Search results

This study aims to explore consumer brand associations and values derived from a corporate brand and a celebrity brand endorser prior to their endorsement.

This study uses both hierarchical value mapping and brand concept mapping (BCM) to identify brand attributes that translate to personal meaning for consumers and then to identify whether these attributes are encompassed by a specific brand.

Results from brand concept maps and hierarchical value maps show consumers value accessibility and customer service in financial corporate brands. Consumers value expertise in celebrity brands and respect success in both corporate and celebrity brands. A central finding is the importance of brand authenticity. Corporate brand authenticity establishes a sense of security and assists in the development of brand relationships. Celebrity brand authenticity creates consumer attention and enhances celebrity trustworthiness aiding in the development of a consumer – celebrity brand relationship.

The findings have implications for corporate brands utilizing celebrity endorsers. In terms of strategic positioning, corporate brands need to center their marketing communications on desired brand associations at the core of both the corporate and celebrity brand that translate to personal meaning for consumers.

This study uses a combined theoretical and methodological approach, drawing on associative network theory and means-end chain theory, and BCM and hierarchical value mapping methods, respectively, to understand and uncover personal meaning or value derived from brand associations.

This study explores the linkages between various attributes, consequences and values of casino restaurants and the differences in the hierarchical value maps between female and male customers and between casino players and non-casino players.

This study was conducted using the means-end chain (MEC) theory. The data were collected using the hard-laddering method. Two hundred forty-one responses were analyzed.

Attributes such as “taste,” “reasonable prices,” and “discounts” were associated with the values “personal happiness,” “considered,” “life satisfaction,” and “life-quality enhancement” at casino restaurants. Males were found to hold “prompt services” as important when dining at casino restaurants, while females held a “spacious environment” to be critical. Furthermore, “use of casino complimentary credits” was important to casino players, while “free parking” and “comfortable seats” mattered for non-casino players.

It is suggested that casinos add more Asian cuisines in their casino restaurants in Macao to attract customers who value culinary and cultural exploration while simultaneously satisfying tourists from neighboring regions who wish to enjoy familiar foods when they visit Macao. In addition, the authors recommend that casinos develop menu items that can be served quickly to casino players.

This study is based on the MEC theory and broadens the range of studies on casino restaurants. Furthermore, it provides useful information to guide casino restauranteurs in developing their marketing and operational strategies for different customer segments.

The organic food market is one of the most promising in Europe, although national markets have developed at different rates. In Germany, organics' share of total food turnover is 2.7 per cent compared with 1 per cent in the UK. This study explores the reasons why the behaviour of consumers in the UK and Germany has been so divergent despite both groups of consumers holding similar attitudes about organic foods. This was done by investigating the underlying values driving food choice behaviour using means‐end theory and Laddermap 5.4 software. In both cases the dominant means‐end hierarchies were uncovered and the cognitive process mapped. Although similarities emerged with respect to values concerned with health, wellbeing and the enjoyment of life, product attributes sought in order to achieve these values were different between the groups. A major difference was found in the absence among the UK group of any connection between organic food and the environment.

The purpose of this paper is to uncover the motivational tensions underlying mobile shopping (m-shopping) behaviours. The authors focus on consumer motivations and the pursuit of life end goals with respect to m-shopping.

Based on the means-end chain theory, hard-laddering approach was used to elicit associations between attributes, consequences and values from 251 online participants. Content analysis was used to develop a hierarchical value map “mapping” these associations to uncover underlying values for m-shopping.

Mobile shoppers are motivated by their self-actualisation needs (self-focused) and/or social needs (other-focused). Participants’ response contradictions reflected internal complexities and ambivalences during their purchasing decisions. Decisions are based on their concerns around security, time, technological or financial.

This study provides managerial insights into retail marketing and strategies. Marketers should consider creating user-friendly applications by researching the customer journey experience, heightening security measures and ensuring that added-value offers are clearly communicated to meet consumers’ personal values and motivations.

The paper presents an original conceptual contribution of personal values related to m-shopping as desires for self-empowerment, altruism and relationships with others, self-fulfilment and hedonism and possible consumer internal conflicts.

This study elicits the critical attributes, consequences and values associated with the purchasing process in the context of cross-border e-commerce (CBEC). The purpose is to provide a better understanding of the fundamental factors that determine consumer values in CBEC.

The study applies the means-end-chain theory and soft-laddering techniques to interview 60 CBEC consumers to construct an implication matrix and a hierarchical value map (HVM) of the consumer purchasing process, consisting of attribute-consequence-value (A-C-V) paths.

By analyzing the significant linkages, elements, ladders and chains in the HVM, four dominant A-C-V paths were identified: economic-driven, efficiency-driven, progress-driven and quality-driven paths.

