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This research analyses the searching, interacting and purchasing behavior of shoppers seeking semidurable and fast-moving consumer goods in an immersive virtual reality (VR) store, showing how physical examinations and visual inspections relate to purchases.

Around 60 participants completed two forced-purchase tasks using a head-mounted display with visual and motor-tracking systems. A second study using a pictorial display of the products complemented the VR study.

The findings indicate differences in shopping behavior for the two product categories, with semidurable goods requiring greater inspection and deliberation than fast-moving consumer goods. In addition, visual inspection of the shelf and products was greater than a physical examination through virtual handling for both product categories. The paper also presents relationships between visual inspections and product interactions during the searching stage of purchase decisions.

The research consists of two types of implicit measures in this study: eye-tracking and hand-product interactions. This study reveals the suitability of implicit measures for evaluating consumer behavior in VR stores.

Religious tendencies have increased in post-Arab Spring countries, raising the question of whether this geopolitical event has affected consumers' orientations towards foreign products, including those that have positive country-of-origin image. This paper investigates the effect of Islamic religiosity on the relationship between consumer ethnocentrism and buying intention towards products from a developed country (France) in an Arab Spring country (Tunisia).

A survey questionnaire was lunched and data was collected from 492 Tunisian consumers living in both rural and urban areas. Research hypotheses were tested using a Partial Least Square- Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) method.

Tunisian consumers do not associate their ethnocentric feelings towards French products with their Islamic religiosity. Results show that both highly and moderately religious Tunisians trust French products because of their high country-of-origin image and their potential social connotations.

The results of this paper contribute to the literature that focuses on understanding consumption behaviours in developing countries in the aftermath of geopolitical events such as the Arab Spring.

The authors hope to filter valuable information from online reviews, obtain objective and accurate information about the demands of auto consumers and help auto companies develop more reasonable production and marketing strategies for healthy and sustainable development. This paper aims to discuss the aforementioned objectives.

The authors collected review data from online automotive forums and generated a corpus after pre-processing. Then, the authors extracted consumer demands and topics using the LDA model. Finally, the authors used a trained Word2vec tool to extend the consumer demand topics.

Different types of vehicle consumers have the same demands, such as “Space,” “Power Performance,” and “Brand Comparison,” and distinct demands, such as “Appearance,” “Safety,” “Service,” and “New Energy Features”; consumers who buy new energy vehicles are still accustomed to comparing with the brands or models of fuel vehicles; new energy vehicles consumers pay more attention to services and service quality during the purchasing and using process.

The development time of new energy vehicles is relatively short, with some models being available for only one year or even six months. The smaller amount of available data may impact the applicability of topic models. The sample size, especially for new energy vehicles, needs to be increased to improve the general applicability of topic models further.

First, this measure helps online review websites improve their existing review publication mechanisms, enhance the overall quality of online review content, increase user traffic and promote the healthy development of online review websites. Second, this allows for timely adjustments in future product production and sales plans and further enhances automotive companies' ability to leverage online reviews for Internet marketing.

The authors have improved the accuracy and stability of the fused topic model, providing a scientific and efficient research tool for multi-dimensional topic mining of online reviews. With the help of research results, consumers can more easily understand the discussion topics and thus filter out valuable reference information. As a result, automotive companies may gain information about consumer demands and product quality feedback and thus quickly adjust production and marketing strategies to increase sales and market share.

Virtual goods consumption has risen dramatically in recent years. Recognizing the benefits of virtual goods in generating revenue for online game companies, marketers strive to understand the motives behind virtual goods purchases. We investigated the direct and indirect effects of functional, emotional, and social values through player satisfaction on purchase intention toward virtual goods among online players.

In total, we surveyed 332 online game players utilizing a structured questionnaire. We employed a multi-analytic approach combining partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) and necessary condition analysis (NCA) to examine the proposed relationships.

The findings show that all dimensions of value and player satisfaction significantly affect the intention to acquire virtual goods. However, social value does not exert a significant effect on player satisfaction. Moreover, we confirmed that player satisfaction mediates the relationships between functional value, emotional value, and purchase intention. Furthermore, NCA results indicated that all predictors in the model are necessary conditions of purchase intention for virtual goods.

These findings contribute to an enhanced understanding of purchase intentions among online game players from a symmetric (PLS-SEM) and asymmetric (NCA) perspective by proposing a multi-analytic approach.

This study aims to explore and extend the consumer–brand relationship literature by integrating the relatively new construct of brand coolness with a growing body of work on gratitude. Specifically, gratitude is explored alongside emotional brand attachment as an additional mechanism affecting the relationship between cool brands and the loyalty outcome of repurchase intention. Consumption context is examined as a boundary condition to the effect of gratitude.

Data was collected from an online survey of a Qualtrics panel of 356 US consumers. A moderated mediation model is used to explain the effects of brand coolness on repurchase intention via emotional brand attachment and brand gratitude in the moderating presence of consumption context.

Brand coolness significantly increases repurchase intention. Furthermore, emotional brand attachment and brand gratitude are established as parallel mediators of the relationship between brand coolness and repurchase intention, with brand gratitude exhibiting a significantly stronger mediated effect. The impact of brand coolness on brand gratitude is moderated by social visibility, with publicly consumed cool brands stimulating greater brand gratitude than their privately consumed counterparts.

Brand gratitude is shown to influence repurchase intention independent of the impact exerted by consumers’ emotional brand attachment. Cognitive appraisal theory is used to distinguish brand gratitude from other mediators studied in consumer–brand relationships. Findings establish the moderating influence of the social visibility of the brand on the relationship between brand coolness and gratitude.

