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The purpose of this study is to conceptually address the understanding of certain consumers and businesses that show new dynamics, including a heightened interest in quality and the concomitant development of entities and mechanisms designed to ensure certain standards as well as an increased level of involvement of the consumer with the product. These segments are identified and labeled as sophisticated markets.

Through a literature review following a conceptual model methodology, this study poses eight research propositions to seek a more profound and comprehensive understanding of this type of market that could potentially benefit several industries. This study explores and discusses some of the essential differences of sophisticated markets with a twofold purpose: to recognize the existence of sophisticated markets as a distinct category and suggest issues that may constitute interesting further research works.

The process of sophistication might occur in different industries. This study poses implications of sophisticated markets to better understand consumers and business through research propositions that can be classified into two main domains: consumer–firm relationships and communicational implications.

Previous studies addressing luxury or specialized markets have not considered these terms to be sufficient to describe what we propose be labeled as a sophisticated market. This study addresses this gap in literature and proposes a streamline of research that pursues a deeper understanding of this phenomenon.

Este estudio aborda de forma conceptual dinámicas novedosas que se están presentando en el ámbito de ciertos segmentos de consumidores y de ciertos sectores empresariales. Estas nuevas dinámicas incluyen elementos como un mayor interés en la calidad y en el desarrollo de satisfactores encaminados al aseguramiento de ciertos estándares, así como un mayor nivel de involucramiento del consumidor con el producto. Estos segmentos son identificados y etiquetados aquí como mercados sofisticados.

A través de una revisión de la literatura, siguiendo una metodología de modelo conceptual, este estudio plantea ocho proposiciones científicas dirigidas a la búsqueda de una comprensión más profunda y completa de este tipo de mercados. Este artículo explora y discute algunas de las diferencias esenciales de los mercados sofisticados, con respecto a los mercados tradicionales, con un doble propósito: (1) reconocer la existencia de los mercados sofisticados como una categoría distinta de negocio y (2) sugerir elementos y relaciones que pueden constituir trabajos interesantes de investigación a futuro.

Este proceso de sofisticación puede ocurrir en diferentes industrias. A través de estas proposiciones de investigación, este trabajo plantea elementos que pueden ayudar a incrementar el entendimiento que tenemos de este tipo de consumidores y empresas en dos grandes vertientes: la relación consumidor-empresa, y las implicaciones de la comunicación hacia estos segmentos sofisticados.

Estudios previos enfocados en bienes de lujo o mercados especializados no logran explicar lo que proponemos aquí como el fenómeno de mercados sofisticados. Este estudio busca cubrir este vacío en la literatura proponiendo líneas de investigación encaminadas a profundizar en el entendimiento de este fenómeno.

Este estudo aborda de forma conceitual dinâmicas inovadoras que estão surgindo no âmbito de certos segmentos de consumidores e setores empresariais. Essas novas dinâmicas incluem elementos como maior interesse na qualidade e no desenvolvimento de satisfatores voltados para garantir determinados padrões, bem como maior envolvimento do consumidor com o produto. Esses segmentos são identificados e rotulados aqui como mercados sofisticados.

Através de uma revisão da literatura, seguindo uma metodologia de modelo conceitual, este estudo apresenta oito proposições científicas voltadas para a busca de uma compreensão mais profunda e completa desse tipo de mercados. Este artigo explora e discute algumas das diferenças essenciais dos mercados sofisticados em relação aos mercados tradicionais, com um duplo propósito: (1) reconhecer a existência dos mercados sofisticados como uma categoria distinta de negócios e (2) sugerir elementos e relações que podem constituir trabalhos interessantes de pesquisa no futuro.

Este processo de sofisticação pode ocorrer em diferentes indústrias. Através dessas proposições de pesquisa, este trabalho apresenta elementos que podem ajudar a aumentar a compreensão que temos desse tipo de consumidores e empresas em duas grandes vertentes: a relação consumidor-empresa e as implicações da comunicação para esses segmentos sofisticados.

