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Retail shopping establishments in the West have evolved through many different stages, in close association with Western lifestyles. The growth of supermarkets has been an important part of this trend, and in the 1980s, they were introduced in China. With their distinctive business environment, it is significant to study the success of the distribution technology transfer and how the Chinese consumers have received the Western shopping approach. This study examines supermarket shoppers in Beijing. The results provide an insight into the shopping patterns of Chinese consumers and identify potential problems for international retailers.

The aim of this paper is to offer insights into what consumers are looking for when downloading music and what different consumer groups might look for in commercial online music services, based on their current level of music downloading, and their likelihood of purchasing music online in the near future.

The literature review focused on the risk and adoption theories. Interviews were used to help derive variables used in the design of a questionnaire. A web survey of 211 samples was used as a data collection method for this study.

The results suggest that performance and time‐loss aspects of perceived risks are playing an important role, while social and psychological aspects of risks are of the least concern to consumers. Where different types of users are concerned, those with the most experience of downloading music are the least profitable segment to target. Non and Light downloaders, on the other hand, should be the focus of marketing activities, although their needs are different.

This paper highlighted that different groups have different behaviours towards downloading music. The finding helps the online music providers to focus on and capture the new age downloaders.

Analyses customer satisfaction with mail‐order speciality foods in the UK and examines the relationship between satisfaction with eight attributes of mail‐order speciality food and their association with overall satisfaction and likelihood of future purchase. Univariate analysis reveals that a high proportion of mail‐order customers experience satisfaction with each of the eight mail‐order attributes, reflected in a high proportion of customers who are satisfied overall and who intend to repurchase the products in the future. Canonical correlation analysis reveals a statistically significant relationship between one set of variables, overall satisfaction and likelihood of future purchase, and another set of variables, the eight mail‐order attributes. Consequently the results indicate that customer satisfaction is associated with service aspects of mail‐order such as the order process and delivery service as well as physical product attributes such as product quality.

The objectives of the study are to examine consumer attitudes to mail‐order speciality food products on the basis of a survey of mail order shoppers. The particular question which is addressed in the paper is concerned with the benefits perceived by mail‐order speciality food customers. Specifically, it identifies the perceived benefits associated with mail‐order, then establishes the underlying dimensions of these benefits and, finally, investigates the existence of customer segments on the basis of benefits sought. Consumers’ perceptions of the benefits of mail‐order emphasise quality, uniqueness and convenience. However, underlying these attributes are four main dimensions of customer relations and service, convenience, nostalgia and uniqueness. Furthermore, it is possible to identify two consumer segments of active mail‐order shoppers in terms of a product‐oriented group and a mail‐order‐oriented group.

Discusses the financial implications of maintaining acceptable levels of food safety. The case of BSE is used as an example ‐ loss of export market, fall in domestic sales, changes in consumption, large expenditure, cost of practice changes in rearing and slaughtering animals. There is a trade‐off between safety and costs. How much safety can be expected? There must be an optimum level of safety. There are few ways in which a market economy can “fail” in providing the optimum ‐ asymmetry in knowledge of risks; aspects of food safety which are public goods; social costs of food safety and the divergence between objective scientific evidence and consumer perception.

In recent years, there has been a big increase in the use of ethical attributes as marketing appeals. The purpose of this paper is to examine consumers’ willingness to pay for three selected ethical attributes, namely “Organic”, “Recyclable Packaging” and “Fairtrade” in monetary terms.

A modified choice-based experimental design with manipulation of the key constructs was used to estimate the mean value of how much consumers are willing to pay for the selected attributes attached to a box of premium chocolates. The results are based on the responses of a total of 208 consumers.

Of the three attributes, “Recyclable Packaging” has the strongest influence on the purchase decision, although this attribute generates the least additional value. The aggregated result shows that although consumers are willing to pay more for the product with ethical attributes than the one that is without, still around a half of them are not willing to pay more. In terms of demographics, the results show no significant differences between the two genders or different age groups in their willingness to pay for ethical attributes. As might be expected, willingness to pay was correlated with the level of consciousness of the ethical attributes.

