Consumer behavior

Nonloyal consumer purchasing behavior has long been a topic of interest to marketers. A good deal of evidence unearthed suggests that many consumers do not buy the same brand time after time and may rarely remain brand loyal over the long-term. Progress in understanding nonloyal purchasing behavior is limited due, in part, to the lack of attention paid to defining the construct and its domain. The Determinants of Consumer Varied Purchasing Behavior (DCVPB) Scale developed in the study permits marketing managers and researchers to identify the facets of nonloyal purchasing behavior, termed Consumer Varied Purchasing Behavior, underlying consumer purchasing behavior for a brand or product category in question. Moreover, an Extended Taxonomy of Consumer Varied Purchasing Behavior (CVPB) is offered. It is needed to revamp and reorganize better the existing terms and add new, relevant dimensions to the structure. All forms of explicable nonloyal purchasing behavior are viewed as explicable brand switching. It is classified into four subcategories termed: (1) past purchase dissatisfaction; (2) promotion effect; (3) hybrid; and (4) CVPB. As postulated here, CVPB is defined as any explicable consumer choice that differs from its predecessor for reasons other than dissatisfaction with the past brand and/or pure promotion effect. Instead, CVPB is motivated by one of thirteen facets or determinants of consumer varied purchasing behavior (DCVPB). CVPB is marked by either exploratory behavior (i.e., absolute or relative novelty seeking) or variety seeking among known brands alternation among known brands, (i.e., alteration among known brands, switching among known brands to enjoy a simple change of pace). The study revealed thirteen facets of CVPB, which include: (1) affiliation, (2) change in constraints, (3) change in feasible set, (4) change in other environmental factors, (5) change in tastes, (6) decision uncertainty, and (7) desire for the unfamiliar. Other dimensions include: (8) desire for variation among known brands/products, (9) distinction, (10) information seeking, (11) multiple situations, (12) multiple users, and (13) physiological influences. Analysis suggests that the scale meets rigorous standards for reliability and validity. The DCVPB Scale is a diagnostic test revealing to managers the facets causing CVPB in the product/service-market of interest.

With the increased importance of retailing through the Internet, or e-tailing, researchers and practitioners alike have been interested in the role that trust can play in intentions to transact online. However, influences of trust on intentions to provide personal information to complete the transaction, and influences of trust in the product category, and/or in the brand, on intentions to transact, have received little attention. This research fills the gap in the exiting literature by understanding the influence of product category trust, brand trust and vendor trust on intentions to transact online, a combination of intentions to purchase and intentions to provide personal information to complete the transaction. Hypotheses of the influence of the trust variables on intentions to transact were tested using a computer simulated Internet web-site and two products in a 2 (product trust) x 2 (brand trust) x 2 (vendor trust) between-subject factorial design with replication, and a sample of 422 subjects. Findings suggest that channel trust still influences online intentions to transact and that product category trust, particularly for product categories with low past experience, also influences online intentions to transact. Additionally, findings also suggest that brand trust may be as important as vendor trust in influencing online intentions to transact. Findings suggest that Internet vendors will benefit from carrying trusted brands and from increasing consumer trust towards the Internet as a shopping channel.

Although the Internet as a shopping medium provides convenience to easily access products, the U.S. e-commerce retail sales still make up a very small percentage of the U.S. total retail sales. To better understand what influences consumers' choices to shop for products or services on the Internet versus local retail stores, this study tests the influence of antecedent factors of consumer patronage intentions for Internet and local retail stores. The study draws the antecedent factors from the extant literature, which include product classes, the importance consumers place on retailer attributes, and consumer perceived risk in product classes. Because the Internet instituted a convenient shopping medium with information distribution and search capabilities, nomological validity of the search, experience, and credence (SEC) product classification framework is tested in the online shopping context. This study tests the validity of the SEC product classification framework by examining whether significant differences exist in (1) the level of importance that consumers place on retailer attributes, (2) the amount and type of risks that online shoppers perceive in product classes (search, experience, and credence), and (3) their patronage intentions for two retailer types---Internet and local retail stores---based on product classes. In the same model, the study also tests the mediating effects of perceived risk in product classes in the relationship between the importance of retailer attributes and patronage intentions for retailer types. Although the relationships between some of the antecedent factors of patronage intentions have been tested in previous studies, they have never been tested jointly in the context of Internet shopping. Data were collected in three stages. The first two stages were the pretest studies that were conducted to select products as examples to represent each product category. The hypotheses were tested using data collected from a nationwide survey of those who previously purchased products or services on the Internet. The results of the analyses support the hypotheses.

