Consumer Judgments Research Articles

The Influence of Sustainable Consumption Attitudes and Information Anxiety on The Behavior of Buying Organic Products With Consumer Assessment as a Mediator (In The Context of The Covid-19 Pandemic in Surabaya)

This study aims to determine the influence of sustainable consumption attitudes and information anxiety on consumer assessment and its impact on the behavior of buying organic products in the city of Surabaya. The variables used in this study are sustainable consumption attitudes and information anxiety as a free variable, consumer judgment as a mediating variable and organic product buying behavior as bound variables. The method used is quantitative mediation. The samples used in this study used a non-probability sampling method with a combination technique of purposive sampling and snowball sampling. Data collection techniques in this study were carried out by distributing questionnaires using a Likert scale with 107 respondents of Surabaya residents as the population and residents of Surabaya who have purchased organic products during the Covid-19 pandemic. The results of this study indicate that the attitude toward sustainable consumption has a significant influence on consumer ratings, information anxiety has a significant influence on consumer judgment, consumer judgment has a significant influence on buying behavior, information anxiety has no influence on buying behavior with consumer valuation on organic products as a mediator variable, and sustainable consumption attitudes have an influence on buying behavior with consumer judgment as the mediator variable.

Can Success Backfire? Consumer Judgments of Businesses that Repeatedly Win the Same Sustainability or Quality Award

ABSTRACT Businesses strive toward winning awards, following the belief that the more times they win an award, the more positive they will be viewed by consumers. However, the current research highlights a context where increasingly winning an award over a period can backfire. Across two experiments, results reveal that although repeatedly winning an award enhances superiority perceptions relative to existing competitors, consumers conclude the award is uncompetitive, which increases the likelihood of switching to newly introduced competitors. This effect holds for primary (e.g., quality) and tangential (e.g., sustainability) awards, is pronounced for those who trust awards, and reveals important marketplace implications.

Consumer response to celebrity transgression: investigating the effects of celebrity gender and past transgressive and philanthropic behaviors using real celebrities

PurposeThis study aims to develop and test a new research model of consumer response to celebrity transgression. It examines the effects of celebrity past transgression and philanthropic histories in influencing consumer acceptance (i.e. forgiveness and blame) of a single celebrity transgression behavior and the subsequent endorsement potential of the transgressed celebrity. It also examines consumer acceptance of celebrity transgressions from the gender perspective.Design/methodology/approachBy using real celebrities, this study conducted a 2 (transgression history: high vs low) × 2 (philanthropic history: high vs low) × 2 (celebrity gender: male vs female) between-subject online experiment with 823 US young adults.FindingsResults showed that forgiving (blaming) the transgressed celebrity was positively (negatively) associated with the celebrity’s endorsement potential. Transgression history had a significantly negative indirect effect on endorsement potential via its negative effect on forgiveness and positive effect on blame. Philanthropic history mitigated the negative indirect effect of transgression history on endorsement potential only for male celebrities, not female celebrities.Originality/valueThis study contributes to the current human brand and celebrity transgression literature and fills the research gap by using real male and female celebrities to incorporate the real history of celebrities as determinants of consumer judgment of celebrity transgression. This study also makes its unique contributions by focusing on the celebrity-related outcomes and demonstrating the moderating roles of past philanthropic behaviors and celebrity gender for their potential to mitigate the negative effects of transgression history on consumer responses to a single transgression.

Income disclosure and consumer judgment in a multilevel marketing experiment

AbstractConsumer protection concerns have been raised related to income misrepresentation in multilevel marketing (MLM) recruitment. Though not required by law, some MLM firms choose to voluntarily disclose income information about previous participants. Through replication and extension of the experiment created in Bosley, Greenman, and Snyder (2020), we investigate the impact of these disclosures on consumer interest and earnings expectations. We test the external validity of their findings with subjects from Mechanical Turk and explore issues regarding treatment heterogeneity and better‐than‐average bias. Supporting prior findings, we present evidence that income disclosures, on average, do not significantly affect subjects' interest in the MLM opportunity, but they do decrease earnings estimates for most while increasing earnings estimates for a few. These effects depend on a subject's numeracy skills and whether they see their earnings potential as better‐than‐average. We also find that asking about earnings estimates first tends to decrease interest.

