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Background. Di-(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP), which is ubiquitous in indoor environments, was the predominant phthalate measured in house dust in the Canadian CHILD Cohort and was found to be associated with a large increased risk of childhood asthma. Objective. To inform interventions by identifying sources of DEHP in dust and assessing behaviors related to DEHP concentrations in house dust. Methods. DEHP levels were measured in 726 dust samples collected at ~3 months of age in CHILD as well as in ~50 homes at two time points (June and November) in the CHILD pilot study. DEHP metabolites were measured in urine for a subset of the ~3-month-old infants. Housing characteristics were assessed at the time of dust and urine collection. Numerous factors from these surveys were investigated as potential sources of DEHP using univariate analyses and multivariable regressions. Correlations between DEHP in dust and urinary metabolites and between repeat dust samples were examined to study the relationship between dust measurement and DEHP exposure. Results. Overall, DEHP dust concentrations were higher for lower-income families. Homes with vinyl flooring in the kitchen and bathroom showed higher levels of DEHP than those without vinyl flooring. The quantity of vinyl furniture and the presence of mold were associated with higher DEHP concentrations, while the use of mattress covers reduced concentration. No other significant associations were found. DEHP concentrations in dust were consistent over 6 months, although the correlation between dust and DEHP metabolites in urine was low. Conclusion. DEHP in house dust persisted over multiple months, contributed to infant internal exposure, and was associated with specific housing characteristics. These findings may inform the public on their choice of building materials and products, as well as future policies, aimed at reducing the health risk associated with exposures in the indoor environment especially for children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

E-commerce is a field that changed how consumers purchase and interact with products. Although, inherent limitations such as the difficulty of testing the products "first-hand" before a purchase can compromise consumers' trust in online purchases. Virtual Reality (VR) has been investigated as a tool to solve limitations in several fields and how we can harness its potential to improve the overall user experience. This study analysed how immersive VR (IVR) could solve these limitations by allowing consumers to test products beforehand. We have studied how the Novelty Factor (evaluated by the users' past VR experience) and Immersive Tendencies correlate with the users' Purchase Intention and Memory (how well they remember the product's characteristics). We have analysed a sample of 38 participants (21 males) from 18 to 28 years old. Participants experienced a refrigerator with an interactive touchscreen in an IVR setup and were guided through its functionalities. Results indicated that memory of the product's characteristics was positively correlated with how recently they experienced VR. No correlations were found in the female sample. A negative correlation between Purchase Intention and Memory of the product's characteristics was found in the male sample. We concluded that IVR applications could become helpful for both consumers and online shops in an e-commerce context regardless of the Novelty Factor and Immersive Tendencies of consumers. However, differences between genders should be further investigated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: the present study analyzes the relationship between online reviews and consumer trust in online stores, considering the conjoint effects of the characteristics of online reviews and product offers in the social commerce context. Methods: the study is characterized as a laboratory experiment that simulated the environment of an online store considering different scenarios, totaling 602 cases for analysis. Results: the results indicate that the relationship established between the consumer and the reviewers moderates the relationship between reviews and trust, suggesting that positive and negative reviews from friends and acquaintances affect the consumer’s trust more than those reviews made from strangers. However, this effect is not always significant, depending on the price offered. Still, the type of the product moderates the effect of the online reviews on trust when the store displays higher prices than the competition. In such cases, the impact of reviews on trust is more intense in high-value product advertisements. Conclusions: the study can help managers and website developers create more appropriate processes and strategic alternatives in the social commerce context, based on a better understanding of the relationships among the variables studied in this research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Only a few years ago, people interested in novels or movies had no choice but to use physical media such as books or DVDs. Technological advances allowed dematerializing these products, making consumption instantly accessible with a download. The trend towards dematerialization has been steady across product domains, and recent confinement measures might further accelerate it. We investigate how preferences for dematerialized products depend on people's identity motives in consumption. In a series of studies, we find that the identity relevance of a product increases the appeal of its physical versions. Even when the hedonic experience is identical (e.g., watching a movie), material products are better tools for consumers to self-verify (i.e., provide better feedback to consumers about the identity which is implicated in consumption). As a result, identity-motivated consumers are more likely to forgo the benefits of dematerialization. This finding has implications for our understanding of digitized consumption and for the marketing of media products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Sea cucumber is consumed as a traditional, luxury, medicinal and health‐benefit seafood product. Thermal treatment is a necessary step in sea cucumber processing. The quality of cooked sea cucumbers is affected by heating temperature, heating time, heating degree and heating pressure. Furthermore, the storage stability and shelf‐life of mature products are influenced by the processing methods. The loss of nutrients, changes in textural properties and apparent morphology of goods affect consumer preferences. Although some machining techniques, such as high‐pressure and high‐temperature treatments, have been applied to shorten the processing time, negative effects during storage cannot be ignored. In this review, the physical and chemical changes to sea cucumbers during different thermal treatments are compared and summarised, and future work is described. These future efforts are expected to provide suitable thermal treatment and promote innovation in sea cucumber processing technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although it is well established that consumers have an increased valuation for self-assembled products, less is known about how using such products influences objective consumption outcomes. Across three experiments, the current research demonstrates that consumers perform better on tasks when they use a product they have self-assembled--as opposed to an identical but ready-to-use product. We show that this effect results from an increase in self-efficacy and rule out possible alternative accounts (i.e., product efficacy beliefs, performance motivation, feelings of psychological ownership, and product liking). In addition, we demonstrate that the self-assembly effect emerges only when consumers actually use the self-assembled product, is robust when product assembly requires different amounts of time and effort, and is not merely the result of a question-behavior effect. Theoretical contributions and opportunities for future research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After dividing China's new energy vehicle (NEV) pilot promotion cities into license plate- and non-license plate-restricted cities, the choice of experiment and latent class model were used in this study to classify the consumers in the two kinds of cities from the technical, economical, and convenience dimensions. Then the differences in consumers' product attribute preferences and willingness to pay (WTP) for NEVs in different cities and different types were compared and the impact of consumers' socioeconomic features was analyzed. The results showed that the traffic preference type is the major consumer class in Chinese license plate-restricted cities with the highest overall WTP, followed by the subsidy dependence consumers with the lowest overall WTP and finally the mileage preference consumers with the overall WTP in the middle. In the non-license plate-restricted cities, mileage preference type is the largest consumer class with the highest overall WTP. Similarly, the subsequent type is the subsidy dependence consumers with the lowest overall WTP. And finally the smallest type is the infrastructure preference consumers with the overall WTP in the middle. Further analysis revealed that in the license plate-restricted cities, consumers' WTP for the product attributes of NEVs in the convenience and technical dimensions goes far beyond than that in the non-license plate-restricted cities, with higher WTP for road use rights and driving range attributes, while consumers in the non-license plate-restricted cities prefer attributes in the economic dimensions with higher WTP for subsidy intensity attribute. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prior studies have revealed that promotional framing affects repurchase intention, but the roles of consumer gender and product nature are unknown. With the quantitative approach, we randomly assigned participants to respond to four versions of surveys and found a significant interaction between gender, product nature and framing. Females' repurchase intention for utilitarian products under gift framing was significantly higher than under bundle framing; repurchase intention for hedonic products under gift framing, however, was significantly lower than under bundle framing. No framing effect was observed for males. The current study sheds light on how to use framing to enhance post-promotion sales. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of the consumption of two food products, we demonstrate that the price‐framing affect distribution is bi‐model, rather than normal. We do this through a preference typology for expensive versus cheap products, conducted through two independent tasting experiments: one involving chocolate the other, cheese. Participants made product quality judgments, first without price information and then with. Crucially, each tasting line‐up carried a pair of identical but differently priced products. In each experiment the results split the sample populations into two subsets: those who preferred the more expensive duplicate products and those who either preferred the cheaper alternative or were price neutral. Through testing of a high/low price‐preference typology, we find evidence of strong‐positive price affectation for individuals that prefer high priced, but identical products. Such asymmetrical susceptibility to price information suggests that food‐based price framing effects may be also experienced by different populations at markedly different intensities. Practical Applications: Practical implications for marketers of fast‐moving consumer goods are provided. Due to the bi‐model distribution of price‐framing affect rates, we submit that vulnerability to the framing effect is not universal among consumers. Therefore, by identifying those consumers who are more price sensitive, emphasis can be placed on highlighting the extrinsic product characteristics of these goods, such as price, rather than on the intrinsic qualities such as smell, taste and texture. Advertising should also be tailored in content, style and tone when targeting these different types of consumers. The study also builds on the work relating to cue‐based segmentation of consumers and posits the idea that segmentation can be conducted based on their sensitivity to the price cue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Good quality products are developed to satisfy the needs of their customers and gain their satisfaction. This could be attained by delivering products embedding only features that really meet customer's needs and reduce cost. Unfortunately, many products are plagued with overspecification that lead to complicating the design and marketing of products with characteristics or functions neither really necessary nor desired by customers or the market and are unnecessarily expensive. This paper presents a model to identify and manage overspecification in system development projects. It mainly focuses on large-scale systems development, specified by the customer, rather than the design of consumer goods that follow market research. First, an optimisation problem with project constraints to mitigate the impacts of overspecification is formalised and subsequently, a practical model to manage overspecification in projects is presented and demonstrated on a case study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The language used in brand names and product labels has various effects on consumer perceptions. A language that is spoken all over the world such as English is one of the most widely spoken and used languages in advertising. Another view regarding the use of foreign languages is that consumers spend more effort mentally because they attract more attention than their language and thus the memorability of the products is higher. Consumers' perception of the language used in brand names and product labels may not be the same for all products. Since the motivation of consumers to buy these products will be different, it can be expected that the effects of the language used will be different. In this study, a scenario-based experiment is utilized by manipulating brand name, product label, and product type. According to the results, there is a significant two-way interaction effect of brand name and product label; consumers' product evaluation and purchase intention are higher for foreign brand names (vs. local) and Turkish–English product labels (vs. just in Turkish). Although not hypothesized, there is also a three-way interaction among brand name, product label, and product type. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Two attribute-based consumer perception study methods compared: DFA test vs CATA. • d′ A of DFA had better sample discriminability than the citation frequency of CATA. • d′ A of DFA gave sample characterization similar to the citation frequency of CATA. • d′ A reflected positive, negative, or neutral group mean valence of each attribute. • d′ A was better interpretable: a sigmoid relationship with the citation frequency. For successful product development and marketing in the food/beverage industry, it is vital to study the product attributes perceived by consumers effectively and efficiently. Recently, a two-step rating-based 'double-faced applicability' (DFA) test was developed to study consumer perception and evaluation of product attributes in a quantitative way using d-prime affect magnitude (d' A) based on signal detection theory. This study assessed the product discrimination and characterization performance and interpretationability of d' A output measures of the DFA approach in comparison with the check-all-that-apply (CATA) question. An independent samples design (each N = 108) was used to evaluate eighteen ready-to-drink (RTD) latte products with eighteen attributes. A cluster analysis was also performed, and based on this the relationships of the two output statistics - d' A and total citation frequency were examined. Product attributes were generated based on literature reviews on coffee sensory and emotion studies and sensory/consumer research methodology to encompass consumer perception generally applicable to beverage, and for each attribute, a pair of 'double-faced' descriptors in three categories - 'general weak-strong', 'sensory', and 'sentimental consequence' were used for the DFA test. The d' A of the DFA test provided similar product characterization to citation frequency of the CATA question, yet provided better product discrimination and reflected the consumer affective perception for each product independently in a better interpretable way, in valence. It showed a sigmoid relationship with the citation frequency due to its nature of reflecting valence. Overall, the results contribute support for the usefulness of the DFA approach for consumer product testing and suggest the potential of developing a generally applicable DFA test format for studying integrated attribute perception. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• First application of methodology of text highlighting to product consumer research. • Case study with kiwifruit conducted in Singapore and Malaysia (1140 consumers). • Sensory and health characteristics of kiwifruit that consumers 'like' and 'dislike' were identified. • Penalty/lift analysis was used to analyse text highlighting responses to product characteristics. Text highlighting is a new method for online sensory-consumer research where participants read a text while making use of highlighting functions to indicate content that they, respectively, 'like' and 'dislike.' In a recent series of papers, consumers have been found to approach the text highlighting task in a logical and systematic manner, and the results have been shown to deliver attitudinal insights about the focal topic that fit expectations. Building on the early successes of text highlighting, it was an obvious step to try to extend it to applications in product research which occupies a central role in sensory-consumer research. A case study with kiwifruit was performed with consumers in Singapore and Malaysia (n = 1140). Participants read a text (288 words, 19 sentences) which primarily described sensory, nutrition and health characteristics of green and gold kiwifruit. Focusing on 43 specific fruit characteristics, sentiment (difference between the frequency of 'like' and 'dislike' highlights) was higher for nutrition and health characteristics than for those describing sensory characteristics. Only the Chinese origin of kiwifruit and the hairy skin of green kiwifruit were negatively perceived overall. A novel use of penalty/lift analysis to identify the specific fruit characteristics that significantly influenced expected liking of kiwifruit confirmed the results based on sentiment scores. Moreover, a difference between the drivers of liking for gold and green kiwifruit was identified; the use of 'like' highlighting for sensory properties positively contributed to expected liking for gold kiwifruit only. The case study also demonstrated the potential to meaningfully segment consumers based on their highlighting responses to product specific characteristics. The results are discussed in the context of future applications of text highlighting in product research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Consumers are increasingly caring about air quality, and the air purifier market is facing fierce competition. In the era of e-commerce, it is possible to improve product design and enhance competitiveness by mining consumer demands for product functions from online reviews. However, the existing aspect-level sentiment analysis methods fail to deal with the over-segmentation of multi-word aspects, which is likely to cause the omission of aspects. Moreover, there is still a gap between sentiment analysis and demand recognition. To overcome these limitations, we propose an approach based on fine-grained sentiment analysis and the Kano model to extract consumer demands for product attributes from online reviews. Specifically, a recognition method based on part-of-speech rules is presented to identify multi-word product attributes. Inspired by the Kano model, extraction rules are designed to identify consumer demands for product attributes from the results of sentiment analysis. Finally, online reviews of air purifiers in Chinese market crawled from T-mall.com are used to illustrate the proposed approach. The correlation results show that there exists significantly positive correlation between product sales and the extracted attractive and one-dimensional product attributes. This indirectly demonstrates the effectiveness of the proposed method. Another dataset of refrigerators is further used to check the robustness of our proposed approach, and the results further demonstrate the effectiveness. • A framework for consumer preferences extraction from online reviews is proposed. • Presents a rule-based method to correctly recognize multi-word product attributes. • Designs rules to identify one-dimensional and attractive demands for product attributes. • Experiments on the online reviews of air purifiers demonstrate the effectiveness of the method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]