What Does it Take to Get your Attention? : The influence of In-Store and Out-of-Store Factors on Visual Attention and Decision Making for Fast-moving Consumer Goods

OpenAIRE

Shams, Poja

2013-01-01

Decision making for fast-moving consumer goods involves a choice between numerous similar alternatives. Under such demanding circumstances, a decision is made for one product. The decision is dependent on the interaction between the environment and the mind of the consumer, both of which are filled with information that can influence the outcome. The aim of this dissertation is to explore how the mind and the environment guides attention towards considered and chosen products in consumer deci...

Assessing a brand equity model for fast moving consumer goods in cosmetic and hygiene industry

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Alireza Karbasivar

2014-11-01

Full Text Available This paper presents an empirical investigation to study the effects of ten factors on brand equity. The study provides an assessment using a brand equity model for fast moving consumer goods in cosmetic and hygiene industry. The study has accomplished among people who purchase goods in six major cities of Iran based on an adapted questionnaire originally developed by Aaker (1992a [Aaker, D. A. (1992a. The value of brand equity. Journal of Business Strategy, 13(4, 27-32.]. Cronbach alpha has been calculated as 0.88, which is well above the minimum acceptable level of 0.7. In addition, Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin Measure of Sampling adequacy and Bartlett's test of Sphericity approximation Chi-Square are 0.878, 276628 with Sig. = 0.000, respectively. The proposed study of this paper uses structural equation modeling to test different hypotheses of the survey. The Root Mean Square Error of Approximation (RMSEA, Comparative Fit Index (CFI and Chi-Square/df are 0.067, 0.840 and 4.244 and they are within desirable levels. While the effects of seven factors on brand equity have been confirmed. However, the survey does not confirm the effects of perceived value, advertisement effectiveness and advertisement to brand on brand equity. In our survey, brand loyalty maintains the highest positive impact followed by having updated brand, trust to brand, perceived quality to brand, brand awareness, intensity of supply and perception to brand.

CONSUMER PROTECTION: Federal Actions Are Needed to Improve Oversight of the Household Goods Moving Industry

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

2001-01-01

.... The Motor Carrier Safety Improvement Act of 1999 directed that we assess the effectiveness of the Department of Transportation s consumer protection activities for the interstate household goods...

USSR Report: Consumer Goods and Domestic Trade

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

1985-01-01

.... This document contains articles on consumer goods and domestic trade within the USSR. Topics include: consumer goods production and distribution, housing and personal services, and consumer sector policy and economics.

Study on radioactivity in consumer goods

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1976-01-01

Consumer goods containing radionuclides are increasingly utilized, sometimes for having chemical or technological properties which nonradioactive materials cannot fulfill (e.g. uranium paints) or it may be that radioactivity is especially required (e.g. fluorescent paints, fire-alarm-boxes, electronic instruments). The present study makes a compilation of consumer goods containing radioactive substances which are available to the general public in the nine countries of the Community, carries out a medium and long term study to assess how accumulated radiation from these goods could affect the population as a whole, and proposes measures to minimize the effects of such accumulation

Derivation of the Radioactivity Index for Consumer Goods Containing NORM

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Jang, Mee; Chung, Kun Ho; Ji, Young Yong; Kim, Chang Jong; Kang, Mun Ja [KAERI, Daejeon (Korea, Republic of)

2016-05-15

Some consumer goods to promote health such as anion bracelets, necklace and mats contain naturally occurring radioactive material (NORM). Some of them can cause problems because of high radioactivity. In the regulations, there is an annual effective dose limit of 1mSv for products, but the activity concentration limits and radioactivity index for products is not established yet. Although there are few researches for consumer goods containing NORM in foreign countries, in Japan, for the consumer goods. To regulate the NORM in consumer goods, it is necessary to derive activity concentration limits corresponding to the annual limits of 1mSv. In this research, we calculated the activity concentration limits according to the usage quantities of consumer goods. Using these results, it is possible to suggest several radioactivity indexes to apply to a lot of consumer goods.

Derivation of the Radioactivity Index for Consumer Goods Containing NORM

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jang, Mee; Chung, Kun Ho; Ji, Young Yong; Kim, Chang Jong; Kang, Mun Ja

2016-01-01

Some consumer goods to promote health such as anion bracelets, necklace and mats contain naturally occurring radioactive material (NORM). Some of them can cause problems because of high radioactivity. In the regulations, there is an annual effective dose limit of 1mSv for products, but the activity concentration limits and radioactivity index for products is not established yet. Although there are few researches for consumer goods containing NORM in foreign countries, in Japan, for the consumer goods. To regulate the NORM in consumer goods, it is necessary to derive activity concentration limits corresponding to the annual limits of 1mSv. In this research, we calculated the activity concentration limits according to the usage quantities of consumer goods. Using these results, it is possible to suggest several radioactivity indexes to apply to a lot of consumer goods

29 CFR 779.242 - Goods that “have been moved in” commerce.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

... 29 Labor 3 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Goods that âhave been moved inâ commerce. 779.242 Section... Commerce by Any Person § 779.242 Goods that “have been moved in” commerce. For the purpose of section 3(s), goods will be considered to “have been moved * * * in commerce” when they have moved across State lines...

Approval of radioactive consumer goods

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Paynter, R.A.

1992-01-01

The 1980 Euratom Directive obliges the UK to draw up a system of prior authorization for the use of radioactive substances in a range of consumer products, and the Government intends to make regulations to fulfil the requirements of the Directive. These regulations will empower NRPB to approve such products prior to their supply to the public. In this brief article, the NRPB reviews the criteria against which to consider any proposed use of radioactive substances, considers radiological production standards for products and discusses the questions of the labelling of radioactive consumer goods. (UK)

Participative management: Concept and application in consumer goods companies

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ann I Ogbo

2016-11-01

Full Text Available This paper attempts to ascertain the impact of participative management on workflows, its influence on sales output and how well the concept is practised by consumer goods companies in Nigeria. Study adopted the survey design; questionnaires were used to collect necessary data from sales personnel across 10 states in South-Ssouth and South East Nigeria. Respondents rated the concept and application of participative management as it affects their work environment and sales output of the company. Statistical results of the study showed that 92.08% of the respondents believe that there are benefits derivable from participative management and that these benefits improve both sales output and workflow. 48% believe that participative management is practised in firms. Hypotheses tested using the chi-square test statistic revealed that: Consumer goods companies benefit from practising participative management, Participative management has effect on sales output of consumer goods companies, and the concept of participative management is not fully practised by consumer goods companies in Nigeria. These findings indicate that participative management principles need to be inculcated fully in the running of sales organisations so as to increase sales volume and ultimately boost the profit of consumer goods companies

Buying stolen goods: the ambiguity in trading consumer-to-consumer

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kammersgaard, Tobias; Heinskou, Marie Bruvik; Demant, Jakob

2017-01-01

This study investigates the buying of stolen goods in Denmark. The study consists of a self-report survey based on a representative sample of the general Danish population (n = 2311) and six focus group interviews consisting of both informants experienced with buying stolen goods and of those...... with no experience (n = 37). The survey showed that 4.8% had bought stolen goods, while 15.7% were uncertain whether they had bought stolen goods. Young people, males, and unemployed were more likely to purchase stolen goods. No clear correlation between income and buying stolen goods was found. Focus groups suggest...... the buyers of stolen goods did not buy stolen goods because they could not afford legitimate products. We recommend targeting consumers not interested in buying stolen goods with information about how to avoid such activity....

USSR Report, Consumer Goods and Domestic Trade, No. 35

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

1982-01-01

PARTIAL CONTENTS: CONSUMER GOODS PRODUCTION AND DISTRIBUTION - Deputy Gosplan Chairman Lakhtin on Consumer Demand, Consumer Co-ps and State Trade Urged To Improve Service, Stepped Up Light Industry Construction Urged...

The safety of consumer goods containing radioactive substances

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wrixon, A.D.

1980-01-01

Consideration is given to the arguments used in the formulation of proposals which have been incorporated into a consultative document published by the National Radiological Protection Board (Criteria Relating to the Approval of Consumer Goods Containing Radioactive Substances: A Consultative Document, HMSO, London). The proposals are summarized. They were based on the classification of these consumer goods into different categories, and details are given of the suggested dose limits for these categories. Comments on the proposals are invited. (U.K.)

The impact of the number of retail outlets on the market share of consumer goods' retail brands

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Vlahović Marko

2016-01-01

Full Text Available The paper presents the research results of effects of retail brands of consumer goods on the market share they have in Serbia. In particular, the research includes the impact of the retail format on the growth or decrease in market share. The data were obtained from market retailing research of consumer goods on the Internet and the research carried out by the GFK agency. The study used a statistical method of data processing by the method of descriptive statistics. The survey showed that the Serbian retail market is still underdeveloped, and that the strongest impact on the market share of retail chain stores of consumer goods has the size of the retail network, as well as a strong dominance of traditional trade in comparison to organized one. The retail market in Serbia has a long period of consolidation forthcoming and also taking over such a status that organized trades or TOP 10 retail chains have already had in the most developed countries. The market share of TOP 10 retail chains in Serbia is now at the level slightly bigger than 30%, while those in developed market economies have a market share moving up to 75%.

Attitudes, involvement and consumer behaviour : a longitudinal study in fast moving consumer goods markets

OpenAIRE

Walker, David

1994-01-01

An empirical study is reported which attempts to validate two key theoretical consequences of consumer involvement: differences in brand buying behaviour and differences in the type of decision processing undertaken. A literature review is provided which traces the history of involvement and identifies a suitable contemporary framework. Work on brand loyalty and attitude modelling is also reviewed and suitable frameworks identified. A pilot stage is reported which show...

Elderly Consumers and the Used Goods Economy.

Science.gov (United States)

Dobbs, Ralph C.

A study examined the used goods market as it affects older adults. A set of open-ended questions was administered to 100 respondents over sixty years of age who were either retired or near retirement, married or widowed, and suburban or rural. Interviews were conducted to derermine the effects of the used goods market on the elderly consumer, to…

USSR Report: Consumer Goods and Domestic Trade

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

1985-01-01

.... This document contains articles on consumer goods and domestic trade issues within the USSR. Topics include: production, distribution, economics, housing and personal services, policies, personal income and savings.

Radioactivity of and exposure by the consumer's goods containing NORM

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yoshida, M.; Ohhata, T.; Sato, S.; Ohyama, R.; Furuya, H.

2005-01-01

It is so important from the view of point of regulation to know the radioactive concentration or radioactivity in the consumer's goods containing naturally occurring radioactive materials (NORM) and the radiation exposure when they are used in the daily living life. In this study, 20 consumer's goods containing NORM were collected. After chemically processing them, the radioactive concentrations in them were measured by an inductively coupled plasma attached with mass spectrometer (ICP-MS) and a γ-ray spectrometer of Ge(li). In addition, the radiation exposures were calculated in four typical cases where the consumer' goods are generally used in the daily living life. (J.P.N.)

Attitudes of Consumers from Podgorica toward Advertising through Sport among the Question how often Consumers purchase Sporting Goods

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Vladimir Djurisic

2018-04-01

Full Text Available This research was aimed at gaining relevant knowledge about the attitudes of Podgorica consumers toward advertising through sport among the question how often consumers purchase sporting goods. The sample included 330 students from Faculty of Economics in Podgorica, divided into six subsample groups: consumers who do not purchase sport goods at all, then consumers who purchase sport goods less than ones a month, next 1–3 a month, 4–6 a month, 7–9 a month, as well as consumers who purchase sport goods more than 10 times a month. The sample of variables contained the system of three general attitudes which were modelled by seven-point Likert scale. The results of the measuring were analyzed by multivariate analysis (MANOVA and univariate analysis (ANOVA and Post Hoc test. Based on the statistical analyses it was found that significant differences occur at multivariate level, as well as between all three variables at a significance level of (p=.000. Hence, it is interesting to highlight that it was found there were significant differences showed up between the consumers who purchase sport goods. The significant differences were found in two of three variables, while the consumers who purchase sport goods less than 3 times a moths had much more negative attitudes toward advertising though sport.

Sizewell: good value for consumers' money

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

MacKerron, G.

1984-01-01

For consumers, the overriding issues in electricity policy are always likely to be those which affect prices, both in the near future and over the longer term. It is therefore the 'need and economics' part of the overall case for Sizewell that consumers' representatives chose to scrutinize. This paper argues that there are no compelling short-term reasons to start construction of Sizewell at the earliest possible time. Further, long-term considerations suggest that there are good reasons not to make an early commitment to the Westinghouse four-loop design of PWR, either for Sizewell or for subsequent orders. (author)

USSR Report, Consumer Goods and Domestic Trade, No. 40

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

1982-01-01

The report contains articles on USSR consumer goods production and distribution with particular attention to Food Services, milk processing, textile, household goods production, and motorcycle spare parts...

Progress and challenges associated with halal authentication of consumer packaged goods.

Science.gov (United States)

Premanandh, Jagadeesan; Bin Salem, Samara

2017-11-01

Abusive business practices are increasingly evident in consumer packaged goods. Although consumers have the right to protect themselves against such practices, rapid urbanization and industrialization result in greater distances between producers and consumers, raising serious concerns on the supply chain. The operational complexities surrounding halal authentication pose serious challenges on the integrity of consumer packaged goods. This article attempts to address the progress and challenges associated with halal authentication. Advancement and concerns on the application of new, rapid analytical methods for halal authentication are discussed. The significance of zero tolerance policy in consumer packaged foods and its impact on analytical testing are presented. The role of halal assurance systems and their challenges are also considered. In conclusion, consensus on the establishment of one standard approach coupled with a sound traceability system and constant monitoring would certainly improve and ensure halalness of consumer packaged goods. © 2017 Society of Chemical Industry. © 2017 Society of Chemical Industry.

Attitudes of Turskish Consumers toward Advertising through Sport among the Question how often Consumers purchase Sporting Goods

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gorica Zoric

2017-08-01

Full Text Available Unlike other advertising mediums such as TV commercials or online advertising, people involuntarily receive sport advertisements; they prefer to watch the game for the sporting action than the regular advertisements. However, it is important to analyse their general attitudes among various questions, mostly due to the reason it varies from demographic group to demographic group. Hence, this research was aimed at gaining relevant knowledge about the attitudes of Serbian consumers toward advertising through sport among the question how often consumers purchase sporting goods. The sample included 173 respondents, divided into six subsample groups: consumers who do not purchase sport goods at all, then consumers who purchase sport goods less than ones a month, next 1–3 a month, 4–6 a month, 7–9 a month, as well as consumers who purchase sport goods more than 10 times a month. The sample of variables contained the system of three general attitudes which were modelled by seven-point Likert scale. The results of the measuring were analysed by multivariate analysis (MANOVA and univariate analysis (ANOVA and Post Hoc test. Based on the results it was concluded that significant differences occur at multivariate level, as well as between one of three variables at univariate level (p=.05. It is interesting to highlight that most of potential consumers (n=146 have recognized themselves in two categories: as consumers who purchase sport goods less than ones a month and one to three times a months, while there were no differences among the groups. If we take a look into previous investigations, it is interesting there are some opposite results, and the recommendations for further research are directed to spread out the sample a little bit more, mostly due to the reason the consumers who had a more negative attitudes were in the group that didn’t purchase the sport goods at all.

USSR Report, Consumer Goods and Domestic Trade, No. 66.

Science.gov (United States)

1983-06-10

each production manager toward the daily concerns of the Soviet people is being tested. 7807 CSO: 1827/209 CONSUMER GOODS PRODUCTION AND...of them, po- tential buyers : it is a question of sums of millions, if not billions in savings of the working people . Their offers are not a...iü>>. *•■> JPRS 83652 10 June 19 83 USSR Report CONSUMER GOODS AND DOMESTIC TRADE No. 66 f~DisTräfünoiTsT* TEMäärTT"" Arrr-a

USSR Report, Consumer Goods and Domestic Trade, No. 70.

Science.gov (United States)

1983-06-30

and dining rooms is im- portant, it is important that consumer goods would always be available to customers , that here they would greet customers ...make proposals on improving the work routine and on organizing the advertising of consumer services, and organize and conduct explanatory work among...the basis of rayon consumer service combines. RPU’s incorporate integrated receiving centers and mobile receiving centers. The organization of

Preliminary evaluation of the activity concentration limits for consumer goods containing NORM

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Jang, Mee; Chung, Kun Ho; Ji, Young Yong; Lim, Jong Myung; Kang, Mun Ja; Choi, Guen Sik [Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, Daejeon (Korea, Republic of)

2016-06-15

To protect the public from natural radioactive materials, the 'Act on safety control of radioactive rays around living environment' was established in Korea. There is an annual effective dose limit of 1 mSv for products, but the activity concentration limit for products is not established yet. To suggest the activity concentration limits for consumer goods containing NORM, in this research, we assumed the 'small room model' surrounding the ICRP reference phantom to simulate the consumer goods in contact with the human bodies. Using the Monte Carlo code MCNPX, we evaluate the effective dose rate for the ICRP reference phantom in a small room with dimension of phantom size and derived the activity concentration limit for consumer goods. The consumer goods have about 1600, 1200 and 19000 Bq·kg{sup -1} for {sup 226}Ra, {sup 232}Th and {sup 40}K, and the activity concentration limits are about six times comparing with the values of building materials. We applied the index to real samples, though we did not consider radioactivity of {sup 40}K, indexes of the some samples are more than 6. However, this index concept using small room model is very conservative, for the consumer goods over than index 6, it is necessary to reevaluate the absorbed dose considering real usage scenario and material characteristics. In this research, we derived activity concentration limits for consumer goods in contact with bodies and the results can be used as preliminary screening tool for consumer goods as index concept.

Preliminary evaluation of the activity concentration limits for consumer goods containing NORM

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jang, Mee; Chung, Kun Ho; Ji, Young Yong; Lim, Jong Myung; Kang, Mun Ja; Choi, Guen Sik

2016-01-01

To protect the public from natural radioactive materials, the 'Act on safety control of radioactive rays around living environment' was established in Korea. There is an annual effective dose limit of 1 mSv for products, but the activity concentration limit for products is not established yet. To suggest the activity concentration limits for consumer goods containing NORM, in this research, we assumed the 'small room model' surrounding the ICRP reference phantom to simulate the consumer goods in contact with the human bodies. Using the Monte Carlo code MCNPX, we evaluate the effective dose rate for the ICRP reference phantom in a small room with dimension of phantom size and derived the activity concentration limit for consumer goods. The consumer goods have about 1600, 1200 and 19000 Bq·kg -1 for 226 Ra, 232 Th and 40 K, and the activity concentration limits are about six times comparing with the values of building materials. We applied the index to real samples, though we did not consider radioactivity of 40 K, indexes of the some samples are more than 6. However, this index concept using small room model is very conservative, for the consumer goods over than index 6, it is necessary to reevaluate the absorbed dose considering real usage scenario and material characteristics. In this research, we derived activity concentration limits for consumer goods in contact with bodies and the results can be used as preliminary screening tool for consumer goods as index concept

Consumer Value Creation in the Consumption of Luxury Goods: A Consumer Perspective

OpenAIRE

Benvie-Ferreiros, Lidia

2008-01-01

The globalisation of the luxury market has presented the industry with an ever expanding and broad range of global consumers that are facilitating significant growth to the industry. In light of the downturn in Western economies, the extension and demand for luxury goods in booming Eastern economies present the luxury industry with a rosy future, estimated to be worth over $450 billion by 2012. The nature of this growth has been down to changing consumption behaviour of consumers; no longer e...

77 FR 32901 - State Enforcement of Household Goods Consumer Protection

Science.gov (United States)

2012-06-04

... enforce certain consumer protection provisions of Title 49 of the United States Code (U.S.C.) and related... bring civil actions in the U.S. district courts to enforce the consumer protection provisions that apply..., 386, and 387 State Enforcement of Household Goods Consumer Protection AGENCY: Federal Motor Carrier...

Attitudes of Montenegrin Consumers Toward Advertising Through Sport Among the Question How Often Consumers Purchase Sporting Goods

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gorica Zoric

2018-01-01

Full Text Available Unlike other advertising mediums such as TV commercials or online advertising, people involuntarily receive sport advertisements; they prefer to watch the game for the sporting action than the regular advertisements. However, it is important to analyse their general attitudes among various questions, mostly due to the reason it varies from demographic group to demographic group. Hence, this research was aimed at gaining relevant knowledge about the attitudes of Montenegrin consumers toward advertising through sport among the question how often consumers purchase sporting goods. The sample included 342 respondents, divided into six subsample groups: consumers who do not purchase sport goods at all, then consumers who purchase sport goods less than ones a month, next 1–3 a month, 4–6 a month, 7–9 a month, as well as consumers who purchase sport goods more than 10 times a month. The sample of variables contained the system of three general attitudes which were modelled by seven-point Likert scale. The results of the measuring were analysed by multivariate analysis (MANOVA and univariate analysis (ANOVA and Post Hoc test.Based on the statistical analyses it was found that significant differences occur at multivariate level, as well as between all three variables at a significance level of (p=.000.

77 FR 36932 - Transportation of Household Goods in Interstate Commerce; Consumer Protection Regulations

Science.gov (United States)

2012-06-20

... use of energy. List of Subjects in 49 CFR Part 375 Advertising, Arbitration, Consumer protection...--TRANSPORTATION OF HOUSEHOLD GOODS IN INTERSTATE COMMERCE; CONSUMER PROTECTION REGULATIONS 0 1. The authority... No. FMCSA-2012-0119] RIN 2126-AB52 Transportation of Household Goods in Interstate Commerce; Consumer...

BEHAVIOR OF THE ROMANIAN GREEN GOODS CONSUMERS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mirela-Cristina VOICU

2014-05-01

Full Text Available Marketing has put forward for a long time the fact that any activity conducted in an organization should consider an intimate knowledge of the client, and a close look at the green marketing practices used over time shows that eco-friendly products should be positioned in relation to those attributes looked for by the involved consumers. In this context, the following paper reveals some important aspects regarding the Romanian green market and the characteristics of the green consumer behavior together with solutions that marketers can apply to stimulate the consumption of green goods.

Consumer Ethics Research: Reframing the Debate About Consumption for Good

OpenAIRE

Brinkmann, Johannes; Peattie, Ken

2009-01-01

Originally published in the journal Electronic Journal of Business Ethics and Organization Studies (EJBO): http://ejbo.jyu.fi/archives/vol13_no1.html Consumer ethics is an underdeveloped specialism of business and marketing ethics, within which most publications have focused on bad rather than on good ethics, and on consumer dishonesty rather than on consumer idealism or consumer responsibility. This conceptual paper explores the latter perspective, and examines how we can seek to under...

Consumption and the Consumer

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Maria VADUVA

2016-09-01

Full Text Available The consumer is that trader responsible for consumption act of some final goods or services who decided what must be produce and in what cantity, being the one who make the economic mechanism to move. Consumption is in close connection with the production of goods and services, exerting an active role, any activity should be complete by consuming its results; consumption creates the motivation to achieve economic and non-economic activities. The traditional approach to consumer behavior starts from hypothesised that all consumers seek to maximize the aggregate utility obtained of satisfactions resulting from consumption of goods taking into account the budgetary constraints given by income that consumer has and the prices of these goods. In the conditions of modern economy, consumption can be increased by diseconomies. If consumption depends on permanent income, revenue growth effectively does not exert influence on consumption only to the extent that this increase of income leads to increasing permanent income consumer. Consumption is viewed as an active agent of economic life, it is not only a consumer of goods and services but also a producer.

THE ATTITUDES TOWARD SPORT ADVERTISING AMONG THE QUESTION HOW OFTEN CONSUMERS PURCHASE SPORTING GOODS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Stevo Popović

2011-08-01

Full Text Available This research was aimed at gaining relevant knowledge about the attitudes toward sport advertising among the question how often consumers participate in sports activities The sample included 433 respondents, divided into six subsample groups: consumers who do not purchase sport goods at all, then consumers who purchase sport goods less than ones a month, next 1–3 a month, 4–6 a month, 7–9 a month, as well as consumers who purchase sport goods more than 10 times a months. The results of the measuring were analyzed by multivariate analysis (MANOVA and univariate analysis (ANOVA and Post Hoc test. Based on the results it was concluded that significant differences occur at multivariate level, as well as between all three variables at a significance level of p=.05. It is interesting to highlight that it was found that the significant differences showed up between the consumers who do not purchase sport goods at all with negative attitudes and consumers who purchase sport goods less than ones a months and more with positive attitudes toward sport advertising

Additive manufacturing for consumer-centric business models

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bogers, Marcel; Hadar, Ronen; Bilberg, Arne

2016-01-01

Digital fabrication—including additive manufacturing (AM), rapid prototyping and 3D printing—has the potential to revolutionize the way in which products are produced and delivered to the customer. Therefore, it challenges companies to reinvent their business model—describing the logic of creating...... and capturing value. In this paper, we explore the implications that AM technologies have for manufacturing systems in the new business models that they enable. In particular, we consider how a consumer goods manufacturer can organize the operations of a more open business model when moving from a manufacturer......-centric to a consumer-centric value logic. A major shift includes a move from centralized to decentralized supply chains, where consumer goods manufacturers can implement a “hybrid” approach with a focus on localization and accessibility or develop a fully personalized model where the consumer effectively takes over...

77 FR 48460 - Transportation of Household Goods in Interstate Commerce; Consumer Protection Regulations

Science.gov (United States)

2012-08-14

..., direct final rule concerning household goods consumer protection. The direct final rule amended the... No. FMCSA-2012-0119] RIN 2126-AB52 Transportation of Household Goods in Interstate Commerce; Consumer Protection Regulations AGENCY: Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), DOT. ACTION: Direct final...

Making or buying environmental public goods: do consumers care?

OpenAIRE

Bougherara, Douadia; Costa, Sandrine; Teisl, Mario

2012-01-01

Firms may voluntary abate pollution using one of two options: internalizing its own external effects and incuring abatement costs ("making") or delegating environmental protection by purchasing offsets ("buying"). We aim to elicit consumers' WTP for producers' use of the "making" option as compared to the "buying" option, controlling for spatial effects (joint local public goods) and level of GHG emissions. Using a stated choice survey with 722 respondents, we find consumers are more willing ...

Dynamic pricing of network goods with boundedly rational consumers.

Science.gov (United States)

Radner, Roy; Radunskaya, Ami; Sundararajan, Arun

2014-01-07

We present a model of dynamic monopoly pricing for a good that displays network effects. In contrast with the standard notion of a rational-expectations equilibrium, we model consumers as boundedly rational and unable either to pay immediate attention to each price change or to make accurate forecasts of the adoption of the network good. Our analysis shows that the seller's optimal price trajectory has the following structure: The price is low when the user base is below a target level, is high when the user base is above the target, and is set to keep the user base stationary once the target level has been attained. We show that this pricing policy is robust to a number of extensions, which include the product's user base evolving over time and consumers basing their choices on a mixture of a myopic and a "stubborn" expectation of adoption. Our results differ significantly from those that would be predicted by a model based on rational-expectations equilibrium and are more consistent with the pricing of network goods observed in practice.

Strengthening the regulatory control of consumer goods through international harmonization

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yus Rusdian Akhmad

2013-01-01

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is currently working on a recommendation in the form of guidelines for regulating consumer goods. Preparation of this document has a significant dimension of international issues, especially in terms of the application of the principles of justification and application of the concept of exemption. International harmonization among regulators ranging from the regional to the global level is a central issue and considering the complex issues that arise in addition to covering the scientific aspects also involve consideration of the legal aspects or values espoused by any State which may differ from one another. PERKA BAPETEN on consumer goods is still in the preparation stage so that the discussion of the material will be useful for improving the quality of the regulation in time. There is a significant gap of understanding to the related materials by the parties concerned (between local and international parties were among the local party). This paper intends to propose the understanding and views on radiation protection and regulatory control for consumer goods and hopely could contributed significantly to strengthening its regulatory control which is primarily through a reduction in the gap of understanding to the related concept that potentially multi perceptions and encourage stronger cooperation among regulatory bodies. (author)

AN ILLUSTRATIVE EXAMPLE OF APPLICATION DECISION MAKING PROCESS FOR PRODUCTION CONSUMER GOODS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

IULIANA CARMEN BĂRBĂCIORU

2014-05-01

Full Text Available This article we provide an overview of the analysis a method of decision making system for consumer goods. Based on the definition of the positive ideal solution and negative ideal solution, this method selects the most appropriate one with the highest degree of membership belonging to the positive ideal solution. The use of this method is expected to help and provide the best decision in the selection of sale of consumer goods. A case study is used to illustrate the procedure of the proposed approach at the end of the paper

Sales drive advertising expenditures: Evidence for consumer packaged and durable goods in Germany

OpenAIRE

Lischka, Juliane A; Kienzler, Stephanie; Mellmann, Ulrike

2014-01-01

The relation between sales and advertising is both complex and diverse. Whether advertising activities drive or follow sales is still unclear. We uncover this relation distinguishing between consumer packaged goods (CPG) and durable consumer goods (DCG) industries. We fit vector autoregressive models to sales and advertising expenditures of four CPG and three DCG industries in Germany from 1991 q1 to 2009 q4. Findings reveal that advertising expenditures do not increase total sales of industr...

Urania in the Marketplace: Using Telescopes to Sell Consumer Goods

Science.gov (United States)

Rumstay, Kenneth S.

2018-01-01

For well over a century the iconic image of the astronomical telescope has been widely used to promote distinctly non-astronomical consumer goods. One of the most famous of early examples is the 1893 Chicago newspaper advertisement for Kirk’s Soap, which was inspired by the opening of the Yerkes Observatory. But such usage was not limited to periodicals. Advertising trade cards had become popular at the end of the 17th century in Europe, notably in Paris and London. In a time prior to the introduction of formal systems of street address numbering, they served as both advertisement and map, directing consumers to the merchants' stores. In many cases, attention was drawn to the product by picturing it as a heavenly body to be observed telescopically! In the 20th century trade cards gave way to the modern business card, and manufacturers began to increasingly rely on magazine and newspaper (and radio and television) advertising. But the telescope remains an evocative image! In modern advertising we see it used to sell an incredible variety of consumer goods: candy, coffee, cigarettes, whiskey, foodstuffs, clothing; the list is endless! Examples of these, along with earlier Victorian-era usages, are presented. This work was supported by a faculty development grant from Valdosta State University.

USSR Report, Consumer Goods and Domestic Trade, No. 65

Science.gov (United States)

1983-06-08

customers . [Question] Vasiliy Konstantinovich, you have told about the consumer qualities of the new butter. But now let us touch upon the...organization of information for the customers on the availability and quality of goods -- advertising — requires radical improvements. An effective...is not aimed at a definite contingent of customers . Special advertising institutes function within the Ministry of Trade and Moldavpotrebsoyuz and

Supply chain design approaches for supply chain resilience: A qualitative study of South African fast-moving consumer goods grocery manufacturers

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Assilah Agigi

2016-10-01

Full Text Available Orientation: In today’s globalised and complex business environment, firms are ever more vulnerable to supply chain disruptions, originating both internally and externally from the supply chain. Supply chain resilience minimises the impact of a disruption through design approaches, which allows the supply chain to respond appropriately to disruptive events. Research purpose: This article investigated the supply chain risks faced by grocery manufacturers in the South African fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG industry and explored supply chain design approaches that enable supply chain resilience. Motivation for the study: South African grocery manufacturers are faced with distinct risks. Whilst supply chain risk management studies have provided firms with certain guidelines to mitigate risk, supply chains are still vulnerable to unanticipated risks. Literature on supply chain resilience in the South African context is scant. The concept of supply chain resilience provides firms with strategies that are built into the supply chain that allow firms to react and recover swiftly from disruptions. Furthermore, supply chain resilience strategies assist firms in becoming less vulnerable to possible disruptions. Research design approach and method: This study was conducted by using a descriptive qualitative research design. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with senior supply chain practitioners specifically within the South African FMCG grocery manufacturing industry. Main findings: The study found that labour unrest is the most common risk faced by the industry. Furthermore, strategic stock and supply chain mapping are of the most useful design approaches to enhance supply chain resilience. Practical/managerial implications: The study provides managers with new insights in guiding supply chain design decisions for resilient supply chains. Through the identification of risks and appropriate solutions linked to the various risks

Analysis and evaluation for consumer goods containing NORM in Korea.

Science.gov (United States)

Jang, Mee; Chung, Kun Ho; Lim, Jong Myoung; Ji, Young Yong; Kim, Chang Jong; Kang, Mun Ja

2017-08-01

We analyzed the consumer goods containing NORM by ICP-MS and evaluated the external dose. To evaluate the external dose, we assumed the small room model as irradiation scenario and calculated the specific effective dose rate using MCNPX code. The external doses for twenty goods are less than 1 mSv considering the specific effective dose rates and usage quantities. However, some of them have relatively high dose and the activity concentration limits are necessary as a screening tool. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Criteria relating to the approval of consumer goods containing radioactive substances: a consultative document

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1980-05-01

The National Radiological Protection Board currently provides manufacturers and suppliers of consumer goods containing radioactive substances with advice on the acceptability of their products. Examples of such goods available to the public include radioluminous devices such as clocks, watches and compasses, products containing gaseous tritium light sources, ionisation chamber smoke detectors and thorium gas mantles. In the present document, detailed proposals are put forward for criteria which the Board may use when considering applications for the approval of goods containing radioactive substances to ensure that they are safe. The proposals relate to the radiation doses to consumers and others who may be exposed as a consequence of their activities, and also consider the benefits to consumers. They are concerned with doses arising during normal use, through accidents and misuse, and as a consequence of uncontrolled disposal. (U.K.)

Consumer Right to Information before Purchase: Research on the Romanian Online Stores for Technical Consumer Goods

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Carmen Balan

2014-05-01

Full Text Available The goal of the present paper is to evaluate the status of the protection of consumer right to information before the purchase from Romanian online stores. The perspective focuses on technical consumer goods. The research pursued two major objectives. The former consisted in analysing the compliance of the online stores with the provisions of article 6 paragraph 1 of the Directive 2011/83/EU on consumer rights, relative to the information provided to potential buyers before the purchase. The latter was to identify the consumer awareness of the rights stipulated by article 6 of the directive, as well as to study the opinions of consumers relative to the information that online stores are compelled to supply before purchase. The first objective was accomplished by applying the content analysis method to the information available on the Web for a sample of 100 online stores. The second objective was achieved through the survey method on a sample of 351 persons from the 25 to 34 age group, residing in Bucharest. Compared to other studies, the major contributions of the present research approach are the following: the investigation of an extensive sample of online stores; the wider range of products; the focus on both online stores and consumers. The results show that improvements are needed in the level of compliance and in the consumer awareness of own rights.

The effect of a finite time horizon in the durable good monopoly problem with atomic consumers

OpenAIRE

Berbeglia, Gerardo; Sloan, Peter; Vetta, Adrian

2014-01-01

A durable good is a long-lasting good that can be consumed repeatedly over time, and a duropolist is a monopolist in the market of a durable good. In 1972, Ronald Coase conjectured that a duropolist who lacks commitment power cannot sell the good above the competitive price if the time between periods approaches zero. Coase's counterintuitive conjecture was later proven by Gul et al. (1986) under an infinite time horizon model with non-atomic consumers. Remarkably, the situation changes drama...

A fast neural signature of motivated attention to consumer goods separates the sexes.

Science.gov (United States)

Junghöfer, Markus; Kissler, Johanna; Schupp, Harald T; Putsche, Christian; Elling, Ludger; Dobel, Christian

2010-01-01

Emotional stimuli guide selective visual attention and receive enhanced processing. Previous event-related potential studies have identified an early (>120 ms) negative potential shift over occipito-temporal regions (early posterior negativity, EPN) presumed to indicate the facilitated processing of survival-relevant stimuli. The present study investigated whether this neural signature of motivated attention is also responsive to the intrinsic significance of man-made objects and consumer goods. To address this issue, we capitalized on gender differences towards specific man-made objects, shoes and motorcycles, for which the Statistical Yearbook 2005 of Germany's Federal Statistical Office (Statistisches Bundesamt, 2005) revealed pronounced differences in consumer behavior. In a passive viewing paradigm, male and female participants viewed pictures of motorcycles and shoes, while their magnetoencephalographic brain responses were measured. Source localization of the magnetic counterpart of the EPN (EPNm) revealed pronounced gender differences in picture processing. Specifically, between 130 and 180 ms, all female participants generated stronger activity in occipito-temporal regions when viewing shoes compared to motorcycles, while all men except one showed stronger activation for motorcycles than shoes. Thus, the EPNm allowed a sex-dimorphic classification of the processing of consumer goods. Self-report data confirmed gender differences in consumer behavior, which, however, were less distinct compared to the brain based measure. Considering the latency of the EPNm, the reflected automatic emotional network activity is most likely not yet affected by higher cognitive functions such as response strategies or social expectancy. Non-invasive functional neuroimaging measures of early brain activity may thus serve as objective measure for individual preferences towards consumer goods.

A fast neural signature of motivated attention to consumer goods separates the sexes

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Markus eJunghöfer

2010-09-01

Full Text Available Emotional stimuli guide selective visual attention and receive enhanced processing. Previous event related potential studies have identified an early (>120 ms negative potential shift over occipito-temporal regions (Early Posterior Negativity, EPN presumed to indicate the facilitated processing of survival-relevant stimuli. The present study investigated whether this neural signature of motivated attention is also responsive to the intrinsic significance of man-made objects and consumer goods. To address this issue, we capitalized on gender differences towards specific man-made objects, shoes and motorcycles, for which the Statistical Yearbook 2005 of Germany’s Federal Statistical Office revealed pronounced differences in consumer behavior. In a passive viewing paradigm, male and female participants viewed pictures of motorcycles and shoes, while their magnetoencephalographic brain responses were measured. Source localization of the magnetic counterpart of the EPN (EPNm revealed pronounced gender differences in picture processing. Specifically, between 130 and 180 ms, all female participants generated stronger activity in occipito-temporal regions when viewing shoes compared to motorcycles, while all men except one showed stronger activation for motorcycles than shoes. Thus, the EPNm allowed a sex-dimorphic classification of the processing of consumer goods. Self-report data confirmed gender differences in consumer behavior, which, however, were less distinct compared to the brain based measure. Considering the latency of the EPNm, the reflected automatic emotional network activity is most likely not yet affected by higher cognitive functions such as response strategies or social expectancy. Noninvasive functional neuroimaging measures of early brain activity may thus serve as objective measure for individual preferences towards consumer goods.

Attitudes of Consumers from the Sarajevo Canton in Bosnia and Herzegovina toward Advertising through Sport among the Question how often Consumers purchase Sporting Goods

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gorica Zoric

2018-04-01

Full Text Available Unlike other advertising mediums such as TV commercials or online advertising, people involuntarily receive sport advertisements; they prefer to watch the game for the sporting action than the regular advertisements. However, it is important to analyse their general attitudes among various questions, mostly due to the reason it varies from demographic group to demographic group. Hence, this research was aimed at gaining relevant knowledge about the attitudes of Sarajevo consumers toward advertising through sport among the question how often consumers purchase sporting goods. The sample included 358 respondents, divided into six subsample groups: consumers who do not purchase sport goods at all, then consumers who purchase sport goods less than ones a month, next 1–3 a month, 4–6 a month, 7–9 a month, as well as consumers who purchase sport goods more than 10 times a month. The sample of variables contained the system of three general attitudes which were modelled by seven-point Likert scale. The results of the measuring were analysed by multivariate analysis (MANOVA and univariate analysis (ANOVA and Post Hoc test.Based on the statistical analyses it was found that significant differences occur at multivariate level, as well as between all three variables at a significance level of (p=.000.

Attitudes of Consumers from the Mostar Canton in Bosnia and Herzegovina toward Advertising through Sport among the Question how often Consumers purchase Sporting Goods

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dusko Bjelica

2018-04-01

Full Text Available Unlike other advertising mediums such as TV commercials or online advertising, people involuntarily receive sport advertisements; they prefer to watch the game for the sporting action than the regular advertisements. However, it is important to analyse their general attitudes among various questions, mostly due to the reason it varies from demographic group to demographic group. Hence, this research was aimed at gaining relevant knowledge about the attitudes of Mostar consumers toward advertising through sport among the question how often consumers purchase sporting goods. The sample included 228 respondents, divided into six subsample groups: consumers who do not purchase sport goods at all, then consumers who purchase sport goods less than ones a month, next 1–3 a month, 4–6 a month, 7–9 a month, as well as consumers who purchase sport goods more than 10 times a month. The sample of variables contained the system of three general attitudes which were modelled by seven-point Likert scale. The results of the measuring were analysed by multivariate analysis (MANOVA and univariate analysis (ANOVA and Post Hoc test.Based on the statistical analyses it was found that significant differences occur at multivariate level, as well as between all three variables at a significance level of (p=.020.

ATTITUDES OF SERBIAN CONSUMERS TOWARD ADVERTISING THROUGH SPORT WITH REGARD TO THE FREQUENCY OF PURCHASING SPORTING GOODS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Stevo Popović

2015-05-01

Full Text Available Unlike other advertising mediums such as TV commercials or online advertising, people involuntarily receive sport advertisements; they prefer to watch the game for the sporting action than the regular advertisements (Pyun, 2006; Pyun & James, 2009. However, it is important to analyse their general attitudes among various questions, mostly due to the reason it varies from demographic group to demographic group (Popović et al., 2011. Hence, this research was aimed at gaining relevant knowledge about the attitudes of Serbian consumers toward advertising through sport among the question how often consumers purchase sporting goods. Methods: The sample included 127 respondents, divided into six subsample groups: onsumers who do not purchase sport goods at all, then consumers who purchase sport goods less than ones a month, next 1–3 a month, 4–6 a month, 7–9 a month, as well as consumers who purchase sport goods more than 10 times a months. The sample of variables contained the system of three general attitudes which were modeled by seven-point Likert scale. The results of the measuring were analyzed by multivariate analysis (MANOVA and univariate analysis (ANOVA and Post Hoc test. Results: Based on the results it was concluded that significant differences occur at multivariate level, as well as between two of three variables at univariate level (p=.05. It is interesting to highlight that most of potential consumers (n=99 have recognized themselves in two categories: as consumers who purchase sport goods less than ones a months and one to three times a months, while there were no diffrences among the groups. Discussion: If we take a look into previous investigations, it is interesting there are some opposite results (Popović, 2011, and the recommnedations for further research are directed to spead out the sample a little bit more, mostly due to the reason the consumers who had a more negative attitudes were in the group that didn’t purchase

Consuming America : A Data-Driven Analysis of the United States as a Reference Culture in Dutch Public Discourse on Consumer Goods, 1890-1990

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Wevers, M.J.H.F.

