel context and implicate a potentially important line of inquiry for future research. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

The Importance of Fashion: The Chinese and U.S. Gen Y Perspective

ABSTRACT

A cross-cultural study is conducted to examine the perceptions, needs, preferences, influences and fashion buying habits of Generation Y consumers in both China and the United States. Chinese consumers appear to be more fashion-conscious in that the majority of their luxury purchases are fashion products. In this increasingly globalized world, it is important for a fashion marketer to determine if one strategy can be used to reach all Generation Y consumers or if separate strategies are necessary. Specifically, this study examines fashion leadership, need for uniqueness, and attention to social comparison information to determine if there are differences between these two cohorts and how best to reach them.     

美国财险公司投资示范法研究与借鉴

《保险公司投资示范法》NAIC在美国影响广泛,对财险公司的投资规范涉及基本原则、准备金投资的特殊要求、分散投资规则,以及对有评级信用工具、投资集合工具、股票、抵押贷款、房地产、用于出租的个人财产、融券、回购和逆回购、衍生工具及外国投资等具体投资品种的限制措施,行文严密、科学合理。根据我国的实际,可以借鉴以下几点:鼓励价值投资、根据信用等级等安全性指标区分比例限制、明确比例限制的计算基数、从4个角度加以综合限制、注意对不同种类资产比例限制的协调性以便为统一法规的形成奠定基础、有意识地探索对寿险和财险公司的差别化限制措施。     

美国财产/责任保险分销系统的分析与启示

我国财产/责任保险近年来随着经济的发展和产权制度的不断明晰,取得了一定的发展,但其保费收入与人身险保费收入的比例仍然较低.原因是多方面的,但分销系统所存在的问题是制约我国财产/责任保险发展的重要原因.文章通过分析美国财产/责任保险分销系统在实践中的运作与操作,以及背后呈现的重要的经济学原理,揭示我国财产/责任保险分销系统结构调整的必然性.     

Safety of the U.S. food supply: consumer concerns and behaviour

To examine consumer concern about food safety, identify characteristics of those most concerned, and determine behavioural responses to concerns, we used mailed questionnaires to survey a random sample of 630 adults. Eighty-eight percent of respondents were very or somewhat concerned about safety of the food supply. Subjects perceived greatest likelihood of harm from chemicals and lowest likelihood of harm from bacterial contamination. Relative to other concerns about food such as cost or taste, food safety ranked low. Because the concern was across all ages, education levels, genders, and places of residence, we were unable to define a type of person most likely to be concerned about food safety. Less than half the subjects had changed dietary behaviour in response to food safety concerns. Foods reduced or eliminated from the diet most often were meats, fruits, eggs and vegetables. The findings indicate that consumers need risk assessment education and help in making food choices that do not compromise diet quality.     

Influences of visual attributes of food packaging on consumer preference and associations with taste and healthiness

Two experiments designed to investigate how the shape and colour of packaging, and product category, conjointly impact consumers’ product and packaging expectations are reported. In Experiment 1, the shape (rounded vs. angular) and visual appearance (greyscale, red‐to‐yellow and blue‐to‐green colour schemes) of the packaging were manipulated. Dependent measures were preference (willingness to purchase the product, how attention‐capturing the packaging is, and the pleasantness of the design) and any taste associations. In Experiment 2, shape (rounded vs. angular), colour (red‐to‐yellow vs. blue‐to‐green colour schemes), and product category (buttery vs. cereal cookies) were manipulated. In this case, the dependent measures were the perceived product healthiness and the preference of consumers. The results of Experiment 1 revealed that packaging colour influenced product preference. Red‐to‐yellow and blue‐to‐green colour schemes and angular packaging were preferred over greyscale and round packaging. Colour also influenced taste associations, while shape only influenced ratings of expected sweetness. In Experiment 2, packaging shape and product category influenced product preference. In particular, rounded packaging and the packaging of buttery cookies were preferred over angular packaging and the cereal cookies packaging. The healthiness of the product was rated higher for the rounded and red‐to‐yellow packaging containing a buttery product. Taken together, these results highlight the important role played by colour, shape, and category on the expectations and associations elicited by viewing product packaging.     

A dynamic segmentation of U.S. women during the COVID-19 pandemic

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has had a vast, but uneven, influence on consumers. Diversity in consumer reactions, and the extent to which those reactions lead to lasting preference and lifestyle changes, present challenges for implementing effective marketing strategies during a period of societal crisis. To address this, we conducted a dynamic segmentation analysis involving over 14,000 U.S. women by assessing relevant psychological, experiential, and other personal factors at multiple time points during the pandemic. This analysis identified seven unique consumer segments who varied in their current and future degree of change, and who indicated responsiveness to specific forms of brand and advertising content. This seven-segment clustering was highly stable over time, suggesting that certain segmentation approaches hold continuing value for marketers even as widespread events like pandemics evolve.     

The influence of gender and culture on Generation Y consumer decision making styles

Through the use of case studies of Cardiff (UK) and Charlotte (USA) this paper provides a comparative study of the retail structure of British and American cities. Three of the most striking contrasts can be seen in the intra-urban location of retail activity, the role of planned and unplanned shopping centres, and in the amount of retail space provision. Retailing in USA cities tends to be more decentralized, with a greater role for planned shopping centres and more retail space than in British cities. Reasons for this are explored.     

Understanding the influence of submission devices on online consumer reviews:A comparison between smartphones and PCs

Online consumer reviews (OCRs) are of immense value to businesses and consumers. With the rapid development of mobile Internet, smartphones have become an important device for consumers to publish OCRs. Information input is more difficult on smartphones than on PCs because of the screen size, the convenience of using keyboard and the interference of use situation. Based on cognitive cost theory, this study compares the differences of the statistical characteristics of OCRs (study 1) and the narrative content of OCRs (study 2) submitted via smartphones and PCs about material purchases in B2C websites. In study 1, an analysis of 24,933 OCRs across six products shows that OCRs submitted via smartphones have fewer words, more images, higher star rating, and shorter time interval than via PCs. In study 2, by coding and analyzing 1001 OCRs, the results show that OCRs submitted via smartphones are less likely to mention price, product functionality, product quality, product aesthetics, service quality, logistics quality, and attitudinal loyalty than via PCs, whereas no significant difference is observed in the dimensions of seller trustworthiness, cognitive attitude, emotional attitude, and recommendation expression. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.     

The influence of religious commitment on consumer perceptions of closed-on-Sunday policies: an exploratory study of Chick-fil-A in the southern United States

Many businesses operate long hours that often include nights and weekends to accommodate consumers. However, a few businesses maintain a closed-on-Sunday policy and do so while still operating successfully although closed-on-Sunday policies mean forgoing potential sales hours. As most Christian faiths consider the Sabbath as a day of rest, an oft-used rationalization for the success of businesses maintaining this policy is that they must be supported by consumers with strong religious beliefs, who appreciate the message sent by the company and as a result perceive the company favorably. The purpose of this paper was to investigate whether consumers' religious commitment influences their ethical judgment of a company's closed-on-Sunday policy and to determine whether this ethical judgment impacts a company's corporate or brand image and consumer loyalty intentions. The results suggest that consumers with higher levels of intra-personal religious commitment are more likely to hold favorable ethical judgments of closed-on-Sunday corporate policies. In addition, favorable ethical judgments of closed-on-Sunday corporate policies are likely to positively influence corporate image. A more positive corporate image ultimately results in higher consumer loyalty intentions.