Quality Cues Research Articles

Competitive intelligence in tourism: charting future directions through bibliometric analysis

PurposeThis study explores the crucial role of competitive intelligence (CI) in the tourism sector’s strategic decision-making. CI has significantly transformed the tourism sector through new insights and sophistication in data analysis and strategic planning. The rise in tourism-related competition, due to new destinations, varied tourist preferences and sustainability emphasis, makes competitive intelligence essential for understanding future market trends and making informed strategic choices.Design/methodology/approachUtilising PRISMA techniques for bibliometric analysis, the study examines literature from 1998 to 2023 (WoS), focusing on service innovation, customer experience management and sustainable strategies. It presents an analysis of the evolution of CI in tourism, its impact, influential works and future research directions.FindingsFindings show that the multidisciplinary nature of CI in tourism is further evidenced by studies on quality cues, travellers’ information needs and the utilisation of big data. Future studies need to understand both global trends and regional specifics, as shown in investigations of spatial-temporal tourism dynamics.Originality/valueThis study represents a novel contribution to the field of tourism research by offering a comprehensive bibliometric analysis of CI literature from 1998 to 2023. It uniquely integrates service innovation, customer experience management and sustainable strategies within the context of CI, highlighting its multidisciplinary impacts and evolution. These insights collectively emphasise the need for future innovation and a comprehensive understanding of the global-local nexus to inform future tourism research and practice.

How Does Cultural and Colonial Heritage Affect Optimal Branding Strategies? Evidence From the Rice Sector in Senegal

ABSTRACTAfrica's cultural and colonial heritage has profoundly segmented rice markets. Whereas in ancient centers of rice domestication, consumers maintained preferences for local rice consistent with their cultural heritage, preferences have shifted toward imported Asian rice in coastal areas around seaports, due to prior exposure to colonial import substitution policies. To enhance the competitiveness of locally produced rice relative to imported versions, it is necessary to tailor new local rice products to both market segments. A study was conducted in Senegal to test branding strategies for local rice in a country where both market segments coexist. Brands that mimic local and international labels were developed for local rice, and urban consumers bid to upgrade non‐preferred to preferred brands through the Becker–DeGroot–Marschak (BDM) mechanism. Contrary to expectations, results from an endogenous switching regression show that descendants from ancient Senegalese rice domesticators placed premiums on local rice with foreign‐looking brands, indicating that foreignness is perceived as a quality cue even in market segments rooted in cultural heritage. Thus, branding local rice using a combination of local and foreign cues could be an effective strategy in promoting domestic rice to both segments shaped by cultural and colonial heritage.

Meat Color, Marbling, and the Evaluation of Defects in Beef and Pork at the Point of Purchase

Intentions to purchase meat and repeat purchasing patterns will depend on the consumer’s perception of intrinsic and extrinsic quality cues. In order to discover consumers’ insights into the quality of pork and beef, the main objective of this study was to investigate meat color, marbling, and types of fresh meat defects. A total of 50 samples of meat were analyzed for three quality characteristics on different levels. This study applied a statistical calculation of a loss function invented by Taguchi. The results showed the values of variations in meat color and marbling that present the limits of consumers’ tolerance. Based on the obtained results, it was determined that the tolerable level of color variations of beef is 3.61, while for pork, this limit is 2.00. The most preferred marbling percentages were 21% and 5.74% for beef and pork, respectively. On the other hand, the negative effect of defects was the strongest for “dark cutting” for beef and “blood spotting” for pork loins.

Users’ processing of online marketplace listings for high and low involvement goods

PurposeTo understand how users of online marketplaces process market signals in their decision making and whether this depends on if the good is of high or low involvement. Design/methodology/approachThe paper employs a mixed methods approach. Study 1 draws on an analysis of interviews with online marketplace users using hypothetical eBay purchases as stimuli, understanding how users conceptualize specific market signals and whether their importance varies depending on the type of purchase (high versus low involvement good). Study 2 tests hypotheses derived from signaling theory, using an eye tracking experiment. FindingsPrice and photographs act as “fast and frugal” signals for inclusion in consideration sets for low involvement purchases, but consumers deem them insufficient for high involvement purchases where high-cost signals that help establish seller credibility are far more salient. Users pay relatively greater attention to costly market signals, which are beyond sellers’ direct control, for high involvement goods. Practical implicationsThe paper offers insights for sellers regarding the presentation of quality cues and strategies online marketplaces can employ to reduce information asymmetry. Originality/valueDrawing on and extending signaling theory, the paper introduces and confirms hypotheses for understanding users’ attention to market signals when making purchase decisions on online marketplaces. It identifies how the degree of involvement of a product affects the processing of market signals.

