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The primary purpose is to examine the role of consumer animosity as a prime paradigm in the relationship between self-reliance, patriotism, ethnocentrism, and religiosity of Indian consumers and their unwillingness to buy Chinese-made products. Using AMOS and SPSS Structural Equation Modeling (SEM), data from a convenience sample of 315 Indian consumers were used to test the proposed models. The results suggested that the impact of self-reliance, ethnocentrism, and religiosity on consumer animosity plays an essential role in consumer unwillingness to buy Chinese-made products. Consumer product knowledge moderated the relationship between animosity and unwillingness to buy. Based on these findings, potential managerial actions to account for consumer animosity can be suggested. The current study emphasizes that patriotism exerts the most decisive impact on consumer animosity, followed by self-reliance, making these prime strategic choices for managerial action. While consumer animosity has received attention in the literature, the self-reliance and religiosity of Indian consumers as drivers of animosity have not been tested before. This is important as it demonstrates possible strategic options for managers to pursue. Moreover, within our study's context, Indian consumers' unwillingness to buy Chinese products is a crucial issue as these countries are among the largest economies in the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper aims to explore consumer perceptions of product design awards (PDAs) and their impact on consumer product evaluation and attitude formation about the award-winning product, the award-winning organization and the award-granting organization. Design/methodology/approach: Based on the grounded theory approach, an exploratory qualitative study is conducted, using 16 semi-structured in-depth interviews with Turkish consumers through discussions on real-world examples. Findings: Results show that consumers develop emotional responses to PDAs (e.g. interest, curiosity and confusion), hypothesize reasons for products receiving awards and cite rewards as confirmation of their existing judgments about products. PDAs are perceived as extrinsic cues signaling quality and price, and their impact is increased when consumers feel that the award is based on functional feature superiority. Consumer responses to PDAs are also influenced by the perceived expertise of the award-granting organization and beliefs about the award-granting process. Finally, PDAs can lead to positive brand-perception outcomes, influencing consumer perceptions of the product company as resourceful, competent and prominent. Practical implications: This study shows that it is critical for companies to inform consumers about the specific features that resulted in a given product receiving a design award, as well as to provide information about the PDA itself. Originality/value: To the best of the authors' knowledge, this study is the first attempt to explore consumer perceptions of and reactions to PDAs, with significant implications for both the marketing managers of PDA-winning products and award-granting organizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers a retail platform selling a product to consumers and voluntarily discloses product quality information by using blockchain technology (BCT). Consumers decide whether to deliberate before making purchase decisions. We develop an analytical model to explore the effects of information disclosure strategies on the retail platform's pricing and consumers' deliberation decisions. Some interesting results are obtained. First, regardless of the information disclosure strategy, consumers' deliberation and purchasing decisions depend on the deliberation cost and product price. Consumers will only deliberate if the price is at the medium level and the deliberation cost is not too high. Second, when the disclosure cost is high, the retail platform either stimulates or prevents consumer deliberation; however, when the disclosure cost is at a medium interval, the retail platform's pricing decision depends on its information disclosure strategy. Specifically, when disclosing quality information, the retail platform will implement the stimulated deliberation (SD) or prevented deliberation (PD) strategy and will never adopt the sold at a low price (SL) strategy; however, when quality information is withheld, the retail platform will only adopt the PD strategy. Third, we identify the conditions under which the retail platform should disclose quality information when facing different disclosure costs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Whether the 'democratization' of consumption during the early modern period was specifically a characteristic of the European economic shift or observable in other parts of the world remains a central question in understanding the early roots of consumerism, as well as explaining pre‐industrial growth and divergence. However, the scarcity of quantitative evidence from the non‐Western world limits our ability to make comparisons and grasp the nature of changes that occurred in the material environment. Based on a sample of 380 probate inventories from the Ottoman town of Üsküdar, this paper examines the change in possession of domestic goods from 1700 to 1850. It reveals that, from the 1760s onwards, ordinary Ottomans in the town, who were neither wealthier nor better positioned in the social hierarchy compared with their ancestors in 1700, owned a greater quantity and variety of domestic goods. As a result, they enjoyed richer and more elaborate domestic interiors. The findings strongly suggest that democratization of consumer goods, a hallmark of the early modern consumer revolutions in Europe, was experienced in the Ottoman town of Üsküdar during the second half of the eighteenth century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chemical exposures from consumer products are a major concern in modern society. To address the need for accurate health risk estimation, particularly for chronic chemical hazards that may be less evident such as those contained in consumer products, this study reports on the development of the Population Attributable Risk Screening Tool (PAR Tool) Version 1.0. The PAR Tool was designed for the use of professional staff at the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), and assumes some prior knowledge of