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1 – 10 of over 3000Meihua Zuo, Hongwei Liu, Hui Zhu and Hongming Gao
The purpose of this paper is to identify potential competitive relationships among brands by analyzing the dynamic clicking behavior of consumers.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to identify potential competitive relationships among brands by analyzing the dynamic clicking behavior of consumers.
Design/methodology/approach
Consumer sequential online click data, collected from JD.com, is used to analyze the dynamic competitive relationship between brands. It is found that the competition intensity across categories of products can differ considerably. Consumers exhibit big differences in purchasing time of durable-like goods, that is, the purchasing probability of such products changes considerably over time. The local polynomial regression model (LPRM) is used to analyze the relationship between brand competition of durable-like goods and the purchasing probability of a particular brand.
Findings
The statistical results of collective behaviors show that there is a 90/10 rule for the category durable-like goods, implying that ten percent of the brands account for 90 percent market share in terms of both clicking and purchasing behavior. The dynamic brand cognitive process of impulsive consumers displays an inverted V shape, while cautious consumers display a double V shaped cognitive process. The dynamic consumers’ cognition illustrates that when the brands capture a half of the click volume, the brands’ competitiveness reaches to its peak and makes no significant different from brands accounting for 100 percent of the click volume in terms of the purchasing probability.
Research limitations/implications
There are some limitations to the research, including the limitations imposed by the data set. One of the most serious problems in the data set is that the collected click-stream is desensitized severely, restricting the richness of the conclusions of this study. Second, the data set consists of many other consumer behavioral data, but only the consumer’s clicking behavior is analyzed in this study. Therefore, in future research, the parameters brand browsing by consumers and the time of browsing in each brand should be added as indicators of brand competitive intensity.
Practical implications
The authors study brand competitiveness by analyzing the relationship between the click rate and the purchase likelihood of individual brands for durable-like products. When the brand competitiveness is less than 50 percent, consumers tend to seek a variety of new brands, and their purchase likelihood is positively correlated with the brand competitiveness. Once consumers learn about a particular brand excessively among all other brands at a period of time, the purchase likelihood of its products decreases due to the thinner consumer’s short-term loyalty the brand. Till the brand competitiveness runs up to 100 percent, consumers are most likely to purchase a brand and its product. That indicates brand competitiveness maintain 50 percent of the whole market is most efficient to be profitable, and the performance of costing more to improve the brand competitiveness might make no difference.
Originality/value
There are many studies on brand competition, but most of these research works analyze the brand’s marketing strategy from the perspective of the company. The limitation of this research is that the data are historical and failure to reflect time-variant competition. Some researchers have studied brand competition through consumer behavior, but the shortcoming of these studies is that it does not consider sequentiality of consumer behavior as this study does. Therefore, this study contributes to the literature by using consumers’ sequential clicking behavior and expands the perspective of brand competition research from the angle of consumers. Simultaneously, this paper uses the LPRM to analyze the relationship between consumer clicking behavior and brand competition for the first time, and expands the methodology accordingly.
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Discusses consumers' attitudes and buying behaviour and how they have played a major part in the classification of goods, which has been devised to influence marketing…
Abstract
Discusses consumers' attitudes and buying behaviour and how they have played a major part in the classification of goods, which has been devised to influence marketing strategy. Proposes that consumers have changed the importance that they have attached to different product attributes and, as a result, economy, functionalism, and durability have become more important as a consequence. Examines the Canadian consumer market using tables to show consumption and household facilities and equipment, also the ten leading exporters to and from Canada. Sums up that marketers will have to concern themselves much more in the vein of accountant and statistician, with the raw data being used which can be provided at a relatively inexpensive cost.
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Aruna Divya Tatavarthy and Kanchan Mukherjee
Unlike point of purchase behavior, not much is known about how payment method impacts post-purchase behavior, especially for durable goods where user experience can last…
Abstract
Purpose
Unlike point of purchase behavior, not much is known about how payment method impacts post-purchase behavior, especially for durable goods where user experience can last over long periods. The purpose of this paper is to link two strands of literature for the first time by uncovering systematic linkages between the payment method (upfront cash vs loan) used for purchase of durable goods and the replacement timings for the same.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors predict that cash purchases are more likely to have shorter replacement horizons compared to loan purchases and propose a psychological mechanism that accounts for the same. Their arguments are based on how the strength of coupling, which is the degree of psychological association between payment and consumption, depends on the payment method and differentially influences the consumption experience and consequently leads to different replacement horizons. They conduct a field study to test their predictions and find support for their model.
