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21 – 30 of over 46000
Article
Publication date: 20 April 2012

Kelly Green Atkins and Youn‐Kyung Kim

The purpose of this study is to gain a better conceptualization and measurement of smart shopping. The specific objectives are to: investigate consumers' perceptions of the term…

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to gain a better conceptualization and measurement of smart shopping. The specific objectives are to: investigate consumers' perceptions of the term smart shopping; develop a measure of smart shopping; and validate the measure of smart shopping.

Design/methodology/approach

The research includes a comprehensive literature review, focus group interviews, and in‐depth interviews for initial item generation and instrument development. Scale development consists of a pilot test (n=100), a pretest (n=237), and main study (n=1,474).

Findings

The findings indicate that smart shopping includes consumers seeking to minimize the expenditure of time, money, or energy to gain hedonic or utilitarian value from the experience.

Research limitations/implications

In‐store shopping was examined based on shopping for clothing, grocery, or electronics; therefore caution must be used when applying the smart shopping scale to other shopping contexts or product categories.

Practical implications

Gaining a better understanding of the smart shopper will enable retailers to more accurately target this consumer group. Focus could be placed on saving time or saving energy in addition to the traditional emphasis on saving money. Retailers could also provide a combination of utilitarian and hedonic experiences for consumers.

Originality/value

This study conceptualizes and tests the term smart shopping from a broader perspective than previous studies that primarily focused on monetary savings in the grocery shopping context. Smart shopping includes the desire for efficient shopping but emphases on the components of an efficient trip may differ from traditional theories.

Details

International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, vol. 40 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0959-0552

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 9 February 2024

Edith Kuiper

Hazel Kyrk, one of the first women economists at the Economic Department of the University of Chicago and author of A Theory of Consumption (1923), conducted groundbreaking…

Abstract

Hazel Kyrk, one of the first women economists at the Economic Department of the University of Chicago and author of A Theory of Consumption (1923), conducted groundbreaking research for the Bureau of Home Economics of the US Department of Agriculture and the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Kyrk made a considerable contribution to the development of standards for a “decent living,” the Consumer Price Index, and the conceptualization of what would later turn into the definition of the poverty line. This chapter evaluates Kyrk’s use of eugenic notions of gender and race that were widely used in Kyrk’s day. This chapter shows that eugenic reasoning impacts Kyrk’s theoretical work only superficially but does structure her research on consumption standards through her focus on the white middle-class family as the unit of analysis for consumer behavior. This chapter also makes clear that the American Institutionalist approach to consumer behavior, rather than marginalized and side-tracked due to a lack of theoretical progress, was relegated to the margins of economics science together with the research of women economists into Home Economics departments and policy research at government institutions.

Details

Research in the History of Economic Thought and Methodology: Including a Symposium on Hazel Kyrk's: A Theory of Consumption 100 Years after Publication
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80455-991-8

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 2 September 2014

Gullinee Mutakalin

The purpose of this paper is to critically evaluate consumer society through various perspectives. In addition, it applies Buddhist economics as an exemplary model which helps…

14864

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to critically evaluate consumer society through various perspectives. In addition, it applies Buddhist economics as an exemplary model which helps managing consumer society.

Design/methodology/approach

The study started by comparing and contrasting the management of consumption between Mainstream and Buddhist economic. In addition, various perspectives such as Marxian economics, Frankfurt School, sociology as well as social critics are added to comprehend consumer society. Finally, it proposed the practices of Buddhist economics as an exemplary model for managing consumer society.

Findings

The study found that while Mainstream economics focusses on increasing the amount of goods and services, Buddhist economics focusses on converting the insatiable to satiable desires. There are two viewpoints of the interconnected spheres of consumption and production through the evolution of consumerism; a producer-led approach and a consumer-led approach. This polarization presents the debate in a very well-established tension between structure and agency.

Originality/value

This paper proposed an exemplary model for managing consumer society by applying the dialectical relationship of both structure and agency.

Details

Journal of Management Development, vol. 33 no. 8/9
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0262-1711

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 8 May 2017

Salman Ahmed Shaikh, Mohd Adib Ismail, Abdul Ghafar Ismail, Shahida Shahimi and Muhammad Hakimi Mohd. Shafiai

This paper aims to integrate Islamic and mainstream economics framework towards a more realistic understanding of Muslim consumption behaviour.

