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The combined supply and demand shocks of the COVID-19 pandemic have created the largest consumer behavior shift in recent history, while exposing millions of households to material hardships like food insecurity and housing instability. In this study, we draw on national surveys conducted early in the pandemic to investigate the pandemic’s effects on self-reported consumer spending behaviors and experiences of hardship for households in the US and Israel; two countries that are similar in terms of their development but have had divergent experiences with and responses to the pandemic. We also examine the extent to which racial/ethnic/religious minority status and pre-pandemic employment characteristics predict these outcomes. Using descriptive and logistic regression approaches, we find that housing expenditures were fairly stable in the U.S. and Israel, while food and credit card payment expenditures were relatively volatile. We also find that skipped utility bill payments were much higher in the US than Israel, while rates of skipping housing payments and food insecurity were similar between the two countries. Generally speaking, racial/ethnic/religious minorities in both countries were more likely to experience spending volatility, while Black and Hispanic (in the US) and Arab (in Israel) households were more likely to experience hardships. Employment and financial characteristics also appeared much more predictive of hardship in the US than in Israel. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10834-021-09814-z.

Background Mobile health applications are being increasingly used for people’s health management. The different uses of mobile health applications lead to different health outcomes. Although active usage of mobile health applications is shown to be linked to the effectiveness of mobile health services, the factors that influence people’s active usage of mobile health applications are not well studied. Objective This paper aims to examine the antecedents of active usage of mobile health applications. Methods Grounded on the 3-factor theory, we proposed 10 attributes of mobile health applications that influence the active usage of mobile health applications through consumers’ satisfaction and dissatisfaction. We classified these 10 attributes into 3 categories (ie, excitement attributes, performance attributes, and basic attributes). Using the survey method, 494 valid responses were collected and analyzed using structural equation modeling. Results Our analysis results revealed that both consumer satisfaction (β=0.351, t=6.299, P Conclusions Our study provides a novel perspective to study the active usage of mobile health applications. By categorizing the attributes of mobile health applications into 3 categories, the differential effects of different attributes can be tested. Meanwhile, consumer satisfaction and dissatisfaction are confirmed to be independent from each other.

In order to solve the problems of low coverage and accuracy and large mean absolute error and root mean square error when traditional algorithms recommend market management data, this paper proposes an intelligent market management data mining method based on a collaborative recommendation algorithm. According to the preference value of the attribute characteristics of market management data, predict and score the attribute characteristics of market management data; use data mining technology to preprocess the information of market management data, combined with the design of collaborative filtering recommendation algorithm; and realize the collaborative filtering recommendation of market management data. With 50 recommendations, AGCAN improves the accuracy of MovieLens-1M by 43.81%, 5.43%, 1.87%, 0.42%, and 1.67%, respectively, compared with the five benchmark algorithms. For MovieLens-100K, compared with the five benchmark algorithms, AGCAN improves the accuracy by 51.17%, 10.52%, 3.37%, 0.1%, and 0.30%, respectively. Compared with the five benchmark algorithms, Amazon-baby and AGCAN have improved the accuracy by 34.37%, 28.12%, 31.25%, 29.1%, and 3.12%, respectively. The algorithm proposed in this paper uses a graph neural network to mine useful information between users and projects, but it lacks the use of other personalized interest information of users, such as user interest, user purchase time, and so on.

PurposeResearch on battery electric vehicles (BEVs) has typically considered environmental concern a key determinant of behavioral intention that leads individuals to prefer electric vehicles. This paper challenges this assumption and argues that technology frameworks may require new variables to capture consumers' preferences. A UTAUT2-based study has been developed to assess the role of environmental concern in the BEVs context and put forward the technology show-off (TS) concept to explain the technology's acceptance.Design/methodology/approachA quantitative and cross-sectional look at behavioral intention is adopted. The study uses structural equation modeling to analyze a sample of 236 Macau residents to determine the relevance of the factors behind the choice to adopt BEVs.FindingsThe findings indicate that environmental concern and price may be relevant to explain behavioral intention to adopt the BEVs technology. Furthermore, the UTAUT2 framework seems to benefit from adding new variables, with TS playing a pertinent role in explaining technology acceptance.Social implicationsThe findings show that environmental concern fails to build an argument for the shift to full electric mobility and promote the desired behavioral change toward adopting BEVs. Herein lies the necessity to consider new variables that can better describe the characteristics of modern society.Originality/valueThis paper proposes the TS construct, combining visibility and trialability as significant determinants of behavioral intention to use technology. The study also stresses the need to reconsider the role of environmental concerns' impact on consumer decision-making.

The rapid development of online shopping has contributed to marketing strategy. Social presence plays an important role in the field of marketing. Therefore, this paper studies the influence of social presence on online impulse buying. The key marketing strategy is that consumers make impulsive buying behavior in online shopping. This paper proposes a research scheme for an impulsive buying sharing model based on user features and an article studied before which has some factors presented. The model is evaluated on a data analysis based on SPSS24.0 and AMOS23.0. The results show that the main factors such as interactivity, vividness, and media richness, all have positive effects on social presence. Therefore, in the variable relationship, social presence has a direct impact on impulsive buying behavior. This result has a theory contribution on the marketing theory model which also has an important practice significance in marketing strategy for enterprises.

Pastaruoju metu prekės ženklai pasitikėjimo jų vykdoma marketingo komunikacija problemą pradėjo spręsti į marketingo komunikacijos strategijas įtraukdami žmones, kuriais jų tiksliniai vartotojai pasitiki. Iš to išsivystė ir vis dar auga nuomonės lyderių, kitaip vadinamų influenceriais, banga. Ši didelio populiarumo sulaukusi marketingo komunikacijos priemonė pastaruoju metu vis labiau kelia vartotojų skeptiškumą. Nuomonės lyderių sraute stebint reklamuojamų produktų ir prekės ženklų gausą, vartotojai vis mažiau patiki tokių rekomendacijų nuoširdumu ir patikimumu. Prekės ženklai, reaguodami į didėjančias vartotojų abejones dėl nuomonės lyderių komunikacijos, su nuomonės lyderiais pradėjo siekti ilgalaikio bendradarbiavimo, kas influencerius pavertė prekės ženklo ambasadoriais, kurie nuolat komunikuoja atstovaujamo prekės ženklo žinutę ir taip su tuo prekės ženklu vartotojų akyse tampa glaudžiai susijusiu žmogumi. Viena iš naujausių ir mokslininkų dar mažai nagrinėta ambasadorystės forma – kai prekės ženklo ambasadoriumi tampa ne samdomas viešojoje erdvėje populiarus autoritetas, o įmonės darbuotojas. Šiame straipsnyje siekiama išanalizuoti kaip darbuotojo-prekės ženklo ambasadoriaus komunikacija keičia vartotojų elgseną. Atlikus teorinę darbuotojų- prekės ženklo ambasadorių komunikacijos analizę, toliau straipsnyje aprašomi empirinio tyrimo rezultatai, atskleidžiantys pasirinkto atvejo – Andriaus Baranausko, kaip darbuotojo-prekės ženklo ambasadoriaus, komunikacijos poveikį vartotojų elgsenai. Empiriniam tyrimui atlikti pasitelkta turinio analizė, taip pat naudoti kokybinio tyrimo metodo instrumentai – ekspertinis ir pusiau struktūruoti interviu, kiekybiniams duomenims surinkti pasitelkta anketinė vartotojų apklausa. Šio straipsnio tikslas – išanalizuoti, kokį poveikį vartotojų elgsenai daro darbuotojo, kaip prekės ženklo ambasadoriaus, komunikacija. Siekiant tikslo, suformuluoti tyrimo uždaviniai: (1) teoriniu lygmeniu apibrėžti prekės ženklo ambasadorių sampratą; (2) teoriniu lygmeniu konceptualizuoti prekės ženklo ambasadorių komunikacijos specifiką ir poveikį vartotojų elgsenai; (3) teoriniu lygmeniu išanalizuoti darbuotojų, kaip prekės ženklo ambasadorių, specifiką; (4) parengti ir pagrįsti tyrimo metodologiją; (5) atlikti empirinį tyrimą siekiant nustatyti darbuotojų, kaip prekės ženklo ambasadorių, komunikacijos poveikį vartotojų elgsenai. Išanalizavus ir apibendrinus tyrimo rezultatus galima teigti, kad darbuotojų-prekės ženklo ambasadorių, tarp jų ir A. Baranausko, komunikacija daro poveikį vartotojų elgsenai. Remiantis gautais duomenimis, galima išskirti tris pagrindines darbuotojų-prekės ženklo ambasadorių daromos įtakos vartotojų elgsenai sritis: a) pasitikėjimo atstovaujamu prekės ženklu didinimas, b) susidomėjimo reklamuojamu produktu / paslauga kūrimas, c) reklamuojamo produkto / paslaugos įsigijimo skatinimas. Raktiniai žodžiai: prekės ženklas, prekės ženklo ambasadorius, darbuotojo prekės ženklo kūrimas, marketingo komunikacija, vartotojų elgsena. The paper analyses the impact of employees’, as brand ambassadors’, communication on consumer behavior by empirically evaluating and comparing it from the view of customers. The theoretical part of the paper discusses the concept of brand ambassadors, specifics of employees as brand ambassadors and communication features related to it. After discussing theoretical insights on the topic, it is continued with the findings of the study from the selected Lithuanian case addressing main research question – how communication of employees as brand ambassadors affects consumer behavior. Research results proved that communication of employees as brand ambassadors increase customer interest and trust towards the company, however the impact towards purchase intention is not significant. Keywords: brand; brand ambassador, employee branding, marketing communication, consumer behavior

