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For over 30 years the topic of Perceived Risk has been of interest to consumer behaviour researchers. However, by far the majority of the literature has focused on applications of perceived risk rather than the testing of the concept itself or parameters which affect it. Such a critical generalisation does not discount the fact that there have been some notable contributions to the literature. In order to better understand a construct or phenomenon one must subject it to various tests or stimuli and assess its reaction. By examining perceived risk under various conditions, e.g., how it alters with demographics or purchase type, one can build up an improved understanding of how it operates. This knowledge may eventually lead to a model of the construct which will contain the various risk components, the factors which affect the construct and the degree to which they affect it. It was partly to this end that the present study was undertaken. It examines one facet of consumer behaviour which may affect risk perception and reduction, namely the recency of purchase.

Independent travelers are those vacationers who have booked only a minimum of their transportation and accommodation arrangements prior to departure on the vacation. Independent travel is an important and growing sector of worldwide tourism. Choice of vacation itinerary for the independent vacation represents a complex series of decisions regarding purchase of multiple leisure and tourism services. This chapter builds and tests a model of independent traveler decision-making for choice of vacation itinerary. The research undertaken employs a two-phase, inductive–deductive case study design. In the deductive phase, the researcher interviewed 20 travel parties vacationing in New Zealand for the first time. The researcher interviewed respondents at both the beginning and the end of their New Zealand vacations. The study compares pre-vacation research and plans, and actual vacation behaviors, on a case-by-case basis. The study examines case study narratives and quantitative measures of crucial variables. The study tests two competing models of independent traveler decision-making, using a pattern-matching procedure. This embedded research design results in high multi-source, multi-method validity for the supported model. The model of the Independent Vacation as Evolving Itinerary suggests that much of the vacation itinerary experienced in independent travel is indeed unplanned, and that a desire to experience the unplanned is a key hedonic motive for independent travel. Rather than following a fixed itinerary, the itinerary of an independent vacation evolves as the vacation proceeds. The independent traveler takes advantage of serendipitous opportunities to experience a number of locations, attractions and activities that they had neither actively researched nor planned.

Since consumers are being provided with ever‐increasing amounts of information, there is an increasing need to study the way in which they handle purchasing information. Investigates the effect of buy‐frequency on one theory of consumer decision making: Perceived Risk Theory. Survey data from 100 consumers revealed that in general perceived risk decreased as buy‐frequency increased, but only for high‐value products and services and not as much as expected. High‐value services showed considerably less risk decrease as buy‐frequency increased than did high‐value products, possibly due to their heterogeneity. Experienced purchasers place more emphasis on pre‐purchase product trial and purchasing well‐known brands for high‐value goods and store image and brand loyalty for low‐value goods, than inexperienced purchasers. Discusses the implications for perceived risk measurement as well as retailing.

Noting the lack of research on cultural effects on retailing, the present study uses the cultural framework developed by Hofstede as the foundation for an investigation of loyalty to domestic retailers. A multi‐country survey of consumer attitudes about domestic versus international retailers explored the effects of two cultural variables (individualism and uncertainty avoidance), two individual‐level demographic variables (age and sex), and one country‐level demographic variable (the ratio of imports to GDP). Results indicated that cultural individualism is negatively correlated with loyalty to domestic retailers, uncertainty avoidance is positively related to loyalty to domestic retailers, the ratio of foreign imports to GDP is negatively correlated to loyalty to domestic retailers, and men exhibit greater loyalty to domestic retailers than women do. Age was not a significant predictor. A procedure is presented for extending these findings to more than 45 additional countries. Implications of these findings for international strategic planning by retailers and directions for future academic exploration are discussed.

This paper asks whether enterprise programmes are overcoming the finance gap faced by their disadvantaged participants. Specifically, the paper seeks to assessthe level of finance invested by participants on a leading UK enterprise programme, the New Entrepreneur Scholarships (NES).

The paper draws on a postal and e‐survey of participants on a leading UK enterprise programme, reporting on 472 respondents. Three capital structure variables (personal investment, external private investment and grants) are employed to analyse the importance of various types of funding in NES businesses. These figures are compared with published data about use of different types of finance, including principal sources of funding, in UK start‐ups. Descriptive statistics of perceptions of under‐capitalisation, and needs for additional funding, are also reported.

NES Scholars make significantly lower start‐up investment than is typical in UK small businesses, particularly in terms of personal finance. Finance provided by the programme is important but does not compensate for poor access to personal and loan investment. Perhaps as a consequence, almost half of the Scholars were under‐capitalised.

Implications for policy are discussed at length. In particular, practical options for addressing the under‐capitalisation of businesses started under enterprise programmes are analysed, including increasing and targeting grant finance, providing soft‐loans, improving access to existing sources of public funding for small businesses, easing access to private finance, providing more support for the self‐employed through the welfare and tax credit systems and paying childcare subsidies.