Semi-Supervised Adversarial Learning for Attribute-Aware Photo Aesthetic Assessment

Aesthetic attributes are crucial for aesthetics because they explicitly present some photo quality cues that a human expert might use to evaluate a photo's aesthetic quality. However, annotating aesthetic attributes is a time-consuming, costly, and error-prone task, which leads to the issue that photos available are partially annotated with attributes. To alleviate this issue, we propose a novel semi-supervised adversarial learning method for photo aesthetic assessment from partially attribute-annotated photos, which can greatly reduce the reliance on manual attribute annotation. Specifically, the proposed method consists of a score-attributes generator R, a photo generator G, and a discriminator D. The score-attributes generator learns the aesthetic score and attributes simultaneously to capture their dependencies and construct better feature representations. The photo generator reconstructs the photo by feeding aesthetic attributes, score, and informative feature representation. A discriminator is used to force the convergence of the features-attributes-score tuples generated from the score-attributes generator, the photo generator, and the ground-truth distribution in labeled data for training data. The proposed method significantly outperforms the state of the art, increasing the Spearman rank-order correlation coefficient (SRCC) from the existing best reported of 0.726 to 0.761 on Aesthetic and attributes database and 0.756 to 0.774 on Aesthetic visual analysis database, respectively.

Understanding Italian consumers' perceptions of tomato agricultural innovation: Exploring the nexus between sustainability, health and consumer beliefs

The growing emphasis on sustainability and health concerns has underscored the necessity for low-pesticide and safe foods, leading to increased adoption of organic production process and Integrated Pest Management (IPM). From this concept emerged the “Zero Residue" certification, while the “Nickel-free" claim serves health-related purposes. These attributes are related to consumer beliefs and, along with intrinsic quality cues such as colour, intervene in consumer decision-making process and result from technological and varietal agricultural innovation. They were evaluated alongside price to examine consumer preferences, using tomatoes as a case study. Conjoint Analysis and Ward's clustering method helped segregate Italian consumers into homogenous market segments based on their stated preferences. Organic production was the most significant attribute, followed by price, the “Nickel-free” claim, and colour. Thus, consumer demand increasingly favours environmentally sustainable and health-focused attributes. The “Zero Residue" concept offers an approach to reduce synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, appealing to environmental conscious consumers. Attributes like “Nickel-free" claim have emerged, which is important for consumers seeking innovative health features. Businesses should diversify products and employ clear labelling to inform consumers about eco-friendly practices. They should also offer competitive prices for innovative tomato products, thus implementing price segmentation may be necessary for diverse consumer segments. Policymakers can engage consumers through educational campaigns, enforce product labelling regulations highlighting health and environmental benefits, and support certification programs.

Development of language-specific stress discrimination in European Portuguese: an electrophysiological study.

European Portuguese (EP) is a language with unpredictable stress. Previous behavioral studies have shown that without vowel reduction EP adult speakers displayed a stress deafness effect akin to that observed in speakers of fixed-stress languages, suggesting that vowel quality may be the primary cue for stress discrimination in EP. However, an event-related potentials (ERPs) study reported that EP adults were able to discriminate stress contrasts pre-attentively in the absence of vowel quality cues. These results seemed to indicate that EP adult speakers may attend to different cues in the attentive and pre-attentive stress perception. Moreover, both the behavioral and ERPs studies have revealed a processing advantage for iambic stress, which could not be predicted by the rhythmic properties of EP, the language-specific weighting of stress correlates, or the frequency distributions of trochaic and iambic stresses in EP. A recent eye-tracking study has found that EP-learning infants at 5-6 months already exhibited an iambic preference in the absence of vowel reduction, manifested by longer looking time at the iambic stress. The present study used a passive oddball paradigm to examine pre-attentive stress perception without vowel quality cues by 5-to-7-month-old EP-learning infants. Results from twenty-two participants showed that both the trochaic and iambic conditions yielded a positive discrimination response (p-MMR). In addition, the iambic condition elicited a prominent late discriminative negativity (LDN) as well as a P3a component. Our findings present the first evidence for reciprocal discrimination of stress patterns in EP-learning infants, showing that, as in adult speakers, stress processing might also differ at the pre-attentive and attentive stages in infants. Importantly, the stress perception ability in EP-learning infants seems to develop asymmetrically, with an advantage for the iambic stress pattern. The present study highlighted the role of language-specific factors that may affect developing stress perception.

