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1 – 10 of over 14000Ruizhi Yuan, Martin J. Liu and Markus Blut
This study aims to examine the impact of five consumption values (i.e. ecological, functional, symbolic, experiential and epistemic) on consumers’ intentions to adopt green…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to examine the impact of five consumption values (i.e. ecological, functional, symbolic, experiential and epistemic) on consumers’ intentions to adopt green products. Using Thaler’s utility theory, the authors investigate the indirect effect of values on purchase intention through acquisition utility and transaction utility. Two moderators (materialism orientation and value consciousness) further influence the strength of the effect of consumption values on transaction utility.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors used a survey design (N = 437 Chinese customers recruited through a Chinese online panel provider) and structural equation modeling (SEM) to test six hypothesized relationships in the proposed model. Moderated SEM was used for moderation analysis.
Findings
Most hypothesized relationships in the model were confirmed, with the exception of the functional value–transaction utility link and the moderating effect of materialism on the experiential value–transaction utility relationship.
Research limitations/implications
Larger-scale research may help to determine whether there are more significant differences in consumer evaluations of different types of green products.
Practical implications
As the concept of green marketing in China evolves, firms should continue to stress the importance and value of green products regarding individuals’ care for the environment, status and self-image. Further, firms should conduct systematic utility analyses and address acquisition and price equity in a strategic process.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to adapt utility theory to green consumption and proposes a clearly defined and well-substantiated set of utility types by merging economic and green consumption literature.
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Sanjukta Brahma, Agyenim Boateng and Sardar Ahmad
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the motivation and post-merger operating performance (OP) of European utility sectors following mergers and acquisitions (M&A).
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the motivation and post-merger operating performance (OP) of European utility sectors following mergers and acquisitions (M&A).
Design/methodology/approach
Motives behind M&A are examined by looking into the relationships between total gains, target gains and acquirer gains. Post-merger OP is measured by comparing the sample of European utilities with a matched portfolio based on size and market to book ratio with respect to five accounting indicators: growth in turnover, growth in earnings before interest and tax, return on assets, net profit margin and growth in fixed assets.
Findings
Synergy is the primary motive for M&A in the European utility firms. This study also found that post-merger OP is negative and significant across all the five accounting indicators matched by size, and market to book ratio suggesting that utility mergers underperform in the long term. The findings suggest that gains accruing to utilities involved in acquisitions are short term in nature.
Practical implications
Negative post-merger OP bears important policy implications as in future antitrust/competition authorities should be more vigilant before approving utility mergers.
Originality/value
Public utilities possess several characteristics that are different from industrial firms and therefore need to be examined separately. Empirical literature on M&A is very limited on utilities. This study has addressed this gap by examining the motivation and post-merger OP of the European utility firms.
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Praveen Aggarwal and Rajiv Vaidyanathan
In promotional ads that contain both the Regular Price and Sale Price information, this paper aims to investigate whether changing the font sizes of these two prices has an effect…
Abstract
Purpose
In promotional ads that contain both the Regular Price and Sale Price information, this paper aims to investigate whether changing the font sizes of these two prices has an effect on how consumers process the ad message. The authors use acquisition-transaction utility perspective to identify key differences in mechanisms invoked by the larger font size of the Regular Price vs that of the Sale Price.
Design/methodology/approach
Study 1 uses eye-tracking apparatus to study subjects’ responses to a full-color, realistic-looking ad for a digital camera. Study 2 uses a survey questionnaire to gauge subjects’ responses to a similar print ad. The font sizes of Regular Price and Sale price were manipulated while keeping all the other elements of the ad the same. Subjects were undergraduate students who participated in the study for a small incentive.
Findings
The authors find that making the relative font size of Regular Price bigger invokes a transaction-utility mechanism where customers’ attention is focused on the savings that can be had using the promotion. A bigger font size of Sale Price invokes an acquisition-utility mechanism that draws on the customers’ value consciousness.
Research limitations/implications
The use of student subjects and only one product category in the experiments may limit the generalizability of the study’s findings.