chemical risk assessment. This tool provides reasonable estimates of potential acute and chronic health impacts and mortality resulting from exposure to chemicals in consumer products. The PAR Tool provides the ability to integrate diverse data sources, including consumer product composition, user exposures, chemical toxicity data, consumer use patterns, and other pertinent factors to estimate the Population Attributable Risk associated with exposures to chemical components in consumer products. By generating PAR estimates on a chemical-by-chemical basis, the tool will assist the CPSC in assessing potential health risks and prioritizing efforts for risk reduction. Output from the tool provides an estimate of the number of specific health outcomes that may occur in the population of users of a specific consumer product. Interim steps produce exposure percentiles that are used along with dose–response data for a selected chemical and exposure pathway to calculate the proportion of the population at risk. The output is an estimated number of cases of an adverse health effect or mortality in a product user population potentially related to exposures to a single chemical in a product. These results are based primarily on user inputs, and the rationale for selection of these inputs is documented. All inputs and calculations within the PAR Tool are traceable and based on accepted practices and resources. The ongoing development of the PAR Tool aims to enhance its functionalities, incorporating features such as uncertainty analysis, increased automation, and user support. For example, future iterations may allow CPSC users to analyze multiple chemicals and health endpoints simultaneously and introduce sensitivity analysis capabilities for exposure and toxicity parameters. Ultimately, the PAR Tool represents a valuable advancement in comprehending product risks related to consumer product exposure, contributing to enhanced consumer protection and improved health outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigate the strategic role of a recommender who cares about accuracy and whose recommendations influence product quality. In the presence of such feedback effects, recommendations have a self-fulling property: the recommendation agent can select any firm that will end up being the firm with the best quality. This produces important inefficiencies that include (a) a lack of incentive to acquire valuable information, (b) a status quo bias, and (c) the avoidance of risky innovations. Monetary payments from firms may work in mitigating these inefficiencies, while competition between recommenders and monetary payments from consumers are ineffective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research investigates when and why consumers purchase products with social costs (e.g., environmental harm). Six studies demonstrate that upper-class consumers are more likely to purchase a product with social costs when it has a higher price because they experience greater entitlement, which the authors term the "price entitlement effect," allowing for purchase justification. In contrast, lower-class consumers do not feel entitled to purchase a product with social costs when it is higher-priced. This effect occurs because upper-class consumers tend to have a greater self-focus, with a higher price entitling them to more resources than others. Consistent with the entitlement mechanism, when egalitarian values are made salient, the price entitlement effect is mitigated, reducing upper-class consumers' purchase of socially costly products. Notably, the price entitlement effect occurs only when products have social costs rather than for all higher-priced products. However, when the social costs of a product are severe, price entitlement does not sufficiently justify product purchase. This research provides theoretical and practical insights regarding when and why higher price entitles purchase of socially costly products, contributing to research on social class and socially responsible (vs. costly) consumption as well as choice justification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: This scoping review aims to describe factors that facilitate consumer-level transitions to more environmentally sustainable diets. Methods: Using scoping review methods, four databases were searched for articles published in English examining facilitators to consuming an environmentally sustainable diet and focused on consumers, using data collected in Western countries, and were published between 2012 and 2022. Researchers extracted study characteristics and factors influencing adoption or uptake of sustainable foods or dietary patterns. Using this data, researchers conducted a thematic analysis to determine five main themes describing leverage points (modifiable) for dietary transitions. Results: Results are reported per PRISMA guidelines: 21 studies were included with data from the U.K., U.S., Australia, and Europe. The results of this review indicate that values, knowledge, marketing, consumer-product relationships, and support networks, along with their respective subthemes, may be central drivers of consumer adoption of sustainable dietary patterns. Consumers are more likely to purchase and consume products which are familiar and appealing and align with their values. Cost, lack of knowledge, and lack of social support act as barriers to dietary change to more sustainable food choices. Income, education, ethnicity, sex, and employment were common individuallevel characteristics identified as influential over likelihood of adopting environmentally sustainable dietary patterns. Individual-level characteristics create nuances in both likelihood to adopt, and the experience of barriers to adopting, sustainable dietary patterns. Conclusion: Knowledge of leverage points and individual-level nuances is useful in informing strategies to facilitate transitions to more sustainable diets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This study aims to examine the influence of two significant product labelling strategies (geographical indication [GI] vs country-of-origin [COO]) on shaping customer product attitude and purchase likelihood, considering consumers' ethnocentric and cosmopolitan tendencies. The authors also investigate the boundary conditions and intervening mechanisms to manage the adverse consumer product evaluations and present mitigating procedures which reinstate favourable product evaluations