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A statistical model comparing national and cultural differences in luxury consumption tendencies is presented in this paper. The objective is to investigate the factors influencing luxury consumption tendency, such as social influence, conspicuous consumption, and brand image, and their impact on consumer purchasing behavior and life satisfaction. Specifically, the Tend and Befriend Theory, the Compensatory Control Theory, and the Technology Acceptance Model are utilized to analyze the model. The quantitative analysis is based on cross sectional data with 401 valid questionnaires from Portugal and 369 from China. Comparative analysis is conducted to evaluate attitudes toward luxury consumption tendencies in both Chinese and Portuguese samples. The results indicate that social influence, conspicuous consumption, and brand image have a positive effect on luxury consumption tendencies. Moreover, luxury consumption tendencies are positively correlated with life satisfaction, the urge to buy, and luxury spending. Differences between Portuguese and Chinese consumers are observed, attributed to cultural variations. This study enhances our understanding of consumer behavior in luxury markets by elucidating influential relationships that impact consumer decision-making and life satisfaction, while also highlighting cultural influences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

New-energy vehicles (NEV), particularly electric vehicles, are globally popular with political and financial support from governments, which aim at reducing energy consumption and environmental pollution in the transportation sector. This paper designs a matrix model which identifies the factors influencing the decision-making process on purchasing NEVs, and applies the model on a Chinese case to investigate the impact of influencing factors on Chinese consumers' purchase behavior to NEVs. The influencing factors are divided into five groups: economic, political, social, technological and environmental. Through a detailed questionnaire survey of 526 consumers in China, this paper conducts a correlation and difference analysis between these consumers' status and the influencing factors on the purchase decision-making of NEVs through SPSS software. The results indicate that economic, technological and political factors have a strong influence on purchase behavior, while social and environmental factors have a weaker influence. Additional principal component analysis on influencing factors' preference reveals that consumers' preferences have two tendencies: practicability or appearance, with the former is attracting far more attention. Rather than practicability or appearance, consumers care more about economic and political factors. According to these results, this paper suggests several policy implications on enhancing the consumers' willingness to purchase NEVs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Food production is one of the main contributors to greenhouse gas emissions and climate change. China, as a rapidly developing economy, contributes to an unsustainable food system as its consumption of animal products and meat has continued to grow in recent decades. Using the extended theory of planned behavior as the conceptual framework, this paper examines factors influencing consumers' intention to purchase sustainable food in China. To this end, a population‐based face‐to‐face survey was conducted with 2422 respondents in five provinces spanning the north and south of China. The results showed that the traditional constructs of behavioral attitude, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, and the additional construct of perceived quality are significant in inducing such intentions. This paper suggests that to enhance consumers' willingness to shift to sustainable food consumption, appropriate regulation and monitoring framework is needed to increase consumers' trust toward sustainable food. The government can also cooperate with the media, experts, and social media opinion leaders to ensure that messages on sustainable development are promoted in effective ways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Green agriculture can minimize the negative impact of agriculture on the environment. As countries around the world strongly advocate green production and green life style, not only is consumers' awareness about green consumption rising, but the demand for green agricultural products at home and abroad is gradually increasing as well. Brand image has been a crucial factor for consumers to make their final purchasing decisions, thus playing a critical role in influencing the purchasing decisions of consumers. Based on the theory of the brand image, this paper undergoes a comprehensive theoretical and positive analysis and explores the influence mechanism of brand image of green agricultural products on consumers' purchasing intention. A hypothetical model with perceived value as mediators is constructed by us to examine the influence of brand image of green agricultural products on consumers' purchasing intention. A quantitative study was conducted for a random sample of 341 consumers who purchased green agricultural products in China according to a questionnaire-based survey using a cluster random sampling technique. The study showed that the overall image of agribusiness, the image of agricultural products, the social image of agribusiness, and the image of consumers are all positively related to consumption intention. The overall image of agribusiness, the image of agricultural products, the social image of agribusiness, and the image of consumers have a positive influence on perceived value. Moreover, perceived value plays a part in the mediating role in the influence of the overall image of agribusiness, the image of agricultural products, the social image of agribusiness, and the image of consumers on consumption intention. These findings shed lights on enterprises in establishing a scientific and effective brand strategy and building an excellent brand image. The research conclusion can provide new insight into how to enhance the consumption willingness for green agricultural products and promote sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to achieve the "dual carbon goal", the Chinese government is actively encouraging the adoption of household photovoltaic (PV) systems. While there has been considerable research on residents' inclination to install PV, limited attention has been given to understanding how the installation and utilization of PV systems influence pro-environmental behaviors. Therefore, this paper aims to investigate the potential impact of pro-environmental behavior resulting from household PV installation on users' green purchasing behavior. Based on the "learning by doing" theory, a survey was conducted with 1249 participants, and the generalized structural equation model was employed as our analytical approach. The findings of this research indicate that the adoption and utilization of household photovoltaic (PV) systems have a positive impact on green consumption. The test results demonstrate that the overall effect coefficient is 0.03, indicating that current PV promotion policies have an indirect impact on green consumption. Moreover, economic incentive policies have a more substantial influence than environmental publicity policies, with total indirect effect coefficients of 0.005 and 0.002, respectively. Based on the findings above, the following recommendations are proposed: (1) It is recommended to maintain stable economic incentives to promote the adoption of household PV systems. (2) Emphasizing the dissemination of knowledge and skills for promoting environmental protection should be prioritized. (3) Efforts should be made to align personal interests and societal interests with low-carbon policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the global outbreak of