2017-01-01

Consuming America offers a data-driven, longitudinal analysis of the historical dynamics that have underpinned a long-term, layered cultural-historical process: the emergence of the United States as a dominant reference culture in Dutch public discourse on consumer goods between 1890 and 1990. The

Management of radioactive contaminated foodstuffs and consumer goods in Spain. Establishment of a common framework

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Trueba, C.; Montero, M.; Oltra, C.; Sala, R. [Centro de Investigaciones Energeticas, Medioambientales y Tecnologicas - CIEMAT (Spain); Gallego, E. [Escuela Tecnica Superior de Ingenieros Industriales - UPM-ETSII (Spain)

2014-07-01

In the event of a nuclear accident with radiological consequences affecting the quality of foodstuffs, feed-stuffs and in general, consumer goods, the European Union and its Member States, have developed radiation protection general guidelines to manage such situations. In this context, there are recommendations and standards, at international (Codex Alimentarius -FAO/OMS-, IAEA) and regional levels (EURATOM Directives) based on activity concentrations in different products and maximum permitted levels of radioactive contamination of foodstuffs. These levels are based on certain assumptions about the consumption of contaminated products. However, the application of these guidelines is not easy, as shown after the Chernobyl and Fukushima accidents. Several factors converge in this situation. First, is the national regulation of each country, that can decide on the maximum radioactivity levels in food consumed within the country. Other is the misinterpretation of the guidelines that where originally developed for specific conditions. Finally, rejection attitudes of consumers and general public towards foodstuffs, feed-stuffs and goods according to their provenience, must also be taken into account. Aware of this reality, the European Union is funding within its 7. Framework Programme for R and D projects to help optimize European response to radiological emergencies, including those involving contaminated foodstuffs and consumer goods. Specifically, this is the overall objective of the PREPARE Project (Innovative Integrative Tools and Platforms to be Prepared for Radiological Emergencies and Post-Accident Response in Europe) within the framework of NERIS Platform (European Platform on Preparedness for Nuclear and Radiological Emergency Response and Recovery). PREPARE project is intended to develop strategies, guidelines and tools for the management of foodstuffs and consumer goods contaminated with radioactivity, considering not only the Public Administration, as

Japanese consumer preferences for milk certified with the good agricultural practice(GAP) label.

Science.gov (United States)

Aizaki, Hideo; Nanseki, Teruaki; Zhou, Hui

2013-01-01

This study examined Japanese consumers' valuation of a good agricultural practice (GAP) label on packaged milk and investigated the effect of detailed GAP information on valuation. A total of 624 Japanese consumers were asked to select their most preferred milk through an online survey. The milk was assumed to have three attributes: the GAP label, Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points certification, and price. The results showed that consumers' valuation of GAP was significantly positive. Although providing additional GAP information to a respondent who was aware of GAP and what it means had a positive effect on the consumers' valuation of GAP, provision of this information had no effect if the respondent knew about GAP either moderately or slightly, and had a negative effect if the respondent did not know about GAP at all. To increase broad consumer awareness and valuation of GAP, it is important to provide GAP information according to the requirements of consumers. © 2012 The Authors. Animal Science Journal © 2012 Japanese Society of Animal Science.

Strategi Komunikasi Pemasaran Dalam Kegiatan Pemasaran Produk Consumer Goods (Studi Kasus Pada PT Expand Berlian Mulia Di Semarang

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Suherman Kusniadji

2016-07-01

Full Text Available Marketing communication is a form of communication that aims to strengthen the marketing strategy and communication applications to help the marketing activities of a company. In addition, the marketing communication activities are intended to introduce, establish and create interactions between companies with business partners and customers, and is an attempt to communicate the company, the products or services to outside business partners, suppliers and consumers. Marketing communication strategies in consumer goods marketing should be able to achieve the goal of marketing, that is satisfy the customers.This study wanted to know how the marketing communication strategies in marketing consumer goods in the PT Expand Berlian Mulia Semarang. The object of this study conducted to assess the marketing communication strategies in marketing consumer goods in PT Expand Berlian Mulia Semarang. The study subject is PT Expand Berlian Mulia Semarang and chose this company because of its position as a market leader in the field of consumer goods distributor. The theories used in this research are the process of communication, strategy, marketing communication strategies SOSTAC models, and forms of marketing or promotional communications. The paradigm of this research is construktivist paradigm and research method used the case study method of qualitative approaches. This study tried to find empirical evidence of the object research, reveals how marketing communication strategies in consumer goods marketing products at PT Expand Berlian Mulia and develop the meaning of the implementation of marketing communication activities. Results showed correspondence between conceptual patterns predicted by theories that are relevant to the empirical findings patterns of case studies. Based on the analysis conducted can be concluded that marketing communication strategies in PT Expand Berlian Mulia use promotion mix such as advertising, sales promotion, personal

Move up,Move out

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

Guo Yan

2007-01-01

@@ China has already become the world's largest manufacturer of cement,copper and steel.Chinese producers have moved onto the world stage and dominated the global consumer market from textiles to electronics with amazing speed and efficiency.

The effects of marketing activities on fast moving consumer good purchases: the case of yoghurt Italian market

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sergio Brasini

2007-10-01

Full Text Available This paper examines whether sales promotions effectiveness depends upon the consumer’s brand loyalty and her buying behaviour and whether consumer’s behavioural characteristics in term of purchase frequency and level affect the response to promotional activities and moderate the effect of brand loyalty during the consumer choice process. Different specifications for the utility function, exploiting information on selling price, promotional activities such as displays usage, ad features in the store, 3x2 and discount, and differently brand loyalty measures have been estimated into a discrete choice framework, that is into the rational brand choice paradigm, paying attention to their effects on individuals’ probabilities to choose the specific brand during each purchase occasion. The application is run on a ACNielsen dataset of Italian households consumer panel, observed to buy at least two yoghurt packages during a year, matched to store panel data with respect to quantities, prices and promotions.

Measurement of the radioactive concentration in consumer's goods containing natural uranium and thorium and evaluation of the exposure by their utilization

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yoshida, Masahiro; Satou, Shigerou; Ohhata, Tsutomu; Watanabe, Masatoshi; Ohyama, Ryutaro; Furuya, Hirotaka; Endou, Akira

2005-01-01

A number of consumer's goods which contain natural uranium and thorium are circulated in the familiar living environment. Based on various kinds of information sources, 20 kinds of these consumer's goods were collected and their radioactive concentrations were measured by using ICP-MS and Ge semiconductor detector. As this result, it was found that the concentrations of uranium and thorium in the consumer's goods used at home and industries were below 34 Bq/g and below 270 Bq/g, respectively. Next, the concentrations of daughter nuclides were not so different from the ones of uranium or thorium, which showed that the secular radioactive equilibrium held between both concentrations. In addition, the radiation exposures for public consumer were evaluated when four kinds of typical consumer's goods frequently used in daily life are utilized. The results computed by MCNP-4C code were below 250 μSv/y. (author)

Individual Differences in Consumer Buying Patterns: A Behavioral Economic Analysis

Science.gov (United States)

Cavalcanti, Paulo R.; Oliveira-Castro, Jorge M.; Foxall, Gordon R.

2013-01-01

Although previous studies have identified several regularities in buying behavior, no integrated view of individual differences related to such patterns has been yet proposed. The present research examined individual differences in patterns of buying behavior of fast-moving consumer goods, using panel data with information concerning purchases of…

THE GOOD HOUSEKEEPING SEAL OF APPROVAL: FROM INNOVATIVE CONSUMER PROTECTION TO POPULAR BADGE OF QUALITY

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lauren Strach

2003-01-01

Full Text Available By providing information through factual content, editorial comments, and advertising, the great magazine expansion of the late 19th century reduced market imperfections for many consumer goods. Given the virtual absence of government and non-profit sources of information, some magazines even took the initiative to prohibit misleading advertising. However, in the early 20th century Good Housekeeping surpassed normal practices and created both a guaranty for advertised products and a Seal of Approval from the Good Housekeeping Institute.

Consuming America : A Data-Driven Analysis of the United States as a Reference Culture in Dutch Public Discourse on Consumer Goods, 1890-1990

OpenAIRE

Wevers, M.J.H.F.

2017-01-01

Consuming America offers a data-driven, longitudinal analysis of the historical dynamics that have underpinned a long-term, layered cultural-historical process: the emergence of the United States as a dominant reference culture in Dutch public discourse on consumer goods between 1890 and 1990. The ideas, values, and practices associated with the United States in public discourse remained relatively steady over time, which might explain the country’s longevity as a reference culture and its po...

Influence of the shape on the consumers perception of the packaging attributes

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gojko Vladić

2015-12-01

Full Text Available Packaging for fast moving consumer goods (FMCG demands constant attention in order to stay competitive in modern dynamic markets. FMCG consumers do not think about the purchasing product until they enter the place of purchase. This emphasizes importance of the communication in a place of purchase. Alongside promotional banners, displays and counters, packaging can be used for this purpose. While in-store promotional banners, displays and counters represent additional cost, the packaging as the integral part of the product can be used as an important marketing tool that does not add to product cost. Thus packaging becomes an important marketing tool that does not add to product cost. Marketers, distributors and researchers as well must take into consideration the complexity of consumer behaviour to achieve desired results. Alongside graphic design, material, colour, etc. packaging shape is considered as an important tool for product differentiation and promotion. Having this in mind, it is unclear why the influence of the packaging shape on the consumer remains the least examined of all packaging characteristics. The aim of this research is to understand the influence of packaging shape design on the consumer’s perception. The survey study conducted among the consumers of the fast moving consumer goods gave clear insight into the influence of packaging shape on the perception of packaging characteristics. The results can help to improve packaging shape design in order to achieve better market impact.

Brand competition in consumer packaged goods : Sustaining large market advantages with little product differentiation

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Bronnenberg, B.J.

2008-01-01

In direct competition between national brands of consumer packaged goods (CPG), one brand often has a large local share advantage over the other despite the similarity of the branded products. I present an explanation for these large and persistent advantages in the context of local competition on

Influence of the shape on the consumers perception of the packaging attributes

OpenAIRE

Gojko Vladić; Milica Kecman; Nemanja Kašiković; Magdolna Pál; Mladen Stančić

2015-01-01

Packaging for fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) demands constant attention in order to stay competitive in modern dynamic markets. FMCG consumers do not think about the purchasing product until they enter the place of purchase. This emphasizes importance of the communication in a place of purchase. Alongside promotional banners, displays and counters, packaging can be used for this purpose. While in-store promotional banners, displays and counters represent additional cost, the packaging as t...

THE GOOD HOUSEKEEPING SEAL OF APPROVAL: FROM INNOVATIVE CONSUMER PROTECTION TO POPULAR BADGE OF QUALITY

OpenAIRE

Lauren Strach; Malcolm Russell

2003-01-01

By providing information through factual content, editorial comments, and advertising, the great magazine expansion of the late 19th century reduced market imperfections for many consumer goods. Given the virtual absence of government and non-profit sources of information, some magazines even took the initiative to prohibit misleading advertising. However, in the early 20th century Good Housekeeping surpassed normal practices and created both a guaranty for advertised products and a Seal of A...

A Social Media Marketing Plan for a Medium-sized Consumer Goods Company

OpenAIRE

Okolie, Emeka

2013-01-01

The objective of this study is to develop a social media marketing plan for the case com-pany to integrate it into its existing marketing communications. The case company of this study is a medium-sized consumer goods producing company that advertises its brand and products using traditional methods of advertising (radio, television, flyers and event promotion). At the moment, these methods seem to be lacking in efficiency and effective-ness caused by the saturation of marketing information w...

The Perspectives to Understand Social Marketing as an Approach in Influencing Consumer Behavior for Good

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Iin Mayasari

2012-05-01

Full Text Available This study is a conceptual paper and highlights perspectives to understand social marketing as an approach to bring about voluntary and socially desirable consumer behavior. The perspective is considered as an alternative way to comprehend consumer behavior change for good as a multi-factor driven action. Hence, social marketing is also considered as a discipline that can be analyzed from multiple perspectives including a behavioral change perspective and a relationship perspective. Each perspective is elaborated by doing a review of existing literature and research. This study shows that social marketing is not only the application of marketing programs to shape consumer behavior, but also a process involving individual, society, and government to make a better life of society.

Branding Strategies for High Technology Products: The Effects of Consumer and Product Innovativeness

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Truong, Y.; van Klink, R.; Simmons, G.; Grinstein, A.; Palmer, M.

2017-01-01

Choice of an appropriate branding strategy is a critical determinant of new product success. Prior work on fast-moving-consumer-goods (FMCG) prescribes that new products carry new (vs. existing) brand names to appeal to earlier adopters - a critical target for new products. However, such a

Good Practices in Educating and Informing the New Generation of Consumers on Organic Foodstuffs

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lelia Voinea

2015-02-01

good practices guideline in education and consumer information in order to acquire the skills for a more correct buying decision. We believe that these good practices should be included among the pursuits of the education system, government structures and specialized NGOs.

A Framework of Retailer-Manufacturer Cooperation and Coopetition: Consumer Durable Goods Retailers’ Case Studies

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Marzanna Katarzyna Witek-Hajduk

2017-03-01

Full Text Available Objective: The purpose of this paper is to develop a framework of cooperation and coopetition between retailers and key manufacturers from a perspective of retailers offering consumer durables. Research Design & Methods: In order to answer the research questions semi-structured, in-depth and face-to-face interviews with managers of six SMEs or large retailers operating in Poland and offering consumer durables were carried out. Findings: The empirical studies confirm both cooperation and coopetition between retailers and manufacturers – suppliers of consumer durables depending on, among others, the category of consumer goods and the balance of power between retailers and manufacturers. The scope of cooperation is not too wide, and concerns only some of the value chain processes indicated in the literature. Implications & Recommendations: Conducted studies are exploratory and need to be deepen with the use of quantitative research that will help determine the impact of the balance of power between manufacturers and retailers and the strength of retailer-manufacturer relations on the range / areas and financial and non-financial performance of this cooperation. Contribution & Value Added: The originality of this work lies in studying some aspects of retailers’ relations with their key suppliers operating in consumer durables market.

Usage and recall of FMCG brands by rural consumers and relevant facts

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Savanam Chandra Sekhar

2015-01-01

Full Text Available India is a country of villages. It has mammoth rural population of 833 million spread over 640,867 villages. Rural markets are small in size, distantly scattered and heterogeneous. They provide awesome opportunities for fast moving consumer goods (FMCG companies. Rural consumers aspire to use brands rather than just commodities. At this juncture, understand rural consumer usage of FMCG brands and awareness is perceived appropriate. The objective of this research paper is to study the usage and recall of FMCG brands by rural consumers in Prakasam district of Andhra Pradesh in India. Thus, a modest attempt is made in this paper to divulge relevant facts of the topic with empirical data. This article is quite useful to the stakeholders of rural marketing.

Game of Trust: Brand-generated content vs Consumer-generated advertising : A qualitative study of Arla Foods

OpenAIRE

Cheng, Emelie; Khan, Nadia

2017-01-01

This thesis studies how trust in two different types of social media advertising, brand-generated content (BGC) and consumer-generated advertising (CGA), influence Millennials purchase intention towards brands in the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) industry. The phenomenon of CGA has caught researchers’ interest since it is believed to influence consumers’ purchase intention by affecting their trust in the advertising. There is, however, a lack of prior research and contrasting views regard...

Hierarchical production planning for consumer goods

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Kok, de A.G.

1990-01-01

Abstract In this paper the mathematical logic behind a hierarchical planning procedure is discussed. The planning procedure is used to derive production volumes of consumer products. The essence of the planning procedure is that first a commitment is made concerning the production volume for a

Consumer Finance

OpenAIRE

Peter Tufano

2009-01-01

Although consumer finance is a substantial element of the economy, it has had a smaller footprint within financial economics. In this review, I suggest a functional definition of the subfield of consumer finance, focusing on four key functions: payments, risk management, moving funds from today to tomorrow (saving/investing), and from tomorrow to today (borrowing). I provide data showing the economic importance of consumer finance in the American economy. I propose a historical explanation fo...

Energy-saving implications from supply chain improvement: An exploratory study on China's consumer goods retail system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wang, Xi; Cai, Hua; Florig, H. Keith

2016-01-01

Despite significant public attentions to green supply chain management, few studies have explicitly addressed the energy implications of consumer-goods supply surplus, especially in developing countries like China. This study explored the energy-saving potential from improving supply chain efficiencies and reducing excess inventory in China's retail system from a life-cycle perspective. Through embodied energy analysis, we found that energy invested pre-manufacture contributed 80–95% of the total energy embodied in consumer products. Although embodied energy intensities had declined by 60–90% since the mid-1990s, the lessened marginal improvements implied that 'low hanging fruits' have largely been captured, and the search for new opportunities for energy-saving is in demand. Positive correlations between total economic inputs and embodied energy in consumer goods indicated possible synergy effect between cost-reduction and energy-saving in supply system management. And structural path analysis identified sector-specific energy management priorities for each retail-related sector. This study suggested that improving supply chain efficiencies provides a promising supplement to China's current industrial energy-efficient projects which target reducing direct energy use per se as an intra-firm cost-saving measure. From the life-cycle perspective, the definition of 'green sector' might have to be reconsidered in China towards a more energy-efficient economy and society.

Remaking the Elasticity of Consumer Wants

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Pallesen, Trine; Jenle, Rasmus Ploug

The paper analyses a smart grid project named EcoGrid, the paper shows how a large market experiment is used to present a solution to the intermittency problem associated with wind power: How to balance supply and demand when electricity production 'follows the wind'? It is shown how electricity...... consumption is sought moved away from periods of peak consumption, and towards periods of peak production, by making consumers sensitive to ongoing changes in price. The study takes a pragmatic stance, applying concepts from the sociology of markets. The paper shows how the price elasticity of a good...

Supply chain design approaches for supply chain resilience: A qualitative study of South African fast-moving consumer goods grocery manufacturers

OpenAIRE

Assilah Agigi; Wesley Niemann; Theuns Kotzé

2016-01-01

Orientation: In today’s globalised and complex business environment, firms are ever more vulnerable to supply chain disruptions, originating both internally and externally from the supply chain. Supply chain resilience minimises the impact of a disruption through design approaches, which allows the supply chain to respond appropriately to disruptive events. Research purpose: This article investigated the supply chain risks faced by grocery manufacturers in the South African fast-moving co...

Consumer Sustainability and Responsibility: Beyond Green and Ethical Consumption

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Maja Hosta

2016-12-01

Full Text Available Purpose – Most literature regarding sustainable behavior is based on the assumption that the reduction of consumption is inherently positive (mainly in the form of positive environmental consequences and based on ethical considerations. However, the issue of the social consequences of this reduction and self-interested intentions in consumption is not generally open to debate. This paper aims to identify dimensions of sustainable and responsible consumer behavior, distinguish between the two concepts, and present consumer obstacles to acting responsibly in all aspects that a sustainability agenda would suggest. Design/Methodology/Approach – The paper includes a literature review, proposes a framework of responsible and sustainable consumption (RSCB, and offers a set of propositions to achieve responsible and sustainable consumption. Insights from personal interviews with consumers are added for the sake of additional understanding of the concepts presented. Findings and implications – Through the RSCB framework, we show the potential trade-off decisions consumers have to make in order to implement sustainability and responsibility issues in everyday consumer decision processes. Struggles between doing what is good for them and what is good for the environment and society could be a reason why consumers have difficulties achieving responsible and sustainable consumption. Limitations – Qualitative study based on a small sample of personal interviews does not allow for generalizations. Originality – A research gap in understanding the dimensions of sustainable and responsible consumer actions in terms of their emphasis (environmental and social and intentions (self-interest and other-interest is addressed. By understanding those two dimensions of behavior, managers and consumers can resolve consumer sustainability and responsibility dilemmas that arise from a one-dimensional view in order to move sustainability research and practice

Unveiling health attitudes and creating good-for-you foods: the genomics metaphor, consumer innovative web-based technologies.

Science.gov (United States)

Moskowitz, H R; German, J B; Saguy, I S

2005-01-01

This article presents an integrated analysis of three emerging knowledge bases in the nutrition and consumer products industries, and how they may effect the food industry. These knowledge bases produce new vistas for corporate product development, especially with respect to those foods that are positioned as 'good for you.' Couched within the current thinking of state-of-the-art knowledge and information, this article highlights how today's thinking about accelerated product development can be introduced into the food and health industries to complement these three research areas. The 3 knowledge bases are: the genomics revolution, which has opened new insights into understanding the interactions of personal needs of individual consumers with nutritionally relevant components of the foods; the investigation of food choice by scientific studies; the development of large scale databases (mega-studies) about the consumer mind. These knowledge bases, combined with new methods to understand the consumer through research, make possible a more focused development. The confluence of trends outlined in this article provides the corporation with the beginnings of a new path to a knowledge-based, principles-grounded product-development system. The approaches hold the potential to create foods based upon people's nutritional requirements combined with their individual preferences. Integrating these emerging knowledge areas with new consumer research techniques may well reshape how the food industry develops new products to satisfy consumer needs and wants.

Exploring Thai Consumers Motivation for Purchase of Home Design Decoration Goods

OpenAIRE

Kokulkiat, Suthee

2006-01-01

Fashion consumers often seek the products which portray idealized or desired image. Moreover consumers choices are often motivated by their social belongings. This paper focus on design home decorative consumer behaviour. Comprehensive review on previous literatures are emphasis on fashion consumption, self concept, symbolic consumption and social influence are being reviewed. The qualitative interviews are employed as an instrument to study consumer motivation to consume design rather than c...

Nanomaterials in consumer's goods: the problems of risk assessment

Science.gov (United States)

Gmoshinski, I. V.; Khotimchenko, S. A.

2015-11-01

Nanotechnology and engineered nanomaterials are currently used in wide variety of cosmetic products, while their use in food industry, packaging materials, household chemicals etc. still includes a limited number of items and does not show a significant upward trend. However, the problem of priority nanomaterials associated risks is relevant due to their high production volumes and an constantly growing burden on the environment and population. In accordance with the frequency of use in mass-produced consumer goods, leading priority nanomaterials are silver nanoparticles (NPs) and (by a wide margin) NPs of gold, platinum, and titanium dioxide. Frequency of nanosized silica introduction into food products as a food additive, at the moment, seems to be underestimated, since the use of this nanomaterial is not declared by manufacturers of products and objective control of its content is difficult. Analysis of literature data on toxicological properties of nanomaterials shows that currently accumulated amount of information is sufficient to establish the safe doses of nanosized silver, gold and titanium dioxide. Data have been provided in a series of studies concerning the effect of oral intake of nanosized silica on the condition of laboratory animals, including on the performance of the immune system. The article examines the existing approaches to the assessment of population exposure to priority nanomaterials, characteristics of existing problems and risk management.

Estimating added sugars in US consumer packaged goods: An application to beverages in 2007–08

OpenAIRE

Ng, Shu Wen; Bricker, Gregory; Li, Kuo-ping; Yoon, Emily Ford; Kang, Jiyoung; Westrich, Brian

2015-01-01

This study developed a method to estimate added sugar content in consumer packaged goods (CPG) that can keep pace with the dynamic food system. A team including registered dietitians, a food scientist and programmers developed a batch-mode ingredient matching and linear programming (LP) approach to estimate the amount of each ingredient needed in a given product to produce a nutrient profile similar to that reported on its nutrition facts label (NFL). Added sugar content was es...

The behavioral economics of consumer brand choice: patterns of reinforcement and utility maximization.

Science.gov (United States)

Foxall, Gordon R; Oliveira-Castro, Jorge M; Schrezenmaier, Teresa C

2004-06-30

Purchasers of fast-moving consumer goods generally exhibit multi-brand choice, selecting apparently randomly among a small subset or "repertoire" of tried and trusted brands. Their behavior shows both matching and maximization, though it is not clear just what the majority of buyers are maximizing. Each brand attracts, however, a small percentage of consumers who are 100%-loyal to it during the period of observation. Some of these are exclusively buyers of premium-priced brands who are presumably maximizing informational reinforcement because their demand for the brand is relatively price-insensitive or inelastic. Others buy exclusively the cheapest brands available and can be assumed to maximize utilitarian reinforcement since their behavior is particularly price-sensitive or elastic. Between them are the majority of consumers whose multi-brand buying takes the form of selecting a mixture of economy -- and premium-priced brands. Based on the analysis of buying patterns of 80 consumers for 9 product categories, the paper examines the continuum of consumers so defined and seeks to relate their buying behavior to the question of how and what consumers maximize.

Influence of the endowment effect on the valuation of goods. An experimental verification.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Magdalena Gawrońska

2015-09-01

Full Text Available The article refers to the issue of the endowment effect, which acts as a mechanism that influences valuation. The paper’s main aim is to verify the endowment effect phenomenon for branded, fast-moving consumer goods. The subject of this paper also includes examining whether short-term possession, generates the endowment effect. It also studies how the possibility of using a product influences the power of the examined phenomenon. In order to verify the proposed hypothesis, an economic experiment was used. Its results were analyzed with the use of descriptive statistics and econometric methods. The study demonstrated that the endowment effect determines the perception of goods and influences their valuation.

Counterfeit Goods and Income Inequality

OpenAIRE

Stefania Scandizzo

2001-01-01

This paper examines the effect of counterfeit goods in a world where consumers are differentiated by level of income and innovation is quality enhancing. Counterfeit goods are defined as products with the same characteristics as “originals”, but of lower quality. The effect of imitation on firms’ profits and consumer welfare depends on the distribution of income within the country. In particular, the greater the level of income inequality the larger the increase in consumer welfare due to the...

Consumed by consumer culture? Advertising’s impact on children’s materialism and life satisfaction

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Opree, S.J.

2014-01-01

Do children get consumed by consumer culture? This question occupies the thoughts of many parents, caretakers, and policymakers. Dutch children are annually exposed to approximately 9,500 television advertisements. These advertisements suggest that the good life can be obtained through the goods

Return on research investments: personal good versus public good

Science.gov (United States)

Fox, P. A.

2017-12-01

For some time the outputs, i.e. what's produced, of publicly and privately funded research while necessary, are far from sufficient, when considering an overall return on (research) investment. At the present time products such as peer-reviewed papers, websites, data, and software are recognized by funders on timescales related to research awards and reporting. However, from a consumer perspective impact and value are determined at the time a product is discovered, accessed, assessed and used. As is often the case, the perspectives of producer and consumer communities can be distinct and not intersect at all. We contrast personal good, i.e. credit, reputation, with that of public good, e.g. interest, leverage, exploitation, and more. This presentation will elaborate on both the metaphorical and idealogical aspects of applying a "return on investment" frame for the topic of assessing "good".

Selling to Consumers with Endogenous Types

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Boone, J.; Shapiro, J.

2006-01-01

For many goods (such as experience goods or addictive goods), consumers' preferences may change over time.In this paper, we examine a monopolist's optimal pricing schedule when current consumption can affect a consumer's valuation in the future and valuations are unobservable.We assume that

Age differences in how consumers behave following exposure to DTC advertising.

Science.gov (United States)

DeLorme, Denise E; Huh, Jisu; Reid, Leonard N

2006-01-01

This study was conducted to provide additional evidence on how consumers behave following direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertising exposure and to determine if there are differences in ad-prompted acts (drug inquiry and drug requests) between different age groups (i.e., older, mature, and younger adults). The results suggest that younger, mature, and older consumers are all moved to act by DTC drug ads, but that each age group behaves in different ways. Somewhat surprisingly, age was not predictive of ad-prompted behavior. DTC advertising was no more effective at moving older consumers to behave than their younger counterparts. These results suggest that age does not matter that much when it comes to the "moving power" of prescription drug advertising, even though research indicates that older consumers are more vulnerable to the persuasive effects of communication.

HOW GOOD IS GOODS AND SERVICES TAX

OpenAIRE

Dr. Sreemoyee Guha Roy

2016-01-01

Goods and Services Tax is a broad based and a single comprehensive tax levied on goods and services consumed in an economy. GST is levied at every stage of the production-distribution chain with applicable set offs in respect of the tax remitted at previous stages. It is basically a tax on final consumption. The Goods and Services Tax (GST) is a value added tax to be implemented in India, the decision on which is pending. GST is the only indirect tax that directly affects all sectors and sect...

Consumer-friendly food allergen detection: moving towards smartphone-based immunoassays.

Science.gov (United States)

Ross, Georgina M S; Bremer, Monique G E G; Nielen, Michel W F

2018-03-26

In this critical review, we provide a comprehensive overview of immunochemical food allergen assays and detectors in the context of their user-friendliness, through their connection to smartphones. Smartphone-based analysis is centered around citizen science, putting analysis into the hands of the consumer. Food allergies represent a significant worldwide health concern and consumers should be able to analyze their foods, whenever and wherever they are, for allergen presence. Owing to the need for a scientific background, traditional laboratory-based detection methods are generally unsuitable for the consumer. Therefore, it is important to develop simple, safe, and rapid assays that can be linked with smartphones as detectors to improve user accessibility. Smartphones make excellent detection systems because of their cameras, embedded flash functions, portability, connectivity, and affordability. Therefore, this review has summarized traditional laboratory-based methods for food allergen detection such as enzyme-linked-immunosorbent assay, flow cytometry, and surface plasmon resonance, and the potential to modernize these methods by interfacing them with a smartphone readout system, based on the aforementioned smartphone characteristics. This is the first review focusing on smartphone-based food-allergen detection methods designed with the intention of being consumer-friendly. Graphical abstract A smartphone-based food allergen detection system in three easy steps (1) sample preparation, (2) allergen detection on a smartphone using antibodies, which then transmits the data wirelessly, (3) analytical results sent straight to smartphone.

Relationship between CEO remuneration and company financial performance in the South African retail and consumer goods sector

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mark Bussin

2015-04-01

Full Text Available Purpose: This study was motivated by the need to better understand the effects of the global financial crisis in 2008 on the relationship between company financial performance and CEO guaranteed cost to company (CTC. The aim of this study was to understand the relationship between company financial performance using DuPont analysis and CEO guaranteed CTC in the South African retail and consumer goods sector. Design: The research was a quantitative, archival study of companies listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE, measured over a period of six years (2006–2011. The statistical analysis included regression and correlation analysis. Findings: The research found that CEO guaranteed CTC has shown no sensitivity towards company financial performance in terms of DuPont analysis over the six-year period, which included the global financial crises in 2008. Furthermore, a negative relationship existed between the return on equity and the guaranteed CTC of CEOs in the retail and consumer goods sector during this period. Practical implications: The findings suggest that there is misalignment between company strategy and performance and the guaranteed CTC of CEOs. A practical implication would be to have independent and competent remuneration committees ensuring alignment of the interests of a company with those of its leaders in this regard.

SUDOQU: a new dose model to derive criteria for surface contamination of non-food (consumer) goods, containers and conveyances

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Van Dillen, Teun

2015-01-01

The Fukushima nuclear accident (Japan, 11 March 2011) revealed the need for well-founded criteria for surface contamination and associated screening levels related to the import of non-food (consumer) goods, containers and conveyances. The only available European-harmonised criteria are those laid down in the IAEA transport regulations, but these criteria date back from the early 1960's and only apply to the safe transport of radioactive materials. The main problem is that a generic dose-assessment model for consumer products is missing. Therefore, RIVM (National Institute for Public Health and the Environment) developed a new methodology entitled SUDOQU (Surface Dose Quantification) to calculate the annual effective dose for both consumers and non-radiological workers, addressing issues of removability of surface contamination. The methodology can be used to derive criteria and screening levels for surface contamination and could serve as a useful tool for policy-makers and radiation-protection specialists. (authors)

Consumer-Brand Relationships under the Marketing 3.0 Paradigm: A Literature Review.

Science.gov (United States)

Gómez-Suárez, Mónica; Martínez-Ruiz, María Pilar; Martínez-Caraballo, Noemí

2017-01-01

Consumer-brand relationships encompass several dimensions, most of which have attracted growing research attention during the last years. Building these relationships is especially important in the marketing 3.0 era, where it is suggested that customers will choose those brands that satisfy their deepest needs. With these ideas in mind, this article provides a review of two key concepts implied in such relationships: brand love and customer engagement. Although both conceptions focus on different stages of consumer-brand relationships, they actually cover different perspectives on the same process. Moreover, they come from diverse conceptual paradigms: whilst brand love comes from the psychology discipline, engagement derives from diverse areas of the marketing field (e.g., the service-dominant logic perspective). However, their further empirical developments have taken place in marketing. Besides, both terms appear to be applied to different empirical perspectives: brand love is usually linked to the Fast Moving Consumer Goods industry and customer engagement to services.

Consumer-Brand Relationships under the Marketing 3.0 Paradigm: A Literature Review

Science.gov (United States)

Gómez-Suárez, Mónica; Martínez-Ruiz, María Pilar; Martínez-Caraballo, Noemí

2017-01-01

Consumer-brand relationships encompass several dimensions, most of which have attracted growing research attention during the last years. Building these relationships is especially important in the marketing 3.0 era, where it is suggested that customers will choose those brands that satisfy their deepest needs. With these ideas in mind, this article provides a review of two key concepts implied in such relationships: brand love and customer engagement. Although both conceptions focus on different stages of consumer-brand relationships, they actually cover different perspectives on the same process. Moreover, they come from diverse conceptual paradigms: whilst brand love comes from the psychology discipline, engagement derives from diverse areas of the marketing field (e.g., the service-dominant logic perspective). However, their further empirical developments have taken place in marketing. Besides, both terms appear to be applied to different empirical perspectives: brand love is usually linked to the Fast Moving Consumer Goods industry and customer engagement to services. PMID:28275360

Vendor managed inventory (VMI practice analysis in a supplier of consumer goods

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Denise Cervilha Freitas

2014-08-01

Full Text Available One of the widely discussed collaborative practices in the literature is Vendor Managed Inventory (VMI, which gives supplier the freedom to take decisions regarding customer´s replenishment, allowing better production planning. Despite the efforts of many researches, few studies compare the reality faced by companies with theories in the literature. Thus, this research aims to analyze the VMI practice of a consumer goods supplier with its retail customer, based on the barriers that limit the potential results of the practice and also the critical factors for the success of VMI. Insights from this analysis resulted in some propositions for future studies. The literature review allowed the identification of elements that influence the adoption and maintenance of VMI that were grouped into behavioral, cultural and physical elements. The method used was a case study with in-depth interviews, which allowed identifying the elements that limit the potential gains of VMI in the analyzed company and also those ones that contribute to the success of the practice.

The transformation of the consumption of cultural goods in private households over time: study of Canoas between 2000 and 2010

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Judite Sanson Bem

2012-12-01

Full Text Available People, over time, change their consumption habits, among these preference changes are included the choice of cultural goods. Among the reasons for this change are the prices, the consumer age, income, education, and others. Canoas’ private households residents, municipality located in the metropolitan area of Porto Alegre, not fled to the rule during the decade of 2000, with behaviors that are similar to the consumers of Rio Grande do Sul state. The aim of this work is to study the cultural goods consumption behavior in permanent private households of Canoas in the period in 2000 and 2010. First, the authors outline the good cultural concepts and theories about the consumption of cultural goods from the standpoint of the economy. After the second stage, we use descriptive statistics to present the 2010 IBGE Census data and 2000 that have the presence of cultural goods and services of permanent households of Canoas, making a comparison with the Rio State Grande do Sul ( RS . It follows that the municipality followed the state moves, but in the period presented a higher percentage of households with assets of greater intensity of technology such as computers and mobile phones.

Fundamental Consumer Rights Under the Consumer Protection Act 68 of 2008: A Critical Overview and Analysis

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

R van Niekerk

2010-12-01

Full Text Available South Africa was in need of a comprehensive framework of legislation, policies and government authorities to regulate consumer-supplier interaction. The Consumer Protection Act 68 of 2008, which was signed by the President of the Republic of South Africa on 29 April 2009 and published in the Government Gazette on 29 April 2009, now provides an extensive framework for consumer protection and aims to develop, enhance and protect the rights of consumers and to eliminate unethical suppliers and improper business practices. Certain areas of the common law regarding consumer rights have been codified by the Act and certain unfair business practices that were previously unregulated are now governed by the Act. The Act has a wide field of application. It applies to every transaction occurring within South Africa for the supply of goods or services or the promotion of goods or services and the goods or services themselves, unless the transaction is exempted from the application of the Act. The Act also specifically regulates aspects of franchise agreements. In terms of the Act, consumers obtain several new rights and some existing rights are broadened and reinforced. These rights are: the right to equality in the consumer market; privacy; choice; disclosure and information; fair and responsible marketing; fair and honest dealing; fair, just and reasonable terms and conditions; and fair value, good quality and safety. The last right in terms of the Act deals with a supplier's accountability to consumers. The authors critically analyse and discuss these rights. It is clear that the Act is written in favour of the consumer.

Radiation protection of the public in respect of consumer goods containing radioactive substances

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1984-01-01

The use of consumer goods containing radioactive substances makes a contribution to the total exposure of man to ionizing radiation. This contribution is explicitly recognized in Section II of the Basic Safety Standards established pursuant to Article 30 of the Euratom Treaty for the health protection of the general public and workers against the dangers of ionizing radiation, first published in 1959 and most recently revised 15 July 1980. Nevertheless, the Standards are of a general nature and need to be expanded on to be of practical application in this field. National authorities must have additional information in order to attain in full the objectives stated in them. This guide has been prepared with these considerations in mind. The guide is not a set of regulations but is better described as a code of practice, drawn up by specialists and approved by the scientific experts in the field of radiological protection and public health appointed under Article 31 of the Euratom Treaty

Knowledge asymmetries about product "goodness"

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kampf, Constance

and actions towards workers, and findings of independent researchers.  Currently, differing perspectives on product "goodness" are being addressed and mediated by NGOs and B-corporations, as they work with private companies and corporations to communicate product information to consumers.  One organization...... focused on scenarios where shoppers were asked about CSR in their product decisions found that: "...when consumers are given information that they trust about a company's level of social responsibility, it affects how they evaluate the company and their purchase intentions. Furthermore, a low price did.......  Asymmetries in knowledge about product "goodness" make it difficult for ethically inspired consumers to make informed decisions about the products they purchase.  These knowledge asymmetries emerge from differing perspectives on guidelines for consumer safety set by government bodies, CSR initiatives...

Consumer Buying Behavior

OpenAIRE

Irena Vida; Mojca Maher Pirc

2006-01-01

The study examines the phenomenon of national identity and economic ethnocentrism in consumer buying behavior. Analysis of data collected from a representative sample of adult Slovenian consumers reveals only moderately expressed ethnocentric tendencies. Similar moderation was revealed in the preferences of Slovenian consumers for patriotic purchasing behavior, whereby the domestic origin of products was more important in the case of nondurable goods and services than in the case of durable g...

77 FR 41699 - Transportation of Household Goods in Interstate Commerce; Consumer Protection Regulations...

Science.gov (United States)

2012-07-16

... regulations to require HHG brokers to comply with certain consumer protection requirements. As a part of that... that rule, if an individual shipper elects to waive physical receipt of the consumer protection... receipts documenting an individual shipper's waiver of physical receipt of the consumer protection...

Physician Rating Websites: What Aspects Are Important to Identify a Good Doctor, and Are Patients Capable of Assessing Them? A Mixed-Methods Approach Including Physicians' and Health Care Consumers' Perspectives.

Science.gov (United States)

Rothenfluh, Fabia; Schulz, Peter J

2017-05-01

Physician rating websites (PRWs) offer health care consumers the opportunity to evaluate their doctor anonymously. However, physicians' professional training and experience create a vast knowledge gap in medical matters between physicians and patients. This raises ethical concerns about the relevance and significance of health care consumers' evaluation of physicians' performance. To identify the aspects physician rating websites should offer for evaluation, this study investigated the aspects of physicians and their practice relevant for identifying a good doctor, and whether health care consumers are capable of evaluating these aspects. In a first step, a Delphi study with physicians from 4 specializations was conducted, testing various indicators to identify a good physician. These indicators were theoretically derived from Donabedian, who classifies quality in health care into pillars of structure, process, and outcome. In a second step, a cross-sectional survey with health care consumers in Switzerland (N=211) was launched based on the indicators developed in the Delphi study. Participants were asked to rate the importance of these indicators to identify a good physician and whether they would feel capable to evaluate those aspects after the first visit to a physician. All indicators were ordered into a 4×4 grid based on evaluation and importance, as judged by the physicians and health care consumers. Agreement between the physicians and health care consumers was calculated applying Holsti's method. In the majority of aspects, physicians and health care consumers agreed on what facets of care were important and not important to identify a good physician and whether patients were able to evaluate them, yielding a level of agreement of 74.3%. The two parties agreed that the infrastructure, staff, organization, and interpersonal skills are both important for a good physician and can be evaluated by health care consumers. Technical skills of a doctor and outcomes

Consumer Behavior: Developing Skills for Assertiveness. Consumer Education Training Module.

Science.gov (United States)

Thayer, Lou

The goal of this inservice guide for teaching consumer education at the secondary and adult level is to help consumers become more assertive when buying goods and services. A major section in the guide defines assertiveness. The four basic components of assertive behavior are the ability to express emotions openly, the capacity to exercise one's…

Estimating the common trend rate of inflation for consumer prices and consumer prices excluding food and energy prices

OpenAIRE

Michael T. Kiley

2008-01-01

I examine the common trend in inflation for consumer prices and consumer prices excluding prices of food and energy. Both the personal consumption expenditure (PCE) indexes and the consumer price indexes (CPI) are examined. The statistical model employed is a bivariate integrated moving average process; this model extends a univariate model that fits the data on inflation very well. The bivariate model forecasts as well as the univariate models. The results suggest that the relationship betwe...

Information Sensitive Consumers and Market Information.

Science.gov (United States)

Price, Linda L.; And Others

1987-01-01

Past research on consumer information has emphasized the effects of informed consumers of the provision of goods by sellers. This paper examines the effects of informed consumers on other consumers' product choices. These are demand-side effects. Directions for research are outlined. Author/CH)

Nanomaterials in consumer's goods: the problems of risk assessment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gmoshinski, I V; Khotimchenko, S A

2015-01-01

Nanotechnology and engineered nanomaterials are currently used in wide variety of cosmetic products, while their use in food industry, packaging materials, household chemicals etc. still includes a limited number of items and does not show a significant upward trend. However, the problem of priority nanomaterials associated risks is relevant due to their high production volumes and an constantly growing burden on the environment and population. In accordance with the frequency of use in mass-produced consumer goods, leading priority nanomaterials are silver nanoparticles (NPs) and (by a wide margin) NPs of gold, platinum, and titanium dioxide. Frequency of nanosized silica introduction into food products as a food additive, at the moment, seems to be underestimated, since the use of this nanomaterial is not declared by manufacturers of products and objective control of its content is difficult. Analysis of literature data on toxicological properties of nanomaterials shows that currently accumulated amount of information is sufficient to establish the safe doses of nanosized silver, gold and titanium dioxide. Data have been provided in a series of studies concerning the effect of oral intake of nanosized silica on the condition of laboratory animals, including on the performance of the immune system. The article examines the existing approaches to the assessment of population exposure to priority nanomaterials, characteristics of existing problems and risk management. (paper)

Consumers Should Know.

Science.gov (United States)

Worthington, Robert M.

Consumer education can be defined as "a study of intelligent and effective methods of buying and using goods and services, competent money management, and the relationship of the consumer to the economy, the workplace, and the home." An important role of government is providing the individual with information so that the individual can…

The effect of occupational health and safety, work environment and discipline on employee performance in a consumer goods company

Science.gov (United States)

Putri, D. O.; Triatmanto, B.; Setiyadi, S.

2018-04-01

Employee performance can be the supporting factor of company performance. However, employee performance can be affected by several factors. Employees can have optimal performance if they feel safe, have good working environment and have discipline. The purposes of this research are to analyze the effect of occupational health and safety, work environment and discipline on the employee performance in PPIC Thermo section in a consumer goods company and to find the dominant variable which primarily affects employee performance. This research was conducted by taking data from 47 respondents. The data were collected using questionnaire. The techniques in data analysis is multiple linear regression with SPSS software. The result shows that occupational health and safety, work environment and discipline are simultaneously significant to the employee performance. Discipline holds the dominant factor which affects employee performance.

