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People can easily track and understand their usage pattern for any content (e.g. movies, games) or service (e.g. card payment, cell phone usage) by using technologies such as the internet and smart phones. When consumers evaluate their past consumption patterns, they may experience two different kinds of regret: content-based or monetary-based. The purpose of this paper is to propose that perceived self-control, defined as the extent to which people believe they can control their usage, plays a moderating role in the tariff-choice process (flatrate vs pay-per-use) for two types of content: vice-based and virtue-based.

Two laboratory experiments were designed to test the hypotheses. There were a total of 200 participants (86 for Experiment 1 and 114 for Experiment 2) who completed the entire experimental process (i.e. stimulus exposure, questionnaire reporting, dependent variable measurement, manipulation of the independent variables, and control checks).

The results of this research provide evidence supporting the role of perceived self-control in tariff preference by showing that preference varies between flat-rate and pay-per-use tariff options. Specifically, virtue-based content users were more likely to prefer the pay-per-use tariff when their perceived self-control was low vs when it was high. In contrast, vice-based content users were more likely to prefer the flat-rate tariff when their perceived self-control was low vs when it was high.

There are three contributions of the present research. First, the authors investigated the effect of content type on tariff preference. Second, the authors suggest that there is a moderating effect of perceived self-control on tariff preference. Third, this study revealed the factors affecting consumers’ perceived self-control.

International roaming (IR) makes it possible to conveniently use mobile communication services (MCS) such as MI access abroad without switching providers, devices or subscriber identity module (SIM) cards. To increase the intensity of competition in the intra-European Union market for IR services, customers will be enabled to buy IR voice and MI access services separately from their existing domestic MCS, as of July, 2014. Specifically, for separated international MI services providers can choose from three different charge types (use-dependent, flat and combination of flat and use-dependent). The purpose of this paper is to empirically examine customer preferences regarding these tariff types for separated international MI services.

Six research questions concerning antecedents of tariff type preferences for separated international MI access services are derived from a literature review. They are empirically addressed by analyzing survey responses obtained for a sample of 496 German-speaking MCS users.

Customers who actively seek for IR price information, consider IR services to be useful, exhibit high use intensities of MI services, do not restrict their MI usage when travelling abroad and tend to prefer flat rates to other pricing schemes. In contrast to these rather “active users”, customers favoring strictly use-dependent tariff plans exhibit significantly lower IR price information seeking efforts and comparatively low use intensities of MI services. Pricing schemes with MI allowances are especially liked by customers who are well-informed regarding and satisfied with IR prices, report above average use intensities of MI services, restrict their MI use abroad, are more likely to switch providers and use MCS mainly for job-related purposes.

The study is based on a German-speaking sample, which deviates from the German adult population. Additionally, the analysis is limited to stated instead of behaviorally revealed preferences for cross-border MI tariff types. Price thresholds influencing whether a cross-border MI tariff is entered into a consumer’s relevant set of offerings are not examined.

The research suggests that mobile network operators are well-advised to offer a clearly structured menu of a limited number of tariffs directed to the three profiled customer segments. Notwithstanding the advantages of such a set of rate plans, international MI tariff schemes with a data volume allowance appear to be generally beneficial both from a provider and an end-customer perspective.

To date, little is known about customer preferences concerning the three rate plan categories and on antecedents of such preferences in the field of MI access abroad. The present study takes a first step to narrowing this knowledge gap.

Promotional cues related to notions of fair prices or pricing designed to fit consumers’ needs are prevalent for many service offers. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how both customers’ price fairness and idiosyncratic fit perceptions shape their tariff evaluations.

Two experimental studies involving different tariff types and service contexts test the complex interplay of customers’ perceived price fairness and idiosyncratic fit with customer and context characteristics on their tariff evaluations.

Customers judge tariffs drawing on both the perceived price fairness and idiosyncratic fit, driven by the perceived price level of the tariff and the perceived pricing transparency of the firm. Customers’ service usage and consumption goals moderate these effects: heavy users and hedonic consumers indicate lower price sensitivity while focusing more on their transparency perception. The role of perceived price fairness and idiosyncratic fit for tariff choice depends on the tariff/service context; idiosyncratic fit is important when it is incidental (e.g. flat rates) rather than intentional (i.e. customized tariffs) and when customers lack the expertise or confidence to evaluate price fairness such as in the case of relatively new services.

Prior studies focused on either price fairness or idiosyncratic fit and thus cannot fully explain the complex interplay between both in the context of tariff choice. This paper explicates the conditions that affect the relative importance of both concepts and under which incidental offers are better received than premeditated ones.

The level and structure of protection from tariff and non‐tariff measures confronted by developing country exports of oilseeds, vegetable oils, and related products are examined to assess the gains available to these countries through further rounds of trade liberalisation. Although developing country exporters of these products can expect only limited benefits from a removal of tariffs by major developed market economy country (DMEC) importers, considerable gains could be realised by removing the relatively higher tariff rates imposed by the developing countries, and by removing the many non‐tariff measures which developing countries and DMECs use as well.

The purpose of this paper is to determine if the institutional quality of developing countries (DCs) and least-developed countries (LDCs) contributes to a significant increase in the utilization rate of the Swiss generalized system of preferences in the agro-food sector.

The authors use state of the art regression techniques accounting for zero values to identify if the institutional quality – separately depicted by the Worldwide Governance Indicators, the Index of Economic Freedom and the Human Development Index – can contribute in overcoming non-tariff barriers (NTBs) to trade.