Days-of-the-Week Effect in Temporal Judgments

Abstract Consumers often receive and evaluate temporal information, such as the number of days it will take a package to arrive or the number of days a vacation will last. Across eight preregistered studies (N = 4,758), we examine how using days-of-the-week information in descriptions of temporal intervals (e.g., “ordered on Monday, February 1, delivered on Saturday, February 6” vs. “ordered on February 1, delivered on February 6”) affects consumers’ duration perceptions. We propose that the days-of-the-week framing prompts people to rely on narrow-span implicit scales characterized by lower thresholds for magnitude categories. These implicit scales lead people to judge objectively equivalent temporal intervals to be longer, which in turn has downstream consequences for consumers’ time-versus-money tradeoffs, work planning, and provider-switching decisions. This research adds to our understanding of how decision context can activate different implicit scales and how these scales shape consumer judgments.

Influence of nutrition claims on different models of front-of-package nutritional labeling in supposedly healthy foods: Impact on the understanding of nutritional information, healthfulness perception, and purchase intention of Brazilian consumers.

Nutrition claims are positive information about foods, which are widely used as a marketing strategy on labels. On the contrary, front-of-package nutritional labeling (FoPNL) aims to make it easier for consumers to understand the nutritional composition of foods and favor healthy food choices. However, the concomitant presence of nutrition claims and FoPNL may hinder the understanding, judgment, and choices of consumers at the moment of purchase. Therefore, the objective of this study was to evaluate the influence of nutrition claims on the efficacy of FoPNL models in the understanding of nutritional information, healthfulness perception, and purchase intention of Brazilian consumers. It was an experimental cross-sectional study carried out using an online questionnaire, with a total of 720 participants randomly divided into four FoPNL conditions: control, octagon, triangle, and magnifying glass. Each participant looked at 12 food packages, which were produced following the factorial design: (i) food category (cereal bar, whole grain cookies, and snacks); (ii) product type (containing one critical nutrient × containing two critical nutrients); and (iii) nutrition claims (present × absent). The comprehension of nutritional information was evaluated through the identification of excessive nutrients, and the healthfulness perception and purchase intention were evaluated using a seven-point scale. The results indicated that the presence of FoPNL increased the understanding of the information and reduced healthfulness perception and purchase intention. The presence of nutrition claims influenced the three outcomes, decreasing the probability of understanding information about food composition by 32% (OR 0.68, 95% confidence interval 0.58–0.78, p < 0.01) and significantly increasing (p < 0.05) average health scores (1.95–2.02) and purchase intention (2.00–2.05). Nonetheless, the interaction “FoPNL × claims” was not significant, which indicated that claims act independently. All FoPNL models were more effective than the control. For the least healthful type of product (two nutrients in excess), the octagon and triangle models were superior to the magnifying glass, regarding the outcome of healthfulness perception. The results prove the efficacy of FoPNL in consumer understanding and judgment. Despite the positive effects of FoPNL, it did not cancel the positivity bias generated by the claims.

Consumer Judgment on the Practice of Greenwashing: Scale Development and Validation

Consumer Judgment on the Practice of Greenwashing: Scale Development and Validation

Voice in Words: A Mixed-Method Approach for Decoding Digital Footprints Using Online Reviews

ABSTRACT Using a mixed-method technique, the present study investigates the causal relationship between consumer judgments about airline service quality and their online recommendations. It also examines the essential attributes that determine key airline service quality dimensions. The current research was conducted on passenger reviews, ratings, and recommendations data (1270 business class and 2464 economy class passengers) from Skytraxratings.com of three major airlines using logistic regression and sentiment analysis. The empirical investigation of service ratings depicts that the fitted logit model adequately explains airline service quality–airline recommendation relationship for business and economy class travelers. Furthermore, this study identifies the crucial service attributes and their sentiment strengths toward key service dimensions. The study results enable a comprehensive understanding of airline service quality based on real-time consumer insights, which can help strategize and develop customized interventions for airline service designs and realignments.

Рынок криптовалюты: состояние, проблемы и перспективы

The first cryptocurrency appeared in 2009 and since then, both the number of active cryptocurrencies and the number of owners of crypto accounts have been steadily increasing. Despite the lack of a unified position on the issue of its legalization and the legality of its use for settlements and transactions on a par with “real” money, more and more users, both among individuals and legal entities, are inclined to the prospects of cryptocurrency investments, as evidenced by the investment policy of a number of large Wall Street companies in 2020–2021. Thus, the relevance of the chosen topic is due to the need to analyze the dynamics of the young cryptocurrency market, which is developing according to its own laws, which differ from the mechanisms of functioning of traditional markets. The development of the cryptocurrency market is influenced by factors such as the number of investors and the degree of development of blockchain technologies. The purpose of the study is to identify the factors that control the dynamics of the cryptocurrency exchange rate and assess their impact on the current state of the cryptocurrency market. To achieve this goal, such scientific and practical research tasks were formulated as identifying factors affecting the popularity of cryptocurrencies in the world; describing the advantages and disadvantages of using cryptocurrencies; conducting a retrospective analysis of the world experience in regulating the cryptocurrency market and analyzing the dynamics of the value of cryptocurrencies, using Bitcoin as the first and most popular cryptocurrency in the world. Particular attention was paid to the problem of identifying the factor that influenced the downward dynamics of the value of cryptocurrencies since mid-September 2021. When writing the article, such methods as analysis of statistical information, analysis of the dynamics of individual elements of the market, a forecast based on consumer judgments, the study of global strategy directions, and others were used. The result of the study was the disclosure of the influence of a new factor on the cryptocurrency market – energy.