Estudos prévios focados em bens de luxo ou mercados especializados não conseguem explicar o que propomos aqui como o fenômeno de mercados sofisticados. Este estudo busca preencher essa lacuna na literatura propondo linhas de pesquisa com o objetivo de aprofundar a compreensão desse fenômeno.

Packaging and labelling have become essential to how food manufacturers generate and deliver value to customers. The information displayed on the packaging can be used to communicate to customers the properties and unique characteristics of a food product (e.g. nutrients, calories and country of origin). To achieve communication goals effectively, manufacturers need to understand how consumers evaluate products based on their attributes. In particular, companies should be aware of which specific product attributes affect consumer buying behaviour and which product attributes are more critical during food assessment. So, the paper aims to investigate consumer's behaviuor linked to typical product attributes indicated on the packaging.

The present study examines consumer willingness to pay (WTP) for a cherry jam with different attributes (brand, type of production method and price) on a sample of 2,166 Italian respondents through a choice experiment using a random parameter logit-error component model.

The results showed that WTP for jams can be affected by attributes such as brand, price and production methods; precisely, they indicated that the level of naturalness in the production process constitutes the main element for the consumer’s choice; however, the considerable weight that price and brand have in influencing the purchasing behaviour of the food consumer was still confirmed: in fact, a p-value of less than 0.05 was found in all cases.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that assesses the effect of different types of production on WTP for food products. In addition, this study also reflects on the importance of the level of education for consumer choice.

This study aims to develop an educational tourism demand model, particularly in respect to dynamic effects, university quality (QU) and competitor countries. Educational tourism has been identified as a new tourism sub-sector with high potential, and is thus expected to boost economic growth and sustainability.

This study reviews the literature on the determinants of educational tourism demand. Even though the existing literature is intensively discussed, mostly focusing on the educational tourism demand from an individual consumer's perspective, this study makes an innovation in line with the aggregate demand view. The study uses data that consist of the enrolment of international students from 47 home countries who studied in Malaysia from 2008 to 2017. The study utilised the dynamic panel method of analysis.

This study affirms that income per capita, educational tourism price, price of competitor countries and quality of universities based on accredited programmes and world university ranking are the determinants of educational tourism demand in both the short and the long term. Also, a dynamic effect exists in educational tourism demand.

The results imply that government should take the quality of services for existing students, price decisions and QU into account to promote the country as a tertiary education hub and achieve sustainable development.

Research on the determinants of the demand for educational tourism is rare in terms of macro data, and this study includes the roles of QU, competitor countries and dynamic effects.

The purpose of this paper is to determine whether there is a difference in the development of shopping lists and use of advertisements as pre-store food-buying practices in terms of planned shopping by South African consumers who dwell in different socio-economic status (SES) areas. The paper also considers the influence of shopper and socio-demographic characteristics on pre-store food-buying practices in a developing country.

A self-administered questionnaire was used to survey 1 200 consumers in retail stores in low, middle and high SES areas in South Africa. A generalised linear model was employed for the statistical analysis of pre-store food-buying practices within the SES area groups in a developing country.

South African consumers that reside in high SES area displayed the largest of shopping list development, while consumers who dwell in low SES areas showed the highest incidence of advertisement usage. Several shopper and socio-demographic characteristics were also found to have an influence on pre-store food-buying practices in different SES areas in South Africa.

A qualitative approach would offer a deeper understanding of consumers’ pre-store food shopping predispositions as opposed to the quantitative approach, which was adopted for this study. A longitudinal design would also provide a more extensive representation of pre-store food shopping practices over a longer time frame than cross-sectional research. The survey was conducted on Saturdays, whereas consumers who shop during the week may have different shopping and socio-demographic characteristics.

Astute food brands, marketers and grocery stores could use the findings of this study to assist with their marketing efforts that they direct at consumers in different SES areas in South Africa and other developing countries.

