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Declined card transactions present a significant problem for the payment industry, causing inconvenience for consumers, lost sales for merchants and lost revenue for card issuers. An analysis of card-based e-commerce across the EEA and UK indicates a decline rate of 10 per cent for domestic transactions and 18 per cent for cross-border transactions, leading to a total declined value of €60bn per annum. Using data obtained from different sources, including merchants' own records, and gateway, acquirer and scheme data, this paper identifies the main reasons why transactions are rejected, grouping them into four categories: valid business declines, avoidable business declines, risk-based declines, and technical declines. The study argues that merchants should focus on reducing decline rates in the latter three categories. Approaches might include use of the schemes' account updater service; localisation of acquiring to the same country as the card issuer, where possible; smart routing to acquirers with higher success rates for the given transaction attributes; use of network tokens; leveraging of strong customer authentication exemption rules; and correction of technical issues in authorisation requests, such as incorrect setting of flags indicating the acceptance environment. According to PSE's analysis, actionable codes account for around 25 per cent of all declines, totalling €15bn of transaction value (and €74m lost interchange for issuers). The paper therefore suggests that those merchants that are prepared to investigate and analyse the underlying causes of their declines have much to gain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The popularity of the Internet of Things (IoT) devices has been gaining interest amongst consumers. The rise of consumers benefiting from IoT devices has increased the threat of cyber-attacks. The safety, security, and privacy of consumers can be negatively affected if vulnerabilities of IoT devices are exploited. Therefore, there is a need of understanding what within IoT devices is necessary to secure. Further, the implementation of necessary and important requirements is needed to ensure protection against cyber-attacks on IoT devices. The recently published Cyber Security for Consumer Internet of Things (CSCIoT) standard, called ETSI EN 303 645, is a global standard that describes requirements on implementing a minimum level of security for IoT devices. This paper evaluates the sufficiency of cyber security of the consumer IoT standards' requirements and gradation. The evaluation is done by comparing CSCIoT to the international professional IoT standard, called IEC 62443, and with the other related work, such as the Secure by Design report of the UK Department for Digital, Culture Media & Sport. Also, this paper discusses implications regarding consumer responsibility on security. This paper aims to stimulate more precision and extension of requirements for consumer IoT devices to lower the risk of cyber-attacks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the development of vulnerability policy in essential services in the UK, the position at present and what the future holds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a growing emphasis on sustainability; however, not all food packaging fits this remit and consumer knowledge is typically lacking. This paper investigates UK consumers' understanding, perception and preferences relating to sustainable food packaging and the impact that adding information to this packaging has on consumers' behaviour. Consumers (n = 405) completed an online survey covering the following sections: (1) sustainability habits and knowledge; (2) utilising images to understand the role of labelling; and (3) determining key sustainable packaging attributes. Consumers regularly recycle plastic, cardboard, metal, paper, and glass, as well as showing willingness towards recycling; however, they lack knowledge of the correct recycling procedures. Labelling was successful in changing consumer behaviour and encouraging more sustainable choices. Consumers identified key sustainable packaging attributes as biodegradability, disposal methods, renewable sources, recyclability, no excess packaging, and product quality. The main themes from this survey relate to consumers typically being confused about recycling and often lacking knowledge about sustainable materials. More targeted education is needed to help consumers, coupled with additional support from companies and governments, to ensure consumers can make sustainable choices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper investigates consumer engagement, evaluation and beliefs of domestic products and the influence of such associated attributes communicated via domestic COO labelling within the United Kingdom. Design/methodology/approach: A visual ethnographic approach utilising the methods of autophotography and photo elicitation interviews was conducted to explore consumers' interaction with the domestic COO label and provenance advertising. Findings: The results of photo elicitation interviews revealed both positive and negative cognitive, affective and normative implications of domestic provenance labelling of influence emerging within consumers. Research limitations/implications: The findings are applied to the context of the United Kingdom, with contextual limitations acknowledged of doing so. Convenience sampling limitations are also acknowledged. Practical implications: The findings provide UK-based FMCG manufacturers and retailers insight into the associated attributes of domestic brand and products interpreted by consumers, communicated via a COO label, to assist in their purchasing strategies. Originality/value: This paper seeks to contribute towards the understanding of provenance labelling influence on consumers for products within the FMCGs sector, whilst specifically commenting upon attributes of reliance and influence that may assist navigation of changing priorities and national sentiments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a memorandum of the Royal Medico-Psychological Association on the Second Green Paper on the future of the National Health Service in Great Britain. The association aims to coordinate the National Health Service and the Local Government services and welcome the participation of legal professionals and consumers. Policies concerning the management are given more importance rather than the daily administration activities. Furthermore, a single authorities should be recognized in each areas of the Health Service, including the social work and medical services.

The article illustrates the concerns of cigarette manufacturers about the health of their consumers. A cigarette company has refused the proposal of South Korean artist Kim Il Sung that her art works be placed on cigarette papers because the makers were concerned that the paints could be harmful. Tobacco companies in Great Britain have rejected the idea of placing health warnings on every cigarette because the burned printing ink might be carcinogenic.