Findings
The authors find that individuals who financed their durable goods purchases using loan, expressed their intentions to replace the goods after longer period than those who financed their durable goods with cash down payment. As loan installments remind people of painful thoughts of payment, they tend to reduce the dissonance by positively evaluating both retrospective and anticipated usage experiences. This dissonance reduction mechanism eventually leads to reduced willingness to let go of the durable.
Practical implications
Marketers are faced with a tradeoff between increasing purchase likelihood versus ensuring long-term post-purchase satisfaction. In this paper, the authors uncover the psychological mechanisms that can explain how payment method chosen to pay for a durable can have direct effect on post-purchase consumption experiences and subsequently in the replacement intentions. This finding is crucial for marketers who are interested in planning the product line launches and other post-purchase engagement strategies such as buy-back scheme and upgrades.
Social implications
Understanding the psychological mechanisms that explain individual’s likelihood to replace their durable goods allows policymakers to design appropriate interventions to induce more sustainable and efficient use of durable goods in the market. While on one hand, marketers might be interested in increasing sales of their product line by inducing faster replacement of older product versions, environmentalists nudge towards the opposite. This paper provides a possible way to achieve the dual objectives.
Originality/value
While past research on downstream effects of payment methods on behavioral outcomes focused only on consumables, the authors focus on durable goods. Further, they identify the effect of payment method on both psychological and behavioral outcomes.
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Nazneen Ahmad and Sandeep Kumar Rangaraju
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of a consumer confidence shock on GDP and different types of consumer spending during a slack state as well as a…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of a consumer confidence shock on GDP and different types of consumer spending during a slack state as well as a non-slack state of an economy.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors use the US quarterly data from 1960Q1 to 2014Q4 and apply Jorda’s (2005) local projection method to compute the impulse responses of macroeconomic variables to a consumer confidence shock. The local projection method allows us to include non-linearities in the response function.
Findings
In general, the response of output, following a consumer confidence shock, is similar in slack and non-slack states and indicate that an unfavorable confidence shock is contractionary. However, the intensity and duration of impact of a confidence shock on different components of spending are state dependent. Overall, a negative confidence shock appears to have a stronger impact on non-slack time than on a slack time.
Practical implications
Policy makers should be careful about undertaking a policy action that may affect consumer confidence adversely, particularly during an economic good time. An adverse confidence shock can trigger a downfall in a well-functioning economy and the dampening effect may last for several quarters before the economy rebounds.
Originality/value
US economy is subject to fluctuations; however, the literature on the impact of confidence shock in different economic states is limited. The incremental contribution of this paper is that it investigates how the consumers respond to the confidence shock in a state-dependent model. Furthermore, the authors use a more robust and alternative estimation method that tackles any non-linear problems.
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The purpose of this paper is to review and understand the underlying structure of price perception, to recognize how cultural factors influence price perception, and to…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to review and understand the underlying structure of price perception, to recognize how cultural factors influence price perception, and to develop and empirically test a model of cultural differences and price perception.
Design/methodology/approach
This project gathered data from both China and the USA. Using the LISREL 8.52 program, a proposed model was tested and modified in order to obtain a parsimonious underlying structure explaining cultural influences on consumers' price perceptions.
Findings
Results of the data analysis show that culture factors do have significant effects on price perception. Internal reference price has a consistent and negative effect on the overall price perception of both goods and services purchase and durable and non‐durable goods purchase. However, the significant associations between price perception factors and overall price perception were only found in the services and non‐durable goods purchase but not in the durable goods purchase.
Practical implications
This study helps international marketers understand the cross‐cultural consumer behavioral differences in general and the price perception differences in particular. It also provides a series of guidelines for international pricing strategy and international promotion strategy on an operational level.
Originality/value
Theoretically, the paper integrates the solid base of work on domestic pricing from the Lichtenstein et al. study on price perception as well as work on culture from anthropology and sociology, international business, international marketing, and Hofstede's culture theory.