The findings of this study may assist consumers in developing countries, especially those who reside in low SES areas, with food-buying strategies to reduce food costs, make wiser purchase decisions and reduce shopping.

No study (to the best of the researchers’ knowledge) has considered shopping list development and use of advertisements’ pre-store food-buying practices in different SES areas in a developing country. Furthermore, there is a dearth of research analysing shopper and socio-demographic characteristics in relation to pre-store food-buying practices among different SES areas in developing and developed countries.

The main purpose of this exploratory study is to investigate the attitude of pharmacists, as small- and medium-sized enterprise (SME) owners, toward new technologies, and more precisely, toward the adoption of mobile apps for mobile health (mHealth). Such apps are generally used to improve customer satisfaction and loyalty. This study measures pharmacists’ subjective experiences of mobile apps for mHealth and aims to understand how these pharmacists make sense of these apps.

The study adopted the narrative inquiry technique combined with critical event analysis. Participants' experiences were categorized based on how they viewed new technology tools. Interpretative inductive analysis identified precise aspects of the sense making illustrative of non-adoption or confused adoption of new technologies by pharmacists.

This study investigates to what extent new technology tools such as mobile apps affect retailers and more precisely the reasons why mobile apps are and are not adopted by retailers, as potential users, in the pharmaceutical industry. We identified four aspects of sense making that illustrated non-adoption or confused adoption of new technologies by pharmacists. These aspects are deeply discussed in the paper and are referred to the dimensions of confusion to confidence; suspicion to trust; frustration to education; mistrust to cooperation.

The main limitation of the present study is the limited number of territories investigated. This limitation arose because of the exploratory nature of the available research, which is generally based on case studies, and the lack of clear operationalization of the research available at the time of data collection. Another limitation is that the sample included only SMEs operating in the Italian pharmacy industry.

Many studies have highlighted the opportunities related to new mobile apps in the business-to-business market. Several have investigated customer interest in such new technology. If some contributions have indirectly investigated the acceptance of information technology tools, to the best of our knowledge, no study has been conducted to investigate directly and precisely the level of pharmacists' acceptance, use, and willingness to adopt information technology (e.g., mobile apps) for customer service in mHealth and mainly the reasons of non-adoption.

Following the standard practice of using nutrition claims to denote food functionality, this study empirically explores Chinese consumers’ willingness-to-pay for functional processed meat products by using three nutrition claims (namely “increased calcium,” “containing omega-3”, and “reduced salt”) made on pork sausages. It also aims to outline the typical characteristics of Chinese consumer segments based on preferences.

A choice-based choice experiment is utilized to investigate Chinese consumers’ valuation on attributes of interest regarding functional sausage products. First-hand data was collected in the two cities of Xi'an and Beijing.

There are market potentials for domestic and/or imported functional processed meat products among Chinese consumers. Nutrition claims made on pork sausages are appealing to Chinese consumers, and therefore, monetarily rewarded by them. Being imported from a more developed country of origin could both positively and negatively impact consumers’ WTP for nutrition claims made on pork sausages. Furthermore, specific functional modification strategies should be taken into account when addressing different segments of the Chinese market. In addition, regional impacts between Xi'an and Beijing are implied in terms of consumers’ valuation for functional pork sausages.

Limitations in the current study are mainly two folds. First, the WTP estimation magnitudes are subject to a hypothetical bias by using a stated preference approach. Second, this study only focuses on pork sausages to explore consumers’ perceptions and selects three nutrition claims among many other relevant options.

Implications are provided for meat marketers and for Chinese official food policymakers, such that promoting meat products with a nutrition claim is an attractive marketing strategy for foreign food manufacturers in China, and more reformulated meat products with better nutritional compositions should be allowed in the Chinese market.

To the best of the author’s knowledge, this research is the first to fill in the literature blank on investigating the consumers’ valuation for functional meat in the emerging market of China. Because when taking Chinese consumers as a target market and evaluating their perceptions of food quality-related labeling and certifications, the existing literature is mainly limited to topics of product safety, organic/green products, and geographical origins. However, nutrition claims, as marketable credence attributes that associate closely to the main characteristics of the functional food products, have been explored to a much lesser extent among Chinese consumers.