Development of Environmental Knowledge, Team Working Skills and Desirable Behaviors on Environmental Conservation of Matthayomsuksa 6 Students Using Good Science Thinking Moves Method with Metacognition Techniques

Science.gov (United States)

Ladawan, Charinrat; Singseewo, Adisak; Suksringarm, Paitool

2015-01-01

The research aimed to investigate environmental knowledge, team working skills, and desirable behaviors of students learning through the good science thinking moves method with metacognition techniques. The sample group included Matthayomsuksa 6 students from Nadoon Prachasan School, Nadoon District, Maha Sarakham Province. The research tools were…

Impact of scarcity on consumer behavior

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

T.U. Kulakovsky

2016-09-01

Full Text Available This article analyzes the impact of scarcity on consumer behavior and on perception of scarce goods consumer qualities. The author examines and subjects to the critical analysis the impact of scarcity on consumer behavior within economic theory, the theory of reactance and commodity theory. The differences in explaining the impact of scarcity on consumer behavior in economic and psychological sciences is highlighted. The current researcher experimentally proves the impact of the scarcity as an isolated factor on consumer behavior and the impact of scarcity on consumer perception of product quality. According to the reactance theory, an individual perceives scarcity as the restriction of his freedom that causes resistance in response to a possible restriction of freedom of actions. This reinforces the desire to have such a scarce product. To confirm the psychological impact of scarcity on a domestic consumer the author designs and conducts the experiment that confirms the following hypotheses: scarcity affects consumer behavior and stimulates consumers to purchase scarce commodities; scarcity has impact on the perception of scarce product consumer qualities. Such consumer behavior relatively to scarce goods can be used by marketers to promote products on the market.

Helping E-Commerce Consumers Make Good Purchase Decisions: A User Reviews-Based Approach

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Richong; Tran, Thomas T.

Online product reviews provided by the consumers, who have previously purchased and used some particular products, form a rich source of information for other consumers who would like to study about these products in order to make their purchase decisions. Realizing this great need of consumers, several e-commerce web sites such as Amazon.com offer facilities for consumers to review products and exchange their purchase opinions. Unfortunately, reading through the massive amounts of product reviews available online from many e-communities, forums and newsgroups is not only a tedious task but also an impossible one. Indeed, nowadays consumers need an effective and reliable method to search through those huge sources of information and sort out the most appropriate and helpful product reviews. This paper proposes a model to discover the helpfulness of online product reviews. Product reviews can be analyzed and ranked by our scoring system and those reviews that may help consumers better than others will be found. In addition, we compare our model with a number of machine learning techniques. Our experimental results confirm that our approach is effective in ranking and classifying online product reviews.

Consumers' identity - the role of the "self" concept in the consumer behavior

OpenAIRE

Surugiu Felicia; Surugiu Gheorghe

2012-01-01

As Kotler (2008) suggested, the marketplace is the location where goods and services are exchanged, so traders set up the product and buyers browse the merchandise. Consumer attitudes can be influenced by many factors outside the product attributes. Social and cultural environment as well as demographic, psychographic, and geographic conditions can sometimes shape consumer behavior. Consumer attitude, if positive, is an advantage to a marketer. The reaction of buying or refusing a certain pro...

The Impact of Country-of-Origin Information on Consumer Perception of Environment-Friendly Characteristics

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gianni Cicia

2011-10-01

Full Text Available The intense process of internationalization of the food market is giving rise to new competitive scenarios. Growing market shares on the part of new export countries, along with other consumer and retail issues, impose different marketing policies for agri-food products. In particular, greater consumer awareness of environmental and health issues is changing the structure of demand for fresh products. In the past, the country of origin and a good quality/price ratio were the main strategic strengths for gaining and maintaining international market shares. Nowadays, market shares are gained by moving towards new product attributes, namely environmental friendliness and food safety. This paper draws attention to new, more successful marketing strategies. The case study is the German cherry tomato market. Our analysis of German consumer preferences on stated choice data produces interesting insights. Product attributes related to the environment are found to be relevant to forming consumer preferences. As these are termed "faith" attributes, we speculate that German consumers refer to product origin country as a proxy of its environmental aspects. Two separate competitive segments emerge, one with a higher level of environmental quality, namely Germany and Italy, and the other comprising Turkey, Spain, France and Holland.

Consuming sex: the association between modern goods, lifestyles and sexual behaviour among youth in Madagascar

Science.gov (United States)

2013-01-01

Background Ethnographic evidence suggests that transactional sex is sometimes motivated by youth’s interest in the consumption of modern goods as much as it is in basic survival. There are very few quantitative studies that examine the association between young people’s interests in the consumption of modern goods and their sexual behaviour. We examined this association in two regions and four residence zones of Madagascar: urban, peri-urban and rural Antananarivo, and urban Antsiranana. We expected risky sexual behaviour would be associated with interests in consuming modern goods or lifestyles; urban residence; and socio-cultural characteristics. Methods We administered a population-based survey to 2, 255 youth ages 15–24 in all four residence zones. Focus group discussions guided the survey instrument which assessed socio-demographic and economic characteristics, consumption of modern goods, preferred activities and sexual behaviour. Our outcomes measures included: multiple sexual partners in the last year (for men and women); and ever practicing transactional sex (for women). Results Overall, 7.3% of women and 30.7% of men reported having had multiple partners in the last year; and 5.9% of women reported ever practicing transactional sex. Bivariate results suggested that for both men and women having multiple partners was associated with perceptions concerning the importance of fashion and a series of activities associated with modern lifestyles. A subset of lifestyle characteristics remained significant in multivariate models. For transactional sex bivariate results suggested perceptions around fashion, nightclub attendance, and getting to know a foreigner were key determinants; and all remained significant in multivariate analysis. We found peri-urban residence more associated with transactional sex than urban residence; and ethnic origin was the strongest predictor of both outcomes for women. Conclusions While we found indication of an association

Decision-Making Under Uncertainty: Capturing Dynamic Brand Choice Processes in Turbulent Consumer Goods Markets

OpenAIRE

Tülin Erdem; Michael P. Keane

1996-01-01

We construct two models of the behavior of consumers in an environment where there is uncertainty about brand attributes. In our models, both usage experience and advertising exposure give consumers noisy signals about brand attributes. Consumers use these signals to update their expectations of brand attributes in a Bayesian manner. The two models are (1) a dynamic model with immediate utility maximization, and (2) a dynamic “forward-looking” model in which consumers maximize the expected pr...

Reinventing the role of consumer research in today's open innovation ecosystem.

Science.gov (United States)

Moskowitz, Howard R; Saguy, I Sam

2013-01-01

Consumer research (CR) has played a key role in the food and beverage industry. Emerging from laboratory product-tests, it has evolved into a corporate testing service that measures the consumer reactions to products/concepts using a wide range of analyses/metrics. We propose that CR transform itself in light of accelerated knowledge expansion, mounting global, and local economic pressure on corporations and changing consumer needs. The transformation moves from its traditional testing into creating profoundly new knowledge of the product and understanding of the corporation's current and future customers. CR's tasks will involve: contributing/expanding science, applying open innovation principles, and driving consumer-centric innovation. We identify seven paradigm shifts that will change CR, namely: a different way of working--from testing to open sourcing; from good corporate citizen to change leader; open new product development (NPD) process; new management roles/cultures; universities and industry, new education curricula, and cooperation; from battle over control to sustainable sharing is winning model (SiW); and the central role of design. This integrative, innovative CR requires the implementation of three recommendations: start the change process now, fine-tune along the way; create a new marketing/CR department; and educate and professionalize. These recommendations provide the blueprint for jump-starting the process and call for immediate actions to deal with the severity of the crises facing the CR profession.

Spatiotemporal Compression Techniques for Moving Point Objects

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Meratnia, Nirvana; de By, R.A.; de By, R.A.; Bertino, E.

Moving object data handling has received a fair share of attention over recent years in the spatial database community. This is understandable as positioning technology is rapidly making its way into the consumer market, not only through the already ubiquitous cell phone but soon also through small,

Portrait of an Online Shopper: Understanding and Predicting Consumer Behavior

OpenAIRE

Kooti, Farshad; Lerman, Kristina; Aiello, Luca Maria; Grbovic, Mihajlo; Djuric, Nemanja; Radosavljevic, Vladan

2015-01-01

Consumer spending accounts for a large fraction of the US economic activity. Increasingly, consumer activity is moving to the web, where digital traces of shopping and purchases provide valuable data about consumer behavior. We analyze these data extracted from emails and combine them with demographic information to characterize, model, and predict consumer behavior. Breaking down purchasing by age and gender, we find that the amount of money spent on online purchases grows sharply with age, ...

The good, the bad and the ugly: The shifting ethical stance of Malaysian consumers

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Teck-Chai Lau

2010-10-01

Full Text Available Due to the recent business ethical problems in Malaysia such as tax fraud, deceptive advertising, production of unsafe products and copyright piracy, the current research aim to examine ethical issues in the marketplace from the perspective of consumers. There are three objectives of this research. The first objective is to investigate the effect of moral ideologies and Machiavellianism on consumer ethical beliefs. The second objective is to determine which of these ideologies exert the greatest influence on consumer ethical beliefs and the third objective is to discover whether Malaysian consumers have evolved in their ethical stance over the last ten years. The dependent variable in this research is the recently modified consumer ethics scale developed by Vitell and Muncy (2005. An online survey was adopted as data collection method as it was inexpensive, fast and could ensure high response rates. However it has several limitations such as the possible non-representativeness of Internet respondents to the Malaysian population and higher non-response error. The results indicated that idealism exerted the greatest influence on all the four dimensions of consumer ethics. It was also revealed that Malaysian consumers had evolved over the past ten years in their moral ideology: from relativism to idealism.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Quest for Consumer Comprehension

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lauren E. Willis

2017-01-01

Full Text Available To ensure that consumers understand financial products’ “costs, benefits, and risks,” the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has been redesigning mandated disclosures, primarily through iterative lab testing. But no matter how well these disclosures perform in experiments, firms will run circles around the disclosures when studies end and marketing begins. To meet the challenge of the dynamic twenty-first-century consumer financial marketplace, the bureau should require firms to demonstrate that a good proportion of their customers understand key pertinent facts about the financial products they buy. Comprehension rules would induce firms to inform consumers and simplify products, tasks that firms are better equipped than the bureau to perform.

Buying an Afterlife: Mapping the Social Impact of Religious Beliefs through Consumer Death Goods

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Candi K. Cann

2017-08-01

Full Text Available Choosing to have a body embalmed, the choice of interment locations and type, including the selection of a particular casket, are all deeply intertwined with various understandings of the afterlife, and views of the body after death. Consumer choices in these cases are often determined by imagined embodiment, and are determined in part by non-rational consumer choices based on religious upbringing and belief. In turn, diasporic and religious identity can be reinforced and solidified through consumer choices that then fulfill religious imaginations of post-death embodiment. This article traces the relationship of two consumer death goods—embalming and caskets—in the contemporary United States, examining both the implicit and explicit relationships these products have with religious worldviews, mapping the social impact of religious beliefs on consumer death choices.

Older Consumers in Malaysia

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

David R. Phillips

2007-07-01

Full Text Available The main objective of this study was to understand the concerns and problems faced by older people in an industrializing middle-income country, Malaysia, in their process of acquiring products to meet their everyday needs. Respondents aged 55 and over were interviewed in eight states throughout Peninsular Malaysia providing 1356 usable questionnaires; two-thirds from urban and one-third from rural areas. Education, health status, and life satisfaction were recorded. Service patronage behaviour was examined for four main categories of commonly-sought consumer goods: groceries, health supplements, apparel, eating outlets, plus selected services (public transport, vacation packages and financial services. The findings showed that older adults in Malaysia are rather discerning consumers. Many respondents are price conscious and have developed consumer attitudes with regard to attitude of staff and assistance rendered. Many display a good ability to discriminate and to select, especially on the basis of price and durability of products and many appear to be acting as effectively as consumers in any other age group.

Engaging luxury consumers in social media : Does active consumer engagement influence brand image?

OpenAIRE

Åvall, Martina

2017-01-01

This study aimed to investigate the effects of active consumer engagement within social media based brand communities on the brand image and luxury consumers’ desire to pur-chase luxury goods. The purpose of this study was to prove that by actively engaging con-sumers on social media luxury brands can positively influence the way consumers perceive the brand and through it increase consumers’ intention to purchase their products and services. Secondary research was carried out through col...

Renewable electricity as a differentiated good? The case of the Republic of Korea

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kim, Jihyo; Park, Jooyoung; Kim, Jinsoo; Heo, Eunnyeong

2013-01-01

This paper examines the willingness for Korean consumers to pay a premium for renewable electricity under a differentiated good framework by applying the contingent valuation method. Korean consumers have been required to pay for their use of renewable electricity as of 2012. First, we find that Korean consumers recognise renewable electricity as a differentiated good from traditional electricity generated from fossil fuels or nuclear energy. The mean willingness to pay to use renewable electricity is USD 1.26 per month. Second, we confirm the existence of perfect substitution relationships among variant renewable technologies, which suggests that Korean consumers do not perceive them as differentiated goods. One reason for this perception is that Korean consumers are more inclined to favour economic feasibility over sustainability or the availability of the resource stock when choosing between renewable technology types. In sum, we can say that Korean consumers recognise renewable electricity as a differentiated good but that they do not differentiate between variant renewable technologies. Thus, the imposition of the cost of renewable electricity on consumers in the form of increased electricity charges would be acceptable to consumers as long as any price rise properly reflects their preferences. - Highlights: ► We examine renewable electricity in Korea using contingent valuation. ► Korean consumers recognise renewable electricity to be a differentiated good. ► They do not perceive types of renewable technologies as differentiated goods. ► A cost-minimising portfolio is assumed to be preferred by Korean consumers

THE COPRODUCTION BETWEEN PRODUCER AND CONSUMER AS PART OF THE EXPERIENCE ECONOMY

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

BARABAȘ MARIA

2015-12-01

Full Text Available Traditional economic literature is based on the model that separate producer of consumer, considering that, while the producer creates the value, the consumer damage it during the use. There is, however, a new trend that I approach, too, in this work, which perceives consumer in another aspect, that of co-producer. The main purpose of the paper is to examine if, via co-production with the consumer, the companies register costs’ decreases and thereby increases in sales volume. For this, I compared the estimated expenditure of a specific agricultural firm moving to coproduction with the consumer, on the one hand, and data that reflects the results of the company if it does not engages in co-production, on the other hand . I also brought up the case of Swedish company Ikea , which represents a proof that the consumers’ interest grows if he participate in certain stages of production. Based on these data , I surprised the idea that by the effect of prices’ decrease, the co-production between producer and consumer leads to increasing the sales volume of the company and also its performance. The co-production between producer and consumer is a phrase which seeks yet for an identity. The growth and diversity of consumtion is closely linked of certain favorable conditions, such as the development of the New Economy and the unprecedented gain in the informational means of communication. Developed in the 90’s, the World Wide Web technology , the e-mail and the social networks have led to significant exchanges of information, impressions and feedback from consumers. At the same time they have created, for producers, the opportunity to make themselves known in a quick and economical way, to make known their products, to sell goods or services, no matter where in the world. In less than a minute, one can see the goods offered by a company and as fast, can purchase an item or make a financial transaction. Electronic commerce is based on processing and

An Empirical Analysis of Latitude of Price Acceptance in Consumer Package Goods.

OpenAIRE

Kalyanaram, Gurumurthy; Little, John D C

1994-01-01

Scanner panel data analyses for sweetened and unsweetened drink categories (with four brands in each) support the presence of a region of price insensitivity around a reference price. The analyses also suggest that consumers with higher average reference price have a wider latitude of price acceptance. Consumers with a higher frequency of purchase (i.e., shorter average interpurchase time interval) are found to have a narrower latitude of price acceptance, because they are more aware of the r...

The Consumer Protection Bill, 2015: (Lack of) Rights of the Consumer to Terminate Sale Contract

OpenAIRE

Pathak, Akhileshwar

2015-01-01

Consumer protection law rests on the foundations of contract law and the law of sale of goods. A consumer law has to conceptually express this foundation and the modifications it is bringing about in these laws. Without this, the law would become unclear, conflicting and confusing. The Consumer Protection Bill, 2015 is not secured in its foundation and needs revision. The paper reviews the rights of the consumer to terminate the contract and makes suggestions for revision. The suggestions, wi...

Irradiation of goods

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lunt, R.E.

1987-01-01

Mechanical handling apparatus is adapted to handle goods, such as boxed fruit, during a process of irradiation, in palletized form. Palletized goods are loaded onto wheeled vehicles in a loading zone. Four vehicles are wheeled on a track into an irradiation zone via a door in a concrete shield. The vehicles are arranged in orthogonal relationship around a source of square section. Turntables are positioned at corners of the square shaped rail truck around the source selectively to turn the vehicles to align then with track sections. Mechanical manipulating devices are positioned in the track sections opposed to sides of the source. During irradiation, the vehicles and their palletized goods are cylically moved toward the source to offer first sides of the goods for irradiation and are retraced from the source and are pivoted through 90 0 to persent succeeding sides of the goods for irradiation

Promoting educated consumer choices

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Edinger, Wieke Willemijn Huizing

2016-01-01

Contemporary EU food information legislation combines and balances two main consumer interests, i.e., a consumer right to information and the freedom of choice, into one single protective standard: informed choice. Although the recent legislative measures quite openly establish a link between...... informed choice and the rather abstract societal norm of “what is good for the consumer,” this does not justify the conclusion that food information legislation has become overly meddlesome in relation to EU consumers and their choice of food. Rather, there has been a gradual maturing of the EU legislator......’s perception of its task from the mere provision of food information to ensuring educated consumer choices. This development is a logical and necessary consequence of the growing complexity of food choices....

Critical mass of public goods and its coevolution with cooperation

Science.gov (United States)

Shi, Dong-Mei; Wang, Bing-Hong

2017-07-01

In this study, the enhancing parameter represented the value of the public goods to the public in public goods game, and was rescaled to a Fermi-Dirac distribution function of critical mass. Public goods were divided into two categories, consumable and reusable public goods, and their coevolution with cooperative behavior was studied. We observed that for both types of public goods, cooperation was promoted as the enhancing parameter increased when the value of critical mass was not very large. An optimal value of critical mass which led to the best cooperation was identified. We also found that cooperations emerged earlier for reusable public goods, and defections became extinct earlier for the consumable public goods. Moreover, we observed that a moderate depreciation rate for public goods resulted in an optimal cooperation, and this range became wider as the enhancing parameter increased. The noise influence on cooperation was studied, and it was shown that cooperation density varied non-monotonically as noise amplitude increased for reusable public goods, whereas decreased monotonically for consumable public goods. Furthermore, existence of the optimal critical mass was also identified in other three regular networks. Finally, simulation results were utilized to analyze the provision of public goods in detail.

GOOD INTENTION ON ELECTRONIC CONTRACT THROUGH E-COMMERCE

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ari Purwadi

2015-12-01

Full Text Available Electronic contract (e-contract is a contract that vulnerable to the emersion of problems because the contract happened between absence persons. This problem can be avoided if businessman who included in the electronic commerce using principle of good intention. According to the Information and Electronic Transactions Act declare that good intention shall be given during the transaction taking place, it must be interpreted both in the pre-transaction stage, transaction stage, and post-transaction phase. Thus, in order to protect consumer, it's good intention should be exist in every phase of consumer transaction.

Energy compensation in the real world: good compensation for small portions of chocolate and biscuits over short time periods in complicit consumers using commercially available foods.

Science.gov (United States)

Appleton, Katherine M; McKeown, Pascal P; Woodside, Jayne V

2015-02-01

While investigations using covert food manipulations tend to suggest that individuals are poor at adjusting for previous energy intake, in the real world adults rarely consume foods of which they are ill-informed. This study investigated the impact in fully complicit consumers of consuming commercially available dark chocolate, milk chocolate, sweet biscuits and fruit bars on subsequent appetite. Using a repeated measures design, participants received four small portions (4 × 10-11 g) of either dark chocolate, milk chocolate, sweet biscuits, fruit bars or no food throughout five separate study days (counterbalanced in order), and test meal intake, hunger, liking and acceptability were measured. Participants consumed significantly less at lunch following dark chocolate, milk chocolate and sweet biscuits compared to no food (smallest t(19) = 2.47, p = 0.02), demonstrating very good energy compensation (269-334%). No effects were found for fruit bars (t(19) = 1.76, p = 0.09), in evening meal intakes (F(4,72) = 0.62, p = 0.65) or in total intake (lunch + evening meal + food portions) (F(4,72) = 0.40, p = 0.69). No differences between conditions were found in measures of hunger (largest F(4,76) = 1.26, p = 0.29), but fruit bars were significantly less familiar than all other foods (smallest t(19) = 3.14, p = 0.01). These findings demonstrate good compensation over the short term for small portions of familiar foods in complicit consumers. Findings are most plausibly explained as a result of participant awareness and cognitions, although the nature of these cognitions cannot be discerned from this study. These findings however, also suggest that covert manipulations may have limited transfer to real world scenarios. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Postmodern consumers' consciousness of climate change

African Journals Online (AJOL)

user

produced goods, services and communication, we now face a different scenario with rapidly evolving consumer segments that display fragmented and unstable purchasing identities. (Berner & van Tonder, 2003). As it stands currently, consumers are finding it increasingly challenging to find a common-ground between.

The Effect of Ratio, Issuance of Stocks and Auditors’ Quality toward the Timeliness of Financial Reporting on the Internet by Consumer Goods Sector Companies in Indonesia

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lidiyawati Lidiyawati

2015-11-01

Full Text Available This study was conducted to analyze the factors that affect the timeliness of financial reporting on the Internet in the Consumer Goods sector companies listed in Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX. Variables used were leverage, profitability, size of company, the issuance of stock and the quality of auditors. Data analysis method used was logistic regression at the 0.05 level. The data used were secondary data and using sample Consumer Goods companies listed in the Indonesia Stock Exchange in 2010-2012. This study tested the effect of variable leverage, profitability, firm size, auditor quality stocks, and the timeliness of financial reporting on the Internet. The results obtained from these tests support the timeliness of audit quality of financial reporting on theInternet. However, other variables such as leverage, profitability, firm size, stock issuance did not support the timeliness of financial reporting on the Internet.

SALE OF GOODS AND ASSOCIATED GUARANTEES IN THE ROMANIAN AND EUROPEAN LEGISLATION

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nicolae, GRADINARU

2014-11-01

Full Text Available In a market economy there are needed certain rules for products, services and commercial practices in order to satisfy consumer's requirements, while ensuring the free movement of goods and services as well as fair competition. The seller is obliged to deliver to the consumer only products which are in accordance with the contract of sale. In case of non-conformity, the consumer is entitled to have the goods brought into conformity free of charge by repair or replacement, or an appropriate price reduction or rescission of the contract for those goods. Consumer policy in the European Union enables European citizens to shop safely in all Member States. Because the internal market must guarantee the free movement of goods, persons, services and capital, there was a need for a common set of minimum rules of consumer protection valid regardless of where the purchase of goods is made in the Community. When a customer has purchased a product, the Community legislation requires that the product he receives corresponds to what he, the buyer, expressly or implicitly agreed to buy, that is to what is provided in the contract between seller and consumer. Obviously, the product must be used in a normal way.

TRANSPORT OF COUNTERFEIT GOODS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dagmar Babčanová

2014-09-01

Full Text Available The paper is focused on a current problem of transport of counterfeit goods in the European Union. Counterfeiting has a strong influence on the distribution organizations worldwide because most of counterfeit goods threaten the health and safety of consumers. Counterfeiting is a serious problem in the world economy today. The purpose of this paper is to point out the danger of counterfeiting in connection with the transport of Intellectual Property (IP rights - infringing goods. Background of the paper’s content is based on secondary data research of publicly available sources - international statistics and world reports.

Designing components using smartMOVE electroactive polymer technology

Science.gov (United States)

Rosenthal, Marcus; Weaber, Chris; Polyakov, Ilya; Zarrabi, Al; Gise, Peter

2008-03-01

Designing components using SmartMOVE TM electroactive polymer technology requires an understanding of the basic operation principles and the necessary design tools for integration into actuator, sensor and energy generation applications. Artificial Muscle, Inc. is collaborating with OEMs to develop customized solutions for their applications using smartMOVE. SmartMOVE is an advanced and elegant way to obtain almost any kind of movement using dielectric elastomer electroactive polymers. Integration of this technology offers the unique capability to create highly precise and customized motion for devices and systems that require actuation. Applications of SmartMOVE include linear actuators for medical, consumer and industrial applications, such as pumps, valves, optical or haptic devices. This paper will present design guidelines for selecting a smartMOVE actuator design to match the stroke, force, power, size, speed, environmental and reliability requirements for a range of applications. Power supply and controller design and selection will also be introduced. An overview of some of the most versatile configuration options will be presented with performance comparisons. A case example will include the selection, optimization, and performance overview of a smartMOVE actuator for the cell phone camera auto-focus and proportional valve applications.

Materialism, status consumption, and consumer independence.

Science.gov (United States)

Goldsmith, Ronald Earl; Clark, Ronald A

2012-01-01

Materialism influences many people. We focus on two aspects of this influence: reactions to prestige products and to the influence of others. A study of 187 U.S. student consumers shows that materialism is positively related to buying products that confer status. In contrast, materialism is negatively related to consumer independence, an enduring tendency to pay minimal attention to the prescribed norms of other consumers and to make product and brand decisions according to personal preferences. Consuming products for status is also negatively related to consumer independence. Moreover, the association between materialism and consumer independence is completely mediated by consuming for status. Materialism urges consumers to be status conscious so that they follow social norms in purchasing, but seeking status through goods is avoided by less materialistic, independent consumers. A second study (n = 258) also using student consumers confirmed these results.

On Mergers in Consumer Search Markets

NARCIS (Netherlands)

M.C.W. Janssen (Maarten); J.L. Moraga-Gonzalez (José Luis)

2007-01-01

textabstractWe study mergers in a market where N firms sell a homogeneous good and consumers search sequentially to discover prices. The main motivation for such an analysis is that mergers generally affect market prices and thereby, in a search environment, the search behavior of consumers.

SYSTEMIC APPROACH OF THE CONSUMER BEHAVIOR

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Adrian Nicolae CAZACU

2016-05-01

Full Text Available In an era of globalization, we witness the encounter of cultures and the exchanges between them. Often, the cultural influences affect the consumer's decision to purchase goods. Many cultures have their own specific product offer, which is a way of promoting them. In this regard, a good example is the media culture called "anime". As a result, the consumer is faced with many decisions and its choice is influenced by many internal and external factors. When studying the market fluctuations due to the social, cultural, or otherwise influences, which may create new categories of consumers, we consider it is important to analyse the consumer behavior in the systemic terms, which could lead us to a new overview of the effects of these various influences. This paper proposes a mathematical model, starting from an original scheme, based on the Veblen theory. The study uses a simple matrix algorithm for the optimal solution of the dynamical systems with quadratic cost function.

Here Comes the Hyper-Connected Augmented Consumer

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Stephen Andrew T.

2017-11-01

Full Text Available Consumers have become always on and constantly connected. Search costs have plummeted, individuals’ abilities to digitally express themselves and their opinions increased, and the opportunities for superior business and market intelligence for companies have skyrocketed. This has given rise to more, richer, and new sources of consumer data that marketers can leverage, and has fueled the data-driven insights revolution in marketing. But there is more to come very soon. In marketing, we are quickly moving from the age of the connected consumer to the age of the augmented consumer. New technologies like wearable devices, smart sensors, consumer IoT devices, smart homes, and, critically, artificial intelligence ecosystems will not only connect, but will substantially and meaningfully augment the consumer in terms of their thoughts and behaviors. The biggest challenge for marketers will lie in how they approach marketing to this new type of consumer, particularly personal artificial intelligence ecosystems. This means marketing to algorithms, instead of people, and that is very different to how most marketing work is currently done.

Recycling of consumer waste: A behavioural science approach to environmental protection policy

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Thøgersen, John

1994-01-01

Evaluations of programs whose purpose is to increase recycling in Denmark through changing consumer waste handling practices are reviewed on the results discussed in a behavioural science framework Denmark is one of the fastest-moving European cou with regard to policies targeting consumer waste...

A Theory of Finitely Durable Goods Monopoly with Used-Goods Market and Transaction Costs

OpenAIRE

S. Huang; Y. Yang; K. Anderson

2001-01-01

We construct a dynamic game to model a monopoly of finitely durable goods. The solution concept is Markov-perfect equilibria with general equilibria embedded in every time period. Our model is flexible enough to simultaneously explain or accommodate many commonly observed phenomena or stylized facts, such as concurrent leasing and selling, active secondary markets for used goods, heterogeneous consumers, endogenous consumption patterns, depreciation, an infinite time horizon, and nontrivial t...

Nakupno vedenje slovenskih porabnikov: vloga nacionalne identitete = Consumer Buying Behavior

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Irena Vida

2006-06-01

Full Text Available The study examines the phenomenon of national identity and economic ethnocentrism in consumer buying behavior. Analysis of data collected from a representative sample of adult Slovenian consumers reveals only moderately expressed ethnocentric tendencies. Similar moderation was revealed in the preferences of Slovenian consumers for patriotic purchasing behavior, whereby the domestic origin of products was more important in the case of nondurable goods and services than in the case of durable goods. Consumers evaluated various characteristics of products made in the EU more favorably relative to those made in Slovenia.

Research on Goods and the Ship Interaction Based on ADAMS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Song Fangzhen

2017-01-01

Full Text Available The equivalent method of the relative movement goods on board is discussed in details. This method is to establish dynamic model based on moving trajectory of gravity-center for goods and to take rigid body geometric model with the trajectory as constraints in ADAMS. The difference of simulation methods for the different goods in carrier rolling is compared. The interact of relative moving objects with bulk carrier is discussed by using the ADAMS model. It is verified that the ballast water can maintain the ship’s stability by means of the ADAMS model.

USSR Report. Consumer Goods and Domestic Trade, No. 78.

Science.gov (United States)

1983-11-10

Studies Translations from KOMMUNIST USA : Economics, Politics, Ideology World Economy and International Relations Agriculture Construction and... gastronom and village stores and be met with a wide assortment of sausages and other meat products, bakery goods, confectionary products, and nonalcoholic

New Rules on Consumer Sales

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Møgelvang-Hansen, Peter; Lando, Henrik; Kristensen, Bo

2006-01-01

The project described in this report was carried out with support from The Ministry of Justice's Research Pool. The aim of the project is to examine the effects of Amending Act no. 213/2002, amending the rules on consumer sales in the Danish Sale of Goods Act. The amendments were part of Denmark......'s implementation of Directive 1999/44/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council on certain aspects of the sale of consumer goods and associated guarantees. The Amending Act came into force on 24 April 2002, having effect on consumer sales made on and after 1 January 2002. At the time of completion...... of this report, the Amending Act had been in force for more than two and a half years. In the planning of this project, we assumed that at this point in time sufficient experience with the new rules would be available, enabling us to get an impression of its practical consequences for businesses. Also, we...

Children as Consumers: Advertising and Marketing

Science.gov (United States)

Calvert, Sandra L.

2008-01-01

Marketing and advertising support the U.S. economy by promoting the sale of goods and services to consumers, both adults and children. Sandra Calvert addresses product marketing to children and shows that although marketers have targeted children for decades, two recent trends have increased their interest in child consumers. First, both the…

Lecture - "Move! Eat better"

CERN Multimedia

2012-01-01

As part of the "Move! Eat better" campaign, Novae’s nutrition adviser, Irène Rolfo, will give a talk on the subject of everyday good nutrition. This will be held in the main building auditorium at 12:30 on Thursday, 20 September 2012. Don’t miss this informative event. For more information, go to http://cern.ch/bpmm            

Successful Transitions: Making the Move to High School. PHP-c108

Science.gov (United States)

PACER Center, 2005

2005-01-01

Moving from middle school to high school can be challenging and exciting, but students with special needs may need to begin preparing for the move earlier than other students. As with other major changes in a child's life, the move to high school will go more smoothly if parents gather information and do some planning. A good time to begin…

European consumers' acceptance of beef processing technologies

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

de Barcellos, Marcia Dutra; Kügler, Jens Oliver; Grunert, Klaus G.

2010-01-01

The use of new technologies in beef production chains may affect consumers' opinion of meat products. A qualitative study was performed to investigate consumers' acceptance of seven beef processing technologies: marinating by injection aiming for increased 1) healthiness; 2) safety; and 3) eating...... adults (19-60 years old) participated in eight focus groups in Spain, France, Germany and the UK. Results suggested a relationship between acceptance of new beef products, technology familiarity and perceived risks related to its application. Excessive manipulation and fear of moving away from 'natural......' beef were considered negative outcomes of technological innovations. Beef processing technologies were predominantly perceived as valuable options for convenience shoppers and less demanding consumers. Overall, respondents supported the development of 'non-invasive' technologies that were able...

Assessment of the condition of a consumer market: interactive research

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Anastasiya Yevgenyevna Sudakova

2014-09-01

Full Text Available Results of an assessment of a condition of the consumer market are presented in the article on the basis of official statistics data. At the heart of an assessment, the method of the indicative analysis lies. The technique includes five modules: quality of consumer goods, works, services; food security, nonfood safety; safety of services; security of participants of the consumer market. Also results of interactive Internet research of the condition of the ultimate consumer are presented in the article, by means of the carried out research. Interactive research is presented by 3 blocks: the general block (allows to make the respondent’s portrait; the special block (allows to estimate the changes in price, quality and the range of consumer goods and services; the additional block (allows respondents to leave comments. On the basis of the conducted research, it is possible to draw a conclusion that the assessment of the state received on the basis of methodical tools, shows positive dynamics, nevertheless, the condition of the consumer market remains unsatisfactory that also is confirmed by results of interactive research. The recommendations, allowing to lower the rise in prices and increase the quality of consumer goods and services are presented in the article

Consumer goods and food industry, local industry of the western region of ussr in the times of «developed socialist society»

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Oleh M. Malyarchuk

2016-01-01

Full Text Available The economy of the Ukrainian SSR and the western region, according to most indicators, continued to develop on its own basis, solving ordinary socio-political and socio-economic challenges. In 1960-1980s of the twentieth century the two types of reproduction were combined: extensive sources of growth (exploitation of new natural and labour resources, and intensive ones which improved production structure and management system. Western region of the republic developed rapidly, engineering and instrumentation grew, as well as oil and gas and chemical industries, together with consumer goods and food industry, local industry. However, low quality, inadequate technologies reduced the positive impact of these industries on economic efficiency. In addition, other problems arose. As a result tasks of economic development planned by the third Programme of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union turned out to be unfulfilled. Despite a slight increase in industrial growth its rate declined. A large-scale restructuring of the economy on resource conservation, introduction of new technologies began in industrialized countries. Scientific progress in the USSR stalled. It should be noted that attempts to improve the situation were done over and over, but they were not in the economic and scientific spheres but in the political one. The crisis in industry and agriculture of the USSR in the second half of 1980s went far beyond purely production problems, took on socio-economic character and became threatening as for the provision of the country with necessary goods and food, creating social tension. In the late 1980s food consumption per capita decreased, and deficit in manufactured goods increased. Investing activities of villages almost stopped. Employees from the village began to massively lose stable jobs and reliable source of income. The decline in agricultural production led to idle capacity of the food and consumer goods industry, decline in employment

Counting Dropout Rate of Consumers of Durable Goods | Akomolafe ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

This research work attempts to predict the percentage of customers' churn of less than 10% using the data of some packaged goods that were collected within a specific period. The computational experience provides a string statistical evidence (p-value = 0.9928) for the use of proposed beta-binominal models as an ...

Innovations in Statistical Observations of Consumer Prices

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Olga Stepanovna Oleynik

2016-10-01

Full Text Available This article analyzes the innovative changes in the methodology of statistical surveys of consumer prices. These changes are reflected in the “Official statistical methodology for the organization of statistical observation of consumer prices for goods and services and the calculation of the consumer price index”, approved by order of the Federal State Statistics Service of December 30, 2014 no. 734. The essence of innovation is the use of mathematical methods in determining the range of studies objects of trade and services, in calculating the sufficient observable price quotes based on price dispersion, the proportion of the observed product (service, a representative of consumer spending, as well as the indicator of the complexity of price registration. The authors analyzed the mathematical calculations of the required number of quotations for observation in the Volgograd region in 2016, the results of calculations are compared with the number of quotes included in the monitoring. The authors believe that the implementation of these mathematical models allowed to substantially reduce the influence of the subjective factor in the organization of monitoring of consumer prices, and therefore to increase the objectivity of the resulting statistics on consumer prices and inflation. At the same time, the proposed methodology needs further improvement in terms of payment for goods, products (services by representatives having a minor share in consumer expenditure.

Consumer evaluations of products from developing countries

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Verlegh, P.W.J.

2002-01-01

Consumers use country of origin as a signal or proxy for product quality. Consumers have little confidence in the ability of less developed countries to produce high quality goods. On the other hand emotionally attachment to a country or associations of "exoticness" or "authenticity" can lead to a

Instructional Materials in Consumer Education: Interpersonal Relations.

Science.gov (United States)

North Dakota State Board for Vocational Education, Bismarck.

The seven interpersonal relations units in the consumer education guide are: Expressing Satisfaction or Dissatisfaction with Consumer Goods and Services, What to Do in Case of a Financial Crisis, Bridging the Generation Gap, Rebellion, Emotions, Discovering Myself, and Dual Role (homemaker/wage earner). Grade levels of the units, are…

Pengaruh Perubahan Routes To Market Terhadap Kinerja Pemasaran Pada Perusahaan Fast Moving Consumer Goods

OpenAIRE

Gunawan, Didi Mulya

2016-01-01

Routes to Market (RtM) is a set of methodologies which is used for designing distribution route to become an effective and efficient distribution system by combining all superior resources in order to encourage selling growth and high competitiveness, and to anticipate every market change. Most of big multi-national companies have used RtM as part of their distribution strategy in providing the best service for outlets and the last product users. The objective of the research was to encourage...

Income and Wealth Distribution in a Neoclassical Two-Sector Heterogeneous-Households Growth Model with Elastic Labor Supply and Consumer Durable Goods

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Wei-Bin ZHANG

2017-06-01

Full Text Available This paper proposes a two-sector two-group growth model with elastic labor supply and consumer durable goods. We study dynamics of wealth and income distribution in a competitive economy with capital accumulation as the main engine of economic growth. The model is built on the Uzawa two-sector model. It is also influenced by the neoclassical growth theory and the post-Keynesian theory of growth and distribution. We plot the motion of the economic system and determine the economic equilibrium. We carry out comparative dynamic analysis with regard to the propensity to save and improvements in human capital and technology.

Consumer demands: Major problems facing industry in a consumer-driven society.

Science.gov (United States)

Harrington, G

1994-01-01

Demand is driven by conventional market forces over much of the world among consumers with strong positive attitudes to meat as a nutritious, tasty and premium food; price in relation to income, availability, quality (including leanness) and relevance to life-style remain the dominant forces operating. But in the developed world, there are emerging concerns about how meat is produced, which are likely to have negative effects on demand, particularly that of the current younger generation, and which may well begin to affect Government policies towards the meat industry. The industry needs to establish strong information and education programmes, but also to examine its procedures to provide greater consumer assurance about practises and controls. Also the scientists and technologists serving the industry need to help it move towards sustainable lower input, less environmentally damaging systems, less reliance on drugs, stimulants and additives, sensitive exploitation of the new genetics and with more consideration for the animals involved. Copyright © 1993. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Consumer boycotts of foreign products: a metric model

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Murat Hakan Altintas

2013-06-01

Full Text Available Even if reactions to foreign goods are measured by means of various conceptual structures, few studies approach the question from the point of view of boycotts. Responding to this scarcity and with the aid of netnography, this study examines antecedents of consumer boycotts of foreign goods. The study considers the degree to what a measurement model is useful for examining this boycott process. When the study examines the boycotting of foreign goods as an individual or social process, the study examines the phenomena of nationalism, xenophobia, country-of-origin, and ethnocentrism as antecedents. The conversion of the dimensions obtained from discourse analysis into items and that were tested by means of exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis lead to two discoveries: 1 three basic dimensions – hate against foreign products, citizen consumers and economic independence - influenced decisions to boycott and 2 the second-order model (all constructs load on one construct as consumer boycotting was more valid than the three first-order models.

Consumer motivations toward buying local rice: The case of northern Iranian consumers.

Science.gov (United States)

Rahnama, Hassan

2017-07-01

This research had two purposes. The first aim was to identify Iranian and Non-Iranian rice consumers based on demographic characteristics and examine difference of these features with buying behaviors. The second purpose of study was to investigate consumer's motivation to buy local rice in Iran. The sample were 1500 people (men and women). The data was collected by using questionnaire based on a face-to-face survey. Chi-square, confirmatory factor analysis, and multiple linear regression were applied to assess collected data by a questionnaire survey. Regarding Iranian local rice buyers, 884 people buy local rice. Chi-square test showed that there is a significant difference between gender, having children, and marital status in buying local rice. Habitual Iranian local rice buyers include: female (51%), people who are more than 45 years old (51%), people with children (63%), people who are living urban (61%), married people (48%) and individuals that their monthly income is between 321.5 and 625 Dollars (53%). Regarding non-Iranian rice buyers, 616 people buy it. Also there is a significant difference between gender, location, marital status, and income in buying local rice. For considering consumers motivation toward buying local rice the econometrical model is used. Model had three aspects including; quality aspects (taste, good appearance), economic aspects (price, convenience, consumer's ethnocentrism), and safety aspects (health, not using pesticides and environment protection) and seven subset. The results of analysis indicated that quality aspects, economic aspects and safety aspects have positive effects on buying Iranian local rice. Also, indicative variables including; taste, good appearance, price, convenience, consumer's ethnocentrism, health, not using pesticides and environment have significant effects on buying it. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Estimating added sugars in US consumer packaged goods: An application to beverages in 2007-08.

Science.gov (United States)

Ng, Shu Wen; Bricker, Gregory; Li, Kuo-Ping; Yoon, Emily Ford; Kang, Jiyoung; Westrich, Brian

2015-11-01

This study developed a method to estimate added sugar content in consumer packaged goods (CPG) that can keep pace with the dynamic food system. A team including registered dietitians, a food scientist and programmers developed a batch-mode ingredient matching and linear programming (LP) approach to estimate the amount of each ingredient needed in a given product to produce a nutrient profile similar to that reported on its nutrition facts label (NFL). Added sugar content was estimated for 7021 products available in 2007-08 that contain sugar from ten beverage categories. Of these, flavored waters had the lowest added sugar amounts (4.3g/100g), while sweetened dairy and dairy alternative beverages had the smallest percentage of added sugars (65.6% of Total Sugars; 33.8% of Calories). Estimation validity was determined by comparing LP estimated values to NFL values, as well as in a small validation study. LP estimates appeared reasonable compared to NFL values for calories, carbohydrates and total sugars, and performed well in the validation test; however, further work is needed to obtain more definitive conclusions on the accuracy of added sugar estimates in CPGs. As nutrition labeling regulations evolve, this approach can be adapted to test for potential product-specific, category-level, and population-level implications.

Efficient Tracking of Moving Objects with Precision Guarantees

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Civilis, Alminas; Jensen, Christian Søndergaard; Nenortaite, Jovita

2004-01-01

Sustained advances in wireless communications, geo-positioning, and consumer electronics pave the way to a kind of location-based service that relies on the tracking of the continuously changing positions of an entire population of service users. This type of service is characterized by large...... an object is moving. Empirical performance studies based on a real road network and GPS logs from cars are reported....

