Consumer Ethics: Determinants of Ethical Beliefs of African Americans

This study explores the ethical ideol-ogies and ethical beliefs of African American consumers using the Forsyth ethical position questionnaire (EPQ) and the Muncy-Vitell consumer ethics questionnaire (MVQ). The two dimensions of the EPQ (i.e., idealism and relativism) were the independent constructs and the four dimensions of the MVQ (i.e., illegal, active, passive and no harm) were the dependent variables. In addition, this paper explores the consumer ethics of African Americans across four demographic factors (i.e., age, education, gender, and marital status). A sample of 315 African American consumers was used to explore these relationships. Results confirmed that consumers who score high on the idealism scale are more likely to reject questionable consumer activities, but there was no relationship between relativism and consumers' rejection of questionable activities. Older, more educated and married consumers rejected questionable activities more than younger, less educated and single consumers. Gender did not have any significant relationship to consumers' ethical orientation.     

消费者敌意:跨地域营销研究的新方向

消费者敌意研究指出国家间的经济和政治矛盾会影响购买意愿,由于历史和国情等因素,我国与美、欧、日等主要贸易国长期存在类似矛盾,但是还没有从营销的角度得到学界和企业的重视。为了帮助企业界认识、理解和应对消费者敌意,文章从消费者敌意的概念、影响因素、结果变量和理论基础研究消费者敌意的特征和作用机理,进行分析和阐述。     

Engineering Hedonic Attributes to Generate Perceptions of Luxury: Consumer Perception of an Everyday Sound

For the last twenty years, the perception of hedonic attributes has been a problematic matter in consumer research. We argue that the perception of a hedonic product attribute should not be considered as an irreducible holistic experience, but rather as a complex set of sensory experiences, the components of which are identifiable and quantifiable. We provide evidence for this position by proposing a reliable method linking the features of product-related sound stimuli to consumer perception of hedonic attributes. To our knowledge, this study is the first of its kind offering a detailed investigation of consumer perception of everyday sounds (as opposed to music). We discuss managerial and consumer-level implications of the findings and provide an agenda for future research.     

Keeping Up With the Joneses: Analyzing the Effect of Income Inequality on Consumer Borrowing

Household debt relative to disposable income increased from 60% in 1980 to 104% at the end of 2003. ‘Buying on credit’ has become so popular that an increasing number of firms generate more profit from financing than from selling their products. In this paper, we show that rising income inequality has substantially contributed to increased consumer borrowing. Income inequality affects all components of total household debt, but the impact is strongest on non-revolving debt (installment loans), which is used to finance the purchase of consumer durables. We argue and provide evidence that the income inequality effect on consumer borrowing is a result of conspicuous consumption. Rising income inequality has forced households with smaller income gains to use debt to keep up their consumption level relative to households with larger income gains.JEL Classification: D12, G29, J31, M30     

低碳经济下的消费者社会责任——以新能源汽车为例

随着2008年"消费与责任"被中国消费者协会确定为年主题,越来越多的学者关注消费者社会责任,消费者的社会责任意识缺失也受到重视。笔者总结了学者们对消费者社会责任的研究和社会责任消费行为的维度,并以新能源汽车为例分析了责任意识缺失的现状,进而提出相应的低碳消费建议。     

管理者过度自信,融资偏好与公司投资

通过公司投资与现金流之间的敏感度具体考察管理者的过度自信行为对我国上市公司内部或者外部融资偏好行为的影响,结果表明:总经理的年龄越大,任职时间越长,学历越高,以及当总经理拥有理工类教育背景时,总经理的过度自信行为越弱,因此,总经理更多地利用外部融资而不是内部融资,从而公司投资与现金流之间的敏感度越弱;而当总经理拥有经管类教育背景时,总经理的过度自信行为越强,因此,总经理更少地利用外部融资,从而公司投资与现金流之间的敏感度越强。