United States Trade in Consumer Products

The United States has experienced a large trade deficit in consumer products. This paper argues that the deficit is due in part to the institutional and behavioral frameworks in which consumer products are marketed. The existence of an effective mass distribution system, a large market relative to promotion expenditures and the change-orientation of the consumer can influence greatly the ability of nations to expand markets and stimulate sales of consumer products. These factors prevalent in the American economy have attracted imports. In contrast, their absence in the economies of our trading partners has limited our access to foreign markets. Policy implications of this situation and areas for further research are identified and discussed.     

It Don't Come Easy: Overcoming Obstacles to Technology Use Within a Resistant Consumer Group

To identify ways in which resistance can be overcome and technology's potential realized, we study acceptance and use of a specific technology, the Internet, by a specific resistant group, older consumers. Using interviews and a survey of consumers who are over 65 years old, we discover that curiosity and proactive coping drive technology optimism, which then predicts adoption and heavier usage. Motivated seniors with technology discomfort get help to adopt and continued assistance to learn usage repertoires. Surprisingly, technology discomfort is positively rather than negatively related to usage enthusiasm. Implications are drawn for consumer groups resistant to technology.     

Secondary household production of food: the influence of home meal preparation on food expenditures and reported adequacy

A path model was tested to ascertain the relationships between certain socio-economic and demographic variables, the percentage of household meals prepared and eaten at home (secondary household production), food expenditures, and the household's reported adequacy of food consumed. Significant positive predictors of secondary household production of food were the age of the head and household size. Negative predictors were education of the head, income of the head(s) and number of hours worked by the household head(s). By far the most important predictor was the number of hours worked. The strongest predictor of food expenditures was household size. Other positive predictors were income of the head(s), number of household heads and the degree of urbanization. Negatively affecting food expenditures was secondary household production of food, indicating the ‘saving’ effect of preparing meals at home. The household's reported adequacy of their food was predicted by the positive effect of education of the head, age of the head, tenure, hours worked by the head(s) and number of household heads. Although the number of hours the heads are employed decreased the percentage of meals prepared at home, and the percentage of meals at home negatively affected expenditures, the number of employment hours had no effect on food expenditures.     

Toward Consumer Efficiency: A Model for Improved Buymanship

This paper suggests that changes in the economic, marketing, and social environments call for alternative approaches to the traditional models of buymanship. The authors propose a shopping model that incorporates four main tenets: (1) search is conceived as a continuous process; (2) consumers take advantage of retail price competition at one point in time and over time; (3) an acceptable set of brands and stores is integral to purchase decisions; and (4) low price on an acceptable brand triggers purchase. Implications for consumer buying, research, and consumer education are identified.     

DOMESTIC ENERGY CONSERVATION AND THE CONSUMER*

This study identifies factors influencing the behaviour of the household in energy conservation, and reports on a survey carried out to investigate knowledge in the area of energy and its conservation and the extent to which knowledge is put into practice to save energy. The survey showed that, amongst working class women, the need to reduce the bill, or at least stop it rising so fast is the greatest incentive to conservation. Knowledge of how and where heat is lost from the house is poor and there is little awareness of the need for insulation. Conservation practices in cooking are poor and where money is less tight, women easily become careless users of hot water. Most women do not have the knowledge to choose between fuels and appliances. The knowledge of women over 60 is significantly lower than that of younger women.     

EFFECT OF TEXTILE QUOTA RESTRICTIONS ON U.S. COTTON TEXTILE IMPORTS BETWEEN 1964 AND 1973

The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of U.S. cotton textile quotas on cotton textiles imported into the U.S. between 1964 and 1973. The findings showed that cotton imports requiring more processing stages had significantly greater 10-year average prices than other groups. Changes in the dollar value of imported cotton textiles during the decade have mainly occurred because of an increase in the average prices rather than resulting from a redistribution of imports from low to high average price groups. The weakening correlation between changes in the dollar value and in the quantity of high unit value groups indicated that the control on quantity has not precluded increases in total dollar value of imports in higher processing stages, especially since 1970. Since fabrics with a relatively stable average price accounted for the major importation of cotton textiles during the 1964–1973 period, the overall control by quantity in this decade was still quite good, even though average prices of apparel were rising.