This paper incorporates the players’ risk attitudes into a green supply chain (GSC) consisting of a supplier and a retailer. The supplier conducts production and determines the green level and wholesale price as a game leader, the retailer sells green products to consumers and determines the retail price as a follower. Equilibrium solutions are derived, and the influence of risk aversion on the GSC is examined. Our results show that, for the centralized GSC, risk aversion lowers the green level and the retail price; while for the decentralized GSC, risk aversion lowers the wholesale price and the retail price, but it may induce the supplier to increase the green level given a large risk tolerance of the supplier. Meanwhile, the risk-averse decentralized GSC may obtain more expected profit than the risk-neutral decentralized GSC. Furthermore, this paper designs a revenue-and-cost-sharing joint contract to coordinate the risk-neutral GSC, and such a contract can improve the risk-averse GSC under specific conditions.

A supply chain’s risk spillover effect will affect the customer’s risk on the financing constraints of suppliers. This paper builds on the evaluation of customer risk by fuzzy mathematics, combines with the A-share listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen from 2007 to 2019 as a study sample, and empirically inspects the influence of customer risk on the level of corporate financing constraints. According to the study, it shows that the customer risk is currently at a moderate level, which will notably impair the supplier’s external financing ability. This phenomenon is more remarkable when the monetary policy is tightened with fierce competition in the industry. This paper unveils the economic consequences of customer risk spillovers from a supply chain, enriches the study of the generation mechanism of corporate financing constraints, and provides investors and regulators with empirical evidence to appreciate corporate financing constraints.

In the era of digital economy and mobile internet, many platforms or brands have built various online or offline green communities to guide customers or fans to engage in green interactions. Obviously, community green interaction can enhance brand emotional value and enhance customer stickiness, but whether community green interaction can further have a spillover effect on related or other green purchase behaviors has become an important topic for the theoretical and practical departments. This paper selects the “Little Bear Fuel Consumption Community” as the research object. Based on the theoretical framework of “Green Interaction—Environmental Emotion—Related Green Purchasing Behavior”, this paper examines the spillover effect and impact mechanism of community green interaction on consumers’ related green purchasing behavior. This paper uses a structural equation model and bootstrapping method to test the causal relationship between variables. This study lasted for 6 months, and a total of 348 valid questionnaires were collected in this study. We used SPSS 25 and AMOS 24 for data analysis. The results showed that the two dimensions of community green interaction (community green information interaction and community green interpersonal interaction) have a positive spillover effect on consumers’ related green purchase behavior; community green interaction can positively spill over to consumers’ related green purchase behavior through the psychological path of environmental emotion; community green information interaction and community green interpersonal interaction have positive effects on consumers’ positive and negative environmental emotions; positive and negative environmental emotions positively affect consumers’ related green purchase behavior; and in the two paths of community green information interaction—related green purchase behavior and community green interpersonal interaction—related green purchase behavior, both positive environmental emotion and negative environmental emotion play a role of partial mediation; product involvement has a negative moderating effect on the path of “community green interaction—environmental emotion”. This paper opens the “black box” of the diffusion mechanism of community green interaction and provides a new explanatory framework for the spillover effect of community green interaction on related green purchase behavior.

This paper constructs a profit distribution model under centralized decision-making by taking the secondary agricultural supply chain as an example. Moreover, it introduces resources and risk as two factors to form significant weights and then designs a fair profit distribution mechanism of the supply chain according to the weights. Finally, this paper solves the optimal solution of the profit distribution coefficient by using fair entropy. Research results find that the distribution according to the optimal profit distribution coefficient can maximize the profit of each actor and achieves the matching of returns and inputs. Therefore, this paper puts forward some suggestions that include establishing a precise distribution mechanism based on contracts or property rights definitions, considering the cost and importance weight of each actor’s input when formulating the profit distribution coefficient, and paying attention to information sharing.

Because of incomplete information on pre-sold products, consumers face uncertainty about the value of what they have purchased, which leads to a mismatch between supply and demand and a large number of returns. By developing appropriate return policies and effectively managing and handling consumer returns, retailers can not only reduce waste but also ensure better resource utilization, which is essential for sustainable development. In this paper, we analyze the full-refund and full-and-freight-refund policies of retailers and develop a game model based on binary competition for selecting the optimal return policy for the pre-sold products of two retailers. The study shows that when both retailers have low capacity, there is no pre-sale stage. However, when their combined capacity is high and exceeds the demand of non-strategic consumers, equilibrium depends on their combined capacity and the proportion of strategic consumers who choose to keep the pre-purchased product under both return policies. When the number of strategic consumers who retain pre-order products is low under the full-refund policy and both retailers have moderate capacity, equilibrium is achieved when an asymmetric return policy is followed rather than a symmetric return policy. Specifically, when the percentage of strategic consumers who keep their reserved products under the product return strategy is small and the capacity of the two retailers is moderate, the maximum benefit is achieved if one of the retailers adopts the policy of a full refund and the other adopts the policy of a full-and-freight refund. Otherwise, when one retailer adopts the policy of a full refund or a full-and-freight refund, its competitor should adopt the same strategy to gain maximum revenue. The research on retailers’ pre-sale and return strategies in this paper helps to optimize the operational strategies and operational processes of e-retailers, further improve the management and decision making of their joint pre-sale and return strategies, and help optimize retailers’ profits.

In the last few decades, humans have consumed more resources than in all of previous history. Hence, we are living in times in which the topic of environmental protection is a global concern. The paper aims to conduct a systematic literature review on consumer behavior, as well as identifying the main factors that interfere with consumer behavior toward green products. A total of 37 studies were found and systematized using inclusion and exclusion criteria. The papers were selected only if they featured research on consumer perceptions of green products. Using this search strategy, a literature analysis was performed based on papers extracted from Web of Science, Emerald Insights, Springer Link, and Science Direct. As a result, various factors that influence consumer behavior toward green products were identified, such as social norms, natural environmental orientation, the company’s perceived green image, green product characteristics, perceived risks and inconvenience of buying green products, perceived benefits of buying green products, institutional trust, sociodemographic characteristics, and consumer confidence. Even though completing a systematic literature review is not something new in academic research, the novelty of this paper is found in its theme: consumer behavior toward green products. Although the analyzed articles highlight quite varied reasons, the articles emphasize that the green products should take into account the needs, expectations, and perceptions of customers.