Fringe projection profilometry with portable consumer devices

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Danji; Pan, Zhipeng; Wu, Yuxiang; Yue, Huimin

2018-01-01

A fringe projection profilometry (FPP) using portable consumer devices is attractive because it can realize optical three dimensional (3D) measurement for ordinary consumers in their daily lives. We demonstrate a FPP using a camera in a smart mobile phone and a digital consumer mini projector. In our experiment of testing the smart phone (iphone7) camera performance, the rare-facing camera in the iphone7 causes the FPP to have a fringe contrast ratio of 0.546, nonlinear carrier phase aberration value of 0.6 rad, and nonlinear phase error of 0.08 rad and RMS random phase error of 0.033 rad. In contrast, the FPP using the industrial camera has a fringe contrast ratio of 0.715, nonlinear carrier phase aberration value of 0.5 rad, nonlinear phase error of 0.05 rad and RMS random phase error of 0.011 rad. Good performance is achieved by using the FPP composed of an iphone7 and a mini projector. 3D information of a facemask with a size for an adult is also measured by using the FPP that uses portable consumer devices. After the system calibration, the 3D absolute information of the facemask is obtained. The measured results are in good agreement with the ones that are carried out in a traditional way. Our results show that it is possible to use portable consumer devices to construct a good FPP, which is useful for ordinary people to get 3D information in their daily lives.

Consumer Attitude Toward Mobile Marketing in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Irma Jasarspahic

2014-08-01

Full Text Available Driven by the ongoing evolution in mobile technologies and the increasing popularity of the internet, the mobile marketing is becoming more and more popular to marketers whose aim is definitely to promote their goods and services to the consumer. Since many people are still unaware of the potential of marketing via mobile devices this research aimed to examine factors based on content of mobile marketing (entertainment, information, irritation, utility and personalization and frequency factor that are affecting the formation of attitude toward mobile marketing targeting BH consumers, and also will try bring to light the response behavior of consumers attitude toward mobile marketing practices and how consumers perceive mobile marketing in BH. The research approach for this study is descriptive and the data was collected by 200 online surveys from young population of BH. The data was analyzed using the software program SPSS. Based on analysis and findings, variables of content have different effect on consumer attitude. Research has shown that a lot of respondents believe mobile marketing is a good idea and that they certainly eases the need for products and services. This paper could be used as a good basis for future research on bigger sample.

77 FR 25371 - Transportation of Household Goods in Interstate Commerce; Consumer Protection Regulations...

Science.gov (United States)

2012-04-30

... Released Rates Order. FMCSA redesignates old paragraphs (g) and (h) as new paragraphs (h) and (i... CFR Part 375 Advertising, Arbitration, Consumer protection, Freight, Highways and roads, Insurance...

Advertising and consumer search in a duopoly model

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Janssen, Maarten C. W.; Non, Marielle C.

We consider a duopoly in a homogenous goods market where part of the consumers are ex ante uninformed about prices. Information can come through two different channels: advertising and sequential consumer search. We arrive at the following results. First, there is no monotone relationship between

Consumer perceptions of CSR: (how) is China different?

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Kolk, A.; van Dolen, W.; Ma, L.

2015-01-01

Purpose Most studies on consumers and corporate social responsibility (CSR) have focused on Western contexts. Consequently, good insight is lacking into non-Western markets where consumers may respond differently. China is a case in point, despite the popularity of the CSR concept and high societal

Demographic differences in adult consumers' decision-making styles

African Journals Online (AJOL)

user

goods or services, as for example, in a shopping centre or online. .... Quality- conscious consumers are not satisfied with items that are „good enough‟. They need to ..... were then tested for internal consistency ..... activities and restaurants.

Advertising Expenditure and Consumer Prices

OpenAIRE

Ferdinand Rauch

2011-01-01

This paper studies the effect of a change in the marginal costs of advertising on advertising expenditures of firms and consumer prices across industries. It makes use of a unique policy change that caused a decrease of the taxation on advertising expenditures in parts of Austria and a simultaneous increase in other parts. Advertising expenditures move immediately in the opposite direction to the marginal costs of advertising. Simultaneously the price reaction to advertising is negative in so...

PREFERENCE FOR DOMESTIC GOODS: A STUDY OF CONSUMER ETHNOCENTRISM IN THE REPUBLIC OF MOLDOVA

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Stela CAZACU

2016-02-01

Full Text Available International trade has a significant role in the world economy. That is why it is a challenging task to understand the consumers’ minds, particularly when the consumption of imported products is regarded. This article attempts to explore Moldovan consumer ethnocentric tendencies. For attaining this goal, a self-administered questionnaire was delivered, using CETSCALE. There were obtained 113 complete and usable responses. The data from the study point out that the Moldovan consumers tend to be moderately ethnocentric. This tendency is distributed uniformly amongst socio-demographic groups selected for this research.

A moving target for accelerated charged particle induced X-ray measurement

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chuang, L.S.; Shima, K.; Ebihara, H.; Seki, R.; Mikumo, T.

1980-01-01

To attain good reproducibility as well as to enable an absolute determination in the measurement of X-ray fluorescences, resulting from bombardment of a heterogeneous sample by accelerated charged particles, a moving-target mechanism incorporating an electronic remote control system has been devised. The system is designed to scan the whole sample area with a chosen constant linear speed, by a fixed particle beam with a cross-sectional area a small fraction of that of the sample. Using 16 MeV protons and 40 MeV oxygen-ion beams, test runs of this system showed that the attempted objectives are attainable with good accuracies: reproducibility of the data for a given target is better than 3%, the linearity of the calibration curve is in good agreement, within the weighing errors of the standard elements and the uncertainty due to beam current fluctuation, with the expected values, and the results of absolute determinations using both metal foils and heterogeneous powder samples are in good agreement with accepted results using different methods. Detailed accounts of the moving-target system, and the test for reproducibility and linearity are presented. An absolute determination of the quantities related to accelerated charged-particle induced X-ray fluorescence (PIXE) using the moving target is presented for samples in different forms. (orig./HP)

Consumer Protection--Who Protects You? How Can You Protect Yourself? Proceed with Caution: Consumer Safety In the Home, I.

Science.gov (United States)

Saskatchewan Consumer and Commercial Affairs, Regina.

The enormous and rapidly-increasing number of goods on the market makes it difficult to ensure that all consumer products are safe to use. Public concern about product safety has caused the enactment of a wide range of consumer protection laws. The result of this legislation has been that many agencies have been established to protect the public.…

Moving from Outsider to Insider: Peer Status and Partnerships between Electricity Utilities and Residential Consumers

Science.gov (United States)

Morris, Peter; Buys, Laurie; Vine, Desley

2014-01-01

An electricity demand reduction project based on comprehensive residential consumer engagement was established within an Australian community in 2008. By 2011, both the peak demand and grid supplied electricity consumption had decreased to below pre-intervention levels. This case study research explored the relationship developed between the utility, community and individual consumer from the residential customer perspective through qualitative research of 22 residential households. It is proposed that an energy utility can be highly successful at peak demand reduction by becoming a community member and a peer to residential consumers and developing the necessary trust, access, influence and partnership required to create the responsive environment to change. A peer-community approach could provide policymakers with a pathway for implementing pro-environmental behaviour for low carbon communities, as well as peak demand reduction, thereby addressing government emission targets while limiting the cost of living increases from infrastructure expenditure. PMID:24979234

Advertising and Consumer Search in a Duopoly Model

NARCIS (Netherlands)

M.C.W. Janssen (Maarten); M.C. Non (Marielle)

2005-01-01

textabstractWe consider a duopoly in a homogenous goods market where part of the consumers are ex ante uninformed about prices. Information can come through two different channels: advertising and sequential consumer search. The model is similar to that of Robert and Stahl (1993) with two major (and

Zooming in on choice : How do consumers search for cameras online?

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Bronnenberg, Bart; Kim, Jun B.; Mela, Carl

We describe online consumers' search behavior for differentiated durable goods using a data set that captures a detailed level of consumer search and attribute information for digital cameras. Consumers search extensively, engaging in 14 searches on average prior to purchase. Individual level search

An investigation on Iranian consumer behavior towards famous luxury brands

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Seyed Hamidreza Moteshakereh

2013-08-01

Full Text Available During the past few years, there has been a growing trend on luxury good consumption among Iranian consumers. Many rich people change their mobile devices, purchase new expensive cars, etc. This paper investigates the effects of three factors including consumer perceived value, sensitivity to social norms and need for uniqueness on consumer’s intention to purchase luxury products based on the theory of planned behavior. The proposed study uses clustering technique and randomly chooses a sample of 250 rich people and distributes a questionnaire among them. The study uses structural equation modeling and the implementation of the proposed model has been executed using LISREL software package. The results indicate the all three factors, consumer perceived value, sensitivity to social norms and need for uniqueness, influence consumer intention to buy luxury goods. In addition, consumer knowledge is a mediator factor between need for uniqueness and purchase intention.

Current means for raising efficiency of counteraction to counterfeit goods trafficking

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dronova O.B.

2014-12-01

Full Text Available The urgency of counteraction to counterfeit goods trafficking is shown. Annual loss due to counterfeit goods producing and trafficking reaches several billion dollars. There remains a danger of buying low-quality and counterfeit goods despite implementing new producing techniques and protective elements. Measures, taken by law enforcement agencies, state authorities and public human rights organizations have not led to systematic suppression of producing and trafficking of such goods. Creation of new information and reference resource, containing information blocks of protective symbols on goods and packages and illustrated materials comprising patterns of discovered counterfeit goods, can assist to increase public awareness and to give necessary information to law enforcement agencies. Organizations, realizing state and social protection of consumers and entrepreneurs, along with producers, rightholders’ representatives and law enforcement bodies can accept the responsibility of creating and functioning this information and reference system in the Internet. Such level of cooperation of all interested organizations will allow to raise efficiency of measures for counteraction to trafficking goods with violated consumer properties. The author proves the necessity to organize functioning of information and reference resource for a wide range of users. Operation of such resource should comply with main principles of generating any information resource, notably full scale, authenticity and relevance of information. The author proposes the algorithm of creating such system which provides cooperation of law enforcement agencies, producers and consumers for the purpose of preventing counterfeit goods trafficking and investigating committed crimes.

Consumer Preference Variation between Domestic and Imported Food

OpenAIRE

Parcell, Joseph L.; Gedikoglu, Haluk

2012-01-01

Increasing concerns about a healthy diet, food safety and support for the local economy provide new opportunities for farmers to increase their farm income by locally selling their farm products. The major challenge for farmers making local sales is to predict consumer preferences correctly and provide goods to the market accordingly. By analyzing results from a consumer survey conducted in the Midwest, the current study determines the consumer preferences for domestic artisan cheese compared...

Good is not good enough: the culture of low expectations and the leader's challenge.

Science.gov (United States)

Kerfoot, Karlene M

2009-01-01

When people believe that what they do is "good enough," excellence will never occur. As the demand for better health care escalates every year, achieving a ranking of very good doesn't count because it leaves many disenfranchised staff, errors, and dissatisfied patients. A leader can not be successful unless the culture of low expectations is eliminated. If there isn't a sense of caring, serving, and being an exemplar of the change, the leader won't succeed in moving the culture. When there is a sense of ownership and commitment to the mission and to patients, the culture of low expectations cannot exist.

A Cryptographic Moving-Knife Cake-Cutting Protocol

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yoshifumi Manabe

2012-02-01

Full Text Available This paper proposes a cake-cutting protocol using cryptography when the cake is a heterogeneous good that is represented by an interval on a real line. Although the Dubins-Spanier moving-knife protocol with one knife achieves simple fairness, all players must execute the protocol synchronously. Thus, the protocol cannot be executed on asynchronous networks such as the Internet. We show that the moving-knife protocol can be executed asynchronously by a discrete protocol using a secure auction protocol. The number of cuts is n-1 where n is the number of players, which is the minimum.

Consumer Pride and Consumption-Based Family Rituals: A Field Study in Zagreb, Croatia

Science.gov (United States)

Sredl, Katherine Christina

2009-01-01

Consumer emotions are rarely examined from a phenomenological perspective, with few exceptions. Moreover, consumer pride is overlooked as an influence on the marketplace practices of consumers. In spite of the lack of theoretical development on consumer pride, it clearly drives consumption: take, for instance, consumers who use goods to…

Techniques for Efficient Tracking of Road-Network-Based Moving Objects

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Civilis, Alminas; Jensen, Christian Søndergaard; Saltenis, Simonas

With the continued advances in wireless communications, geo-positioning, and consumer electronics, an infrastructure is emerging that enables location-based services that rely on the tracking of the continuously changing positions of entire populations of service users, termed moving objects....... The main issue considered is how to represent the location of a moving object in a database so that tracking can be done with as few updates as possible. The paper proposes to use the road network within which the objects are assumed to move for predicting their future positions. The paper presents...... algorithms that modify an initial road-network representation, so that it works better as a basis for predicting an object's position; it proposes to use known movement patterns of the object, in the form of routes; and it proposes to use acceleration profiles together with the routes. Using real GPS...

Techniques for efficient road-network-based tracking of moving objects

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Civilis, A.; Jensen, Christian Søndergaard; Pakalnis, Stardas

2005-01-01

With the continued advances in wireless communications, geo-positioning, and consumer electronics, an infrastructure is emerging that enables location-based services that rely on the tracking of the continuously changing positions of entire populations of service users, termed moving objects....... The main issue considered is how to represent the location of a moving object in a database so that tracking can be done with as few updates as possible. The paper proposes to use the road network within which the objects are assumed to move for predicting their future positions. The paper presents...... algorithms that modify an initial road-network representation, so that it works better as a basis for predicting an object's position; it proposes to use known movement patterns of the object, in the form of routes; and it proposes to use acceleration profiles together with the routes. Using real GPS...

Balanced Diet: "Eater's Digest". Health and the Consumer.

Science.gov (United States)

Osceola County School District, Kissimmee, FL.

This consumer education learning activity package is one of a series of six Project SCAT (Skills for Consumer Applied Today) units. It teaches secondary level students about the importance of a balanced diet and what nutrients are most important to good health. The package includes instructions for the teacher, suggestions for activities, lists of…

Estimating added sugars in US consumer packaged goods: An application to beverages in 2007–08

Science.gov (United States)

Ng, Shu Wen; Bricker, Gregory; Li, Kuo-ping; Yoon, Emily Ford; Kang, Jiyoung; Westrich, Brian

2015-01-01

This study developed a method to estimate added sugar content in consumer packaged goods (CPG) that can keep pace with the dynamic food system. A team including registered dietitians, a food scientist and programmers developed a batch-mode ingredient matching and linear programming (LP) approach to estimate the amount of each ingredient needed in a given product to produce a nutrient profile similar to that reported on its nutrition facts label (NFL). Added sugar content was estimated for 7021 products available in 2007–08 that contain sugar from ten beverage categories. Of these, flavored waters had the lowest added sugar amounts (4.3g/100g), while sweetened dairy and dairy alternative beverages had the smallest percentage of added sugars (65.6% of Total Sugars; 33.8% of Calories). Estimation validity was determined by comparing LP estimated values to NFL values, as well as in a small validation study. LP estimates appeared reasonable compared to NFL values for calories, carbohydrates and total sugars, and performed well in the validation test; however, further work is needed to obtain more definitive conclusions on the accuracy of added sugar estimates in CPGs. As nutrition labeling regulations evolve, this approach can be adapted to test for potential product-specific, category-level, and population-level implications. PMID:26273127

The paradoxes of the consumer society

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

A. N. Il’In

2016-01-01

Full Text Available The article describes two characteristic of the consumer society of the paradox. The first is expressed in the contradiction between the desire for himself by exposure to high consumer standards and constraints of a financial nature. Specifics of consumer culture requires to make demonstrative waste of money, even if it is associated with financial resources. Demonstrative waste of money exercise by savings on invisible to others spheres of life, as “message” on the status becomes more important need than the satisfaction of these needs. The relationship between income and consumption does not seem unambiguous. Updated trend of the sense of consumption goods, pseudoconsumerism, realizing the need to seem - one of fictitious needs, which in practice translates into implementation of strategy is symbolic of deception. There is a “fictitious second order”, which is not associated with the symbolic meaning of a certain good, and with the symbolic meaning of goods, which is not cash, but is missing. Consumption has shifted imitating under the consumption of performance, consumption of simulacrum and virtuality. The dichotomy of “to have or to be” in this case is replaced by the dichotomy of “to have or to pass” and, in turn, “to pass or to be”. The second paradox is expressed in cultivating the desire to emphasize with consumption individuality that goes away when the practice becomes mass. Standardization is carried out under the rhetoric about elitism. The samples on offer as elitist, their attractiveness ascribe to itself the masses. It’s elitist by material unavailable to most people, but the mass by the desire of many people to be attached to them. Characteristic of a consumer society fashion consciously orients a select minority, but the underlying basis remains unconscious orientation to universality. Fashion stimulating consumption standards and to the implementation of individual choice, which constrained by these

The current state of engineered nanomaterials in consumer goods and waste streams: the need to develop nanoproperty-quantifiable sensors for monitoring engineered nanomaterials

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Wise K

2011-07-01

Full Text Available Kelsey Wise, Murphy BrasuelDepartment of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Colorado College, Colorado Springs, CO, USAAbstract: As nanomaterials are harnessed for medicine and other technological advances, an understanding of the toxicology of these new materials is required to inform our use. This toxicological knowledge will be required to establish the medical and environmental regulations required to protect consumers and those involved in nanomaterial manufacturing. Nanoparticles of titanium oxide, carbon nanotubes, semiconductor quantum dots, gold, and silver represent a high percentage of the nanotechnology currently available or currently poised to reach consumers. For these nanoparticles, this review aims to identify current applications, the current methods used for characterization and quantification, current environmental concentrations (if known, and an introduction to the toxicology research. Continued development of analytical tools for the characterization and quantification of nanomaterials in complex environmental and biological samples will be required for our understanding of the toxicology and environmental impact of nanomaterials. Nearly all materials exhibit toxicity at a high enough concentration. Robust, rapid, and cost effective analytical techniques will be required to determine current background levels of anthropogenic, accidental, and engineered nanoparticles in air, water, and soil. The impact of the growing number of engineered nanoparticles used in consumer goods and medical applications can then be estimated. This will allow toxicological profiles relevant to the demonstrated or predicted environmental concentrations to be determined.Keywords: titanium dioxide nanoparticles, carbon nanotubes, semiconductor quantum dots, gold nanoparticles, silver nanoparticles, nanoparticles environmental concentrations

Consumers' price knowledge before, during, and after store visit

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jensen, Birger Boutrup

Many attempts have been made to measure consumers' price knowledge for frequently purchased goods. However, the results have varied considerably and conflict with the results of reference price studies. This is the first study to examine consumers' price knowledge before, during, and after store...... visit, thus enabling a study of what consumers learn about prices during the store visit, and consequently the relationship between reference prices and episodic price knowledge. The project applies three measures of consumers' price knowledge corresponding to different levels of price information...

Dynamic Price Dispersion of Storable Goods

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Gao, Cixiu

2014-01-01

with different search costs and willingness to wait. I demonstrate that the high-price-low-price pattern is rational for storable goods. In a Markov-perfect equilibrium, agents’ actions depend on consumer inventory, and purchase decisions are characterized by a critical price. The equilibrium price series...

The retail market : a consumer perspective

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Girvan, J.

2002-01-01

A consumer's perspective of the Ontario open retail electricity market was presented. The author, who believes the retail market in Ontario is flawed, presents some key decisions that were made regarding open competition, that may have been done differently or which have helped the market move forward. It was noted that the 1996 report by the Macdonald Committee clearly recommended that retail competition should be phased in only after the wholesale market was in place. That report also cautioned about the risks of proceeding with an open retail market without being properly prepared. The Ontario government rejected the recommendations of the Macdonald Committee and chose to open both wholesale and retail markets at the same time. Another important decision by the Ontario Energy Board was to determine that Standard Supply Service customers would be billed on the basis of a spot price pass-through model. It was noted that the lack of understanding by consumers regarding the new market and the absence of a comprehensive education campaign gave retailers an opportunity to deceive some customers. Allowing retailing prior to the introduction of unbundled bills has also led to the current state of customer confusion. Although the government has now made communication efforts, it is believed that these efforts must be greater in assuring that local distribution companies are providing what is necessary to understand the new billing format. The government has introduced Bill 58, a new legislation that includes a Customer Bill of Rights. Although this is a good initiative, it does not help the thousands of people who were misled and locked into long-term contracts. It was recommended that immediate action must be taken in the retail sector to maintain customer confidence

The Unfair Commercial Practices Directive and Vulnerable Consumers

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Trzaskowski, Jan

the economic behaviour of consumers ‘below 1 average’ even though the practice does not meet the requirements of professional diligence. The Directive’s adoption of the European Court of Justice’s ‘average consumer’ entails that protection is generally provided only for those who are far from vulnerable......Consumer protection is deeply anchored in EU law, including the Treaty and the Charter of Fundamental Rights. This article discusses the concept of consumer vulnerability and how vulnerable consumers are protected in the context of commercial practices which is fully harmonised by the Unfair....... The Directive’s Article 5(3) concerning vulnerable consumers protects only—and to a limited extent—groups who are vulnerable due to mental or physical infirmity, age or credulity. Even though consumers make many good choices, all consumers are vulnerable in certain situations—often due to time constraints...

Cause Related Marketing: Consumers Perceptions and Benefits for Profit and Non-Profits Organisations

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Francisca Farache

2008-07-01

Full Text Available This study is an attempt to understand consumers’ perceptions regarding Cause Related Marketing [CRM]. The research findings were based on a survey of 200 consumers in the Brighton area and published data. The research aim was focused on the consumers’ perception of the alliance between corporations and non-profit organisations. The research found that consumers have a better perception of firms that work with charities and good causes than those that do not. They believe that the partnership between corporations and charities has an impact on the good of society. However, they are aware that corporations themselves benefit from this partnership. Concerning good causes, consumers prefer to support those related to Children. The researchers noticed that an individual connection with a cause might have considerable influence on consumer attitudes and behaviour in relation to a specific cause.

Relationship between sport commitment and sport consumer behavior

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Norberta Elisa Fernandes

2013-12-01

Full Text Available The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships between sport commitment and three types of sport consumer behaviors: participation frequency, sporting goods and media consumption. A survey was conducted among sport participants of both individual and team sports, fitness and outdoor activities (n= 900. The survey included questions related to demographic information, measures of sport commitment and sport consumption behavior. The results analyzed trough structural equation modeling showed that the sport commitment influences positively the participation frequency, sporting goods consumption and media consumption. Implications of these results are discussed and suggestions for future research on sport consumers are provided.

Analisis Kebangkrutan Perusahaan dengan Menggunakan Metode Z Score (Studi Kasus pada Industri Consumer Goods di Bursa Efek Jakarta Periode 1997 – 2000

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nuning Kriesnawati

2016-02-01

Full Text Available This study aimed to analyze bankruptcy using the Z score. Research done in the consumer goods industry listed in Jakarta Stock Exchange 1997-2000 period. The results found that in 2000 the value of Z score companies has decreased, this is possible because the value of the variable X3 and X4 has decreased, but in 2001 the value of Z score Integration again experienced an increase, although not as high as in 1999, this means that the company can improve its performance. PT Mandom value of Z score indicates that the company is in a good condition or not bankruptcy. Z score value of the company from 1997 to 2001 continues to increase, it suggests that good corporate performance which proved that despite the crisis the company was still able to survive even continue to increase. Analysis of the bankruptcy of PT Unilever shows that the company is in a good condition. As in PT Mandom, the company is also not affected by the crisis. Z score value of the company from 1997 to 2001 have increased constantly, this indicates that the performance is good. Analysis of the bankruptcy of the PT Procter and Gamble shows that the company is in conditions that are less stable, this is indicated by the value of Z score in 1997 shows that the company is in the condition of the gray area, in 1998 based on assessment standards of bankruptcy, the company in 1998 experienced bankruptcy, in 1999 the company experienced a slight improvement from the beginning in a state of bankruptcy changes on the condition of the gray area, in 2000 the company was in good condition or not bankrupt, this is possible because the company sells most of its fixed assets in order to operate properly. However, in 2001 the company back on the condition of the gray area, it is because the value X2 to X5 has decreased.

Let's move salad bars to schools: a public-private partnership to increase student fruit and vegetable consumption.

Science.gov (United States)

Harris, Diane M; Seymour, Jennifer; Grummer-Strawn, Laurence; Cooper, Ann; Collins, Beth; DiSogra, Lorelei; Marshall, Andrew; Evans, Nona

2012-08-01

Few school-age youth consume the recommended amounts of fruits and vegetables, and increasing fruit and vegetable intake in children and adolescents is an important public health goal to maintain long-term good health and to decrease risk of chronic disease and obesity. School salad bars are an important tool to promote fruit and vegetable consumption among schoolchildren. Studies show that introduction of school salad bars increases the amount and variety of fruits and vegetables consumed by children in schools. However, many schools cannot afford the capital investment in the salad bar equipment. In 2010, the National Fruit & Vegetable Alliance (NFVA), United Fresh Produce Association Foundation, the Food Family Farming Foundation, and Whole Foods Market launched Let’s Move Salad Bars to Schools (LMSB2S) in support of First Lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move! initiative. The goal of LMSB2S is to place 6000 salad bars in schools over 3 years. As of June, 2012, over 1400 new salad bar units have been delivered to schools across the United States, increasing access to fruits and vegetables for over 700,000 students. Any K through 12 school district participating in the National School Lunch Program is eligible to submit an application at www.saladbars2schools. org/. Requests for salad bar units ($2625 each unit) are fulfilled through grassroots fund raising in the school community and through funds raised by the LMSB2S partners from corporate and foundation sources. LMSB2S is a model for coalition-building across many government, nonprofit, and industry partners to address a major public health challenge.

EFFECT OF BRAND EQUITY ON FIRMS’ FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE IN CONSUMER GOODS INDUSTRIES

OpenAIRE

Aydin, Gokhan; Ulengin, Burc

2015-01-01

This study aims to find empirical evidence linking consumer based brand equity (CBBE) with financial performance of firms. Aaker’s CBBE approach is adopted and this equity is measured using a questionnaire developed from scales in existing literature. Differing from the extant literature, this study relates CBBE and firms’ performance by taking a direct approach in measuring financial performance by utilizing independently audited financial statements. A face-to-face survey study encompassing...

GSMNet: A Hierarchical Graph Model for Moving Objects in Networks

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hengcai Zhang

2017-03-01

Full Text Available Existing data models for moving objects in networks are often limited by flexibly controlling the granularity of representing networks and the cost of location updates and do not encompass semantic information, such as traffic states, traffic restrictions and social relationships. In this paper, we aim to fill the gap of traditional network-constrained models and propose a hierarchical graph model called the Geo-Social-Moving model for moving objects in Networks (GSMNet that adopts four graph structures, RouteGraph, SegmentGraph, ObjectGraph and MoveGraph, to represent the underlying networks, trajectories and semantic information in an integrated manner. The bulk of user-defined data types and corresponding operators is proposed to handle moving objects and answer a new class of queries supporting three kinds of conditions: spatial, temporal and semantic information. Then, we develop a prototype system with the native graph database system Neo4Jto implement the proposed GSMNet model. In the experiment, we conduct the performance evaluation using simulated trajectories generated from the BerlinMOD (Berlin Moving Objects Database benchmark and compare with the mature MOD system Secondo. The results of 17 benchmark queries demonstrate that our proposed GSMNet model has strong potential to reduce time-consuming table join operations an d shows remarkable advantages with regard to representing semantic information and controlling the cost of location updates.

Perspective of North Consumers of Portugal Face of Corporate Social Responsibility

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Maria José Silva Faria

2016-12-01

Full Text Available The practice of social responsibility has been, particularly in recent decades, to cultivate a more conscious society in the common good and sustainability of future generations. So it is not surprising that some consumers seek to respond positively to actions of social responsibility. It is the aim of this study verify that northern consumers of Portugal, over 18 years, are influenced by social responsibility in consumption in three segments purchases: retail trade, fairs, markets, and shopping centers, and to what extent the responsibility social can influence the perception of value and purchase intent of these consumers. For this purpose, were applied 1804 questionnaires to consumers belonging to the three business groups / cited business. Questionnaires were all validated by applying a factor analysis. The results showed that: 1 the consumer retail and shopping centers groups are more likely to purchase products from companies / brands socially responsible; 2 consumers group fairs and markets were not so sensitive to the issue of social responsibility, but more to the price of goods and in some cases, tiny, their quality.

A Model of Boundedly Rational Consumer Choice

OpenAIRE

Thomas Riechmann

2000-01-01

The paper presents an extended version of the standard textbook problem of consumer choice. As usual, agents have to decide about their desired quatities of various consumption goods, at the same time taking into account their limited budget. Prices for the goods are not fixed but arise from a Walrasian interaction of total demand and a stilized supply function for each of the goods. After showing that this type of model cannot be solved analytically, three different types of evolutionary alg...

Yellow pages advertising by physicians. Are doctors providing the information consumers want most?

Science.gov (United States)

Butler, D D; Abernethy, A M

1996-01-01

Yellow pages listing are the most widely used form of physician advertising. Every month, approximately 21.6 million adults in the United States refer to the yellow pages before obtaining medical care. Mobile consumers--approximately 17% of the U.S. population who move each year--are heavy users of yellow pages. Consumers desire information on a physician's experience, but it is included in less than 1% of all physician display ads.

“Slowing” and “Narrowing” the Flow of Metals for Consumer Goods: Evaluating Opportunities and Barriers

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Elsa Dominish

2018-04-01

Full Text Available Metal resources are essential materials for many consumer products, including vehicles and a wide array of electrical and electronic goods. These metal resources often cause adverse social and environmental impacts from their extraction, supply and disposal, and it is therefore important to increase the sustainability of their production and use. A broad range of strategies and actions to improve the sustainability of resources are increasingly being discussed within the evolving concept of the circular economy. This paper uses this lens to evaluate the opportunities and barriers to improve the sustainability of metals in consumer products in Australia, with a focus on strategies that “slow” and “narrow” material flow loops. We have drawn on Allwood’s characterisation of material efficiency strategies, as they have the potential to reduce the total demand for metals. These strategies target the distribution, sale, and use of products, which have received less research attention compared to the sustainability of mining, production, and recycling, yet it is vitally important for changing patterns of consumption in a circular economy. Specifically, we have considered the strategies of product longevity (life extension, intensity of use, repair, and resale, remanufacturing, component reuse, and using less material for the same product or service (digitisation, servicisation, and light-weighting. Within the Australian context, this paper identifies the strategies that have the greatest opportunity to increase material efficiency for metal-containing products (such as mobility, household appliances, and personal electronics, by evaluating current implementation of these strategies and identifying the material, economic, and social barriers to and opportunities for expanding these strategies. We find that many of these strategies have been successfully implemented for mobility, while applying these strategies to personal electronics remains

Consumer choice of modularized products : a conjoint choice experiment approach

NARCIS (Netherlands)

B.G.C. Dellaert (Benedict); A.W.J. Borgers (Aloys); J.J. Louviere (Jordan); H.J.P. Timmermans (Harry)

1998-01-01

textabstractRecent increases in flexibility and automation in the production of goods and services allow a growing number of suppliers to offer their products in flexible sets of modules from which consumers can create their own individualized packages. This paper addresses the question how consumer

Segmentation of consumer's markets and evaluation of market's segments

OpenAIRE

ŠVECOVÁ, Iveta

2013-01-01

The goal of this bachelor thesis was to explain a possibly segmentation of consumer´s markets for a chosen company, and to present a suitable goods offer, so it would be suitable to the needs of selected segments. The work is divided into theoretical and practical part. First part describes marketing, segmentation, segmentation of consumer's markets, consumer's market, market's segments a other terms. Second part describes an evaluation of questionnaire survey, discovering of market's segment...

PREFERENCES AND BUYING BEHAVIOUR OF BEEF CONSUMERS IN TUSCANY

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Marija RADMAN

2005-07-01

Full Text Available Tuscany, probably the most famous Italian region, is known because of many typical food specialities. One of them is the “fi orentina” - a thick, fi rst quality beef, called after the name of the city of Florence. However, recent trends in consumers’ behaviour and the BSE crisis have affected the attitude of consumers toward such products. In this study are presented the results of a mail survey about beef consumption and preferences that was conducted in Tuscany in May 2002. The survey showed that, despite recent food scares and new consumption behaviour, Tuscany consumers still like and prefer beef that has guarantees of quality. Therefore, there are good market opportunities for the Italian and foreign beef producers in Tuscany if they will provide consumers with not only good quality beef, but also more information about the meat.

Theoretical aspects of marketing management of consumer behavior

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Danilenko Evgen

2015-11-01

Full Text Available The essence of consumer behavior finds expression in the actions of people under the influence of environmental factors and internal psychological or physical needs that arise in the process of life and socialization and are accompanied by information search, selection, acquisition, use of goods or services and getting rid of them. The article presents a synthesis of current theoretical terminology provisions on identification and definition of the nature of consumer behavior, allowing to improve conceptual and categorical apparatus by determining definitions of "marketing management", "consumer behavior".

Moving across boundaries: migration in South Africa, 1950-2000.

Science.gov (United States)

Reed, Holly E

2013-02-01

Existing knowledge about historical patterns of black internal migration in South Africa is incomplete, primarily because of the lack of good life course studies as well as the apartheid government's suppression and censoring of data. This article provides a comprehensive picture of historical internal migration patterns with an analysis of a unique individual retrospective life history data set. This sample of the black population, collected in 2000, is the only known nationally representative life history data for South Africa; it includes all residential moves for each individual during his/her lifetime. Various mobility outcomes are analyzed: moves within/across provinces, moves within/across rural and urban areas, forced moves, moves with a nuclear family, and individual moves. The results indicate that migration significantly increased among black South Africans during the last half of the twentieth century, and that this increase began before the Pass Laws were repealed in 1986 and well before the official end of apartheid in 1991 or the first free election in 1994. The timing of this increase in migration rates suggests that migration in defiance of the Pass Laws (albeit a dangerous and desperate proposition) was a way of life for many black South Africans.

A Global Public Goods Approach to the Health of Migrants.

Science.gov (United States)

Widdows, Heather; Marway, Herjeet

2015-07-01

This paper explores a global public goods approach to the health of migrants. It suggests that this approach establishes that there are a number of health goods which must be provided to migrants not because these are theirs by right (although this may independently be the case), but because these goods are primary goods which fit the threefold criteria of global public goods. There are two key advantages to this approach: first, it is non-confrontational and non-oppositional, and second, it provides self-interested arguments to provide at least some health goods to migrants and thus appeals to those little moved by rights-based arguments.

How food marketers can sell smaller portions: Consumer insights and product innovation.

Science.gov (United States)

Riis, J; Fisher, J O; Rowe, S

2016-08-01

Food portion size has been shown to be an important driver of energy intake. Despite the well acknowledged role of portion control in weight management, large portion sizes remain ubiquitous in the marketplace. Moving consumers towards consumption of smaller portion sizes will require changes in consumer behavior as well as changes in products available to consumers in a variety of settings. This special supplement presents cutting edge research aimed at understanding consumer behavior around portion size and innovations in product design that may promote the selection and consumption of smaller portion sizes. We identify further research that will be needed to translate basic behavioral findings into real world settings and to viable product development. Copyright © 2016. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Consumer Behavior

OpenAIRE

Tatiana Bass

2011-01-01

This article reviews the role played by a producer of goods and services in consumer life. But because the manufacturer can achieve its purpose, to obtain profit and to attract more clients, he needs to know the consumer’s needs and preferences. Equally important for the producer is to find solutions for his products and services to be developed in conditions of maximum efficiency and become more aware of why they are buying, find out who, what, from where, when, how and how much to buy and h...

Consumer Choice of Modularized Products : A Conjoint Choice Experiment Approach

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Dellaert, B.G.C.; Borgers, A.W.J.; Louviere, J.; Timmermans, H.J.P.

1998-01-01

Recent increases in flexibility and automation in the production of goods and services allow a growing number of suppliers to offer their products in flexible sets of modules from which consumers can create their own individualized packages. This paper addresses the question how consumer choices of

Depth-Based Detection of Standing-Pigs in Moving Noise Environments

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jinseong Kim

2017-11-01

Full Text Available In a surveillance camera environment, the detection of standing-pigs in real-time is an important issue towards the final goal of 24-h tracking of individual pigs. In this study, we focus on depth-based detection of standing-pigs with “moving noises”, which appear every night in a commercial pig farm, but have not been reported yet. We first apply a spatiotemporal interpolation technique to remove the moving noises occurring in the depth images. Then, we detect the standing-pigs by utilizing the undefined depth values around them. Our experimental results show that this method is effective for detecting standing-pigs at night, in terms of both cost-effectiveness (using a low-cost Kinect depth sensor and accuracy (i.e., 94.47%, even with severe moving noises occluding up to half of an input depth image. Furthermore, without any time-consuming technique, the proposed method can be executed in real-time.

Exploring consumer opinions on the presentation of side-effects information in Australian Consumer Medicine Information leaflets.

Science.gov (United States)

Tong, Vivien; Raynor, David K; Blalock, Susan J; Aslani, Parisa

2016-06-01

Consumer Medicine Information (CMI) is a brand-specific and standardized source of written medicine information available in Australia for all prescription medicines. Side-effect information is poorly presented in CMI and may not adequately address consumer information needs. To explore consumer opinions on (i) the presentation of side-effect information in existing Australian CMI leaflets and alternative study-designed CMIs and (ii) side-effect risk information and its impact on treatment decision making. Fuzzy trace, affect heuristic, frequency hypothesis and cognitive-experiential theories were applied when revising existing CMI side-effects sections. Together with good information design, functional linguistics and medicine information expertise, alternative ramipril and clopidogrel CMI versions were proposed. Focus groups were then conducted to address the study objectives. Three focus groups (n = 18) were conducted in Sydney, Australia. Mean consumer age was 58 years (range 50-65 years), with equal number of males and females. All consumers preferred the alternative CMIs developed as part of the study, with unequivocal preference for the side-effects presented in a simple tabular format, as it allowed quick and easy access to information. Consumer misunderstandings reflected literacy and numeracy issues inherent in consumer risk appraisal. Many preferred no numerical information and a large proportion preferred natural frequencies. One single method of risk presentation in CMI is unable to cater for all consumers. Consumer misunderstandings are indicative of possible health literacy and numeracy factors that influence consumer risk appraisal, which should be explored further. © 2014 The Authors Health Expectations Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Brand Name, Store Image, and Country-of-Origin: The Effects on Consumers' Perception of Quality and Price.

Science.gov (United States)

King, Margaret C. A.

1993-01-01

A review of literature indicated that, with regard to brand labels, consumers' perception of price, but not of quality, was affected. Consumers expected to pay more for goods bought in a higher status store and rated imported goods as being more expensive than domestically produced goods. Products from developing countries received lower quality…

Consumer boycott, household heterogeneity and child labour

OpenAIRE

Di Maio, Michele; Fabbri, Giorgio

2010-01-01

Consumer boycott campaigns against goods produced using child labour are becoming increasingly popular. Notwithstanding, there is no consensus on which are the effects of such type of activism on child labour. If some agreement is to be found in the recent economic literature, it is that the boycott does not reduce child labour. We contribute to this debate presenting a simple model which shows, instead, that there are conditions under which a consumer product boycott does reduce child labour...

Monetary and affective judgments of consumer goods: modes of evaluation matter.

Science.gov (United States)

Seta, John J; Seta, Catherine E; McCormick, Michael; Gallagher, Ashleigh H

2014-01-01

Participants who evaluated 2 positively valued items separately reported more positive attraction (using affective and monetary measures) than those who evaluated the same two items as a unit. In Experiments 1-3, this separate/unitary evaluation effect was obtained when participants evaluated products that they were purchasing for a friend. Similar findings were obtained in Experiments 4 and 5 when we considered the amount participants were willing to spend to purchase insurance for items that they currently owned. The averaging/summation model was contrasted with several theoretical perspectives and implicated averaging and summation integration processes in how items are evaluated. The procedural and theoretical similarities and differences between this work and related research on unpacking, comparison processes, public goods, and price bundling are discussed. Overall, the results support the operation of integration processes and contribute to an understanding of how these processes influence the evaluation and valuation of private goods.

I want it and I want it now: using a temporal discounting paradigm to examine predictors of consumer impulsivity.

Science.gov (United States)

Dittmar, Helga; Bond, Rod

2010-11-01

This paper proposes a new model of consumer impulsivity, using type of good, a person's endorsement of materialistic values, and identity deficits as predictors. Traditional decision making and psychological accounts see impulsive behaviour as a general overweighing of short-term gratification (I want that dress now) relative to longer-term concerns, irrespective of consumer good. Our proposal is that consumers' impulsivity (a) differs according to type of good and (b) is linked systematically to a combination of materialistic values and high identity deficits. Beginning with Study 1, three experiments, using a temporal discounting paradigm, show consistently that discount rates are higher for goods that are seen as highly expressive of identity (e.g., clothes) than goods not expressive of identity (e.g., basic body care products). For materialistic consumers, identity deficits predict discount rates for identity-expressive goods (Study 2), and discount rates change for materialistic individuals when their identity deficits are made salient (Study 3). These findings support a conceptualization of consumer impulsivity as identity-seeking behaviour.

Adding A2K Principles to the UN Guidelines for Consumer Protection

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

Adding A2K Principles to the UN Guidelines for Consumer Protection ... of standards for good practices in consumer protection, particularly for developing countries. ... IWRA/IDRC webinar on climate change and adaptive water management.

INFLUENCE OF MARKETING COMMUNICATIVE STRATEGIES ON CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR: A CASE OF THE HIGH-TECHNOLOGY MARKET OF UKRAINE

OpenAIRE

Victoria Zhurylo; Olga Prygara

2017-01-01

The purpose of the study is to research consumer behaviour types and to develop marketing strategies of communicative influence on the consumer in the high-technology goods market. Methodology. Marketing research in Ukrainian market of high-tech goods is conducted to define motivations of the consumers and the peculiarities of their market behaviour. The profiles of target customers are developed and the typology of consumer behaviour is formed, based on the reasons of purchasing of high-tech...

Recreating Intimacy With Connected Consumers

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Stephen Andrew

2017-11-01

Full Text Available In the good old times shop manager knew their customers personally and were able to tailor offerings to their needs and desires. But how can we create meaningful moments for connected consumers in global markets? Yasmeen Ahmad explains how in digital times data fill in. Smart algorithms help generate insights and enable real time action to provide the right product and service to the right customer at the right time. Companies that don’t want to be left behind a digital elite need to remain close to their customers across multiple digital touchpoints. Being capable of reading, interpreting and acting upon consumers` traces is a prerequisite.

Move! Eat better: news

CERN Multimedia

2013-01-01

Are you curious to know whether you’re doing enough daily exercise…? Test yourself with a pedometer!   Through the Move! Eat better campaign, launched in May 2012, the CERN medical service is aiming to improve the health of members of the personnel by encouraging them to prioritise physical activity in conjunction with a balanced diet. Various successful activities have already taken place: relay race/Nordic walk, Bike2work, Zumba and fitness workshops, two conferences (“Physical activity for health” and “Good nutrition every day”), events in the restaurants, as well as posters and a website. Although everyone has got the message from our various communications that physical activity is good for your health, there is still a relevant question being asked: “What is the minimum amount of exercise recommended?” 10,000 steps per day is the ideal figure, which has been demonstrated as beneficial by scientific studies ...

Nuclear power and the economic interests of consumers

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

MacKerron, G.

