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The aim of this paper is to investigate cross‐cultural variations in the demographics of consumers using self‐service technologies (SSTs).

Questionnaires were randomly distributed to individuals in Sweden and Estonia to analyze their SST usage and demographic characteristics. Sweden and Estonia were chosen because of their cultural differences – Sweden represents an established Western European market, whereas Estonia, a former Soviet republic, is considered an emerging market.

Data analysis revealed that the demographics of Swedish and Estonian SST users are quite different. Swedish users are demographically heterogeneous, whereas Estonian users can be segmented according to age, gender, education, and income.

A larger study conducted in several cultures would add to our knowledge of a culture's influence on an individual's SST usage.

As this study shows, business models used in Western markets may not be applicable to emerging markets because of cultural differences. Therefore, it is important that Western firms intending to expand into emerging markets must become aware of cultural differences.

Because the world economy is becoming increasingly cross‐cultural, it is imperative to conduct international consumer research to further the understanding of SST usage from a global perspective. This paper provides a thorough examination of which, if any, demographical segments of consumers use SSTs and if the demographics of users vary amongst different cultures.

To provide a general understanding of grocery consumers' retail format choice in the US marketplace.

A random sample of US grocery consumers (N=454) was surveyed using a self‐administered questionnaire. Descriptive and inferential statistical techniques (regression, ANOVA) were used to evaluate the data.

Identifies demographic groups who frequent specific formats (specialty grocers, traditional supermarkets, supercenters, warehouse clubs, internet grocers) and examines store attributes (e.g. price competitiveness, product selection, and atmosphere) as drivers of format choice.

The results included in this research were gathered and reported on an individual format basis. In order to capture consumer choices across a range of grocery retail formats, forcing respondents to compare formats was not initiated. In addition, data pertaining to whether consumers had access to each and every type of format in the study were not collected. Examination of how dimensions of consumer access limit or expand retail patronage behavior could also be highly beneficial to grocery retailers.

This research provides grocery retailers that operate within the USA specific knowledge of the attributes that consumers consider to be most important when making format choices (e.g. cleanliness, price competitiveness, product assortment, courtesy of personnel), and identifies the demographic characteristics of these consumers. The results suggest marketing strategy implications for grocery retailers that operate in the US market. As competition in the sector continues to evolve and consumer demographics change within the US market, understanding the consumer‐format choice linkage will be critical to retailer performance in the industry.

This exploratory study uses demographics and store attributes as a framework for profiling consumers by their ultimate retail format choice. The paper is unique because there are few similar empirical studies focused on the US grocery sector.

This paper aims to understand how the Covid-19 pandemic has changed consumers’ perceptions of outdoor consumption categories, such as retail shopping, eating out, public events and travel and how these perceptions may impact businesses in these domains in the long term. Further, this research aims to understand demographic effects on outdoor consumption inhibition during the current pandemic and discuss how businesses can use these insights to rebrand their offerings and evolve after the pandemic.

Data collected by CivicScience, a survey-based consumer intelligence research platform, during April–July 2020 forms the basis of the preliminary analysis, where the chi-square test has been used to examine significant differences in consumer attitudes between different age groups, income groups and genders. Further, a social media analysis of conversations around outdoor consumption activities is undertaken to understand the rationale behind these demographics-based attitude differences.

Results lend varying degrees of support to the hypothesized consumer attitudes toward outdoor consumption activities during the Covid-19 pandemic. As the pandemic wore on, older (vs younger), female (vs male) consumers and lower (vs higher) income-group consumers had reportedly higher inhibition toward different outdoor activities. Older individuals were significantly less likely to shop, dine and attend public events than younger individuals. Lower-income consumers were significantly less likely to dine and travel than higher-income consumer consumers. Female consumers were significantly less likely to shop and travel than male consumers. Social media scan of conversations suggests that differences in perceived health and financial risks may have resulted in demographics-based differences in outdoor consumption activities.

This study contributes to the literature by understanding demographic differences in consumer participation in outdoor activities. One limitation is that due to the time-sensitive nature of the pandemic research, further studies could not be conducted to understand the implications of other variables, beyond demographics that influence consumer behavior during a crisis. A future research direction is to understand how other psychological variables or traits, influence health and financial risk-taking behavior during a similar crisis.

The principal contribution of the present research is that it tests the risk-taking theory in the context of outdoor consumption during the Covid-19 pandemic. The present research has implications for businesses as they continue to evolve during and post Covid-19.

This study explores the influence of quality attributes and socio-demographics on Chinese consumers' general and online consumption of three origin-specific lobsters: Canadian, United States and Australian.

