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This study aims to address the following questions: What is enduring about consumer behavior on social media given that digital and social media (DSM) technologies change rapidly? Why do millennials use social media to the extent they do? The authors’ review revealed that a prevailing theoretical approach that may help answer these questions is inadequate. The technology acceptance model (TAM) from information systems was grafted into marketing to explain consumer technology adoption. TAM predicts Facebook adoption effectively, as demonstrated in the authors’ first study, but does not go beyond that in explaining the why’s behind its use. In a second study, the authors used the means-end approach (MEC) complementarily to unearth the why’s of millennials’ use of Facebook.

The authors used a mixed-methods design combining the structural modeling of TAM with the probing one-on-one interviews and laddering of MEC.

The authors found that the laddering process both widened and deepened TAM’s scope. It not only confirmed the importance of the TAM attributes, perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness, but it also revealed others, in determining adoption. It was also able to dig deeper from these to uncover a mesh of fundamental values that millennials used Facebook to satisfy, such as belongingness, pleasure, social acceptance and inner harmony, in their quest for inner and relational contentment. The authors also found negative aspects that kept consumers away, such as its lack of privacy and the overwhelming nature of unwanted video in its feed, tying these back to important values.

The authors build on prior exploratory work relating to DSM use and uncover psychological drivers of consumer behavior on social media, by blending TAM in a consumer context, and the MEC approach. The TAM-MEC framework used here offers a technology-independent template for other DSM research, by focusing on how and why consumers use media socially.

Managerially, the authors discuss the building of sustainable marketing strategy on enduring consumer values rather than on transient attributes or technologies. The authors also discuss potential areas of vulnerability for Facebook, such as its increasing use of video and live content, which creates negative consumer sentiment and which may drive consumers to competitors.

By blending the quantitative TAM and the qualitative MEC, something that has not been done before in marketing, this research provides trustworthy answers to the research questions. In so doing, this study also contributes some cohesion to the fragmented DSM research field, as called for recently in prominent journals, by anchoring DSM study in well-established theories in marketing.

This research aims to examine how source of funds (paying with company’s funds versus personal funds) affects buyer’s judgments of price fairness and via these judgments, buyer’s response to prices.

A scenario-based experiment is used (N = 200). To test the hypotheses, the authors run moderated mediation regression analyses with the help of the PROCESS macro.

Drawing on fairness heuristics theory, the authors hypothesize and find that relative to when paying with personal funds, when paying with company’s funds, the perceived price difference plays a less significant role, whereas the perceived social acceptability of the pricing practice underlying the price difference plays a more important role in shaping price fairness judgments and, via these judgments, buyer’s response to prices.

The findings generate advice for companies that serve both the business and personal segments (e.g. airlines and hotels). Buyers in the personal segment typically pay with their own money. To persuade these buyers that a price is fair, it is crucial to show that the price represents a good deal for them. Buyers in the business segment often pay with company’s fund. Companies have more flexibility in charging different prices, but they should make sure that the reasons for the price difference are socially acceptable.

This research shows how the relative role of price difference versus social acceptability in price fairness judgments varies as a function of source of funds and how an inconsistency between price difference and its economic impact affects price fairness judgments.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

This paper seeks to use the consumer‐perceived levels of internet shopping skills and challenges, to cluster the young Chinese customers and to compare the quality perceptions of customers from the different clusters.

A survey of 237 college students from Beijing with the average age of 20.2 was conducted via a paper‐and‐pencil questionnaire. All the constructs were measured using established scales. The students completed the questionnaire in their native language.

The paper finds that, at the present level of internet development in China, online consumers can be segmented on the basis of their self‐rated internet skills and their perception of the challenges involved in online shopping.

Online customer segments obtained through internet skill and challenge level perceptions are demonstrated to explain some of the differences in the online shopping behaviors and service quality perceptions. The managers of online stores in China could segment young Chinese consumers based on this conceptual background.

The online shopping environment in China is characterized by a relatively low level of participation, but a rapid rate of growth, especially among young consumers. This is one of the first studies which evaluated the young Chinese consumers' online shopping behaviors and provided a conceptual basis for segmenting this market.

The purpose of this paper is to apply Lichtenstein et al.'s price perception model to American, Chinese and Japanese cultures, to test the measurement equivalence across three cultures, and to compare the price perception constructs across three cultures using equivalent instruments.

A questionnaire is used to collect information on more than 500 student respondents from America, China, and Japan.