1982-06-01

This study examines the main economic issues surrounding the use of nuclear power from a broadly consumer perspective. It sets out to answer four related questions: has nuclear investment been good value in the past; are current plans for nuclear investment (especially at Heysham II and beyond) likely to be good value in the future; what are the likely economic consequences if there is an explicit or de facto moratorium on the building of more nuclear power plants; and what strategic factors influence decision-making about nuclear investment and what are their consequences for consumers. (It should be noted that the CEGB's 'Statement of Case' for a PWR at Sizewell was published too late to be taken into account in this report). (author)

The prospective buyer of consumer durables

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Jonge, Leendert de; Oppedijk van Veen, Walle Melis

1982-01-01

In this book, an empirical investigation is reported wich aims at the specification of models of individual households’ purchase behaviour for particular consumer durable goods, such as private passenger cars and television sets. In particular, the focus is on models wich can be used for predicting

A Mixture Model of Consumers' Intended Purchase Decisions for Genetically Modified Foods

OpenAIRE

Kristine M. Grimsrud; Robert P. Berrens; Ron C. Mittelhammer

2006-01-01

A finite probability mixture model is used to analyze the existence of multiple market segments for a pre-market good. The approach has at least two principal benefits. First, the model is capable of identifying likely market segments and their differentiating characteristics. Second, the model can be used to estimate the discount different consumer groups require to purchase the good. The model is illustrated using stated preference survey data collected on consumer responses to the potentia...

Possible effects of a proposed high-level nuclear waste repository on consumer demand for goods and services produced in the host community. An overview of the Finnish study

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Koskinen, I.; Niva, M.; Timonen, P.

1998-12-01

The report provides an overview of a series of reports evaluating the possible impacts of a proposed Finnish high-level nuclear waste (HLNW) repository on consumer behavior and, subsequently, on the host community' s economy. In addition to the overview, the study consists of three parts: Report I reviews the literature on the impacts of analogous industrial facilities; Report II examines the possible reactions of industry and trade, and Report III studies the consumers' risk perceptions in relation to their consuming practices. Theoretically, this series of reports is based on previous research on risk perception, with two modifications. Report II studies products currently available on the consumer market to find out what possibilities the marketplace offers to a consumer interested in environmental risks to act according to his/her risk perception. Report III studies those everyday consuming practices on the basis of which consumers define risks. These two contexts mold the consumer reaction to risks that stem from industrial installations. The proposed HLNW repository benefits the host community in various direct and indirect ways, and may create new opportunities for developing the local economy. The proposed repository may also have negative impacts on the local economy. Food production in particular and, to a lesser extent, tourism might be affected harmfully. Consumer reaction is unlikely to be targeted at other goods produced in the proposed host communities. Under normal conditions (i.e., the repository functions as planned), consumers have fairly few possibilities to identify the products of this community without an extensive search for information, given the structure of the current food market: the proposed communities have few products with specific local identity. Also, fairly few consumers are willing to spend a substantial amount of time for studying the products and their raw materials in detail. Also, consumers are confident that they can manage

Analysis of rice purchase decision on rice consumer in Bandung city

Science.gov (United States)

Kusno, K.; Imannurdin, A.; Syamsiyah, N.; Djuwendah, E.

2018-03-01

This study was conducted at three kinds of purchase location which were traditional market, rice kiosk, and supermarket in Bandung City, with survey data of 108 respondents which were selected by systematic random sampling. The aim of this study is to (1) identify consumer characteristics, (2) identify which atribute is considered by consumer in buying rice, and (3) analyze the relationship between purchase decision and income class. Data were analyzed by descriptive analysis and Chi Square test. The results showed most consumers in the traditional market were middle-educated and lower middle-income, at the rice kiosk, the consumer were generally middle-educated and middle-income, and in the supermarkets, the majority were high-educated and upper middle-income consumers. “Kepulenan” be the first priority of most consumers, but for the lower-middle class, the main priority was price. Thus, in case of scarcity and rice price increase, the government should immediately arrange market operations which targeting to lower-middle class consumers. There was a significant relationship between (1) the quality of rice consumed, (2) the frequency of rice purchase per month, and (3) attitudes toward rice price increase; each with the income class. Although the price of rice increase, consumers of middle and upper-middle were remain loyal to the quality of rice they consumed. This indicates rice market in Bandung city is an ideal market for premium rice so that traders and producers are expected to maintain the quality of rice, such as keep using superior seeds and applying good cultivation based on Good Agricultural Practice (GAP) rules.

Unpacking the right to plain and understandable language in the consumer protection act 68 of 2008

OpenAIRE

Stoop, Philip N; Chürr, Chrizell

2013-01-01

The Consumer Protection Act 68 of 2008 came into effect on 1 April 2011. The purpose of this Act is, among other things, to promote fairness, openness and respectable business practice between the suppliers of goods or services and the consumers of such good and services. In consumer protection legislation fairness is usually approached from two directions, namely substantive and procedural fairness. Measures aimed at procedural fairness address conduct during the bargaining process and gener...

How to be a good visitor during flu season

Science.gov (United States)

... consumers How to be a good visitor during flu season 11/20/2017 Access a printer-friendly ... of infection prevention. This is especially true during flu season. According to the CDC, influenza (the flu) ...

Criteria of acceptability relating to the approval of consumer goods containing radioactive substances

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Paynter, R.A.

1992-01-01

The criteria are described which the Board intends to use when considering goods containing radioactive substances for approval under the regulations that the Government intends to make with respect to such goods. Some products are deemed unacceptable in principle because there would appear to be no justification for the use of radioactive substances in them. Examples of such products are given. Other products may be approved for supply to the public depending on the doses likely to be received by individuals, principally those who use the products. A lower dose is considered acceptable from products that do not contribute to safety than from products that do. In the interim, before the regulations are made, the criteria will be used as the basis of the Board's advice to suppliers and manufacturers of goods containing radioactive substances. (Author)

Basic analysis on the load management in consumer section

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Tezuka, Tetsuo; Nishikawa, Eiichi

1988-05-01

The load management of the energy (electric power, gas and oil products) in consumer section means to move demand characteristics in desirable directions. The demand characteristics are represented by the energy consumption characteristics along time and their annual sum. The load management is analyzed here from a more practical point of view. As the total thermal demand has been fixed to some extent from the aspect of a total system, the trade-off occurs among objectives of industries. For the quantitative consistency, the model analysis is effective. Changes in the consumers' attitude have been observed as indicated by the cogeneration, heat storage technology and automatic energy management by consumers. Techniques for changing the demand characteristics include the charging system, financial aids for equipment installation, favorable provisions in taxation, law revision and marketing. Stable supply and improved consumption are the future tasks. (2 figs, 6 tabs, 28 refs)

Consumer e-health solutions: the cure for Baumol's disease?

Science.gov (United States)

Brown, Adalsteinn D

2014-01-01

Baumol's disease is the fact that costs in persistently labour-intensive sectors such as healthcare do not drop, despite increased use of technology. The idea of consumer e-health solutions is seductive, because it provides one option for treating Baumol's disease. However, barriers to the implementation of these solutions exist, and the successful treatment of Baumol's disease with consumer e-health solutions rests on more than their removal. In this introduction, the editor-in-chief adds to the conversation four shifts that are critical to reaping the benefits of consumer e-health solutions: moving the focus from privacy to protection; from mere access to the use of information in decision-making; from the patient-provider dyad to one that includes a full formal and informal care team; and from structural solutions in healthcare to ones designed around the goals we have for our health system.

Integrated Personal Health Records: Transformative Tools for Consumer-Centric Care

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Raymond Brian

2008-10-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Integrated personal health records (PHRs offer significant potential to stimulate transformational changes in health care delivery and self-care by patients. In 2006, an invitational roundtable sponsored by Kaiser Permanente Institute, the American Medical Informatics Association, and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality was held to identify the transformative potential of PHRs, as well as barriers to realizing this potential and a framework for action to move them closer to the health care mainstream. This paper highlights and builds on the insights shared during the roundtable. Discussion While there is a spectrum of dominant PHR models, (standalone, tethered, integrated, the authors state that only the integrated model has true transformative potential to strengthen consumers' ability to manage their own health care. Integrated PHRs improve the quality, completeness, depth, and accessibility of health information provided by patients; enable facile communication between patients and providers; provide access to health knowledge for patients; ensure portability of medical records and other personal health information; and incorporate auto-population of content. Numerous factors impede widespread adoption of integrated PHRs: obstacles in the health care system/culture; issues of consumer confidence and trust; lack of technical standards for interoperability; lack of HIT infrastructure; the digital divide; uncertain value realization/ROI; and uncertain market demand. Recent efforts have led to progress on standards for integrated PHRs, and government agencies and private companies are offering different models to consumers, but substantial obstacles remain to be addressed. Immediate steps to advance integrated PHRs should include sharing existing knowledge and expanding knowledge about them, building on existing efforts, and continuing dialogue among public and private sector stakeholders. Summary Integrated PHRs

Energy Taxes as a Signaling Device: An Empirical Analysis of Consumer Preferences

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ghalwash, Tarek

2004-01-01

This paper presents an econometric study dealing with household demand in Sweden. The main objective is to empirically examine the differences in consumer reaction to the introduction of, or the change, in environmental taxes. Main focus is on environmental taxes as a signaling device. The hypothesis is that the introduction of an environmental tax provides new information about the properties of the directly taxed goods. This in turn may affect consumer preferences for these goods, hence altering the consumption choice. The result from the econometric analysis shows that all goods have negative own-price elasticities, and positive income elasticities. Concerning the signalling effect of environmental taxes the results are somewhat ambiguous. The tax elasticity for energy goods used for heating seems to be significantly higher than the traditional price elasticity, whereas the opposite seems to be the case for energy goods used for transportation

Energy taxes as a signaling device: An empirical analysis of consumer preferences

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ghalwash, Tarek

2007-01-01

This paper presents an econometric study dealing with household demand in Sweden. The main objective is to empirically examine the differences in consumer reaction to the introduction of, or the change, in environmental taxes. Main focus is on environmental taxes as a signaling device. The hypothesis is that the introduction of an environmental tax provides new information about the properties of the directly taxed goods. This in turn may affect consumer preferences for these goods, hence altering the consumption choice. The result from the econometric analysis shows that all goods have negative own-price elasticities, and positive income elasticities. Concerning the signalling effect of environmental taxes the results are somewhat ambiguous. The tax elasticity for energy goods used for heating seems to be significantly higher than the traditional price elasticity, whereas the opposite seems to be the case for energy goods used for transportation

Positive concept of using Roll containers in consumer goods distribution

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Miličić Milica B.

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Most of the products, at some point in the transport and logistics processes are carried on pallets. To meet the requirements of heterogeneous goods in the supply chain, pallet underwent certain modifications. The new pallet found application due to its specific characteristics (in terms of shape and dimensions (design, the material from which it is made, positive impact on the environment, ease the recycling process, ease of manipulation within the transport-manipulative processes and economy. The aim is to present the mentioned characteristics of roll containers for which this type of pallet has been used in large distribution chains-supermarkets.

The role and performance measurement of after-sales in the durable consumer goods industries: an empirical study

OpenAIRE

N. Saccani; L. Songini; P. Gaiardelli

2006-01-01

Abstract: Purpose – To analyse the role of after-sales services in manufacturing contexts, and the related after-sales performance measurement systems. Design/methodology/approach – An exploratory case study research was performed in the automotive, household appliance, IT and consumer electronics industries. The sample is made up of 48 firms with after-sales operations in Italy. Findings – The role attributed to after-sales activities in the IT and consumer electronics and household...

Consumer Complaints and Company Market Value

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Danny Pimentel Claro

2014-07-01

Full Text Available Consumer complaints affect company market value and common sense suggests that a negative impact is expected. However, do complaints always negatively impact company market value? We hypothesize in this study that complaints may have a non-linear effect on market value. Positive (e.g. avoiding high costs to solve complaints and negative (e.g. speedy and intense diffusion tradeoffs may occur given the level of complaints. To test our non-linear hypothesis, a panel data was collected from cell phone service providers from 2005 to 2013. The results supported our tradeoff rationale. Low levels of complaints allow for companies to increase market value, while high levels of complaints cause increasing harm to market value. The sample, model and period considered in this study, indicates a level of 0.49 complaints per thousand consumers as the threshold for a shift in tradeoffs. The effects on market value become increasingly negative when trying to make reductions to move below this level, due to negative tradeoffs.

Piracy prevention and the pricing of information goods

OpenAIRE

Cremer, Helmuth; Pestieau, Pierre

2006-01-01

This paper develops a simple model of piracy to analyze its effects on prices and welfare and to study the optimal enforcement policy. A monopolist produces an information good (involving a 'large' development cost and a 'small' reproduction cost) that is sold to two groups of consumers differing in their valuation of the good. We distinguish two settings: one in which the monopoly is regulated and one in which it maximizes profits and is not regulated, except that the public authority may be...

Writing consumer identities through the iPod

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kampf, Constance Elizabeth

How do web 2.0 and mobile technologies affect the available means for interaction between consumers and corporations? What are the implications for communicating corporate social responsibility? Gee (1996:6) states that “When we write or read, speak or listen, we coordinate and are coordinated...... the potential and implications of mobile technologies for the communication of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). The Good Guide iPod application is a mini third party database of product rankings in terms of social responsibility towards consumer health, environmental impact and social effects...

The psychological aspect of goods

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rejmaneh Evžen

2003-01-01

Full Text Available The author, a psychologist from Prague, discusses the theory of consumption from the socio-political angle. He discusses in detail the double features of goods from the psychological point of view: a the material features and b nominal, notional features of goods. The latter (nominal feature has been especially emphasized, the one that is being transformed into a specific "image of goods". The author also analyses its influence upon the consumers' behavior, connecting it with advertising as well. Later on in the paper the author shifts his analysis to the process of creating new products and to the establishment of the new conception that would not deal any more with individual products but rather with a "field of requirements". The author emphasizes the importance of research. He considers that changes in the way of living considerably influence the formation of requirements which in its turn asks for specific marketing methods in satisfying the requirements.

Consumer demand as a driver of improved working conditions: the 'Ergo-Brand' proposition.

Science.gov (United States)

Neumann, W Patrick; Dixon, Shane M; Nordvall, Anna-Carin

2014-01-01

This article develops and explores the 'Ergo-Brand' proposition, which posits that consumers may prefer to buy goods that are made under good working conditions (GWCs). This preference would enhance a differentiation strategy for companies, thereby fostering the application of ergonomics in production. This proposition is developed in the context of a narrative review of the literature on 'ethical consumerism'. This is supplemented with a survey study, conducted in both Canada and Sweden (n = 141) to explore this proposition. Results indicate that consumers would prefer goods made under GWCs, but not unconditionally as quality and price concerns were ranked higher. Access to information on the working conditions in production was seen as a barrier. Nevertheless, the Ergo-Brand concept may be a viable avenue in promoting attention towards ergonomics in companies - particularly if consumer habits are subject to intervention by advertising. Further research on this strategy is warranted.

The impact of the Consumer Protection Act on pharmacists.

Science.gov (United States)

du Toit, K; van Eeden, E

2014-11-01

The Consumer Protection Act of 2008 has had far-reaching consequences for suppliers of goods and services in South Africa. The implementation of the Act has important implications for all suppliers who enter into 'consumer transactions.' This article aims to stimulate awareness of the legal consequences of the Act arising from day-to-day situations occurring in the pharmacy, and to highlight the compliance obligations that the Act creates for pharmacists.

The impact of front-of-pack nutrition labels on consumer product evaluation and choice: an experimental study.

Science.gov (United States)

Hamlin, Robert P; McNeill, Lisa S; Moore, Vanessa

2015-08-01

The present research was an experimental test that aimed to quantify the impact of two dominant front-of-pack (FOP) nutritional label formats on consumer evaluations of food products that carried them. The two FOP label types tested were the traffic light label and the Percentage Daily Intake. A 4×5 partially replicated Latin square design was used that allowed the impact of the FOP labels to be isolated from the effects of the product and the consumers who were performing the evaluations. The experiment was conducted on campus at the University of Otago, New Zealand. The participants were 250 university students selected at random who met qualifying criteria of independent living and regular purchase of the products used in the research. They were not aware of the purpose of the research. The presence of FOP labels led to significant and positive changes in consumer purchase intentions towards the products that carried them. These changes were not affected by the nature of FOP labels used, their size or the product nutritional status (good/bad) that they were reporting. The result is consistent with the participants paying attention to the FOP label and then using it as an adimensional cue indicating product desirability. As such, it represents a complete functional failure of both of these FOP label types in this specific instance. This result supports calls for further research on the performance of these FOP labels before any move to compulsory deployment is made.

Arbitrability limitation in consumer (B2C disputes? : Consumers´ protection as legal and economic phenomenon

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Alexander J. Bělohlávek

2012-10-01

USA, the degree of such protection can be considered as somewhat controversial. The weaker party does deserve special protection within the regime of the equal status of the contracting parties. But the intensification of this protection often results in the possibility of the consumer to abuse this standard; abuse of the consumer’s right should naturally no longer enjoy any protection. Typically, consumers have grown accustomed to the practice of exercising their right to rescind (cancel the contract by the statutory deadline while, in the meantime, they actively use the goods and thereby fulfill the purpose of the purchase (this specifically applies to seasonal goods. Besides, even a consumer ought to be required to exhibit a reasonable and usual degree of responsibility for his or her legal (juridical acts, including the conclusion of contracts and assumption of obligations.

INFLUENCE OF MARKETING COMMUNICATIVE STRATEGIES ON CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR: A CASE OF THE HIGH-TECHNOLOGY MARKET OF UKRAINE

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Victoria Zhurylo

2017-11-01

Full Text Available The purpose of the study is to research consumer behaviour types and to develop marketing strategies of communicative influence on the consumer in the high-technology goods market. Methodology. Marketing research in Ukrainian market of high-tech goods is conducted to define motivations of the consumers and the peculiarities of their market behaviour. The profiles of target customers are developed and the typology of consumer behaviour is formed, based on the reasons of purchasing of high-tech goods and on the level of consumer involvement in the purchasing process. Results showed that Highly Rational, Cautious, and Demonstrative behaviours can be observed in case of high consumer involvement in the buying process. Rationally-Confident, Comfortable, Adaptive behaviour can be observed in the case of low involvement. The peculiarities of communicative influence for each type of consumer behaviour in the market of high-tech goods are determined and the appropriate strategies of marketing communication are offered. Practical implementation. Strategies of communicative influence and communication sources depend on consumer behavioural types and the stage of the process of adopting innovations. In case of highly rational consumer behaviour, generic strategy, benefit strategy, and unique technical advantage strategies are recommended to be used as the main communicative strategies. Benefit strategy, unique technical advantage strategy, positioning strategy should be used in the case of rationally confident behaviour. The technology of intrusion, intimidation, positioning strategy, affective strategy, and resonance strategy should be used in the case of cautious consumer behaviour. Brand strategy should be used in the case of demonstrative consumer behaviour. The communicative strategies of product positioning and the strategy of resonance can be used in the case of comfortable consumer behaviour. Brand strategy is the main communicative strategy in the

Moving Across Boundaries: Migration in South Africa, 1950–2000

Science.gov (United States)

2013-01-01

Existing knowledge about historical patterns of black internal migration in South Africa is incomplete, primarily because of the lack of good life course studies as well as the apartheid government’s suppression and censoring of data. This article provides a comprehensive picture of historical internal migration patterns with an analysis of a unique individual retrospective life history data set. This sample of the black population, collected in 2000, is the only known nationally representative life history data for South Africa; it includes all residential moves for each individual during his/her lifetime. Various mobility outcomes are analyzed: moves within/across provinces, moves within/across rural and urban areas, forced moves, moves with a nuclear family, and individual moves. The results indicate that migration significantly increased among black South Africans during the last half of the twentieth century, and that this increase began before the Pass Laws were repealed in 1986 and well before the official end of apartheid in 1991 or the first free election in 1994. The timing of this increase in migration rates suggests that migration in defiance of the Pass Laws (albeit a dangerous and desperate proposition) was a way of life for many black South Africans. PMID:22956415

Contribution of Online Trading of Used Goods to Resource Efficiency: An Empirical Study of eBay Users

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jens Clausen

2010-06-01

Full Text Available This paper discusses the sustainability impact (contribution to sustainability, reduction of adverse environmental impacts of online second-hand trading. A survey of eBay users shows that a relationship between the trading of used goods and the protection of natural resources is hardly realized. Secondly, the environmental motivation and the willingness to act in a sustainable manner differ widely between groups of consumers. Given these results from a user perspective, the paper tries to find some objective hints of online second-hand trading’s environmental impact. The greenhouse gas emissions resulting from the energy used for the trading transactions seem to be considerably lower than the emissions due to the (avoided production of new goods. The paper concludes with a set of recommendations for second-hand trade and consumer policy. Information about the sustainability benefits of purchasing second-hand goods should be included in general consumer information, and arguments for changes in behavior should be targeted to different groups of consumers.

An elementary research on wireless transmission of holographic 3D moving pictures

Science.gov (United States)

Takano, Kunihiko; Sato, Koki; Endo, Takaya; Asano, Hiroaki; Fukuzawa, Atsuo; Asai, Kikuo

2009-05-01

In this paper, a transmitting process of a sequence of holograms describing 3D moving objects over the communicating wireless-network system is presented. A sequence of holograms involves holograms is transformed into a bit stream data, and then it is transmitted over the wireless LAN and Bluetooth. It is shown that applying this technique, holographic data of 3D moving object is transmitted in high quality and a relatively good reconstruction of holographic images is performed.

More Than We Bargained For: The Impact of Consumer Culture in Southeast Asia.

Science.gov (United States)

Frith, Katherine T.

Advertising by multinational corporations in Southeast Asia is generating a growing resistance to its perceived role in creating a "consumer culture" damaging to indigenous values systems. Critics of advertising in Southeast Asia argue that when multinational advertisers or their multinational advertising agencies move into this foreign…

Essays on Consumer Search and Interlocking Directorates

NARCIS (Netherlands)

M.C. Non (Marielle)

2008-01-01

textabstractInformation is crucial to make good decisions, but obtaining and providing information often comes at a cost. Consumers and firms both need to balance these costs and benefits of obtaining and providing information in order to make the best decisions. The research in this thesis

Journal of Consumer Sciences - Vol 44 (2016)

African Journals Online (AJOL)

The pursuit of subjective well-being and the complexity of conscientious consumer decision making in the South African white goods industry: A literature review and proposed conceptual framework · EMAIL FREE FULL TEXT EMAIL FREE FULL TEXT · DOWNLOAD FULL TEXT DOWNLOAD FULL TEXT. L Christie, NC ...

CONCEPTS AND THEORIES REGARDING THE BEHAVIOR OF THE CONSUMER OF PRODUCTS AND SERVICES

OpenAIRE

Rabontu, Cecilia Irina; Boncea, Amelia Georgiana

2007-01-01

The essential component of human behavior, the consumer’s behavior restrictively, reflects people’s conduct when it comes to buying and / or consuming material goods and services. At large, it comprises the entire conduct of the final user of material and immaterial goods. The study of the behavior of the consumer is vital for an enterprise in the motivation of the consequences that it carries along regarding all the decisions of marketing : the positioning of the brands, the segmentation of...

Factors driving the location investment decision of South African MNEs

African Journals Online (AJOL)

kirstam

best in foreign markets where consumer behaviour is most receptive ... sum of factors preventing or disturbing the flows of information between firms and markets”. Senior ..... Fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) (8.6%), and oil and gas.

Patients as consumers of health care in South Africa: the ethical and legal implications.

Science.gov (United States)

Rowe, Kirsten; Moodley, Keymanthri

2013-03-21

South Africa currently has a pluralistic health care system with separate public and private sectors. It is, however, moving towards a socialised model with the introduction of National Health Insurance. The South African legislative environment has changed recently with the promulgation of the Consumer Protection Act and proposed amendments to the National Health Act. Patients can now be viewed as consumers from a legal perspective. This has various implications for health care systems, health care providers and the doctor-patient relationship. Calling a recipient of health care a 'consumer' as opposed to a 'patient' has distinct connotations and may result in differential behaviour. Labels reflect the ideals of the context in which they are used. Various models of the doctor-patient relationship exist and different metaphors have been used to describe it. Increasingly there are third parties involved within the doctor-patient relationship making it more difficult for the doctor to play the fiduciary role. In certain parts of the world, there has been a shift from a traditional paternalistic model to a consumerist model. The ethical implications of the commodification of health care are complex. As health care becomes a 'product' supplied by the health care 'provider', there is the risk that doctors will replace professional ethics with those of the marketplace. Health care is a universal human need and cannot be considered a mere commodity. In modern medical ethics, great emphasis is placed on the principle of respect for patient autonomy. Patients are now the ultimate decision-makers. The new Consumer Protection Act in South Africa applies to consumers and patients alike. It enforces strict liability for harm caused by goods and services. Everyone in the supply chain, including the doctor, can be held jointly and severally liable. This may lead to enormous challenges in health care delivery. Viewing patients as consumers may be detrimental to the doctor

Aspiration, Consumer Culture, and Individualism in Les Belles-Sœurs

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Julie Robert

2014-01-01

Full Text Available The premise of Michel Tremblay’s revolutionary 1968 play, Les Belles-Sœurs , is a working bee. A group of working-class women gather to paste a million trading stamps, won in a sweepstakes, into booklets that once full can be redeemed for household goods. As the guests surreptitiously pilfer what they see as their hostess’s underserved windfall, their actions problematize the links between the individualistic aspects of consumer and material culture and the communal values they share as members of Quebec’s working class. Taking consumer culture and material desire as a starting point, this essay considers the relationship between the individual and the collective inherent in such matters and situates it in relation to the ways in which consumer culture, individual advancement, and national projects of collective betterment, namely the Quiet Revolution, are implicitly treated in the play. It is argued that Tremblay does not resolutely condemn consumer culture as something apart from the monumental social and political changes of the era, but rather sees in the practices of consumerism aspects of collective behavior that trouble interpretations of the accumulation of material goods as selfish or individualistic undertakings.

The Impact of Sustainability Information on Consumer Decision Making

OpenAIRE

O'Rourke, D; Ringer, A

2016-01-01

© 2015 by Yale University This article presents an empirical analysis of the impact of sustainability information on consumer purchase intentions and how this influence varies by issue (health, environment, and social responsibility), product category, type of consumer, and type of information. We assess over 40,000 online purchase interactions on the website GoodGuide.com and find a significant impact of certain types of sustainability information on purchase intentions, varying across diffe...

Perception of fashion brands by consumers in Serbia

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ostojić Ivana

2012-01-01

Full Text Available Fashion phenomenon has always attracted attention, but this topic has never been as popular as it is now. Fashion industry permeates all the aspects of human society and it portrays the time we live in the best way. Globalization of fashion and internalisation of doing business in fashion industry have conditioned moving all the important business functions to the countries with noticeably cheaper price of all the resources which has influenced reduction of the cost of fashion products. Textile industry in Serbia, once successful branch of the processing industry, is faced with foreign competition which has succeeded in positioning in the domestic market and attracting wide range of consumers. The research concerning consumers' preferences about fashion brands by determining which factors influence consumers the most while shopping will present the current situation in fashion industry of Serbia. By taking all brand characteristics into account (quality, price, design, commodity, prestige, we can determine the differences in evaluating the factors which apply to choosing garments by examinees regarding their gender, age and market they buy the products on. The case study showing how the consumers from Serbia and abroad see Mona fashion brand will be presented in the research.

The influence of psychological and social factors on market behaviour of young consumers

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Joanna Kicińska

2009-01-01

Full Text Available This article presents the results of research concerning the influence of psychological and social factors on market behaviour of young consumers in Poland and in the world. The research confirms that children and the youth constitute a separate market group and the age determines their market independence. Making decisions regarding purchase of goods young consumers tend to ask for help those whom they rely on, which is connected with their small market experience. The need to do market shopping is mainly influenced by the feeling of lack of young people and then parents’ suggestions and peers’ advice. Young consumers buy goods also on impulse. It regards mainly comestibles. Fashion is the most important for children and the youth in case of clothing articles and shoes. The factor of market novelty is not a determinant of a big importance in the choice of goods purchased by children and the youth.

Last Time Buy and repair decisions for fast moving parts

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Behfard, S.; Al Hanbali, A.; van der Heijden, M. C.; Zijm, W. H.M.

2018-01-01

Spare part availability is essential for advanced capital goods with a long service period. Sourcing becomes challenging once the production of spare parts ceases, while the remaining service period is still long. In this paper, we focus on fast moving parts with repair of failed parts as an

On multiscale moving contact line theory.

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Shaofan; Fan, Houfu

2015-07-08

In this paper, a multiscale moving contact line (MMCL) theory is presented and employed to simulate liquid droplet spreading and capillary motion. The proposed MMCL theory combines a coarse-grained adhesive contact model with a fluid interface membrane theory, so that it can couple molecular scale adhesive interaction and surface tension with hydrodynamics of microscale flow. By doing so, the intermolecular force, the van der Waals or double layer force, separates and levitates the liquid droplet from the supporting solid substrate, which avoids the shear stress singularity caused by the no-slip condition in conventional hydrodynamics theory of moving contact line. Thus, the MMCL allows the difference of the surface energies and surface stresses to drive droplet spreading naturally. To validate the proposed MMCL theory, we have employed it to simulate droplet spreading over various elastic substrates. The numerical simulation results obtained by using MMCL are in good agreement with the molecular dynamics results reported in the literature.

Consumer Behavior Under Conflicting Information Provided by Interested Parties: Implications for Equilibrium in the Market for Credence Goods.

Science.gov (United States)

Russo, Carlo; Tufi, Eleonora

2016-01-01

Incomplete information in food consumption is a relevant topic in agricultural economics. This paper proposes a theoretical model describing consumer behavior, market equilibrium and public intervention in an industry where consumers must rely on the information of interested parties such as producers or associations. We provide simple game theory model showing the link between price competition and the strategic use of information. If information are unverifiable (as in the case of credence attributes) firms may have no incentive to advertise true claims and consumer decisions may be biased. Our model incorporates the opportunistic behavior of self-interested information providers. The result is a model of competition in prices and information finding a potential for market failure and public intervention. In the paper we discuss the efficiency of three possible regulations: banning false claims, subsidizing advertising campaigns, and public statement if favor of true claims. In that context, some recent patents related to both the regulatory compliance in communication and to the reduction of asymmetric information between producers and consumers have been considered. Finally, we found that the efficiency of these policy tools is affected by the reputation of trustworthiness of the firms.

Suboptimality of Sales Promotions and Improvement Through Channel Coordination

NARCIS (Netherlands)

B. Wierenga (Berend); H. Soethoudt (Han)

2002-01-01

textabstractThis paper deals with sales promotions in the form of consumer price discounts in fast-moving consumer goods. First, we show analytically that suboptimality is to be expected with respect to the size of the consumer price discount. This is due to the separate decision making of the

The Importance of Consumer Trust for the Emergence of a Market for Green products

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nuttavuthisit, Krittinee; Thøgersen, John

2017-01-01

Consumer trust is a key prerequisite for establishing a market for credence goods, such as “green” products, especially when they are premium priced. This article reports research on exactly how, and how much, trust influences consumer decisions to buy new green products. It identifies consumer t...... behavior. Implications for policy and future research are discussed....

Ethical aspects of advertising in the struggle for consumer confidence

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Galavtina Anna

2016-05-01

Full Text Available This article discusses the issues associated with ethical aspects of advertising activities of the enterprise and consumer perception. The significance of this study is primarily due to the fact that in today's world, the realization of any products (goods is impossible without advertising support. The consumer has the right to receive the necessary, affordable, reliable and timely information about the product, which allows its conscious and informed choice. The purpose of this article is to reveal the problematic issues of ethics and truthfulness in advertising and to show their influence on consumer choice. The results of the study show that consumers tend to choose the product, which they are more informed about, even being aware of the shortcomings of this product. Companies, open to consumers, increasingly come into market leaders.

Does the good matter? Evidence on moral hazard and adverse selection from consumer credit market

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Bičáková, Alena

2007-01-01

Roč. 66, č. 1 (2007), s. 29-65 ISSN 0017-0097 Institutional research plan: CEZ:AV0Z70850503 Keywords : consumer credit * adverse selection * moral hazard Subject RIV: AH - Economics http://giornaledeglieconomisti.unibocconi.it/on-line/Home/Volumes/artCat2007.11.1.10.2.html

Moving In, Moving Through, and Moving Out: The Transitional Experiences of Foster Youth College Students

Science.gov (United States)

Gamez, Sara I.

2017-01-01

The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the transitional experiences of foster youth college students. The study explored how foster youth experienced moving into, moving through, and moving out of the college environment and what resources and strategies they used to thrive during their college transitions. In addition, this study…

The Impact of Consumer Credentialism on Employee and Entrepreneur Returns to Higher Education.

Science.gov (United States)

Tucker, Irvin B., III

1987-01-01

Examines the relative importance of education credentials in consumer perceptions of self-employed business people. Using 1980 national cross-sectional data on goods- and service-producing occupations, the regression analysis shows that highly educated entrepreneurs are not influenced by consumer credentialism. Includes 17 references. (MLH)

Business models for additive manufacturing

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hadar, Ronen; Bilberg, Arne; Bogers, Marcel

2015-01-01

Digital fabrication — including additive manufacturing (AM), rapid prototyping and 3D printing — has the potential to revolutionize the way in which products are produced and delivered to the customer. Therefore, it challenges companies to reinvent their business model — describing the logic...... of creating and capturing value. In this paper, we explore the implications that AM technologies have for manufacturing systems in the new business models that they enable. In particular, we consider how a consumer goods manufacturer can organize the operations of a more open business model when moving from...... a manufacturer-centric to a consumer-centric value logic. A major shift includes a move from centralized to decentralized supply chains, where consumer goods manufacturers can implement a “hybrid” approach with a focus on localization and accessibility or develop a fully personalized model where the consumer...

Creating Value Through the Freemium Business Model: A Consumer Perspective

OpenAIRE

Rietveld, Joost

2016-01-01

textabstractThis paper develops a consumer-centric framework for creating value through the freemium business model. Goods that are commercialized through the freemium business model offer basic functionality for free and monetize users for extended use or complementary features. Compared to premium goods, freemium goods have lower barriers to adoption and allow end-users to accurately assess and act on their willingness to pay. On the other hand, convincing users to spend money on freemium g...

Consumers satisfaction in the energy sector in Kenya

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mutua, John; Ngui, Dianah; Osiolo, Helen; Aligula, Eric; Gachanja, James

2012-01-01

This paper analyzes consumer satisfaction in the energy sector in Kenya to assess the quality and level of service delivery. By use of the European Consumer Satisfaction Index (ECSI), the paper estimates consumer satisfaction in biomass, petroleum, electricity and renewable energy subsectors. The findings are that consumer satisfaction is highest in the renewable energy sub sector at 74.7% followed by petroleum at 62.8%. The electricity sub sector has the lowest consumer satisfaction of 53.06%. Further, it is found that the image of renewable energy providers is also the highest at 72.5% followed by that of petroleum companies at 63.1%. In the electricity sub sector, perceived value scored the highest at 64.2%. The paper concludes that image of a service provider, loyalty of consumers, consumer expectations, perceived value, perceived quality and the way complains are handled are very important factors that determine consumer satisfaction levels. It is recommended that for monitoring and evaluation purposes in the performance of the energy sector, the Energy RegulatoryCommission(ERC) could use the consumer satisfaction index level to evaluate whether the regulatory policies and their implementation are bearing fruit where a high index would be associated with good performance and vice versa. - Highlights: ► The paper estimates consumer satisfaction in biomass, petroleum, electricity and renewable energy subsectors. ► Consumer satisfaction is highest in the renewable energy sub sector at 74.7%. ► The electricity sub sector has the lowest consumer satisfaction of 53.06%. ► Image of renewable energy providers is also the highest at 72.5%. ► Factors explaining consumer satisfaction are; Image, consumers’ loyalty, expectations, perceived value, and perceived quality.

Consumer preferences for telemedicine devices and services in South Korea.

Science.gov (United States)

Ahn, Joongha; Shin, Jungwoo; Lee, Jongsu; Shin, Kwangsoo; Park, Hayoung

2014-02-01

The scope of healthcare has been expanding from caring for sick people to keeping people from becoming sick, and telemedicine will play a significant role in this new healthcare paradigm. This study investigated consumer preferences and willingness to pay for attributes of telemedicine services in South Korea. A market simulation was conducted to examine the market shares of alternative services and their relationships to the perceived usefulness of service types and preferred device types. Using a conjoint survey, we collected data on consumer preferences for six telemedicine service attributes. Data analysis used the Bayesian mixed logit model. The market simulation estimated the probabilities of a specific service alternative being chosen using estimated model coefficients. Wearable devices were the most preferred, followed by smart-home and smartphone devices. Consumers perceived managing blood glucose to be the most useful telemedicine service, followed by monitoring oxygen saturation and blood pressure. The market simulation indicated that consumer preferences for device types were associated with the types of chronic diseases for which management through telemedicine services is perceived to be useful. As the focus of healthcare moves from treating patients to keeping individuals healthy, a key factor for the successful deployment of telemedicine services is understanding consumer perceptions and attitudes. The results of this study revealed the dynamics of consumer preferences with regard to service attributes.

The Influence of Word of Mouth and Customer Motivations on Consumer Buying Behavior at Pondok Teterusan Restaurant

OpenAIRE

David, Ezara Daniella

2014-01-01

Consumer preferences and tastes constantly change. It is important for marketers to know what consumer needs and wants, how they spend their resources, how they decided to shop, visit, to eat, when to buy, and what to purchase. Experiences is one of the major factors of how customer make a decision. Good experiences means good viral marketing. Consumers value word of mouth twice as much as they value advertising. The objectives of this research are to analyze the influence of word of mouth to...

Designing for E-commerce, appealing to consumers

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

1998-01-01

In order to make electronic commerce more successful, we need to look more closely at the design of web sites. The purpose of such design is to entice consumers to make regular visits, tempting them in buying goods. Thus more attention should be paid to make information more effective, presenting...

Effects of price manipulations on consumer behavior in sheltered workshop token economy.

Science.gov (United States)

Schroeder, S R; Barrera, F J

1976-09-01

The consumer behavior of institutionalized retarded clients in a sheltered workshop token economy were evaluated by changing prices in the workshop store. In the first experiment we found that clients displayed elasticity of demand in that raising the prices of frequently purchased goods reduced the frequency and amount spent on more expendable items. Results from the second experiment showed that this change in spending pattern was not due to the relative modal unit price of item classes. The regulation of demand for consumer goods is a potentially useful way to maintain economic balance and effectiveness of a token economy.

Calculations of the electron-damping force on moving-edge dislocations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mohri, T.

1982-11-01

Dynamic effect of a moving dislocation has been recognized as one of essential features of deformation behavior at very low temperatures. Damping mechanisms are the central problems in this field. Based on the free-electron-gas model, the electron-damping force (friction force) on a moving-edge dislocation in a normal state is estimated. By applying classical MacKenzie-Sondheimer's procedures, the electrical resistivity caused by a moving dislocation is first estimated, and the damping force is calculated as a Joule-heat-energy dissipation. The calculated values are 3.63x10 - 6 , 7.62x10 - 7 and 1.00x10 - 6 [dyn sec/cm - 2 ] for Al, Cu and Pb, respectively. These values show fairly good agreements as compared with experimental results. Also, numerical calculations are carried out to estimate magnetic effects caused by a moving dislocation. The results are negative and any magnetic effects are not expected. In order to treat deformation behavior at very low temperatures, a unification of three important deformation problems is attempted and a fundamental equation is derived

Anticipated consumer reaction to irradiated foods

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Young, M.

1983-01-01

The reaction on first hearing of food irradiation is horror, revulsion, and disbelief that we could seriously anticipate such a thing. Ignorance coupled with fear of anything to do with the nuclear industry is the reason for such extreme reaction. Before anyone rushes into marketing irradiated foods, a lot of careful preparation must be done. A consumer education program is essential. The consumers must be told why it is proposed to irradiate food, what benefits it will bring to the public. Enough need will have to be demonstrated to overcome the supposed risk factor. Symbol on all irradiated foods must not be used to alert or alarm the consumer but rather as a piece of information. It will be necessary to be ever vigilant, to keep up the diligent training of food irradiators, food handlers and food inspectors. Irradiation is not a substitute for good manufacturing practice. So by using a different name or symbol, irradiated foods will soon be a part of our lives

Online Consumer Reviews on Using E-Shopping Service of E-Commerce

Science.gov (United States)

Hurriyati, R.; Lisnawati; Rhamdani, F.

2017-03-01

The Internet has become the primary source of information for a large number of consumers and it enables consumers to share their opinions and experiences about goods and services. Online consumer reviews provide information and recommendations for prospective buyers and are helpful for decision-making on purchases. The purpose of this study is to assess the impact of online consumer reviews on a decision of using e-commerce services. Sample size has been conducted among 435 respondents of e-commerce customers who use google play. to test the research hypothesis path analysis. The result indicates that Positive and negative statements in reviews are strong influence consumers whether to use the services that offered by e-commerce, online consumer reviews have an impact on the consumer decision of using e-commerce services. Finally, some practical valuable feedback for future research and practical contribution has been made.

The impact of consumer involvement in research: an evaluation of consumer involvement in the London Primary Care Studies Programme.

Science.gov (United States)

Wyatt, Katrina; Carter, Mary; Mahtani, Vinita; Barnard, Angela; Hawton, Annie; Britten, Nicky

2008-06-01

The value of consumer involvement in health services research is widely recognized. While there is a growing body of evidence about the principles of good consumer involvement, there is little research about the effect that involvement can have on the research. This evaluation assessed the level and impact of consumer involvement in the London Primary Care Studies Programme (LPCSP), all of whose individual projects had to demonstrate substantial involvement as a condition of funding. To evaluate consumer involvement in the LPSCP and understand what impact consumers had on the research process and outcomes. A multi-method case study approach was undertaken, using survey techniques, interviews, focus groups, observation and scrutiny of written documents. The overall data set comprised 61 questionnaires, 44 semi-structured interviews, 2 focus groups and 15 hours of observation of meetings. Eleven primary care-based research projects which together made up the LPCSP. An in-depth description of consumer involvement in the Programme was produced. Nine projects had consumers as co-applicants, four projects had been completed before the evaluation began and one was still ongoing at the time of the evaluation. Of the eight projects which have produced final reports, all met their aims and objectives. Consumers had had an additional impact in the research, in the initial design of the study, in recruitment of the research subjects, in developing data collection tools, in collecting the data, in analysis and disseminating the findings. Consumer involvement in National Health Service research is a relatively recent policy development and while there is an increasing amount of literature about how and why consumers should be involved in research, there is less evidence about the impact of such involvement. This evaluation provides evidence about the impact that consumers have not only on the research process but also on the outcomes of the research.

When do fat taxes increase consumer welfare?

Science.gov (United States)

Lusk, Jayson L; Schroeter, Christiane

2012-11-01

Previous analyses of fat taxes have generally worked within an empirical framework in which it is difficult to determine whether consumers benefit from the policy. This note outlines on simple means to determine whether consumers benefit from a fat tax by comparing the ratio of expenditures on the taxed good to the weight effect of the tax against the individual's willingness to pay for a one-pound weight reduction. Our empirical calculations suggest that an individual would have to be willing to pay about $1500 to reduce weight by one pound for a tax on sugary beverages to be welfare enhancing. The results suggest either that a soda tax is very unlikely to increase individual consumer welfare or that the policy must be justified on some other grounds that abandon standard rationality assumptions. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The influence of price endings on consumer behaviour: an application of the psychology of perception

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Emmanuel Selase Asamoah

2011-01-01

Full Text Available Price ending is an important pricing strategy that has been used by retailers over the years. The trend seems to be effective considering how consumers react especially to products with odd price endings. This review is aimed at providing an understanding of the psychological influences of price ending on buyers, using the theory of perception. It analysis theories and existing literature on the topic and brings out augmentative pricing strategies that retailers can adopt in consumer markets. Also, an exploratory study was conducted to identify the prevalence of odd prices in the Czech retail sector. The exploratory study was based on 16 different home-drop advertising material, short magazines and leaflets by retails shops in the Zlin region. These leaflets, short magazines and home-drop advertising material were collected and analyzed over 3 month period to identify the dominance of odd and even pricing strategy (total number of advertisements = 922. Also, in order to have a comprehensive coverage of the odd-even pricing phenomenon, opinions of some buyers were sought on their perception of odd-pricing and how the odd-pricing influence their buying decisions. Opinions of a total of 173 shoppers were sampled. The study found clear evidence of the predominant use and preference by shoppers for odd prices compared to even prices in different product categories, especially fast moving consumer goods. The paper concludes by providing the marketing implications and suggestions on when odd and even price ending strategies should be used and for what category of products this strategy can be used. Also, the implications of price endings on marketing communication are highlighted.