Purpose: Online shoppers make product purchase decisions based on product information shown on a retailer's website and potentially in comparison to that seen on competitors' websites. Insufficient, poor quality or missing information about a product can lead to reduced retailer sales. Measuring online product information quality (PIQ) is therefore an essential element in helping retailers maximize their potential success. This paper aims (1) to identify directly quantifiable PIQ criteria, (2) to assess the effects of PIQ and (3) to evaluate the moderating effect of product involvement. Design/methodology/approach: The authors conducted a scenario-based experiment within 3,544 do-it-yourself (DIY) online shoppers from the United Kingdom (UK). Within an 8 × 2 × 2 between-subjects design, the authors manipulated the factors PIQ criteria (8), PIQ level (2) and product type (2). Findings: The findings support that poor PIQ has a negative impact on consumers online shopping outcomes. The authors also found that the effects of PIQ differ between the various criteria, the product category and the level of consumer involvement in the selling process. In the context of product depiction, title readability and product attribute comparability with other retailers' websites a high level of PIQ is required. Moreover, high involvement products need a higher level of PIQ than low involvement products. Originality/value: This research expands website quality and service failure literature by introducing PIQ criteria and its effects in the context of online retailing. The authors also establish actionable managerial recommendations to assist retailers to embrace and utilize PIQ to better understand their own potential website and thus business improvements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This empirical study incorporates social space and gender into consumer behaviour research to explore consumer identities and consumption practices within the UK spa marketplace. The paper contends that the relationship between gender, consumption and space is intertwined and reciprocal. Semi-structured interviews with ten men who visit spas reveal that spas influence the construction of men's consumer identities in multiple ways through empowerment, struggle and resistance that exist in the social spa space. The proposed theoretical framework reflects the dynamics between space, men's consumer identities and their consumption habits. The perceived, conceived and lived experiences that emerge through the data suggest that spas can transform into a gender-inclusive marketplace. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is positioned in relation to the evolving market conditions of UK grocery retail and offers insight into the consumer led co-creative processes underlying the switching behaviour to discount food retailers by middle-class consumers. Based on phenomenological interviews with ideographic analysis, this research draws on theories related to cultural branding and brand relationships, to demonstrate how consumers negotiate individuated brand meanings. It reveals how, in spite of normative marketplace discourses, consumers are able to reframe and negotiate personally relevant meanings suitable to their own lifestyles and life projects. In so doing, this study contributes to the literature by offering an account of how brand relationships are appropriated in negotiations with stigmatised brand images to make them relevant and suitable for hitherto incongruent market segments. The findings therefore hold relevance for grocery retail managers and other practitioners engaged with the management of low involvement and mundane brands, who will have a better understanding of the process through which such relationships manifest themselves in food retail switching behaviour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Family firms' collaborative innovation is characterized by the so-called ability-willingness paradox i.e. they are less willing to engage in collaborations despite being more able to manage them for innovation purposes. In this paper, we introduce collaboration partner type and spatial proximity as two important boundary conditions of this paradox. We examine the differences in collaboration for innovation across different spatial proximities and partner types for small family and non-family firms. We use a large sample of 6272 small firms in the United Kingdom (UK) during 2002–2016 to show that this paradox is indeed not a universal phenomenon. Small family firms overcome their lower willingness when collaborating with customers within regional proximity and, based on their unique characteristics and superior ability to govern these collaborations, they are able to generate an innovation premium compared to small non-family firms. Plain English Summary: Open innovation constitutes a central strategy for small firms in general and for family firms. However, not all small firms are equally able to govern these collaborations. There are significant differences in the ways small family- and non-family firms innovate and collaborate with external partners, as well as the reasons why they do so. Our research demonstrated that the extent to which collaboration with external partners can be managed may relate to specific firm characteristics. We also showed that family firms' unique characteristics influence partner selection and the ability to govern collaborations with external partners, and thus make small family firms more likely to achieve an innovation output premium when collaborating with customers and within regional proximity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The manufacturing sector in the UK is currently undergoing a significant supply chain transformation and managers are re-evaluating supply chain location decisions to minimise the disruptions caused by Brexit. This entails manufacturing offshoring and back-shoring once again being considered as strategic decisions and companies ought to make informed choices with respect to where they source or manufacture their products. This paper aims to contribute to an improved understanding of the back-shoring phenomenon in the UK. Eight case studies of back-shoring have been analysed and compared using a theoretically informed framework. The results show that back-shoring can stem from both misjudgements of previous offshoring decisions as well as changes in the demand pattern in the home country. Unlike offshoring decisions being mainly cost-oriented, strategic shift aimed at increasing the value perceived by the customer has a pivotal role in the back-shoring decision. Furthermore, skill shortage is the main barrier for the implementation of back-shoring strategies in the UK and requires companies' attention prior to its repatriation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The way of control and operation of an electrical power system has been changing rapidly with the integration of renewable energy sources (RES). One of the emerging issues that require addressing is the capability of RES to participate in the restoration process upon a total or partial system failure. However, with the continuous shutdown of large-centralised generators, which traditionally provided the black start support together with the variability of RES, the restoration process becomes much more complex. Primarily, the RES should have enough capacity to energise the load at the time of the restoration. Nonetheless, due to significant advantages, there is an increasing trend to use RES to meet the local energy demand by large industrial customers. The flexibility of shifting loads together with the surplus of RE generation could support the system operator during the system energisation process after a blackout. This paper mainly focuses on identifying the capabilities and factors that should be accounted for to participate in the system restoration process by large industrial consumers. The case study conducted on a large-scale steel factory in the UK reveals the possibility of supporting the restoration process under the bottom-up approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Corporate