Practical implications
In print ads, managers predominantly use a bigger font size for the Sale Price. This study suggests that the choice of a bigger font size should really be driven by the objective of the promotion: a bigger font size for Sale Price is advised if the objective is to take an acquisition utility approach, whereas a bigger font size for Regular Price is advised for using a transaction utility approach.
Originality/value
This study is the first attempt at using an acquisition-transaction utility perspective for understanding the use of relative font sizes in the context of price promotions.
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Hyunjoo Im and Young Ha
This study aims to investigate determinants of permission-granting intention of consumers based on transaction utility theory. The study also was designed to investigate the role…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to investigate determinants of permission-granting intention of consumers based on transaction utility theory. The study also was designed to investigate the role of two individual characteristics, coupon proneness and fear of spamming as well as gender difference. Mobile coupons have quickly become an important marketing tactic. However, our understanding of mobile coupon usage is limited because previous studies of coupon usage do not examine key characteristics of new technology-based coupons. Therefore, research in this specific context is necessary.
Design/methodology/approach
An online survey was used and US adult consumers (N = 658) were recruited to empirically test the model. The data were analyzed using structural equation modeling.
Findings
Results provided support for the proposed model. The data confirmed the evaluation process of a potential transaction using mobile coupons hypothesized based on transaction utility theory. Gender differences were tested using multi-group analysis. There was a significant difference between females and males. Overall, negative factors, fear of spamming and perceived risk, played a more important role in the model for females than males.
Originality/value
The study provided theoretical support for transaction utility theory in the context of mobile coupon usage decision. Also, the study advances understanding of unique issues of mobile coupon marketing by addressing permission-granting intention and gender difference in the process of evaluation.
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Cross‐selling is an important issue for contemporary marketing practice, as this facilitates offering the right product to the right customer. Relevant for cross‐selling of…
Abstract
Cross‐selling is an important issue for contemporary marketing practice, as this facilitates offering the right product to the right customer. Relevant for cross‐selling of financial products is the order in which consumers acquire such products. Previous research shows that most consumers acquire financial products used for asset accumulation purposes in similar orders. However, the literature does not report studies on acquisition patterns of products for facilitating financial transactions (e.g. chequebooks, credit cards). In this paper we propose a consumer need hierarchy, influencing consumer acquisitions of transactional products. Consecutively Mokken scale analysis is applied to investigate acquisition patterns of six transactional products in 17 European countries. The final section of the paper presents a discussion on the relevance of our results in terms of marketing purposes, emphasising cross‐selling applications.
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Hsiao-Ching Kuo and Chinintorn Nakhata
Previous research indicates the aversive effect of low consumer ratings on consumers’ purchasing decisions. This paper aims to apply decision justifiability theory to investigate…
Abstract
Purpose
Previous research indicates the aversive effect of low consumer ratings on consumers’ purchasing decisions. This paper aims to apply decision justifiability theory to investigate how price promotions – price discount and price bundling – can reduce this effect.
Design/methodology/approach
Two scenario-based experiments were administered among college students (Experiment 1) and online consumer panels (Experiment 2) to test the research hypotheses.
Findings
When time-to-purchase is long (vs short), a large discount is more effective in alleviating consumers’ negative responses toward products with low consumer ratings. However, when a price discount is presented as a bundle rather than a separate deal, a small discount size becomes as attractive as a large discount size for consumers with a longer time-to-purchase.
Practical implications
This paper identifies two controllable factors, price discounts and price bundling, that could help to alleviate the negative impact of low consumer ratings. Marketing managers can apply the findings of this paper as guidelines to deal with the aversive effect of low consumer ratings.
Originality/value
This paper makes an initial attempt to examine situations where consumers would be less averse to products with low consumer ratings. It identifies the roles of two price promotions (i.e. price discount size and price bundling) and an important contextual factor (i.e. time-to-purchase) that influence consumers’ decision justifiability and, subsequently, alter consumers’ online purchase decisions for such products.