Distributions Distract: How Distributions on Attribute Filters and Other Tools Affect Consumer Judgments

AbstractFirms and other entities provide category-level product attribute information via attribute filters and other tools to aid consumers in filtering, evaluating, comparing, and choosing products. This research examines how displaying this information as a range with or without the distribution of values systematically affects judgments involving attribute value comparisons. Specifically, distributions draw attention away from attribute values, reducing the importance of attribute value differences. With this reduced importance, consumers are less sensitive to attribute value differences; thus, consumers evaluate individual products more positively as they seem more similar to the best available option. Likewise, wider bands of attribute values are selected when filtering product options, as the minimum and maximum values chosen seem less different. Reduced sensitivity to differences also has implications for choices involving tradeoffs between attributes. Importantly, the presence of a distribution itself is the primary driver of this effect, more so than distribution type, as the effect is largely independent of the type of distribution displayed (e.g., normal, bimodal, skewed, uniform). Across six main and seven supplemental experiments, this research highlights a novel consideration for how consumers filter options, form preferences, and choose products. These findings have practical implications and highlight important topics for future research.

I (Don’t) want to consume counterfeit medicines: exploratory study on the antecedents of consumer attitudes toward counterfeit medicines

BackgroundSubstandard and falsified medicine (SFM) sales (an estimated > $200 billion) has become one of the worlds’ fastest growing criminal enterprises. It presents an enormous public health and safety challenge. While the developed world is not precluded from this challenge, studies focus on low-income countries. They emphasize supply chain processes, technological, and legal mechanisms, paying less attention to consumer judgment and decision-making aspects.MethodsWith attention to the demand side of the counterfeit medicines challenge, this survey of U.S. consumers (n = 427) sheds light on some of the social, psychological, and normative factors that underlie consumers’ attitudes, risk perceptions, and purchase intentions.ResultsConsumers who (a) self-report that they know about the problem, (b) are older, (c) view counterfeit medicine consumption as ethical, and (d) think their significant others would approve of them using such products are more inclined to perceive lower risks and have favorable purchase intentions. Risk averseness is also inversely related to the predicted outcomes.Perceived benefit of SFMs is a factor but has no effect when risk perception and aversion, attitudes, and subjective norms are factored into the model that predicts purchase intentions.ConclusionThe results of this study indicate that consumer knowledge (albeit in an unexpected direction), people’s expectations about what will impress their significant others, their ethical judgments about selling and consuming counterfeits, and their risk-aversion are associated with their decision-making about counterfeit medicines. The study offers insights into a demand-side approach to addressing SFM consumption in the U.S. Implications for public health, consumer safety, and brand advocacy education are discussed.

The colorful company: Effects of brand logo colorfulness on consumer judgments

AbstractThis study examines the impact of brand logo colorfulness on consumer judgments toward a brand and its products. Four experiments demonstrate that the colorfulness of a brand logo affects consumers' perception of the product variety offered by the brand. When consumers feel that a brand logo is colorful, they tend to infer that the brand offers a high variety of product options to its customers. Driven by the perception of product variety, logo colorfulness has downstream consequences on consumer attitudes, an effect that can be moderated by brand positioning. Together, this study introduces the effects of logo colorfulness on consumer judgments, contributes to the psychological literature on color and variety, and bears important practical implications regarding how designers and marketers can practically determine a brand logo that best serves the brand image.

Disconfirmation of Taste as a Measure of Trust in Brands: An Experimental Study on Mineral Water.

