Buying Choices Research Articles

Are Greeks’ Unconcerned about Ethical Market Choices?"

An Ethical Unconcern (EthU) scale was constructed and its impact on Positive Ethical Consumption was examined. The procedure of EthU included literature search, brainstorming and discussion groups to generate the preliminary pool of 99 items, refinement of the scale via a students’ survey by the employment of item-to-total correlation and alpha-if-item deleted techniques. The initial scale was tested in a consumer survey conducted in the urban area of Thessaloniki, Greece. Item-to-total correlation and alpha-if-item deleted techniques were applied again, followed by Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) by the employment of PCA. The procedure left 21 items in five factors with eigenvalues greater than 1 explaining 61.34% of the variance. The five factors were named Boycott/ Discursive, Fair-Trade, Scepticism, Powerlessness and Ineffectiveness. The AMOS SPSS was then used to conduct confirmatory factor analysis. Goodness-of-fit results indicated that the measurement model fit the data well (χ2=594.226, p<0.000, CFI=0.926, NFI=0.899, TLI=0.910, RMSEA=0.066). The examination of the Positive Ethical Consumption indicated rare to occasional ethical buying choices among Greek consumers. The inhibiting role of Ethical Unconcern on Positive Ethical Consumption was found to be rather low.

Information systems to support sustainable consumption and sustainable supply

Responding to rising concerns about environmental sustainability, governments around the world have committed to the promotion of more sustainable consumption patterns [7]. Mainstream approaches to promoting sustainable consumption often involve government interventions to correct prices, and to provide regulatory frameworks to influence producers to become more eco-efficient [17]. Unfortunately, the success of these actions is frequently limited by information barriers. Consumers have limited information about the social and environmental impacts of products, and have long relied instead on price information as well as information available on the product package in making their buying decisions [15]. This lack of information creates difficulties for consumers when assessing and understanding the implications of their choices. Similarly, lack of integrated information systems that can capture, process and deliver actionable information about environmental impacts to all members in the sustainable supply chain could potentially disrupt the entire chain. These disruptions could, in turn, create higher costs and risks for all actors in the supply chain. Despite the connection between sustainable consumption and sustainable supply chain management, current research shows little integration between these areas. Recent technological developments have the potential to streamline the information flow from producer to consumer within supply chains, helping consumers to make more sustainable buying choices. Ontologies, Linked Data, and Semantic Web technologies can handle the problems that arise when integrating massive amounts of multi-thematic and multi-perspective information from heterogeneous sources to answer complex questions that cut through supply chain domain boundaries. The innovative use of information technologies could reduce the ‘‘information asymmetry’’ that pervades modern supply chains. Reducing barriers to information would benefit not only consumers but also other actors in the supply chain. This special issue focuses on how information and communication technology (ICT) can be leveraged to achieve sustainable consumption and sustainable supply chain management. One of the key objectives is to promote in-depth discussion on the technological, managerial, social, economic, and political implications of developing ICT capacity to support sustainability. In addition, we wish to generate insightful discussions on the connections between sustainable consumption and sustainable supply chain research. In the following section, we start by offering the readers of this special issue a short overview of these two research branches. J. Zhang (&) Graduate School of Management, Clark University, Worcester, MA 01610-1477, USA e-mail: JIZhang@clarku.edu

CONSUMERS PERCEPTION OF LITHUANIAN ECO-LABEL

In the recent decade, individuals have become more environmentally concerned, while companies realized that consumers’ needs and desires are changing. This, in turn, has created new environmentally oriented practices, like ecological labeling, to satisfy consumer demands. Though eco-labels were created with a purpose to ease consumers to make their buying choices, a certain degree of confusion has emerged among the customers concerning the precise meaning of eco-labels. In Lithuania “Ekologinis žemės ūkis” (“Ecological Farming”) eco-label has been issued in 2009. However, it is still new to consumers in addition to generally low level of ecological labeling practice awareness. With regard to the issue of consumer confusion and the distrust of eco-certification, the purpose of the research was to investigate perceptions of Lithuanian consumers of eco-labels and in particular Lithuanian ecological label “Ekologinis žemės ūkis.” Although, the findings revealed that introduction of eco-label “Ekologinis žemės ūkis” was positively perceived, suggesting that it might make more people to consider their health and environment more seriously, the study participants recognized both positive and negative aspects of the label. However, consumers reported not feeling totally “safe” while choosing eco-labeled products and distrust producers and ecological labels because of their claims. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.em.18.4.4990