COVID-19, the panic-buying incidents triggered by the variants of the Omicron strain have severely affected the normal social order. This paper considers the complex interest game and interactive relationship among multiple subjects in the mass-panic buying event caused by rumors and constructs a three-party evolution game model of local government, rumor-monger, and public. The strategy-selection process of each subject based on evolutionary game theory is studied, and the strategy selection of three game subjects in different situations and related influencing factors are analyzed. Taking the example of the montmorillonite powder panic buying caused by the XBB virus strain rumor in China, the evolutionary game model constructed in this study is simulated and analyzed. The study shows that the evolutionary process of the mass panic-buying event is characterized by six stages: the initial stage; the outbreak stage; the spread stage; the climax stage; the relief stage; and the recovery stage. There are four stable points in the evolutionary game of the three game subjects, namely (no intervention, no rumor, no panic buying), (no intervention, rumor, no panic buying), (intervention, no rumor, no panic buying), and (intervention, rumor, no panic buying). The strategy of government intervention will be adjusted according to the strategy selection of the public and the rumor-monger. Under the mechanism of reward and punishment of the higher-level government, increasing the punishment and reward intensity of the higher-level government will promote the local government to intervene in the rumor-mongering event faster, but increasing the reward intensity has a more significant impact on the intervention behavior of the local government than punishment, and increasing punishment intensity has a more significant impact on the non-rumor-mongering behavior of the rumor-monger than reward. The parameters of social risk-bearing cost, risk transmission coefficient, rumor-mongering income and cost, and public drug purchase cost have different degrees of influence on the evolutionary behavior of game subjects. Therefore, this study provides new ideas for effectively responding to mass panic buying events in the context of public emergencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's flower industry is developing rapidly, and the size of the retail market is increasing year by year. Studying the factors influencing residents' flower purchasing behavior and understanding their flower needs can help promote the sustainable development of the flower industry. Based on customer satisfaction theory, this paper uses 838 consumer research questionnaires from 15 districts in Shanghai to analyze the influence of customer satisfaction on residents' flower purchasing behavior by conducting a binary logit model and to investigate the moderating effect of flower purchasing purpose on the influence of satisfaction. The results show that price satisfaction and satisfaction with promotional methods have a significant negative effect on flower purchasing behavior, service satisfaction has a significant positive effect on purchasing behavior, and different customer purchase purposes lead to different intensities of the effect of satisfaction on purchasing behavior. According to the conclusion of the study, three countermeasures are proposed: to popularize the knowledge of flower culture, guide the concept of flower consumption, and promote the transformation of flower consumption to daily consumption; to conduct regular research on consumers by flower merchants to clarify consumers' needs and improve their satisfaction; to clarify consumers' purchase intention, increase the investment in the research and development and cultivation of flower products, and improve the supply level of flowers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's flower industry is developing rapidly, and the size of the retail market is increasing year by year. Studying the factors influencing residents' flower purchasing behavior and understanding their flower needs can help promote the sustainable development of the flower industry. Based on customer satisfaction theory, this paper uses 838 consumer research questionnaires from 15 districts in Shanghai to analyze the influence of customer satisfaction on residents' flower purchasing behavior by conducting a binary logit model and to investigate the moderating effect of flower purchasing purpose on the influence of satisfaction. The results show that price satisfaction and satisfaction with promotional methods have a significant negative effect on flower purchasing behavior, service satisfaction has a significant positive effect on purchasing behavior, and different customer purchase purposes lead to different intensities of the effect of satisfaction on purchasing behavior. According to the conclusion of the study, three countermeasures are proposed: to popularize the knowledge of flower culture, guide the concept of flower consumption, and promote the transformation of flower consumption to daily consumption; to conduct regular research on consumers by flower merchants to clarify consumers' needs and improve their satisfaction; to clarify consumers' purchase intention, increase the investment in the research and development and cultivation of flower products, and improve the supply level of flowers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the conditions of the spread of globalization processes, growing interdependence, and interconnectedness of countries, a significant intensification of the academic society efforts to ensure national energy security and independence is necessary. The purpose of the paper is to provide a systematic review of the scientific environment aimed at analysing the contents and features of scientific publications dealing with new trends and patterns in sustainable energy consumption. In order to create a semantic and definition basis and research the main trends of scientific publications on the subject of developing energy efficiency and sustainable consumption, the paper carried out a bibliometric analysis concerning the categories «energy efficient» and «energy consumption» using the Scopus and VOSviewer tools. The main question is, what are the main scientific and research trends and patterns in the field of energy efficiency and sustainable consumption? For this purpose, the quantity and quality tendencies of the scientific articles which are studying issues connected with energy efficiency and sustainable consumer behaviour were determined. A sample of more than 24000 scientific publications on this issue was generated from publications indexed by the Scopus database. The study period covers 2001-2021. On the global level, the analysed investigated area is represented by the countries: China, the USA, and India. VOS viewer tools were used to systemize 5 clusters of scientific articles that analysed sustainable energy consumption from different points of view. Identification of regularities in the developing of scientific approaches to energy-efficient consumption and developing sustainable energy sector was carried out using bibliometric analysis, which has made it possible to describe the dominant retrospective evolutionary and temporal tendencies in the development of this theory concerning the concepts of sustainable development, environmental management, and development of renewables. As a result, one of the most significant trends is a green brand and tendencies connected with developing green marketing and green consumer awareness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the era of the rise of big data, if insurance companies can effectively and reasonably use existing data to tap more potential information, it can not only improve work efficiency but also achieve precise marketing to customers, thereby saving costs. At the same time, China pays more and more attention to financial insurance, so it is of great