and purchase likelihood. Design/methodology/approach: The collected data from these all these studies were analysed using ANOVA and mediation anlaysis. The study tests the proposed hypotheses using three follow-up experimental investigations. Findings: The study found that GI (vs COO) labels have a more significant impact on customers' product evaluation and likelihood of purchase and supported the dispositional effect of ethnocentric and cosmopolitan inclinations. Further, the results indicated that self-product congruence can efficiently regulate consumer dispositions. Also, the results confirmed the significant impact of product identification on influencing consumer attitudes. Practical implications: The above-said insights add practical insights, particularly concerning product labelling. Also, the insights on product attitudes and purchase likelihood intricacies in the context of product labelling enable companies to comprehend better the significance of GI labels, COO labels and self-product congruence. Originality/value: To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first time a study has compared the role of two significant product labelling strategies (GI vs COO) in shaping customer product evaluations, confirmed its boundary conditions and shown how to transform them into helpful customer product outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes panic buying of storable consumer products accompanied by disasters, using a novel consumer‐search theoretic equilibrium model where consumers follow (S,s) inventory policies. We show that, even if consumers are fully rational, an anticipated temporary increase in consumer shopping costs (as well as conventional demand and supply shocks) can trigger an upward spiral of hoarding demand and result in serious shortages. Due to congestion externalities, panic buying leads to the misallocation of storable products and substantial welfare loss. The model is calibrated using survey data and reveals that the timing of recognizing the shopping‐cost rise is crucial for the severity of panic buying. Some policy options, such as purchase quotas and future sales‐tax reductions, are suggested to mitigate panic buying. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study looked into the impact of capital allowance on the operational effectiveness of firms producing consumer goods in Nigeria. The proxies of capital allowances are: initial allowance, annual allowance and balancing charge while operation efficiency was measured with asset turnover ratio. Population of the study was all the 21 consumer products companies listed on the Nigeria Exchange Group between 2014 and 2021. 12 companies were selected as the sample size using purposeful sampling. Through the use of the firm's publicly available financial filings, data was acquired from secondary source. The research design was expo-facto, both descriptive and inferential statistics such as correlation analysis, variance inflation factor, serial correlation, heteroskedasticity and multiple regression were employed in analyzing the data. Redundant fixed and hausman tests were also carried out in order to know the most appropriate statistical estimator. The results of the analysis showed that capital allowance improved efficiency. According to the study's findings, there was positive and significant relationship between the variables of capital allowance and proxy of operation efficiency, this implies that consumer items firms operate more efficiently when their capital allowances are advanced. Based on the outcome of the findings, It was advised that the Nigerian government reevaluate the capital allowances now enjoyed by firms in order to improve operational effectiveness and financial performance of consumer products enterprises. Additionally, greater capital allowances ought to be granted to more consumer products companies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Flexible polyurethane foams (PUF) are used in many consumer products. PUF may contain trace levels of aromatic diamine impurities that could represent a potential health risk. The risk associated with sleeping on a PUF mattress was evaluated. Toxicity benchmarks for sensitization and non-cancer endpoints were derived from the respective points-of-departure using standard assessment factors. For the cancer endpoints, toxicity benchmarks were derived from the 25th-percentile values of animal studies. Recently published emission and migration data allowed to link exposure with the CertiPURTM voluntary quality limits of ≤5 mg.kg−1 for 2,4-toluene diamine and 4,4'-methylene dianiline in PUF. Using conservative exposure scenarios, lifetime-average daily internal doses from the combined inhalation and dermal exposures were calculated. Margins of safety for non-cancer and sensitization endpoints were >104. The theoretical excess cancer risk was ≤1.5 × 10−7. It is concluded that sleeping on a mattress that satisfies the CertiPUR limit value does not pose undue risk to consumers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The declaration of the COVID pandemic in March 2020 was immediately followed by news media accounts of "panic buying." However, this term is problematic because it implicitly assumes that people engage in indiscriminate consumer product purchases that are motivated solely by extreme fear. Contrary to the implicit assumptions of "panic buying," this study's examination of consumer product purchases by 435 households found that respondents drew clear distinctions among four activities (observed shortages, own consumption changes, own stockpiling, and others' stockpiling) related to six consumer product categories (fresh produce, fresh meat, nonperishable food, cleaning supplies, sanitary supplies, and nonprescription medications). The results show that own stockpiling has moderately positive correlations with own consumption changes and is as strongly related to optimism and anger as to fear. Own stockpiling also has positive correlations with perceptions of others' stockpiling, reliance on informal information sources, and observed shortages. Unexpectedly, own stockpiling has positive correlations with positive disaster stereotypes rather than negative disaster stereotypes, and is unrelated to expected pandemic duration, authoritative information sources, demographic characteristics, and routine stockpiling. The results suggest that the term "panic buying" should be replaced by "crisis