criminal liability is a very important concept given the growth of commercial entities in reach, scope, and impact. A comparative legal doctrinal approach with the United Kingdom is adopted as the method of research. The paper recommends the need to demarcate between regulatory offences (involving standards of conduct in a specialised activity) and non-regulatory conduct (involving deception and fraud). The latter is to be treated with the full measure of the weight of the law to penalise, condemn and act as a deterrent, aside from ensuring that the offender does not reap benefits from the crime. It should not be compoundable and needs to attract the full rigour of criminal censure, as the behaviour is treated as morally repugnant deserving of full public censure and condemnation. The criminal processes, including any plea bargain, should be guided by transparent guidelines subject to court scrutiny. The ability to hold the corporation liable as distinct from the controllers is also discussed. Further recommendations are that the sanctions against corporations need to be diversified under a principle-based approach, as it does not suffer imprisonment or whipping, and can even pass on cost of fines to its customers. The penal provisions should recognise the distinct nature of corporations in the meting out of punishments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the role of emotions and the prevalence of dissonant/incongruent choice behaviour within the context of ethical consumption. Based on 31 in-depth interviews with British consumers, the findings demonstrate that consumers consciously indulge in ‘ethical’ and ‘unethical’ behaviour (as defined by respondents themselves), often within short time frames, and that they often compensate for unethical choices by making ethical choices later on (and vice versa). The study provides evidence that positive and negative emotions are a key driver of this dissonant behaviour. Guilt is the most salient emotion, and a taxonomy of guilt in this context is derived from the data. Consumers are found to employ guilt-management strategies in order to sustain contradictory behaviour and manage cognitive dissonance. A conceptual framework is derived in order to summarise the observed role of emotions in ethical consumer choice. The paper also provides additional explanations of the manifestation of the attitude–behaviour gap. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article discusses issues and topics about consumer behavior. In the third volume of the Journal of Consumer Behaviour, there are academic and practice papers presented. There is a general theme revolving around emotional dimensions of consumer behavior, yet most of the papers also explore interesting and developing research methodologies. The issue begins with a paper by Georgios A. Bakamitsos and George J. Siomokos, who examine the effect of mood on advertising practice and within stores. They discuss the implications within copy testing and message creation and extend this into the possibilities for in-store atmospherics. The next paper, by Andrea Davies and James A Fitchett, investigates consumer experiences when they cross cultures. The paper reports a survey of international postgraduate students visiting Great Britain, which provides many insights for those of us involved with running courses for such students, who experience degrees of unexpected culture shock. Vincent-Wayne Mitchell and Gianfranco Walsh then explore gender differences in German consumer decision-making styles. Nest is the paper by Richard Elliott and Clare Leonard, who report on an interpretative study among 8-12 year olds from poor homes in Great Britain. The author focus on attitudes toward fashion brands, specifically trainers, and the study reveals that the children from clear stereotypes about the wearer of different types and brands of trainer. Cognitive dissonance with respect to food consumption is the focus of the next paper, by Olivier Brunel and Paul-Emmanuel Pichon.

Flooding in 2021 has highlighted the increased risk to national resilience. This is against a backdrop of the UK climate projected to become more extreme over the next few decades. This paper considers the notable river and surface water flood events within England and Wales during 2021 and examines the performance of the Flood Forecasting Centre in highlighting the flood risk to our customers. We reflect on team debriefs as well as feedback and surveys from our customers. We distil our learnings and make connections with improvements in our underpinning science, forecasting tools, products and services. Finally, we highlight challenges associated with surface water flooding and suggest how we may collectively start to overcome these. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Increased consumer usage of the internet has highlighted a number of problematic online marketing practices, including the use of online platforms to research consumers without full consumer awareness. Despite current debates regarding online research ethics from a marketing perspective, scant research has been published on consumers' concerns with how they are researched online, which is a knowledge gap this paper seeks to address through qualitative research with UK consumers. This is an important yet neglected topic, given that consumer voices have been under-represented in the online research ethics debate over the years. The paper makes a significant theoretical contribution as it extends the ethics of care and responsibility to an online context, which can frame ongoing online research ethics discussions where problematic power asymmetries may exist between researchers and consumers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The paper seeks to examine the role of consumer representation in communications policymaking with a focus on the UK. It aims to review the role of the Communications Consumer Panel and to argue that there is an important role to play for a consumer advocate due to behavioural biases, information overload, and market failure.Design/methodology/approach – The paper is based on analysis of all relevant reports and documentation published by the Ofcom Consumer Panel, as well as participant observation carried out by the author as a member of the panel. It also analyses switching data to make the case that the communications sector may be unique in terms of the low levels of switching between suppliers.Findings – The paper finds that there is an ongoing role for a consumer advocate in media and communications and that this body should be independent of government and the regulatory agency.Research limitations/implications – The limitation of this research is that it focuses principally on only one sector, though it does reference a literature that covers other sectors, and in a paper of this length full comparison of other sectors would be impossible.Practical implications – The paper suggests that the communications sector would be well served by its own separate consumer representation body and that this should have close links to, but be independent of, Ofcom.Social implications – This paper has relevance to consumer representation in communications regulation and policy in countries beyond the UK. It examines the peculiarity of the communications market and the particular difficulties consumers face in fast moving technically challenging markets.Originality/value – The paper examines a particularly important sector of consumer representation at a time when policy on a new regulatory structure is being set. It offers the perspective of a