Coffee, Fair Trade, and the Commodification of Morality

The goals of the fair trade movement include guaranteeing a reasonable income for rural farmers in the Global South, building democratic institutions and gender equality, and promoting environmental sustainability. Proponents claim that consumers, through their buying choices, can counter the negative externalities created by neoliberal reforms of the past three decades. The question is, whether a market-oriented solution can address market-created ills, or whether fair trade is a marketing strategy to increase the profit margin of agencies along the commodity chain? This article examines how these questions have been addressed by the books under review.

COMPARISON OF NANOTECHNOLOGY ACCEPTANCE IN TURKEY AND SWITZERLAND

The aim of this paper is to replicate the study of Siegrist et al. [2007] and to present a comparison of nanotechnology acceptance in Turkey and Switzerland. The participants in our survey acknowledge the benefits of nanotechnology in achieving a preferred future (significance on the country's economy and on wealth creation, as well as quality of life) while reserving some sceptism on the institutions' responsibility in utilizing nanotechnology in the food domain. The most beneficial application in our study is viewed as nanotechnology-used bread compared to food packaging of Swiss study. The most risky application is seen as the application for tomatoes, the most affect is observed again for the tomatoes and willingness to buy(WTB) choice is more for juice application than any other applications analyzed in this study. Perceived benefits and perceived risks are found to have influence on the WTB nanotechnology applications in the food domain. Results did not support any evidence suggesting that the nanoinside applications are perceived as less acceptable than nanooutside application as stated in the Swiss study. Affect evoked by the information existing in environment about the nanotechnology products have significant relation with benefits and risks of this emerging technology. The relation between affect and risk in our model is positive whereas it is negative in Siegrist et al. [2007]. The effect of social trust on affect is found to be insignificant in our study which was an assumption of Siegrist et al. [2007] and found to be significant in their research. This paper attempts to help the managers to understand the youth and young adults' perception of nanotechnology in Turkey and to consider the importance of those perceptions for the realization of technological advances in improving their products and developing new ones.

The Australian Food and Trust Survey: Demographic indicators associated with food safety and quality concerns

ObjectiveSafety and quality associated with the production, marketing and consumption of food, together with overall levels of trust in the food supply chain, are increasing in importance in our society. The aim of this study was to identify the demographic differences in a range of safety and quality variables in regard to levels of consumer trust in the food supply chain. DesignAn Australia-wide population telephone survey on a random sample of the Australian population aged 18+ years of age was undertaken. Univariate and multivariate analyses were undertaken on each of the eight safety and quality variables and one composite variable. SettingAustralia. SubjectsIn total, 1108 interviews with 49.3% of the sample males and with a mean age of 45.12 years (SD 17.63). ResultsMultivariate analysis indicated that gender (females), age (older persons) and annual household income (lower income) were the demographic groups more likely to be included in the final models that considered various quality and safety issues to be important. Higher education was related to more importance being placed on the variable assessing the importance of the producer maintain control of hygiene but lower education level was related to the variable assessing the importance of the premises being tested regularly by inspectors. ConclusionThe perceptions that adults place upon the safety and quality of food are important in ultimately defining, amongst other things, their food buying choices. As such, this research has highlighted demographic characteristics associated with the importance placed on a wide range of safety and quality issues so as to assist in providing evidence for targeting of appropriate campaigns to increase consumer confidence.

