Search

Three studies are carried out in an attempt to provide a picture of clothing consumption and knowledge of fast fashion among young consumers, and investigate possibilities for more sustainable choices through analyses of the second-hand clothing market. The first study collects data from different second-hand clothing markets, whether direct from owner or through a second seller. Savings are calculated by scraping original and sale prices on regular markets. Content analyses of second-hand markets show a wide variation in discounts depending upon the type of clothing and channel used to purchase. We find independent resellers offer significant savings on higher quality clothing, but reselling used fast-fashion is not an attractive option due to its initial low price point. The second and third studies assess the attitude, behavior, and knowledge of fast fashion among young consumers and the possibility of education to decrease fast fashion consumption. These studies document the desire for fashionable clothing and expose the limited budget among young consumers. Some respondents spend all their discretionary income on clothing, and many times, purchased items are never worn. There is some indication that educating young consumers about real environmental impacts might shift purchases from quantity to quality, but educating consumers about the harm of fast fashion may be a slow difficult task. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increasing presence of women in the workplace is redefining the roles of men and women in household management. Role sharing among husbands and wives is one approach used to [...]

A longer exposure time generally improves individuals' ability to recognize faces. The current research investigates whether this effect varies between genders and whether it is influenced by the gender of the exposed faces. Based on a set of four experimental studies, we advance our knowledge of face recognition, gender, gender distribution of exposed faces, and exposure time in three main ways. First, the results reveal that women are more likely than men to suffer from a decrease in face recognition ability due to a lower exposure time. Second, the findings show that when exposure time is short (vs. long) women recognize a larger proportion of same gender faces and also recognize a larger proportion of same gender faces as compared with the proportion of same gender faces recognized by men. Third, findings reveal that when individuals are only exposed to same gender faces, women recognize more faces than men regardless whether exposure time is short, or long. In short, the findings of this research suggest that insight into the interplay between gender and exposure time length is critical to appropriately determine human beings' ability to recognize faces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The conceptualization of the Personal Involvement Inventory was a context-free measure applicable to involvement with products, with advertisements, and with purchase situations. The empirical work to develop this measure was mainly validated with respect to product categories. This paper extends the construct validation of the PII to involvement with advertisements and also demonstrates that the PII may be reliably reduced from twenty items to ten items. There is some indication the revised PII may then be broken into two subscales representing a cognitive and affective grouping. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – This study aims to investigate the random collection of items for gifting which are stored in one’s home in a special place. Traditional gift-giving models suggest gift givers buy gifts for certain recipients on certain occasions. This study ' s journey into gift storage finds that some gift-giving practices are initially acquisition-less, recipient-less and/or occasion-less. Design/methodology/approach – Based on a convenience sample of 111, the main functions and motivations for gift storage are described. From a free elicitation process of gift-closet attributes, a first account of the symbolic meanings that gift storage is embedded in is provided. Findings – Seventy-seven per cent per cent of the sample had a gift closet where they stored gifts for which either the occasion or the recipient was not known at the time of acquisition. According to these gift-closet owners, the main purposes of gift closets are convenience, thrift and to have a place for surplus or shopping items. Social implications – While it makes sense to some consumers to prepare for future gift-giving occasions by stockpiling items in gift closets, the results indicate that storage may affect the symbolic value of the gift and, ultimately, the development of social ties. Consumers who gift from the closet believe that there are few negatives involved. However, people who do not have gift closets and receive gifts which they suspect are from storage may perceive a lack of caring and even feel insulted. Originality/value – Due to the unexplored nature of gift storage, the results reported in this paper represent a first exploratory account of gift storage and its possible effects on the relationship-building capacity of gifts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This empirical study challenges the theory that a 'critical mass' of three or more women at the boardroom table is needed to make a difference. Performance ratings of Canadian publicly traded companies by the Globe and Mail show consistently higher corporate governance scores for companies with more women on their boards of directors. However, while companies that had three or more women on their boards had the highest scores, companies with only one woman on the board scored significantly higher than those with none. There was also no relationship between the number of women on boards of directors and Corporate Knights' social responsibility ratings on a national or global basis. The size of board and the type of industry are other important factors to consider when proposing quotas for female board members. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT Preferences for similarly designed consumer products, evaluated blind and branded and also with and without prices, were tested in a consumer setting. The consumer's perceptual experience led to preference of the well-crafted high-priced option. This preference was enhanced by priming consumers with background information about the brand, perhaps causing the subjects to guess which choice was the well-known brand before evaluation. Preferences for that choice increased again when brand names were visible during evaluation. When actual prices were added to the evaluations, preferences for the well-known brand were very robust to high prices, indicating the strength of the brand name. Using the least preferred option and the lowest price as an anchor, the consumers' price threshold to pay for the preferred design and the brand name was computed. Attempts to explain and predict individual differences of choices using measures of inherent design acumen, prior experience, and purchasing behavior were largely unsuccessful. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the field of psychology is undergoing an immense shift toward the use of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), the application of this methodology to consumer research is relatively new. To assist consumer researchers in understanding fMRI, this paper elaborates on the findings of prior fMRI research related to consumer behavior and highlights the features that make fMRI an attractive method for consumer and marketing research. The authors discuss advantages and limitations and illustrate the proposed procedures with an applied study, which investigates loss aversion when buying and selling a common product. Results reveal a significantly stronger activation in the amygdala while consumers estimate selling prices versus buying prices, suggesting that loss aversion is associated with the processing of negative emotion. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Brand identity complements brand equity and it forms an important part of the strategic management of brands. Identity elements include a well-known brand name, logo, font type, symbols, colour, shape, as well as unique product and benefit descriptions. These different elements can contribute to distinct consumer perceptions of various brands in the marketplace and help to differentiate brands from competitors. Brand managers need to start with a vision of what they want their brand to represent and then use the appropriate identity elements to build the brand. Some brand identity components may be influential to choice at the subconscious level of consumers, and therefore the understanding of individual psychological processes of perception and social meaning is required by brand managers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study identifies and characteristics segments of individual investors based on their shared investing attitudes and behavior. A behavioral finance literature review reveals five main constructs that drive investor behavior: investment horizon, confidence, control risk attitude, and personalization of loss. Ninety individual investors were surveyed via questionnaire on these constructs. A cluster segmentation analysis identified four main segments of individual investors: 1) risk-intolerant traders: 2) confident traders: 3) loss-averse young traders: and 4) conservative long-term investors. Each segment purchased different types of stocks, used different information sources, and had different levels of trading behavior [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The outcome of any auction sale is dependent upon a variety of interbehavior dynamics, which are either intensified or diminished according to the number of bidders involved. Two live auctions were studied and significant relationships were found between the number of bidders and bid range, starting bid values, and winning bids. The least competitive bidding occurred with three bidders. When there were four or more bidders, winning bids were likely to exceed starting bids. Strategies for participating in live auctions are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines the perceptions and attitudes of consumers on brand imitation in Asia. Ability to identify original brand as a predictor in choosing imitations; Reasons for the prevalence of brand imitation in China; Evolution of the intellectual property rights problem; Efficiency of Hong Kong respondents in recognizing brands.