significance to use customer information to explore the purchase behavior of financial insurance. This paper mainly analyzes the factors that affect the purchase of financial insurance from the aspects of individuals and families and provides references for insurance marketing. This paper selects the results of the China Comprehensive Social Survey in 2020 as the empirical sample data of this paper and sets whether to purchase financial insurance as the target variable. The characteristic variables were screened, and the 10 variables selected after screening were finally used to build the model. Next, the data are divided into training set and test set, and a decision tree learning model is established on the two data sets at the same time. The classification results of the model are evaluated according to the classification evaluation indicators. Finally, the decision tree analysis results provide suggestions and strategies for the construction of insurance marketing recommendation methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The online retail market shows a sharp increase in traffic during holiday sales. The ability to distinguish customers who will likely purchase is critical for provisioning traffic and for providing cost-effective promotions. This paper uniquely studies the browsing and purchasing behaviors of online shoppers during a yearly sale event in China, the world’s largest online marketplace. Based on 31 million action logs gathered from wide residential areas, we characterize the steps leading to purchases and determine their precursors. We investigate the effect of time (e.g., date, time of date), environment (e.g., platform, viewed category), and action (e.g., session time, clicks, sequence) on purchases. Action cues from shopping behaviors can be used for early detection. While most shoppers start with strong intentions to purchase, yet the moment of ordering comes rather impulsively within 30 seconds to several minutes of browsing. The predictive accuracy reaches as a high AUC of 0.924. The findings in this paper provide an understanding of traffic during mega sale events that can help online shops plan and provide a better user experience for upcoming shopping festivals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the close relationship between real estate and capital financing, this paper specifically discusses the impact of interest rate changes in China on real estate market transactions. Housing price regulation has been a hot and focused topic of economics research. It is important to explore the effect of interest rate on real estate market transactions, for the interest rate is an important tool for the government to carry out macrocontrol of the real estate market and affects residents' consumption choices of goods. Currently, most scholars believe that interest rate changes have a significant impact on house prices, but their studies are often based on empirical analysis of macro data, making it difficult to exclude the effects of economic differences, geographic characteristics, and other factors. Also, some scholars believe that it is difficult for interest rates to have a long-term impact on real estate prices. This paper applies the experimental economics method to simulate real estate transactions in the real market and control the irrelevant variables to study the movements of housing prices, transaction volumes, consumer transaction intentions and bubble indices under different deposit and lending rates. The results show that: (1) The level of deposit interest rate has a significant inhibitory effect on housing price and a significant promoting effect on real estate market transaction volume and traders' house-buying behavior. The higher the level of deposit interest rate is, the better the degree of regulating house prices deviating from the theoretical price is and the better the effect of inhibiting market bubbles. (2) The level of lending rate has a significant inhibiting effect on the volume of real estate transactions and a significant promoting effect on the house-buying behavior of traders, but its effect on housing prices and market bubbles is not significant. The higher the level of lending rate is, the better the degree of regulating housing prices deviating from the theoretical price is. (3) The effect of deposit interest rate and lending rate policies on the house selling behavior of market traders is not significant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The gay consumer market is often treated as a homogeneous entity, and Anglophone scholarship has given scant attention to lesbian consumers. This paper examines gendered distinctions within the Chinese gay market by asking how the lesbian consumer market is organized differently from its gay male counterpart and why some types of businesses thriving in the gay male market are likely to fail in the lesbian market. Based on interviews with entrepreneurs and business professionals, supplemented with ethnographic and media data, this study indicates that certain types of commerce existing in the gay male consumer market do not dovetail with lesbians' preferred ways of socializing associated with women's risk perception. Unlike previous scholarship that simply characterized the lesbian market as "underdeveloped," this research demonstrates that opportunities for the lesbian and gay male markets exist in different types of trade and business. Although the concept of the pink economy is theoretically grounded in sexual orientation, China's pink market demonstrates how gender plays a key role in shaping the lesbian consumer market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Shared manufacturing is the application innovation of the digital economy in the field of manufacturing and brings new opportunities for the transformation and upgrading of China and even the global manufacturing industry. In order to explore the strategy selection of enterprises on the shared manufacturing platform, this study constructs a two-party evolutionary game model and analyzes the dynamic relationship between manufacturing enterprise A and manufacturing enterprise B. Furthermore, in order to explore the influence of consumers' strategies of manufacturing enterprises on the platform, the study constructs a tripartite evolutionary game model of manufacturing enterprise A, manufacturing enterprise B, and consumers. Based on the principles of system dynamics, the paper uses Matlab to simulate the evolutionary game process dynamically and discusses the influence of parameter changes on resource-sharing enthusiasm and strategy selection. The research shows that in the two-party game, manufacturing enterprises are more inclined to adopt the strategy of sharing manufacturing resources. In the tripartite game, consumers' decision-making will affect the strategic choice of manufacturing enterprises. Consumers tend to establish strong dependence on shared-manufacturing products in the process of sharing manufacturing resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Live Streaming Commerce (LSC) is proliferating in China and gaining traction worldwide. LSC is an e-commerce service where sellers communicate with consumers through live streaming while consumers can place orders within the same system. Despite the significant involvement of consumers in LSC, it has not been systematically analyzed how consumers make shopping decisions when engaging with LSC. In this paper, we conduct a mixed-methods study, consisting of surveys (N1 = 240) and follow-up interviews (N2 = 16) with LSC consumers. We focus on two features of LSC, i.e., the communication between merchants and consumers through live streaming and the participation of streamers, and aim to understand how these changes influence consumers' decision-making process in LSC. We find that LSC enables merchants to exchange information with consumers based on their needs and provide additional customer services. Because of the appropriate