This study, grounded in the SOR theory, aims to enrich the understanding of customer citizenship behaviour in omnichannel fashion retail by examining how different customer experiences enhance customer engagement and how that engagement leads to customer citizenship behaviour. The influence of return policies on the relationship between customer engagement and customer citizenship behaviour was also examined.

Partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) is used to examine the framework of the proposed study with data collected through a survey (n = 251) to examine the opinions of the respondents about the variables mentioned. The authors also assessed the proposed framework using predictive power assessment using PLS predict.

The study results reveal that customers’ experiences of integration and flexibility in omnichannel retail are positively associated with their engagement. However, customer experiences of connectivity, consistency and personalization do not appear to affect customer engagement significantly in omnichannel retail. The return policy positively moderates the relationship between customer engagement and customer citizenship behaviour in the omnichannel fashion retail context. Predictive power assessment shows that the proposed model has high prediction accuracy.

This study contributes to the marketing literature by investigating different dimensions of consumer experience collectively and its impact on customer engagement and citizenship behaviour. Furthermore, the study contributes to omnichannel retail in fashion industry by testing the return policy as a moderator variable on the relationship between customer engagement and citizenship behaviour.

Este estudio, basado en la teoría SOR, enriquece la comprensión del comportamiento cívico del cliente en el comercio minorista de moda omnicanal examinando cómo las diferentes experiencias del cliente mejoran el compromiso de éste y cómo dicho compromiso conduce al comportamiento cívico del cliente. También se examina la influencia de las políticas de devolución en la relación entre el compromiso del cliente y el comportamiento ciudadano del cliente.

Se utilizó la modelización PLS-SEM para examinar el marco del estudio propuesto con datos recogidos mediante una encuesta (n = 251) para examinar las opiniones de los encuestados sobre las variables mencionadas. Los autores también evaluaron el marco propuesto mediante una evaluación del poder predictivo utilizando la predicción PLS.

Los resultados revelan que las experiencias de integración y flexibilidad de los clientes en el comercio minorista omnicanal se asocian positivamente con su compromiso. Sin embargo, las experiencias de los clientes de conectividad, coherencia y personalización no parecen afectar significativamente al compromiso del cliente en el comercio minorista omnicanal. La política de devoluciones modera positivamente la relación entre el compromiso del cliente y el comportamiento ciudadano en el contexto del comercio minorista de moda omnicanal. La evaluación del poder predictivo mostró que el modelo propuesto tenía una alta precisión de predicción.

El estudio contribuye a la literatura de marketing investigando colectivamente diferentes dimensiones de la experiencia del consumidor y su impacto en el compromiso del cliente y el comportamiento ciudadano. Además, este estudio contribuye a la venta minorista omnicanal en la industria de la moda al probar la política de devoluciones como variable moderadora de la relación entre el compromiso del cliente y el comportamiento ciudadano.

本研究以 SOR 理论为基础, 通过研究不同的顾客体验如何提高顾客参与度, 以及顾客参与度如何推动顾客公民行为, 丰富了对全渠道时尚零售中顾客公民行为的理解。研究还探讨了退货政策对顾客参与和顾客公民行为之间关系的影响。

本文采用 PLS-SEM 模型来检验拟议的研究框架, 并通过调查（n = 251）收集数据, 以检验受访者对上述变量的看法。作者还通过使用 PLS 预测评估预测能力, 对提出的框架进行了评估。

通过调查（n = 251）收集的数据, 使用 PLS-SEM 模型来研究拟议的研究框架, 以考察受访者对上述变量的看法。作者还通过使用 PLS 预测评估预测能力, 对提出的框架进行了评估。