The paper presents novel analysis of the capital structure of businesses started under an enterprise programme and employs this to explore the critical question of whether – and in what ways – these firms are under‐capitalised. It also presents new analysis of the policy options available for improving finance to disadvantaged groups. It fills gaps in the literatures relating to small business finance and small business and social inclusion.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of the Big Five Model (BFM), the urge to purchase (UP) and urgency (UR) on impulse purchase (IP) in Facebook commerce (F-commerce), with the F-commerce purchase as control variable. It also investigates the influence of BFM and UR on UP and the effects of BFM on UR.

The survey instrument was rigorously validated via content validity index by expert panel, Q-sort procedure for construct validity by practitioners in pre-test, followed by evaluation of construct reliability in the pilot test. Data gathered from 808 usable questionnaires were analyzed using SmartPLS 3.

The study showed that BFM, UP, UR and F-commerce purchase are significant predictors of the F-commerce IP. UP is influenced by BFM and UR. BFM has a significant positive relationship with UR. F-commerce experience has insignificant moderating effect.

This study provides some useful practical implications for the F-commerce administrators, advertisers, dealers and promoters.

Existing studies focus on the antecedents of IP in conventional stores and online businesses; however, IP in F-commerce has been largely overlooked. The study investigates the impacts of personality traits on IP and its effects on UR and UP. The mediating effects of UR and UP were also examined. The study is able to predict 64.4, 68.0 and 49.0 percent variance in IP, UP and UR, respectively.

The marketing literature suggests that product intangibility is positively associated with perceived risk and the intangibility construct encompasses three dimensions: physical intangibility, mental intangibility, and generality. The purpose of this research is to test which dimension of the intangibility construct is the most correlated with perceived risk. A survey was conducted and structural equation modeling analyses were used to test the proposed model. Results show that the mental dimension of intangibility accounts for more variance in the perceived risk construct than the other two dimensions, even when knowledge and involvement are included as moderators. Hence, the challenge for marketers might not be so much to reduce risk by physically tangibilizing goods and services, as has been advised for the past two decades, as rather to mentally tangibilize their offerings.

Employing means‐end theory, this paper seeks to examine the influence of specific types of product attributes upon desired consumption consequences and the mediating impact of desired consequences upon purchase frequency.

The research employed means‐end interviews to generate specific attribute and consequence measures. These measures were then administered in a survey instrument within the context of a fashion product. Partial least squares was used for testing the measurement validity of the survey instrument and testing the structural model and related hypotheses.

Style attributes significantly related to desired psychological and social consequences but did not significantly relate to functional consequences. Quality significantly related to functional consequences and social consequences but not psychological consequences. Price significantly related to all consequences. Psychological consequences were the strongest predictor of purchase frequency followed by functional consequences. Finally, desired consequences played a mediating role between product attributes and purchase frequency, with no direct influence of attributes upon purchase frequency.

The findings demonstrate the value of understanding the consumption consequences that consumers desire for products, especially after initial purchase. In doing so, the findings also provide some evidence that consequences may be better predictors of behavioral outcomes than product attributes.

This study demonstrates that the consumer means‐end value hierarchy can be used as a tool for understanding the meanings that consumers construct around products and services. Moreover, it indicates that marketers should consider customer value analysis as a segmentation tool.

This paper represents one of the few to test the chain of cause‐and‐effect relationships of the means‐end hierarchy within an integrated framework. It is original in that it specifically tests the relationships between major attributes (i.e. style, quality, and price) and particular consequence types (i.e. psychological, social, and functional).

Store brands represent an important part of the consumer goods market and a prominent research area. The purpose of this paper is to address a well‐defined problem of store brand research and is concerned with individual characteristics that explain heterogeneous preferences for store brands. Understanding how preferences vary with consumer factors is a key element in developing successful marketing strategies.

A survey is designed and implemented to a large random sample of consumers, using computer‐assisted telephone interviewing.

Specific consumer characteristics are associated with interpersonal differences in store brand demand. Store brand preferences derive from a broader evaluation process, in which quality has the most significant role. The results also demonstrate the changing image of store brands, the endorsement of such products by consumers of higher socio‐economic status, and lead to important implications for both retailers and manufacturers of consumer products.

The paper introduces random sampling and telephone interviewing to store brand research and provides new insights for managers and researchers.

The introduction of television (TV) home shopping and other non‐store shopping formats is one way by which retailers have tried to meet the evolving needs of consumers. Using risk perception as the theoretical framework, the objective of this study was to categorize TV home shoppers as high or low risk perceivers and compare them for differences in types of risk perceived, types of products purchased and demographics. The sample consisted of 125 adult TV home shoppers. Significant differences were found between these two groups in terms of their perceptions of financial risk (p=0.03) as well as product categories purchased including clothing (p=0.001), accessories (p=0.014), health and beauty items (p=0.000) and maintenance, tools and cleaners (p=0.009). No demographic differences were found.