Maize terpene synthase 1 impacts insect behavior via the production of monoterpene volatiles β-myrcene and linalool

Plant-derived volatiles are important mediators of plant-insect interactions as they can provide cues for host location and quality, or act as direct or indirect defense molecules. The volatiles produced by Zea mays (maize) include a range of terpenes, likely produced by several of the terpene synthases (TPS) present in maize. Determining the roles of specific terpene volatiles and individual TPSs in maize-insect interactions is challenging due to the promiscuous nature of TPSs in vitro and their potential for functional redundancy. In this study, we used metabolite GWAS of a sweetcorn diversity panel infested with Spodoptera frugiperda (fall armyworm) to identify genetic correlations between TPSs and individual volatiles. This analysis revealed a correlation between maize terpene synthase 1 (ZmTPS1) and emission of the monoterpene volatiles linalool and β-myrcene. Electroantennogram assays showed gravid S. frugiperda could detect both linalool and β-myrcene. Quantification of headspace volatiles in a maize tps1 loss-of-function mutant confirmed that ZmTPS1 is an important contributor to linalool and β-myrcene emission in maize. Furthermore, pairwise choice assays between tps1 mutant and wild-type plants showed that ZmTPS1, and by extension its volatile products, aid host location in the chewing insect S. frugiperda, yet repel the sap-sucking pest, Rhopalosiphum maidis (corn leaf aphid). On the other hand, ZmTPS1 had no impact on indirect defense via the recruitment of the parasitoid Cotesia marginiventris. ZmTPS1 is therefore an important mediator of the interactions between maize and its insect pests.

The role of product quality cues in firm performance: Evidence from the U.S. auto industry

The current study highlights the importance of cues for quality at the product level on firm performance. Utilizing data from the U.S. auto industry, our results demonstrate that product cues with the highest positive evaluations have a greater impact on improving firm performance due to their ability to showcase the firm’s utmost capability. We also find that the consistency of the highest-rated product cue over time corroborates the credibility of the signal. Furthermore, our research reveals that the effect of consistency of the highest product cue over time, which enhances firm performance, becomes more pronounced when the auto firm is suffering from a poor reputation. These findings suggest that determining how quality evaluations are distributed across the product line is of paramount importance. This determination may enable firms suffering from a poor reputation to allocate their resources asymmetrically, focusing on products with the highest ratings to enhance their overall performance.

From Trust in Source to Trust in Content: How Parents’ Evaluation of Trustworthiness Shifts After First Impressions of an Evidence-Based Parenting Advice App

This study examined how parents’ trust in an evidence-based parenting app is formed before and during initial use. In a sample of 106 parents, the study found that trust was related to intention to use the app. General trust in developmental science predicted trust in the app prior to first use. Transparency was identified as the key factor contributing to changes in trust after first use, while content quality had a marginal effect. Overall, the study highlights the importance of both trust in scientific disciplines and content-related transparency and quality cues for effective digital delivery of parenting advice.

The perceived quality of green buildings: from a review of occupant satisfaction towards a conceptual framework