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Kavita Srivastava and Narendra K. Sharma
The present study aims to investigate the impact of perceived quality, brand extension incongruity, involvement and perceived risk on consumer attitude towards brand…
Abstract
Purpose
The present study aims to investigate the impact of perceived quality, brand extension incongruity, involvement and perceived risk on consumer attitude towards brand extension across three product types, namely, FMCG, durable goods and service (FDS) sectors. More importantly, the study seeks to explore the importance of involvement profile comprising relevance, pleasure, sign‐value, risk importance and risk probability and perceived risk facets (financial, psychological and performance) in acceptance of brand extension across FDS.
Design/methodology/approach
Three questionnaire‐based surveys were conducted to collect the data for FMCG, durable and service brand extensions. Regression analyses and Chow test were computed to investigate differences in consumer evaluation across FDS.
Findings
Results revealed significant different effects of variables across the three product types. The impact of perceived quality was greater in the case of services than FMCG and durables. On the other hand, perceived risk and involvement had stronger influence on evaluation of durables and service than FMCG brand extensions.
Research limitations/implications
The present study gives a comprehensive view of how consumers evaluate the service and non‐service brand extensions.
Originality/value
The major contributions of this study are: generalization of the findings related to brand extension incongruity in the service area; examination of the multidimensional role of involvement in terms of relevance, pleasure, sign value, risk importance and risk probability in brand extension context across FMCG, durables and service product types; and exploration of the role of risk facets, namely, financial, performance and psychological in determining consumers' attitude towards brand extension.
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Provides background to the current literature on buying intentions and describes some recent research on the subject. States traditional short‐term econometric forecasting…
Abstract
Provides background to the current literature on buying intentions and describes some recent research on the subject. States traditional short‐term econometric forecasting models for durables generally represent expenditure as a function of disposable income, relative price, an index of hire‐purchase control, and an estimation of the total stock of durables. Discusses US experience in depth, with literature examples. Sums up that current research is now engaged on testing the hypothesis that intentions are primarily expressed by initial purchasers.
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Hamid Baghestani and Samer Kherfi
The purpose of this paper is to investigate four possible asymmetries in US aggregate consumption and its major components (durables, non-durables, and services) for the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate four possible asymmetries in US aggregate consumption and its major components (durables, non-durables, and services) for the period 1990-2013. Understanding the asymmetric behavior of the components is important since the impact of monetary policy on separate consumer spending categories may differ substantially.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors first employ stationarity and cointegration tests to specify and estimate the long-run equilibrium relationship between consumer spending and such variables as disposable income, consumer sentiment, and the expected real interest rate. The authors then specify a structural error-correction model for each spending category to simultaneously investigate such possible asymmetries due to the ratchet effect, psychological negativity bias, interest rate effect, and varying degree of adjustment in eliminating disequilibrium defined as the gap between actual and desired spending.
Findings
First, consumption and its major components all display asymmetric behavior consistent with psychological negativity bias. Second, consumer spending on durable goods also displays asymmetries consistent with both the ratchet effect and the interest rate effect. Third, non-durables respond asymmetrically to disequilibrium; consumers adjust (increase) spending on non-durables only when actual spending is below desired spending on non-durable goods. Fourth, services also respond asymmetrically to disequilibrium; consumers adjust (reduce) spending on services only when actual spending is above desired spending on services.
Originality/value
This study provides new insight on the asymmetric behavior of consumer spending. The authors believe that the findings should help with macroeconomic policymaking when such indicators as income, consumer sentiment, and expected real interest rates display significant variations.
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Attempts to draw together some main implications arising from studying usage of survey data forecasting the demand for durables. Posits that re‐interview tests are…
Abstract
Attempts to draw together some main implications arising from studying usage of survey data forecasting the demand for durables. Posits that re‐interview tests are important, shedding light on the influences on consumer demand, by perhaps identifying respects in which purchasers and non‐purchasers differ. Suggests that predictive models, which have some foundation, stand a better chance of confident usage. Points out that some studies appear to show cross‐sectional investigations perform reasonably well in explaining individual household behaviour, both in terms of level of outlay on consumer durables and in identifying purchasers of particular commodities. Aims to describe overall patterns of results in more general terms and to draw them together by focusing specifically on what they suggest about the nature of individual behaviour and decisions regarding consumer durables.
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Develops a model incorporating expected market potential derived from customers' purchasing expectations. Suggests that this can be used as a basis for advertising…
Abstract
Develops a model incorporating expected market potential derived from customers' purchasing expectations. Suggests that this can be used as a basis for advertising strategies. Claims to present a movement towards the ideal of marginal returns from marginal advertising outlays.
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