The underlying factors of the purchase decision process of bottled mineral water have been a less studied area. The typically related attributes of consumer judgement in the case of low involvement can vary widely, ranging from price sensitivity to habits. However, assessing the role of brand reputation and trust from a sensory perception perspective is not a common approach. This paper examines the impact of trust on consumer value judgements for a frequently consumed beverage such as mineral water. Combining trust and sensory attributes with the Expectation–Disconfirmation Theory (EDT) framework provides insights into the weight of taste, trust and reputation in product evaluation. A tasting experiment was carried out using a representative systematic random sampling method. A mixed method was applied; EDT was used to analyze quantitative data and grounded theory methodology was performed in the case of qualitative data. Results indicate complete assimilation for the most preferred brand and negative contrast for less well-known brands. It can be stated that the applied methodology is suitable as a certain kind of trust measurement and also can function particularly well as a reinforcement and complement to other methodologies (e.g., neuromarketing methods). This study suggests that brand names positively influence value judgment. Origin bounded brands compared to imported brands can help companies mitigate trust issues in developing countries as they convey a particular reputation, which helps reinforce trust.

The face of the brand: Spokesperson facial width‐to‐height ratio predicts brand personality judgments

AbstractBrands often employ spokespersons to serve as the face of their organization and spokespersons characteristics can influence consumer behavior. We examined whether a subtle, appearance‐based aspect—facial width‐to‐height ratio (fWHR)—affects brand judgments. Specifically, we demonstrate that high (low) fWHR spokespersons are more effective for rugged (sincere) brands leading to more positive ad evaluations, greater brand liking, and higher purchase intensions. Across four experiments, we used across‐target and within‐individual manipulations of spokesperson fWHR to test our hypotheses and investigate the downstream implications for consumer preferences and purchasing intentions. We find that spokesperson fWHR influenced judgments of spokesperson effectiveness for different kinds of brands (Study 1); spokesperson fWHR impacts a brand's perceived personality (Study 2); and that congruency between spokespersons’ faces and brands’ personalities influence how much consumers like brands, their advertisements, and how willing they are to purchase advertised products (Studies 3–4). This study has implications for marketers and contributes to the brand personality and person perception literatures by demonstrating how subtle variations in spokespersons’ face structure can influence consumer judgments.

The Pet Exposure Effect: Exploring the Differential Impact of Dogs Versus Cats on Consumer Mindsets

Despite the ubiquity of pets in consumers’ lives, scant research has examined how exposure to them (e.g., recalling past interactions with dogs and cats, viewing ads featuring a dog or a cat) influences consumer behavior. The authors demonstrate that exposure to dogs (cats) reminds consumers of the stereotypical temperaments and behaviors of the pet species, which activates a promotion- (prevention-) focused motivational mindset among consumers. Using secondary data, Study 1 shows that people in states with a higher percentage of dog (cat) owners Google more promotion- (prevention-) focused words and report a higher COVID-19 transmission rate. Using multiple products, Studies 2 and 3 demonstrate that these regulatory mindsets, when activated by pet exposure, carry over to influence downstream consumer judgments, purchase intentions, and behaviors, even in pet-unrelated consumption contexts. Study 4 shows that pet stereotypicality moderates the proposed effect such that the relationship between pet exposure and regulatory orientations persists to the extent consumers are reminded of the stereotypical temperaments and behaviors of the pet species. Studies 5–7 examine the role of regulatory fit and evince that exposure to dogs (cats) leads to more favorable responses toward advertising messages featuring promotion- (prevention-) focused appeals.

Perceptual deterrents of the green consumer

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to better understand consumers’ overall perceptions of “being green” in an attempt to address the green attitude–behavior gap.Design/methodology/approachThis study features a qualitative study that uses a projective technique to tap into consumers’ underlying perceptions of those who purchase green products. A follow-up, quantitative study tests the mediation effects of perceived judgment and self-congruity perceptions on the green attitude–behavior gap.FindingsThe key finding of the first study suggests that consumers tend to “judge” others based on their degree of greenness. The second study confirmed both perceptions of judgment and self-congruity mediate the relationship between green attitudes and behaviors.Originality/valueThis study explores the elusive green attitude–intention gap with both a qualitative and quantitative approach. Perceived consumer judgment emerges as a new variable to consider in better understanding green consumer behaviors.

The Influence of New and Old Energy Labels on Consumer Judgements and Decisions about Household Appliances

Energy efficiency is an increasingly important dimension of household appliances, which is why they are labeled to indicate their energy consumption. In 2020, the European Union countries changed the labeling system from the previous system: ranging from A+++ to D, to the new system: ranging from A to G, assuming it would be more transparent for the consumer. The aim of the study was to find out the extent to which consumers are aware of the new labeling system, and the impact that the new labels have (compared to the previous ones) on the perception of household appliances and consumer decision-making. For this purpose, the survey was conducted on a nationwide representative Polish sample (n = 1054). The research was partly experimental, where the same appliances were presented with new and previous energy labels. The results showed that currently most people do not identify the new energy classes. Furthermore, products with the new labels are perceived as being less energy efficient in comparison with products with the previous labels, which shows that there is some confusion among consumers in terms of the new energy efficiency labeling system.

