Direct to consumer

ECONOMISTS have vigorously debated whether advertising and other messages supplied by sellers to buyers represent the efficient provision of information or the exploitation of buyers' imperfect access to it. Many economists now agree that each view commands some truth. Advertising should convey information efficiently where the buyer can easily verify it. But it may engender inefficient rent-seeking outlays by producers able to hamper buyers' gaining of information from alternative sources. For example, if buyers sample product information randomly, an incumbent can "jam" the channels through which entrants transmit their messages by loading the sampled population with messages of his own. Or the incumbent's messages can reinforce buyers' habits so as to reduce their prior expectations of the value of trying an alternative brand.2 If sales promotion is effective (by whatever means) in causing buyers to shift among competing products, it becomes a form of rent-seeking outlay by which sellers bid for the available customers.3 The problem for empirical research is to determine the extent to which seller-supplied information pursues a rent-seeking goal and thus incurs social costs. Those costs must be set against the efficiency advantage of sellers (relative to buyers or

Emerging Marketing Research on Healthcare and Medical Decision Making: Toward a Consumer-Centric and Pluralistic Methodological Perspective

This quantitative study explored young women's response to direct-to-consumer pharmaceutical advertising (DTCA) for a human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine. In particular, the study examined (a) the association of factors stemming from consumer research with actual and intended behavioral responses to DTCA for HPV and (b) key elements drawn from commonly used health-related theories to determine the strongest associations with behavioral intentions regarding the HPV vaccine. Survey findings showed that vaccinated women indicated that DTCA played a role in their decision to get vaccinated against HPV more so than those who were not vaccinated. Trust in DTCA for an HPV vaccine brand was significantly related to intentions to seek more information about the vaccine. Also, perceived barriers had the only significant association with behavioral intentions when taking into account perceived threat and response efficacy. These results provide practical implications for key industry decision makers and health communication professionals on the design of effective theory-based health communication message content for an HPV vaccine brand with consequent social implications.

Great progress has been made in the field of marketing and sustainability. Nevertheless, there is still an important gap between the behavior and beliefs of society and markets about sustainability, and companies’ capability to understand and face this trend. Digital marketing is key to filling this gap. However, research in digital marketing and sustainability is very scarce. The purpose of this research is to examine the literature in the subject, since 2009 until 2018, and to elaborate a research agenda about digital marketing and sustainability. Through a previous analysis based on bibliometrics, a research agenda has been developed that shows the main challenges for the digital marketing and sustainability field: (1) customer orientation and value proposition; (2) digital consumer’s behavior; (3) digital green marketing; (4) competitive advantage; (5) supply chain; and (6) capabilities. This work contributes to the development of the research in digital marketing and sustainability, suggesting various challenges for the field that lead to future lines of research, and favoring the development of a new research approach capable of reducing the existing gap between society and business on sustainability issues.