A web-based survey was administrated to 981 consumers from two cities in China: Shanghai and Qingdao. Descriptive analysis and binary logistic regression were used in the data analysis.

Chinese consumers were more willing to pay for the lobster quality attributes vitality, meat content, texture, size and safety. Their general and online consumption of three origin-specific lobsters is significantly linked to the following quality attributes and socio-demographics: meat content, size, shell hardness, texture, safety, nutrition, age, income, education, occupation, residential place and marital status.

This is the first study to explore the influence of quality attributes and socio-demographics on consumers' online consumption of luxury seafood.

This paper aims to investigate the role of demographics and sector type in determining consumer preferences of Islamic micro-credit products, namely, Musharka and Murabha, versus conventional micro-credit financing in Egypt.

This research is a quantitative study that uses surveys on 1,125 current micro-credit consumers in Cairo and Upper Egypt using multi-staged cluster sampling technique. Descriptive and inferential analyses were used to explain results.

The study revealed the potential of Musharka mode of financing among micro-credit borrowers in Egypt, specifically in the manufacturing sector, followed by the trade sector. Although previous researches showed correlations between income, age and other demographic factors with consumer financing choices, the current research indicated no significance for consumer demographics in determining preferences of Islamic micro-credit contracts in Egypt. However, the sector type showed high potential in determining consumer choices of Islamic micro-credit contracts.

This paper advances knowledge in the domain of consumer behavior, specifically in bottom of the pyramid and subsistence markets that are under researched.

The results highlighted are important for micro-finance institutions, NGOs and policy makers, as they delve deeper into the consumer preferences for Islamic financial products and attempt to present innovative solutions toward poverty eradication.

This research is one of the few attempts to study and explain consumer preferences toward Islamic micro-credit products in Egypt, and the role of sectors in determining consumer choices for specific Islamic micro-credit contracts.

Despite the evident and dramatic increase in smartphone usage worldwide, some consumers continue to use traditional mobile phones. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the behavioral intentions of these laggard and non-smartphone users.

This current study examines the effects of consumer demographics, psychographics, and smartphone characteristics on the intentions of non-smartphone consumers to switch or resist the use of smartphones. Data were collected using a convenience sample of non-smartphone users in Taiwan. The proposed model is tested using the consistent partial least squares (PLSc) path modeling technique.

PLSc results indicate that consumer psychographics and smartphone characteristics play more important roles than consumer demographics. Specifically, price consciousness, nostalgia, and perceived ease of use are good predictors of intention to switch, whereas perceived usefulness and ease of use are strong predictors of the intention to resist smartphone adoption.

The results of this study have implications for mobile phone vendors and mobile manufacturers who target non-smartphone users or laggard adopters.

This study is among the few that focus on non-smartphone users’ perceptions of smartphones. Hence, this empirical study could contribute to the development and testing of theories related to the smartphone adoption process.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the extent by which consumer acceptance of an Islamic insurance product (Takaful) in a non-Muslim majority country would be affected by consumer knowledge about its Islamic origins. Furthermore, this study identifies the degree to which various psychological traits and demographics of the consumers influence purchase intentions.

A questionnaire was distributed to a national sample of 390 respondents, half of whom were told that this insurance product is Islamic and the other half were not. The questionnaire was identical between the two groups and the only difference was the disclosure of the product’s Islamic origins. Additional measures related to consumer demographics, cognitive style and prior experience with insurance products were obtained from the respondents. Regression analysis was used to determine the drivers of consumers’ purchase intentions.

Purchase intentions for Takaful were found to be lower when the product was presented to subjects as Islamic. In addition, it was established that a consumer’s cognitive style, political orientation, yearly insurance expenditure and views of Islam influence purchase intentions for Takaful.

This paper is the first to explore the degree of acceptance of an Islamic insurance product in a non-Muslim majority country (USA) and to investigate the effects of a product’s religion of origin on the purchase intentions of American consumers.

India has a big pool of internet savvy population that is not only accessing the internet but also buying online. Online shopping could be defined as the concept of buying and selling of goods over the internet. From the perspective of the seller, it is the attempt on the seller's part to attract and persuade the prospect to conduct the purchase decision-making process, and ensure satisfaction and loyalty. From the perspective of the buyer, online purchase behavior is the degree to which consumers access, browse, shop and transact and repeat the behavior. With a revolution in the very basics of transaction from a physical store format to a non-store one, the retail industry has begun to understand the indispensability of the internet as a medium of transaction. However, the rate of diffusion and adoption of the new phenomenon among consumers is still relatively low. With the internet advancing new opportunities, it is important to understand the factors that could motivate Indian consumers to indulge in online buying. This paper is a theoretical attempt at conceptualizing “motivation” as a construct, in the context of online buying and testing it empirically. The objective of the study is to explore the critical motivational factors that influence the online buying decision of people, and to establish their causal impact, if any, through developing an integrated model.