stockpiling," which avoids unnecessary erroneous inferences about the motivation for that behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study the effectiveness of two theoretically and practically relevant interventions designed to increase familiarity with and thereby stimulate the appeal of and willingness to pay (WTP) for remanufactured (refurbished) consumer products that are often found repulsive by consumers: (1) educating consumers about the remanufacturing process, (2) providing physical exposure to remanufactured products. We find that education does not cause an increase in the appeal of and WTP for remanufactured consumer products. Providing physical exposure to remanufactured products, relative to text and text‐plus picture or video modalities, significantly increases both the appeal and WTP as a result of increasing perceived quality and decreasing disgust. Sellers can benefit from marketing remanufactured consumer products through physical channels (i.e., brick‐and‐mortar, outlet, showroom stores) as opposed to solely through online channels, which is the common practice among many sellers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The core objective of a successful product supply strategy is to determine the mechanism through which consumers' psychological effects influence customer demand. As stated in the theory of supply and demand, a higher level of dynamic equilibrium should be formed in which demand drives supply and supply creates demand. There is a lack of systematic research in the literature on the identification of consumer goods demand attributes and the formation of influencing factors in consumer goods supply chains. In this paper, we use the literature on demand functions and product pricing functions to establish three mathematical models to study the factors that influence retailers in designing and planning product supply strategies for different customers under nonessential demand patterns and to solve the profit maximization problem. The results of numerical examples validate the validity of the model. The research results can help retailers develop different supply strategies according to different types of customers and different demand patterns, thereby improving business performance. The theoretical contribution of this study is the construction of value ranges and a demand function diagram for identifying consumer product demand attributes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the competition between gas and electricity companies in Spain and France from 1890 to 1918 for consumer market dominance, examining the various advertising and commercial strategies employed by companies in both sectors. In addition to assessing the development and evolution of the production and consumption of these two forms of energy in each country, the study analyzes a representative sample of promotional materials (posters, print advertisements, brochures, catalogues, etc.) that marketed a range of appliances and consumer goods powered by either gas or electricity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Product manufacturers have increasingly used proprietary software and predatory design to prevent independent servicers from repairing their products, forcing consumers to seek repairs through manufacturer-authorized servicers, often at an inflated price. In response to this, the Right to Repair Movement seeks to promote competition within repairs aftermarkets to reduce costs, mitigate the environmental impacts of consumer waste, and increase the overall utility of consumer goods. Right to repair advocates typically lobby for legislative goals, but I argue that antitrust law, namely prohibitions on anticompetitive tying arrangements, can be a useful tool to achieve similar goals in the absence of such legislation. I use the MacBook Pro laptop as a case study to illustrate the law's utility in this context. Furthermore, I argue that the leading Supreme Court case on aftermarket tieins, Eastman Kodak Co. v. Image Technical Services, Inc., may be worthy of revival despite its skeptics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Visual tracking and attribute estimation related to age or gender information of multiple person entities in a scene are mature research topics with the advent of deep learning techniques. However, when it comes to indoor images such as video sequences of retail consumers, data are not always adequate or accurate enough to essentially train effective models for consumer detection and tracking under various adverse factors. This in turn affects the quality of recognizing age or gender for those detected instances. In this work, we introduce two novel datasets: Consumers comprises 145 video sequences compliant to personal information regulations as far as facial images are concerned and BID is a set of cropped body images from each sequence that can be used for numerous computer vision tasks. We also propose an end-to-end framework which comprises CNNs as object detectors, LSTMs for motion forecasting of the tracklet association component in a sequence, along with a multi-attribute classification model for apparent demographic estimation of the detected outputs, aiming to capture useful metadata of consumer product preferences. Obtained results on tracking and age/gender prediction are promising with respect to reference systems while they indicate the proposed model's potential for practical consumer metadata extraction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Enterprises desiring to be competitive have to continuously improve and react to the current trends. It is important, therefore, to know consumers' opinions and needs to remain competitive, especially as consumers' behaviour arises from a range of factors and conditions, both macroand microeconomic. Revenue and the prices of consumer goods, undoubtedly the key determinants that have a direct impact on consumer conduct, decide the market demand, and supply determines the real framework of consumption. Geographical, natural, civilisational, and cultural conditions are among the factors affecting consumers' decisions, influencing consumers' cultural preferences on the one hand and having an impact on consumer behaviour, on the other hand. This paper identifies the factors of enterprise competitiveness in the opinions of Czech, Slovak and Polish consumers. Specialist literature is reviewed, and descriptive statistical methods and exploratory