The food delivery service is the most typical and visible example of online-to-offline (O2O) commerce. More consumers are using food delivery services for various reasons during the COVID-19 pandemic, making this business model viral worldwide. In the post-pandemic era, offering food delivery services will become the new normal for restaurants. Although a growing number of publications have focused on consumer behavior in this issue, no review paper has addressed current research and industry trends. Thus, this paper aims to review the literature published from 2020 to the present (October 2022) on consumers’ use of food delivery services during the pandemic. A thematic review was conducted, with 40 articles searched from Scopus and Web of Science being included. Quantitative findings showed current research trends, and thematic analyses formed eight themes of factors influencing consumer behavior: (1) technical and utilitarian factors, (2) system-related attributes, (3) emotional and hedonic factors, (4) individual characteristics, (5) service quality, (6) risk-related factors, (7) social factors, and (8) food-related attributes. The paper also emphasizes COVID-19-related influences and suggests promising future research directions. The results offer insights into industry practices and starting points for future research.

Background Since 2013, China launched descending resources reform, which is a new attempt to correct unbalanced allocation of health resources through human capital spillovers and brand implantation from high-level hospitals. The purpose of this paper is to explore the patients’ hospital selection response to this reform with the focus of low-level hospitals to better understand the effect of this reform on correcting regional inequality of health resources allocation. Methods The European Consumer Satisfaction Index model (ECSI) was used to design a questionnaire, and cross-sectional data from 17 hospitals were collected through 1287 questionnaires from Zhejiang Province. Patient hospital selection (loyalty) is measured using ordinary variables by considering patient willingness to choose a low-level hospital when suffering an illness or severe illness. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) and the structure equation model are applied to examine the effect of reforms on patient behavior. Results The descending resources reform promotes improvements in the capabilities and medical environment of low-level hospitals, and descending doctors also have high accessibility. Perceived quality, patient expectations, and hospital image have significant positive effects on patient satisfaction, and the explanatory power of brand implantation from cooperative high-level hospitals and descending doctors is stronger than the image of the low-level hospital itself. And descending resources reform and patient satisfaction have significant positive impacts on patient’s choice for low-level hospitals with the existence of mediating effect of satisfaction. Conclusions This paper provides supporting empirical evidence of the descending resources reform’s impact on patients’ low-level hospital selection. This reform has been effective in improving the capabilities of low-level hospitals, and brand implantation of high-level hospitals shows strong explanatory power. China’s reform offers a distinct and valuable approach to correcting the uneven allocation of health resources. Besides, the findings also suggest that policymakers could pay more attention to the importance of information channels in impacting patient awareness, responses, and hospital selection.

In order to sell unmarketable products and alleviate farmers’ economic difficulties caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, public-interest livestreaming for farmers with the property of altruism has been emerging as a new way of mobile commerce and has attracted a huge amount of attention among Chinese consumers. In this paper, based on the theory of reasoned action, we intend to explore the influencing factors from the levels of the platform, product, and consumer that affect consumers’ attitudes and purchase intentions towards agricultural products via public-interest livestreaming. We have collected 475 valid responses from Chinese consumers (especially from youth) who experienced the public-interest livestreaming for farmers and then constructed a structural equation model using the partial least-squares method. The results show that consumers’ attitudes towards agricultural products have a significant positive impact on their purchase intentions with respect to livestreaming. Perceived interactivity, perceived endorsement, product familiarity, subjective norms, altruistic value, and the livestream shopping experience all significantly positively affected consumers’ attitudes toward the agricultural products in the mobile livestreaming. Moreover, subjective norms can also directly impact consumers’ purchase intentions. We can see that the proposed influencing factors from the platform, product, and consumer levels provide a better explanation of the attitudes and purchase intentions, respectively. This paper aims to expand the empirical research on the purchase intentions of agricultural products and then to provide insights into the phenomenon of public-interest livestreaming during COVID-19, which can assist farmers in addressing the dilemma caused by the epidemic and promote rural economic development by mobile commerce. Additionally, the insights from this case study in China can also be extended to other countries where farmers have suffered from the impact of COVID-19.

Carbon emissions from the production of beef account for the majority of carbon emissions from animal husbandry, and animal husbandry, in turn, is the main driver of global carbon emissions. At present, there are relatively few studies of consumer preferences for beef substitutes, especially in developing countries. However, plant-based meat is of great significance in solving the tense relationship between supply and demand, ensuring sustainable development, further improving food safety, and improving animal welfare. Based on survey data from 1146 consumers in Liaoning province, China, this paper adopts the choice experiment method to study consumer preferences and willingness to pay for four types of plant-based beef patty product attributes, traceability, safety certification, brand, and price, using the multivariate logit (MNL) model. The results show that consumers show greater preference and willingness to pay for plant-based beef patties with strong traceability, fully disclosed safety certification information, and mature production technology. Consumers generally have strong brand preferences, while there are some differences in preference for other product attributes. In addition, environmentally-focused consumers have a greater degree of preference for traceable products. This study explores the micro decision mechanism of the purchase of plant-based meat products in developing countries. The research conclusions of this paper have guiding significance for businesses engaged in plant-based meat production and processing because of the addition and use of attribute tags. This study also has reference significance for the regulatory standards of decision-making departments and government investment.

The purpose of this study was to analyze consumer or patient determinants of hospital brand equity (HBE) based on the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) Statement. A search of six databases: Scopus, Web of Sciences, PubMed, Google Scholar, Ebsco, and Elsevier was conducted. A search for studies published up to January 2022 was performed between 15 February and 5 March 2022. Article type, peer-reviewed papers, and studies based on empirical research were used as inclusion criteria. Non-English language papers, dissertations, short reports, works in progress, conference publications, and book chapters were excluded. As a result, a final set of 32 studies were selected for the analysis. Three research questions were formulated on the main determinants of HBE, brand-related factors, and specific medical-related factors. The studies included in the systematic literature review were analyzed in three areas: study description, key findings, and practical recommendations. Among the traditional HBE factors, brand loyalty has been analyzed most often, and the following have also been studied: perceived quality, brand associations, brand awareness, and brand image. Patient satisfaction, service quality, perception of the treatment process, and the work of medical staff were found to be specific medical-related factors. Other factors related to the management process, brand, and patients were also identified. It was noted that the number and variety of medical and other determinants of HBE have increased in recent years. The results of this systematic literature review are relevant to the analysis of consumer/patient behavior in choosing a hospital or other health care facility as they provide a deeper understanding of the increasingly differentiated needs of patients and the way in which the quality of health care services is evaluated.

An improved understanding of how policies can promote the diffusion of electric vehicles (EVs) is critical to achieving sustainable development. Previous studies of EV diffusion dynamics have paid insufficient attention to consumer preferences. In this paper, a network-based evolutionary game model considering dynamic consumer preference is constructed to study EV diffusion. Through numerical experiments, the evolutionary processes and results of various promotion policies, including carbon taxes, production subsidies, purchase subsidies, and information policy on EV diffusion, are simulated. In particular, this paper explores the differentiated effects of supply-side policies and demand-side policies. The simulation results indicate that: (1) The effectiveness of promotion policies is sensitive to the size of the manufacturer network, and large networks can dampen periodical fluctuations in diffusion rates. (2) Supply-side carbon taxes and subsidies facilitate a steady diffusion of EVs. However, compared with the sustained effectiveness of subsidies, carbon taxes may inhibit the rapid penetration of EVs. (3) Implementing purchase subsidies in the early stages of diffusion is more effective than production subsidies, but the potential uncertainty of demand-side subsidies should be noted. (4) The impact of information policy on the evolutionary trend of EV diffusion is pronounced but is a longer-term impact, requiring a long enough implementation horizon.