1066

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to integrate Islamic and mainstream economics framework towards a more realistic understanding of Muslim consumption behaviour.

Design/methodology/approach

The model incorporates some of the Islamic institutions like period-wise deduction of Zakat from endowments. It also includes bequests which could be significant given the Islamic injunctions on inheritance distribution and the significance placed on the institution of family. Furthermore, the model integrates the assumption that consumption opportunity set will axiomatically filter out the prohibited consumption goods from the consumption set in both contemporaneous and inter-temporal consumption.

Findings

Zakat ensures contemporaneous redistribution from endowment surplus households (those having Zakatable endowments above Nisab) to endowment-deficient households (those having Zakatable endowments below Nisab). The lifetime resources are scaled down for endowment surplus households because of the payment of Zakat in both periods and leaving bequests in old-age period, while the lifetime resources are scaled up for endowment deficient households because of the receipt of Zakat in both periods and receiving the bequests in youth.

Originality/value

The authors show how some of the Islamic principles and institutions can be integrated in the mainstream economics framework, especially in research studies where the objective is to understand and describe reality rather than persuasion and idealization.

Details

Humanomics, vol. 33 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0828-8666

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 20 May 2017

Philip DeCicca, Donald Kenkel, Feng Liu and Hua Wang

The U.S. 2009 Tobacco Control Act opened the door for new antismoking policies by giving the Food and Drug Administration broad regulatory authority over the tobacco industry. We…

Abstract

The U.S. 2009 Tobacco Control Act opened the door for new antismoking policies by giving the Food and Drug Administration broad regulatory authority over the tobacco industry. We develop a behavioral welfare economics approach to conduct cost-benefit analysis of FDA tobacco regulations. We use a simple two-period model to develop expressions for the impact of tobacco control policies on social welfare. Our model includes: nudge and paternalistic regulations; an excise tax on cigarettes; internalities created by period 1 versus period 2 consumption; and externalities from cigarette consumption. Our analytical expressions show that in the presence of uncorrected internalities and externalities, a nudge or a tax to reduce cigarette consumption improves social welfare. In sharp contrast, a paternalistic regulation might either improve or worsen social welfare. Another important result is that the social welfare gains from new policies do not only depend on the size of the internalities and externalities, but also depend on the extent to which current policies already correct the problems. We link our analytical expressions to the graphical approach used in most previous studies and discuss the information needed to complete cost-benefit analysis of tobacco regulations. We use our model as a framework to reexamine the evidence base for strong conclusions about the size of the internalities, which is the key information needed.

Details

Human Capital and Health Behavior
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78635-466-2

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 22 March 2021

Mª Carolina Rodríguez-Donate, Margarita E. Romero-Rodríguez and Víctor Javier Cano-Fernández

This paper compares the socio-demographic features, wine consumption preferences and habits of individuals of Generations X and Y. The influence of age, as a life cycle effect, on…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper compares the socio-demographic features, wine consumption preferences and habits of individuals of Generations X and Y. The influence of age, as a life cycle effect, on individuals' consumption preferences from the same generation is analysed. In addition, the generational effect and period effect on consumption by each generation are studied to ascertain changes in preferences due to specific values of their birth cohort or period.

Design/methodology/approach

Mixed ordered logit models are estimated to identify which traits influence the probability of consuming a certain quantity of wine for each generation. The variability of the effects of different variables on the consumption decision is analysed in depth, as a reflection of the unobserved heterogeneity present in individuals' decisions. For this purpose, data from two exhaustive surveys carried out in Tenerife (Canary Islands) over a time interval of 13 years are used.

Findings

Individuals' age and period are relevant factors in the consumption decision. There are some similarities in the behaviour of both generations, although the variability of the effects of some individual traits is greater for Generation X.

Originality/value

This paper contributes to a better understanding of the profile of wine consumers from different generations through a joint analysis of age effects, period and cohort, which have rarely been addressed jointly in the literature. In addition, it provides an exhaustive analysis of the heterogeneity in consumption preferences that highlights the variability of the effects found.