factor analysis (EFA) are applied. The results are analysed on the basis of a survey of a consumer group using STATISTICA 13.0 software. The survey questionnaire relates to an assessment of significance of competitiveness factors used by enterprises. The research carried out can influence the development of theories of business competitiveness, and the results obtained can provide guidance to managers on the selection of key factors of enterprise competitiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the consumer goods supply chain, there are three different modes of demand: real, false, and semireal. It is an interesting topic to discuss the optimal profit of enterprises according to these three demand patterns. This paper develops three mathematical models that can be used to investigate the factors that affect retailers with respect to the design of product supply strategies for individual customers under a semireal demand pattern and thereby addresses the problem of retailers' maximum profitability. The results of the present study show that these models may effectively help retailers develop appropriate supply strategies for individual customers under a semireal demand pattern; in turn, this may help retailers improve operational performance. The main contribution of the current study lies in the construction of mathematical models of product supply strategies for the individual customer in the off-invoice mode, the scan-back mode, and the unsold-item processing mode under the semireal demand pattern. The effectiveness of the models has been verified through numerical calculations. In concrete management practice, the mathematical model given in this paper can be used to effectively adjust the quantity of goods purchased, correct retail prices, and optimize sales discounts to maximize profits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Little is known about perceptions, use intentions, and behaviors of adults regarding nicotine gum that is marketed and regulated as a consumer product rather than as a medicinal nicotine replacement therapy (NRT). Methods: Survey data were collected from a Qualtrics online panel (N = 1000) of adults who had never used a consumer nicotine gum, recruited based on smoking behavior, and from current and former purchasers of one commercially available nicotine gum product (LUCY Chew and Park), recruited via emails to a customer database (N = 500). In addition to descriptive cross-sectional analyses, logistic regression was used to estimate the probability of intent to try and of product appeal among these different groups. Results: Among online panel respondents, individuals who smoked with and without plans to quit showed high intention to try the product (odds ratios 15.6 [95% CI 9.3, 27.6] and 9.8 [95% CI 5.8, 17.3] respectively, compared to people who formerly smoked) and persons who had never smoked showed low intentions to try. These results stood regardless of flavor. Among current and former purchasers of the study product, 43.4% of persons who had smoked cigarettes regularly indicated they were motivated to try the product "to help me quit smoking." Only 0.6% of young adult consumers of the nicotine gum (aged 21–30) had not tried tobacco products previously. Conclusions: Consumer nicotine gum does not appear to attract those who have never used a tobacco product and the results for young adults suggest minimal appeal to youth. The study product was used primarily by individuals who currently smoke and/or use e-cigarettes but who wished to quit or reduce consumption. These results suggest that a consumer nicotine gum may reduce harm by substituting for higher-risk products such as combustible cigarettes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present research introduces the seller's status‐signaling fallacy: Sellers tend to use status signals to attract buyers, but buyers actually prefer sellers who do not signal status. Across six studies we demonstrate the effect using different operationalizations of status and various products for sale. Study 1 demonstrates this effect in contexts where sellers and buyers make initial sales connections. Study 2 replicates the effect in transaction situations where the buyer actually chooses the seller from whom to buy. Studies 3a and 3b reveal a novel mediation model according to which the seller's status signaling is perceived by buyers as an unsuccessful impression management attempt, which ultimately leads those buyers to prefer sellers who do not try to impress them through status signaling. Finally, studies 4a and 4b demonstrate the robustness of the effect in an incentivized setting and explore boundary conditions. This work enriches the growing literature on status signals in two ways. First, it shows that sellers mistakenly believe that such signaling is beneficial for them. Second, contrary to accepted wisdom, it shows that such signaling repels buyers. In the gig‐economy era, where everyone can become a seller in the marketplace, these findings are highly applicable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainability is still a driving force behind the marketing approach taken by many brands. There are, however, risks associated with perceptions of 'greenwashing' and a potential failure to understand the attitudes and behaviours behind consumer behaviour in this area — in particular, the 'say-do' gap. This pertains to what people think about sustainability and how it actually affects their buying patterns. This paper analyses the findings from an extensive study of more than 12,000 adults in the USA, Canada and UK to identify seven consumer segments characterised by personas that identify their thinking and buying behaviours across a number of important consumer product and service categories. It thereby offers marketers new insight into how the nuances of these personas can inform future campaigns developed around sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although various methodological biases have been shown, the choice experiment (CE) literature has confirmed the relevance of sustainability in consumers' purchase choices. Analysing 186 case studies through the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) methodology, this study defines the state-of-the-art and future perspectives of the CE approach, allowing us—for the first time—to evaluate in a single study all variables to be considered for setting up the CE questionnaire, with a focus