researcher who has also been a member of the Consumer panel, and, as such, it provides valuable insight at a crucial time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The notion of value co-creation has been a well-established phenomenon in strategic marketing. Nevertheless, there is a dearth of studies that specifically link this to women entrepreneurship and religiosity. This is the lacuna filled by this paper which is interpretive in nature and based on 11 in-depth interviews and 1 focus group discussion data collected from women that are members of Pentecostal faith-based organisations in London. While the paper shows many interconnected challenges faced in black African women entrepreneurship, it also pinpoints the principal role of spirituality in fostering value co-creation between these women, their customers and their religious establishments. The research shows a rebuttal of the paradox of religion and entrepreneurship, specifically in women entrepreneurship. Apart from its theoretical implication of updating the literature on the discourse around entrepreneurship marketing, religiosity and ethnic minority businesses; its managerial implications revolve around exploring sociocultural groups to foster women entrepreneurship and economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper offers the personal view of a senior executive in the Defence Procurement Agency about the future requirements of the defence industry's principal UK customer. The focus here is on trying to identify the type of corporate behaviour and range of skill sets that the UK Government will need from defence suppliers, both primes and supply chain companies in the future. The concluding message from this 'Customer View' is that there is likely to be a continuing market for the company that specializes in delivering defence capability. It will be a company that will be looking for a long-term relationship, with a specialist knowledge of its various national customers and a willingness to work openly and closely with them. It will be agile in its ability to bring together diverse technologies, to package them as a system and to deliver them either as hardware or as a service. Such suppliers will also need to innovate and to adapt at least as rapidly as the threats that they seek to counter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Consumers play an integral role in societal divisions of labour. Rather than simply consume, they frequently perform labour. Incorporating consumers into the division of labour poses a challenge to this foundational and enduring concept, given its traditional focus on the technical division of tasks/skills within a labour process. Yet, insofar as completion of a circuit of production, distribution, exchange and consumption is predicated on consumers undertaking work in order to/after they consume, analysis of the division of labour would be incomplete without their inclusion. This paper uses the case of household recycling to demonstrate the importance of 'consumption work' for the organization of the waste management industry in England. By sorting their waste, consumers initiate a new economic process, providing feedstock (such as metals, plastics and paper) which in turn creates jobs/profits within the recycling, processing and manufacturing industries. Consumers also reconfigure public and private sector responsibilities when they sort their recyclable materials from general household waste, revealing the interdependency of consumption work with labour conducted under different socio-economic relations and across differing socio-economic domains. This paper makes the case for a renewed conception of division of labour to account for transformations and interconnections between work of different forms within contemporary society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies firms' obfuscation choices in a duopoly setting where two firms differ in their marginal costs of production. We show that the high-cost firm chooses maximum obfuscation while the low-cost firm chooses minimal (maximal) obfuscation if the cost advantage is large (small). We argue that in this setting there is a new role for price regulation as it leads to more transparent pricing. Moreover, a price cap benefits social welfare as it shifts production to the more efficient low-cost firm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – This paper aims to develop understanding of the context in which the abuse and maltreatment of older people might proliferate within the health and social care system in the United Kingdom. Drawing on the notion of "social defences" this paper seeks to explore the dual role of consumerism and social defences in facilitating poor practice. Design/methodology/approach – Research and inquiry findings are used to establish the inter-relationship between social defences, consumerism and poor organisational structures to create a culture in which the abuse and maltreatment of older people might flourish. Findings – The paper suggests the expansion of a consumerist approach to care, along with social defences and organisational structures, reinforces an attitude of indifference to older people across society, and provides the conditions in which the maltreatment of older people by professional carers can go unchallenged. Research limitations/implications – This is a conceptual paper from which future research could develop to understand, from a societal perspective, the relationship between societal attitudes and responses to older people, their maltreatment and care provision in the UK. Practical implications – Reform is required at a structural and individual level founded on the conceptual nets of equality and human rights. A consumerist approach alone, for those most vulnerable, may increase their risk of harm. Social implications – If safeguarding older people is "everyone's" business, wider society will need to transform an attitude of indifference toward older people into one of dignity and respect. Originality/value – The current system of health and social care provision leaves many older people maltreated and without support. Whilst much research rightly focuses on practical matters this paper seeks to relocate the debate in a much wider frame of reference to try and establish the philosophical, ethical and moral framework's required to transform societal indifference toward older people to respect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The consumer is the root of society because the whole community moves around them. So protecting the interest of Consumers must be the primary concern of the Nation. Everyone in a country, regardless of revenue, is a customer, sis a customer chase goods and services every day or at least once in their lives. Since the old period, customers are now considered more important in our economy. It is generally believed that a government's primary concerns are protecting its citizens' interests and overall happiness. To attain considerable economic equality and the concept of social justice in any marketplace, every consumer in a nation needs legal protection. Customers can defend their interests against unethical and unfair business practices, such as poor product quality, unsatisfactory facilities, and dishonest seller behaviour. This includes shielding customers from unethical and immoral business practices and resolving their complaints promptly. To offer customers a voice on matters only available to dealers and producers, the government of Great Britain formed the Consumer Council in 1955, which led to the founding of the first consumer groups in Denmark