Source Of Information For Consumers Research Articles

Energy Density and Nutrient Contents of Selective Chinese New Year Snacks.

Background: In this study, the energy density and nutrient contents of thirty Chinese New Year (CNY) snacks commonly consumed in the Asian region during the CNY festive season were measured. Methods: Calorie Answer™, Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS) and Inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) were the main methods applied in this study. Results: All snacks showed high energy density (kJ/100 g) and the nutrient content, including macro-and micronutrients of these snacks were remarkably different. The most abundant minerals in these snacks include sodium, magnesium, potassium, and calcium. Palmitic (C16:0), oleic (C18:1) and linoleic (C18:2) acids were the main fatty acids and trans-fat was only identified in Butter cookies. Conclusions: This study provides a large database on macro- and micronutrient contents in CNY snacks consumed in the Asian region that has not been previously reported. Our results indicate that the snacks were generally energy-dense and nutrient-poor. This study provides necessary information to enable the reformulation of snacks with lower saturated fat and sodium content. It is also a source of information for consumers to select healthier snacks.

Consumer-generated reviews: time for closer scrutiny?

AbstractThis paper focuses on consumer-generated reviews (CGRs), which are an increasingly influential source of consumer information. In particular, the paper highlights specific problems associated with CGRs, which questions their role as a reliable information source. Flowing from this, the paper calls for closer regulatory scrutiny of review platforms, which play an important intermediary role in facilitating the provision of CGRs. To this end, the paper considers possible regulatory responses in the EU which may address some of the issues highlighted.

Expertise Makes Perfect: How the Variance of a Reviewer's Historical Ratings Influences the Persuasiveness of Online Reviews

Online reviews have become an important source of information for consumers’ purchase decisions. Drawing upon the consumer expertise and persuasion literature, this study proposes that consumers are more willing to accept a reviewer's recommendation when his/her historical ratings in a certain product domain display greater variance. Five experiments provide consistent support for this hypothesis and the underlying process. Study 1 tests the proposed effect of a reviewer's rating variance on consumers’ willingness to accept the reviewer's recommendation. Studies 2 and 3 show that this effect can be attributed to perceptions regarding the reviewer's expertise. Moreover, this “variance-expert inference” effect is attenuated when the consumption experience of the reviewer is limited (Study 4) and when the consumers are familiar with the products (Study 5). The theoretical implications for the online review and persuasion literature and practical implications for online retailers are discussed.

Experiences and Views of Medicine Information Among the General Public in Thailand.

PurposeWritten and electronic medicine information are important for improving patient knowledge and safe use of medicines. Written medicine information in Thailand is mostly in the form of printed package inserts (PIs), designed for health professionals, with few medicines having patient information leaflets (PILs). The aim of this study was to determine practices, needs and expectations of Thai general public about written and electronic medicine information and attitudes towards PILs.Patients and MethodsCross-sectional survey, using self-completed questionnaires, was distributed directly to members of the general public in a large city, during January to March 2019. It explored experiences of using information, expectations, needs and attitudes, the latter measured using a 10-item scale. Differences between sub-groups were assessed, applying the Bonferroni correction to determine statistical significance.ResultsOf the total 851 questionnaires distributed, 550 were returned (64.2%). The majority of respondents (88%) had received PIs, but only a quarter (26.2%) had received PILs. Most respondents (78.5%) had seen medicine information in online form. High educational level and income increased the likelihood of receiving PILs and electronic information. The majority of respondents (88.5%) perceived PILs as useful, but 70% considered they would still need information about medicines from health professionals. Indication, drug name and precautions were the most frequently read information in PIs and perceived as needed in PILs. Three-quarters of respondents would read electronic information if it were available, with more who had received a PIL having previously searched for such information compared to those who had not. All respondents had positive overall attitudes towards PILs.ConclusionExperiences of receiving PILs and electronic medicine information in Thailand are relatively limited. However, the general public considered PILs as a useful source of medicine information. Electronic medicine information was desired and should be developed to be an additional source of information for consumers.