information about the products they acquire and the enjoyable shopping atmosphere, consumers are willing to purchase products in LSC. As the intermediaries between merchants and consumers, streamers utilize their independent identity from merchants to enhance consumers' awareness of shopping and persuade their online shopping decisions. Moreover, we consider the opportunities and challenges of current LSC services and provide implications for LSC services and the research community regarding the development of LSC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China has become the world's largest luxury goods consumer market due to its population base. In view of the bright prospects of the luxury consumer market, major companies have entered and want to get a share. For the luxury goods industry, traditional mass marketing methods are not able to serve corporate sales and marketing strategies more effectively, and targeted marketing is clearly much more efficient than randomized marketing. Therefore, in this paper, based on consumer buying habits and characteristics data of luxury goods, the paper uses a machine learning algorithm to build a personalized marketing strategy model. And the paper uses historical data to model and form deductions to predict the purchase demand of each consumer and evaluate the possibility of customers buying different goods, including cosmetics, jewelry, and clothing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to clarify what specific behaviors are involved in consumers' partial switching in mobile application (app) usage, and, second, to explore the common and differential motivations of these behaviors. Design/methodology/approach: This paper specified two behaviors in consumers' partial switching in mobile app usage, trialing and combining behaviors, and conceptualized them as different types of variety seeking behaviors. A theoretical model contrasting intrinsic motivations and extrinsic motivations on the two behaviors was developed and tested with a sample of 561 mobile app users in China. Findings: The findings showed that both trialing and combining behaviors could be motivated by intrinsic individual-related and extrinsic technology-related factors. Besides, intrinsic individual-related factors were more effective in motivating trialing behavior, whereas extrinsic technology-related factors were more effective in motivating combining behavior. All these findings are applicable and consistent in both hedonic and utilitarian apps. Originality/value: This study extends and advances the literature on information technology switching by investigating consumer use behaviors from a new perspective of partial switching and multiple competing apps usage. This study also contributes to variety seeking literature by extending the understanding of variety seeking to the context of mobile app usage. Finally, by investigating the associations and distinctions of trialing and combining behavior, this study not only helps to fully understand the partial switching but also enriches the understanding of different types of variety seeking behaviors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Government policies that contain incentives have promoted the development of China's electric vehicle (EV) market from its inception. However, following the dramatic evolution of the EV market, the incentives impose a considerable burden on the State. It is time to consider abolishing various policy incentives. This paper uses the discrete choice experiment (DCE) model to study how consumer behaviours are influenced by the different policies. A system dynamics simulation model is constructed to simulate long-term EV development trends while considering the impacts of these policies. The simulations use the results from the DCE model to measure the sensitivity to policy changes of consumer purchase intentions (measured by consumers' willingness to purchase EVs). Finally, in relation to likely future policy trends, this study designs policy portfolio scenarios that are a strong mix, mid-mix, weak mix, or fully market-oriented with varied timing for policy implementation, and that are likely to affect the growth of China's EV market. The results of the simulation indicate that the optimal policies: (1) continue to increase government expenditure and support for the construction of charging facilities; (2) make charging more accessible and convenient; and (3) implement bans on the sale of fossil-fuelled cars. The results also show that the ideal timing for banning the sale of fossil-fuelled cars and, in parallel, cancelling current incentive policies (e.g. consumer purchase subsidies) is around 2025. These changes could reduce government expenditure and thus confer substantial financial savings, and they would effectively promote a significant increase in EV sales. Key policy insights Increasing support for the construction of charging facilities, improving the access and convenience of charging, and implementing bans on the sale of fossil-fuelled cars could increase consumer willingness to purchase EVs in China. Support for the construction of basic charging facilities should continue to increase and accelerate leading up to 2025; this would promote a significant increase in EV sales. To send clear near-term signals to the EV market – both consumers and producers, the Chinese government could usefully implement a ban on the sale of fossil-fuelled cars by around 2025 and in parallel abolish the current incentives policy for EVs. Abolishing current policy incentives (e.g. subsidies and VAT tax exemption) in the same time frame as other policies (e.g. support for charging infrastructure and a ban on fossil-fuelled cars), could lead to substantial financial savings to the government and a rapid scaling in the market for EVs. Lessons learned from China's potentially large and rapidly growing EV market will have implications for other countries in Asia and beyond. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the demand for beef products grows in the Chinese market, understanding consumer preferences for beef, especially those related to quality labelling, is essential. The recent agreement between China and the European Union to promote Geographical Indications (GIs) provides a new insight into preferences for beef with quality labelling. This paper assesses consumer preferences for beef products with GIs and other attributes. A nationwide survey is conducted including 1210 respondents in China by a choice experiment attributing GI label, 'green', 'hazard-free', and 'organic' labels, feeding regimes (grain-fed, grass-fed), country of origin (China, Ireland, Australia, Brazil), and price (30, 40, 80, 100 ¥/500 g). The random parameter logit model with error component reveals that Chinese consumers have a significant preference for grain-fed beef and domestic beef, and they are willing to pay a premium price for GI-labelled beef compared with other attributes. The interaction between GIs and country of origin is included to indicate the positive price impact of GIs on imported beef products. Demographic factors such as place of residence and occupation are found to affect consumer preferences for GIs. • Geographical indications are appealing to Chinese beef consumers. • Geographical indications increase the preference of consumers for imported beef products over domestic beef products. • Willingness-to-pay for geographical indications are affected by place of residence. • Chinese consumers prefer grain-fed beef. • The effectiveness of geographical indications is influenced by product origin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Consumer behavior is embedded in a certain social structure and social networks, and the scale and density of household social networks will be likely to affect consumption expenditure. To explore the impact of social networks and institutional embeddedness on household consumption, this study constructs a model