COVID-19 has impacted economic and social conditions around the globe. In a post-pandemic world, the labor models have been shifting in favor of working from home and shopping toward online purchasing through mobile devices. The pandemic has, in addition to disrupting the world economy, triggered changes in consumer behavior that require a rethinking of marketing efforts from the consumer’s perspective and a fundamental shift in branding strategies and managerial thinking. This paper expanded the understanding of the mobile consumer behavior of Generation Z consumers in China by examining the changes in their behavior in response to the pandemic. We used a structural equation model (SEM) to show that, in mobile shopping, the hedonic experience has played an essential role in signaling brand conspicuousness and product aesthetics, in turn promoting brand identity and associated behavioral reactions. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications of these changes for branding identity and brand management.

The advance selling (AS) has been widely applied in fresh industry for it can elevating the customer experience and increase flexibility thus profit for a retailer. However, the introduction of the AS will have an impact on spot market in pricing strategy, market share and the profit of the retailer. Hence, to coordinate the supply chain and improve the efficiency of the agricultural supply chain, a two-stage game theory model is constructed to analyze the effects of AS on three classic contracts: wholesale price, quantity discount and revenue-sharing contract. This paper also discusses the boundary conditions of whether a retailer should sell in advance. The conclusions of this paper are as follows: First, revenue-sharing contracts are superior to wholesale price and quantity discount contracts when retailers sell in advance, the wholesale price contract can perform better than the quantity discount contract in the presence of AS if the contract parameter is properly set. Second, a revenue-sharing contract that normally coordinates the supply chain can performs poorly when the retailer sells in advance that the social welfare would be higher if using a quantity discount contract instead. These conclusions have important implications for suppliers when retailers sell in advance. Such suppliers need to design appropriate contracts to distribute FAP that carefully take into consideration the AS activities in the market.

The spread of coronavirus worldwide has affected consumer behavior in many ways. This paper tries to investigate the impact of the SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) on food consumption behavior of consumers. Food consumption motivation data were assessed and compared before, during, and after the quarantine. An online survey was conducted among about 900 people from 54 different cities in Turkey, between April and May 2020, trying to understand consumers’ changing behavior in their food choices, preferences, and habits during the pandemic period. The aim of this paper is (i) to examine how consumer preferences were influenced by the COVID-19 quarantine period, using an ordered probit analysis, and (ii) to identify differences in the preferences for the food itself, food disinfection and cooking, and shopping preferences before and during the quarantine. Finally, as per the consumers’ body mass index (BMI), correlation with their mood and eating frequencies was observed. The findings indicate that, under stress conditions, like the quarantine period, food preferences and eating behavior changed, and consumers put all those emotions and information into their consumption process.

The aim of the paper is to create a typology of consumers based on the consumption of food products and non-alcoholic beverages for two countries. The research was conducted among non-randomized respondents representing 900 Polish and 300 Slovakian households. The Polish part of the study was carried out in the Silesian and Mazovian provinces. The Slovakian part of the study was carried out in the whole country. To identify four groups of consumers, the paper used the clustering of objects method, especially the Two-Step method: Ward (hierarchical) cluster analysis and non-hierarchical k-means cluster analysis. The authors represent the difference in the results achieved between types of consumers. Poles and Slovakians similarly perceive the financial status of their households and the attention paid to food price when buying it. However, there is a significant difference in food consumption. When eating, Slovaks are influenced more by vegetarian and vegan fashion trends and emotional experience than price. On the contrary, Poles are more interested in the health aspect of the food consumed and its quantity when emphasizing the price, which results from being less financially satisfied. The results of the research provide information about changes in consumer attitudes in the researched area and their thinking about their consumption, respectively lifestyle, and illustrate some trends in consumer behavior for the current and post-COVID-19 era.

PurposeThe aim of this paper is to study the consumer perception of functional foods and to identify determinants of functional foods consumption in Slovakia.Design/methodology/approachThe research is based on primary data obtained by conducting an online questionnaire survey in 2021 using the snowball sampling method (n = 1,138 Slovak respondents). By applying inferential and multivariate statistics, several segments of functional food consumers were identified.FindingsResearch identified three segments of functional food consumers in Slovakia differing in the agreement scores of the four dimensions of beliefs about functional foods. The “Skeptic” is the largest segment, comprising 52% of the sample. Consumers have higher agreement on the risk beliefs and lower agreement on the benefit, trend and interest beliefs. These consumers do not consume functional food regularly. The segment “Less interested”, comprising 35% of the sample, has average agreement scores, and consumers consume functional food occasionally or regularly. The “Enthusiastic” is the smallest segment, comprising only 12% of the sample. Consumers have high agreement on the benefits and interest beliefs and low agreement on the risk beliefs. Most consumers consume functional food regularly and are focusing on functional product features.Originality/valueThe results provide essential information for both the academic and commercial field. Obtained information can be used by producers of functional foods to better understand their customers as well as to improve their marketing strategies on the Slovak market.

Previous literature has found underlying differences in purchasing behaviors, consumption habits, and Internet and social media usage between Generation X and Millennials. The activities and how users engage with consumer advice made by popular social media personalities can differ according to their age. Recent studies have shown that trust in the message transmitted by influencers is a critical factor in explaining the impact of consumer recommendations on their followers. However, so far there is little evidence of the possible variation according to the generational cohort to which they belong. This paper attempts to fill this gap by reviewing theoretical contributions on the relationships between perceived trustworthiness, perceived risk, product involvement, and purchase intention. Next, we proposed an exploratory model that analyzes the differences through partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) with multigroup analysis. The resulting hypotheses were tested on a sample of 116 Millennial and 135 Generation X influencer followers. The results confirmed moderating effects of the generational cohort on message credibility and purchase intention, as well as on Millennials’ risk perception. Additionally, social norm and gender were analyzed, and heterogeneity was found according to the level of social norm of the followers.

Considering that both the manufacturer's production process and the transporter's freight process produce carbon emissions, this paper constructed a three-echelon supply chain composed of a manufacturer, a transporter, and a retailer. This article studies the cooperative carbon emission reduction among the supply chain members under the carbon cap-and-trade policy and consumer environmental awareness. We used the Stackelberg game to explore four scenarios as follows: (1) in the non-cooperative decision model, no cooperation takes place among all supply chain members; (2) in the local cooperation decision of the manufacturer and the transporter alliance model, the manufacturer and the transporter work together to make decisions reducing carbon emissions, but each member of the supply chain makes its own pricing decisions; (3) in the local cooperation decision of the retailer-transporter alliance model, there is no cooperation except that the retailer and the transporter cooperate with each other to determine the selling price of the product; and (4) in the overall-cooperative decision model, there is complete cooperation among the members of the supply chain, who collectively decide on carbon emission reduction and the selling price of the product. Then, using the backward induction method, we derived and compared the equilibrium solutions and the profits of the supply chain system. The results showed that the scenario of complete cooperation among all supply chain members had the best performance in carbon emission reduction, market equilibrium quantity, and the supply chain system's profit, but the selling price of the product was likely to be higher than other scenarios. Two contracts have been proposed to coordinate the supply chain system. The cost-sharing contract is effective but imperfect under limited constraints. The two-part tariff contract can realize perfect coordination of the supply chain. Finally, we obtained several interesting conclusions from the numerical example and provide managerial insights and policy implications from the analytical results.