The Influence of YouTube Beauty Vloggers on Indonesian Consumers’ Purchase Intention of Local Cosmetic Products

Social media are web-based technology and social platform that involve social, personal and technological factors, which have triggered the development and evolution of website-based communities. Moreover, relevant web-based applications have also become the mainstream media for value creation and information exchange. The proliferation, convenience, and immediacy of social media have attracted many enterprises to adopt social media as a marketing tool. Among them, Electronic Word-of-Mouth (E-WoM), used mostly by vloggers (video bloggers), enables its users to review products and express their opinions on social media. Therefore, E-WoM has gradually become an important source of information for consumers, which influences their purchasing decisions. YouTube, a video sharing platform affiliated with Google, is a popular social media with tons of users. One of its most appealing and popular communities is Beauty Blogger, where beauty vloggers create and upload videos about beauty products. This study explored the impact of YouTube beauty vlogger on the attitude of Indonesian women towards locally made cosmetics and their willingness to purchase them. Based on the research results, relevant conclusions and recommendations were proposed which can be used as a reference for future research and practical applications.

Promoting Evidence Based Nutrition Education Across the World in a Competitive Space: Delivering a Massive Open Online Course.

The internet is the fastest growing source of nutrition information for consumers. Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) provide and avenue for nutrition professionals’ urgent need to respond to consumer demand for low-cost, accessible and engaging information. This research aimed to evaluate learner participation and perceptions in an evidence-based nutrition MOOC and provide recommendations for engaging international online lay audiences. Learners completed pre and post course surveys including quantitative and open-ended questions. Pre-course surveys collected demographic data, prior nutrition knowledge and motivations for doing the course. Post-course surveys evaluated their preferred learning modes and learners’ opinions of the course. Quantitative were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Conventional content analysis was conducted on learners’ responses to open-ended survey questions using an inductive approach. Learners represented 158 countries from a range of educational backgrounds. There were 3799 qualitative comments related to learners’ learning and course content preferences. Qualitative analysis identified key themes related to (1) online interaction, the (2) value of the evidence presented by nutrition experts and (3) the course structure and practical aspects. Divergent opinions were expressed within these themes. Satisfying the needs of large international audiences with diverse backgrounds is challenging in promoting sound evidence-based nutrition messages. MOOCs provide a means for delivering evidence based global nutrition education in the online space crowded with food advertising and nutrition conjecture. Recommendations are made as to how to construct and engage diverse on-line audiences.

Credible Effects: The Impact of Disclosure of Material Connections Within Online Product Reviews

Online product reviews are an influential source of information for consumers. With pressures to have readily available reviews, businesses must determine the best strategy for obtaining them. In 2009, for the first time in 29 years, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) updated endorsement guidelines to address concerns over possible deception within online reviews. Since that time, the FTC has issued four additional statements underlining its concerns and providing additional examples of how to comply. In 2017, the first action of enforcement was made against individuals failing to adhere to these guidelines. In light of the FTC’s guidelines and pressures to have reviews, businesses must ask which type of affiliated reviewers, if any, are the most influential. As to reviewer credibility, the literature offers contradictory predictions. Through three experiments with a total of 1,077 consumers, the authors examine effects of reviewer affiliation. The findings affirm the spirit of the FTC’s updated guidelines. However, affiliation comes at a cost. Depending on the competitive context, the cost may be worth the benefits.

Recognizing important factors of influencing trust in O2O models: an example of OpenTable

Online-to-offline/offline-to-online (O2O) business models have attracted lots of enterprisers to enter this market. In such a fast-growing competition, some studies indicated that lack of trust will bring a great damage to O2O business. Related works already confirm trust is the key factor to the success of O2O. Besides, social media has been changing the way providers communicate with consumers. Negative comments in social media will decrease the consumers’ trust to O2O companies and platforms. Available O2O studies are almost always conducted by means of questionnaires or interviews, which cannot provide immediate customer response and require a lot of manpower and time. Since online reviews are the main information source for consumers. Therefore, this study presented a text mining-based scheme which uses text mining technique to find important factors from online electronic word-of-mouth, to replace the traditional questionnaire survey method of collecting data. Two feature selection methods, Support Vector Machines Recursive Feature Elimination and Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator have employed to select important factors that affect O2O trust. We also evaluate the performance of extracted feature subsets by Support Vector Machines. The findings can be referenced for O2O market enterprises to carefully response customers’ comments to avoid hurting customers’ trust and improve service quality.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of Online Reviews: The Trouble with Trolls and a Role for Contract Law after the Consumer Review Fairness Act