PurposeMost of the emphasis in the green building literature on the green performance of buildings has been on optimizing energy and resource efficiency. Admittedly, from the perspective of the sustainable construction industry, making optimally energy and resource efficiency, often seen as a technical challenge, has a premise role in green building projects. However, green buildings need to optimally meet the health, well-being and comfort requirements of their occupants and their environmental quality targets. In that context, perceived quality is a crucial determinant of occupant satisfaction and can play a critical role in the user-oriented improvement of the green performance of buildings. While previous research has highlighted issues related to occupant satisfaction, none of them examines green buildings from a perceived quality perspective. Therefore, the study attempts to fill this research gap.Design/methodology/approachFirstly, to reveal the positive and negative satisfaction of the building occupants according to the green building features, the review of previous research in the related literature is supplemented by an exploratory study of case studies evaluating occupant satisfaction in green buildings. Then, a conceptual framework is proposed to link perceived quality and green building features towards occupant satisfaction.FindingsA review of the case studies in 49 research articles has shown deficiencies in a comprehensive understanding and approach to the perceived quality of green buildings. In response, the development of a framework for conceptual interrelationships may provide a pathway for more detailed quality assessments for future research. In this study, the proposed conceptual framework has the potential to provide a conceptual basis for future models in determining the relationship between quality expectations and quality experiences in green buildings. It can also serve as a constructive approach for assessing occupant satisfaction in the quality-driven improvements of green buildings and further investigation of the importance of various quality cues, quality attributes and their interactions.Originality/valueThis study aims to incorporate green building features and perceived quality concepts into a framework that can form the basis for assessing occupant satisfaction in green buildings. The ultimate goal of the proposed conceptual framework is to generate an insight that can contribute to rethinking the perceived quality of green buildings and developing more occupant-driven solutions for future green buildings.

The effect of tone language background on cue integration in pitch perception.

This study explores the effect of native language and musicality on voice quality cue integration in pitch perception. Previous work by Cui and Kang [(2019). J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 146(6), 4086-4096] found no differences in pitch perception strategies between English and Mandarin speakers. The present study asks whether Cantonese listeners may perform differently, as Cantonese consists of multiple level tones. Participants completed two experiments: (i) a forced choice pitch classification experiment involving four spectral slope permutations that vary in fo across an 11 step continuum, and (ii) the MBEMA test that quantifies listeners' musicality. Results show that Cantonese speakers do not differ from English and Mandarin speakers in terms of overall categoricity and perceptual shift, that Cantonese speakers do not have advantages in musicality, and that musicality is a significant predictor for participants' pitch perception strategies. Listeners with higher musicality scores tend to rely more on fo cues than voice quality cues compared to listeners with lower musicality. These findings support the notion that voice quality integration in pitch perception is not language specific, and may be a universal psychoacoustic phenomenon at a non-lexical level.

EXPLORING THE MILLENNIALS PREFERENCES IN MOISTURIZER PRODUCT USING MIX METHOD APPROACH

In recent years, we have witnessed the growing interest from millennials to preserve their skin health. In order to maintain their skin health, they consume a variety of skincare products. One of the essential products for them is moisturizer product. This research objective is to explore the critical moisturizer product features for customer purchase decision. This research employs mixed method that consists of descriptive study and interview to millennials. The result of descriptive study indicates that price of the product is important cue for quality, therefore, consumer is preferring to select product with middle range prices. Descriptive analysis also reveals that consumer has weighted their decision based on the product composition and product efficacy. In addition, the analysis shows that consumer prefer small size product so it will be more practical to keep in carry on container. The interview gives us detailed information regarding the purchase decision process. The analysis of interview uncovers that beauty vlogger with honest review is more credible for purchase behavior compared with well-known brand ambassadors.

Preterm infant cues during breastfeeding and its measurement: A scoping review.

Preterm infants display certain behaviors to communicate their needs, known as preterm infant cues. However, the existing research on preterm infant cues primarily draws from studies conducted on bottle-fed infants rather than breastfed infants. This study aimed to investigate the concept of preterm infant cues during breastfeeding and its appropriate instruments. A scoping review. The articles published up to January 2022 were searched from multiple sources from EBSCOhost Web, namely CINAHL Plus with Full Text, MEDLINE, ERIC, and E-Journals. The articles retrieved for this review were screened using PICO (Population, Intervention, Comparison, and Outcomes) format. Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews (PRISMA) checklist was used in selecting the articles, and Joanna Briggs Institute Critical Appraisal was utilized by two independent authors to assess the articles' quality. A descriptive method was used to analyze the data. The initial review stage found 183 potential articles, but only four satisfied the criteria. The notion of preterm infant cues during breastfeeding is centered on the actions of preterm infants while positioned on their mother's chest. These feeding cues are identifiable before, during, and after breastfeeding and include cues for hunger, self-regulation, stress, satiation, approach, avoidance, and sucking quality. To effectively recognize these cues, tools such as the Preterm Infants Cues Coding System (PFCCS), Infant Driven Scale (IDS), Newborn Individualized Developmental Care and Assessment Program (NIDCAP), and Preterm Breastfeeding Behavior Scale (PIBBS) can be utilized. The study findings highlight the importance of recognizing preterm infant cues during breastfeeding to facilitate proper feeding and developmental care. Observational studies have proven to be an effective means of observing these cues during breastfeeding. By leveraging the cues identified in this review alongside tools such as PFCCS, IDS, NIDCAP, and PIBBS, nurses can accurately interpret preterm infants' breastfeeding cues in neonatal care settings of all levels. This, in turn, can aid in developing care plans that promote better feeding ability outcomes.