研究结果表明, 顾客在全渠道零售中对整合性和灵活性的体验与他们的参与度呈正相关。然而, 顾客在连通性、一致性和个性化方面的体验似乎并未对顾客参与全渠道零售产生显著影响。退货政策对全渠道时尚零售中顾客参与和公民行为之间的关系起到了积极的调节作用。 预测能力评估表明, 所提出的模型具有较高的预测准确性。

本研究通过对消费者体验的不同维度及其对顾客参与和公民行为的影响进行综合研究, 为营销文献做出了贡献。此外, 本研究通过检验退货政策作为顾客参与和公民行为之间关系的调节变量, 为时尚行业的全渠道零售做出了贡献。

This paper aims to study the motivations for purchasing protective products.

Empirical microeconomic research.

The results show that comparing with ordinary families, families vulnerable to environmental conditions, including prepregnant, pregnant and postpartum families, are not intended to consume more protective products. Among the above three types of families, postpartum families consume the most, followed by pregnant families, and prepregnancy families consume the least. The results also showed that a higher level of economic development, more prevalent Internet access and higher levels of education also increase the consumption of protective products.

New dataset and new empirical results.

Green consumption is fundamental to sustainable development, as it involves adopting practices and technologies that reduce the environmental impact of human activities. This study aims to analyze the influence of consumers’ green orientation on their environmental concerns and green purchase decisions. Furthermore, the study investigates the mediating role of consumers’ environmental concerns in the relationship between pro-sustainable orientation and green purchase decisions.

This study uses a quantitative methodology, applying the partial least squares method to a sample of 927 Portuguese consumers of green products. The sample was collected through an online survey.

Perceived benefits and perceived quality of products play a positive and significant role in influencing green behavior, especially when consumers are endowed with greater environmental concerns. In addition, consumers’ awareness of the prices of green products and their expectations regarding the future benefits of sustainable consumption positively impact green consumption behavior, further intensifying their environmental concerns.

According to the present findings, companies should adopt a holistic and integrated approach to promote green consumption. This means creating premium eco-friendly products, communicating their benefits, addressing the cost factor, emphasizing the future impact of eco-friendly options and raising consumers’ environmental awareness.

It is critical that environmental education is a priority in schools and that there are political incentives for green behaviors. In addition, media campaigns can be an important tool to raise awareness in society.

The results of this study provide important insights for companies on consumer engagement in the circular economy. Deepening knowledge of the antecedents of consumers’ environmental concerns contributes to a deeper understanding of green purchasing decision behavior, allowing companies to support new business strategies.

The objective of the study was to assess consumer exposure to warmed-over flavour, their eating habits with respect to pre-cooked stored meats, awareness of antioxidants and attitudes towards the use of natural antioxidants as preservatives in meat and meat products.

A total of 238 Check-All-That-Apply (CATA) design questionnaires were used to gather information from the University of Fort Hare community in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa.

The majority of the respondents had been exposed to warmed-over flavour before. More than half of the respondents did not know about antioxidants. Respondents were in support of the use of natural antioxidants in meat and meat products.

The study mainly captured consumer habits based on living arrangements. Age influence could not be extrapolated due to the nature of the population, which was being studied. The population was limited to the University community, which is mainly made up of not so widely spread age groups and more or less similar levels of education. As a result, the findings and conclusions may not be a true reflection of the general public consumers in terms of age, level of education and employment status.

This research presents an original insight into consumer habits concerning the purchasing and storage of pre-cooked meat and meat products. The study revealed that most consumers nowadays prefer ready-to-eat or pre-cooked meat and meat products due to convenience. The warmed-over flavour is common in pre-cooked meats. The findings suggests that the meat industry has to improve the shelf-life of pre-cooked foods such that warmed-over flavour development is delayed to fit into the current consumer habits. In recent years there has been a growing interest in the use of natural antioxidants to improve shelf-life of muscle foods. However, there is a dearth of information on consumer attitudes towards the use of natural antioxidants as preservatives. This study reveals that consumers are willing to try products formulated using natural antioxidants.