The advent of the Internet has brought innumerable innovations to our lives. Among the innovations is the meteoric rise in the volume of e-commerce conducted on the Internet. Correspondingly, consumer-posted information about merchants, goods, and services has also begun to be a rich source of information for consumers researching a purchase online. This information takes many forms, but a major category is the narrative review describing the purchase and experience. Such reviews are posted on websites such as Yelp, Amazon and TripAdvisor, on apps, and on social media such as Facebook and Twitter. The amount and volume of reviews has exploded in recent years, and these reviews have taken on great significance in the shopping experiences of millions of consumers. Indeed, positive reviews can greatly enhance a company’s profitability, while a negative review can have devastating effects. Some negative reviews are simply defamatory; some, while couched in opinion form, are extraordinarily and virulently negative. Such reviews are part of a larger online phenomenon known as the “online disinhibition effect,” or, more simply – internet trolls. Some companies had begun using non-disparagement clauses to contractually prohibit negative reviews. But the public reacted negatively to the attempt to completely ban reviews from being posted online, and in 2016 Congress enacted the Consumer Review Fairness Act which was intended to largely prohibit the use of clauses preventing such reviews. However, the concern of companies regarding the “troll-like” virulent reviews, often posted solely for vengeance purposes, remains valid. This Article posits that the Consumer Review Fairness Act still allows contract clauses which prohibit reviews that are defamatory, and also reviews that are “abusive.” Abusive reviews which should still be contractually prohibitable include the virulent, excessively negative “troll-like” reviews. (One important caveat – to date, California, Maryland, and Illinois have enacted their own state laws banning non-disparagement clauses, which do not presently contain the “abusive” exception as does the CRFA, and thus merchants subject to these laws cannot ban any consumer reviews of any type – troll or otherwise). Moreover, this Article further argues that the implied duty of good faith and fair dealing can be argued to prohibit such abusive reviews, regardless of the presence of an express clause banning reviews.

Ethics in social media marketing

Purpose Consumer-generated online product reviews (OPRs) have become a crucial source of information for consumers; however, OPRs are increasingly being incentivized. The purpose of this paper is to find a method of sponsorship and disclosure that could be considered ethically sound. Design/methodology/approach This study adopted a quasi-experimental approach to clarifying how the method of sponsorship impacts reader perceptions of OPRs in terms of helpfulness, credibility and purchase intention. Two experiments were performed on an online platform using data from 480 participants. Hypotheses were tested using analysis of covariance. Findings Meaning under the premise that sponsorship information is disclosed and not withheld from the readers, Study 1 revealed that experiential sponsorship is the best sponsorship. Study 2 revealed that featuring reviewers with greater influence in the online community increases the positive influence of disclosing experiential sponsorship on OPR persuasiveness. Originality/value The findings in this study provide rational incentives for firms to disclose sponsorship information, i.e. demonstrate high ethical standards in marketing. This was shown to create a win-win-win situation for consumers, firms and reviewers. Managerial implications for online marketing managers are also discussed.

How online reviewers and actual customers evaluate their shopping experiences. Evidence from an international retail chain

Online reviews represent an important source of information for consumers and, on the other hand, an important contribution for corporate management. Consumers increasingly rely on other consumers’ reviews to make purchase decisions both offline and online. From a corporate perspective, reviews can be used to modify and adapt offerings, services, and to improve communication effectiveness. In this paper we are going to analyze online consumer reviews related to stores from an international retailer. Employing a qualitative and quantitative analysis, we have analyzed 80.910 online store reviews in Italy from April 1st, 2016 to March 31st, 2017. Then, in order to validate online reviews data, we conducted around 800 interviews with consumers at the shops and an online survey on 700 consumers: we want to measure the percentage of online reviewers on total customers and the differences between evaluations from reviewers and non-reviewers. We believe that this validation is necessary for accurate interpretation and further employment of online review data.