The institutional quality exerts a consistent positive effect on the level of utilization of trade preferences.

Swiss food trade represents, of course, only a very small share of world trade, therefore it would be worthwhile to extend the analysis to other countries and sectors.

Industrialized countries’ development policies should more strongly focus on capacity building in DCs and LDCs to strengthen trade-related institutions.

The study focuses on an often underemphasized element in international trade relations – the role of the institutional quality in overcoming NTBs to trade.

The European Union's Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) has existed for over 40 years and it aimed to promote the export growth in the developing countries. The purpose of this paper is to highlight the evolution and characteristics of the EU's GSP regime and examine the effectiveness of the EU's GSP in promoting the export growth of ten ASEAN beneficiary countries.

The authors analyse the trade flows between the EU and ASEAN beneficiary countries under the GSP scheme by referring to trade data (1990‐2007) at the aggregate level, the sectoral level and individual beneficiary country level.

The authors find that using the EU's GSP to promote the exports growth of the ASEAN countries has very limited effectiveness. Although the total EU imports from the ASEAN countries experienced a significant increase during the period 1990‐2007, the preferential imports under the GSP scheme remained stagnated at the same period. However, the least developed ASEAN members reported very high utilization rates and successfully exploited GSP preferences for pushing up their exports to the European market.

This work provides new evidence on whether the EU's GSP really works and to what extent the EU's GSP enhances the export growth of ASEAN beneficiary countries. The empirical findings may provide trade policymakers with some guidance in making EU trade policy.

This chapter provides a legal and theoretical overview of environmental PPMs articulated in private standards. It seeks to expand the debate about environmental PPMs, elucidating important dimensions to the issue from the perspective of global governance and international trade law. One of the arguments advanced in this chapter is that a comprehensive analysis of environmental PPMs should consider not only their role in what is regarded as trade barriers (governmental and market driven) but also their significance in global objectives such as the transition towards a green economy and sustainable patterns of consumption and production.

This chapter is based on an extensive literature review and doctrinal legal research.

This research shows that environmental PPMs represent a key issue in the context of the trade and environment relationship. For decades such measures have been thought of as being trade distortive and thus incompatible with WTO law. Although it seems clear now that they are not unlawful per se, their legal status remains unsettled. PPMs can be regarded as regulatory choices associated with a wide range of environmental concerns. However, in trade disputes, challenged measures involving policy objectives addressing production issues in the conservation of natural resources tend to focus on fishing/harvesting techniques. On the other hand, an important goal of Global Environmental Governance (GEG) is to incentivise sustainable consumption and production in order to achieve the transition to a green economy. In this sense, it can be argued that what are generally denominated as ‘PPMs’ in the WTO terminology can alternatively be regarded ‘SCPs’ in the language of environmental governance. Environmental PPMs are not only limited to state-based measures, such as import bans, tariff preferences, and governmental labelling schemes. Environmental PPMs may also amount to good corporate practices towards environmental protection and provide the rationale for numerous private environmental standards.

Most academic attention afforded to environmental-PPMs has focused on their impacts on trade or their legality under WTO law. Although legal scholars have already referred to the significance of such measures in the context of environmental governance, this issue has remained almost entirely unexplored. This chapter seeks to fill the gap in the literature in this regard. In particular, it addresses the relevance of environmental PPMs in the context of decentralised governance initiatives such as the UN Global Compact and private environmental standards.

Overall, this chapter assists in the understanding of the significance of environmental PPMs in the context of private environmental standards and other governance initiatives involving goals related to sustainable consumption and production. This chapter adds to the existing body of literature on the subject of PPMs in international trade and environmental governance.

Agricultural trade has generated more than its share of disputes in the past fifty years. Lack of a clear structure of rules to constrain government activity in these markets, coupled with the particularly sensitive nature of trade in basic foodstuffs, has been the main cause of this disproportion. New rules agreed in the Uruguay Round provided an improved framework for government policy in this area, and a temporary exemption was given to certain subsidies from challenge in the WTO (the Peace Clause). However, the expiry of the Peace Clause in 2003 and a growing willingness on the part of exporters to challenge domestic farm programs in other countries through action under the Dispute Settlement Understanding has once again stirred the agricultural pot. Now trade disputes are frequently leading to litigation, encouraged by the slow progress in the Doha Round of trade negotiations. In particular, the scope for domestic subsidies, under the Agreement on Agriculture and the Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures, has increasingly become the subject of litigation. Countries may have to further modify their domestic policies so as to reduce their vulnerability to challenge in the WTO.

While demand for many products has become more homogeneous across countries, cultural factors have strongly inhibited this change as well. In a multicultural world, cultural heterogeneity will continue to remain the most significant barrier to one global market. Cultures are resilient and enduring and so is the concept of global multiculturalism. At the global level, trading blocs may be viewed as a cluster of geographically close countries that share abstract and/or material culture in varying degrees. It is interesting to note that the three major regional trading blocs (i.e. the European Union, North American Free Trade Agreement, and the Association of South East Asian Nations) can be characterized by significant differences in culture. With the rapid emergence of trading blocs in the multicultural market, our paper attempts to meet several objectives. First, we discuss the growing importance and underlying motives of regional trading blocs in a multicultural setting. The level of trading arrangements between nations is described and a brief overview of the three major trading blocs is then presented. The level of heterogeneity of each trading bloc is examined with implications for market segmentation. The critical role of strategic alliances in the context of regional trading blocs is discussed next. Finally, we recommend marketing strategies for firms marketing to countries within its trading bloc as well as to countries outside its trading bloc.