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Factors affecting consumer evaluations of self-designed products are examined. Self-design evaluations are influenced by comparisons with designers of comparable products and by a superior fit between consumer preferences and their customized products.

The role of customer preference discontinuities in triggering technological transitions in the typesetter industry is analyzed. The typesetter industry underwent three major technological changes, namely the transition to analog phototypesetters, then to CRT phototypesetters and later to laser imagesetters, all of which were driven by discontinuities in preference. A historical overview of the typesetter industry is given.

Although there has been a pickup in the growth of business-to-consumer electronic commerce (EC) recently, the overall growth appears to have failed to live up to the various forecasts. Notwithstanding the concerns of security and privacy, this paper posits that for complex products and services offered on the web, existing EC interfaces (ECIs) lack the necessary "richness" to overcome the virtual nature that consumers face compared with a physical store. We empirically validate a conceptual framework that exists in the literature to address these issues of ECI design by drawing on insights from contingency research in information system (IS) design and media choice behavior. This paper finds that a fit or congruence between the product type and the ECI richness (in product information representation, and product-related interaction and communication between the consumer and vendor) leads to superior outcomes. Specifically, buying a complex product (e.g., digital camera) on the Web requires a greater ECI richness in the form of experiencing higher social presence and/or higher product presence. On the other hand, a lean ECI is sufficient for a simple product (e.g., diskette). The role of tolerance for ambiguity (TA), which is an individual difference variable, in this relationship is also examined. A significant three-way fit of TA with ECI richness and product types on consumer behavior is found. A number of implications and future research extensions are discussed. Index Terms--Consumer attitude, consumer behavior, EC, EC interface (ECI) richness, electronic commerce (EC) environment richness, fit, product information representation richness, product presence (PP) experience, social interaction richness, social presence (SP) experience.

Efficacy of a model, which is dealing direct and indirect effects of self-image congruence on brand loyalty, is analyzed.

A conceptual model of children's influence is developed based on the social power theory and the model is tested to understand the children's influence in family's decision-making. The conceptual model hypothesizes that the children's active social power, children's passive social power, preference intensity and decision history helps in explaining the variations observed in children's influence.

A mixed logit model is used to quantify the effect of a certified environmental label on consumers' brand choices of toilet paper, paper towels and detergents, using a large Danish consumer panel with detailed information on actual purchases from the beginning of 1997 to January 2001. It was found that Nordic Swan label had a significant effect on consumers brand choices.

The effects of environmental context, industrial context, and organizational structure on customer involvement in product development are studied by comparing the United States and Chinese State-owned manufacturers. The results show that customer involvement in product development is positively predicted by product complexity and formalization, and inversely predicted by decentralization and the effect of formalization is stronger in China.

The impact of consumer attitudes towards genetically modified (GM) food on global production, prices, and trade patterns is investigated. It is found that the potential benefits for GM producers depend crucially on consumer willingness to accept these new varieties.

The factors that influence industry R&D intensity are discussed. Industry R&D intensity are determined by the consumer preference over quality and price, ease of R&D, appropriateness of R&D and market structure.

The effects of advertising on the desires and inclinations of individual are outlined. Further, it is stated that advertising has no significant moral impact on society.

Customers can influence the customer service operations of the companies that they purchase goods and services from. Managers of these companies must determine how to benefit from this information.

Consider a category of product variants distinguished by some attribute such as color or flavor. A retailer must construct an assortment for the category, i.e., select a subset variants to stock and determine purchase quantities for each offered variant. We analyze this problem using a multinomial logit model to describe the consumer choice process and a newsboy model to represent the retailer's inventory cost. We show that the optimal assortment has a simple structure and provide insights on how various factors affect the optimal level of assortment variety. We also develop a formal definition of the level of fashion in a category using the theory of majorization and examine its implications for category profits. Keywords: Variety; Inventory; Retailing; Consumer Choice; Assortment; Optimization; Newsboy; Fashion; Majorization; Multinomial Logit

Solutions that address weight problems, sodium reduction, simply clean labels, naturally functional foods, artificial-ingredient-free products, and niche flavors were identified as emerging trends and marketing challenges in the food industry. Consumer demand has given way to these trends and challenges, and food developers have been paying attention in satisfying this demand.

Consumer choice is increasingly recognised as a crucial factor in competition policy. To illustrate the implications of such choice we present an investment model of the switching choice in the UK residential natural gas market and examine responses to a specially commissioned survey of nearly seven hundred consumers, identifying search and switching costs. Through an assessment of the savings which consumers say they require to switch supplier, together with an evaluation of consumer switching behaviour, we deduce that the incumbent retained considerable market power, suggesting that some continued regulation may be necessary.

Preference Reversal Phenomenon (PRP) has been most often scrutinized as a puzzle of 'preferences', while the discovery of the 'endowment effect' explicitly questions the parity between preference and price. The author's experiment (N = 186) connects these two extraordinary findings and illustrates that PRP is only a reversal of price in a 'market.' PRP merely proves that subjects demand to be compensated based on loss under market access deprivation when a 'maximum buying'/'minimum selling' price is elicited, and preference transitivity is restored once the misleading market manipulation is experimentally controlled. By defending preference transitivity, the author asserts that normal access to the bargaining process is indispensable for a competitive market where preference price parity is required. To make valid measurements of preference and price, the sealed envelope method is substituted for the judged-indifferent-point (JIP) method, and the binding statement method is substituted for the Becker-DeGroot-Marschack method. McNemar test scores are calculated to compare the effects of different methods.

Research on consumer attitudes indicates that inferences regarding a celebrity's liking for a product they endorse, along with opinions of the celebrity endorser, predict consumer attitudes toward products.

Byline: Roland Helm, Armin Scholl, Laura Manthey, Michael Steiner Preference measurement is important in the early stages of new product development. Conjoint analysis (CA) and analytic hierarchy process (AHP) are common methods for measuring preferences with CA dominating marketing research and practice. These methods mainly differ with respect to their basic conception: AHP is a compositional method whereas CA is designed in a decompositional manner. This study aims at comparing the methods as instruments of preference measurement. The results show a high degree of predictive and convergent validity of both methods. However, inspecting the results in detail reveals considerable differences, which indicate that AHP performs slightly better.

Several studies were carried out to analyze people's perception and attitude about the drinking water coming from their water distribution systems. The study was based on the data obtained from two surveys carried out in municipalities of the Quebec city area, data analysis based on logistic regression indicated that water quality variations and geographic location in the distribution system have a significant impact on the consumer perception.

The statements that appear on the package labels influence consumers' purchase decision. Macronutrient avoidance and nutritional enhancement played an important role in the food selection process.

Although many surveys have been conducted on forecasting practice, the majority of surveys have investigated the utilisation of forecasting methods and relatively few have studied the role of forecasting in changing organisational structures. The aim of this paper is to address this issue by expanding on earlier case studies which suggested the need for a re-location of the forecasting function within the organisation. Current research has shown how the role of forecasting has changed as organisations adapt to meet the business needs of their customers. The evidence reported in this paper was gathered by surveys and structured interviews carried out in the electronics and financial industries in Scotland. Keywords: sales forecasting; case studies

Up to 90% of new consumer products launched each year fail, often because firms misjudge the preferences of their intended consumers. Any method that helps managers better understand their target [...]