The findings of this study help management to think practically about the value consumers willing to pay for the selected attributes. The results show a significant synergy in a combination of ethical attributes in products.

This study aims to investigate the extent, level and pattern of key audit matters (KAMs) reporting by companies listed in the market for alternative investment (MAI) in Thailand, and to test for a relationship between the external auditors and KAMs reporting.

The population and sample used in this study were all companies listed in the MAI. Based on the annual reports issued by the sample of companies from 2016 to 2018, content analysis was used to quantify the KAMs reporting in the audit reports by using word counting and a checklist. Descriptive analysis, correlation matrix and multiple regression were used to analyse the data.

The results showed that the word counts of KAMs reporting fluctuated around 600 words during the three year period studied, while the number of issues on which KAMs reporting was performed was similar each year with an average of 1.63 KAMs issues per company. Moreover, the study found a significant positive relationship between auditor type, audit fees and the level of KAMs reporting.

This is the first longitudinal study of the KAMs reporting of companies listed in the alternative capital market in Thailand.

Communication and legitimacy theories were found to offer cogent explanations explaining the quality of and reasons for KAMs reporting by Thai listed companies as a reaction to the need for quality communication between external auditors and company stakeholders, based on external pressure due to societal expectations.

This paper aims to ask whether the implementation of the expanded auditor’s report, which included a requirement to disclose key audit matters (KAMs) in Thailand since 2016, has improved audit quality.

To answer this question, the authors examined audit quality two years before and two years after its adoption by analysing 1,519 firm-year observations obtained from 312 companies. The authors applied logistic regression analyses to the firm-year observations.

The authors found some weak evidence that KAMs disclosure improved audit quality because of auditors putting more effort into their audits and audits being performed thoroughly after the implementation of KAMs. Interestingly, the number of disclosed KAMs and the most common types of disclosed KAMs are not associated with audit quality. Only disclosed KAMs related to acquisitions are more informative because the presence of this type of disclosed KAMs signals the greater likelihood of financial restatements being made in a later year.

Unlike previous studies on the impact of KAMs disclosure on audit quality, which used discretionary accruals as proxy for audit quality, this study used the occurrence of financial restatements.

Although knowledge has become a decisive factor in the development of firms, there has been no detailed investigation into how start-ups acquire external knowledge. In order to narrow the research gap, this paper attempts to explore the mechanism of acquiring external knowledge in start-ups from the perspective of “environment–[sic.] structure” interaction.

This research develops a conceptual model regarding improvisation as an independent variable, strategic flexibility as a mediator, knowledge acquisition as the dependent variable and environmental mutation as a moderator between improvisation and strategic flexibility. Furthermore, this study collects the survey data from 277 firms and uses structural equation modeling (SEM) to empirically test the model and hypotheses.

The results show that creativity-bricolage and spontaneity-persistence have significantly positive effects on both capability flexibility and coordination flexibility. However, the positive effects of pressure-stress on capability flexibility and coordination flexibility are not supported. Meanwhile, the mediating roles of capability flexibility and coordination flexibility are supported. Finally, environmental mutation only positively moderates the relationship between creativity-bricolage and capability flexibility.

Improvisation can be seen as a core antecedent for start-ups to acquire external knowledge in environmental mutation. More specifically, the significant mediator is strategic flexibility to promote the relationship between improvisation and knowledge acquisition. The findings provide practical inspiration for start-ups to effectively utilize improvisation in emergencies.

This article reviews the quantitative marketing literature on artificial intelligence (AI) through an economics lens. We apply the framework in Prediction Machines: The Simple Economics of Artificial Intelligence to systematically categorize 96 research papers on AI in marketing academia into five levels of impact, which are prediction, decision, tool, strategy, and society. For each paper, we further identify each individual component of a task, the research question, the AI model used, and the broad decision type. Overall, we find there are fewer marketing papers focusing on strategy and society, and accordingly, we discuss future research opportunities in those areas.