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An open question of behavioral pricing literature is: What are the factors which influence consumers’ judgments of acquisition value and transaction value? An important framework…
Abstract
Purpose
An open question of behavioral pricing literature is: What are the factors which influence consumers’ judgments of acquisition value and transaction value? An important framework to explain consumers’ shopping and purchase decisions is their decision-making styles. This paper aims to examine the influence of consumers’ decision-making styles, that is, perfectionistic high-quality conscious, brand conscious-price equals quality, novelty-fashion conscious, recreational-hedonistic, price conscious-value for money, impulsive-careless, habitual-brand loyal and confused by overchoice on their judgments of acquisition value and transaction value.
Design/methodology/approach
From the literature, a conceptual framework was formulated. Data was collected from a survey of 304 respondents. The measurement model was tested using exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis. The structural model was tested using structural equation modeling.
Findings
The consumers’ judgments of acquisition value and transaction value vary with their decision-making styles. The measurement and structural models exhibited good fit, and 12 of the 16 proposed hypotheses were found to be significant.
Research limitations/implications
The respondents for this research study were urban and postgraduate students.
Practical implications
The results of this study can help managers personalize their promotional offers and market offerings targeted at consumers with different decision-making styles.
Originality/value
Behavioral pricing literature has not convincingly shown that consumers make the judgments of the two values, acquisition value and transaction value, in a purchase scenario. There is limited literature on the impact of decision-making styles on the marketing variables. The results of this study contribute to the literature by showing that consumers make the judgments of these two values, and these judgments vary with their decision-making styles. Also, this is one of only a few studies to examine the two components of the purchase value in an Indian context.
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Katherine Fraccastero, Scot Burton and Abhijit Biswas
Draws from various theoretical bases and empirical research tooffer managerial recommendations concerning the communication of saleprice information in advertisements. Addresses…
Abstract
Draws from various theoretical bases and empirical research to offer managerial recommendations concerning the communication of sale price information in advertisements. Addresses the manner in which the manipulation of price cues, semantic cues and product cues in an advertisement can enhanceperceptions of utility via increases in the internal reference price, the perceived value implied by the offering price, and perceptions of product quality.
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Hao Chen, Haitao Chen and Xiaoxu Tian
Social shopping platforms have flourished by using multiple social shopping features, yet little is known about how the combination of these features affects purchase intention…
Abstract
Purpose
Social shopping platforms have flourished by using multiple social shopping features, yet little is known about how the combination of these features affects purchase intention, particularly in terms of the product itself. The purpose of the paper is to draw on the concept of social shopping feature richness, adopting a formative approach on the survey used, and endeavors to reveal the concept's impact on consumers' buying intention from a product perspective.
Design/methodology/approach
Building on mental accounting and signaling theories, a theoretical model is proposed and empirically evaluated with 356 samples collected using a questionnaire survey.
Findings
The results suggest that social shopping feature richness promotes consumers' consumption by providing information signals to satisfy acquisition utility and transaction utility. Specifically, social shopping feature richness enhances perceived product quality, while decreasing negative perceptions regarding price. Moreover, perceived product quality and perceived price significantly influence buying intention through the mechanism of perceived value.
Originality/value
The authors' study highlights the role of the combination of functionally diverse social shopping features on product sales for social shopping platforms.
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This paper seeks to propose a novel pricing system for co‐branding goods by utilizing perceived value, which employs prospect theory (PT) and mental accounting to acquire the…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper seeks to propose a novel pricing system for co‐branding goods by utilizing perceived value, which employs prospect theory (PT) and mental accounting to acquire the consumer's perceived value and to estimate an appropriate price.
Design/methodology/approach
The approach taken is design science, an artifact of automatic pricing system for co‐branding goods.
Findings
The results reveal that PT is superior to expected utility theory in terms of adjusted perceived prices and decision weight probabilities.
Practical implications
This paper aims to provide clues for industries in terms of providing a customer‐centric pricing method, systematic and automatic approach, and pricing‐based strategic information system.
Originality/value
The proposed pricing method: applies value‐based method to estimate the co‐brand price, considers risk and real‐world decision making, provides an efficient and effective approach, and enhances the competitiveness of price through the system.
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