Details

British Food Journal, vol. 123 no. 11
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0007-070X

Keywords

Abstract

Details

Optimal Growth Economics: An Investigation of the Contemporary Issues and the Prospect for Sustainable Growth
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-0-44450-860-7

Book part
Publication date: 13 April 2023

Zafer Adalı, Simuzar Sultan Mammadova and Ofelya Mazanova

The current challenges experienced by all nations promote the trade-off between the increase in economic performance and the protected environment. The investigation based on the…

Abstract

The current challenges experienced by all nations promote the trade-off between the increase in economic performance and the protected environment. The investigation based on the energy economy has become an irreplaceable topic to determine the correct path for minimizing the trade-off cost. Within this scope, this study has been performed to investigate the causality nexus between the exports indicators (aggregated exports and the ICT exports) and the energy consumption (renewable and nonrenewable energy consumption of the selected five emerging countries. The Dumitrescu–Hurlin panel causality analysis is performed on the annual data between 2000 and 2014. As a consequence of the evidence, it is documented that there are various causality relationships between the exports and the energy consumption indicators in the light of the performed analysis at different lags. However, the role of nonrenewable energy consumption is more active in the economies of the considered countries. According to the evidence, it is recommended for the emerging countries to invest and allocate more funds to renewable energy resources to diminish the role of nonrenewable energy resources in the economy.

Article
Publication date: 1 January 2003

Peter L. Daniels

The reduction of the “metabolism” of the human economy has become one of the central themes of recent environmental and economic research and policy focused upon paths for…

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Abstract

The reduction of the “metabolism” of the human economy has become one of the central themes of recent environmental and economic research and policy focused upon paths for achieving global sustainable development. Since the late 1980s, there has emerged a diverse array of “physical economy” approaches that utilise some form of material flow analysis (MFA) to quantify the pattern of flows of material and energy into, within, and out of the economic system. In principle, the reduction of the human socioeconomic metabolism, and appropriate changes in technology and consumption, are highly consistent with Buddhist economics. Indeed, MFA may be one of the most valuable devices for encouraging and implementing a global “green” technoeconomic paradigm that helps realize the type of benefits proffered under the vision of Buddhist economics. This paper describes the links between methodology or potential application of MFA and the central themes of the Buddhist economic path to the long‐term, harmonious co‐existence of humans within the natural environment.

Details

International Journal of Social Economics, vol. 30 no. 1/2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0306-8293

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 20 January 2012

Malin Song, Shuhong Wang, Zhanhao Jiang, Jie Yang and Yumei Wang

With the function of reconstructing and promoting traditional industries in China, logistic service industry (LSI) still consumes a great deal of energy. The purpose of this paper…

1838

Abstract

Purpose

With the function of reconstructing and promoting traditional industries in China, logistic service industry (LSI) still consumes a great deal of energy. The purpose of this paper is to empirically analyse the relationship between energy consumption of logistics and its influential factors in China, and through this, identify the most important factor and give a significant research of this factor afterwards.

Design/methodology/approach

Using a quantitative analysis of the industry composition of energy consumption and the structure of energy consumption in LSI, the serious condition of China's energy conservation of LSI was found. Correlated analysis and co‐integration analysis were adopted to identify how these factors affected the energy conservation of LSI and how to construct environmental logistics in China.

Findings

The paper found mileage traveled by train is the most important factor of energy consumption in LSI, while traveling miles of highway is the second. The former was negative correlation with the total of energy consumption while the latter was positive correlation.

Research limitations/implications

Because of the deficiency of data in China, this research is based on the data of 30 years, which is not testified as long enough for this research. This would indicate that the conclusions of this paper are approximate values. A closer look should be taken at the effectiveness of some of the other factors suggested in the previous research on this topic.

Practical implications

The paper outlines ways to effectively construct environmental logistics in China which would promote the energy conservation and sustainable development of this country. Since the total consumption of energy in China accounts for a certain proportion of the world, this will benefit other countries as well.

Originality/value

This paper is one of the first of its kind to develop and empirically analyze the relationship between energy consumption of LSI and its influential factors in China. It uniquely contributes towards helping us find approaches to constructing China's environmental logistics and will have far‐reaching implications for other developing countries.

Details

Supply Chain Management: An International Journal, vol. 17 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1359-8546

Keywords

21 – 30 of over 46000