Buyer decision-making, a fundamental marketing activity, is studied from a variety of perspectives. This study proposes Net Transaction Value (NTV), a unified theory of buyer decision-making. NTV hypothesizes that a buyer makes an implicit and subjective calculation before making a purchase in a high involvement context. In making this calculation, the buyer deducts the costs anticipated from a transaction or transaction stream from its associated benefits. Benefits in the NTV equation reflect not only the product or service offering itself, but the monetary aspects of the transaction or purchase deal. Costs reflect the buyer's own self-imposed costs over and above price as well as those costs over and above price imposed by the seller on the buyer. This study uses the NTV model to develop and test the relationships between these benefit and cost variables and the buyer's perceptions of net transaction value. Results confirm that the buyer includes the benefits of the product or service offering itself and seller-imposed costs in the calculation of NTV. As a result, NTV provides a valuable tool for predicting and describing buyer decision-making.

In many markets sellers have to make decisions on the rate of price change for a product. Prices can be increased or decreased by making a single large change, or as by making multiple smaller changes over time, leading to the same final price. The concern of sellers is the consumer response, in terms of the product's demand. With the exception of deliberate demarketing, sellers seek to minimize demand decreases in response to price increases, and maximize the positive impact in terms of increased purchases, when prices are decreased. Price changes can be made in a short period, or over a more extended duration. In some buying contexts the market may be characterized by highly fluctuating prices that create price uncertainty in the minds of the consumer. Further, consumers give varying levels of importance or weight to their past purchase experience when they make purchase decisions. This research develops theory and examines hypotheses to examine the effectiveness of single versus multiple price change strategies over time, in different contexts, using a prospect theory and reference price framework. The study finds (1) The greater the number of purchase occasions between successive price changes, the lesser is the impact on demand of a strategy of multiple price changes. (2) In situations of high price uncertainty strategies of multiple price increases lead to smaller demand decreases, and strategies of multiple price increases lead to higher demand increases, when compared to price certain situations. (3) The importance or weight assigned by consumers to the last purchase experience does not appear to significantly impact the outcomes of intertemporal price strategies. (4) The impact of price decreases appears to be more than that of price increases, in the two contexts of uncertainty, and a greater weight being assigned to the last purchase occasion. In previous research prospect theory has been used primarily in a static framework, and the prospect theory approach has used reference prices to analyze the impact of price changes in product bundling situations. This research extends the prospect theory and reference price framework to price change strategies over time, where reference prices vary and adapt.

Although growth in the Hispanic population and its buying power has outpaced by far non-Hispanic U.S. growth in the last decade, only a limited amount of attention has been given to study consumer acculturation among Hispanic subcultures. That lack of research represents one of the biggest gaps in the ethnic marketing literature. Previous research has shown that leveln of acculturation is one of the best ways to segment markets, yet key concepts in the acculturation literature have been used interchangeably (Wallendorf & Reilly, 1983 ; Metha & Belk, 1991 ; Hui, Laroche and Kim, 1998 ; Webster, 1994 ; Penaloza, 1994 ; Laroche, Kim, Hui, and Tomiuk, 1998 ; Ogden, Ogden & Schau, 2004). This research clarifies such concepts and studies the effects of level of acculturation on attitudes toward money among Mexican Americans. Findings suggest that one of the sub-processes of acculturation, integration, can be effectively used to predict Mexican American attitudes toward money. Results address the need of a better understanding of consumption among Hispanic Americans. The importance of research in this area is underlined for public administrators, marketing managers and scholars alike.