An Empirical Study On Factors Influencing Consumer Behavior Towards Dairy Products

Indian dairy cultivating has been portrayed by co-agents including a large number of people. Indian extraordinary items have been comprehensively in the classifications of dairy and poultry items, vegetables and organic products, flavors, oats, oil seeds, consumable oils and certain prepared items. The Indian government's first monetary study expressed that India represents 17 percent of world generation of drain. The normal year-on-year development rate of drain at 4.04 percent versus the world normal of 2.2 percent demonstrates continued development in accessibility of drain and drain items for the developing populace. Keeping this in view the study has been directed to factors influencing the selection of store for purchasing of dairy products. The investigation has been conveyed by controlling an organized poll to gather the information from the respondents and anslysed it by utilizing SPSS 20.0. The examination uncovered that the main considerations impacting the buy choice are accessibility of items, close to home, credit office and the respondents are minimum made a big deal about the inside condition of the store.

Pro-environmental Concern Influencing Green Buying: A Study on Indian Consumers

Objectives – The main objectives of the study are to determine the consumers’ pro-environmental concerns,knowledge of environmental issues, awareness of eco-friendly products, and to make recommendations based onthe findings about their “Green Buying” behaviour in Indian context. Research suggests that consumers who arehighly involved and concerned with the environmental issues prefer to buy eco- friendly products and are willingto pay a higher price for such products. This study investigates if pro-environmental concerns among consumersin India are predictive of their any green buying behaviour.Methodology – Data for this study was collected from a highly educated sample of 200 respondents using astructured questionnaire. The questionnaire contains questions to measure general consumers’ environmentalconcern, awareness of eco-friendly products, trust in performance of eco-friendly products and green buyingbehaviour. Descriptive statistics, factor analysis and correlation techniques were used to analyze the findings ofthis study.Results – The results indicate that consumers’ pro-environmental concerns significantly affect their green buyingbehaviour. Also, consumers are willing to buy eco-friendly products but not many are willing to pay a higherprice for such products. The survey findings disclose that consumers’ awareness towards eco-friendly productsand their environmental concern impacts their green buying behaviour.Conclusions – While environmental concerns could emerge as one of the powerful drivers that influencepurchase, it has actually not resulted in the ability to command a sustainable premium: consumers are willing tobuy eco-friendly products, but not pay the higher price. Increased consumer demand will help reduce costs inproduction of eco-friendly products. Awareness among consumers that their buying choices can make adifference to the environment should be promoted to accelerate the consumption of eco-friendly products.

Sodium and ready meals: a survey of Irish consumer awareness

AbstractThe aim of the study was to gain an understanding of Irish consumer attitudes towards ready meals and current sodium issues in Ireland. A questionnaire was distributed to 357 consumers via convenience quota sampling to a range of nationalities in both rural and urban/city areas of Ireland. The survey revealed that a high proportion of respondents (45%; n = 161) were worried about the amount of salt they consumed. Despite this, 58% (n = 207) stated they never look at the sodium/salt contents on nutritional labels with 68% (n = 244) claiming that sodium/salt contents would never affect their buying choice. The survey also uncovered that 76% (n = 270) of the Irish consumers surveyed consider ready meals to be high in sodium and 80% (n = 285) consider them to be an unhealthy option. Despite this, 50% (n = 179) of the respondents consumed a ready meal at least once a week with a further 17% (n = 59) consuming them two to three times a week. Of those who did consume ready meals, 78% (n = 191) chose them due to their convenience. A total of 75% (n = 269) of all the respondents said they would choose a chilled ready meal over its frozen counterpart. The reason for this being attributed to the fact that chilled ready meals were perceived to be healthier (44%; n = 158) and of better quality (54%; n = 194) than their frozen counterparts. Results from this study highlight the need for concerted actions involving consumers, manufacturers and retailers to reduce sodium levels in Irish ready meals, as despite being reasonably aware of the sodium issue consumers were not making informed choices to reduce sodium/salt consumption.