With the growing demand for green development, providing green and conformance quality improved products for sustainable growth and industrial upgrading is essential. However, the related literature rarely considers the improvement of product conformance quality in green supply chain management. This paper incorporates both into a framework for addressing the problem. We analyze the optimal strategies of a manufacturer responsible for conformance quality of product and greenness improvement and a retailer responsible for product marketing in a supply chain under four contracts: full cooperation, price-only contract, two-part tariff, and marketing cost-sharing. The results show that full cooperation and two-part tariffs lead to the same and highest product quality, greenness, overall profit, and social welfare, but full cooperation is difficult to achieve in the supply chain. For the profit-maximizing manufacturer and retailer, the manufacturer most prefers two-part tariff contracts, while the retailer prefers marketing cost-sharing because both achieve the highest profit in the preferred contract. In addition, under the price-only contract, the conformance quality of product and greenness is the lowest, and the profit levels for manufacturers and retailers are the lowest. In all four cases, increased environment and quality awareness contribute to improved product greenness and conformance quality, leading to higher profits for the manufacturer and retailer and higher social welfare.

Background Lowering the strength of alcohol products could lead to less alcohol being bought and drunk. In its prevention White Paper, the UK Government aims to promote a significant increase in the availability of alcohol-free and low-alcohol products by 2025. Methods Through descriptive analysis and ARIMA modelling of >4 million alcohol purchases from 69 803 British households, we study the potential impact of lower strength alcohol products in reducing household purchases of grams of alcohol over 2015–2019. Households are divided into predominantly beer, wine or spirits purchasers. Results Over 5 years, there were decreases in purchases of grams of alcohol within beer amongst beer-purchasing households and increases in purchases of grams of alcohol within wine and spirits amongst, respectively, wine- and spirits-purchasing households. Almost all the changes were due to beer-purchasing households buying less regular strength beer, and wine and spirits-purchasing households buying, respectively, more regular strength wine and spirits, rather than increases in purchases of no- and low-alcohol products. Conclusions In general, lower strength alcohol products have not contributed to British households buying fewer grams of alcohol over the 5-year follow-up period during 2015–2019.

As a new form of foreign trade, cross-border e-commerce has huge development potential. Although the development prospect of cross-border e-commerce is good, the management of global supply chain is very important in order to gain a place in the fierce competition and develop steadily. The traditional forecasting of purchasing volume adopts time series, and the forecasting model is relatively simple. The purchase volume of the platform is related to the various consumption behaviors of consumers, such as the number of product reviews, the number of product collections, and whether there are tax subsidies. The sales volume in the next few days is predicted by the item number, time, and sales quantity. The four-layer BP neural network model is used, and the MATLAB neural network toolbox is used to draw the training error curve and the correlation coefficient curve. After network training, the training correlation coefficient R reaches 95.823%, and the prediction accuracy obtained at this time is higher. Further, using the established model based on BP algorithm, the traditional BP algorithm is optimized to obtain the purchase quantity of commodities. The method is applied to the forecast of commodity purchase volume of a cross-border e-commerce platform, and the results show that the average error rate of this method is 5.9%, which has high practical application value. The research results show that this paper considers multiple influencing factors and selects an appropriate forecasting method, which can effectively improve the accuracy of the company’s commodity sales forecast, so as to better formulate procurement plans and optimize inventory structure, which has certain implications for the actual operation of cross-border e-commerce platforms.

Modelling customer behaviour to predict their future purchase frequency and value is crucial when selecting customers for marketing activities. The profitability of a customer and their risk of inactivity are two important factors in this selection process. These indicators can be obtained using the well-known Pareto/NBD model. Here we cluster customers based on their purchase frequency and value over a given period before applying the Pareto/NBD model to each cluster. This initial cluster model provides the customer purchase value and improves the predictive accuracy of the Pareto/NBD parameters by using similar individuals when fitting the data. Finally, taking the outputs from both models, the initial cluster and Pareto/NBD, we present some recommendations to classify customers into interpretable groups and facilitate their prioritisation for marketing activities. To illustrate the methodology, this paper uses a database with sales from a beauty products wholesaler.

This paper examines household decisions over long-term care insurance (LTCI) purchases through a bargaining lens. Long-term care insurance purchase is a discrete decision around which spouses’ interests may diverge substantially. The cost of buying LTCI is typically borne by both spouses, but the benefits of LTCI go disproportionately to women, who are more likely to need long-term care for themselves, and to benefit from the asset protection and other support LTCI offers in the event their husband needs care. Using panel data on married couples ages 50–75 from the US Health and Retirement Study (HRS), we test and find support for the hypothesis that spouses’ relative bargaining power is related to LTCI purchase decisions. In particular, when husbands have final say in household decisions, LTCI coverage is less likely. The findings suggest that spouse’s relative bargaining power matters for health care choices and, therefore, for the welfare of older men and women.

The issue of low carbon emission reduction is getting more and more attention. This paper focuses on analyzing the equilibriums and digging deep into the impacts of cap-and-trade regulation, joint emission abatement scheme, and online direct channel on the performances of supply chain. By constructing two decentralized models in the single/joint emission abatement schemes under cap-and-trade regulation in a dual-channel supply chain, we find that consumer's environmental preference effectually motivates both the manufacturer and retailer to reduce emissions with joint emission abatement scheme. The analysis results show that introducing an online channel is always good for improving enterprises' profits, as well as protecting the environment in the joint emission abatement. Besides, the retailer should provide consumers with better service in the retail channel, which can further promote purchase power and drive the sustainable development of the supply chain. The manufacturer, when consumers have strong environmental preferences, should actively participate in cap-and-trade mechanism no matter single or joint emission abatement scheme is enforced.

The methodology of Kansei Engineering can grasp consumer’s subjective affective impressions about a product and turn it into concrete product solutions. The Kansei Food model is a specialized model doing this for food products. The aim of this paper is to interlink it with the more general model on Affective Engineering as well as to validate the findings by applying them in a case study. The general Kansei Engineering model and the Kansei Food model were analyzed, and the key parts of both models merged to a hybrid model. This model is then applied in a study on a development project for chocolate toffee fillings for sport applications. The case yielded valid results and gave an input to a parallel food development process. In conclusion, the Kansei Food model fits together with the general Kansei model. Hence, standardization makes it possible to have a more detailed look on sequential steps. Also, it becomes possible to transfer tools from other branch models (e.g. from automotive industry) in food industry and vice versa.