The aim of this book is to present the most important issues related to sustainable development (SD) and corporate social responsibility (CSR). They are discussed from a macro and micro perspective, both in the form of theoretical foundations of these concepts and practical examples of companies operating in Central and Eastern European countries that have implemented these ideas in their daily operations and translated them into corporate and functional strategies. The book consists of four parts. The first one is theoretical in its assumptions and is devoted to explaining the key concepts of sustainable development (SD) and corporate social responsibility (CSR). The authors describe the determinants of sustainable development in the contemporary world, including the most important ones, such as globalization, climate change, poverty, unlimited consumption, as well as limited access to natural resources - all in relation to the goals of sustainable development. The chapter also discusses the concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR), which is now recognized as the process by which business contributes to the implementation of sustainable development. How sustainable development (SD) and corporate social responsibility (CSR) are incorporated into the organization's strategies and influence the corporate strategy on the corporate and functional areas of the organization is presented in the last chapter of the first part of the e-book. The next part of the e-book helps readers understand the concepts of SD and CSR in the field of organizational strategy - in strategic management, and at the level of functional strategies—marketing, human resources, marketing research, accounting and operational management. The authors explain the reasons why companies need to consider the local and global perspective when setting SDGs, and the existence of potential conflicts within them. Taking into account the area of ​​marketing, the authors point to the increase in environmental and social awareness of all stakeholders, which translates into changes in the criteria for decision-making by managers and risk assessment. The issue of sustainability is also the subject of market research. Companies producing products and services, institutions dealing with environmental or consumer protection, scientists and students conduct many research projects related to, inter alia, much more. How to use secondary data for analysis and how to prepare, conduct, analyze and interpret the results of primary research in that area are discussed in detail in the next chapter of this section. The concept of SD also refers to the basic functions of human resource management (HRM)—recruitment, motivation, evaluation and control. They should take into account SD not only for the efficiency of the organization and long-term economic benefits, but also for ethical reasons. Thanks to the SHRM, the awareness and behavior of the entire organization can strongly express sustainable goals in the planning and implementation of the overall corporate strategy. The growing importance of the idea of ​​SD and the concept of CSR also resulted in the need for accounting and finance to develop solutions enabling the provision of information on the methods and results of implementing these concepts in entities operating on the market. This part of the book also examines manufacturing activities in the context of sustainability. As a result, many problems arise: waste of resources, mismanagement, excessive energy consumption, environmental pollution, use of human potential, etc. The chapter presents such concepts as: zero-waste, lean-manufacturing, six-sigma, circular production, design and recycling products in the life cycle as well as ecological and environmentally friendly production. The next two parts of the e-book contain examples of companies from Central and Eastern Europe that used SD goals in their strategies, questions and tasks for readers.

THE economic and welfare effects of advertising have been extensively studied over the last half-century. However, these efforts have not led to a consensus either as to the effects or the value of advertising. Economists continue to reach polar conclusions that appear to be derived mainly from preconceptions of the social desirability of advertising. On the one hand is research that emphasizes promotion's ability to create "artificial" product differentiation and thereby produce informational confusion.1 This line of research stresses the empirical association of extensive advertising with high concentration and high accounting profits-evidence judged to support increased market power and entry barrier effects.2 A contrary body of research emphasizes the value of advertising in providing information and, hence, in promoting competition.3 The empirical findings most consistent with this view are that prices paid by consumers in (selected) markets are lower with advertising than without it.4

The sustainable consumption and integration of digital solutions with respect to sustainable consumption have been encouraged by the new European circular economy action plan. Digital adoption has been accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic; companies have been challenged to rapidly adapt to the constant evolution of consumer needs and expectations, leading to valuable insights into the advancement of green business practices and a consequent rethinking of their business model. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the major shifts in sustainable consumer behavior on the Romanian retail market within the context of the Green European Deal, and retailers’ priorities in agilely adapting to these significant evolutions. Based on a comprehensive literature review on these major shifts and significant evolutions at the national and international levels, a quantitative study was carried out to evaluate the Romanian retail market and identify the major challenges faced by retailers in dealing with the new set of priorities. The data collection was conducted via a survey used in the retail environment, applied within a Romanian supermarket chain. The Romanian retail sector has a particular configuration, which may have an impact upon the study’s generalizability. Located in Central and Eastern Europe at the crossroads of the EU, the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), and the Middle East, Romania is a leading destination for foreign direct investment, and it is recognized for the similarities of its distribution and sales channels, the range of its retail outlets, and the local retail market dominance on the Big Box segment by reputed major retailers. A spectacular evolution is recorded in Romania’s e-commerce market, including from the point of view of the long-standing and memorable traditional relationship between Romania and China which was confirmed more recently by Romanian consumers who prefer to buy online from stores in China. Our consumer research provides retailers with deep consumer insights with regard to their priorities in their agile adaptation. According to our research, Romanian consumers are environmentally concerned consumers, displaying an increased awareness about the important role they play with respect to impacting sustainable production and consumption by adopting green purchase behavior. Our study also points to the fact that retailers, although faced with challenges in targeting consumers with customized messages to reinforce their brand perception on sustainability issues, do pay considerable attention to sustainability as a personal value embraced by consumers and are willing to focus on digitizing their business processes to enable new, sustainable business models.