An Experimental Study on Anchoring Effect of Consumers' Price Judgment Based on Consumers' Experiencing Scenes.

Consumers are prone to cognitive biases in decision-making due to the impact of time restrictions, specific environment, and project inducements in the process of experience. Compared with traditional marketing scenarios, it is easy to bias decision makers due to the existence of anchor information. Research on anchoring effect focuses on psychology, economics, law, and medicine instead of the price judgment of consumers. This article uses experimental research to explore the existence and influencing factors of anchoring effect when consumers judge and estimate the price of a product in experiencing scenes. In this article, the hypothesis is that anchoring effect exists and is influenced by factors including anchor value, gender, emotion, personality, knowledge and skill, time pressure, early warning indication, cognitive need, and self-confidence level under external and internal anchor conditions. Subjects judged and estimated different prices after product experience through the design of different decision-making scenarios of external (high anchors and low anchors) and internal anchors, and finally, the anchoring index (AI) and the mean skew index were used to calculate the anchoring effect. The experimental results showed that consumers were affected by anchoring effect when making price judgment in experiencing scenes. In addition to the factors of time pressure and self-confidence level, gender, personality, knowledge, and skill all had a significant influence on anchoring effect under external anchor conditions. Finally, this article provides advice for enterprise marketing planners including setting reasonable anchor values, highlighting the design of experiencing scenes, and developing differentiation strategies.

Investigating combined effect of WOM and eWOM: role of message valence

PurposeThe purpose of this study was to investigate consumer preference formation in presence of reviews coming from traditional and electronic word of mouth (eWOM) under different conditions of review valence.Design/methodology/approachScenario-based experimental design was used for this study. A total of 172 respondents were randomly assigned across four experimental scenarios and a control group. Across-groups comparisons were conducted using post hoc Dunnett’s test for checking the hypothesis.FindingsThe study revealed that negativity bias impacted consumer judgement formation to such an extent that positive valence from higher credibility source (WOM) is over-powered by negative reviews from lesser trusted source (eWOM). Further, a negative valence review from higher credibility source (WOM) may not be countered even in presence of consensus of positive valence review coming from a higher number of positive eWOM.Originality/valueThis study contributes to existing literature by examining consumer preference behaviour in presence of reviews coming from traditional and eWOM under different conditions of review valence. While earlier studies have examined individual role of WOM and eWOM under differing valence conditions, this paper extends literature by studying combined effect of WOM and eWOM under different review valence.

The Mediation Effect of Overall Brand Equity between Brand Superiority and Media Consumption Behaviours of Sport Team Consumers During COVID-19

Background. During the COVID-19 pandemic, it is paramount to investigate how to influence professional sport team consumers’ behaviours towards media consumption, which is an indirect consumption of sports products with importance raised by the lockdown. The effect of brand superiority, one of the essential consumer judgments about the brands, on some behavioural intentions of sport team consumers was examined before; however, the role of brand superiority and overall brand equity on media consumption behaviours in pandemic conditions lacked empirical investigation. Therefore, this study aims to examine the relationship between brand superiority, overall brand equity and media consumption behaviours among professional sports teams’ consumers during the COVID-19 pandemic.&#x0D; Methods. The participants of this quantitative study were 232 volunteer football (soccer) consumers who support a team in the Turkish Super Football League. The data was collected in 3 weeks using the online convenience sampling method. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural equation modelling (SEM) were used in data analyses, and direct and indirect paths tested by the bootstrapping method.&#x0D; Results. The results of the study showed that brand superiority did not have a direct effect on media consumption behaviours of sport team consumers. Besides, overall brand equity had a direct effect on media consumption behaviours and mediated the relationship between brand superiority and media consumption behaviours.&#x0D; Conclusions. The evidence in this study indicates sport managers that the cognitive judgement of sport consumers, generally related to the more functional aspect of a sports product alone not an efficient way to directly influence sport team consumers toward media consumption behaviours even in COVID-19 pandemic. Brand equity, however, found to be an effective tool to address for directing sport team consumers’ behaviours toward media consumption in the extraordinary circumstance currently exist.&#x0D; Keywords: branding, sports industry, spectator sports, professional sports teams, sports consumers.