on the selection of attributes and levels, maximising the reliability of the result, and minimising potential method biases. This paper defines a standardised workflow to expand and refine a sustainability perspective that can potentially drive cross-cutting CEs in every consumer good by investigating the accuracy of characteristics driving the willingness to pay (WTP) a premium price for greener consumer goods. Most of the studies analysed in this article concern food products (92%), and around half (51%) focus on sustainability-related aspects, frequently described in generic terms. The results show how defining an adequate number and type of attributes and levels characterising the target product is crucial for a bias-reduced study. These need to be concrete and familiar, and using labels is essential to enhance informed choice, with sustainability being a far-reaching concept with multifaceted definitions. Moreover, choosing a neutral target product, defining the correct sample size, selecting a balanced and representative group of respondents, and using the right analysis model can also minimise potential bias. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increased competition requires retail stores to increasingly focus on improving their customers' experiences. Along this line, this article explores how a co-design approach can help retail stores of outdoor products develop consumer communities as a part of their store concept. Such stores may be particularly interesting in relation to consumer communities, because of the consumers' often passionate relationship to activities related to the products in focus. Two longitudinal case studies of outdoor product stores in Denmark are investigated. The two cases are investigated through interviews, store observations, network meetings, and co-design workshops. Several important findings are discovered: first, in relation to community forms, the article defined three archetypes: business–consumer (BC), consumer–consumer (CC), and a combination of the two (BCCC). Second, in relation to the premises for the creation of communities, the article defined three types: consumer motivation, consumer availability, and consumer homogeneity. Third, in relation to consumer community activities, the article argued that these could be understood as being defined by three elements: the business, the consumers, and the products. Finally, the article defined four overall types of community-initiated activities by distinguishing if they are consumer-initiated or business-initiated and if they have a recreational or goal-oriented purpose. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Online consumers being allowed to return unsatisfied products to any store prevails in the omnichannel retailing context. Retailers increasingly implement a store return option to offer consumers a seamless shopping experience. This paper develops a newsvendor model of a retailer selling its products to consumers through both online and offline channels. Consumers can return unsatisfied products to the retailer for a full refund, and the returned items can be resold as refurbished products in the circular economy era. Utilising the game theory, the retailer's optimal ordering and pricing decisions are obtained under the benchmark scenario and omnichannel strategy. From the analytical results and numerical analysis, we examine the effects of implementing a store return option on the retailer under omnichannel retailing. The main results show that after implementing store return, (i) the optimal price of the new product remains unchanged, while the price of refurbished items may decrease in a certain condition; (ii) the optimal order quantity of the online channel increases, while that of the store decreases; (iii) in most conditions, store return strategy can achieve a win-win outcome. Specifically, consumers can enjoy more services without paying extra costs and retailer makes higher profit by implementing this strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigate how a firm strategically manages the characteristics of a menu of three-part tariff to maximize its profit while consumers self-select the products. As the unit price designed for low-type segments and fixed fee as a function of free allowance increases, the firm can make a higher profit by offering more quantity units to its low segment customers. These two dynamic forces also shape the information rent, which is generated due to an information asymmetry, and hence reduced. Thus, this condition will eventually mitigate the issue of cannibalization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In view of the negative view of the phenomenon of menstruation and recent market changes aimed at the search for ecological consumption and real female representations, this research seeks to understand the relationship between women, menstruation and these new trends, in order to respond to the following question: How do consumers of ecological menstrual products perceive their relationship with menstruation and with these products? For that, texts were used as a basis that addressed the cultural aspects of menstruation in Brazil, the ecological market trends and how advertising and marketing aimed at the female audience and menstruation evolved over time. Data were collected from the analysis of cultural texts and interviews with consumers of ecological products. As a result, it was identified that the advertisements belonging to the second half of the century. XXI began to represent menstruation as a positive and natural phenomenon. With regard to consumers, the data indicate that their relationship with menstruation seems to have improved after using ecological menstrual products, as they feel safer and more confident, since the products generate greater autonomy and comfort for them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the midst of competition in the conventional pawn business after the COVID-19 pandemic, a strategy is needed to attract consumers to do their pawn transactions. We offer a solution by providing an application where consumers do not need to come to the shop to pawn their goods anymore. With an easyto-use application by all groups and pick-up systems for the goods that wanted to be pawned, it is a new breakthrough in the business. Internal factor analysis is carried out to determine the advantages of the pawn application based on the resources and capabilities that the