Automated Multi-Wavelength Quality Assessment of Photoplethysmography Signals Using Modulation Spectrum Shape Features.

Photoplethysmography (PPG) is used to measure blood volume changes in the microvascular bed of tissue. Information about these changes along time can be used for estimation of various physiological parameters, such as heart rate variability, arterial stiffness, and blood pressure, to name a few. As a result, PPG has become a popular biological modality and is widely used in wearable health devices. However, accurate measurement of various physiological parameters requires good-quality PPG signals. Therefore, various signal quality indexes (SQIs) for PPG signals have been proposed. These metrics have usually been based on statistical, frequency, and/or template analyses. The modulation spectrogram representation, however, captures the second-order periodicities of a signal and has been shown to provide useful quality cues for electrocardiograms and speech signals. In this work, we propose a new PPG quality metric based on properties of the modulation spectrum. The proposed metric is tested using data collected from subjects while they performed various activity tasks contaminating the PPG signals. Experiments on this multi-wavelength PPG dataset show the combination of proposed and benchmark measures significantly outperforming several benchmark SQIs with improvements of 21.3% BACC (balanced accuracy) for green, 21.6% BACC for red, and 19.0% BACC for infrared wavelengths, respectively, for PPG quality detection tasks. The proposed metrics also generalize for cross-wavelength PPG quality detection tasks.

Signaling Origin: Consumer Perceptions of Product of Canada and Made in Canada Food Labels

ABSTRACT A Product of Canada label can be used on food if all major ingredients are grown or raised in Canada and the product is processed in a Canadian facility. A Made in Canada label is permissible when the final processing step occurs in Canada. Using survey data, we examine whether Canadian consumers understand the difference between these labels, their effectiveness as quality cues, and the relative importance of country-of-origin labels. A best-worst scaling experiment reveals a positive response to origin labels in general, and a Product of Canada label in particular. Nevertheless, few consumers understand the meaning of the labels or the difference between them. Probit regression models find little evidence of a relationship between valuing the source of ingredients or location of processing and choosing Product of Canada or Made in Canada labels. Consumers may be responding to the “Canadianness” of the labels, rather than what the labels signify.

Consumer perception of marbling and beef quality during purchase and consumer preferences for degree of doneness.

Understanding consumer perception of meat quality in developing countries is an important issue since consumer perception of quality could be highly variable. In the current study, consumers' purchasing preferences affected by marbling and perception of quality were evaluated in a survey study. Furthermore, consumers' preferences for degree of doneness were investigated using both survey and consumer panel studies. The study was carried out in two phases. Firstly, a survey was conducted in Adana Province, Turkey to collect data related to the attributes affecting consumers' meat purchase decision and consumers' degree of doneness preferences. In the second phase, boneless ribeye was used to investigate consumers' degree of doneness preferences in a consumer panel. In addition, proximate analyses of the samples were conducted. The survey study using pictures of marbling illustrations indicated that higher degrees of marbling might be considered too fatty to be purchased by consumers. Consumers' perceptions regarding the relationship between marbling and beef quality further indicated that marbling might not be acknowledged as a cue of a higher quality meat. Nevertheless, the results of the importance of some attributes related to intrinsic and extrinsic quality cues showed that consumers were looking for the cues that indicated not only quality but also safety of the meat during meat purchase. The results of both survey and consumer panel studies revealed that consumers might prefer higher degrees of doneness while consuming meat since a majority of the consumers' preference of degree of doneness was at least well done. This study revealed that consumer purchasing preferences might vary between countries regarding marbling and perception of quality. Furthermore, higher degrees of doneness could be the preference of these consumers. Thus, further studies are needed to increase consumer satisfaction in these countries.