Dissatisfaction, Disconfirmation, and Distrust: an Empirical Examination of Value Co-Destruction through Negative Electronic Word-of-Mouth (eWOM)

Electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) is a key source of information for consumers and is also a vitally important source of value to business and website owners. In this study, we investigate what causes consumers to trust or distrust a review website and how value is created (or destroyed) through online reviews, which are one type of eWOM. Building on the expectation confirmation model, this study examines how consumers’ disconfirmation of previous eWOM leads to distrust of the eWOM, which in turn leads to negative eWOM and ultimately to distrust of the review website itself. Experience-based dissatisfaction directly affects the writing of negative reviews, but only indirectly influences distrust of the website. We analyze survey data collected from users of the TripAdvisor website (n = 227), with PLS results providing support for our model. Implications exist for consumers who are users of review websites as readers of eWOM, for business owners whose products and services are reviewed online, and for review website platforms.

Online Reviews: Star Ratings, Position Effects and Purchase Likelihood

Online product reviews constitute a powerful source of information for consumers. Past research has studied the effect of aggregate measures of reviews (such as, average product rating and number of reviews) on consumer behaviour. In this study, we investigate how individual reviews displayed on a product webpage affect consumers’ purchase likelihood. Identifying this effect is challenging because retailers are free to select which reviews to display on the product page and in what order, making the display of reviews in particular positions potentially endogenous. We address this challenge by utilizing an empirical context where the retailer displays reviews by recency and exploit the variation in review positions generated as newer reviews are added on top of older ones. We find that individual reviews have a strong effect on consumer purchase decisions. These effects are particularly pronounced when individual reviews contrast with the aggregate information that is instantly available on the product page or help consumers resolve uncertainty about the product.

Factors influencing the forwarding behaviour of mobile phone users in the context of mobile advertising in Europe

The importance of word of mouth (WOM) as a source of information for consumers to draw from when making a purchase decision has been acknowledged by scholars and practitioners alike. With the technological development on a global scale, a new type of WOM has emerged, namely the mobile word of mouth (mWOM). Mobile phones have become an essential means of communication for consumers, and the mWOM has a great potential to influence individuals at any stage of the decision-making process. The current research seeks to find an answer to the question of what factors influence an individual's decision to participate in mWOM using an empirical study. It was found that value perceptions have an impact on mobile users' desire to participate in WOM. Contrary to hypothesised, the desire to participate in WOM does not lead to a higher intention to speak positively about the mobile advertising campaign.

Effects of consumer visit to online community and product channel on local sales of large consumer goods: Evidence from real estate industry

Online intermediaries have become important information sources for consumers’ purchase decision making. However, the economic values of consumer visits to two online intermediaries, namely, online community and product channel, have not been well studied. By collecting a dataset on consumer visits from a large real estate website to match with local offline housing sales data, we empirically explore the respective, relative, and interaction effects of consumer visits to online communities and product channels on sales of large consumer goods. We control for relevant factors, account for potential endogeneity issues, and perform various robustness checks to validate the consistency of our findings. Our results show that consumer visits to online communities have a more significant effect than those to product channels in driving sales. However, the interaction effect of consumer visits to these two online intermediaries on sales is negative. We also find that consumer website-related experience has a significant moderating effect on the relationship between consumer visits to product channels and sales. Our findings provide important theoretical contributions and managerial implications.

Aspect-based opinion mining framework using heuristic patterns

The aspect-based online opinions expressed by users on social media sites have become a popular source of information for consumers regarding their purchase decisions as well as for companies seeking opinions on their products. Therefore, it is important to develop aspect-based opinion mining applications with an emphasis on extracting and classifying the aspect-based opinions expressed by users about products in a given review. Previous studies have used a limited set of heuristic patterns for aspect extraction with both supervised (annotated-dataset-based) and unsupervised (lexical-resource-based) aspect-related sentiment classification algorithms. However, the present study proposes an integrated framework comprising of an extended set of heuristic patterns for aspect extraction, a hybrid sentiment classification module with the additional support of intensifiers and negations, and a summary generator. The performance evaluation of the proposed aspect-based opinion mining system using state-of-the-art methods shows that the proposed system outperforms the alternative methods in terms of better precision, recall and F-measure, since it achieves an average precision of 85%, an average recall of 73% and an average F-measure of 0.78. The comparative results indicate that the proposed technique provides more efficient results for the aspect-sentiment extraction, classification and summary generation of online product reviews.