in 19471. When determining these ranks, several aspects must be taken into account, one of which is consumer happiness, which is contingent upon the presence of supporting legislation. One of the numerous consumer regulations in India is the Consumer Protection Act of 2019 (COPRA). Here, I will discuss various aspects of consumer interests, rights and remedies related to consumers, with special reference to'' The Consumer Protection Act of 2019. The present paper is based on secondary sources of data such as legal journals, books, Magazines, newspapers, web sources, etc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Fairtrade consumer is widely represented as an individual who intentionally and reflexively consumes Fairtrade goods in order to register their support for the plight of producers in the developing world. This figure is imagined to ‘vote’ with her/his pocket every time they visit the supermarket thus demonstrating their commitment to the Fairtrade trading model. However, this image of the Fairtrade citizen-consumer does not emerge automatically as a response to the increasing availability of Fairtrade goods in the market-place but has to be made by various intermediary actors and organizations. This paper examines how the Fairtrade consumer was constructed and called to action by the Fairtrade Fortnight promotional campaign that occurred within the UK in 2008 and was co-ordinated by the Fairtrade Foundation. This annual event offers a unique window into the processes and actors involved in the mobilization of the Fairtrade citizen-consumer. Through a close focus on the promotional material distributed to different audiences and the events that occurred during this Fortnight, this paper reveals the contingent and shifting nature of the citizen-consumer identity. In so doing, it highlights how varying degrees of reflexivity and action are demanded of different audiences and how this shapes the way that Fairtrade goods are qualified and distributed in the market. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Recent interest in the number of complaints being raised by students in higher education may be attributed both to a general concern about quality and standards in universities and to the emerging role of the student as a 'consumer'. However, partly because of the highly sensitive nature of this topic, for students, staff and institutions, very little research has been undertaken regarding the experiences of those involved. This paper is a case study of an individual university in the UK and looks in detail at the experiences of a group of 27 students who initiated complaints procedures in the year 2009-10. The paper considers the motivation of students in bringing complaints, and examines their expectations and experiences of the complaints process. In this way, the paper highlights important issues of policy and practice facing all higher education institutions today. Finally, a series of detailed conclusions, including suggestions for improving practice, is presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is concerned with the involvement and participation of citizens and consumers in UK public services. It reflects on levels of involvement over a 30-year period and maps this accordingly. Using models of participation, the paper reviews the citizen and consumer concepts. Conclusions are drawn about involvement and participation in practice and how this will develop in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Consumer involvement is an established priority in UK health- and social-care service development and research. To date, little has been published describing the process of consumer involvement and assessing ‘consumers’ contributions to research. This paper provides a practical account of the effective incorporation of consumers into a research team, and outlines the extent to which they can enhance the research cycle; from project development and conduct, through data analysis and interpretation, to dissemination. Salient points are illustrated using the example of their collaboration in a research project. Of particular note were consumers' contributions to the development of an ethically enhanced, more robust project design, and enriched data interpretation, which may not have resulted had consumers not been an integral part of the research team. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to illustrate the effect of including the customer as a resource in efficiency measurement. Variations in counting the customer illustrate the different impacts on efficiency between a transactional and a relational approach to bank branch marketing. Design/methodology/approach - The paper uses data envelopment analysis to analyse the efficiency of the branch network under consideration. This technique, while well established in the bank branch efficiency literature, is used here to gain insight into how relationship and transactional paradigms are affecting performance. Findings - Although the average profile of the efficiency scores was similar, the scores of the individual branches differed greatly depending on how customers were counted. Some branches then can be typified as relationship oriented while others as transactions oriented bearing in mind that all branches have both remits. Practical implications - Future research in efficiency measurement should include customers as a resource of the bank given the importance of them for the activity of co-production. Careful consideration is required however of the method of accounting for these customers bearing in mind that different conceptualisations may significantly affect the efficiency score of the individual branches. Originality/value - This paper sheds light on what is happening at branch level in a large network in the UK in terms of how transactions and relationship marketing approaches are affecting efficiency scores and the objectives of the branch. It also answers a call for research into organisations that simultaneously use relationship and transactions marketing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Corporate social responsibility encompasses a multiplicity of different concepts, such that its nature is confused, and it remains difficult to operationalize because opening dialogue with and responding to the various expectations of diverse stakeholders is beyond the capacity of many companies. This paper adapts Mayston's normative “information beneficiaries” framework and focuses on intermediaries who might potentially use published financial information to open a restricted form of dialogue with companies, which might benefit unsophisticated stakeholders. The paper examines the Mayston framework using interviews conducted in organizations that might act on behalf of three stakeholder groups associated with gas and electricity suppliers in the United Kingdom, these being: consumers, employees, and the environment. While a long chain of communication exists between utility company and stakeholder, and many organizations do not fulfill their full potential as information intermediaries, there is some evidence that Mayston's framework might well operate in practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2016, the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) found that "weak customer response" enabled incumbent UK energy retailers to set higher and discriminatory prices to residential customers. The CMA estimated the associated higher prices constituted a customer detriment in the range £1.4 bn to £2 bn per year. Although the CMA recommended against a price cap on most domestic energy tariffs, the size of