Consumer Attitudes Toward Shoplifting

This paper reports the findings of a consumer survey on shoplifting conducted during October, 1976 in three shopping centers in Omaha, Nebraska. It explores consumer awareness of shoplifting, attitudes toward shoplifting, and factors affecting attitudes toward shoplifting. It concludes that an educational program to inform and change attitudes would be In the consumer interest.     

Mature Consumer Awareness and Attitudes Toward Retirement Housing and Long-Term Care Alternatives

The retirement housing and long-term care industries have been responding to the needs of aging consumers by developing a wide range of housing facilities and personal care services. The increasing variety of long-term care options is expected to better satisfy the heterogeneous needs of older consumers. Results of a national study and qualitative research suggest that many present and potential consumers of supportive housing and long-term care services do not have a good understanding of these offerings. Many are unaware of the alternatives available. Mature consumers often perceive all long-term care negatively as nursing homes. The proliferation in the variety of housing and long-term care services and the lack of standardization in labeling products may be contributing to the misunderstanding of various options. This misunderstanding leads to consumers not obtaining the housing and long-term care services best suited to their needs. Government agencies, consumer interest groups, and housing and long-term care providers can help to differentiate products and educate consumers to better serve their needs.     

International Consumer Attitudes Toward Cloud Computing: A Social Cognitive Theory and Technology Acceptance Model Perspective

The purpose of this article is to examine the factors affecting consumer attitudes toward cloud computing in the United States and Australia. The technology acceptance model and social cognitive theory are utilized to test relationships between technology acceptance model constructs (perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness) with individual characteristics that are shaped by environmental factors as part of social cognitive theory (consumer innovativeness, security concerns, performance expectations, and social networks) on consumer attitudes toward adopting cloud computing services. Consumers in the youth segment are used to test the hypotheses in two different countries (the United States and Australia). The results of the analysis indicate similarities and differences related to behavioral intentions and adoption behavior toward cloud computing services. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

A Cross-Cultural Study of Consumer Attitudes Toward Time

Abstract

Since consumer behavior can be considered an activity that occupies time and attitudes toward time and its value differ across cultures, then differences in attitudes toward time may prove to be a meaningful way to segment markets. This study investigates differences in American and Mexican consumers' attitudes toward time. After a brief review of the literature relating to the role of time in consumer behavior, a cross-cultural study of consumer attitudes towards time is described and analyzed. Implications for adapting marketing messages based on culturally-based attitudes toward time are then discussed.     

Consumer Attitudes Toward Professionals' Television Advertising

No abstract available for this article.     

Investigation of Products Liability Attitudes and Opinions: A Consumer Perspective

The area of product safety and products liability legislation has been the subject of a great deal of academic research. Policymakers and business executives have been surveyed to determine their attitudes toward liability and product safety concerns. In addition, a substantial amount of research has focused on the impact of products liability trial outcomes on business and public policy. However, there are relatively few studies reporting opinions, attitudes, and predispositions of consumers regarding relevant liability topics. This article explores the consumer perspective on several critical questions relating to products liability and product safety. The results indicate a wide divergence of opinion exists among consumers on key issues shaping current trends in the products liability legal environment. Implications for consumers, business, and public policy are discussed.     

Indian Consumer Attitudes Toward Food Safety: An Exploratory Study

The aim of this research is to segment Indian consumers based on their attitudes toward food safety and to demographically characterize each segment with sound risk communication strategies and outreach program may be developed to target vulnerable groups. This article uses exploratory factor analysis and hierarchical cluster analysis to find the factors that accentuate consumers’ attitude toward food safety and generalizes the heterogeneity of consumer attitudes based on five factors: apprehension, trust, appetence for a high degree of regulation, acknowledgment from foodborne illness, and propensity for the right to purchase foods that are not guaranteed to be safe.     

Consumer Attitudes Toward and Preferences for Food Standards of Identity

Abstract

Federal food standards of identity protect consumers from nutritional and economic fraud by establishing standardized names and characteristics for some products. Standards have been criticized for a variety of reasons, raising the possibility that standards may be harmful to the consumers' interests that they are designed to protect. The authors conducted focus groups to collect information on consumers' attitudes toward food standards and their perceived usefulness. Many participants believed that standards are useful and deemed standards to be more important for some types of products than others. Regulators can use the study findings to guide policy decisions on food standards.     

The Typicality and Accessibility of Consumer Attitudes Toward Television Advertising: Implications for the Measurement of Attitudes Toward Advertising in General

Despite the wide array of contemporary advertising formats and media, television advertising remains the most dominant form to which typical consumers are exposed. Research on attitudes toward advertising in general (Att-AiG) implicitly assumes that the Att-AiG measure represents advertising as a whole. A major finding of the current research is that consumers tend to have a mental representation, or exemplar, of the most typical type of advertising—television advertising—when they report their Att-AiG. Therefore, in reality, Att-AiG primarily reflects attitudes toward television advertising. In addition, the results of our experiments indicate that television ad exemplars generate temporal changes in consumers’ reported Att-AiG and attitudes toward television advertising. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

Ethnic Differences in Nigerian Consumer Attitudes Toward Foreign and Domestic Products

Abstract

This paper uses conjoint analysis to investigate ethnic differences in the importance of a product's country-of-manufacture relative to other attributes in the Nigerian consumer choice. It was found that the country-of-manufacture was more important to Yoruba than Hausa respondents, price was more important to Ibo than Yoruba respondents, and reliability was more important to Hausa than Ibo respondents. Additional analyses indicated that prestige was important to Yoruba respondents in the preference for foreign cars while it was important to Ibo and Hausa respondents in the choice of foreign TV sets. Implications for foreign marketers, domestic governments and domestic manufacturers are discussed.     