Expert Blogs and Consumer Perceptions of Competing Brands

Social media-based expert blogs are a crucial and credible online information source for consumers, yet little is known about the role of expert blogs for general consumer brand perceptions that be...

РОЛЬ ТА ОСНОВНІ НАПРЯМКИ РОЗВИТКУ ІНТЕРНЕТ-МАРКЕТИНГУ

The author conducted a study of the role and actual functions of Internet marketing nowadays, analyzed the latest publications and studies of domestic and foreign scientists relating to Internet marketing. The definitions of Internet marketing by various scientists were considered. It was determined by the problematic that exists in the field of internet marketing at the moment. A review of modern tools we identified the main tools of Internet marketing, by which the communication occurs on the Internet: SEO (Search Engine Optimisation), search (paid) advertising, Media advertising, SMM (Social Media Marketing) social media marketing, content marketing, E-mail marketing; Hootsuit's company research analysis determined the number of Internet users and purchasing power in the online environment, which averaged 500 USD per year. The number of Internet users in the online environment averaged 500 USD per year. And also to prioritise specific types of products. We have also identified that search engines are the main source of learning new information for consumers. Having analysed the dynamics of internet penetration in Ukraine, it appears that the number of internet users increased by 8% in 2019, with 22.96 million Ukrainians using the internet at the end of 2019. The article examines the possibilities of Internet marketing tools that become available when using such a tool as web analytics, including: personalised offers to customers, building relationships with customers, after a purchase is made and increasing their retention rate. A study of advertising costs on the social network Facebook, during the presidential elections in Ukraine in 2019 and during the presidential race in the USA in 2020 was conducted. And also defined the role played by social networks in building relationships with the target audience. During the research, recommendations for the use of the main tools of Internet marketing were made and it was determined which business areas are not suitable for each of the tools. Based on the research and statistical data was predicted directions of development of Internet marketing.

Sensory expectations generated by colours of red wine labels

Since there is usually no sales assistance available in supermarkets, wine labels represent the pivotal source of information for consumers at the point of purchase. In particular, it is the colour of the label which largely influences consumers’ wine choice. The purpose of our study was to reveal customers’ sensory expectations in relation to the flavour of red wines based on their label colours. Moreover, our goal was to examine whether there are any differences in the consumers’ expectations according to their frequency of wine purchase and gender. A survey was carried out among respondents who were intercepted in the wine aisles of two stores of an Austrian supermarket chain. The results indicate that label colours have a strong influence on flavour expectations. While, for example, red and black are most likely to create tangy flavour expectations, red and orange are most associated with fruity and flowery flavours. In addition, it appears that frequent buyers have stronger expectations than infrequent buyers with respect to most of the colours analysed. Finally, the customers’ gender seems to have little influence on flavour expectations. The results may be considered by wine producers in their label design to create sensory expectations in accordance with the actual flavour of their wine and, hence, avoid any disconfirmation of consumers’ expectations when they taste the wine. This is of particular importance when wine is sold in retail stores and consumers cannot rely on their taste experience prior to their purchase.

Airbnb: Online targeted advertising, sense of power, and consumer decisions

Social media such as Facebook are a rich source of consumer information; however, how to effectively use such big data remains a question. To that end, marketers need to develop personalized messages to enhance click-through rates and online purchases. This study explores online advertising strategies for an emerging lodging concept—Airbnb. Airbnb distinguishes itself from traditional hotels by offering guests a “feeling at home” (e.g., belongingness) and an “atypical place to stay” (e.g., uniqueness). In this research, we examine the interaction effect of advertising appeal (belongingness vs. uniqueness) and an individual’s sense of power (low vs. high) on click-through intention and purchase intention. The findings suggest that powerless individuals respond more favorably to the belongingness appeal, whereas powerful individuals react more positively to the uniqueness appeal. Furthermore, results from a mediation analysis reveal that self-brand connection is the underlying mechanism that explains these effects. Managerial implications for hospitality marketers are discussed.