Starptautiskais mārketings un reklāma Vadība, administrēšana un nekustamo īpašumu pārvaldība International Marketing and Advertising Management, Administration and Real Estate Management Patērētāju uzvedība un zīmols ir divi svarīgi mārketinga aspekti, kas iet roku rokā. Klientu uzvedība attiecas uz darbībām un lēmumiem, ko klienti pieņem, iegādājoties produktu vai pakalpojumu, savukārt zīmols ir unikāla nosaukuma, simbola vai dizaina izveides process, kas identificē un atšķir uzņēmumu vai produktu no tā konkurentiem. Izpratne par klientu uzvedību ir būtiska, lai izstrādātu efektīvas zīmola stratēģijas. Analizējot klientu uzvedību, uzņēmumi var noteikt savu mērķauditoriju, vēlmes un vajadzības. Šo informāciju var izmantot, lai izveidotu zīmolu, kas rezonē ar klientiem un vairo lojalitāti. Bakalaura darba - zīmola L’Occitane tēla loma patērētāju uzvedībā Latvijā, mērķis ir balstoties uz zinātniskās literatūras un empīrisko datu analīzes, veikt zīmola L’Occitane tēla novērtējumu un attīstības iespējas Latvijā. Zīmols darbojas Latvijā jau 9 gadus, taču līdz šim nav veikta padziļināta izpēte par patērētāju uzvedību ietekmējošajiem faktoriem un zīmola tēla lomu patērētāju izvēles veikšanā, kas ir pētījuma problēma. Bakalaura darba struktūra – ievads, trīs galvenās nodaļas, kas sadalītas vairākās apakšnodaļās, secinājumi un priekšlikumi, kā arī izmantotās literatūras saraksts un viens pielikums. Darba ievadā tiek aplūkota pētāmās tēmas aktualitāte, kā arī iztirzāti darba uzdevumi, mērķis, pētāmā problēma, jautājums un priekšmets, kā arī izmantotās zinātniskās metodes un metodoloģija. Darba pirmajā nodaļā tiek izmantota monogrāfiskā metode, lai izpētītu jēdzienus. Darba otrajā nodaļā tiek izmantota sekundāro datu analīze, lai analizētu gan uzņēmuma darbību, gan nozares specifiku, kā arī kontentanalīze, lai analizētu zīmola vadlīnijas un vērtības. Taču darba 3.nodaļā tiek izmantota kvantitatīvā pētījuma metode aptauja, kurā, lai noskaidrotu zīmola L’Occitane novērtējumu Latvijā, tiek aptaujāti tā klienti. Autore darbā izmanto arī grafisko metodi ar kuru tiek veidotas tabulas un attēli. Balstoties uz pētījumā iegūtajiem rezultātiem autore izstrādāja vairākus ieteikumus, kā arī priekšlikumus zīmola komandai, tā tēla uzlabošanai un attīstības iespēju veicināšanai Latvijā. Bakalaura darbs sastāv no 54 lappusēm, 4 tabulām, 12 attēliem, 43 literatūras avotiem un 1 pielikuma. Consumer behavior and branding are two important aspects of marketing that go hand in hand. Customer behavior refers to the actions and decisions that customers make when purchasing products or services. Brands are a specific process of creating a name, symbol, or design that identifies and differentiates a company or product from its competitors. Understanding customer behavior is essential to developing effective branding strategies. By analyzing customer behavior, companies can identify their customers, wants and needs. This information can be used to create a brand that resonates with customers and increases loyalty. The aim of the bachelor's thesis - the role of the L'Occitane brand image in consumer behavior in Latvia is based on the analysis of scientific literature and empirical data, to evaluate and develop the L'Occitane brand image in Latvia. The brand has been operating in Latvia for 9 years, but until now no in-depth research has been conducted on the factors affecting consumer behavior and the role of brand images in making consumer choices, which is the problem of the research. The structure of the bachelor thesis – introduction, three main chapters divided into several subsections, conclusions and proposals, as well as a list of used literature and one appendix. The introduction of the work examines the topicality of the researched topic, as well as discusses the tasks, purpose, researched problem, question and subject, as well as the used scientific methods and methodology. The first chapter of the paper uses the monographic method to search for concepts. The second chapter of the work uses secondary data analysis to analyze both the company's operations and industry specifics, as well as content analysis to analyze brand guidelines and values. However, in the 3rd chapter of the work, a quantitative research method, a survey, is used, in which, in order to find out the evaluation of the L'Occitane brand in Latvia, its customers are surveyed. The author also uses the graphic method in her work, which creates tables and pictures. Based on the research results, the author developed several recommendations, as well as for the brand team, for improving its image and promoting development opportunities in Latvia. The bachelor thesis consists of 54 pages, 4 tables, 12 images, 43 literature sources and 1 appendix

Consumers can choose to buy products through various retail channels (e.g., online or in-store), resulting in a need for retailers to provide a well-integrated shopping experience. However, individual factors, such as a customer’s personality, can influence how a channel is perceived and, as such, can alter their subsequent behavior. Thus, it is critical for retailers to better understand personality-related influences and how these can affect a customer’s purchase channel decision. Against this background, the purpose of this structured review is to analyze the extant literature on the influences of personality traits on purchasing channel decisions. After extensive initial screening, 24 papers published in 2003–2021 were included in the analysis and synthesis phase of this literature review. The results show how personality traits (including Big Five factors and more fine-grained factors like playfulness) influence the choice of retail purchasing channels. Among other results, we find that online shopping intentions have been studied most as an outcome variable and that, in contrast to people high in openness to experience, people high in agreeableness are less likely to shop online. While we synthesize findings in the domains of mobile commerce, social commerce, mall shopping, and augmented and virtual reality as well, little research has compared the effects of personality traits on multiple channels. Based on our findings, we discuss managerial implications as well as directions for future research which are described in the form of a research agenda.

Payment platforms have significantly evolved in recent years to keep pace with the proliferation of online and cashless payments. These platforms are increasingly aligned with online social networks, allowing users to interact with each other and transfer small amounts of money in a Peer-to-Peer fashion. This poses new challenges for analysing payment data, as traditional methods are only user-centric or business-centric and neglect the network users build during the interaction. This paper proposes a first methodology for measuring user value in modern payment platforms. We combine quantitative user-centric metrics with an analysis of the graph created by users' activities and its topological features inspired by the evolution of opinions in social networks. We showcase our approach using a dataset from a large operational payment platform and show how it can support business decisions and marketing campaign design, e.g., by targeting specific users., Comment: 8 pages, 11 figures. Accepted for presentation at the 22nd IEEE International Conference on Data Mining (IEEE ICDM 2022)

Greenwashing stratejisi, şirketlerin çevre dostu oldukları yönünde tüketicilere yanlış ya da eksik bilgi vermeleri olarak açıklanabilmektedir. Bu makalenin amacı, greenwashing stratejisinin tartışılması ve Türkiye’de yapılan akademik çalışmalar üzerinden, terimin Türkçe karşılığının oluşmasında katkıda bulunmaktır. Bu kapsamda ilk başta yeşil pazarlama, greenwashing stratejisi ve uygulama çeşitlerine değinilmiş ve ardından Türkiye’de 2022 yılı nisan ayına kadar yayınlanan ve/veya kabul edilen greenwashing ile ilgili akademik çalışmalar incelenmiştir. İnceleme sonrası yirmi dokuz kaynaktan oluşan bu literatürde, kullanım sıklığı ile kelime anlamı açısından yeşil aklama ifadesinin Türkçe’de greenwashing ifadesi yerine kullanılabileceği sonucuna ulaşılmıştır. Türkçe bir ifade kullanılmasının tüketicilerin ve pazarlama uzmanlarının zihninde daha somut bir olgu oluşturacağı ve böylelikle farkındalığa ve çevre bilincine katkı sağlayacağı düşünülmektedir., Greenwashing can be defined as a strategy where companies give false or incomplete information about their environmental behaviors to their customers. This paper aims to discuss greenwashing and contribute to the formalizing of the Turkish equivalent of it by looking at its use in Turkish academic studies. Firstly, green marketing, greenwashing, and the types of greenwashing will be explained. Then academic studies on greenwashing, that were published and/or accepted until April 2022 in Turkey, will be examined. This examining process includes the obtained literature, which consists of twenty-nine studies. The findings show that, in terms of usage frequency and word meaning, the term “yeşil aklama” can be used instead of greenwashing in Turkish. It is thought that the use of a Turkish expression will create a more concrete phenomenon in the minds of consumers and marketing experts, thus contributing to awareness and environmental consciousness.

BACKGROUND: Designs that evoke fun and surprise have been successful in driving uncommon positive behavior. Affective design (AD) is based on the premise that products and services can elicit strong affective responses that can be harnessed for specific purposes such as increasing consumption. OBJECTIVE: This paper aims to discuss the theoretical foundations and applications of AD to address contemporary consumption, recycling, and healthcare issues. METHODS: Current applications of AD to address environmental and health issues were analyzed in terms of effectiveness in changing user behavior. Relevant concepts were used to provide future research directions in this field. RESULTS: Early applications of AD focused on designing products to increase customer satisfaction and stimulate consumption. The method, however, is auspicious in solving relevant societal and global problems. To pave the way for successful integration of AD, one research direction is the need to identify the right emotion to elicit in a certain context. There is a dearth of literature to promote sustainable consumption, such as using less energy, minimizing carbon footprint, or just taking care of the environment using AD. CONCLUSION: The integration of AD is a strategy that can be used to prompt behavior beneficial to society and the environment. Literature on AD suggests that a deliberate effort to manipulate design factors can work to elicit strong affective responses.