company have in order to determine the right competitive strategy. The analysis of those internal factors in the pawn business is carried out through demand analysis, analysis of competition, resource and capability assessment, VRIO analysis, and also strength and weakness analysis by matrix. Based on these analyses, it is known that there are several strengths of this business that can become the competitive advantages and weaknesses that must be improved in order to compete better with other pawn companies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Amidst the growing significance of the circular economy and the imperative to embrace this paradigm, inquiries emerge concerning the precise manifestation of this transition. This encompasses alterations in the paradigm of value creation and the introduction of innovative business models. Furthermore, consumers' active involvement in extending products lifespans and conserving resources is crucial. Recognizing the significant environmental impacts of consumption habits, embracing circular economy behaviors becomes essential for a successful transition to this sustainable economic model. Objective to examine the behavioral dimensions of the Republic of Moldova's populace in relation to consumer products across diverse life stages. Also to pinpoint the impediments and strategic compromises encountered by consumers in deliberating their participation in the circular economy and to gauge the pivotal role played by economic, social, and psychological factors in shaping consumer behavior. Method: in order to accomplish the research goal, a survey was created to evaluate the involvement of consumers in prolonging the durability of consumer goods. The questionnaire is focused on understanding consumer behaviors and attitudes towards practices, such as leasing, second-hand purchases, and reuse, which are the essential elements of a circular economy. Results: The examination and assessment of the survey responses some interesting discoveries. Although there is an inclination within the populace to utilize products for an extended duration, consumers in the Republic of Moldova typically exhibit skepticism and hesitancy towards adopting alternative practices that foster product lifespan extension and circular economy principles. Originality: This study contributes to the existing knowledge by specifically examining the behavioral aspects of the population in relation to consumer products and their engagement in the circular economy. The study offers insights into the challenges and trade-offs encountered by consumers, illuminating the significance of economic, social, and psychological factors that impact consumer behavior in the context of transitioning to a circular economy. [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]

Primary stakeholder pressure has long been considered the main reason that firms engage in responsible behaviors. However, prior studies are generally silent on how industry characteristics reshape the relationships among stakeholders. By integrating information asymmetry in credence goods industries with the stakeholder power framework, we posit that the extent to which consumers can evaluate the qualities of goods alters the dynamics between a firm and its two primary stakeholders, regulators and consumers. Longitudinal data collected on 72 pharmaceutical companies indicate that consumers of pharmaceutical products can only influence firms indirectly through the regulator. Further, contrary to the conventional wisdom that innovative firms are more capable of resisting stakeholder pressure, we find that R&D investment increases the dependency of pharmaceutical firms on the regulator. Lastly, we do not find that lobbying reduces dependency on the regulator except for high R&D firms. These findings provide important theoretical, ethical, and policy implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Approximately 21,000 consumer product-related ocular injuries occurred in infants in the United States from 2009 to 2019; toys being the most common (12.9%) consumer product in the 1- to 4-month age cohort, detergents in the 5- to 8-month (21.6%) cohort, and chemicals for the 9- to 12-month (34.0%) age cohort. These results identify an important preventable consumer product-related public health problem in infants. [J Pediatr Ophthalmol Strabismus. 2023;60(4):e41–e44.] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The well-known Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology is now evolving its applications: indeed, at the industrial level, it was firstly conceived at the pallet/case level for enhancing productivity and accuracy of logistics processes, while at present the focus is shifting towards item-level tagging applications for also managing in-store processes, including the selling experience. Due to a more technological customer, to the spread of e-commerce and the need of omnichannel sales availability, also Fast-Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) are subject to an evolution of the way of selling, enabled by an item-level RFID tagging. Since these technologies are connected to the fourth industrial revolution, this novelty is referred to as Retail 4.0, which is still an uncommon term among the scientific community. For this reason, this paper makes an attempt to define the state-of-the-art of research and industrial projects on this topic, and it represents the first study investigating the Retail 4.0 from a practical side, closing the scientific gap regarding this issue. Eleven documents and fourteen projects focusing on item-level RFID tagging of FMCGs are examined and categorized according to a pre-existing use cases framework, and the enabled scenarios under a Retail 4.0 perspective are identified and defined. Inventory and Life-Cycle Management related use cases turned out to be the most investigated (7 scientific documents and 12 projects), while the User Experience was only considered at the industrial level (12 projects). From both sides, the Product Integrity was not perceived as relevant (2 articles and 6 projects); similarly, scarce attention was paid to the sustainability functionality of packaging with a total of 1 scientific paper and 5 projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A Product of Canada label can be used on food if all major ingredients are grown or raised in Canada and the product is processed in a Canadian facility. A Made in Canada label is permissible when the final processing step occurs in Canada. Using survey data, we examine whether Canadian consumers understand the difference between these labels, their effectiveness as quality cues, and the relative importance of country-of-origin labels. A best-worst scaling experiment reveals a positive response to origin labels in general, and a Product of Canada label in particular. Nevertheless, few consumers understand the meaning of the labels or the difference between them. Probit regression models find little evidence of a relationship between valuing the source of ingredients or location of processing and choosing Product of Canada or Made in Canada labels. Consumers may be responding to the "Canadianness" of the labels, rather than what the labels signify. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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While there exists recent research about greenwashing in the context of branding and product packaging as well as advertising, we investigated greenwashing detection depending on the cues colour and price of the product itself. We hypothesized: The more the product cues fit to the mental representation of the corresponding category-prototype of bio (or non-bio) products, the more likely consumers classify the product to that category, are confident with the classification-decision and actually get deceived. In two studies, female consumers were asked to classify actual bio and actual non-bio fashion products from online shops as bio or faked bio. The bio-typicality of the colour of the product (Studies 1 and 2) and the price-level of the product (Study 1) were systematically varied. According to our assumptions, the probability to classify a product as bio or non-bio was higher when these product cues fitted to the expected status of the product. Furthermore, consumers reached higher classification accuracy when the colour (and the price) of the product fitted the actual status of the product. Unexpectedly, effects were independent from consumers' varying ecological context experience. Concluding, consumers got "successfully" greenwashed by just a bio-typical product colour and a high price what highlights the importance of stronger political regulations in the B2C sales market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The primary purpose of this study is to develop a realistic understanding of the factors that influence consumers' purchase behaviour towards consumer goods in the middle east region during the economic crisis, by focusing on Oman. This study has used linear regression analysis to develop a clear idea of the factors that influence consumers' purchase behaviour towards consumer goods during the economic crisis. This study has also used Sobel test, to conduct the mediation analysis. The data was collected using a standard five-point Likert scale-based questionnaire, from a sample of 122 individuals who have recently completed their bachelor's program in one of the four major Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in Oman. Unlike the popular belief, this study has found the elements of the marketing mix to not exert significant influence on consumers' purchase behaviour towards consumer goods during the economic crisis. However, the results found cultural and social factors to exert useful influence on the consumers' purchase behaviour towards consumer goods. The study recommends that organizations need to focus more on cultural compliance and societal acceptance of their offerings, than focusing on the traditional marketing mix. While helping the organizations manufacturing or marketing consumer goods in the middle east region during the economic crisis, this study would add more value and variety to the available literature. While the findings of this study could also be used by individuals dealing with consumer products in similar markets to redefine their product offerings, by taking the cultural and social issues into consideration, this study could act as a point of reference for future researchers. This study has provided a unique perspective related to the factors that drive consumers' purchase behaviour towards consumer goods in the middle east region, during the economic crisis. These observations could also be generalized and used in other countries that have similar cultural and social affiliations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The main aim of this paper is to explore consumer decisions and emotions during shopping at the self-service store with fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG). Design/methodology/approach: The subject of the study is to assess the impact of emotions during the choice-making process on consumers' buying decisions. The respondents are citizens of the West Pomeranian region, Poland. The survey was conducted using state-of-the-art data acquisition technologies, i.e., Virtual Reality and EEG. An interview was also used as a complementary form. The research was both qualitative and quantitative, with a research sample of 34 respondents and took place in the virtual world. The researchers used primary data. The results presented here are part of a broader research project that used a triangulation of research methods to allow a deeper analysis of the conscious and unconscious aspects of the subjects. Findings: The research provided independent data on consumer emotions. The authors identified 4 groups of emotions that appeared during the selection of a product and were highly differentiated and strongly dependent on such characteristics as consumer type and gender. It has also been noticed that the longer a product is held, the lower emotional “sleepiness’. Research limitations/implications: One of the main limitations is the data collection process, which is relatively expensive, so the sample size is limited. The results obtained can be a signpost for a researcher who would like to use this new technology for further research. Practical implications: The results obtained can be used by shop managers in planning the sales activities or shop space to help the customer decide. Originality/value: In the research was used an innovative combination of virtual reality (VR) equipment and an electroencephalogram (EEG). To the best of the authors' knowledge, the results of a study from the FMCG industry using both devices simultaneously have never been published. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]