Utilizing structural equation modeling, a 21‐item version of Lichtenstein et al.'s scale is created that has good fit across the three cultures. In progressively constraining tests, good model fit is found when constraining or partially constraining the factor loadings, error correlations, factor variances, and correlations between factors to be equal across three cultures tested. In addition, after creating price perception subscales, no significant differences emerge between Chinese, Japanese, and US consumers on value consciousness or price/quality schemas. Significant differences emerge on price consciousness, prestige sensitivity, and sales proneness.

The 21‐item scale of Lichtenstein et al.'s price perception model can be generalized to both China and Japan. The primary conclusions (i.e. that Chinese consumers reported significantly higher price and prestige sensitivity, compared to USA and Japanese consumers, while US consumers showed higher levels of sales proneness than Chinese and Japanese consumers) provide a rationale for international retailers to develop different pricing and promotional strategies when expanding their business into these three cultures.

A 21‐item scale to measure five of Lichtenstein et al.'s price perception constructs that has been validated through measurement invariance tests and compared across consumers in China, Japan, and the USA is provided.

In 2020, an outbreak of Salmonella Stanley linked to imported dried wood ear mushrooms affected 55 individuals in the United States of America. These mushrooms, commonly used in Asian cuisine, require processing, like rehydration and cutting, before serving. The US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention advise food preparers to use boiling water for rehydration to inactivate vegetative bacterial pathogens. Little is known about how food handlers prepare this ethnic ingredient and which handling procedures could enable Salmonella proliferation.

This study used content analysis to investigate handling practices for dried wood ear mushrooms as demonstrated in YouTube recipe videos and to identify food safety implications during handling of the product. A total of 125 Chinese- and English-language YouTube videos were analysed.

Major steps in handling procedures were identified, including rehydration, cutting/tearing and blanching. Around 62% of the videos failed to specify the water temperature for rehydration. Only three videos specified a water temperature of 100 °C for rehydrating the mushrooms, and 36% of the videos did not specify the soaking duration. Only one video showed handwashing, cleaning and sanitising of surfaces when handling the dried wood ear mushrooms.

This study found that most YouTube videos provided vague and inconsistent descriptions of the rehydration procedure, including water temperature and soaking duration. Food preparers were advised to use boiling water for rehydration to inactivate vegetative bacterial pathogens. However, boiling water alone is insufficient to inactivate all bacterial spores. Extended periods of soaking and storage could be of concern for spore germination and bacterial growth. More validation studies need to be conducted to provide guidance on how to safely handle the mushrooms.

This study will make a distinctive contribution to the field of food safety by being the first to investigate the handling procedure of a unique ethnic food ingredient, dried wood ear mushrooms, which has been linked to a previous outbreak and multiple recalls in the United States of America. The valuable data collected from this study can help target food handling education as well as influence future microbial validation study design and risk assessment.

Many investors have less interest in tendering for public-private partnership (PPP) construction projects as a result of the uncertain risks associated with the project delivery. Moreover, PPP project stakeholders have inadequate information about the probable impacts of time-based delay imposed on PPP projects under the PPP arrangement. This study aims to identify and categorize construction stakeholders’ perceptions of the impact of time-based delays on PPP construction projects.

A purposive sampling technique was adopted where questionnaires were used as the primary instrument for gathering data from PPP experts. Cronbach’s alpha coefficient and Kendall’s concordance were used to measure the reliability of the scale and the respondent’s level of agreement, respectively. One sample t-test, mean score ranking and principal component analysis were used to analyse the identified time-based delay impacts.

The study revealed seven significant impacts of time-based delay on PPP construction project delivery as: “project schedule overrun”, “idling of project resources”, “project cost overrun”, “poor quality of completed works”, “delayed realization of project benefits”, “frequent arbitration/litigation in PPP projects” and “total abandonment of PPP projects”. The study further identified the top five significant impacts of time-based delay on PPP project stakeholders as: “reduction in motivation to attract investment”, “high interest on finance (loans)”, “contractor in financial crisis”, “loss of public confidence in government” and “reduction in parties’ reputation”.

The identified significant impacts of time-based delays will increase stakeholders’ awareness of the repercussions and effects that time-based delays may impose on PPP construction projects if not appropriately managed throughout the project implementation. This awareness will further guide stakeholders to implement targeted risk management strategies to minimize the negative consequences of delays on PPP project performance.

As a pioneering study that provides a better understanding of the impacts of time-based delays on PPP construction projects, this study enhances knowledge of PPP construction project implementation.