of consumption influencing factors, and devises an empirical study using the data of China Household Finance Survey (CHFS). The results show some innovation. (1) The impact of household social networks on total household consumption is significant. A 1% increase in social networks spending boosts household consumption spending by 0.364%. (2) The institutional embeddedness will affect household consumption. Every 1% increase of social security account balance (the proxy variable of institutional embeddedness) can boost household consumption by 0.196%. This proves that the social insurance institution can enhance consumer confidence and promote current consumption growth. (3) The results of the robustness test confirmed that even after replacing the dependent variable with "the proportion of developmental consumption in total household consumption," the influence of social networks and institutional embeddedness on consumption is still significant. Using the variable "communication expenses" instead of "gift income and expenditure" as the proxy variable of social networks, the estimation result is still robust. (4) Social networks have a significant influence on all types of household consumption except medical care consumption, but the degree of influence is different. Further discussion revealed that the estimation results are different for different regions in China, but the coefficients of core independent variables are not significantly different. This conclusion is different from people's intuition, which holds that people in regions with low economic development rely more on social communication and spend more on social communication to maintain a certain social status. The conclusion of this paper is of great significance for formulating policies and institutions affecting residents' consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on a recent online survey combined with city-level data, this paper examines the impact of the COVID-19 on consumers' online food purchase behavior in the short term. To address the potential endogeneity issues, we adopt an instrumental variable (IV) strategy, using the distance from the surveyed city to Wuhan as the instrumental variable. We show that our IV method is effective in minimizing potential bias. It is found that the share of confirmed COVID-19 cases increases the possibility of consumers purchasing food online. This is more likely to be the case for young people having a lower perceived risk of online purchases and living in large cities. Despite some limitations, this paper has policy implications for China and other countries that have been influenced by the COVID-19 epidemic. Specifically, government support and regulation should focus on (i) ensuring the safety of food sold on the internet, (ii) protecting the carrier from becoming infected, and (iii) providing financial support to the poor since they may have difficulties in obtaining access to food living in small cities. Moreover, how to help those who are unable to purchase food online because of their technical skills (e.g., the elderly who are not familiar with smart phones or the internet) also deserves more attention for the government and the public. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Short video platforms, which thrive along with the video-based consumption industry, have become a new channel adopted by an increasing number of enterprises to distribute products. Therefore, it is necessary to study the factors influencing the consumer's intention to re-purchase on short video platforms, which is helpful for firms to maintain their competitiveness. This paper, based on the customer value theory, seeks to establish a structural model for such factors. The intermediary effect of customer loyalty on customer satisfaction and repurchase intention of customers is also analyzed. Questionnaires were distributed and collected from users of short video platforms in China. Results show that short video content, customer experience, and perceived value have positive impacts on customer satisfaction, and customer satisfaction, along with customer loyalty, exert positive impacts on repurchase intention. Notably, customer loyalty plays an intermediary role between customer satisfaction and repurchase intention. Based on the aforesaid findings, theoretical implications are discussed and managerial implications to increase repurchase rate are offered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to develop and test a model of the uncertainties and benefits influencing the repurchase intentions of buyers in cross-border e-commerce (CBEC). Design/methodology/approach: The authors draw on the valence framework to hypothesize effects of positive valences (utilitarian benefits) along with negative valences (pre- and post-contractual uncertainties) on buyers' repeat purchase intentions. Data were collected using an online survey from 378 international B2C buyers on a CBEC platform in China. Findings: Results explain 51.4 percent of the variance and reveal that overall value, as determined by monetary saving, convenience and product offerings as positive valences, exerts the strongest effect on repeat purchase intention. However, negative valences remain significant, and are particularly salient for female shoppers. Research limitations/implications: The authors extend the valence theory into the study of repeat purchase behavior and contribute to much needed literature on why consumers return to repurchase from a CBEC platform. Practical implications: Repeat purchase and loyalty of online consumers is essential for success of e-commerce providers. The results help online providers competing in international markets understand how buyers form repurchase intentions based on their evaluations of both value and uncertainty. Originality/value: Buyer behavior in CBEC has received relatively less attention than domestic e-commerce. This paper is among the first to examine how both positive and negative valences combine to effect repurchase intention of international buyers in CBEC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the continuous development of China's social economy, the competitiveness of brand market is gradually increasing. In order to improve their own level in brand building, major enterprises gradually explore and study visual communication design. Brand visual design has also received more and more attention. Building a complete and rich visual design system can improve the brand level and attract users to consume. Based on the abovementioned situation, this paper proposes to use collaborative filtering algorithm to analyze and study brand visual design. Firstly, a solution is proposed to solve the problem of low accuracy of general recommendation algorithm in brand goods. Collaborative filtering algorithm is used to analyze the visual communication design process of enterprise brand. Research on personalized image design according to consumers' trust and recognition of brand design is conducted. In traditional craft brand visual design, we mainly study the impact of image design on consumer behavior. The brand loyalty model is used to predict and analyze the visual design effect. Also, the user's evaluation coefficient is taken as the expression of brand visual design recognition. Finally, the collaborative filtering algorithm is optimized to improve the consumer similarity based on the original algorithm. The results show that the brand visual design using collaborative filtering algorithm can help enterprises obtain greater benefits in their own brand construction. It provides effective data help in the development of traditional craft brands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines environmental literacy topics in Chinese language textbooks used in elementary school education nationwide in China. Published by People's Education Press, the textbooks serve as the core teaching material for literacy education of primary school