Job Surfing: Move On to Move Up.

Science.gov (United States)

Martin, Justin

1997-01-01

Looks at the process of switching jobs and changing careers. Discusses when to consider options and make the move as well as the need to be flexible and open minded. Provides a test for determining the chances of promotion and when to move on. (JOW)

Consumer Behavior Analysis of Fair Trade Coffee: Evidence from Field Research

Science.gov (United States)

Stratton, Jeanine P.; Werner, Matt J.

2013-01-01

Consumers have shown increased interest in purchasing goods with pro- environmental claims or products that promote societal well-being, such as fair wages paid to farmers of the raw materials and workers in the manufacturing process of a good (e.g., social product labels, including Fair Trade). However, few studies have explored actual purchase…

Saving money vs investing money: Do energy ratings influence consumer demand for energy efficient goods?

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Panzone, Luca A.

2013-01-01

The article analyses economic barriers leading to the energy efficiency gap in the market for energy-using products by observing several million transactions in the UK over two years. The empirical exercise estimates AIDS models for refrigerators, washing machines, TVs, and light bulbs. Results indicate that market barriers are crucial in the demand for energy efficient options, and consumer response to changes in appliance prices, total expenditures, and energy prices depends on the possibility of behavioural adjustments in consumption. In contrast with the induced innovation hypothesis, current electricity prices can fail to induce innovation because of their short-term impact on disposable income, while consumers invest in energy efficiency when expecting electricity prices to rise in the future. - Highlights: • The article analyses economic barriers to energy efficiency in the UK. • Data refers to 2-year sales of refrigerators, washing machines, TV, and light bulbs. • Demand parameters by efficiency rating are estimated from four AIDS models. • Future (not present) electricity prices induce investments in energy efficiency. • Behavioural efficiency adjustments explain differences in market response

Consumer understanding of sugars claims on food and drink products

OpenAIRE

Patterson, N J; Sadler, M J; Cooper, J M

2012-01-01

Consumer understanding of nutrition and health claims is a key aspect of current regulations in the European Union (EU). In view of this, qualitative and quantitative research techniques were used to investigate consumer awareness and understanding of product claims in the UK, focusing particularly on nutrition claims relating to sugars. Both research methods identified a good awareness of product claims. No added sugars claims were generally preferred to reduced sugars claims, and there was ...

Intelligent support of e-management for consumer-focused virtual enterprises

Science.gov (United States)

Chandra, Charu; Smirnov, Alexander V.

2000-10-01

The interest in consumer-focused virtual enterprises (VE) decision-making problem is growing fast. The purpose of this type of enterprise is to transform incomplete information about customer orders and available resources into-co-ordinated plans for production and replenishment of goods and services in the temporal network formed by collaborating units. This implies that information in the consumer-focused VE can be shared via Internet, Intranet, and Extranet for business-to-consumer (B2C), business-to-business service (B2B-S), and business-to-business goods (B2B-G) transactions. One of the goals of Internet-Based Management (e-management) is to facilitate transfer and sharing of data and knowledge in the context of enterprise collaboration. This paper discusses a generic framework of e-management that integrates intelligent information support group-decision making, and agreement modeling for a VE network. It offers the platform for design and modeling of diverse implementation strategies related to the type of agreement, optimization policies, decision-making strategies, organization structures, and information sharing strategies and mechanisms, and business policies for the VE.

Characteristics associated with organizational independence in consumer-operated service organizations.

Science.gov (United States)

Tanenbaum, Sandra J

2011-01-01

This research compares two types of consumer organizations in one state in order to explore the significance of organizational independence for internal structure/operations and external relationships. The first type, consumeroperated service organizations (COSOs), are independent and fully self-governing; the second are peer-support service organizations (PSSOs), which are part of larger non-consumer entities. Mail surveys were completed by COSO and PSSO directors of a geographically representative sample of organizations; telephone interviews were conducted with a sub-sample. Owing to small sample size, matched COSO-PSSO pairs were analyzed using non-parametric statistics. COSOs and PSSOs are similar in some ways, e.g., types of services provided, but significantly different on internal variables, such as budget size, and external variables, such as number of relationships with community groups. Organizational independence appears to be a significant characteristic for consumer service organizations and should be encouraged by funders and among participants. Funders might establish administrative and/or programmatic measures to support consumer organizations that are independent or moving toward independence; their participants would also benefit from the provision, by authorities or advocates, of materials to guide organizations toward, for example, 501(c)3 status.

Consumer perception and acceptance of pork and chicken sausage

Science.gov (United States)

Ristić, M.; Troeger, K.; Đinović-Stojanović, J.; Knežević, N.; Damnjanović, M.

2017-09-01

This study was performed to evaluate consumers’ perception and acceptance of selected pork and chicken sausage (budim and chicken sausages, respectively) from Zlatiborac Meat Company. Sensory evaluation was performed by Serbian consumers (n=1157) in three retail stores in Belgrade. Consumers were asked for their preference for taste, salt content and smoke of two sausages and to recognize the kind of meat which was used to make these meat products. Consumers evaluated taste, salt content and smoke flavor of budim and chicken sausages with the highest percentage of the best offered answer. Between 47-55%, 72-76% and 82-84% of consumers evaluated the taste of sausages as good, the salt content as well-balanced and the smoke flavor as balanced, respectively. Tukey’s HSD test was applied to analyze variations of male and female perception and acceptance of analyzed sausages.

Decisive Visual Saliency and Consumers' In-store Decisions

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Clement, Jesper; Aastrup, Jesper; Forsberg, Signe Charlotte

2015-01-01

This paper focuses on consumers' in-store visual tactics and decision-making. It has been argued that many consumers shop by routine or by simple rules and justification techniques when they purchase daily commodities. It has also been argued that they make a majority of decisions in the shop......, and that they are affected by the visual stimuli in the store. The objective for this paper is to investigate the visual saliency from two factors: 1) in-store signage and 2) placement of products. This is done by a triangulation method where we utilize data from an eye-track study and sales data from grocery stores....... The first study takes place in laboratory settings with a simulated purchase situation, and the second research design builds on manipulated in-store settings and data from real purchases. We found optimal placement of two comparable goods (branded good and private label) to increase visual attention...

Consumer Issues and Consumer Protection in Asia.

Science.gov (United States)

Widdows, Richard; And Others

1995-01-01

Looks at themes of consumer interests in Asia and comments on the directions consumer policy is taking in that region. Outlines issues facing the region's consumers, describes evolving consumer protection mechanisms, and presents a model for promoting consumer interests in the region. (JOW)

Meat liking, animal welfare and consumer willingness to pay

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Fabio Napolitano

2010-01-01

Full Text Available Three products (beef, lamb and chicken were used to assess the effect of information about animal welfare on meat liking. Each experiment was planned in three tests. In the first test the consumers were offered the product, and asked to taste it and rate their liking receiving no information (perceived liking. In the second test the subjects received the information concerning farming conditions and their effects on animal welfare. They were asked to read the information and give their liking expectation for that product (expected liking. In the third test consumers were given the product along with the information sheet. They were instructed to read the information before tasting the sample and express their liking score (actual liking. Consumers rated the products on a nine-point hedonic scale. Only for beef, a second-price sealed-bid auction was used to assess consumer willingness to pay (WTP according to the level of welfare of the animals used in the production process. Results from the three experiments showed that expectations induced by the information on animal welfare affected quality perception. Thus, if expectations were negatively disconfirmed (the product was worse than expected, the assimilation model was generally applicable, which means that hedonic ratings moved towards the expectations when external information on animal welfare was given compared to tasting without information. In addition, consumers showed a WTP for beef paired with information higher than its actual commercial value (P<0.001. In conclusion, information about animal welfare can be a major determinant of animal-based food liking and consumer WTP.

Dialect topic modeling for improved consumer medical search.

Science.gov (United States)

Crain, Steven P; Yang, Shuang-Hong; Zha, Hongyuan; Jiao, Yu

2010-11-13

Access to health information by consumers is hampered by a fundamental language gap. Current attempts to close the gap leverage consumer oriented health information, which does not, however, have good coverage of slang medical terminology. In this paper, we present a Bayesian model to automatically align documents with different dialects (slang, common and technical) while extracting their semantic topics. The proposed diaTM model enables effective information retrieval, even when the query contains slang words, by explicitly modeling the mixtures of dialects in documents and the joint influence of dialects and topics on word selection. Simulations using consumer questions to retrieve medical information from a corpus of medical documents show that diaTM achieves a 25% improvement in information retrieval relevance by nDCG@5 over an LDA baseline.

Dialect Topic Modeling for Improved Consumer Medical Search

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Crain, Steven P. [Georgia Institute of Technology; Yang, Shuang-Hong [Georgia Institute of Technology; Zha, Hongyuan [Georgia Institute of Technology; Jiao, Yu [ORNL

2010-01-01

Access to health information by consumers is ham- pered by a fundamental language gap. Current attempts to close the gap leverage consumer oriented health information, which does not, however, have good coverage of slang medical terminology. In this paper, we present a Bayesian model to automatically align documents with different dialects (slang, com- mon and technical) while extracting their semantic topics. The proposed diaTM model enables effective information retrieval, even when the query contains slang words, by explicitly modeling the mixtures of dialects in documents and the joint influence of dialects and topics on word selection. Simulations us- ing consumer questions to retrieve medical information from a corpus of medical documents show that diaTM achieves a 25% improvement in information retrieval relevance by nDCG@5 over an LDA baseline.

76 FR 12213 - Agency Information Collection Activities; Extension of an Approved Information Collection Request...

Science.gov (United States)

2011-03-04

... or messages, such as the ``Protect Your Move'' campaign. The data will be collected through a... FMCSA in developing future HHG campaign materials, identifying target audiences, and determining distribution strategies to provide better consumer information to the public. Title: Household Goods Consumer...

The key determinants of consumer ethnocentrism in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bešlagić Amela

2015-01-01

Full Text Available The area of this research relates to consumer behavior and the effects that the influence of consumer ethnocentrism has on the national economy. Therefore is consumer ethnocentrism, as an attitude of spending and consumption of local products, the subject of this research. The aim is to identify the key determinants of the consumer ethnocentrism phenomenon, in order to explain the habits of consumers in the purchase and consumption of local products. The empirical research found the key determinants that influence the level of consumer ethnocentrism among the citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina. A questionnaire as a data collection form, was used, so as the Cronbach alpha coefficient to measure the reliability of the CET scale, as well as the analysis of variance. The collected data were analyzed by using SPSS statistical software. The results confirmed recent findings conducted in Bosnia and Herzegovina in this field. It was found that the Bosnian - Herzegovinian ethnocentric consumers and their propensity to purchase local products are defined by promotional activities, frequency of purchases of consumer goods, status in the household, number of household members, the average monthly household income, education level and employment status of the household head.

Patients as consumers of health care in South Africa: the ethical and legal implications

Science.gov (United States)

2013-01-01

Background South Africa currently has a pluralistic health care system with separate public and private sectors. It is, however, moving towards a socialised model with the introduction of National Health Insurance. The South African legislative environment has changed recently with the promulgation of the Consumer Protection Act and proposed amendments to the National Health Act. Patients can now be viewed as consumers from a legal perspective. This has various implications for health care systems, health care providers and the doctor-patient relationship. Discussion Calling a recipient of health care a ‘consumer’ as opposed to a ‘patient’ has distinct connotations and may result in differential behaviour. Labels reflect the ideals of the context in which they are used. Various models of the doctor-patient relationship exist and different metaphors have been used to describe it. Increasingly there are third parties involved within the doctor-patient relationship making it more difficult for the doctor to play the fiduciary role. In certain parts of the world, there has been a shift from a traditional paternalistic model to a consumerist model. The ethical implications of the commodification of health care are complex. As health care becomes a ‘product’ supplied by the health care ‘provider’, there is the risk that doctors will replace professional ethics with those of the marketplace. Health care is a universal human need and cannot be considered a mere commodity. In modern medical ethics, great emphasis is placed on the principle of respect for patient autonomy. Patients are now the ultimate decision-makers. The new Consumer Protection Act in South Africa applies to consumers and patients alike. It enforces strict liability for harm caused by goods and services. Everyone in the supply chain, including the doctor, can be held jointly and severally liable. This may lead to enormous challenges in health care delivery. Summary Viewing patients as

The Development of Consumer Protection Policies in Malaysia

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mohamad Fazli Sabri

2014-06-01

Full Text Available The Malaysian government envisions Malaysia as an inclusive and sustainable high-income nation by 2020. The definition of “high income” is per capita income of USD15, 000 or MYR48, 000, based on the World Bank’s current definition of “high income”. The objective is not merely a quantitative target; it is also about Malaysia being an advanced and developed nation with an economy having the characteristics of developed nations. Advancements in information and communication technology (ICT and globalization have resulted in the evolution of a more complex and challenging marketplace. As today’s consumers are constantly faced with a bewildering array of goods and services in the market, consumers must be equipped with an elevated level of consumerism knowledge and skills. Malaysian consumers thus need to be kept in touch with developments in the market, enabling them to act and decide effectively, to ensure that they develop as more empowered, savvy and resilient consumers now and after Malaysia transforms into a developed nation. However, without the government’s intervention to protect consumers through adequate legislations and enforcement, the aim of creating “empowered consumers” will not be realized. This paper aims to discuss the development of consumer protection policies in Malaysia.

An investigation on Iranian consumer behavior towards famous luxury brands

OpenAIRE

Seyed Hamidreza Moteshakereh; Masoumeh sadat Abtahi; Ahmad Rahchamani

2013-01-01

During the past few years, there has been a growing trend on luxury good consumption among Iranian consumers. Many rich people change their mobile devices, purchase new expensive cars, etc. This paper investigates the effects of three factors including consumer perceived value, sensitivity to social norms and need for uniqueness on consumer’s intention to purchase luxury products based on the theory of planned behavior. The proposed study uses clustering technique and randomly chooses a sampl...

The Role of Social Media Advertising in Consumer Buying Behavior

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Adnan Veysel Ertemel

2017-06-01

Full Text Available P Consumer buying behavior is known also as consumer decision making is the process by which individuals search for, select, purchase, use, and dispose of goods and services to satisfy require needs. This study has been designed to answer main question about the role of social media advertising on consumer buying behavior in very active field which is fashion retail industry, then determine the differences if existed in this relation regarding to the name of the brands and consumer demographics factors. By electronic questionnaires conducted for consumers live in Istanbul-Turkey, findings showed weak relation between social media advertising and consumer need recognition, no relation at all with search for information, strong relation with evaluate the alternatives, and moderate relation for both buying decision and post-purchase behavior, as those steps represent the five steps need recognition model in consumer buying behavior. Moreover, findings showed no changes in this relation regarding to consumer’s age, and education level. However, there were changes between Females and males in the relation with consumer need recognition, and search for information. In addition, another changes regarding to income between social media advertising and evaluate the alternatives especially for consumers earn more than 5.000TL among other income groups.

Evolutionary model of an anonymous consumer durable market

Science.gov (United States)

Kaldasch, Joachim

2011-07-01

An analytic model is presented that considers the evolution of a market of durable goods. The model suggests that after introduction goods spread always according to a Bass diffusion. However, this phase will be followed by a diffusion process for durable consumer goods governed by a variation-selection-reproduction mechanism and the growth dynamics can be described by a replicator equation. The theory suggests that products play the role of species in biological evolutionary models. It implies that the evolution of man-made products can be arranged into an evolutionary tree. The model suggests that each product can be characterized by its product fitness. The fitness space contains elements of both sites of the market, supply and demand. The unit sales of products with a higher product fitness compared to the mean fitness increase. Durables with a constant fitness advantage replace other goods according to a logistic law. The model predicts in particular that the mean price exhibits an exponential decrease over a long time period for durable goods. The evolutionary diffusion process is directly related to this price decline and is governed by Gompertz equation. Therefore it is denoted as Gompertz diffusion. Describing the aggregate sales as the sum of first, multiple and replacement purchase the product life cycle can be derived. Replacement purchase causes periodic variations of the sales determined by the finite lifetime of the good (Juglar cycles). The model suggests that both, Bass- and Gompertz diffusion may contribute to the product life cycle of a consumer durable. The theory contains the standard equilibrium view of a market as a special case. It depends on the time scale, whether an equilibrium or evolutionary description is more appropriate. The evolutionary framework is used to derive also the size, growth rate and price distribution of manufacturing business units. It predicts that the size distribution of the business units (products) is lognormal

Advertising, brand and neuromarketing or how consumer brain works

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Michela Balconi

2014-11-01

Full Text Available The present paper explores the relationship between the explicit (consumer’s preference and implicit (EEG measurement consumers’ responses and the important role of the reward-system. In particular we analyzed the impact of reward mechanisms to support cognitive and emotive processes in evaluating consumer goods. We measured the frequency bands (delta, theta, alpha, beta at thirty-four subjects while they saw five commercials. Finally, the subjects evaluated the goods and explained their preferences.

Heterogeneity and nonlinearity in consumers' preferences: An application to the olive oil shopping behavior in Chile.

Science.gov (United States)

Romo-Muñoz, Rodrigo Alejandro; Cabas-Monje, Juan Hernán; Garrido-Henrríquez, Héctor Manuel; Gil, José María

2017-01-01

In relatively unknown products, consumers use prices as a quality reference. Under such circumstances, the utility function can be non-negative for a specific price range and generate an inverted U-shaped function. The extra virgin olive oil market in Chile is a good example. Although domestic production and consumption have increased significantly in the last few years, consumer knowledge of this product is still limited. The objective of this study was to analyze Chilean consumer preferences and willingness to pay for extra virgin olive oil attributes. Consumers were segmented taking into account purchasing frequency. A Random Parameter Logit model was estimated for preference heterogeneity. Results indicate that the utility function is nonlinear allowing us to differentiate between two regimes. In the first regime, olive oil behaves as a conspicuous good, that is, higher utility is assigned to higher prices and consumers prefer foreign products in smaller containers. Under the second regime, Chilean olive oil in larger containers is preferred.

All States Guide to Consumer Laws.

Science.gov (United States)

1986-09-01

control with the card issuer; - Is a franchised dealer in the card issuer’s products or services; or - Obtained the order for the transaction through...1973). Certificate of Title; Application for Certifi- plication for Certificate of Title and Registration. cafe of Ownership. TEXAS-TEX. REV. Civ. STAT...distribution, or b lease of any goods, including real estate and franchises , services or things of value. Most violations must involve consumer

Postexperience Advertising Effects on Consumer Memory.

OpenAIRE

Braun, Kathryn A

1999-01-01

Past research suggests that marketing communications create expectations that influence the way consumers subsequently learn from their product experiences. Since postexperience information can also be important and is widespread for established goods and services, it is appropriate to ask about the cognitive effects of these efforts. The postexperience advertising situation is conceptualized here as an instant source-forgetting problem where the language and imagery from the recently present...

Moving related to separation : who moves and to what distance

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Mulder, Clara H.; Malmberg, Gunnar

We address the issue of moving from the joint home on the occasion of separation. Our research question is: To what extent can the occurrence of moves related to separation, and the distance moved, be explained by ties to the location, resources, and other factors influencing the likelihood of

Pricing Strategy in Online Retailing Marketplaces of Homogeneous Goods: Should High Reputation Seller Charge More?

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Yuewen; Wei, Kwok Kee; Chen, Huaping

There are two conflicting streams of research findings on pricing strategy: one is high reputation sellers should charge price premium, while the other is high reputation sellers should charge relatively low price. Motivated by this confliction, this study examines pricing strategy in online retailing marketplace of homogeneous goods. We conduct an empirical study using data collected from a dominant online retailing marketplace in China. Our research results indicate that, in online retailing marketplace of homogeneous goods, high reputation sellers should charge relatively low price, because the consumers of high reputation sellers are more price sensitive than the consumers of low reputation sellers.

Analysis of Consumer Preference of Mobile Phone throug the Use of Conjoint Analysis

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Faisal Afzal Siddiqui

2008-01-01

Full Text Available The aim of this article is to provide an introduction to conjoint analysis as a research tool, and to indicate its value for analyzing consumer preference based on the value that the consumers attach to the attributes of the goods that they intend to purchase. The study involves the use of the tool of conjoint Analysis to evaluate consumer preference vis.a.vis Brand, Price Level, FM Radio, and Camera. The results of the study indicate that the most important attribute behind consumer preference for mobile phones was Brand, followed by Price, then Camera, and finally FM Radio.

Summary of procedures used to transport and distribute consumer products

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Etnier, E.L.; O'Donnell, F.R.

1979-02-01

A wide variety of consumer products that contain radionuclides are available to the general public. Estimation of radiation doses to man from exposures to these products requires that the entire life span of each product be defined in a manner that identifies persons who may be exposed and quantifies the conditions under which exposures may occur. This paper presents models of steps which make up the paths for transportation and distribution of consumer products. Fire probabilities and damage rates to parcels during transportation are included. Transportation steps considered include those used to move parcels via truck, air, first-class mail, and parcel delivery. Distribution steps include handling in distribution centers, warehouses, and retail stores. A hypothetical distribution scheme is presented to illustrate application of the exposure scenarios described in model

Arousal and consumer in-store behavior.

Science.gov (United States)

Groeppel-Klein, Andrea

2005-11-15

From a psychophysiological point of view, arousal is a fundamental feature of behavior. As reported in different empirical studies based on insights from theories of consumer behavior, store atmosphere should evoke phasic arousal reactions to attract consumers. Most of these empirical investigations used verbal scales to measure consumers' perceived phasic arousal at the point-of-sale (POS). However, the validity of verbal arousal measurement is questioned; self-reporting methods only allow a time-lagged measurement. Furthermore, the selection of inappropriate items to represent perceived arousal is criticized, and verbal reports require some form of cognitive evaluation of perceived arousal by the individual, who might (in a non-measurement condition) not even be aware of the arousal. By contrast, phasic electrodermal reaction (EDR) has proven to be the most appropriate and valid indicator for measuring arousal [W. Boucsein, Physiologische Grundlagen und Messmethoden der dermalen Aktivität. In: F. Rösler (Ed.), Enzyklopädie der Psychologie, Bereich Psychophysiologie, Band 1: Grundlagen and Methoden der Psychophysiologie, Kapitel, Vol. 7, Hogrefe, Göttingen, 2001, pp. 551-623] that could be relevant to behavior. EDR can be recorded simultaneously to the perception of stimuli. Furthermore, telemetric online device can be used, which enables physiological arousal measurement while participants can move freely through the store and perform the assigned task in the experiments. The present paper delivers insights on arousal theory and results from empirical studies using EDR to measure arousal at the POS.

Vivienne Westwood and the Ethics of Consuming Fashion

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Clarke, Jean; Holt, Robin

2016-01-01

Little attention has been given to the ethics of fashion consumption despite the often trenchant critique of the fashion industry for intensifying cycles of production, consumption, and disposal and encouraging in consumers a superficial sense of identity and the good life through apparel....... In this article, we suggest that although relationships with clothes are not often explicitly stated as “being ethical,” the capacity to be ethical can pervade the buying and wearing of clothes. We focus on the fashion designer, environmental campaigner, and critic of consumption Vivienne Westwood and those who...... consume her clothing. Using a single case study approach (combining interview data, participant observation, internal and external documents, and literature), we examine the ethical potential of consuming fashion. We show how ethics in consumption is a critical engagement with how products such as clothes...

TRANSFORMATION OF CONSUMER PRACTICES: NEW SCRIPTS OF CONSUMER BEHAVIOR AND METHODS FOR ORGANIZING TRADE SPACES

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

A. V. Markeeva

2017-01-01

have effectively used knowledge about the transformation of consumer’s practices. They help consumers to feel liberty of choice and shopping, freedom of availability of goods and services (democratic character of process of consumption. Thus, today trade spaces are becoming multipurpose, not only structuring wide scripts of consumer behavior and forms of consumer experience, but also making the contribution to social order.

Impact of sales promotion on purchase decision of consumers: An application in tourism sector

OpenAIRE

Hülya Bakırtaş

2013-01-01

Sales promotion is generally used to increase sales in the short term by businesses and especially used widely to influence consumers by businesses and agents of the consumer good markets. To identify and select the appropriate sales promotion techniques for businesses is an important decision. In the context businesses should well know target customers and decide to appropriate sales promotion techniques. This research evaluates impact on purchase decision of consumers of sales promotional t...

Consumer perception and communication on welfare in organic laying hen farming

OpenAIRE

Heerkens, Jasper; Tuyttens, Frank

2012-01-01

A major reason for increased societal popularity of organic production systems is the growing general discontent with intensive farming practices. However, urbanization leads to limited knowledge of farming and farm animal welfare. Consumers believe organic farming leads to better animal welfare, although most health and welfare issues seen in conventional systems are also found in organic poultry systems. The majority of consumers do not translate attitude and good intention into action, the...

Study on the Chinese Goods Market Structure and Related Integrated Marketing Strategy

OpenAIRE

Qishen Zhou; Mingxing Yang

2013-01-01

This study aims to investigate the Chinese goods market structure and related integrated marketing strategy. In recent years, it is becoming more and more popular for Chinese consumers to go on luxury consuming in a variety of large cities in China, showing the increasing demand of luxury for Chinese people possessed relatively high fortune. Further, dozens of international famous luxury brands are pouring into the Chinese market such as LVMH and Gucci, recognizing the huge consumption demand...

CONSUMER BEHAVIOR ON THE FRUITS AND VEGETABLES MARKET

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Istudor Nicolae

2011-12-01

Full Text Available In the past years the intensification of competition has changed the way in which companies communicate with their customers. The main challenge doesn’t represent anymore to create good products but also to be able to sell them. The best marketing strategy of a company can be best developed if the needs and the behavior of the consumer are known. In this paper there are analyzed the results of a research about the behavior of consumer towards fruits and vegetables. The research was done in the period December 2010 – February 2011 on 146 respondents regarding the buying behavior of consumers at retailers. The focus in the research is put on the cognitive and emotional reactions consumers have when they make the buying decision and consisted out of an observation and a survey. In this article there are presented both aspects regarding the observed behavior towards fruits and vegetables and the motives which led to this behavior. Depending on these results, there are presented the implications of this behavior on the marketing strategy of a company.

Tax decisions bring good and bad news for hospitals.

Science.gov (United States)

Bromberg, R S

1980-12-01

Three recent court decisions denying tax exemptions to shared hospital laundry service organizations should dispel the belief that tax exemptions will automatically be granted to shared service organizations. Two other decisions on the sale of goods and services to persons other than hospitals suggest that the IRS is moving toward a position that accepts certain services as indigenous to the exempt functions of a modern community hospital.

Online Consumer Ethnocentrism of Danish Consumers

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bujac, Andreea Ioana

2017-01-01

No doubt that consumer ethnocentrism is an important phenomenon in international marketing. However, not much attention has been paid to consumer ethnocentrism in an online context. The current study aims to fill in this gap. Specifically, the ethnocentric tendency of Danish online consumers...

Consumers' health-related perceptions of bread - Implications for labeling and health communication.

Science.gov (United States)

Sandvik, Pernilla; Nydahl, Margaretha; Kihlberg, Iwona; Marklinder, Ingela

2018-02-01

There is a wide variety of commercial bread types and the present study identifies potential pitfalls in consumer evaluations of bread from a health perspective. The aim is to describe consumers' health-related perceptions of bread by exploring which health-related quality attributes consumers associate with bread and whether there are differences with regard to age, gender and education level. A postal and web-based sequential mixed-mode survey (n = 1134, 62% responded online and 38% by paper) with open-ended questions and an elicitation task with pictures of commercial breads were used. Responses were content analyzed and inductively categorized. Three fourths (n = 844) knew of breads they considered healthy; these were most commonly described using terms such as "coarse," "whole grain," "fiber rich," "sourdough," "crisp," "less sugar," "dark," "rye," "seeds," "a commercial brand," "homemade" and "kernels." The breads were perceived as healthy mainly because they "contain fiber," are "good for the stomach," have good "satiation" and beneficial "glycemic properties." The frequency of several elicited attributes and health effects differed as a function of age group (18-44 vs. 45-80 years), gender and education level group (up to secondary education vs. university). Difficulties identifying healthy bread were perceived as a barrier for consumption especially among consumers with a lower education level. Several of the health effects important to consumers cannot be communicated on food packages and consumers must therefore use their own cues to identify these properties. This may lead to consumers being misled especially if a bread is labeled e.g., as a sourdough bread or a rye bread, despite a low content. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

MARKET RESEARCH OF CARE GOODS FOR NEWBORNS AND FIRST YEAR CHILDREN

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

A. I. Ovod

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Comparative results of marketing research of care goods for newborns and first year children conducted in 2009 and 2014 showed that there were changes in the range of products and consumer preferences. The analysis revealed that the economic situation affected the determinants of choice in this category of goods and the location of purchasing. The findings should be considered by pharmaceutical companies in their procurement in order to improve their competitive position. 

A visual detection of protein content based on titration of moving reaction boundary electrophoresis.

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Hou-Yu; Guo, Cheng-Ye; Guo, Chen-Gang; Fan, Liu-Yin; Zhang, Lei; Cao, Cheng-Xi

2013-04-24

A visual electrophoretic titration method was firstly developed from the concept of moving reaction boundary (MRB) for protein content analysis. In the developed method, when the voltage was applied, the hydroxide ions in the cathodic vessel moved towards the anode, and neutralized the carboxyl groups of protein immobilized via highly cross-linked polyacrylamide gel (PAG), generating a MRB between the alkali and the immobilized protein. The boundary moving velocity (V(MRB)) was as a function of protein content, and an acid-base indicator was used to denote the boundary displacement. As a proof of concept, standard model proteins and biological samples were chosen for the experiments to study the feasibility of the developed method. The experiments revealed that good linear calibration functions between V(MRB) and protein content (correlation coefficients R>0.98). The experiments further demonstrated the following merits of developed method: (1) weak influence of non-protein nitrogen additives (e.g., melamine) adulterated in protein samples, (2) good agreement with the classic Kjeldahl method (R=0.9945), (3) fast measuring speed in total protein analysis of large samples from the same source, and (4) low limit of detection (0.02-0.15 mg mL(-1) for protein content), good precision (R.S.D. of intra-day less than 1.7% and inter-day less than 2.7%), and high recoveries (105-107%). Crown Copyright © 2013. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Advisory Council on Electricity report and recommendations on consumers concern : report to the Alberta Minister of Energy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bolger, L.F.

2003-09-01

This report presents a set of recommendations to help the Alberta government and industry address consumer concerns regarding electricity issues. It examined whether the restructuring process is working as planned and presented ways to move forward to create certainty in the marketplace, competitive prices, an adequate supply of electricity, and fair treatment for all consumers. Consumers are currently concerned about the following key electricity issues: higher electricity prices in some parts of Alberta; billing practices of utility companies; fairness of all line items on bills; consumer accessibility to competitive market options; long-range forecasts for consumer prices; current and future benefits of deregulation for consumers; and, the impact of government and Alberta Energy and Utilities Board decisions on consumer prices. The Council recommends that consumer education be expanded; a consumer ombudsman be established; markets be allowed to operate; and that billing practices and customer satisfaction be improved. The Council also suggests that the impact of flow-through regulated rate tariff be reviewed on an ongoing basis. It also recommends that the progress in the retail mass market be monitored and that the impact of change in some parts of the province be mitigated

Variation of Consumer Preferences Between Domestic and Imported Food: The Case of Artisan Cheese

OpenAIRE

Gedikoglu, Haluk; Parcell, Joe L.

2014-01-01

Increasing concerns about a healthy diet, food safety and support for the local economy provide new opportunities for farmers to increase their farm income by selling their farm products locally. The major challenge for the farmers is to predict consumer preferences correctly and provide goods to the market accordingly. By analyzing a consumer survey conducted in the Midwest region of the US, the current study analyzes the consumer preferences for domestic and imported artisan cheese. The res...

Quality and use of consumer information provided with home test kits: room for improvement.

Science.gov (United States)

Grispen, Janaica E J; Ickenroth, Martine H P; de Vries, Nanne K; van der Weijden, Trudy; Ronda, Gaby

2014-10-01

Diagnostic self-tests (tests on body materials that are initiated by consumers with the aim of diagnosing a disorder or risk factor) are becoming increasingly available. Although the pros and cons of self-testing are currently not clear, it is an existing phenomenon that is likely to gain further popularity. To examine consumers' use of and needs for information about self-testing, and to assess the quality of consumer information provided with home test kits, as perceived by consumers and as assessed using a checklist of quality criteria. A cross-sectional Internet survey among 305 self-testers assessed their use of and needs for information and their perception of the quality of consumer information provided with self-test kits. A meta-search engine was used to identify Dutch and English consumer information for home diagnostic tests available online at the time of the study. The quality of this consumer information was evaluated using a checklist of quality criteria. The consumers' information needs were in line with the most frequently used information, and the information was perceived as being of moderate to good quality. The information was mostly in agreement with clinical practice guidelines, although information on reliability and follow-up behaviour was limited. Approximately half of the instruction leaflets did not include information on the target group of the test. Although generally of moderate to good quality, some aspects of the information provided were in many cases insufficient. European legislation concerning self-tests and accompanying information needs to be adapted and adhered to more closely. © 2012 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Deriving the Pricing Power of Product Features by Mining Consumer Reviews

OpenAIRE

Nikolay Archak; Anindya Ghose; Panagiotis G. Ipeirotis

2007-01-01

The increasing pervasiveness of the Internet has dramatically changed the way that consumers shop for goods. Consumer-generated product reviews have become a valuable source of information for customers, who read the reviews and decide whether to buy the product based on the information provided. In this paper, we use techniques that decompose the reviews into segments that evaluate the individual characteristics of a product (e.g., image quality and battery life for a digital camera). Then, ...

Do consumer critics write differently from professional critics? A genre analysis of online film reviews

NARCIS (Netherlands)

De Jong, I.K.E.; Burgers, C.F.

2013-01-01

Consumers often base their choices to purchase experience goods like movies on online reviews. These reviews can be written by professional critics or by other consumers. However, little is known on the issue how the texts written by these two groups of reviewers differ. To answer this question, we

National Waste Act – implications for consumers and households

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Oelofse, Suzanna HH

2010-08-01

Full Text Available of the consumer good to the point of final disposal of the resulting waste. Waste minimisation, reuse and recycling (including composting) needs to be introduced at all levels of society and become part of everyday life for all. All must lead by example and create...

Role of moving planes and moving spheres following Dupin cyclides

KAUST Repository

Jia, Xiaohong

2014-03-01

We provide explicit representations of three moving planes that form a μ-basis for a standard Dupin cyclide. We also show how to compute μ-bases for Dupin cyclides in general position and orientation from their implicit equations. In addition, we describe the role of moving planes and moving spheres in bridging between the implicit and rational parametric representations of these cyclides. © 2014 Elsevier B.V.

Role of moving planes and moving spheres following Dupin cyclides

KAUST Repository

Jia, Xiaohong

2014-01-01

We provide explicit representations of three moving planes that form a μ-basis for a standard Dupin cyclide. We also show how to compute μ-bases for Dupin cyclides in general position and orientation from their implicit equations. In addition, we describe the role of moving planes and moving spheres in bridging between the implicit and rational parametric representations of these cyclides. © 2014 Elsevier B.V.

Young Children as Media Users and Consumers

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Johansen, Stine Liv

2008-01-01

a very early age, also becoming consumers in their own right. Through media, children are exposed to a wide range of consumer goods,not only through traditional spot commercials, but especially through different kinds of merchandise related to program content. This process, the paper argues, takes place...... in a complex socialization, in which the child through daily interactions with family members and media texts learns how to act and behave as a competent media user......This paper presents some main results from the PhD-project ‘Toddlers watching TV'1. Young children, aged 1½ to three, are in this project understood and examined as active participants in the process of becoming regular viewers of both public service and commercial television, and thereby, from...

An exploratory study of consumers' attitude towards unethical corporate\\ud practices and the concept of consumer social responsibility

OpenAIRE

Ajayi, Festus Adeolu

2014-01-01

2014 dissertation for MSc in International Business Management. Selected by academic staff as a good example of a masters level dissertation. This study is an exploration of consumers’ attitudes towards unethical\\ud corporate practices and the concept of consumer social responsibility. The\\ud study among other things evaluated the concepts of corporate social responsibility (CSR), consumers’ social responsibility (CNSR) and sought to\\ud understand the relationship between both concepts. Havin...

Consumer Economics and Consumer Mathematics Textbooks.

Science.gov (United States)

Eastern Michigan Univ., Ypsilanti. National Inst. for Consumer Education.

This publication lists a selection of consumer economics and consumer mathematics textbooks available for review from the National Institute for Consumer Education. Twenty-six textbooks for the secondary level are cited. Nine advanced level texts are also listed. These texts are generally considered college level texts but could be adapted for…

Segmenting consumers based on how they spend a tax rebate: An analysis of the Australian stimulus payment

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Oppewal, H.; Paas, L.J.; Crouch, G.I.; Huybers, T.

2010-01-01

Tax rebates are instruments for stimulating consumer spending during recessions. Previous research assessed whether consumers use tax rebates for saving or, alternatively, purchasing goods and services. These studies concentrated on aggregate estimations. Based on the saving motive hierarchy

Product longevity and shared ownership: Sustainable routes to satisfying the world’s growing demand for goods 

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

John G. Rogers

2015-09-01

Full Text Available It has been estimated that by 2030 the number of people who are wealthy enough to be significant consumers will have tripled. This will have a dramatic impact on the demands for primary materials and energy. It has been estimated that with improvements in design and manufacturing it is possible to maintain the current level of production using 70% of the current primary material consumed. Even with these improvements on the production side, there will still be a doubling of primary material requirements by the end of the century, with accompanying rises in industrial energy demand, if the rise in demand for goods and services is to be met. It is therefore clear that the consumption of products must also be explored. Product longevity and using goods more intensively are two strategies which could reduce the demand for new goods. If products last longer, then manufacturing output can concentrate on emerging markets rather than the market for replacement goods. There are many goods which are infrequently used, these seldom wear out. The total demand for such could be drastically reduced if they were shared with other people. Sharing of goods has traditionally been conducted between friends or by hiring equipment, but modern communication systems and social media could increase the opportunities to share goods. Sharing goods also increases access to a range of goods for those on low incomes. From a series of workshops it has been found that the principal challenges are sociological rather than technological. This paper contains a discussion of these challenges and explores possible futures where these two strategies have been adopted. In addition, the barriers and opportunities that these strategies offer for consumers and businesses are identified, and areas where government policy could be instigated to bring about change are highlighted.

Creating Value Through the Freemium Business Model: A Consumer Perspective

NARCIS (Netherlands)

G.J. Rietveld (Joost)

2016-01-01

textabstractThis paper develops a consumer-centric framework for creating value through the freemium business model. Goods that are commercialized through the freemium business model offer basic functionality for free and monetize users for extended use or complementary features. Compared to premium

Automatic Moving Object Segmentation for Freely Moving Cameras

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yanli Wan

2014-01-01

Full Text Available This paper proposes a new moving object segmentation algorithm for freely moving cameras which is very common for the outdoor surveillance system, the car build-in surveillance system, and the robot navigation system. A two-layer based affine transformation model optimization method is proposed for camera compensation purpose, where the outer layer iteration is used to filter the non-background feature points, and the inner layer iteration is used to estimate a refined affine model based on the RANSAC method. Then the feature points are classified into foreground and background according to the detected motion information. A geodesic based graph cut algorithm is then employed to extract the moving foreground based on the classified features. Unlike the existing global optimization or the long term feature point tracking based method, our algorithm only performs on two successive frames to segment the moving foreground, which makes it suitable for the online video processing applications. The experiment results demonstrate the effectiveness of our algorithm in both of the high accuracy and the fast speed.

Moving event and moving participant in aspectual conceptions

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Izutsu Katsunobu

2016-06-01

Full Text Available This study advances an analysis of the event conception of aspectual forms in four East Asian languages: Ainu, Japanese, Korean, and Ryukyuan. As earlier studies point out, event conceptions can be divided into two major types: the moving-event type and the moving-participant type, respectively. All aspectual forms in Ainu and Korean, and most forms in Japanese and Ryukyuan are based on that type of event conception. Moving-participant oriented Ainu and movingevent oriented Japanese occupy two extremes, between which Korean and Ryukyuan stand. Notwithstanding the geographical relationships among the four languages, Ryukyuan is closer to Ainu than to Korean, whereas Korean is closer to Ainu than to Japanese.

The Good, the Bad, and the Expert: How Consumer Expertise Affects Review Valence Effects on Purchase Intentions in Online Product Reviews

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Ketelaar, P.E.; Willemsen, L.M.; Sleven, L.; Kerkhof, P.

2015-01-01

This study aims to shed more light on the question whether, and under what circumstances, valence affects consumers' intention to buy a product after reading an online review. We hypothesize that receiver expertise could possibly moderate (a) the impact of review valence on consumers' purchase

The good, the bad and the expert: How consumer expertise affects review valence effects on purchase intentions in online product reviews.

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Ketelaar, P. E.; Willemsen, L. M.; Sleven, L.; Kerkhof, P.

2015-01-01

This study aims to shed more light on the question whether, and under what circumstances, valence affects consumers' intention to buy a product after reading an online review. We hypothesize that receiver expertise could possibly moderate (a) the impact of review valence on consumers' purchase

Young Consumer Behaviour Towards Tourism Products

OpenAIRE

Adriana Anca Cristea; Mihaela Simona Apostol; Tatiana Corina Dosescu

2014-01-01

Tourism is considered to be an important branch of the Romanian economy. However, its contribution to the GDP is extremely low. Inbound tourism is reduced, the sole indicator which is constanly increasing being the number of Romanian tourists who travel abroad. We assume that a good way of increasing domestic tourism in Romania would be to get the young population practise various forms of tourism. Conducting a market survey in consumer behaviour towards tourism products among pupils and stud...

Accounting for the Ecological Footprint of Materials in Consumer Goods at the Urban Scale

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

William E. Rees

2013-05-01

Full Text Available Ecological footprint analysis (EFA can be used by cities to account for their on-going demands on global renewable resources. To date, EFA has not been fully implemented as an urban policy and planning tool in part due to limitations of local data availability. In this paper we focus on the material consumption component of the urban ecological footprint and identify the ‘component, solid waste life cycle assessment approach’ as one that overcomes data limitations by using data many cities regularly collect: municipal, solid waste composition data which serves as a proxy for material consumption. The approach requires energy use and/or carbon dioxide emissions data from process LCA studies as well as agricultural and forest land data for calculation of a material’s ecological footprint conversion value. We reviewed the process LCA literature for twelve materials commonly consumed in cities and determined ecological footprint conversion values for each. We found a limited number of original LCA studies but were able to generate a range of values for each material. Our set of values highlights the importance for cities to identify both the quantities consumed and per unit production impacts of a material. Some materials like textiles and aluminum have high ecological footprints but make up relatively smaller proportions of urban waste streams than products like paper and diapers. Local government use of the solid waste LCA approach helps to clearly identify the ecological loads associated with the waste they manage on behalf of their residents. This direct connection can be used to communicate to citizens about stewardship, recycling and ecologically responsible consumption choices that contribute to urban sustainability.

CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR FORMATION IN THE CUSTOMIZED SERVICE MARKETS: A CASE OF UKRAINE

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Victoria Zhurylo

2018-01-01

Full Text Available Target setting. In modern conditions, in some markets for goods in mass demand, companies are increasingly beginning to introduce customization in marketing activities, which involves the implementation of marketing tools aimed at ensuring a wide differentiation of the trade offer, the establishment of direct communication with the target audience, which provides an opportunity to attract the consumer to the production of goods and to adjust product under its certain requirements. Uninvestigated parts of general matters defining. The study of the market behaviour of consumers is a branch of knowledge that is rapidly and dynamically developing and falls within the scope of scientific interests of a large number of scientists. The emphasis in existing studies of consumer market behaviour is made on the study of commodity markets. There are publications devoted to questions of consumer behaviour research in the service markets, but there are practically no publications on the study of behavioural patterns in service markets on an orderly basis. The purpose of the article is to study features of the market behaviour of consumers on the Ukrainian market of exclusive confectionery products to order. Methodology. The authors of the article conducted a marketing research on the motivation and behaviour of consumers on the Ukrainian market of exclusive confectionery products to order. The sample comprised 117 people, of which 71% of the respondents were women, 29% of respondents were men. The statement of basic materials. The main purchasing motives of the consumer who decides to order exclusive confectionery products are investigated and it is revealed that the ordered product is characterized by a high level of emotional consumer value. The description of the customer’s motivation field is presented and consumer risks, which influence the market behaviour of consumers of exclusive desserts, are viewed. According to the results of the study, such

Do "good" food products make others look "bad"? Spin-off effects of labels for sustainable food production in the consumer perception

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Binnekamp, M.H.A.; Ingenbleek, P.T.M.

2008-01-01

Abstract Purpose ¿ The objective of this study is to examine whether sustainability labels like Fair Trade have a spin-off effect to mainstream products in the consumer perception: do consumers perceive mainstream products and brands more negatively in the presence of a product with a sustainability

Numerical simulation on range of high-energy electron moving in accelerator target

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shao Wencheng; Sun Punan; Dai Wenjiang

2008-01-01

In order to determine the range of high-energy electron moving in accelerator target, the range of electron with the energy range of 1 to 100 MeV moving in common target material of accelerator was calculated by Monte-Carlo method. Comparison between the calculated result and the published data were performed. The results of Monte-Carlo calculation are in good agreement with the published data. Empirical formulas were obtained for the range of high-energy electron with the energy range of 1 to 100 MeV in common target material by curve fitting, offering a series of referenced data for the design of targets in electron accelerator. (authors)

Enacting Green Consumers: The Case of the Scandinavian Preppies

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Christian Fuentes

2014-10-01

Full Text Available The aim of this paper is to develop and illustrate an analytic approach that brings the active making and makings of green consumer images to the fore. Efforts to "know" the green consumers have generated multiple representations. Enactments of the green consumer are not innocent but also play a role in shaping how we understand and approach sustainable consumption. Because of this it is important to examine and critically discuss how green consumers are enacted today. This paper develops an approach that allows us to examine how green consumers are enacted and discuss the consequences these constructions might have for sustainability. Theoretically, a performativity approach drawing on theories from Science and Technology Studies (STS and economic sociology is used to discuss the enactment of green consumers. Empirically, focus is on Boomerang � a Swedish fashion retailer, brand, and producer � and its marketing practices. The analysis shows how the marketing work of the Boomerang Company leads to the enactment of the Green Scandinavian Preppy. This specific version of the green consumer is a combination of the knowledgeable green connoisseur - a consumer that knows quality when he/she sees it - and the green hedonist in search of the good life. The Green Scandinavian Preppy wants to enjoy nature, go sailing, and do so wearing fashionable quality clothes. This is a consumer that knows quality, appreciates design, and has the means to pay for both. While this is a version of the green consumer that might be appealing and thus have the potential to pro-mote a version of green consumption, it is also a green consumer image that has lost much of its political power as green consumption is framed as simply another source of pleasure and identity-making.

Model creation of moving redox reaction boundary in agarose gel electrophoresis by traditional potassium permanganate method.

Science.gov (United States)

Xie, Hai-Yang; Liu, Qian; Li, Jia-Hao; Fan, Liu-Yin; Cao, Cheng-Xi

2013-02-21

A novel moving redox reaction boundary (MRRB) model was developed for studying electrophoretic behaviors of analytes involving redox reaction on the principle of moving reaction boundary (MRB). Traditional potassium permanganate method was used to create the boundary model in agarose gel electrophoresis because of the rapid reaction rate associated with MnO(4)(-) ions and Fe(2+) ions. MRB velocity equation was proposed to describe the general functional relationship between velocity of moving redox reaction boundary (V(MRRB)) and concentration of reactant, and can be extrapolated to similar MRB techniques. Parameters affecting the redox reaction boundary were investigated in detail. Under the selected conditions, good linear relationship between boundary movement distance and time were obtained. The potential application of MRRB in electromigration redox reaction titration was performed in two different concentration levels. The precision of the V(MRRB) was studied and the relative standard deviations were below 8.1%, illustrating the good repeatability achieved in this experiment. The proposed MRRB model enriches the MRB theory and also provides a feasible realization of manual control of redox reaction process in electrophoretic analysis.

Toward a Shared Urban Transport System Ensuring Passengers & Goods Cohabitation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Anna Trentini

2010-07-01

Full Text Available The paper presents radical new urban transportation system concepts, potentially allowing changing the economic and environmental costs of passenger and freight transportation. The driver focuses on the concept of sharing, which means to make a joint use of transport resources, between passengers and goods flows. From a field observation of several existing solutions, an inductive reasoning enables us to move from a set of specific facts to establish an archetype for a radical new urban transportation system. Once the archetype defined, it is translated in real life through the example of the On Route proposal for London. The research frame of this paper is the ANR C-Goods (City Goods Operation Optimization using Decision support System project. Started in February 2009 the project involves four partners , and will end on 2011.

Brand Love – Moving Beyond Loyalty An Empirical Investigation of Perceived Brand Love of Indian Consumer

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Amanpreet Kang

2015-10-01

Full Text Available Each passing day brings new brands to India each vying for a share of wallet in the prospering market. By 2020, the median age of Indian population will be 29 years and owing to the absolute population of India, the presence in Indian market will be rewarding for the multinationals. But the twenty-something targets, because of their ‘variety seeking’ disposition, are a challenge, even for the most experienced marketers. The marketers create brands with a vision to create sustained loyalty, which however gets diluted by consumers coveting for ‘something new’ and ‘something different’. As a defensive, the marketers are now attempting to create an emotional bond with the customers. This phenomenon is termed as brand love and it is likely to influence desirable marketing outcomes such as commitment, positive word of mouth by customers, etc. This research attempts to explore the perceived ‘brand love’ of young Indians. A structured, non-disguised questionnaire was used, data was collected through personal interviews and a total of 160 complete questionnaires were obtained. The findings describe the comparative status of brands loved by the Indian consumers and will help marketers to understand their perceived brand image, customer engagement and attitude of customers towards their brands.

CONSUMER BEHAVIOR

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ilie BUDICA

2010-03-01

Full Text Available The study of consumers helps firms and organizations improve their marketing strategies by understanding issues such as: the psychology of how consumers think, feel, reason, and select between different alternatives; the psychology of how the consumer is influenced by his or her environment; the behavior of consumers while shopping or making other marketing decisions; limitations in consumer knowledge or information processing abilities influence decisions and marketing outcome; how consumer motivation and decision strategies differ between products that differ in their level of importance or interest that they entail for the consumer; and how marketers can adapt and improve their marketing campaigns and marketing strategies to more effectively reach the consumer.

Thinking-about-the-Box; A Holistic Approach to Sustainable Design Engineering of Packaging for Durable Consumer Goods

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Wever, R.

2009-01-01

So far, the sustainability focus on packaging has been strongly on resource conservation and material recycling. However, as this thesis demonstrates based on LCA studies, for typical cases of packed consumer durables, the transportation of the packed product has a higher environmental impact than

Quality management system in trade: Internationalization of marketing relations with consumers

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jovanović Gvozden

2014-01-01

Full Text Available The aim of marketing management is to satisfy the needs and desires of consumers. A lot of factors have influenced the consumers and their purchasing. Besides price and assortment factors there are requirements of consumers for the quality of a product. It means that a product should possess physical, chemical, designing, aesthetic, ecological and other desirable properties that should be expressed before the use of products. Because of that the quality in the theory and practice of management is beginning to affirm itself. This has been particularly expressed by the introduction of ISO 9000 which makes internationalization of quality system and circulation of goods and services without 'physical-fiscal-technical' barriers possible.

The Power Asymmetry and Non-Competitive Behaviour of Firms at Consumer Markets

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ulyana Vladimirovna Karagezyan

2016-03-01

Full Text Available The specific features of formation of the market economy in Russia caused not only development of the competitive environment, but also fixing of the model of noncompetitive behavior of enterprises. In a contradiction of the economic theory in which one of necessary conditions of “survival” of the companies is improvement of quality of goods, in the real economy consumers often face acquisition of low-quality goods. This article is devoted to an urgent problem of studying the model of noncompetitive behavior of firms in Russia. The purpose of this study is the explanation of the reasons of noncompetitive behavior of the enterprises in the Russian markets. On the basis of data of Federal service on supervision in the sphere of consumer protection, the dominating violations, as well as the markets most subjected to noncompetitive behavior of firms were revealed. Key characteristics of noncompetitive behavior are decline in the quality of production, violation of the consumer rights, using illegal tactics. As a result of this analysis we have made the following conclusions: violations of the rights of the consumer are expressed in realization of low-quality and unsafe products, refusal of providing necessary information on terms of transaction, imposing of additional services. The reasons of noncompetitive behavior of the companies include prevailing of the sovereignty of the producer over the consumer’s sovereignty; accumulation of the power of firms in a services sector and retail trade, a manipulative information and existence of information asymmetry between consumers and the companies. Overcoming the noncompetitive behavior of firm will become possible when power and information asymmetry decreases at the consumer markets.

Modeling Autoregressive Processes with Moving-Quantiles-Implied Nonlinearity

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Isao Ishida

2015-01-01

Full Text Available We introduce and investigate some properties of a class of nonlinear time series models based on the moving sample quantiles in the autoregressive data generating process. We derive a test fit to detect this type of nonlinearity. Using the daily realized volatility data of Standard & Poor’s 500 (S&P 500 and several other indices, we obtained good performance using these models in an out-of-sample forecasting exercise compared with the forecasts obtained based on the usual linear heterogeneous autoregressive and other models of realized volatility.

Supply chain segmentation in the sporting goods industry

OpenAIRE

Roscoe, S.; Baker, P.

2014-01-01

The purpose of this paper is to explore the factors that influence supply chain segmentation when selling to consumers through retail chains. The initial research is based on a review of supply chain segmentation literature and the application of relevant parameters to a specific case study, comprising two major brands in the sporting goods industry. The empirical research itself comprises semi-structured interviews, covering demand planning, sales, marketing and supply chain managers, suppor...

Classification and characterization of Japanese consumers' beef preferences by external preference mapping.

Science.gov (United States)

Sasaki, Keisuke; Ooi, Motoki; Nagura, Naoto; Motoyama, Michiyo; Narita, Takumi; Oe, Mika; Nakajima, Ikuyo; Hagi, Tatsuro; Ojima, Koichi; Kobayashi, Miho; Nomura, Masaru; Muroya, Susumu; Hayashi, Takeshi; Akama, Kyoko; Fujikawa, Akira; Hokiyama, Hironao; Kobayashi, Kuniyuki; Nishimura, Takanori

2017-08-01

Over the past few decades, beef producers in Japan have improved marbling in their beef products. It was recently reported that marbling is not well correlated with palatability as rated by Japanese consumers. This study sought to identify the consumer segments in Japan that prefer sensory characteristics of beef other than high marbling. Three Wagyu beef, one Holstein beef and two lean imported beef longissimus samples were subjected to a descriptive sensory test, physicochemical analysis and a consumer (n = 307) preference test. According to consumer classification and external preference mapping, four consumer segments were identified as 'gradual high-fat likers', 'moderate-fat and distinctive taste likers', 'Wagyu likers' and 'distinctive texture likers'. Although the major trend of Japanese consumers' beef preference was 'marbling liking', 16.9% of the consumers preferred beef samples that had moderate marbling and distinctive taste. The consumers' attitudes expressed in a questionnaire survey were in good agreement with the preference for marbling among the 'moderate-fat and distinctive taste likers'. These results indicate that moderately marbled beef is a potent category in the Japanese beef market. © 2017 Society of Chemical Industry. © 2017 Society of Chemical Industry.

Cost-benefit analysis involving addictive goods: contingent valuation to estimate willingness-to-pay for smoking cessation.

Science.gov (United States)

Weimer, David L; Vining, Aidan R; Thomas, Randall K

2009-02-01

The valuation of changes in consumption of addictive goods resulting from policy interventions presents a challenge for cost-benefit analysts. Consumer surplus losses from reduced consumption of addictive goods that are measured relative to market demand schedules overestimate the social cost of cessation interventions. This article seeks to show that consumer surplus losses measured using a non-addicted demand schedule provide a better assessment of social cost. Specifically, (1) it develops an addiction model that permits an estimate of the smoker's compensating variation for the elimination of addiction; (2) it employs a contingent valuation survey of current smokers to estimate their willingness-to-pay (WTP) for a treatment that would eliminate addiction; (3) it uses the estimate of WTP from the survey to calculate the fraction of consumer surplus that should be viewed as consumer value; and (4) it provides an estimate of this fraction. The exercise suggests that, as a tentative first and rough rule-of-thumb, only about 75% of the loss of the conventionally measured consumer surplus should be counted as social cost for policies that reduce the consumption of cigarettes. Additional research to estimate this important rule-of-thumb is desirable to address the various caveats relevant to this study. Copyright (c) 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Current Trends in providing the Toys Security and Consumer Protection

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Luiela Magdalena Csorba

2014-01-01

Full Text Available The goods and services market is not in equilibrium. This affects continuously the consumers under multiple aspects: economic, educational, health insurance and security, and so on. Not even the toys market outlets or the toys trading market aren’t trouble free. Because publications in the toys consumer protection field are seldom (legislation is the starting point in analyzing this area, the checks carried out at national level which showed the marketed toys insecurity and the abuses of the economic agents in this sector determined us to analyze the degree in which people knows the toy-related injuries and the danger to which they expose their own children when purchasing dangerous toys. That’s why a quantitative research was conducted, using the method of questionnaire, distributed through the Romanian consumers, with the aim to check the empirically awareness and the seriousness with which they relate the risks concerning the toys consume.

Australian consumers' insights into potatoes - Nutritional knowledge, perceptions and beliefs.

Science.gov (United States)

Wood, Katie; Carragher, John; Davis, Robbie

2017-07-01

There has been a decline in the consumption of potatoes in developed countries worldwide due to many factors including the introduction of new foods and meal trends. In turn, this shift in eating patterns has dramatically affected the Australian potato industry which represents the largest horticulture contributor to gross food revenue. Many factors may influence consumers' food preferences, including the individual's nutrition knowledge, lifestyle factors, personal preferences, attitudes and beliefs. The present study aimed to capture an understanding of the consumer's level of nutritional knowledge and what currently drives consumer decision making. Participants aged between 25 and 54 years responded to an online survey which included 52 questions specifically looking at potatoes, nutritional knowledge, views, eating habits and lifestyle factors, preferences and beliefs. Questions in the survey included multiple choice, rank and scale responses and free answers. A total of 1208 males and females (males n = 598, females n = 610) were included in the final analysis. The results show that the majority (88.5%) of the participants consume potatoes (not including hot chips/french fries) 4 times per week or less (41.6% ≤ 1 week; 46.9% 2-4 times/week). Overall, 33% of the participants stated that their potato consumption over the last five years had decreased. The main reasons stated for this decrease were that potatoes were high in carbohydrates (30%) and that starchy vegetables were not a healthy option (23%). Results showed that consumers believe that potatoes are good for all ages, are versatile, convenient, good value for money and delicious. However, the results indicate the majority of people have limited knowledge regarding the nutrient composition of potatoes and associate them negatively with carbohydrates. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The Effects of the International Contract for Sale of Goods

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Berlingher Daniel

2017-06-01

Full Text Available The contracts are the indispensable legal instruments for any economic transaction. The international sale contract is the main legal instrument by which international commerce is carried out and through which the movement of goods from producer to consumer is ensured within cross-border relations. The sale contract in international commerce is the legal act by which the parties, the seller and the buyer, belonging to different states, commit each other to transfer the property of a good in return for payment of a price. Regarding the general rules applicable to the contract of international sale of goods, they are regulated by the “United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods from Vienna”. The Convention has adopted uniform rules to govern the international sale of goods contract, if the parties have not chosen expressly for the application of other rules. In this study I present the effects of international sale of goods in the light of the rules of the Vienna Convention of 1980.

Mitigating randomness of consumer preferences under certain conditional choices

Science.gov (United States)

Bothos, John M. A.; Thanos, Konstantinos-Georgios; Papadopoulou, Eirini; Daveas, Stelios; Thomopoulos, Stelios C. A.

2017-05-01

Agent-based crowd behaviour consists a significant field of research that has drawn a lot of attention in recent years. Agent-based crowd simulation techniques have been used excessively to forecast the behaviour of larger or smaller crowds in terms of certain given conditions influenced by specific cognition models and behavioural rules and norms, imposed from the beginning. Our research employs conditional event algebra, statistical methodology and agent-based crowd simulation techniques in developing a behavioural econometric model about the selection of certain economic behaviour by a consumer that faces a spectre of potential choices when moving and acting in a multiplex mall. More specifically we try to analyse the influence of demographic, economic, social and cultural factors on the economic behaviour of a certain individual and then we try to link its behaviour with the general behaviour of the crowds of consumers in multiplex malls using agent-based crowd simulation techniques. We then run our model using Generalized Least Squares and Maximum Likelihood methods to come up with the most probable forecast estimations, regarding the agent's behaviour. Our model is indicative about the formation of consumers' spectre of choices in multiplex malls under the condition of predefined preferences and can be used as a guide for further research in this area.

Can measures of the consumer debt burden reliably predict an economic slowdown?

OpenAIRE

C. Alan Garner

1996-01-01

Some analysts and business executives are becoming concerned that recent increases in the consumer debt burden may foreshadow an economic slowdown. Higher debt increases the risk that a household may experience financial distress in the event of an adverse economic shock, such as the loss of a job or large uninsured medical expenses. As the risk of financial distress rises, households may become less willing to spend on consumer goods, particularly big ticket items such as automobiles and hom...

A comparison of moving object detection methods for real-time moving object detection

Science.gov (United States)

Roshan, Aditya; Zhang, Yun

2014-06-01

Moving object detection has a wide variety of applications from traffic monitoring, site monitoring, automatic theft identification, face detection to military surveillance. Many methods have been developed across the globe for moving object detection, but it is very difficult to find one which can work globally in all situations and with different types of videos. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate existing moving object detection methods which can be implemented in software on a desktop or laptop, for real time object detection. There are several moving object detection methods noted in the literature, but few of them are suitable for real time moving object detection. Most of the methods which provide for real time movement are further limited by the number of objects and the scene complexity. This paper evaluates the four most commonly used moving object detection methods as background subtraction technique, Gaussian mixture model, wavelet based and optical flow based methods. The work is based on evaluation of these four moving object detection methods using two (2) different sets of cameras and two (2) different scenes. The moving object detection methods have been implemented using MatLab and results are compared based on completeness of detected objects, noise, light change sensitivity, processing time etc. After comparison, it is observed that optical flow based method took least processing time and successfully detected boundary of moving objects which also implies that it can be implemented for real-time moving object detection.

Oxalate Content of the Herb Good-King-Henry, Blitum Bonus-Henricus

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Wanying Li

2015-05-01

Full Text Available The total, soluble and insoluble oxalate contents of the leaves, stems and buds of Good-King-Henry (Blitum Bonus-Henricus were extracted and measured using HPLC chromatography. The large, mature leaves contained 42% more total oxalate than in the small leaves and the soluble oxalate content of the large leaves was 33% higher than the smaller leaves. Cooking the mixed leaves, stems and buds in boiling water for two minutes significantly (p < 0.05 reduced the total oxalate when compared to the raw plant parts. Pesto sauce made from mixed leaves contained 257 mg total oxalate/100 g fresh weight; this was largely made up of insoluble oxalates (85% of the total oxalate content. Soup made from mixed leaves contained lower levels of total oxalates (44.26 ± 0.49 mg total oxalate/100 g fresh weight and insoluble oxalate made up 49% of the oxalate contents. The levels of oxalates in the Good-King-Henry leaves were high, suggesting that the leaves should be consumed occasionally as a delicacy because of their unique taste rather than as a significant part of the diet. However, the products made from Good-King-Henry leaves indicated that larger amounts could be consumed as the oxalate levels were reduced by dilution and processing.

The ordinary consumer: the burden of economic sanctions against Russia

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nureev Rustem, M.

2015-09-01

Full Text Available The main thrust of the paper - an attempt to assess how much the sanctions combined with the drop in oil prices hit the consumers. This paper provides an overview of the sanctions imposed by European Union, the United States and other countries (ban largest organizations in Russia to attract foreign capital of the European Union and the United States. The burden of economic sanctions against Russia for the average consumer is shown on the change in prices for food products, electronic products, analyzed Russian car market, the dynamics of small and medium-sized businesses in Russia. The results of import substitution - the balances of trade of consumer goods in Q1 2015 compared to Q1 2014. Dynamics of demand for electronic goods in the paper discusses the example of the effect of price changes in the popular Russian companies (Apple, Sony, etc. to sales. Rising prices for electronic goods has led Apple to a Giffen’s paradox in late 2014, the higher the price - the more sales. Despite the rapid rise in prices for the company's products (price of products apple Nov. 25 rose by 25% on December 22 for another 35%, sales growth was 80%. This is due to the fact that Russian consumers feared further rise in price of goods and the goods were afraid to lose, which has become for many of them a necessity. Car loans in Q1 2015 compared to Q1 2014 decreased by 4 times, car sales fell by 2 times, import cars from abroad fell almost 2-fold. Especially hard hit small businesses. If in 2013 in Russia was opened 490.7 thous. legal entities, and closed 419 thousand. Then for 11 months in 2014 opened 417.5 ths. legal entities and closed down 483.6 thousand. This means that if in 2013 opening of 70 thousand legal persons more, in 2014 almost 70 thousand legal persons shut more than open. Statistics show that the number of people wishing to sell his business in 2014 increased significantly. In Moscow, for example, in 2014, it was filed with the 14.5 times the

THE IMPACT OF FOOD PACKAGE INFORMATION IN GUDING CONSUMER CHOICES

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Maria GRIGORAS

2017-06-01

Full Text Available The modern consumer has become more attentive when taking the decision to purchase food due to the controversies in the food industry, the impact of social media and more intense relationship between consumed products and health. The nutritional information on the label has become an important element guiding the successful choice of food products. Thus, the consumer tries to process this information based on his intellectual and financial resources. This research aims to determine the degree of comprehensibility of the information displayed on food labels, to evaluate its nutritional profile and to highlight a possible antithesis of the perceived favourable image and the nutritional value “de facto” of those goods. In order to implement this approach there were conducted exploratory marketing researches, using the questionnaire and the method SAIN-LIM.

THE CONCEPT OF REFLEXIVE MANAGEMENT OF CONSUMER DEMAND

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Maryna Mavrina

2017-11-01

Full Text Available Development of theoretical approaches of demand management is conducted from the moment of awareness of the importance of this concept. Many models of individual consumers were developed. However, to predict the reaction of consumers to the commercial policy of the enterprise, exact methods do not exist yet because the available ones are mostly empirical in nature. Models of behaviour often do not provide the expected result because they use an erroneous approach to the analysis of the mechanism of demand formation. The subject of the research is the theoretical and methodological basis, methods of assessment, and reflexive management of consumer demand of commercial enterprises. The purpose of the paper is developing a concept of reflexive management of consumer demand. To achieve the research goal, the following tasks are set and solved: to substantiate the theoretical and methodological foundations of reflexive consumer management, to analyse existing approaches to the modelling of consumer behaviour; to improve the model of consumer behaviour; to develop a concept of reflexive management of consumer behaviour. Methodology. In the paper, we use such methods and approaches to research as: reflexive approach (phenomenological method, behavioural economic theory, marketing approach, abstract-logical analysis, analysis of theoretical approaches to the modelling of consumer behaviour. Results. Modern approaches to modelling of consumer behaviour are mostly empirical in nature and have shortcomings of general models. In them, there is no description of specific situations of the purchase of goods. They cannot be quantified. Therefore, they cannot be practical models. But they have a weighty advantage in a comprehensive look at motivated purchases, what makes it possible to evaluate the relevance of individual variables and to understand the fundamental processes of consumer behaviour. It makes possible to identify the variables necessary for the

Electricity as a traded good

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Srinivasan, Sunderasan

2013-01-01

Electric power has traditionally been classified as a non-traded good, produced and consumed within the country of origin. More recently, electricity has been traded across national borders and in certain cases, viz., Bhutan, has been the dominant export; in other situations, it is used to repay debts owed to neighboring countries. This paper investigates the role of electricity as the primary export, analyzes its valuation, and then goes on to evaluate the impact on the terms of trade. We conclude that in the medium-term, the electric power exporting economy would be better off developing its manufacturing sector to diversify its exposure and to protect its trade interests. The case of Bhutanese hydro-electricity exports to India is studied and the change in trade advantage with every increase in power tariff is ascertained. It is found that a 1.26% annual increase in (non-food) consumer prices is correlated with a 1% increase in electricity export tariff. While the causality from electric power tariff to Indian manufactures prices is not established statistically, a change in manufactures prices feeding back into consumer prices in Bhutan is statistically significant. Suggestions are offered for Bhutan to reduce dependence on Indian imports and to diversify its export market exposure. - Highlights: • Electricity as principal export of small economy. • Bilateral trade with large economy. • Tourism as major income generator for small economy. • Partial equilibrium model involving key variables. • Small economy would need to diversify. • Important subject for inter-temporal and inter-regional trade of power

Predictive model for the Dutch post-consumer plastic packaging recycling system and implications for the circular economy.

Science.gov (United States)

Brouwer, Marieke T; Thoden van Velzen, Eggo U; Augustinus, Antje; Soethoudt, Han; De Meester, Steven; Ragaert, Kim

2018-01-01

The Dutch post-consumer plastic packaging recycling network has been described in detail (both on the level of packaging types and of materials) from the household potential to the polymeric composition of the recycled milled goods. The compositional analyses of 173 different samples of post-consumer plastic packaging from different locations in the network were combined to indicatively describe the complete network with material flow analysis, data reconciliation techniques and process technological parameters. The derived potential of post-consumer plastic packages in the Netherlands in 2014 amounted to 341 Gg net (or 20.2 kg net.cap -1 .a -1 ). The complete recycling network produced 75.2 Gg milled goods, 28.1 Gg side products and 16.7 Gg process waste. Hence the net recycling chain yield for post-consumer plastic packages equalled 30%. The end-of-life fates for 35 different plastic packaging types were resolved. Additionally, the polymeric compositions of the milled goods and the recovered masses were derived with this model. These compositions were compared with experimentally determined polymeric compositions of recycled milled goods, which confirmed that the model predicts these compositions reasonably well. Also the modelled recovered masses corresponded reasonably well with those measured experimentally. The model clarified the origin of polymeric contaminants in recycled plastics, either sorting faults or packaging components, which gives directions for future improvement measures. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Advocacy for mental health: roles for consumer and family organizations and governments.

Science.gov (United States)

Funk, Michelle; Minoletti, Alberto; Drew, Natalie; Taylor, Jacob; Saraceno, Benedetto

2006-03-01

The World Health Organization urges countries to become more active in advocacy efforts to put mental health on governments' agendas. Health policy makers, planners and managers, advocacy groups, consumer and family organizations, through their different roles and actions, can move the mental health agenda forward. This paper outlines the importance of the advocacy movement, describes some of the roles and functions of the different groups and identifies some specific actions that can be adopted by Ministries of Health. The mental health advocacy movement has developed over the last 30 years as a means of combating stigma and prejudice against people with mental disorders and improving services. Consumer and family organizations and related NGOs have been able to influence governments on mental health policies and laws and educating the public on social integration of people with mental disorders. Governments can promote the development of a strong mental health advocacy sector without compromising this sector's independence. For instance, they can publish and distribute a directory of mental health advocacy groups, include them in their mental health activities and help fledgling groups become more established. There are also some advocacy functions that government officials can, and indeed, should perform themselves. Officials in the ministry of health can persuade officials in other branches of government to make mental health more of a priority, support advocacy activities with both general health workers and mental health workers and carry out public information campaigns about mental disorders and how to maintain good mental health. In conclusion, the World Health Organization believes mental health advocacy is one of the pillars to improve mental health care and the human rights of people with mental disorders. It is hoped that the recommendations in this article will help government officials and activists to strengthen national advocacy movements.

CONSUMER BEHAVIOR

OpenAIRE

Ilie BUDICA; Silvia PUIU; Bogdan Andrei BUDICA

2010-01-01

The study of consumers helps firms and organizations improve their marketing strategies by understanding issues such as: the psychology of how consumers think, feel, reason, and select between different alternatives; the psychology of how the consumer is influenced by his or her environment; the behavior of consumers while shopping or making other marketing decisions; limitations in consumer knowledge or information processing abilities influence decisions and marke...

Consuming Web Services on Mobile Platforms

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Alin COBARZAN

2010-01-01

Full Text Available Web services are an emerging technology that provides interoperability between applications running in different platforms. The Web services technology provide the best approach to Service Oriented Architecture envision of component collaboration for better business re-quirements fulfilment in large enterprise systems. The challenges in implementing Web services consuming clients for low-resources mobile devices connected through unreliable wireless connections are delimited. The paper also presents a communication architecture that moves the heavy load of XML-based messaging system from the mobile clients to an external middleware component. The middleware component will act like a gateway that lightly com-municates with the device in a client-server manner over a fast binary protocol and at the same time takes the responsibility of solving the request to the Web service.

Research on measurement method of optical camouflage effect of moving object

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Juntang; Xu, Weidong; Qu, Yang; Cui, Guangzhen

2016-10-01

Camouflage effectiveness measurement as an important part of the camouflage technology, which testing and measuring the camouflage effect of the target and the performance of the camouflage equipment according to the tactical and technical requirements. The camouflage effectiveness measurement of current optical band is mainly aimed at the static target which could not objectively reflect the dynamic camouflage effect of the moving target. This paper synthetical used technology of dynamic object detection and camouflage effect detection, the digital camouflage of the moving object as the research object, the adaptive background update algorithm of Surendra was improved, a method of optical camouflage effect detection using Lab-color space in the detection of moving-object was presented. The binary image of moving object is extracted by this measurement technology, in the sequence diagram, the characteristic parameters such as the degree of dispersion, eccentricity, complexity and moment invariants are constructed to construct the feature vector space. The Euclidean distance of moving target which through digital camouflage was calculated, the results show that the average Euclidean distance of 375 frames was 189.45, which indicated that the degree of dispersion, eccentricity, complexity and moment invariants of the digital camouflage graphics has a great difference with the moving target which not spray digital camouflage. The measurement results showed that the camouflage effect was good. Meanwhile with the performance evaluation module, the correlation coefficient of the dynamic target image range 0.1275 from 0.0035, and presented some ups and down. Under the dynamic condition, the adaptability of target and background was reflected. In view of the existing infrared camouflage technology, the next step, we want to carry out the camouflage effect measurement technology of the moving target based on infrared band.

Economic Order Quality Model for Determining the Sales Prices of Fresh Goods at Various Points in Time

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Po-Yu Chen

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Although the safe consumption of goods such as food products, medicine, and vaccines is related to their freshness, consumers frequently understand less than suppliers about the freshness of goods when they purchase them. Because of this lack of information, apart from sales prices, consumers refer only to the manufacturing and expiration dates when deciding whether to purchase and how many of these goods to buy. If dealers could determine the sales price at each point in time and customers’ intention to buy goods of varying freshness, then dealers could set an optimal inventory cycle and allocate a weekly sales price for each point in time, thereby maximizing the profit per unit time. Therefore, in this study, an economic order quality model was established to enable discussion of the optimal control of sales prices. The technique for identifying the optimal solution for the model was determined, the characteristics of the optimal solution were demonstrated, and the implications of the solution’s sensitivity analysis were explained.

Green consumers and public policy: On socially contingent moral motivation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nyborg, Karine; Brekke, Kjell Arne; Howarth, Richard B.

2006-01-01

'Green' consumers appear to accept individual responsibility for the provision of public goods. The propensity to take such responsibility may depend on beliefs about others' behavior, even for consumers motivated by internalized moral norms, not by social sanctions. This effect can produce multiple equilibria with either high or low demand for 'green' products. Permanent increases in green consumption may be achieved by imposing temporary taxes or subsidies, or through advertising that influences beliefs about others' behavior or about external effects. If a tax is interpreted as taking responsibility away from the individual, however, taxes can reduce the influence of moral motivation. (author)

Durable-Goods Monopolists, Network Effects and Penetration Pricing

OpenAIRE

Cyrus C.Y. Chu; Hung-Ken Chien

2005-01-01

We study the pricing problem of a durable-goods monopolist. With network effects, consumption externalities among heterogeneous groups of consumers generate a discontinuous demand function. Consequently, the lessor has to offer a low price in order to reach the mass market, whereas the seller has the option to build a customer base by setting a lower initial price and raise the price later in the mass market, which explains the practice of introductory pricing. Contrary to the existing litera...

Development of the Consumer Refrigerator Safety Questionnaire: A Measure of Consumer Perceptions and Practices.

Science.gov (United States)

Cairnduff, Victoria; Dean, Moira; Koidis, Anastasios

2016-09-01

Food preparation and storage behaviors in the home deviating from the "best practice" food safety recommendations may result in foodborne illnesses. Currently, there are limited tools available to fully evaluate the consumer knowledge, perceptions, and behavior in the area of refrigerator safety. The current study aimed to develop a valid and reliable tool in the form of a questionnaire, the Consumer Refrigerator Safety Questionnaire (CRSQ), for assessing systematically all these aspects. Items relating to refrigerator safety knowledge (n =17), perceptions (n =46), and reported behavior (n =30) were developed and pilot tested by an expert reference group and various consumer groups to assess face and content validity (n =20), item difficulty and consistency (n =55), and construct validity (n =23). The findings showed that the CRSQ has acceptable face and content validity with acceptable levels of item difficulty. Item consistency was observed for 12 of 15 in refrigerator safety knowledge. Further, all 5 of the subscales of consumer perceptions of refrigerator safety practices relating to risk of developing foodborne disease showed acceptable internal consistency (Cronbach's α value > 0.8). Construct validity of the CRSQ was shown to be very good (P = 0.022). The CRSQ exhibited acceptable test-retest reliability at 14 days with the majority of knowledge items (93.3%) and reported behavior items (96.4%) having correlation coefficients of greater than 0.70. Overall, the CRSQ was deemed valid and reliable in assessing refrigerator safety knowledge and behavior; therefore, it has the potential for future use in identifying groups of individuals at increased risk of deviating from recommended refrigerator safety practices, as well as the assessment of refrigerator safety knowledge and behavior for use before and after an intervention.

A study of customer value co-creation in fashion industry: A consumer perspective

OpenAIRE

Chan, Yan Yee Ashley

2010-01-01

The globalisation of the market for luxury brands has given the luxury fashion industry an ever expanding market and a huge number of consumers yet brand owners are facing challenges in ensuring sufficient customer value in their brands to differentiate themselves. Recent marketing research suggested the traditional good-dominant economy has shifted to service-dominant economy that focuses on personalised brand experiences and value creation processes involving the brand owners and consumers....

A moving mesh finite difference method for equilibrium radiation diffusion equations

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Yang, Xiaobo, E-mail: xwindyb@126.com [Department of Mathematics, College of Science, China University of Mining and Technology, Xuzhou, Jiangsu 221116 (China); Huang, Weizhang, E-mail: whuang@ku.edu [Department of Mathematics, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS 66045 (United States); Qiu, Jianxian, E-mail: jxqiu@xmu.edu.cn [School of Mathematical Sciences and Fujian Provincial Key Laboratory of Mathematical Modeling and High-Performance Scientific Computing, Xiamen University, Xiamen, Fujian 361005 (China)

2015-10-01

An efficient moving mesh finite difference method is developed for the numerical solution of equilibrium radiation diffusion equations in two dimensions. The method is based on the moving mesh partial differential equation approach and moves the mesh continuously in time using a system of meshing partial differential equations. The mesh adaptation is controlled through a Hessian-based monitor function and the so-called equidistribution and alignment principles. Several challenging issues in the numerical solution are addressed. Particularly, the radiation diffusion coefficient depends on the energy density highly nonlinearly. This nonlinearity is treated using a predictor–corrector and lagged diffusion strategy. Moreover, the nonnegativity of the energy density is maintained using a cutoff method which has been known in literature to retain the accuracy and convergence order of finite difference approximation for parabolic equations. Numerical examples with multi-material, multiple spot concentration situations are presented. Numerical results show that the method works well for radiation diffusion equations and can produce numerical solutions of good accuracy. It is also shown that a two-level mesh movement strategy can significantly improve the efficiency of the computation.

A moving mesh finite difference method for equilibrium radiation diffusion equations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yang, Xiaobo; Huang, Weizhang; Qiu, Jianxian

2015-01-01

An efficient moving mesh finite difference method is developed for the numerical solution of equilibrium radiation diffusion equations in two dimensions. The method is based on the moving mesh partial differential equation approach and moves the mesh continuously in time using a system of meshing partial differential equations. The mesh adaptation is controlled through a Hessian-based monitor function and the so-called equidistribution and alignment principles. Several challenging issues in the numerical solution are addressed. Particularly, the radiation diffusion coefficient depends on the energy density highly nonlinearly. This nonlinearity is treated using a predictor–corrector and lagged diffusion strategy. Moreover, the nonnegativity of the energy density is maintained using a cutoff method which has been known in literature to retain the accuracy and convergence order of finite difference approximation for parabolic equations. Numerical examples with multi-material, multiple spot concentration situations are presented. Numerical results show that the method works well for radiation diffusion equations and can produce numerical solutions of good accuracy. It is also shown that a two-level mesh movement strategy can significantly improve the efficiency of the computation

Customer to Consumer: The New Consumption in the Progressive Era.

Science.gov (United States)

Strasser, Susan

1999-01-01

Discusses the transformation of the U.S. consumption habits and the creation of the consumer during the Progressive Era. Describes the relationships among the production of goods, advertising, and progress. Focuses on the role advertising played in altering U.S. cultural beliefs and the continued attachment to the past. (CMK)

Moving from Good Ideas in Educational Systems Change to Sustainable Program Implementation: Coming to Terms with Some of the Realities

Science.gov (United States)

Noell, George H.; Gansle, Kristin A.

2009-01-01

Proponents of systemic changes in education commonly encounter ethical, theoretical, and pragmatic challenges in moving from possibility to implementation of their vision of change. Although ethical and theoretical issues are critically important to a successful change initiative, pragmatic issues relevant to assuring program implementation have…

Done good.

Science.gov (United States)

Caplan, A L

2015-01-01

How did bioethics manage to grow, flourish and ultimately do so well from a very unpromising birth in the 1970s? Many explanations have been advanced. Some ascribe the field's growth to a puzzling, voluntary abnegation of moral authority by medicine to non-physicians. Some think bioethics survived by selling out to the biomedical establishment-public and private. This transaction involved bestowing moral approbation on all manner of biomedicine's doings for a seat at a well-stocked funding table. Some see a sort of clever intellectual bamboozlement at work wherein bioethicists pitched a moral elixir of objective expertise that the morally needy but unsophisticated in medicine and the biological sciences were eager to swallow. While each of these reasons has its defenders, I think the main reason that bioethics did well was that it did good. By using the media to move into the public arena, the field engaged the public imagination, provoked dialogue and debate, and contributed to policy changes that benefitted patients and healthcare providers. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://group.bmj.com/group/rights-licensing/permissions.

Facilitating consumer participation: an approach to finding the 'right' consumer.

Science.gov (United States)

Happell, Brenda

2010-01-01

Contemporary health care increasingly dictates that consumers of services should become active participants in the health care system. This has placed responsibility on administrators, managers and clinicians to include consumers in key strategic and decision making initiatives. However, this direction has not been accompanied by clear policies or guidelines. Consequently confusion about selecting consumers able to provide valuable input is identified as a barrier to active consumer involvement. The purpose of this paper is to address some concerns raised in the quest to find the "right" consumer, including: finding a consumer without an axe to grind; ensuring the consumer is representative of broader views; health professionals as consumer representatives. While these concerns are common they have not yet been extensively debated and discussed in the broader Literature. Strategies necessary to support consumers in participatory roles are also considered and the controversial subject of financial remuneration for consumers is also explored.

3D range-gated super-resolution imaging based on stereo matching for moving platforms and targets

Science.gov (United States)

Sun, Liang; Wang, Xinwei; Zhou, Yan

2017-11-01

3D range-gated superresolution imaging is a novel 3D reconstruction technique for target detection and recognition with good real-time performance. However, for moving targets or platforms such as airborne, shipborne, remote operated vehicle and autonomous vehicle, 3D reconstruction has a large error or failure. In order to overcome this drawback, we propose a method of stereo matching for 3D range-gated superresolution reconstruction algorithm. In experiment, the target is a doll of Mario with a height of 38cm at the location of 34m, and we obtain two successive frame images of the Mario. To confirm our method is effective, we transform the original images with translation, rotation, scale and perspective, respectively. The experimental result shows that our method has a good result of 3D reconstruction for moving targets or platforms.

Attitudes of Chinese consumers towards retail formats

OpenAIRE

Staack, Tosten; Schramm, Matthias; Spiller, Achim

2006-01-01

The Chinese consumer goods market is widely considered to be one of the economic hot spots of the world. China seems to be the market with the largest growth potential within the next decade. Multina - tional retail companies, for example, Wal-Mart, Metro and Carrefour have made large investments to open up this new market. However, parallel to the positive aspects of the market development, foreign retail companies entering the market encounter numerous risks and difficulties. Whereas questi...

Chinese Consumer Behavior in Luxury Market : International luxury Brands in China

OpenAIRE

Guo, Wenfei

2015-01-01

China has become a strong economic power of the world in the last few years. With the growing up of higher income groups, China is growing to the fastest developing global luxury goods market in the world. Chinese consumers are getting more mature, are beginning to show their power in the luxury purchase, accompany with the appearance of more diversified requirements for luxury and related services. Dozens of foreign luxury goods companies have been drawn the eyeball and appealed to step into...

The inadequacy of consumer protection in the UAE: the need for reform

OpenAIRE

AlGhafri, Abdulla MA

2013-01-01

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University. This thesis addresses the consumer protection regime in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) against damages posed by defective industrial products, unfair business practices and misleading advertising. Nowadays, unfair and deceptive practices such as the selling of defective or sub-standard goods, the charging of exorbitant prices, misrepresentation of the efficacy or usefulness of goods, and negl...