The study, descriptive, diagnostic, and causal in nature, has been conducted in the context of online buying of railway tickets in India. In the first phase, a pilot survey was conducted on a sample of 100 users of the online railway reservation. After having tested the survey instrument for validity and reliability, the second phase of the study was conducted on a sample of 327 users of online railway reservation facilities. A series of multiple regressions analyses was conducted to determine the causal impacts of critical motivational parameters on online reservation of railway ticket by users in the Indian context. The analysis of demographics based on gender and age groups were also made to capture the cross-comparisons of critical motivational attributes.

The results were in expected direction and fulfilled the research aims of the current study. The factor analysis had grouped the items into nine constructs with 38 items. For analytical purposes, descriptive statistics were used through measures of central tendency and dispersion. The item total correlations to each construct were found significant. All the critical motivational constructs were found to have a significant impact on the intention of buyers of booking/purchasing railway tickets online in India. The analyses of demographics established that as far as gender is concerned, all the critical motivational attributes to online buying intention have no significant differences between men and women; however, for age groups it was observed that some of the attributes were found significant and others were not.

Through identifying and empirically establishing critical motivational parameters in online reservation of railway tickets in Indian context across demographics, this study helps to understand what consumers expect from the online reservation facilities from the railways for their convenience and satisfaction. By examining the various dimensions explored and established in this study, the concerned authority can develop a better understanding of consumer needs and expectations. Academicians and researchers can use this study for assessing consumer motivation towards online reservation of railway tickets in Indian context, and identifying such attributes that would lead to favourable motivational disposition towards online reservation of railway tickets. The policy decision makers of railway authority may also use the findings of this study as a resource, while constructing, managing, and evaluating their marketing strategies in the Indian context.

To explore US consumers' perceptions of the level of fun associated with non‐price retail promotions and to predict likelihood of participation among demographic groups.

The study employs a sample generated from retail forward panel data (n=500) to assess the impact of demographic variables including gender, age, educational attainment, income and household size on consumer perceptions and likelihood of participation in five types of non‐price retail promotions. Descriptive and inferential statistical techniques (t‐tests, regression) are used to evaluate the data.

Identifies demographic groups who perceive high levels of fun associated with non‐price retail promotions and examines relationships between demographics and likelihood of participation in these types of promotions.

Generalizations of the findings of this study to markets outside the USA are limited due to the differences in consumers and forms of retail promotion within various markets. Future studies could examine perceptions of non‐price retail promotions across international markets as well as identify additional predictors of response to non‐price retail promotions.

This research provides retailers that operate within the USA specific knowledge of consumers' perceptions of non‐price retail promotions and identifies demographic characteristics of consumers who are likely to participate in such activities. As price competition in the sector continues to evolve, understanding non‐price forms of competition is critical to superior performance and survival in the industry.

This exploratory study uses demographics as a framework for examining consumers' perceptions of and likelihood of participation in non‐price retail promotions. The paper is unique because there are few similar empirical studies focused specifically on non‐price retail promotions.

This paper aims to address gaps in the sustainable technology literature by evaluating the demographics of energy efficient appliance consumption in Vietnam. Sustainable technologies can reduce greenhouse gas emissions and address environmental problems such as air quality and climate change. Opportunity is the greatest in emerging markets, where population growth has triggered dramatic rises in electricity consumption. However, their adoption of energy efficient appliances has been slow and understanding why is limited.

Following a literature review, a questionnaire was designed to capture sustainable consumption attitudes and behaviours. In total, 682 interviews were conducted among Vietnamese electrical appliance consumers to investigate the influence of demographics on sustainable technology consumption.

While many respondents were aware of the sustainable benefits of energy efficient appliances, this did not generally translate into responsible purchase behaviour. Of the demographic variables, education had the strongest relationship with sustainability. Those with higher incomes and more children were also more likely to exhibit sustainable consumption attitudes and behaviours. Gender and age were weaker sustainability predictors.

This study is relevant to a wide range of sustainable technology contexts. The literature shows contrary findings regarding relationships between demographics and sustainable consumption, and the value of demographics to sustainable consumer segmentation and targeted behaviour change campaigns has been contested by some researchers. This research highlights education as the most significant demographic predictor of sustainable consumption and reveals the consistency of this finding with many other studies. The implications of this for promoting future sustainability are discussed.