The nature of trust in brands: a psychosocial model

PurposeThe paper seeks to explore empirically the lived experience of trust in consumer brands and to develop a model focusing on functional and symbolic brands.Design/methodology/approachThe paper presents an exploratory, grounded theory approach and the study conducted in‐depth interviews.FindingsThe findings reveal that when consumers are facing buying choices of functional brands that do not involve much risk and the price is low, familiarity is sufficient for their action. When risk and price levels increase, consumers seek a safe purchase choice regarding functional brands through confidence and dependability, while in the case of symbolic brands consumers have to trust the brand in order to make a purchase choice.Research limitations/implicationsBy exploring the concept of trust within the consumer domain and in particular in relation to functional and symbolic brands, this study offers insights into an area that has received noticeably limited research up to today. Furthermore the development of the psychosocial model of trust in brands offers opportunities to theoreticians for further research regarding the factors that influence trust in each stage, as well as ways to restore or transfer trust when needed.Practical implicationsThe study presents a tool to marketing practitioners, which will assist them in building and preserving long‐term trusting customer relationships.Originality/valueThe value of our research lies in the development of a psychosocial model of trust in brands by drawing on both social theory and on the psychology of human relationships.

Influences on organizational buying choice processes: future research directions

Identifies sources of influence in organizational buying choices from a review of the literature. Constructs a model of influence by extending the buying behavior model of Webster and Wind (1972). Uses the model to categorize and analyze representative research of influence on organizational buying choice processes over the period 1970‐1995. Indicates that new research directions and emphasis in a number of areas could improve the usefulness of research results to marketing management. Recommendations include: use of a higher unit of analysis, investigation of non‐deterministic choice behavior, greater use of integrating or broad‐based studies, reduction in use of self‐professed data, more research of relatively neglected areas of influence, and more empirical testing of conceptual models.

Buy vs. build: Where the issue stands

In May I was priviledged to have an intimate view of a provocative, wide-ranging debate about the future of the electric power industry through the lens of the buy vs. build issue, when I served as moderator of The Electricity Journal's Buy vs. Build Conference. Having listened to the distinguished speakers and to the questions posed by an alert and enthusiastic audience, I will try to synthesize here some of the ideas expressed, emphasizing those that changed or challenged my understanding. These issues are organized under three headings: (1) What is the state of the buy vs. build issue? (2) What is not working in the regulation fo purchased power? (3) What new concepts could change the regulation of purchased power or the build vs. buy choice? What follows here is both more and less than the free-flowing debate that took place at the conference. Beginning on page 22 is a collection of essays on the topic, from conference speakers and other interested parties.

Financial Leasing under Inflation

* In last decade, there has been a relatively rapid growth in leasing as a method of financing. Anderson [1] estimated that during period ending in 1980, approximately twenty percent of new acquisitions of capital goods in U.S. were financed by leases. Lewellen, Long, and McConnell [13] have demonstrated that in a perfect market competitive market equilibrium lease payments will be determined such that the lease or buy choice will be a matter of indifference (p. 790). They conclude that there may exist market imperfections such as tax rate differentials between lessors and lessees, differences in realizable depreciation deductions and salvage values, and different borrowing possibilities, which may lead to exploitable opportunities by lessors and lessees. While these and many other factors may contribute to a cost difference between leasing and purchasing an asset, income tax differentials among firms were emphasized by Myers, Dill and Bautista (MDB) [15] as major market imperfection stipulating lease financing. Miller and Upton [14] suggested that other tax asymmetries, such as inability of some firms to exploit investment tax subsidies, are important in explaining existence of leasing. However, in light of recent growth in leasing industry, it seems that there may be other factors that accentuate tax-related effects and further

Errata: Analysis of Irregular Two-Dimensional Distributions of Consumer Buying Choices

Errata: Analysis of Irregular Two-Dimensional Distributions of Consumer Buying Choices

Analysis of Irregular Two-Dimensional Distributions of Consumer Buying Choices

This article develops and applies a solution for mathematically describing two-dimensional distributions of buying choices. The procedure applies the modified lognormal function which is advocated for analyzing irregular one-dimensional distributions. The result, in the form of a sales dot diagram, is a useful management tool.

Analysis of Irregular Two-Dimensional Distributions of Consumer Buying Choices

Analysis of Irregular Two-Dimensional Distributions of Consumer Buying Choices