The purpose of this article is to open for a missing dialogue between consumer culture theorization and biological anthropology and biology. In this sense, it is a kind of “manifesto” for a future interdisciplinary research program. The point of departure is for consumer researchers to get beyond and avoid the lure of much of the standard evolutionary Neo-Darwinist theorizing with its focus on a sharp division between innate and acquired features and adaptationism as the driving logic. Instead, consumer culture theory can – and should – find inspiration in open systems approaches to human biology and culture, in biosemiotics, and in current movements toward a post-anthropocentric anthropology that reinserts the human as a “becoming” element in a dynamic natural unfolding. Finally, it is argued that such a renewed dialogue is pivotal in the establishment of an ecological wisdom for addressing contemporary issues of climate change and sustainability.

The historical approach is too rarely used in our discipline, while it offers many advantages for marketing and consumer research. In particular, the historical approach offers the following contributions: (1) to grasp the density and discontinuities of consumption phenomena, which is necessary for the mobilisation of certain theoretical perspectives; (2) to challenge new theoretical proposals and instituted chronologies and (3) to feed managerial thought through the historicising of marketing and consumption issues and strategies. Based on these reflections and a review of the work in our discipline, we propose research programmes that deserve to be developed and enriched by the historical approach.

In this editorial on the special issue of the contemporary consumption of religion, we unpack the spectrum of continuity and changes in the theorization of the consumption and function of religion in marketing and consumer research. We explain how the papers in this special issue extend theory by bringing new answers to old and new questions, and still leave us with many new questions for future research.

Over the last few years, tech companies, like Samsung, have been developing implantable healthcare devices to diagnose diseases and treat the human body from the inside (Lee et al. 2020). Although sounding like a speculative fiction storyline, this high-tech scenario is at the heart of the Transhumanism movement. Transhumanists envision the creation of “more-than-humans” by the integration of cybernetic devices and biochemical solutions with the human body (Deretić and Sorgner 2016). Recently, scholars have begun to call for studies exploring the thus far undertheorized combination of emerging and speculative technologies and their relationships with consumer behavior and social implications (Schmitt 2019). To begin responding to these pleas, this conceptual work presents an overview of the Transhumanism movement, two of its technological domains, and psychosocial and ethical issues regarding consumers’ acceptance of such technologies.The Dryware transhuman domain encompasses machines that are attached to or implanted into the human body to enhance its biological condition. As an example, the North Sense is a miniaturized circuit board that allows for sensing Earth’s magnetic field. It works as a compass and is attached to the sternum bone. Within this transhumanist context, a number of social and ethical issues arise. For instance, would those who undergo a surgical procedure to have a North Sense installed feel stigma, harassment, and even physical aggression from others lacking such enhancements? The second technological domain to be considered here is Wetware, which comprises biochemical technologies. As an example, in the case of genetic engineering, it is theoretically possible to select the sex, colors for eyes and hair, improved athletic abilities, cognitive skills, and so on. As of 2021, such a procedure can easily cost around US$ 25,000 per attempt at fertilization. Additionally, for some, bioengineering human life leads to the objectification and the instrumentalization of their lives (Habermas 2003).The issues are numerous and much more complex than the pragmatic and technophilic view of human-technology interactions often considered in marketing and consumer research (Kaliyamurthy and Schau 2019). If consumers are already implanting cybernetic body parts, editing genes, or trying to live forever, then we, as a society, must tackle the issues outlined here. Due to the nature of Transhumanism and the space required to elaborate on it, we have briefly noted only a few possibilities of related consumption practices and issues. Acknowledging that several areas remained untouched in this conceptual study, we suggest that future work explore not only market for additional transhumanist technologies but also their philosophical implications.KeywordsTranshumanismCyborgsDrywareWetwareTechnologyHuman enhancement technology