ObjectivesSales of ultraprocessed foods (UPFs) and beverages are rising in low-income and middle-income countries. Such foods are often linked with weight gain, obesity, type 2 diabetes and hypertension—diseases that are on the rise in India. This paper analysed patterns in purchases of processed and UPF by urban Indian households.SettingPanel data from Kantar —Worldpanel Division, India for 2013 and 2016.Participants58 878 urban Indian households.MethodsWe used K-mean partition clustering and multivariate regression to analyse patterns in processed food (PF) and UPF purchase for urban India.ResultsThree-quarters of urban Indian households purchased over ten PF groups. Mean per person annual PF purchase was 150 kg. UPF purchase was low at 6.4 kg in 2016 but had grown by 6% since 2013. Cluster analysis identified three patterns of consumption, characterised by low (54% of the households in 2016), medium (36%) and high (10%) PF purchase quantities. High cluster households purchased over three times as much PFs and UPF as the low cluster households. Notably, salt purchases were persistently high across clusters in both years (>3.3 kg), while sweet snack and ready-to-eat food purchases grew consistently in all clusters between 2013 and 2016. A positive and significant association was found between household purchases of UPF and their socioeconomic status as well as ownership of durables, such as refrigerator, colour television and washing machine (all pConclusionResults suggest the need for tailored regional and city level interventions to curb the low but growing purchase of UPF. New data on obesity and rise of non-communicable diseases, the results are concerning given the links between lifestyle changes and the speed of urbanisation in Indian cities.

Taking into consideration fairness concerns and altruistic preferences of manufacturers, this paper aims to propose a green dual-channel supply chain that incorporates consumers’ environmental awareness (CEA) and channel preference. The purpose of this work is to explore and further compare the optimal outcomes in a green dual-channel supply chain in three scenarios, which are the fairness-neutrality scenario (Model N), the manufacturer is concerned with fairness scenario (Model F), and the manufacturer has altruistic preference (Model A), respectively. The game-theoretical models with different fairness preferences, comparative, and numerical analyses are used to put forward the impacts of consumers’ channel preference and CEA on pricing, profits, and utilities, and to identify the differences in decisional outcomes between the three models. The results indicate that CEA always contributes to developing the green market while adversely affecting common products. Moreover, consumers’ channel preferences might enable the manufacturer and retailer to enhance profitability under certain conditions. The findings also reveal that manufacturer’s fairness concerns can possibly increase the demand for green products but impair the overall performance of the supply chain in general. Moreover, while the manufacturer’s altruistic preference benefits the retailer’s profits, it has a detrimental effect on the performance of the green supply chain. The practical implications of this research come to promote green consumption and increasing consumer awareness of environmental protection are effective ways to develop a green supply chain. It is also important to note that in order to maintain the durability and stability of the sup-ply chain, the manufacturer must maintain a moderate level of fairness preference behaviors so that downstream retailers will remain enthusiastic about establishing long-term relationships.

To provide analytic materials for business management for smart retail solutions, it is essential to recognize various customer behaviors (CB) from video footage acquired by in-store cameras. Along with frequent changes in needs and environments, such as promotion plans, product categories, in-store layouts, etc., the targets of customer behavior recognition (CBR) also change frequently. Therefore, one of the requirements of the CBR method is the flexibility to adapt to changes in recognition targets. However, existing approaches, mostly based on machine learning, usually take a great deal of time to re-collect training data and train new models when faced with changing target CBs, reflecting their lack of flexibility. In this paper, we propose a CBR method to achieve flexibility by considering CB in combination with primitives. A primitive is a unit that describes an object’s motion or multiple objects’ relationships. The combination of different primitives can characterize a particular CB. Since primitives can be reused to define a wide range of different CBs, our proposed method is capable of flexibly adapting to target CB changes in retail stores. In experiments undertaken, we utilized both our collected laboratory dataset and the public MERL dataset. We changed the combination of primitives to cope with the changes in target CBs between different datasets. As a result, our proposed method achieved good flexibility with acceptable recognition accuracy.

Meat tenderness is the most important attribute related to consumer satisfaction. No analytical tool is currently available to measure or predict tenderness in real-time. Therefore, direct measurement of meat tenderness is not possible in the meat industry. Several reviews are available on optical sensing technologies for meat; however, no comprehensive review is available on optical sensing for meat tenderness. The simplicity, accuracy, and limited sample preparation have made optical techniques the best tools for determining meat tenderness. This paper reviews the perspectives and aspects of conventional tenderness measurement tools along with some selected optical sensing technologies for meat tenderness. Additionally, the major challenges of optical sensing techniques and future trends will also be addressed. If adequately optimized, optical sensing techniques could be incorporated into the production line to measure tenderness in real-time for correct labeling, pricing, and screening of meat to better provide consumers with the products they desire.

Instant delivery is an intermediary bridge for same-city O2O services and an important part of urban short-distance logistics. The route planning and scheduling of instant delivery need to balance cost and customer satisfaction and consider the impact of traffic conditions on the distribution process. In this paper, we propose a vehicle routing problem model considering two types of customer time windows under time-dependent road networks and design a memetic algorithm combined with genetic algorithm and variable neighborhood search to solve the problem. By comparing the results of the different time periods and conducting sensitivity analysis for the two types of customer time windows, the effectiveness of the model and algorithm is verified.

This paper aims to propose a conceptual model which will unveil how fans of different film genres observe the importance of elements of marketing mix when consuming products in the film industry during COVID-19 pandemics. To verify the proposed conceptual model, a survey was conducted during the lockdown and the responses of 1606 individuals from Serbia, who declare themselves as film fans, were analyzed using structural equation modelling analysis. The results support the assumption that the respondents who prefer different film genres give different importance to elements of the film marketing mix. Our findings show that based on the genre of the film marketing activities can be tailored so as to improve their effects, especially during the pandemics and post-pandemics period. It is believed that the herein presented research could initiate further research on the issue of modelling marketing activities in the film industry based on consumers’ genre preference and behavior.

Based on the development background of the social network environment, higher requirements are put forward for the development and transformation of hotels in the new era. As a representative industry in the service industry, the service quality and experience provided by the hotel can meet the feelings and needs of customers. According to the data of the hotel industry in previous years, it can be found that from 2015 to 2018, the average revenue of hotel rooms available for rent (RevPAR) decreased by 7.7%, 5.3%, and 7.7%, respectively; The occupancy rate dropped to the lowest point at the end of 2018 and then began to rise gradually. In addition, while the economy recovers, the tourism industry has driven the hotel industry. RevPAR has increased by—1.4% and 3.5% year-on-year, and the occupancy rate has increased by 3.6% and 2.0% year-on-year. In 2018, China’s star hotels generally showed an upward trend. This also shows the attraction of hotel brand logo to customers. By studying the factors such as brand image and service quality, we can establish the viscosity with customers. This paper explores the relationship between various elements and customers and puts forward effective suggestions in order to further improve the service level of the hotel.

This paper systematically investigates the impact of consumers’ health risk perceptions on the purchase intention of blockchain traceable fresh fruits in China. It uses online-survey data collected from four pilot cities that are part of the food traceability system in China. The ordinary least squares (OLS) and the ordered probit model was applied to examine the posited relationships. The results show that consumers’ health risk perception has a significant positive effect on the purchase intention of blockchain traceable fresh fruits. The stronger consumers’ health risk perception, the stronger their purchase intention of blockchain traceable fresh fruits. Likewise, heterogeneity exists among gender, age, income, and education in their corresponding effect of consumers’ health risk perception on blockchain traceable fresh fruit purchase intention. This suggests that male, high-aged, high-income and high-educated groups have a higher health risk perception, and therefore a higher purchase perception for blockchain traceable fresh fruits than female, low-aged, low-income and low-educated, respectively. Furthermore, family structure, consumers’ traceability cognition and purchase experience of traceable products affect the purchase intention of blockchain traceable fresh fruits. The study has several insights on the broader promotion, acceptance and development of the food traceability system and provides practical cues for policy and practice.