the detriment and public concern about "rip-off energy tariffs" nonetheless led the Government to impose a price cap as from January 2019. This paper examines the CMA's calculation of customer detriment and suggests that it is inconsistent with CMA Guidelines and unprecedented with respect to its nature, magnitude and policy impact. Alternative more realistic calculations suggest that any detriment would have been nearly an order of magnitude lower, so that a price cap was inappropriate. This raises a number of questions about the CMA's approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the introduction of the Education Reform Act 1988 (ERA) in Britain there has been, within Conservative and New Labour governments, a move towards preserving an image of the parent as a consumer of education services. The corollary of this is that schools and parents are located through the exchange and intersection of producers and consumers: schools are forced to perform in ways that are compliant with market issues of supply and demand while parents are encouraged to exercise their right to voice a preference over which school they would like to send their child to. This can be traced to the emergence of the iconic figure of the citizen-consumer in New Labour policy discourses around education, housing, policing and health more generally. It is within this discursive terrain that parents are imagined and constituted in the positions of the responsibilized citizen and active consumer (citizen-consumer). One of the effects of positioning parents in this way has been to encourage them to draw on consumerist discourses as a way of augmenting their position in the imagined conditions of a competitive educational market in order to secure the 'right' school for their child. The consumer, however, is viewed by some critics as intrinsically antithetical to the collectivist principal and practices of citizenship, of the traditional community of citizens. This paper highlights the interconnected way in which parents' understandings of the dominant discourse of choice - of ideas of autonomy, mobility and self- interest - are framed around mobilizing, contested and troubling ideas. It concludes by looking at how discourses of community, race and gender interact and combine to produce condensed, yet shifting and unstable, articulations of choice in particular places and spaces. By approaching school choice in discursive terms, this paper attempts to problematise and complicate the dominant discourse of choice - and the subject positions that inhere within it - by showing it to be inflected in and through the availability of alternative frameworks of meaning and repertoires linked to constructions of community, race and gender. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper examines the developing role of the medicines counter assistant (MCA) based in community pharmacies in the UK. In recent years, community pharmacies have been promoted as sources of primary care advice, and this has been accompanied by an increase in the number of pharmacy-only medicines made available for purchase without prescription. At the forefront of these changes is the MCA, who responds to requests for medicines and also advises customers seeking guidance on treating minor illness. This paper uses qualitative data drawn from non-participant observation of interactions between MCAs and customers in six community pharmacies in the south-west region of the UK. The data show communication in the pharmacy to be a complex process, characterised by multiple discourses including medical, retail and pharmaceutical information. At times, the different discourses worked in equilibrium, but there were also regular occurrences of clashes between the different discourses, where interaction became problematic. The authors argue that the current focus on pharmacy protocols to structure communication is, in some cases, too rigid for meaningful interaction and does not acknowledge the complexity of the encounter. A specific way forward for developing the interaction is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the paper is to assess the role of doorstep credit companies in the delivery of financial services in areas affected by high levels of financial and social exclusion. In particular, the paper looks at the relationship between agents and customers using two metaphors associated with interaction between different species in an ecological setting—namely, parasitism and symbiotic mutualism. The metaphor of parasitism circulates widely within debates about moneylending in the media and among advocacy groups, such as the Consumer Association, that work on behalf of low-income individuals and households. The metaphor of symbiotic mutualism describes the depiction of the relationship between consumers and moneylenders put forward by the moneylending industry. Drawing on field work undertaken within moneylending companies, this paper argues that the relationship between the agents and customers is cultivated to overcome information asymmetries; that is, to produce information about customers' ability to repay. The paper investigates the way in which the initial knowledge about customers is developed during the weekly visits that agents make to the homes of customers. ‘Friendly’ relationships are cultivated by agents to retain profitable customers who have earned the agent's trust. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Outputs from the 2001 census are providing market analysts with updated information on the size and structure of the UK population at the start of the 21st century. The objective of this paper is to show how the new data will be a unique and valuable resource for customer analysis. After setting the scene in the first section, the second section of the paper highlights the main developments affecting census outputs and their dissemination. The third section describes ways in which the data can add value for customer analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Whilst the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) has generated much research interest, many market researchers are divided over the addition of further constructs to the model. The TRA and its many modifications have been applied in numerous behavioural contexts, however, research to-date has neglected an emerging group of 'ethical' consumers. This paper outlines results from a recent survey of over 1400 UK consumers that applied the TRA to this complex area of decision making. Using readers to the 'Ethical Consumer' magazine, the study addresses issues involving proposed model modifications--specifically, the addition of control, ethical obligation and self-identity. Management implications of the findings are discussed, including the importance of understanding consumers' self-identification with ethical issues in marketing communications programmes; and the underlying potential importance of ethical issues to mainstream consumer groups. Finally, the need to develop conceptually as well as practically robust techniques by using Structural Equation Modelling, which represents the next stage in this research, is outlined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the surge in online purchases, customers' requirement for last-mile delivery also increases. This study focuses on the express delivery service, the primary channel in last-mile delivery, to discover the factors influence customers' use. Based on the extended Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology, a conceptual model is proposed to structure the hypothetical effects between the constructs performance