Consumer Segments Based on Attitudes Toward Luxury: Empirical Evidence from Twenty Countries

This article proposes an international segmentation of consumers based on their attitudes toward luxury. We perform a two-stage empirical study with a data set that combines samples from 20 countries. We provide a substantive interpretation of the results to show that three attitude segments dominate in a Western cultural context. We discuss several directions for future research based on the findings.     

Retail Salespeople's Training and Its Impact on Attitudes Toward Handling Consumer Complaints

Abstract

This paper reports the results of a study of retail salespeople's training and its impact on attitudes toward consumer complaints. A sample of 59 retail salespeople from a variety of retail stores were surveyed via a self-administered questionnaire.

Significant differences were found between salespeople with more formal training and those who received informal/no training when they were hired into the sales positions. Findings indicate that proper training can equip salespeople to deal with customers who complain.     

Cross-National Comparison of Consumer Attitudes Toward Consumerism in Four Developing Countries

This paper analyzes the results of an empirical investigation on attitudes toward consumerism in four developing countries. Comparisons of these consumerism views are made along three different dimensions. Findings provide some support for the “consumerism life cycle pattern.” Alternative reasons for the results are discussed, and directions for research are examined.     

Consumer Preferences for Health Care Reform Options

This study uses the 1992 Health and Retirement Study to examine consumer preferences for four health care reform options: tax-financed national health insurance, personally subsidized Medicare extensions, publicly subsidized nursing home insurance, and tax credits for health insurance purchases. Males, non-Caucasians, the self-employed, those in excellent health, and those who reside in the Northeast favor national health insurance, while those with high levels of liquid and non-liquid assets tend to disfavor it. Males and those with higher expectations of living in nursing homes tend to favor personally subsidized Medicare extensions to cover nursing homes and home health care. Those with higher expectations of living in nursing homes also favor publicly subsidized nursing home insurance. Relatively little support for subsidized nursing home insurance is found among males and those with high levels of liquid and non-liquid assets. The self-employed tend to support tax credits for health insurance premiums.     

Assessing the Impact of Service Employees' Nonverbal Sexual Signals on Consumer Attitudes: A Caribbean Perspective

ABSTRACT

This study examines the effects of nonverbal sexual signals by service employees on consumer attitudes. An experimental design was used to manipulate the nonverbal gender cues exhibited by service employees in a high- and low-contact service setting. As predicted, heterosexual customers who perceived the service employee to be homosexual vs. heterosexual had a significantly more negative attitude towards the employee and company. Attitudes towards the company were more negative for a high-contact vs. low-contact service but, surprisingly, there was no significant difference in attitudes towards the employee across service types.     

Managing Effective Consumer Communication Through Customer Care: The Singapore Perspective

This article examines the importance of relationship communication as companies manage their customers by developing and strengthening customer care. The process is likened to that of a courtship where social exchange is determined and validated. The conceptual framework involves looking at marketing relationships through various phases, such as initiating introduction, working at maintenance, securing trust and commitment, as well as adding value to certain intangible aspects. Throughout the discussion, several timely examples are illustrated to show how different companies have advocated relationship management to support organizational growth and publicity.     

Paradoxical Relationships Between Cultural Norms of Particularism and Attitudes Toward Relational Favoritism: A Cultural Reflectivity Perspective

We examined how the cultural dimension of universalism–particularism influences managers’ attitudes toward relational favoritism (such as favoring friends or relatives in HR decisions). Paradoxically, we found in a survey study that Brazilian and Chinese managers perceived more negative consequences of relational favoritism than did American managers—even though the Brazilians and the Chinese perceived stronger particularistic cultural norms in their countries than Americans did in the United States. We attribute this pattern of results to “cultural reflexivity”—the ability of people from transforming economies to be culturally self-critical during a period of dramatic societal change. This pattern of results also emerged in a scenario study in which we asked these same Brazilian, Chinese, and American participants to assess managerial succession decisions made by a General Manager. We varied the scenarios so that the promoted manager was either a colleague with no pre-existing relation with the GM or a colleague who was a relative, a close friend, from the same town, or from the same school. Consistent with the results of the survey study, we found that perceived cultural norms of particularism were negatively related to perceptions of fairness. In other words, Brazilians and Chinese, even while living in more particularistic cultures, were more harsh in judging relational favoritism. We conclude with a discussion on the implications of these paradoxical relationships.