The purpose of this paper is to focus on viral advertising and study the conditions under which ads become viral, how they are intentionally transmitted by consumers to their social network and their relationship with classical advertising variables, such as attitude toward the ad, attitude toward the brand and purchase intention of the consumer. We first analyze studies focusing on different aspects of the viral communication, "electronic word-of-mouth", "word-of-mouse", "viral marketing" and "buzz" in order to clarify the concept of viral advertising. After clarifying the viral advertising concept, the project analyzes the viral process and its main antecedents and influencers, by taking into consideration emotional and ad appeals theories. The results show that ad appeals influence attitude toward the ad and viral intentions, with humor being the most significant appeal in the context of viral advertising. The study also focuses on the social aspects of advertising and consumption , including influential differences related to the source of the message, social influencers analyzed in the socialization literature, such as family and peers, the tie strength element from the social network theory and consumer market maven traits. The findings show the significance of family communication and market maven characteristics in relation to consumers' viral intentions. We then integrate our key variable, viral intentions, in a classical advertising framework based on attitudes theory and their influence on behavioral intentions. The results confirm previously studied relationships between attitude toward the ad, attitude toward the brand and purchase intentions.

A 'wave of nostalgia' has gripped the US leading to nostalgic fashions, furniture, television programming and even food. The marketing literature suggests that nostalgic-related consumption is the result of an aging population. It has been proposed that the purchase of nostalgic-products and services is an attempt by mature consumers to return psychologically to the ease, certainties and conflict free periods that existed or seemed to exist during their childhood or adolescence. This paper proposes that discontinuity, as argued by Davis (1979), is a better explanation for why people develop a preference for and consume nostalgic goods. Although some insights have been developed, research focused only on mature consumers and is rather limited in offering alternative explanations for the evocation of nostalgic feelings. MANCOVA was the primary method used to test hypotheses. Findings of this study indicate that discontinuity does not necessarily lead to nostalgia and preference for nostalgic products varies.

There is a growing need to better understand what influences user behavior for developing comprehensive IT security systems. This study integrates two prominent bodies of research, the theory of planned behavior used to frame the factors influencing user behavior and individual level climate perceptions used to frame organizational environment influences, to develop a multidimensional IT security user behavior model. The model is then used as the basis for a survey based research to empirically test the hypotheses whether the perceived IT security climate of an organization significantly influences the users beliefs regarding the use of IT security. The intent of the study is to extend the theory of planned behavior and IT security literature by investigating salient IT security beliefs and environmental influences on those beliefs. First, anti-spyware was identified as an appropriate target IT security artifact, and then incorporated into a multi-phased research approach. Second, a semi-structured interview process was used to elicit salient beliefs regarding use of the IT security artifact. Third, IT security psychological climate was conceptualized based on the extant literature on organizational climate, safety climate and IT security in order to examine the organizational environment influences on these beliefs. Finally, a survey was used to collect data to validate the constructs and test the hypothesized relationships.

My project "How Green is the Mouse?" analyses the ways in which the Disney Company utilizes various green marketing strategies in an effort to appeal to the growing number of eco-conscious consumers. My study examines different strategies of green marketing and evaluates the use of these strategies in relation to discussions of the "greenwash" concept. Examples of such strategies include green selling, when a company continues to manufacture a pre-existing product with changes only in marketing and not policy or output, and green partnerships, when a company undertakes a more eco-friendly appearance simply by collaborating with a well-known environmental organization. In this study, I investigate the various methods of green marketing utilized throughout the parks and other attraction areas of Walt Disney World, located near Orlando, Florida.