Associations between baseline cognitive status and motor outcomes after treadmill training in people with Parkinson’s disease: a pilot study

Purpose To determine the effect of baseline cognition on gait outcomes after a treadmill training program for people with Parkinson’s disease (PD). Methods This pilot clinical trial involved people with PD who were classified as having no cognitive impairment (PD-NCI) or mild cognitive impairment (PD-MCI). Baseline executive function and memory were assessed. The intervention was a 10-week gait training program (twice-weekly treadmill sessions), with structured speed and distance progression and verbal cues for gait quality. Response to intervention was assessed by gait speed measured after week 2 (short-term) and week 10 (long-term). Results Participants (n = 19; 12 PD-NCI, 7 PD-MCI) had a mean (standard deviation) age of 66.5 (6.3) years, disease duration of 8.8 (6.3) years, and MDS-UPDRS III score of 21.3 (10.7). Gait speed increased at short-term and long-term assessments. The response did not differ between PD-NCI and PD-MCI groups; however, better baseline memory performance and milder PD motor severity were independently associated with greater improvements in gait speed in unadjusted and adjusted models. Conclusions These findings suggest that memory impairments and more severe motor involvement can influence the response to gait rehabilitation in PD and highlight the need for treatments optimized for people with greater cognitive and motor impairment. IMPLICATIONS FOR REHABILITATION Cognitive deficits in Parkinson’s disease (PD) could impact motor learning and gait rehabilitation, yet little is known about the effects of cognitive impairments on the response to rehabilitation in people with PD. This study demonstrates that the response to gait rehabilitation did not differ between people with PD who had no cognitive impairment and those with mild cognitive impairment. Across all participants, better baseline memory was associated with greater improvements in gait speed. Rehabilitation professionals should be mindful of PD severity, as those with more substantial memory and motor impairments may require additional dosing or support to maximize gait training benefits.

The effect of prosodic structure on cue integration in pitch perception

Listeners integrate voice quality cues when perceiving pitch, and listeners’ pitch perception strategy is modulated by their musicality. Prior work has shown that speakers of English, Mandarin and Cantonese performed similarly on stimuli based on English prosody (pitch contour being driven by stress), but it remains unknown whether the prosodic structure of the stimuli affects pitch perception. 47 L1-English and 95 L1-Cantonese speakers participated in a pitch classification experiment. The stimuli included two F0 peaks modelled after Cantonese prosody (pitch movement being mostly modulated by tones), they were resynthesized to contrasting in two spectral slopes creating four permutations. The first peak had a consistent F0, while the second peak varied in F0 along an 11-step continuum. Listeners judged whether the second ‘ma4-ma1-ma4’ was higher in F0 than the first word. Listeners also completed a musicality test. Results show that all participants integrated spectral cues in pitch perception similarly with breathier-tenser stimuli favoring hearing a higher pitch and vice versa, and individuals with high musicality integrate spectral cues less. However, the effect of musicality was significantly smaller for Cantonese than for English speakers, differing from stimuli modelled after English prosody. Overall results suggest an effect of prosody on speakers’ pitch perception.

Price Quality Cues in Organic Wine Market: Is There a Veblen Effect?

Italian wine consumers show a progressive shift in favor of organic wine. Sustainability is an important driver for the emerging consumers who tend to adopt eco-friendly behaviors, avoiding food waste and respecting the environment. In this scenario, it is of interest to understand the profile of organic wine consumer, the cues that are used in the process and their impact on purchasing choice. The results from a regression on data from a sample survey showed that price is an important factor driving perceptions of organic wine quality. We found an asymmetry in the impact of price as a quality cue: while high prices may be in fact able to elicit a positive perception, low prices do not lead to non-positive perception necessarily. In addition, consumers who value sustainable consumption, have a vegan lifestyle, purchase their wine directly from wineries are more likely to have a positive perception of organic wine. Similarly, elder, educated consumers could have a higher probability to exhibit a positive perception of organic wine. This research shows that the Veblen effect can also exists for food markets in particular with the product with the greatest evocative charge, such as in the wine market.