As e-commerce continues to develop, online shopping is becoming more and more popular, and community e-commerce platform emerges as the times require. To make the participants in the supply chain of community e-commerce platform play a greater role in value creation, the supply chain of community e-commerce platform can get more benefits. This paper studies the psychology of all participants in the supply chain of community e-commerce platform, so as to establish the value creation mechanism of community e-commerce platform. Through the research, it is found that by studying the psychology of the two main participants in the supply chain of community-based online store, community e-commerce platform and community leader, and considering whether they will do their best to participate in value co-creation, a two-party evolutionary game model is constructed. By calculating the dynamic replication equation, the influence of the psychology of the participants in the supply chain of the community-based online store on the supply chain revenue of the community-based online store is obtained, and the evolutionary trend of both parties in the game is simulated by Matlab. It is concluded that the key factors that affect the co-creation of the value of a community-based online store supply chain are the proportion of increased income, the cost of participating in co-creation of value, and the purchasing power of consumers brought by participating with both parties. Finally, some suggestions and countermeasures are put forward through the analysis of simulation results.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the perception of environmental attributes and food safety in Italy and Spain and how these different perceptions influence the importance of various attributes and certifications related to food. These two countries have a common root and some undeniable similarities, but there are two completely distinct individualities. Three main research questions have, thus, been identified: attention to food safety regarding Italian and Spanish consumers; the role of ecological certifications in the perception of health in the two countries; the role of the brand and the choice of organic products in the perception of food safety. To answer the research questions, a questionnaire was administered, face to face, to a sample of both Spanish consumers and Italian consumers. The analysis of the data collected through the questionnaires was administered using two logistic regressions to identify which variables influence issues concerning the health and safety of food products. A Spanish consumer interested in ecological certifications is also a consumer who is attentive to the safety and health of food consumption. Looking at Italian consumers, it is highly probable that a consumer who assesses ecological certifications positively is also a consumer concerned about food safety, but this probability increases the likelihood this consumer’s choices are guided by brands and frequent consumption of organic products. This research has allowed us to highlight sharp differences in the approach to consumption in these two countries, which, despite similar cultures and the same sensitivity to environmental and food safety issues, exhibit marked differences in the selection of food products.

Automation has quickly become a key factor in the business world today. As business becomes more and more competitive, companies are searching for a plethora of different ways to automate tasks in order to avoid redundancy and efficiently use resources to upscale production. This portfolio follows two independent projects that seek to highlight and demonstrate the effects but also the importance of automation in the business world. The technical research topic explores internal tool automation techniques and the STS research topic addresses the implications of the role of artificial intelligence in the automation of marketing strategies and its effects on American consumer behavior. For the technical research topic, a dashboard automation tool was created to automate the process of creating internal dashboard tools used at Capital One. It was designed and created in an effort to reduce redundant code, since most teams would design dashboards that served a similar purpose. For the STS research topic, the question: “How has the age of artificial intelligence affected modern American consumer behavior?” is explored through the examination of several case studies of how American consumer behavior has changed in the past. Redundant code is a large issue throughout any collaborative coding effort. There are a large number of ways to approach many situations and significant time is often spent towards accomplishing something that someone else has already done before. The team was tasked with leveraging different languages and frameworks as well as company technologies to automate the creation of dashboards. The primary work was creating template files and a command line interface that would populate the template files. The command line interface would allow users to input basic information about their dashboard and the application would populate these template files and create the necessary code to create not only a working dashboard, but also generate the resources necessary to have it running on the cloud. A web wizard was also created in order to integrate the command line interface with a web application that serves the same purpose, but is more accessible for users more unfamiliar with using command line interfaces. Doing so not only substantially reduced the effort needed to stand up a dashboard, but also kick-started the potential beginnings of a “marketplace” with the purpose of reducing redundancy throughout the company. As the world continues to embrace consumerism, marketers are seeking to understand how to leverage consumer behavior in order to stay at the forefront of their industries. However, this field has gone through drastic changes throughout the years through the course of defining events such as the rise of the digital revolution as well as the COVID-19 pandemic. Each of these events have significantly altered the way that consumers approach purchasing decisions. More recently, however, we are seeing the brink of a revolution on a whole other scale with the rise of artificial intelligence. With its autonomous nature, artificial intelligence opens up numerous opportunities for marketers with its ability to process copious amounts of personal information available on the world today. The STS section seeks to determine how technological and societal implications of artificial intelligence will impact modern American consumer behavior, and how that information can be used to understand future shifts. Research papers, articles, studies, and journals will all be used to gain an understanding of how American consumer behavior has responded to external forces in the past and how a new technology like artificial intelligence will shape it. The research will be analyzed using technological determinism to better understand the impacts of the autonomous driving nature of artificial intelligence in modern marketing strategies. The results of this research alongside understanding of previous shifts in marketing and American consumer behavior will lay the groundwork for a future understanding of how the average American consumer will respond to future technological advances and better understand both their own purchasing habits and how those can be leveraged against them. Overall, this portfolio highlights both technical as well as the social and more theoretical effects of automation in the work place. The technical portion of this portfolio explores a more concrete business application of modern automation techniques whereas the STS section takes a more theoretical and seeks to make a prediction rather than an observation. Throughout both sections however, the implications are clear: the future will be automated. Even though rudimentary automation systems are in place such as the dashboard automator that was specified in the technical portion, artificial intelligence brings automation to another level. Conducting both projects in tandem not only bridges this gap between tangible, technical topics with theoretical and social topics, but also provides insight on the differences and similarities between the two. With the usefulness of current automation tools and a bright future ahead through the use of artificial intelligence, this portfolio reinforces the importance of modern automation efforts as well as explores the social implications as well.

Purpose of Review The value of nutrition and health claims (N&HC) depends on how consumers use them and the regulatory framework that enables them. This paper aims to explore the impact of claims on consumer behaviour and identify evolving regulatory challenges, using the Australian experience as a reference point. Recent Findings N&HC can influence consumer food purchasing and consumption, but how consumers interpret and act on specific claims is less well understood, and regulatory frameworks are evolving. In the last 10 years, changes to the Australian regulatory framework have exposed greater opportunities for promoting foods, albeit with challenges regarding self-substantiation of claims. Summary N&HC can play a significant role in driving consumer choices towards a healthier food supply. The Australian experience demonstrates how N&HC can continue to evolve, reflecting developments in methodologies and a fundamental appreciation of the relationship between food and health.

The dairy industry has a long supply chain that involves dairy farmers, enterprises, consumers, and the government. The stable growth of consumer groups is the driving force for the sustainable development of the dairy industry. However, in recent years, sustainable development of the dairy industry has faced great challenges due to the constant changes in the global climate environment and the increasing uncertainty of the international economic environment. Therefore, it is essential to systematically monitor and accurately predict the consumption market of dairy products to ensure that the government, dairy enterprises, and dairy farmers can share information in a timely manner and take effective measures to cope with the changes in the dairy consumption market without disturbing the normal pricing mechanism of the dairy market. The purpose of the conducted research is to systematically monitor and accurately predict the dairy product consumption market while consistently delivering dependable forecasts of consumer behavior in the dairy industry. In this paper, we proposed a raw milk price prediction framework (RMP-CPR) to analyze consumer behavior based on the relationship between milk price and dairy consumption. This study concludes that dairy consumption behavior can be predicted accurately by predicting the price of raw milk based on the proposed framework (RMP-CPR). Our research explores a new angle for studying consumer behavior. The results can assist dairy enterprises in developing accurate marketing strategies based on the forecast results of dairy consumption, thereby enhancing their competitiveness in the market. Policymakers can also use the forecast results of the development trend of the dairy consumption market to adjust corresponding policies in a timely manner. This can help to balance the interests among consumers, dairy enterprises, dairy farmers, and other relevant stakeholders and effectively maintain the sustainable and healthy development of the dairy market.