expectancy in delivery speed and delivery reliability, effort expectancy, facilitating conditions and behavioural intention. A 5-year (2015–2019) longitudinal survey was conducted in the UK, and 3964 responses were collected to validate the model. The results indicate that the performance expectancy in delivery reliability has a positive impact on customers' behaviour intention to adopt an express delivery service, while the performance expectancy in delivery speed, unexpectedly, shows insignificant impact. Moreover, the effort expectancy was found to have no effect on behaviour intention; however, the facilitating conditions have a negative influence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study was to explore consumer acceptance of food products that make use of ingredients from underutilized marine species. As these species are not commonly used as ingredients in food products, a goal of this study was to explore how relevant personality factors influenced the acceptance of such products. This would be achieved by (a) identification of consumer segments based on the personality factors-domain specific innovativeness, food technology neophobia, health involvement, and disgust, (b) description of the main characteristics of these consumer segments, and (c) comparing how these consumer segments responded to information about the potential products, origin species, ingredients, and benefits associated with these ingredients. The method used in this study was a consumer survey (n = 490) that led to a consumer segmentation, followed by a conjoint experiment. The results show that ingredient source was the most important attribute. Yet, as many of the ingredient sources were novel, both for the carrier product and the consumer, the important part was not exposing consumers to the species that functioned as the ingredient source. The younger female consumers of the Safe Player group were most focused on the ingredient source, whereas the older male segment, called Open Minded, found the carrier product more important. The final segment, the Innovator, found all of the attributes of almost equal importance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Advertising presents special difficulties for business ethicists. Ads are trivial entertainments, yet advertising culture has been held up as a metaphor for a general moral degradation in the post-modern epoch. Ads confuse us since they are a new and unfamiliar form of communicative discourse which we find difficult to place in an ethical category. This, mainly conceptual, paper attempts to explore how ethics in and of advertising may be subject to examination within a broadly social constructionist perspective. The paper sketches out a view of social constructionism which draws significantly on the ‘turn to language’ in psychology. It then attempts to discuss how ads might work, or rather, as the paper suggests, how ads mean. The social constructionist view point entails a rejection of cognitivist schemes of advertising psychology in favour of a mutualist framework within which ads and consumers jointly construct meanings which are essentially indeterminate. This ontological perspective has implications for ethical treatments of the field. The notion of meaning making as a psychological principle leads the discussion into an initial consideration of how normative approaches to advertising ethics might be framed. The self regulatory system obtaining in the UK is offered as an appropriate example. An underlying theme of the paper is that discussions of ethics in relation to advertising cannot rest upon a simplistic cognitivist notion of how ads ‘work’ upon consumers' minds. The paper tries to show that a broadly social constructionist approach may offer a richer scheme for examining advertising ethics in its local, mediated, indeterminate and socially constructed character. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our paper examines the rise of a new category of professional support staff whom we refer to as 'audit-market intermediaries' in the context of a rapidly changing regulatory and funding environment in British higher education. We explore the roles they play in articulating environmental changes in research-intensive universities related to the auditing of teaching via demands for quality assurance and the marketisation of higher education via the rise of the student as a fee-paying consumer. The qualitative data reveals the internal and external sources of legitimacy and power of the audit-market intermediaries as well their contestation. We show how these actors serve as mediators of audit and market forces undertaking institutional work by translating, amplifying or buffering-related pressures within the university; and point at the relevance of the specific organisational context for understanding differing patterns of their institutional work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The reliability of power supply to distribution network customers can be increased by embedded generation, including wind farms. The value of this increase in reliability needs to be evaluated, and national standards such as the Great Britain security of supply standard P2/6 seek to do so. This paper appraises the capacity credit evaluation methodology in P2/6 and outlines an alternative methodology to integrate generation with load more effectively, taking into account the topology, loading and reliability of the surrounding network. It concludes that under certain circumstances, the presence of embedded wind generation can allow the deferral of costly network reinforcement projects but that the time for which reinforcement can reasonably be deferred is a function not only of the generators themselves but also of the surrounding network. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the concept of the post-secular city by examining the growing presence of Street-Pastors in the night-time economy of British cities. Street-Pastors are Christian volunteers who work to ensure the safety of people on a ‘night out’. We contribute to work that has called for greater attention to be placed on the ways in which religious faith and ethics are performed to create liminal spaces of understanding in urban areas. Drawing upon in-depth ethnographic research conducted in a range of UK towns and cities, we consider this distinct form of faith-based patrolling in relation to the spatial processes and practices of urban-nightscapes. By exploring the geographies of Street-Pastors, we not only contribute to more nuanced accounts of ‘drinking spaces’ but provide an empirical engagement with the growing body of work on urban rhythms and encounters. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper reports the results of a research project into the determinants of consumer evaluation of services. The research uses the healthcare context to explore consumer perceptions of the service product dimensions. Using a critical incident technique, a consumer-derived model of the relationships between core and peripheral aspects of the service is presented. The results indicate that evaluation is a function of both personal and organizational factors which comprise core and peripheral components of the service. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article adds to on-going debates about food provisioning in England and the relative positioning of supermarkets vis-à-vis other sources of fresh food. Arguing that traditional food markets have been neglected in the agri-food literature, the paper investigates the suggestion that they are at 'a critical juncture', with many in decline and others being (re-)gentrified for a wealthier type of customer. Theoretically, the article argues that the 'internal' and 'external' spaces and places of traditional food markets are tightly interwoven. It draws on database analysis and detailed findings from interviews with market managers, traders and shoppers conducted on markets in contrasting regions of England in the cities of Newcastle and Cambridge. The findings provide new insights by examining the connective spaces and places that link market actors and consumers as fresh food moves across the geographical regions and through the marketplace. Taking a relational view, the paper challenges the suggestion that traditional food markets are at 'a critical juncture', arguing that there are unique points of difference on how the traditional food market adapts to rapid retail change, according to its geography, history and the spatial and temporal tensions between traditional and modernised fresh food provisioning systems, and suggests the need for further in-depth research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Unique food products constitute a very important element of European food business, culture, identity and heritage. Understanding the uniqueness of food in Europe from a research-based interdisciplinary perspective will be a critical factor in promoting the competitiveness of artisanal food industries going forward both locally and internationally. Success will support the competitiveness of the European food industry, in particular, small and medium enterprises, by enabling substantial product differentiation potential for producers and providing ample variety in food choice for the consumer. In addition, it will contribute to promotion of sustainable agriculture and development of rural areas, protecting them from depopulation. In order to meet the demands of a developing fundamental shift in European Union agricultural focus to greener, sustainable farming practices and wider rural development and to ensure success for local small-scale producers, this paper discusses the future direction of research in the field of unique European foods. The paper presents a perspective which promotes optimisation and innovation in unique food products in Europe through the integration of advanced knowledge and technologies. A framework is presented covering location, identity, perception and well-being as research areas needing synergy to bridge the research knowledge deficit in determination and specification of food identity in the European Union. The ultimate aim being promotion of sustainable agriculture and rural development, particularly in territories across the European Union where unique food is strategically and scientifically under-defined. © 2013 Society of Chemical Industry [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the willingness of households to pay for academic and deprivation-compensating components of the Contextual Value Added (CVA) indicator of school quality used in England in order to locate themselves in the catchment area of state schools. Deprivation-compensating school performance, defined as the difference in the disadvantaged intake between two schools with the same academic performance.Design/methodology/approach The empirical analysis, based on data drawn from three independent UK data sources, used parametric and non-parametric analysis approaches. The analysis conducted separately for primary and secondary schools, because household behaviour can differ between these two levels of education.Findings Consumers are willing to pay for houses in the catchment area of primary and secondary schools with high academic achievement, as measured by the mean score; whereas, the component of the CVA indicating deprivation-compensating aspects of school performance is found to have a positive effect only on the price of houses in the catchment area of primary schools in London; its impact on the price of houses elsewhere is mostly negative.Practical implications The analysis in this study suggested that the recently adopted practice of using CVA as a measure of school quality in England can encourage government and Local Authorities to pay more attention to raising the deprivation-compensating aspects of school performance of their schools.Originality/value This is the first study to explore the value which households attach to deprivation-compensating outcomes, at a given level of academic performance using the CVA indicator. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Attracting and retaining loyal customers is a key driver of insurance profit. An important factor is the customers’ opinion of an insurer’s service quality. If a customer has a bad experience with an insurer, they will be less likely to buy from them again. Word-of-mouth networks allow information to spread between customers. In this paper we build an agent-based model with two types of agents: customers and insurers. Insurers are price-takers who choose how much to spend on their service quality, and customers evaluate insurers based on premium, brand preference, and their perceived service quality. Customers are also connected in a small-world network and may share their opinions with their network. We find that the existence of the network acts as a persistent memory, causing a systemic bias whereby an insurer’s early reputation achieved by random chance tends to persist and leads to unequal market shares. This occurs even when the transmission of information is very low. This suggests that newer insurers might benefit more from a higher service quality as they build their reputation. Insurers with a higher service quality earn more profit, even when the customer preference for better service quality is small. The UK regulator is intending to ban the practice of charging new customers less than renewing customers. When the model is run with this scenario, the retention rates increase substantially and there is less movement away from insurers with a good initial reputation. This increases the skewness in market concentrations, but there is a greater incentive for good service quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates consumer preference and acceptance of three meat alternatives—plant-based, lab-grown, and insect-based—as sustainable choices to meet the demands of a growing population and evolving food systems. Insights were gathered from European consumers regarding their perceptions and consumption patterns using a mixed-methods approach. The approach employed a questionnaire followed by focus group discussions conducted in Slovenia and the UK to understand the motivations and barriers behind their responses. The UK and Slovenia were chosen as they provided the highest response rates to the questionnaire and they have differing legislation. The results show that plant-based alternatives are the most familiar and accepted option, while lab-grown meat and insect-based products are less familiar and have lower acceptance rates. Moreover, they show that although sustainability factors are important to consumers, they are not their only concern; health and nutrition are the primary motivators for choosing meat alternatives. These are followed closely by sensory appeal, pricing, and a preference for natural, minimally processed options. Based on insights from the focus groups, strategies to overcome the barriers to the acceptance of meat alternatives should include targeted product categorisation and placement, educational campaigns, effective use of media, and greater transparency in product information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]