Packaging for consumer electronic products: The need for integrating design and engineering

OpenAIRE

Wever, R.; Boks, C.; Stevels, A.

2008-01-01

From the perspective of a multinational corporation producing durable consumer goods sustainable packaging is packaging that fulfils the right functionalities in the most efficient way. In order to achieve this, an integral design process is required. Such an integral approach to the design of packaging for CE goods would imply a process that takes into account all requirements, whether they are technical, financial, environmental or psychological in nature, and that also incorporates the rel...

Food choice and food consumption frequency for Uruguayan consumers.

Science.gov (United States)

Ares, Gastón; Gámbaro, Adriana

2008-05-01

The aims of the present work were to study motives underlying Uruguayan consumers' food choice behaviour and to study the consumption frequency of some selected food items. A modification of the Food Choice Questionnaire and a food frequency questionnaire was administered to a group of 200 Uruguayan consumers. Feeling good and safety, sensory appeal and health and nutrient content were rated as the most important factors, while familiarity was rated as the least important. Using hierarchical cluster analysis, three clusters with different choice patterns were identified. Frequency of consumption of fruits, vegetables, milk and dairy products, and whole cereals, increased as the importance attributed to health and nutrition increased; consumption of fatty foods decreased.

Intergenerational care: an exploration of consumer preferences and willingness to pay for care.

Science.gov (United States)

Vecchio, N; Radford, K; Fitzgerald, J A; Comans, T; Harris, P; Harris, N

2017-05-25

To identify feasible models of intergenerational care programmes, that is, care of children and older people in a shared setting, to determine consumer preferences and willingness to pay. Feasible models were constructed in extensive consultations with a panel of experts using a Delphi technique (n = 23) and were considered based on their practical implementation within an Australian setting. This informed a survey tool that captured the preferences and willingness to pay for these models by potential consumers, when compared to the status quo. Information collected from the surveys (n = 816) was analysed using regression analysis to identify fundamental drivers of preferences and the prices consumers were willing to pay for intergenerational care programmes. The shared campus and visiting models were identified as feasible intergenerational care models. Key attributes of these models included respite day care; a common educational pedagogy across generations; screening; monitoring; and evaluation of participant outcomes. Although parents were more likely to take up intergenerational care compared to the status quo, adult carers reported a higher willingness to pay for these services. Educational attainment also influenced the likely uptake of intergenerational care. The results of this study show that there is demand for the shared campus and the visiting campus models among the Australian community. The findings support moves towards consumer-centric models of care, in line with national and international best practice. This consumer-centric approach is encapsulated in the intergenerational care model and enables greater choice of care to match different consumer demands.

Correlating consumer perception and consumer acceptability of traditional Doenjang in Korea.

Science.gov (United States)

Kim, Mina K; Lee, Kwang-Geun

2014-11-01

Doenjang is a traditional Korean food and is widely used for many Korean foods. Consumer perception and consumer acceptability on the typical sensory characteristics of traditional Doenjang remain unknown. The objective of the current study was to determine the consumer perception on traditional Doenjang characteristics and how preexisting consumer perception influenced the consumer liking for traditionally and commercially manufactured Doenjang. A consumer survey was conducted by presenting 26 sensory descriptions to consumers (n = 82) for check-all-that-apply measurement. Then, a consumer acceptance test was conducted over 2 d on 2 Doenjang samples representing commercially produced Doenjang and traditionally produced Doenjang: Day 1 consumers evaluated without any information (n = 182), and day 2 consumers evaluated samples informed that both samples were made by the "traditional" method (n = 109). Two-way ANOVA and multivariate analyses were conducted. Consumers' preexisting perceptions on the typical sensory characteristics of traditionally made Doenjang were similar in that they associate "gu-soo flavor," "dark color," "flavorful," and "well-fermented flavor" regardless of consumer demographics and Doenjang user status. However, these consumer perceptions on sensory attributes of traditional Doenjang did not agree with desirable sensory attributes for consumer liking, in that consumers preferred the commercially made Doenjang regardless of the evaluation condition and consumer user status. Findings from the current study therefore suggested a discrepancy between the preexisting current consumer perception and actual consumer acceptability of traditional Doenjang products. © 2014 Institute of Food Technologists®

MEASUREMENT OF CONSUMER ETHNOCENTRISM OF SLOVAK CONSUMERS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Janka Taborecka-Petrovicova

2014-10-01

Full Text Available The conceptualization of consumer ethnocentrism is inferred from the general concept of ethnocentrism which assumes that ethnocentrism starts with the culture into which an individual is born. Over time, the individual will accept the values and behaviour of this particular culture as a norm. However, when the individual becomes aware of other cultures with different values and behaviours, there develops the need of belonging and identification with own culture rather than that of others. When analysing the consumer ethnocentrism, it is also essential to examine whether consumer ethnocentrism operates uniformly across all consumers or there exist some specific factors moderating their ethnocentric tendencies. A lot of studies researching these issues can be found in various cultural contexts, however in Slovakia we found certain gap since there is just a few of them. The aim of the paper is to investigate the level of consumer ethnocentricity of Slovak consumers in general and with the respect to chosen variables – age and gender. The results can serve as an information base for decision-making process of marketing managers focusing especially on local production of domestic products.

Historic day for Malaysian consumers.

Science.gov (United States)

Kaur, S R

1993-04-01

The Malaysian Medical Association, the Malaysian Dental Association, the Malaysian Pharmaceutical Society, and the Federation of Malaysian Consumer Associations have introduced and endorsed the Charter for Patient Rights. The Charter recognized that health care is a basic human right, regardless of race, religion, social status, and ability to pay. Further, consumers have the right to seek medical care in both the public and private sectors. The Charter also includes the right to a second opinion, one's own medical records, and explanation before receiving any medical treatment and concerning the risks of treatment, compensation for negligence, and adequate information. Malaysia is the second Asian country to have such a charter, South Korea being the first. The UK also has a Patients Charter. The rest of Europe is also moving to adopt such a charter. The private sector, which serves only those who can afford them, provides most health care services in developing countries. Thus, a large private sector threatens the elderly, unemployed, rural poor, and the mentally ill in these countries. The supply of these services is a marketable commodity which physicians and health care professionals own and sell. The medical community has planned, formulated, implemented, and monitored health services in most of these countries. Therefore, the private sector is a major obstacle to health for all. The Charter helps to break down the barrier by informing both physicians and their patients of their rights and responsibilities.

Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell Modelling Using Moving Least Squares Technique

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Radu Tirnovan

2009-07-01

Full Text Available Proton exchange membrane fuel cell, with low polluting emissions, is a great alternative to replace the traditional electrical power sources for automotive applications or for small stationary consumers. This paper presents a numerical method, for the fuel cell modelling, based on moving least squares (MLS. Experimental data have been used for developing an approximated model of the PEMFC function of the current density, air inlet pressure and operating temperature of the fuel cell. The method can be applied for modelling others fuel cell sub-systems, such as the compressor. The method can be used for off-line or on-line identification of the PEMFC stack.

The MOVES (Motor tic, Obsessions and compulsions, Vocal tic Evaluation Survey): cross-cultural evaluation of the French version and additional psychometric assessment.

Science.gov (United States)

Jalenques, Isabelle; Guiguet-Auclair, Candy; Derost, Philippe; Joubert, Pauline; Foures, Louis; Hartmann, Andreas; Muellner, Julia; Rondepierre, Fabien

2018-03-01

The Motor tic, Obsessions and compulsions, Vocal tic Evaluation Survey (MOVES) is a self-report scale suggested as a severity scale for tics and related sensory phenomena observed in Gilles de la Tourette syndrome (GTS) and recommended as a screening instrument by the Committee on Rating Scale Development of the International Parkinson's Disease and Movement Disorder Society. To cross-culturally adapt a French version of the MOVES and to evaluate its psychometric properties. After the cross-cultural adaptation of the MOVES, we assessed its psychometric properties in 53 patients aged 12-16 years and in 54 patients aged 16 years and above: reliability and construct validity (relationships between items and scales), internal consistency and concurrent validity with the Yale Global Tic Severity Scale (YGTSS) and the Children's Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale (CY-BOCS) or the auto-Yale-Brown scale. The results showed very good acceptability with response rates greater than 92%, good internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha ranging from 0.62 and 0.89) and good test-retest reliability (ICCs ranging from 0.59 to 0.91). Concurrent validity with the YGTSS, CY-BOCS and auto-Yale-Brown scales showed strong expected correlations. The cut-off points tested for diagnostic performance gave satisfactory values of sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative predictive values. Our study provides evidence of the good psychometric properties of the French version of the MOVES. The cross-cultural adaptation of this specific instrument will allow investigators to include French-speaking persons with GTS aged 12 years and over in national and international collaboration research projects.

A research on consumer satisfaction and shopping patterns of households in the North Eastern Savo region

OpenAIRE

Taavitsainen, Ossi

2015-01-01

This Bachelor’s thesis deals with shopping patterns of consumers and their satisfaction with local supply of goods in the North Eastern Savo region in Finland. The thesis was conducted as a follow-up research to the original research made by a student of the University of Eastern Finland in 2009-2010. The theoretical part of the thesis consists of two main topics: purchase behavior of consumers and development of online shopping. The empirical part is based on a survey, conducted among consum...

An investigation of consumers' exploratory tendencies as motivators of their responsive behaviour to deals

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Surajit Ghosh Dastidar

2016-06-01

Full Text Available An understanding of the motivators of consumer deal redemption behaviour is expected to enable marketers to use deals more effectively. In this study, consumers' exploratory tendencies (CET have been assessed as potential motivators of proneness to eight types of deals, during the purchase of shampoo and refrigerator—two product categories. Consumers showed varying proneness to different types of deals depending on the type of exploratory tendency that they needed to satisfy and the type of good that was on sale. These findings can enable marketers to choose the most appropriate type of deal to achieve their sales target.

FACTORS AFFECTING BRAND CHOICE OF THE CONSUMERS ON SPORTS DRINKS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Galih Andihka

2016-09-01

Full Text Available The growth of fitness centers in Indonesia has given a very good opportunity to the sports drink industry to grow. In general, a fitness center does not only provide services of sports facilities but also sell supplements and drinks to consumers for their exercises. The type of drinks highly in demand by consumers in the fitness center is sports drinks. The objective of this study was to identify the influences of brand positioning, brand image and perceived value on brand choices of sports drink products on the consumer fitness center. This study used a quantitative approach using a survey method to the customers of the fitness centers, and the data analysis method used was PLS (Partial Least Square. The results of the PLS analysis show that the perceived value, brand image and brand positioning have positive and significant influences on brand choice of drink sports drinks of the consumers of the fitness centers in Bogor. Keywords: perceived value, brand image, brand positioning, brand choice, PLS, sport drink

Affect Of Cultural Factor On Consumer Behaviour In Online Shop

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Agnita Yolanda

2017-06-01

Full Text Available Consumer behavior is an action taken by a person in making a decision to search for purchase acquire use of goods and services that will satisfy their needs. The purpose of this study is presented to determine how much the behavior of consumers to choose online shopping and direct shopping at Management of Higher School STIM Sukma Medan. The method used in this research is descriptive method with quantitative data that has been obtained through the data directly from the company. The data collected with the spaciousness of research and literature in the form of distributing questionnaires to 52 fifty-two consumers. Processing data using SPSS statistical test tools version 17.00. Based on the results of the 4 four and the indicator above the 8 eight questions as well as 52 fifty-two consumers. Results showed that the most influential in choosing online shopping is a cultural factor with a percentage of 26.14 while the most influential in choosing the direct spending is psychological factors with the percentage of 26.50.

Embodied affectivity: On moving and being moved

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Thomas eFuchs

2014-06-01

Full Text Available There is a growing body of research indicating that bodily sensation and behaviour strongly influences one’s emotional reaction towards certain situations or objects. On this background, a framework model of embodied affectivity is suggested: we regard emotions as resulting from the circular interaction between affective qualities or affordances in the environment and the subject’s bodily resonance, be it in the form of sensations, postures, expressive movements or movement tendencies. Motion and emotion are thus intrinsically connected: one is moved by movement (perception; impression; affection and moved to move (action; expression; e-motion. Through its resonance, the body functions as a medium of emotional perception: it colours or charges self-experience and the environment with affective valences while it remains itself in the background of one’s own awareness. This model is then applied to emotional social understanding or interaffectivity which is regarded as an intertwinement of two cycles of embodied affectivity, thus continuously modifying each partner’s affective affordances and bodily resonance. We conclude with considerations of how embodied affectivity is altered in psychopathology and can be addressed in psychotherapy of the embodied self.

A "1"3"7Cs erosion model with moving boundary

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yin, Chuan; Ji, Hongbing

2015-01-01

A novel quantitative model of the relationship between diffused concentration changes and erosion rates using assessment of soil losses was developed. It derived from the analysis of surface soil "1"3"7Cs flux variation under persistent erosion effect and based on the principle of geochemistry kinetics moving boundary. The new moving boundary model improves the basic simplified transport model (Zhang et al., 2008), and mainly applies to uniform rainfall areas which show a long-time soil erosion. The simulation results for this kind of erosion show under a long-time soil erosion, the influence of "1"3"7Cs concentration will decrease exponentially with increasing depth. Using the new model fit to the measured "1"3"7Cs depth distribution data in Zunyi site, Guizhou Province, China which has typical uniform rainfall provided a good fit with R"2 = 0.92. To compare the soil erosion rates calculated by the simple transport model and the new model, we take the Kaixian reference profile as example. The soil losses estimated by the previous simplified transport model are greater than those estimated by the new moving boundary model, which is consistent with our expectations. - Highlights: • The diffused moving boundary principle analysing "1"3"7Cs flux variation. • The new erosion model applies to uniform rainfall areas. • The erosion effect on "1"3"7Cs will decrease exponentially with increasing depth. • The new model provides two methods of calculating erosion rate.

Improved moving source photometry with TRIPPy

Science.gov (United States)

Alexandersen, Mike; Fraser, Wesley Cristopher

2017-10-01

Photometry of moving sources is more complicated than for stationary sources, because the sources trail their signal out over more pixels than a point source of the same magnitude. Using a circular aperture of same size as would be appropriate for point sources can cut out a large amount of flux if a moving source moves substantially relative to the size of the aperture during the exposure, resulting in underestimated fluxes. Using a large circular aperture can mitigate this issue at the cost of a significantly reduced signal to noise compared to a point source, as a result of the inclusion of a larger background region within the aperture.Trailed Image Photometry in Python (TRIPPy) solves this problem by using a pill-shaped aperture: the traditional circular aperture is sliced in half perpendicular to the direction of motion and separated by a rectangle as long as the total motion of the source during the exposure. TRIPPy can also calculate the appropriate aperture correction (which will depend both on the radius and trail length of the pill-shaped aperture), and has features for selecting good PSF stars, creating a PSF model (convolved moffat profile + lookup table) and selecting a custom sky-background area in order to ensure no other sources contribute to the background estimate.In this poster, we present an overview of the TRIPPy features and demonstrate the improvements resulting from using TRIPPy compared to photometry obtained by other methods with examples from real projects where TRIPPy has been implemented in order to obtain the best-possible photometric measurements of Solar System objects. While TRIPPy has currently mainly been used for Trans-Neptunian Objects, the improvement from using the pill-shaped aperture increases with source motion, making TRIPPy highly relevant for asteroid and centaur photometry as well.

Time and Culture in Consumer Behaviour

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Robinson, Thomas Derek

to the consumer subject and moves CCT beyond the traditional concept of technology as merely ‘a complicated machine’. Here narratives about the future contextualize the consumption of technology by allowing issues of instrumentality and risk to appear in a specific setting. And finally, 3) The study shows...... ‘Place’, ‘Price’, ‘Product’ and ‘Promotion’, since the definition of the market emphasises ‘usage’ (Percey and Elliott 2005: 115) which can only be properly understood through future narratives and thus a hermeneutics and culture of time....... performed almost wholly in a US setting. Drawing on a corpus of British (N=170) and Danish (N=156) newspaper articles about GM-crops, robotics, and energy this thesis addresses this shortfall by conducting a comparative case study of how the future is used to present technology media between 2000-2012...

Investigating consumer attitudes towards the new technology of urine separation.

Science.gov (United States)

Pahl-Wostl, C; Schönborn, A; Willi, N; Muncke, J; Larsen, T A

2003-01-01

The technology of urine separation and the recycling of anthropogenic nutrients as fertilizer in agriculture are considered as major innovations to improve the sustainability of today's urban wastewater management. The acceptance of consumers will be key for the introduction of the new technology. Citizens will have to make important decisions in their role as tenants and owners of houses and as consumers buying products fertilized with urine. Consumer attitudes towards the new technology were explored in a number of citizen focus groups in Switzerland. Focus groups are deliberate, moderated group discussions with informed citizens on a certain topic. The information was provided by a computer based information system specifically designed for this purpose. The acceptance of individual citizens for the new technology proved to be quite high. The majority of the citizens expressed their willingness to move into an apartment with NoMix toilets and to buy food fertilized with urine. However, they were not willing to accept additional financial costs or efforts. Arguments related to long-term sustainability (closing nutrient cycles) were of less importance than arguments that relate directly to the effects of micropollutants on human and ecosystem health. For the introduction of the new technology on a wide scale it will thus be crucial to explore the fate and effects of micropollutants.

"Reflection": Fighting Five Food Myths About the “Good Old Days”

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Andersen, Boris; Larsen, Morten Hedegaard

2015-01-01

of today; (4) Danish and northern European consumers low food expenditure as something solely negative; (5) Good tasting and fresh food products as something belonging to the past and never to be found in industrialized agriculture. The main reasons the authors of this reflection piece address...... and dismantle these five myths are to facilitate change in our present food culture and systems without necessary resorting to an overt idealization of our foods and food habits of the “good old days,” while also steering clear of the many myths concerning the supposed cline of our present food culture....

Method and apparatus for a combination moving bed thermal treatment reactor and moving bed filter

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Badger, Phillip C.; Dunn, Jr., Kenneth J.

2015-09-01

A moving bed gasification/thermal treatment reactor includes a geometry in which moving bed reactor particles serve as both a moving bed filter and a heat carrier to provide thermal energy for thermal treatment reactions, such that the moving bed filter and the heat carrier are one and the same to remove solid particulates or droplets generated by thermal treatment processes or injected into the moving bed filter from other sources.

What value to attribute to electricity quality? The opinion of consumers

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mignon, H.

2012-01-01

At a time when the media's centre stage is often taken up by questions relating to the cost of electricity and its trend, it may seem paradoxical to focus on power cuts. Yet, our economies have never before been as sensitive to security and quality of supply, because of the way demand is evolving: the growth of information technology and communication, the move to a tertiary economy, changes in consumer habits and life styles, whether personal or professional. It is this sensitivity that RTE (France's public electricity distributor) has decided to survey. (author)

The Analysis Of Buying Motives In Purchase Decision Of Virtual Goods In Online Game

OpenAIRE

Ajara, Rizky

2017-01-01

This study is aimed to analyze consumers' buying motives to purchase virtual goods in online games. The sample technique used purposive sampling technique because respondents selected in accordance with characteristic that meet the criteria in the study. Structured interviews were used to analyze respondents' buying motives in purchase decision of virtual goods in online games. The data were collected by interviewing the respondent one-to-one discussion session. The buying motives has divided...

Measurements of Iodine Contents in Some Iodized Salts (Consumer Level) in (Myanmar)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

San Yee; Khin Yi; Sein Htoon

2004-05-01

The amount of iodine contents in iodized salt (consumer level) of six brands in Myanmar were measured by means of volumetric method (WHO recommended) and vibrational spectroscopic technique. The results optained from both methods were in good agreement within the statistical error

Analysis of the Dose Distribution of Moving Organ using a Moving Phantom System

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kim, Yon Lae; Park, Byung Moon; Bae, Yong Ki; Kang, Min Young; Bang, Dong Wan; Lee, Gui Won

2006-01-01

Few researches have been performed on the dose distribution of the moving organ for radiotherapy so far. In order to simulate the organ motion caused by respiratory function, multipurpose phantom and moving device was used and dosimetric measurements for dose distribution of the moving organs were conducted in this study. The purpose of our study was to evaluate how dose distributions are changed due to respiratory motion. A multipurpose phantom and a moving device were developed for the measurement of the dose distribution of the moving organ due to respiratory function. Acryl chosen design of the phantom was considered the most obvious choice for phantom material. For construction of the phantom, we used acryl and cork with density of 1.14 g/cm 3 , 0.32 g/cm 3 respectively. Acryl and cork slab in the phantom were used to simulate the normal organ and lung respectively. The moving phantom system was composed of moving device, moving control system, and acryl and cork phantom. Gafchromic film and EDR2 film were used to measure dose distributions. The moving device system may be driven by two directional step motors and able to perform 2 dimensional movements (x, z axis), but only 1 dimensional movement(z axis) was used for this study. Larger penumbra was shown in the cork phantom than in the acryl phantom. The dose profile and isodose curve of Gafchromic EBT film were not uniform since the film has small optical density responding to the dose. As the organ motion was increased, the blurrings in penumbra, flatness, and symmetry were increased. Most of measurements of dose distributions, Gafchromic EBT film has poor flatness and symmetry than EDR2 film, but both penumbra distributions were more or less comparable. The Gafchromic EBT film is more useful as it does not need development and more radiation dose could be exposed than EDR2 film without losing film characteristics. But as response of the optical density of Gafchromic EBT film to dose is low, beam profiles

A Ricardian Model with a Continuum of Goods under Non-homothetic Preferences: Demand Complementarities, Income Distribution, and North-South Trade

OpenAIRE

Kiminori Matsuyama

1999-01-01

This paper develops a Ricardian model with a continuum of goods when consumers have nonhomothetic preferences. Goods are indexed in terms of priority, and the households add higher-indexed goods to their consumption baskets, as they become richer. South (North) has comparative advantage in a lower (higher) spectrum of goods, hence specializing in goods with lower (higher) income elasticities of demand. Due to the income elasticity difference, a variety of exogenous changes have asymmetric eff...

An Efficient Forensic Method for Copy–move Forgery Detection based on DWT-FWHT

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

B. Yang

2013-12-01

Full Text Available As the increased availability of sophisticated image processing software and the widespread use of Internet, digital images are easy to acquire and manipulate. The authenticity of the received images is becoming more and more important. Copy-move forgery is one of the most common forgery methods. When creating a Copy-move forgery, it is often necessary to add or remove important features from an image. To carry out such forensic analysis, various technological instruments have been developed in the literatures. However, most of them are time-consuming. In this paper, a more efficient method is proposed. First, the image size is reduced by Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT. Second, the image is divided into overlapping blocks of equal size and, feature of each block is extracted by fast Walsh-Hadamard Transform (FWHT. Duplicated regions are then detected by lexicographically sorting all features of the image blocks. To make the range matching more efficient, multi-hop jump (MHJ algorithm is using to jump over some the “unnecessary testing blocks” (UTB. Experimental results demonstrated that the proposed method not only is able to detect the copy-move forgery accurately but also can reduce the processing time greatly compared with other methods.

Ranking factors affecting the packing of saffron from the perspective of consumers

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Arash Dorandish

2017-06-01

Full Text Available Packaging is a tool for recognition and differentiation of product and it plays a crucial role in consumers' purchasing decisions, and it can be used to create competitive advantages. Saffron is one of the most important agricultural crops in Iran and its packaging in accordance with consumer demand increases sales and satisfaction of the consumers. Therefore, the main objective of this study is to rank the factors affecting the packaging from the perspective of consumers of saffron in Mashhad. Data was collected in the form of 99 questionnaires that have been answered by the consumers of saffron in Mashhad in 2015. Analytic hierarchy process (AHP was used to rank these factors. The results showed that labeling information about internal and international standards and saffron nutrients on the package have the greatest impact on consumer preferences. Also, the results of the ranking alternatives indicated that attention to the brand labelled on the packing is the most important issue from the perspective of the consumers. Hence, labelling information elements on the package can be a good way for brand differentiation and increasing its value. According to the results, it is recommended that producers and suppliers of saffron pay more attention to features and information elements in package design.

Instigating involvement through consumer-based brand equity : an attitudinal study of consumer-based brand equity and consumer involvement

OpenAIRE

Bredberg, David; Holmquist, Johan

2009-01-01

Recent research on links between dimensions of consumer-based brand equity, as well as links to consumer involvement, has shown that it is a significant predictor of purchase behavior. The purpose of this dissertation is to explore the affect brands have on consumer involvement. We attempt to investigate how consumer-based brand equity affects the level of consumer involvement. Based on consumer behavior theory and previous research of these areas, gathered primary data (an empirical investig...

Social Security cost-of-living adjustments and the Consumer Price Index.

Science.gov (United States)

Burdick, Clark; Fisher, Lynn

2007-01-01

OASDI benefits are indexed for inflation to protect beneficiaries from the loss of purchasing power implied by inflation. In the absence of such indexing, the purchasing power of Social Security benefits would be eroded as rising prices raise the cost of living. By statute, cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs) for Social Security benefits are calculated using the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W). Some argue that this index does not accurately reflect the inflation experienced by the elderly population and should be changed to an elderly-specific price index such as the Experimental Consumer Price Index for Americans 62 Years of Age and Older, often referred to as the Consumer Price Index for the Elderly (CPI-E). Others argue that the measure of inflation underlying the COLA is technically biased, causing it to overestimate changes in the cost of living. This argument implies that current COLAs tend to increase, rather than merely maintain, the purchasing power of benefits over time. Potential bias in the CPI as a cost-of-living index arises from a number of sources, including incomplete accounting for the ability of consumers to substitute goods or change purchasing outlets in response to relative price changes. The BLS has constructed a new index called the Chained Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (C-CPI-U) that better accounts for those consumer adjustments. Price indexes are not true cost-of-living indexes, but approximations of cost-of-living indexes (COLI). The Bureau of Labor Statistics (2006a) explains the difference between the two: As it pertains to the CPI, the COLI for the current month is based on the answer to the following question: "What is the cost, at this month ' market prices, of achieving the standard of living actually attained in the base period?" This cost is a hypothetical expenditure-the lowest expenditure level necessary at this month's prices to achieve the

Consumer Cooperatives for Delivery of Urban Water and Sanitation Services

OpenAIRE

Ruiz-Mier, Fernando; Ginneken, Meike van

2008-01-01

To find the optimal delivery model for urban water supply and sanitation (WSS) services, one must look beyond ownership structures to the practices and designs that support good performance. Consumer cooperatives are often attractive institutional models. This note focuses on a Bolivian cooperative that is one of the most successful water cooperatives in Latin America. Successful cooperatives ...

Business in the Hands of Consumers: A Scale for Measuring Online Resale Motivations

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Myriam ERTZ

2016-12-01

Full Text Available The web channel is increasingly a central aspect of the second-hand economy and, as such, favours also more sustainable post-consumption processes. This is why the field of online reselling appears increasingly important. Besides, the ever broadening scope of online reselling is key to the success of new online intermediaries that position themselves in the broader movement of collaborative consumption. While, consumers’ attachment for secondhand exchanges is not new, they have largely embraced its online declination. In response to these evolutions in the online retail environment, traditional retail companies have therefore started to create online consumer marketplaces in which consumers exchange goods by themselves. In order to best adapt such online marketplaces to consumers, it is therefore critically important to gain a better understanding of the driving forces behind online reselling. At present, knowledge about what motivates consumers to resell products online is limited. This article outlines the development and validation process of an online resale motivation (ORM scale via three studies involving 1,119 respondents. Study 1 presents the ORM scale development process and resulting multi-dimensional construct, including protester, economic, generative, recreational, practical and social facets. Study 2 replicates the scale and investigates its predictive capabilities. More specifically, the ORM scale predicts successfully online resale frequency. Consumers who are more highly motivated to resell online, will indeed resell more often online. Study 3 examines the mediating role of ORM on the relationship between planned resale intentions (PRI and online resale behaviour. The fact that consumers plan to resell a product prior to its purchase, will not directly lead them to increase the frequency at which they resell online. Rather, it is because they perceive positive economic, practical and recreational outcomes associated with

Consumer knowledge, preference, and perceived quality of dried tomato products in Ghana.

Science.gov (United States)

Owureku-Asare, Mavis; Ambrose, R P Kingsly; Oduro, Ibok; Tortoe, Charles; Saalia, Firibu K

2017-05-01

Postharvest losses (PHL) are incurred in the tomato value chain in Ghana and solar drying of tomato is a promising technology for reducing the loss. However, there are concerns on the usage, functionality and sensory appeal of the dried products to consumers, compounded with the lack of information and research on dried tomato processing in Ghana. A survey was carried out by administering semistructured questionnaires to 395 randomly selected and willing respondents in the Accra Metropolis. Information was obtained on the socioeconomic profile, consumption pattern, knowledge, and acceptance of tomato processing technologies and assessment of quality attributes important to consumers. Most consumers (74%) preferred tomato powder that is conveniently packaged to retain the characteristic intense taste and the flavor using Friedman's rank mean procedure. The study indicated that consumers were more concerned about good manufacturing practices during the production of solar-dried tomato (48.8%) rather than the quality attributes (8.6%). These findings indicate the need for safe solar drying procedures in order to increase consumer acceptability of solar-dried tomato products in Ghana.

Health care consumer reports: an evaluation of consumer perspectives.

Science.gov (United States)

Longo, Daniel R; Everet, Kevin D

2003-01-01

There has been a proliferation of health care consumer reports, also known as "consumer guides," "report cards," and "performance reports," which are designed to assist consumers in making more informed health care decisions. While there is evidence that providers use such reports to identify and make changes in practice, thus improving the quality of care, there is little empirical evidence on how consumer guides/report cards are used by consumers. This study fills that gap by surveying 925 patients as they wait for ambulatory care in several clinics in a midwestern city. Findings indicate that consumers are selective in their use of these reports and quickly identify those sections of the report of most interest to them. Report developers should take precautions to ensure such reports are viewed as credible sources of health care information.

Packaging for consumer electronic products : The need for integrating design and engineering

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Wever, R.; Boks, C.; Stevels, A.

2008-01-01

From the perspective of a multinational corporation producing durable consumer goods sustainable packaging is packaging that fulfils the right functionalities in the most efficient way. In order to achieve this, an integral design process is required. Such an integral approach to the design of

Impact of Online Shopping on the Purchase Behavior of Consumers in Chennai City

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

A.VARADARAJ

2016-12-01

Full Text Available Online shopping or e-shopping is a form of electronic commerce which allows consumers to directly buy goods or services from a seller over the Internet using a web browser. The proliferation of online group buying websites is changing marketing strategies and buyers' habits without doubt. The study focuses on the impact of online shopping on the purchase behaviour of consumers in Chennai city. Questionnaire was used to collect the primary data. The sample size of the study was 150 and the sample design adopted was convenience sampling. This paper tried to find out the impact of online market towards purchase behaviour of consumers and gives suggestions to improve the same.

Detection of moving objects from a moving platform in urban scenes

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Haar, F.B. ter; Hollander, R.J.M. den; Dijk, J.

2010-01-01

Moving object detection in urban scenes is important for the guidance of autonomous vehicles, robot navigation, and monitoring. In this paper moving objects are automatically detected using three sequential frames and tracked over a longer period. To this extend we modify the plane+parallax,

Stochastic gradient ascent outperforms gamers in the Quantum Moves game

Science.gov (United States)

Sels, Dries

2018-04-01

In a recent work on quantum state preparation, Sørensen and co-workers [Nature (London) 532, 210 (2016), 10.1038/nature17620] explore the possibility of using video games to help design quantum control protocols. The authors present a game called "Quantum Moves" (https://www.scienceathome.org/games/quantum-moves/) in which gamers have to move an atom from A to B by means of optical tweezers. They report that, "players succeed where purely numerical optimization fails." Moreover, by harnessing the player strategies, they can "outperform the most prominent established numerical methods." The aim of this Rapid Communication is to analyze the problem in detail and show that those claims are untenable. In fact, without any prior knowledge and starting from a random initial seed, a simple stochastic local optimization method finds near-optimal solutions which outperform all players. Counterdiabatic driving can even be used to generate protocols without resorting to numeric optimization. The analysis results in an accurate analytic estimate of the quantum speed limit which, apart from zero-point motion, is shown to be entirely classical in nature. The latter might explain why gamers are reasonably good at the game. A simple modification of the BringHomeWater challenge is proposed to test this hypothesis.

Identification of moving vehicle forces on bridge structures via moving average Tikhonov regularization

Science.gov (United States)

Pan, Chu-Dong; Yu, Ling; Liu, Huan-Lin

2017-08-01

Traffic-induced moving force identification (MFI) is a typical inverse problem in the field of bridge structural health monitoring. Lots of regularization-based methods have been proposed for MFI. However, the MFI accuracy obtained from the existing methods is low when the moving forces enter into and exit a bridge deck due to low sensitivity of structural responses to the forces at these zones. To overcome this shortcoming, a novel moving average Tikhonov regularization method is proposed for MFI by combining with the moving average concepts. Firstly, the bridge-vehicle interaction moving force is assumed as a discrete finite signal with stable average value (DFS-SAV). Secondly, the reasonable signal feature of DFS-SAV is quantified and introduced for improving the penalty function (∣∣x∣∣2 2) defined in the classical Tikhonov regularization. Then, a feasible two-step strategy is proposed for selecting regularization parameter and balance coefficient defined in the improved penalty function. Finally, both numerical simulations on a simply-supported beam and laboratory experiments on a hollow tube beam are performed for assessing the accuracy and the feasibility of the proposed method. The illustrated results show that the moving forces can be accurately identified with a strong robustness. Some related issues, such as selection of moving window length, effect of different penalty functions, and effect of different car speeds, are discussed as well.

Consumption of luxury goods in Brazil : purchasing motives and values of Brazilian consumers and implications for marketing

OpenAIRE

Teiking, Alina

2016-01-01

Aiming at success in the currently challenging Brazilian market, luxury firms must consider a number of factors. Not only the adaptation to certain economic and political conditions but also the understanding of Brazilian luxury consumers’ characteristics as well as their value perceptions towards luxury are crucial in order to create an effective marketing strategy. This study investigated the value perceptions and purchasing motives of 428 Brazilian consumers. Brazilians purc...

Calibrating the social value of prospective new goods: The case of hydrogen fuel cell electric Vehicles

Science.gov (United States)

Topel, Robert H.

2018-01-01

Economic studies of the value of a new good or product innovation are typically retrospective: after a new good has been developed and marketed to consumers, data on prices and consumer choices can be used to estimate welfare gains. This paper calibrates the prospective welfare gains in the United States from a nascent vehicle platform, fuel cell electric vehicles (FCVs), that may or may not succeed in competition with existing vehicle platforms. Prospective gains are due to three main sources: (1) possibly reduced carbon emissions compared to existing vehicle alternatives; (2) the monopsony benefit to the U.S. from reducing world oil demand and hence the price of oil; (3) national security benefits due to reduced "oil dependence", mitigating the impact of oil price shocks on national income. I find that the benefits of reduced carbon emissions are likely to be quite small because reduced oil demand in the U.S. as only a small impact on world oil consumption and carbon emissions. Net monopsony benefits to U.S. consumers are much larger.

Localization--the revolution in consumer markets.

Science.gov (United States)

Rigby, Darrell K; Vishwanath, Vijay

2006-04-01

Standardization has been a powerful strategy in consumer markets, but it's reached the point of diminishing returns. And diversity is not the only chink in standardization's armor: Attempts to build stores in the remaining attractive locations often meet fierce resistance from community activists. From California to Florida to New Jersey, neighborhoods are passing ordinances that dictate the sizes and even architectural styles of new shops. Building more of the same--long the cornerstone of retailer growth--seems to be tapped out as a strategy. Of course, a company can't customize every element of its business in every location. Strategists have begun to use clustering techniques to simplify and smooth out decision making and to focus their efforts on the relatively small number of variables that usually drive the bulk of consumer purchases. The customization-by-clusters approach, which began as a strategy for grocery stores in 1995, has since proven effective in drugstores, department stores, mass merchants, big-box retailers, restaurants, apparel companies, and a variety of consumer goods manufacturers. Clustering sorts things into groups, so that the associations are strong between members of the same cluster and weak between members of different clusters. In fact, by centralizing data-intensive and scale-sensitive functions (such as store design, merchandise assortment, buying, and supply chain management), localization liberates store personnel to do what they do best: Test innovative solutions to local challenges and forge strong bonds with communities. Ultimately, all companies serving consumers will face the challenge of local customization. We are advancing to a world where the strategies of the most successful businesses will be as diverse as the communities they serve.

Piracy in cyber space: consumer complicity, pirates and enterprise enforcement

Science.gov (United States)

Chaudhry, Peggy E.; Chaudhry, Sohail S.; Stumpf, Stephen A.; Sudler, Hasshi

2011-05-01

This article presents an overview of the growth of internet piracy in the global marketplace. The ethical perceptions (or lack of) of the younger generation is addressed, in terms of their willingness to consume counterfeit goods on the web. Firms face the task of educating the consumer that downloading music, software, movies and the like, without compensation, is unethical. This awareness is critical for decreasing the demand for counterfeit goods in the virtual marketplace, where a consumer can exhibit a rogue behaviour with a limited fear of prosecution. We address the pyramid of internet piracy, which encompasses sophisticated suppliers/facilitators, such as the Warez group. Recent sting operations, such as Operation Buccaneer, are also depicted to highlight successful tactical manoeuvres of enforcement agencies. An overview of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and the No Electronic Theft Act is included to debate the controversy surrounding this legislation. A discussion of enterprise enforcement mechanisms and novel anti-piracy technology for cyberspace is provided to reveal some of the tools used to fight the pirates, such as innovations in digital watermarking and NEC's recently announced video content identification technology. Enterprise information systems and its interdependence on the internet are also demanding new technologies that enable internet investigators to rapidly search, verify and potentially remove pirated content using web services. The quality of service of web services designed to efficiently detect pirated content is a growing consideration for new anti-piracy technology.

Effect of contact angle hysteresis on moving liquid film integrity.

Science.gov (United States)

Simon, F. F.; Hsu, Y. Y.

1972-01-01

A study was made of the formation and breakdown of a water film moving over solid surfaces (teflon, lucite, stainless steel, and copper). The flow rate associated with film formation was found to be higher than the flow rate at which film breakdown occurred. The difference in the flow rates for film formation and film breakdown was attributed to contact angle hysteresis. Analysis and experiment, which are in good agreement, indicated that film formation and film breakdown are functions of the advancing and receding angles, respectively.

Incorporating Transformative Consumer Research into the Consumer Behavior Course Experience

Science.gov (United States)

Petkus, Ed, Jr.

2010-01-01

In contrast to understanding consumer behavior for the benefit of business organizations, transformative consumer research (TCR) seeks to understand consumer behavior for the benefit of consumers themselves. Following Mari's (2008) call for the incorporation of TCR in doctoral programs in marketing, this article outlines the relevance of TCR to…

Reference system architecture for trade promotion management: leveraging business intelligence technologies and decision support systems

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Balmus, Andra Bianca; Iacob, Maria Eugenia; van Sinderen, Marten J.; van Busschbach, Murk

Working towards gaining competitive advantage and establishing stable relationships with their supply chain intermediaries, fast moving consumer goods companies are currently focusing their attention on intelligent, goal-based funds investment. Traditional trade promotion management systems (TPMS),

Manufacturer-distributor relationships and channel service quality

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Lemmink, J.G.A.M.; Wetzels, M.G.M.; Koelemeijer, K.

1997-01-01

In today's marketplace for fast-moving consumer goods, many brands exist with similar characteristics. Development and maintenance of product differentiation becomes increasingly difficult to realize for manufacturers. Consequently, non-price competition particularly by offering high quality

“Fake product? Why not!” Attitudes toward the consumption of counterfeit goods in CEE as shown on the example of Slovakia

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Denisa Kasl Kollmannová

2012-09-01

Full Text Available This article focuses on the increasing consumption trend of counterfeit goods in the countries of CEE and on the consequences for the global market. Counterfeiting is not longer typical only for the luxury market, where branding together with genuine source plays a crucial role and the business of top luxury is rising during the crisis. New categories of counterfeit goods are emerging constantly, including electronics and computer parts, pharmaceuticals, even FMCG such as food, beverages or cosmetics. This article presents data from GfK research on attitudes towards counterfeit goods in Slovakia and puts it to the context of other CEE countries. It gives clear managerial implications on how to communicate the importance of originality, benefits for the consumer when consuming original goods and social marketing of ethical consumption.

Development of the information model for consumer assessment of key quality indicators by goods labelling

Science.gov (United States)

Koshkina, S.; Ostrinskaya, L.

2018-04-01

An information model for “key” quality indicators of goods has been developed. This model is based on the assessment of f standardization existing state and the product labeling quality. According to the authors’ opinion, the proposed “key” indicators are the most significant for purchasing decision making. Customers will be able to use this model through their mobile technical devices. The developed model allows to decompose existing processes in data flows and to reveal the levels of possible architectural solutions. In-depth analysis of the presented information model decomposition levels will allow determining the stages of its improvement and to reveal additional indicators of the goods quality that are of interest to customers in the further research. Examining the architectural solutions for the customer’s information environment functioning when integrating existing databases will allow us to determine the boundaries of the model flexibility and customizability.

THE PROTECTION OF CONSUMER RIGHTS FOR AVIATION SAFETY AND SECURITY IN INDONESIA AND MALAYSIA

OpenAIRE

Annalisa Yahanan; Febrian Febrian; Rohani Abdul Rahim

2017-01-01

Indonesia and Malaysia have a good potency for cooperation in aviation industry. It can be seen in the establishing two aviation companies namely PT. Indonesia Air Asia and Malindo which both are low-cost carrier. These aviation industries are categorized as low-cost carrier, however safety and security are absolute factors because these are rights for consumers. This article will describe further about safety and security standard; protecting the rights for consumers in connection with safet...

The Protection of Consumer Rights for Aviation Safety and Security in Indonesia and Malaysia

OpenAIRE

Yahanan, Annalisa; Febrian, Febrian; Rahim, Rohani Abdul

2017-01-01

Indonesia and Malaysia have a good potency for cooperation in aviation industry. It can be seen in the establishing two aviation companies namely PT. Indonesia Air Asia and Malindo which both are low-cost carrier. These aviation industries are categorized as low-cost carrier, however safety and security are absolute factors because these are rights for consumers. This article will describe further about safety and security standard; protecting the rights for consumers in connection with safet...

Discretionary food fortification: implications of consumer attitudes.

Science.gov (United States)

Kalergis, Maria; MacDonald, Andrew

2009-01-01

The interest in, intent to, and impact of consuming foods fortified with vitamins and minerals, particularly foods of poor nutritional quality, were evaluated among Canadians. A Canada-wide, online survey of 1200 adults and teens was used to assess the interest in, intent to, and impact of consuming or serving foods fortified under two fortification scenarios (10% and 20% of the Recommended Daily Value). Categories of foods tested were cereal bars, energy bars, flavoured bottled water, frozen desserts, fruit drinks, fruit juice, salty snacks, soda pop, sports drinks, sweet baked goods, and sweets. The majority of adults and teens were interested in consuming fortified foods and indicated that they would increase their current consumption of specific foods if they became fortified. These foods included soft drinks, salty snacks, fruit drinks, and fruit juice. A large proportion of adults also indicated that they would serve more of these fortified foods to their children. Our findings reveal that fortifying foods, particularly those of poor nutritional quality, could lead to increased consumption of these foods among children, teens, and adults. Potentially, this could have a negative impact on eating habits and, in turn, could exacerbate the current nutrition-related health issues that Canadians face.