This study included only Chinese CBEC buyers. This limitation might affect the generalizability of the conclusions as culture, purchase habits and economic development differ between China and other countries.

The results of this study provide CBEC practitioners an understanding of the consumer purchasing process and how consumer values are associated with platform characteristics. Thus, the results aid practitioners in allocating resources and developing CBEC platforms in an appropriate manner and direction.

This study sheds lights on the emerging phenomenon of CBEC. By applying the means-end-chain approach, the study provides a comprehensive HVM for interpreting the consumer online purchasing process in this novel context. By illustrating the dominant paths, this research provides deeper theoretical insights into the specific focuses of CBEC consumer purchasing.

Shopping motivation is one of the key constructs of research on shopping behavior and exhibits a high relevance for formulating retail marketing strategies. Previous studies of shopping behavior as well as research in the areas of psychology and organizational behavior point towards a need to investigate the hierarchical nature of shopping motivation. The present study intends to take the first steps towards the development of a hierarchical theory of shopping motivation.

Means‐end chain theory is adopted to explore the hierarchical nature of shopping motivation. A total of 40 in‐depths interviews with apparel shoppers were conducted using the laddering technique. Results are depicted in three hierarchical value maps.

Evidence is provided relating to the social, experiential, and utilitarian aspects of shopping as represented by four dominant motivational patterns referring to the issues of shopping pleasure, frictionless shopping, value seeking, and quality seeking. Concrete retail attributes are presented which allow retailers to correspond to these motivations.

The paper identifies the need to introduce a hierarchical perspective to provide an increased understanding of consumers' shopping motivation. First, empirical evidence is provided regarding how consumers' cognitive structures relating to the benefits of shopping are hierarchically organized.

What conceptual organization underlies evaluative judgments in the mind of consumers? Drawing from the theory of cognitive schemata and from means‐end theory, here we show that customer evaluations can be represented as a set of self‐relevant, interconnected and hierarchically organized elements. Elements of the hierarchy are components of a satisfactory service experience that range from concrete service attributes (such as staff kindness), to higher level benefits (such as the feeling of being looked after), to more abstract values (such as happiness). To construct a hierarchical map of components and explain overall satisfaction the laddering technique was applied to a sample of hotel customers. Results suggest that the links between concrete attributes, high‐level benefits, and values provide a better explanation of overall satisfaction than service attributes alone.

The purpose of this paper is to report on research that aims to make knowledge, and in particular know-how, more easily accessible to both academic and industrial communities, as well as to the general public. The paper proposes a novel approach to map out know-how information, so all knowledge stakeholders are able to contribute to the knowledge and expertise accumulation, as well as using that knowledge for research and applying expertise to address problems.

This research followed a design science approach in which mapping of the know-how information was done by the research team and then tested with graduate students. During this research, the mapping approach was continuously evaluated and refined, and mapping guidelines and a prototype tool were developed.

Following an evaluation with graduate students, it was found that the know-how maps produced were easy to follow, allowed continuous evolution, facilitated easy modification through provided modularity capabilities, further supported reasoning about know-how and overall provided adequate expressiveness. Furthermore, we applied the approach with various domains and found that it was a good fit for its purpose across different knowledge domains.

This paper argues that mapping out know-how within research and industry communities can further improve resource (knowledge) utilization, reduce the phenomena of “re-inventing the wheel” and further create linkage across communities.

With the qualities mentioned above, know-how maps can both ease and support the increase of access to expert knowledge to various communities, and thus, promote re-use and expansion of knowledge for various purposes. Having an explicit representation of know-how further encourages innovation, as knowledge from various domains can be mapped, searched and reasoned, and gaps can be identified and filled.

The paper aims to understand consumers' perception and cognition toward table grapes, which focuses on the most important attributes, consumption consequences and personal values of grape consumption and the relations among them.

The study related grape consumption with consumers based on Means-end chain analysis. The data were gathered with both laddering interviews (n=37) and questionnaire survey returned by 843 individuals in 31 provinces of China. The data were firstly processed by SPSS software and descriptive statistics was adopted to evaluate consumers' awareness. Furthermore, MECanalyst software was opted for, to construct the hierarchical relations of table grape consumption.

The findings are that consumers consume grapes based on their functional cognition and sensory perception. The quality-orientated characters are deemed to be the most important grape attributes, healthy and practical function are the main expected benefits and desired values in table grape consumption.

The findings can provide some implications to producers, administers and operators in the grape industry and inspire them to design products that will better satisfy consumers. Stakeholders in grape industries should take measures to inform consumers of grape benefits so as to increase grape consumption and expand the market.

The paper fulfils the combinations of laddering interview and structured questionnaire to conduct the large-scale samples survey about consumers' perception based on MEC analysis. Findings from this study reinforce the importance of research into the relationship between products and consumers.