This paper gives a model of collusion formation and a method of measuring the degree of it among the traders/bidders in the agricultural commodity markets in India. The important assumption is that the bidding is repetitive with a set of common bidders. The theory has been derived based on the behavior of the wholesale market of agricultural commodities in India. The paper is based on full information in the collusion formation. The paper first derives the theoretical structure of the bidders' behavior and thereafter derives a measure of collusion formation with the help of real-life data.

The paper used the standard theory of optimization and the theory of auction and probability statistics.

This is a complete information model of cartel formation. The bidding is repetitive and continues forever in discrete time. Hence bidders behavior is observable. Using the proposed method, if the APMC measures for each market and publishes on a periodic basis, say weekly basis, then it will be easier to break the collusion in the market where relative collision is present. For example, if a farmer has three options to sell in three different markets, then the published data would help them to select the market where the degree of collusion is relatively lower. Moreover, the undesirable loss can be avoided based on the right choice of market. As a result, transaction costs will be optima.

The paper first derives the theoretical structure of the bidders' behavior and thereafter derives a measure of collusion formation with the help of real-life data.

The purpose of this paper is to provide an early assessment of India’s South-South cooperation for trade and technology (SSTT) with East Africa, focusing on Ethiopia, Rwanda, Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. It aims to analyse the role of SSTT in providing support to targeted sectors.

The paper examines SSTT, focusing on India and East Africa over a specific period (2000–2016) of its emergence, and extends the public sponsorship literature in international business (IB) to better understand the relationship between SSTT and value addition – applying to a particular case study of SSTT interventions in spices.

The paper highlights SSTT as a pathway to support value addition in global value chains (GVCs). Trade between India and East African countries has grown, with three developments over the period of analysis in particular: shifting trade patterns, growing share of intermediate goods trade and differences in GVC insertion. However, East African exports are largely of lower value. Capacity building to support processing capability and thriving markets can encourage greater value addition. Preliminary findings suggest early gains at the margins, as SSTT interventions have been focusing on capacity boosting with buffering and bridging mechanisms for increased volume of trade. Moving up the value chain however requires that specific value-enhancing activities continue to be targeted, building on regional capacities. Our high-level case study for spices suggests that activities are starting to have a positive effect; however, more focus is needed to specifically target value creation before export and in particular higher levels of processing.

While findings are preliminary, policy implications emerge to guide SSTT interventions. There is capacity for building higher value-added supply chains as is evident among East African countries that trade with each other – future SSTT programmes could tap into this and help build capacity in these higher-value value chains. Future SSTT programmes can take a comprehensive approach by aiming at interventions at key points of the value chain, and especially at points that facilitate higher value addition than initial processing. An example is that Ethiopia and Rwanda are likely to benefit from an expanded spice industry, but the next phase should be towards building processing for value-addition components of the value chain, such as through trade policies, incentivising exporters to add value to items before export. From a development perspective, more analysis needs to be done on the value chain itself – for instance, trade facilitation measures to help processers engage in value chains and to access investments for increasing value add activities. (iv), Future research should examine more closely the development impacts of SSTT, namely, the connection between increased trade, local job creation and sustained innovation, as it is these tangible benefits that will help countries in the Global South realise the benefits of increased trade.

The paper underlines how the SSTT approach can contribute to the critical IB and GVCs literature using a theoretical grounded approach from public sponsorship theory, and with a unique lens of development cooperation between countries in the global south and its emerging impact on development outcomes in these countries.

This paper studies the optimal decision-making and coordination problem of a dual-channel fresh agricultural product (FAP) supply chain. The purpose is to analyze the impact of information sharing on optimal decisions and propose a coordination mechanism to encourage supply chain members to share information.

The two-echelon dual-channel FAP supply chain includes a manufacturer and a retailer. By using the Stackelberg game theory and the backward induction method, the optimal decisions are obtained under information symmetry and asymmetry and the coordination contract is designed.

The results show that supply chain members should comprehensively evaluate the specific situation of product attributes, coefficient of freshness-keeping cost and network operating costs to make decisions. Asymmetric information can exacerbate the deviation of optimal decisions among supply chain members and information sharing is always beneficial to manufacturers but not to retailers. The improved revenue-sharing and cost-sharing contract is an effective coordination mechanism.

The conclusions can provide theoretical guidance for supply chain managers to deal with information asymmetry and improve the competitiveness of the supply chain.

This paper combines the three characteristics that are most closely related to the reality of supply chains, including horizontal and vertical competition of different channels, the perishable characteristics of FAPs and the uncertainty generated by asymmetric demand information.

This study aims to review major themes and findings of research into financial management of family business and to suggest new directions for future research.

This is a perspective article beginning with literature review to summarize prior research and to identify main findings and issues. The paper then develops themes, questions and opportunities for future research.

This paper presents a summary of principal research streams in the financial management of family business. Prior research has found significant differences in financial performance, in financial policies and in ownership and governance structures and behavior. These research findings vary by industry, by country and by stage of economic development. While extensions of these streams will add additional richness to the author’s understanding of finance in family business, recent innovations in the role and organization of the firm and in access to key resources suggest promising new research paths. There are also important lessons from financial practices in family business that have broader applicability.

This is a perspective article suggesting that many financial and governance issues central to family business have broader applicability to nonfamily business. Substantial value can be added by applying these learnings to a broader corporate finance context. Innovations in financing, governance and organizational design are transforming financial management in family business. In addition, changes in markets and industries create new opportunities for financing family business and for new strategic opportunities.