Purpose: This study aims to investigate the role of human values and pro-environmental, vegetarian and activist behaviors in the formation of, here called, Expanded Sustainable Behavior. Theoretical framework: The theoretical framework was divided into five parts: Theory of Planned Behavior; Schwartz's Theory of Values; pro-environmental behavior; behavioral profile of vegetarians, and consumers as activists. Based on the theoretical framework, a framework was created based on the 10 hypotheses outlined in the study. Method/design/approach: This is a survey carried out with 211 vegetarians and their variations. Data collection occurred through the application of a self-administered questionnaire, using non-probabilistic, cross-sectional sampling. Regarding the analysis, descriptive statistics, Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA), and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) techniques were used. Results and conclusion: The results indicate that the values of self-transcendence and conservation do not influence pro-environmental attitudes. However, the values of self-enhancement and openness to change influence pro-environmental attitudes: the first in a negative way and the second in a positive way. Furthermore, pro-environmental behavior is formed by attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control, being in line with what the TCP suggests. Regarding Expanded Sustainable Behavior, it was observed that pro-environmental behavior does not lead to vegetarian behavior. On the other hand, activism is positively influenced by pro-environmental and vegetarian behaviors. Research implications: Based on the knowledge developed and presented in this study, it is expected to stimulate empirical research that analyzes sustainable behavior in its different dimensions, with its multiple influences, in addition to expanding the discussion on issues of sustainability and conscious consumption. Originality/value: This study contributes to the literature as it proposes the concept of Expanded Sustainable Behavior which emerges from the chain of pro-environmental, vegetarian, and activist behaviors, as well as their connections and mutual influences. Thus, the study signals that it is possible to expand the analysis of sustainable behavior and study it with a diverse number of variables, covering both personal and collective dimensions.

Purpose. Sustainability is relevant in all areas of daily life. As the production of new plastic for contact lenses is currently unavoidable, various manufacturers have taken different actions to become more environmentally friendly. The study aims to determine the opinion of contact lens practitioners in the DACH region (Germany, Austria, Switzerland) on these actions and their level of knowledge on the disposal of contact lenses. Material and Methods. A prospective online survey was conducted. 82 people, 31 female and 51 male, aged 49 ± 11.5 years, took part in the survey. The participants were recruited via the e-mail distribution list of the company CooperVision GmbH and the Vereinigung Deutscher Contactlinsen-Spezialisten und Optometristen (VDCO). Results. 37 % of all participants knew how to recycle contact lenses, blister packs and the packaging correctly. 44 % of the contact lens practitioners provide consumers with information on the correct disposal of contact lenses. At 81 %, the majority of participants consider the sustainability of contact lenses to be important or very important. For 68 %, this is just as important as sustainability in everyday life. The majority of participants (67 %) are not aware of plastic-neutral contact lenses as a concept used by contact lens manufacturers and are therefore not communicated to consumers. However, most participants (72 %) who are familiar with sustainability activities by manufacturers have a positive attitude towards them. Conclusion. Due to the relatively small number of participants, only trends can be identified from the survey. It is clear that the issue of sustainability and plastic consumption is being addressed by the contact lens industry through appropriate activities and is also considered important by contact lens practitioners. Better education about the possibilities for sustainable activities in the contact lens industry and more transparent knowledge about disposal of contact lenses can contribute to an increase in environmental sensitivity with contact lenses.

This article examines issues of sustainability in relation to consumption. The authors first discuss the notion of sustainable consumption and the link between individual consumer behavior and the macroconcerns of understanding and influencing aggregate consumption levels. The authors then reflect on the differing perspectives on whether consumption patterns are in need of adjustment. In the main part of the article, the authors then explore the issue of sustainable consumption through the lens of two broadly differing conceptualizations of consumption itself, discussing four main questions for each of these conceptualizations: (1) How is this view of consumption linked to prevalent current understandings of sustainable consumption? (2) How would sustainability be achieved following this perspective on consumption? (3) To whom would this view of sustainable consumption appeal or not appeal? and (4) What would the roles and responsibilities of different social actors be in achieving sustainability following this view of consumption?

Evolution of sustainability in supply chain management: A literature review