Consumer vulnerability and the transformative potential of Internet shopping: An exploratory case study

Abstract

Ten million individuals in the UK who suffer from long-term illness, impairments, or disability can be considered as vulnerable consumers (Office for Disability Issues, 2010 Office for Disability Issues (2010). General Demographics. http://www.officefordisability.gov.uk/disability-statistics-and-research/disability-facts-and-figures.php#gd (http://www.officefordisability.gov.uk/disability-statistics-and-research/disability-facts-and-figures.php#gd) (Accessed: 1 February 2011).  [Google Scholar]). Despite this, there are few studies on the use of the Internet for grocery shopping by the disabled and none which offers an understanding of the multiple facets of consumer vulnerability. The purpose of this study is to contextualise the use of the Internet for grocery shopping using an exploratory case to provide fresh insights into the ‘actual’ vulnerability of ‘Danni’ – a disabled housewife and mother. The consumer-focussed methods used here were combined multiple complementary approaches. The findings illustrate that whilst the use of the Internet reduces the impracticalities of shopping in-store, the normalcy afforded to Danni through shopping in-store (including her sense of self) was not met by the technological offerings. The paradoxes associated with using online provision and the strategies adopted to manage these by Danni demonstrate engagement/disengagement and assimilation/isolation. Policy implications and insights for retailers are provided.     

Examining store atmosphere appraisals using parallel approaches from the aesthetics literature

ABSTRACT

Drawing on the aesthetics literature, this study examines how typicality, novelty, unity and variety help to explain consumers’ aesthetic pleasure and approach/avoidance behaviours. Comparisons are made between consumers’ perceptions of actual store designs in a recently remodelled fashion store and that of an older, established store prototype owned by the same retailer. The research findings establish how novelty, typicality and variety confer aesthetic pleasure and approach behaviours in-store atmosphere appraisals contexts where there is a limited introduction of novelty, with one established prototype. The findings also suggest that moderation effects explain that consumers who place a greater value on the importance of design evaluate the novelty and aesthetic pleasure association differently compared to consumers with less design value orientation.     

immigration and the collapse of communism

Will Western Europe have to deal with a flood of emigrants from the East? Jonathan Eyal, of the Royal United Services Institution, argues that the West should not be unduly affected.     

The Use and Deployment of Soft Process Technologies within UK Manufacturing SMEs: An Empirical Assessment Using Logit Models

This study assesses the adoption of different soft process technologies from a survey of 218 British engineering and electronics small and medium-sized firms (SMEs). The new process (soft) technologies that were modeled included total quality management, Kaizan, and statistical process control. Logit models demonstrate that the determinants of soft process technology adoption vary significantly from technology to technology. The study questions a blanket approach to technology adoption. Firm-specific factors make a larger difference to the adoption of process technologies than competitive factors. While on the whole small firms are slow to adopt new techniques, this does not hold for all technologies, and future research might investigate what technologies SMEs adopt and why. Benchmarking, suggestions schemes, problem-solving techniques and ISO 9000 adoption was unrelated to firm size, which holds out the prospect of soft process technologies as an alternative technological path for small firm productivity growth.     

Marginal Property Tax Effects of Conservation Easements: A Vermont Case Study

Conservation easements allow landowners to transfer their land's development rights to another entity, usually a nontaxable conservation organization. Conservation reduces the town's tax base, necessitating a tax rate increase to maintain service levels. However, conserving land also decreases the supply of developable land and provides open space amenities that may be capitalized into the value of nearby properties. These effects may offset the decrease in the tax base caused by the easement. Using a sample of twenty-nine Vermont towns, we show that private conservation easements increase property tax rates in the short run, but are tax-neutral or tax-suppressing in the long run.     

Momentum and Autocorrelation in Stock Returns

This article studies momentum in stock returns, focusing onthe role of industry, size, and book-to-market (B/M) factors.Size and B/M portfolios exhibit momentum as strong as that inindividual stocks and industries. The size and B/M portfoliosare well diversified, so momentum cannot be attributed to firm-or industry-specific returns. Further, industry, size, and B/Mportfolios are negatively autocorrelated and cross-seriallycorrelated over intermediate horizons. The evidence suggeststhat stocks covary "too strongly" with each other. I argue thatexcess covariance, not underreaction, explains momentum in theportfolios.     

Technology, wages, and skill shortages: evidence from UK micro data

Why have skill shortages continue to persist despite increasesin training and the skill levels of the workforce? We arguethat technical progress has raised the demand for skilled labourto match the observed increase in supply. We provide econometricevidence in support of this hypothesis, showing that skill shortagesare higher for establishments that use advanced technology inthe production process. We also provide econometric evidencethat hiring difficulties are inversely related to the relativewage, as theory would suggest. Our results have clear implicationsfor policy. If technological progress continues to be skillbiased, policies that address skills deficiencies will onlybe successful if they produce a continual, rather than a temporary,increase in levels of skills among the workforce.     

Optimal consumption and portfolio rules with intertemporally dependent utility of consumption

In the usual consumption portfolio problem, lifetime utility is assumed to be time-additive. This assumption has been criticized for failing to capture important intertemporal dependencies in utility such as intertemporal risk aversion and habit formation. This paper studies the consumption portfolio problem for a class of intertemporally dependent utility functions.     

Financial globalization and real regionalization

Over the period 1972-1986, the US business cycle was strongly correlated with the business cycle in the rest of the industrialized world. Over the period 1986-2000, international co-movement was much weaker (real regionalization). At the same time, US international asset trade has increased significantly ( financial globalization). We first document these phenomena in detail and then argue that they are related. In particular, we present a model in which financial globalization occurs endogenously in response to less correlated real shocks. Financial globalization, by enhancing cross-border capital flows, further reduces the international correlations in GDP and factor supplies. We find that both less correlated shocks and the endogenous change in international financial markets are needed to quantitatively account for the observed changes in the international business cycle.