children. Informed by language socialisation and literacy studies, this paper examines what texts and topics are included in textbooks that introduce child-readers to environmental literacy, how child readers are positioned as (ir)responsible environmental actors, and what text-types and features are used to socialise children to become environmentally conscious individuals. To understand the ideological constructs of environmental literacy, intertextuality is employed to analyse how meaning is derived by revealing the interconnectedness of text production with the broader socio-political issues. Through content analysis, the article examines particularly how text features such as texttypes, lexical choices, grammatical elements and generic structures are used in the textbooks to reflect environmental issues and develop children's awareness. The ideological orientations serve as a framework for socialising children into environmentally conscious individuals. The article enhances our understanding of the role textbooks play in literacy education, as they not only provide materials for literacy learning and teaching, but also entail a socialisation process that shapes individuals' environmental perception of the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Consumers’ online shopping reviews are consumers’ feedback to online shopping. Mining valuable knowledge from massive online shopping reviews will not only provide safeguard for businesses to carry out precision marketing and personalized recommendation services, but also is good for consumers to make purchase decisions. Besides, management departments can use it to establish regulatory strategy. This paper reviewed the clothing online shopping comments on China’s large integrated electronic business platform as the object of study, making a participle of the comments, screening high frequency words, analyzing of co-occurrence relationship between the high frequency words in order to structure co-occurrence network of high frequency word. The analysis result shows a number of structural features for the network comments hot words and a few nodes in the comment network play a dominant role in the operation of the network. On the other hand, this paper also provides the study suggestion on the interaction effects of the structure characteristics for the high frequency word co-occurrence network on the sales volume. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The efficient travel demand management is more important than traffic congestion control. Currently, tour reservation system (TRS) based on demand response has become a significant part of travel demand management. The Integrated Travel Reservation Information (ITRI) released by TRS plays an important role in the decision-making process of tourist's holiday travel destination and departure time choice behaviors, which is seldom investigated. To fill this gap, this paper explored the feedback mechanism among the ITRI usage, tourism utility of various alternatives and tourist decision-making behavior based on the Engel-Kollat-Blackwell (EKB) consumer purchase decision-making model. To quantify the impact of ITRI on travel behavior, a revealed preference and stated preference survey were designed and carried out in China. The data show about 80% of tourists are concerned about the information of tickets sold ratio. Nested Logit (NL) model for the joint choice of destination and departure time was established, which accounted for the impact of TRS and ITRI on the utility of alternatives. The NL model results reveal that tourist's age, education level, number of visits, ITRI content, ITRI query method and the tickets sold ratio have significant effects on destination and departure time choice. Especially, sensitivity analysis results reveal that when the tickets sold ratio reaches 65%, 75%, 85% and 95% respectively, every 1% growth of tickets sold ratio is accompanied by 2.858%, 2.877%, 3.015% and 3.362% increase in the probabilities of traveling during non-holiday periods. Therefore, tourists are encouraged to travel during non-holiday periods by tickets sold information release, which can achieve the rational allocation of tourism resources and enable to make maximum use of tourism resources. Further, the results can provide a basic data for development of the tourism demand management and equilibrium of the tourist's spatial and temporal distribution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As passengers are proved to be preference heterogeneous in air travel, this paper tries to model the air ticket purchase behavior incorporating market segmentation. In the research, a latent-NL model, established on the latent class structure and the nested logit model, integrates the personal features as well as the purchase preferences into the forecast of segment-specific purchase probability. In order to calibrate the model, a stated preference survey is designed with the choice profiles using real service information, and the survey is conducted in four cities in China for data collection. The results show that the proposed model provides an effective approach for predicting the air travel demand in particular for air ticket pricing, and the estimation results outperforms the traditional-nested logit model with higher goodness-of-fit. Besides, the model is then adopted to test the efficiency of different pricing strategies, showing its advantages in improving the flight revenues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Electric vehicles can mitigate global warming by eliminating carbon dioxide emissions. Conveying the above green information and other electric vehicle information through green advertising may increase consumers' purchase intentions. However, little literature has explored the relationship between green advertising and consumers' intention to buy electric vehicles. This paper uses an experimental method to analyse the nexus between green advertising and consumers' purchase intention of electric vehicles. The results show that: (1) compared with non-green advertising, green advertising can significantly increase consumers' purchase intentions for electric vehicles; (2) green perceived value and green product attitude are the two main channels through which green advertising affects consumers' purchase intention; (3) both of high environmental attitude and strong impression management motivation can enhance the influence of green advertising on consumers' purchase of electric vehicles. The research sheds light on the impact mechanism of green advertising and provides a new marketing instrument for sellers to promote electric vehicle sales. [Display omitted] • Experimental tests address the impacts of green advertising on purchase intention of electric vehicles. • Green contents in the advertising can increase electric vehicle purchase intentions by about 5%. • Green advertising significantly enhances consumers' green perceived value and green product attitudes. • Environmental attitude and impression management motivation moderate the impact of green advertising. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Online retail pharmacies usually price their products differently from traditional drugstores. Based on real-time consumer behaviors, this paper proposes a dynamic bundle pricing strategy to maximize the pharmacy's profit. Given free shipping thresholds and consumer budgets, we propose a mixed-integer nonlinear programming model and a heuristic to sequentially price customized bundles. We further conduct a numerical study using the data from a leading e-pharmacy in China. Our computational results indicate that the proposed model not only improves the e-pharmacy's profit by attracting more customers but noticeably contributes to consumer surplus. Through sensitivity analysis, our model is proved to be robust under various scenarios. • We study a dynamic bundle pricing strategy to maximize the e-pharmacy's profit. • We develop a mathematical model and a heuristic to price customized bundles. • We conduct a numerical study using the data from a leading e-pharmacy in China. • Our model improves the e-pharmacy's profit and increases consumer surplus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines traveler's willingness to use flexible transit services prior to their deployment in Chinese cities. A total of 2,403 samples were collected in Jinan Qilu Software Park (the Park) by a self-reported questionnaire survey, which include three types of questions, namely, questions on demographic information, public transit customer satisfaction, and flexible transit service-related information. Through correlation and spatial analyses of travel characteristics and profiles of potential flexible transit service users, this paper reaches the following research findings: (1) around 60% of the respondents in the Park are willing to use a flexible transit service. Women, enterprise employees, and people with higher education and income levels are more willing to use a flexible transit service; (2) respondents are willing to pay an average fare of 4 Chinese Yuan (0.60 U.S. dollars equivalent) per trip to use a flexible transit service; and (3) respondents express a higher preference (65.5%) for a service that has the fixed-route attribute but with easy-to-access locations for pick-up/drop-off points. In addition, different types of flexible transit services are needed to accommodate specific spatial and temporal travel attributes of users. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates consumer upcycling behavior, a consumer-determined Circular Economy (CE) practice. Consumer upcycling involves transforming or repurposing unwanted object(s) to an object which has equal or higher value than the current value of its component(s). Although it is one of the most beneficial practices for environmental sustainability, more so than other practices such as recycling, and it constitutes a concrete exemplar of how consumers can participate in the Circular Economy, literature on consumer upcycling is rather underdeveloped. Performing inductive content analysis on in-depth interviews of 34 consumers mainly from China, this paper develops a holistic framework representing the internal motivations and consequences of consumer upcycling. Specifically, three distinct dimensions of internal motivations for consumer upcycling are identified: core-self oriented, social-self oriented, and object-self oriented motivations. Further, consequences of consumer upcycling at three levels (social, environmental, and economic) are identified. We find that consumer upcycling may spur other consumer-focused pro-environmental behaviors (i.e., spillover effect) and engender positive attitude and behavior toward purchasing of upcycled products (i.e., switchover effect). All in all, this research contributes to the CE literature by providing insight on how consumers could take initiative to enable the Circular Economy. • Internal motivations and consequences of consumer upcycling behavior are explored qualitatively. • Communication appeals based on internal motivations promote consumer upcycling behavior and purchase. • Consumer upcycling engenders other pro-environmental behaviors and support for upcycling business. • Consumer upcycling behavior advances the Circular Economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Encouraging residential electricity consumers switch from the flat-rate electricity tariff to the peak and off-peak pricing is an important task for demand response management. But are consumers willing to accept the peak and off-peak pricing?-This paper presents the results of a national survey with a sample size of 3863 residential electricity consumers throughout China. The result reveals that nearly two-third of the residential electricity consumers are willing to accept the peak and off-peak pricing. Consumer knowledge is the key driver for consumer acceptance. In addition, the influences of households' electricity consumption and consumers’ socio-economic background profiles on consumer acceptance were also examined. Four barriers to consumer acceptance were identified. Among which, lack of the economic benefit is the primary hurdle. Finally, the managerial implications of this research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recurrent food safety scandals in the Chinese marketplace present a threat to a government that appears unable or unwilling to keep its citizens safe. The party-state has responded to this threat with the development of laws and institutions framed as initiatives for the protection of consumers that task consumers with the responsibility for safe consumption. The message of the Chinese consumer welfare apparatus is that consumers who make the right choices can buy with assurance, a message that emphasizes consumer self-protection while de-emphasizing the role of the government in regulation and law enforcement. The "Consumer Confidence System," a small initiative spearheaded by a Beijing-based consumer protection organization, is one example of the non-centralized sources of such messages. While the ostensibly independent project purports to promote consumer rights by certifying trustworthy businesses and tunneling the fees paid by these member businesses into online resources for consumers, it functions to depoliticize issues of consumer safety by framing safe consumption as a matter of vigilant consumers making the right choices. This paper investigates the operation of this organization and explores the dissemination of its messages as part of a mode of regulation by which the state and its agents attempt to manage the contradictions of Chinese capitalism. Its specific contribution lies in a richer understanding of the tensions produced when a strong authoritarian state coexists with a flourishing but poorly regulated market economy. By examining how dispersed efforts by the state at shaping a specific consumer subjectivity have been rejected by Chinese consumers, the case also shows that not all state-led discourses are successful. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using recent survey panel data from 1000 Chinese rural households from 2005-2011, this paper attempted to estimate the extent of consumer credit constraints as well as its impact on the net income and consumption expenditure of rural households. Our results revealed that 83.7% of Chinese rural households were rationed in the credit markets. Of these, 55.2% were completely rationed and 24.2% were partially rationed. Furthermore, this consumer credit rationing caused a 13.7% loss in net income and a 25.6% loss in consumption expenditure for these rural households in China. Finally this paper proposes some policy suggestions based on the empirical results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the concept of perceived trust was adopted to investigate the relationship between brand crisis type and brand attitude ; what's more, the paper considered the moderating effect of consistency of negative word of mouth on the relationship between the afore- mentioned two. Empirical study results showed that compared with values-related brand crisis, performance-related brand crisis had a more significant effect on consumers' perceived competence-based trust and there were no significant differences in the negative effects of two types of brand crisises on consumers' perceived benevolence-based trust. In addition, consumers' perceived competence-based and benevolence-based trust had a positive effect on brand attitude and consistency of negative word of mouth played a moderating role in the relationship between brand crisis type and brand attitude. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has gained an increasing attention all over the world, but studies are mainly about developed countries. Developing countries have promoted CSR but concepts and approaches can be different from those in developed countries due to geographic, political, and economic contexts. In a unique developing country of China, the government has initially encouraged state-owned companies (SOCs) to implement CSR practices. However, no clear and commonly accepted CSR definition or concept exists. This paper develops items on CSR practices mainly based on the internationally accepted ISO26000 framework while integrating characteristics of Chinese SOCs. Statistical results of 146 usable questionnaires show that Chinese SOCs implement four types of CSR practices under the ISO26000 framework, they are those related to employee rights, consumer issues, fair operation and labor practices. Charity is a specific CSR dimension in China, but it is only implemented at the low level. Chinese SOCs have the high internal CSR values which promote most CSRs except those related to charity and employee rights. External institutional drivers for CSR practices are relatively low. Normative drivers motivate most CSR practices while competitive drivers only motivate consumer issues-related CSR practices. This paper contributes to extend previous studies mainly for developed countries to develop a CSR concept for Chinese SOCs by using both the international ISO26000 framework and considering the specific context. Statistic results identify how to motivate CSR practices among Chinese SOCs effectively, which can provide implications for not only the Chinese government, but also multi-national companies that do or plan to do business in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The consumption of natural food offers a chance for sustainable development of natural food markets. However, the concept of sustainable consumption behaviour has not been sufficiently noted in natural food-related literature. Neither have its driving forces been adequately captured in the prevailing theoretical models. We model the sustainable consumption behaviour in fresh berry sector and investigates its driving forces in China using a survey of 413 consumers with the covariance-based structural equation modelling technique. Results have four confirmed factors (motivation, opportunity, intentions and ability) as significant facilitators of sustainable consumption behaviour. The way they impact sustainable consumption behaviour differ. Opportunity is found to have direct impacts on consumption behaviour, while motivation and ability are found to have indirect impacts on consumption behaviour via consumption intention. We contribute to current literature on Sustainability Development Goal (SDG) from individual consumers' aspect by conceptualizing the sustainable fresh berry consumption behaviour using an extended theoretical framework in an emerging market. Our findings also provide suggestions and guidelines for policymakers, farmers and marketers who aim to expand the natural food markets in a sustainable manner. • Sustainable consumption behaviour is examined in the natural food sector. • This research seeks to narrow the green intention-behaviour gap. • The paper develops a concept model with volitional and non-volitional drivers. • Motivation, opportunity and ability are key to fresh berry consumption behaviour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine consumer reactions to product categories, online seller reputation, and brand name syllables. Design/methodology/approach – This paper uses four experimental designs to explore the seller reputation, product category, and brand name syllable effects in internet shopping. The authors chose sellers of (low/high) repute from Yahoo Mall. ANOVA is used to evaluate the results. Findings – Seller reputation moderates the effect of the brand name syllable level on purchase intention and product category moderates the effect of the brand name syllable level on purchase on internet (experiment 1). Consumers take the longest time to make purchasing decisions when buying credence goods or buying from sellers of low repute and that the response time mediates the moderating role of the product category (experiment 2) or reputation (experiment 3). Moreover, the effect of brand name syllable levels chosen/assigned by sellers of low repute is weakened for consumers with low (vs high) skepticism toward non-store shopping (experiment 4). Practical implications – This study is helpful to online sellers if they can identify their reputation, product category and those consumers have skepticism, they can create extra profit through brand name syllable practice. Originality/value – This paper extends the literature on consumers' brand name syllable processing by identifying important moderators and probing into the decision process. The results allow us to substantiate prior research and suggest prescriptive strategies for internet retailers. Keywords Purchase intention, Product category, Brand name syllable, Non-store shopping, Seller reputation, Skepticism Paper type Research paper [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As tourism and Internet economy mix together, more and more people acquire travel information through travel online community, and it has greatly promoted knowledge sharing in the community. Therefore, it is of great importance to research on this behavior. This paper, on the basis of existed literatures and in-depth interviews, took theory of social exchange and social cognition theory into consideration and chose users from 6 famous Chinese travel online communities as the respondents. An equation model was set up to analyze the influential factors and influence mechanism of knowledge sharing in travel online community. The results showed that opportunity cost has a negative impact on knowledge sharing wish while trust and reciprocity have positive impacts on it; and sharing wish has a positive impact on sharing behavior. In the end, this paper offered some suggestions for the management and operation of knowledge sharing in travel online community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's “Developing a Water-saving Society” policy is an ambitious water conservation strategy. However, there has been little evidence of the policy's effectiveness in terms of saving water at a river basin level. In this paper, we used a basin-scale hydroeconomic input-output model to calculate the water consumption ( WC ) by producers and consumers ( WC p and WC c ), respectively in the first pilot area for implementation of this policy, the Heihe River Basin, which belongs to an arid area in inland China. The results show that, after implementation of the policy, WC c decreased sharply but WC p only decreased slightly. A structural decomposition analysis revealed that decreased water consumption intensity played an important role in reducing water consumption. However, this effect was largely offset by the increasing exports of virtual water in goods and services. Our results suggest that in arid river basins, measures in saving water must be accompanied with a cap on total water consumption which is set in accordance with the local water endowments and consideration of environmental water requirement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to provide latest research results on consumer attitudes and behaviors about smartphone recycling. In particular, the study considers China as an example and reviews the country's recent progress in legislation and business practice in smartphone recycling. The study relies on a national survey to identify the patterns and trends in Chinese consumers' recycling attitudes and behaviors. Our results show that on top of incentive and convenience, information security is the number one requirement for consumers to recycle their smartphones. Additionally, although China has made significant progress in improving social environment and people's consciousness for phone recycling, more people still choose to store their waste smartphones at home. Moreover, the impact of recycling service on the sales of new phones is also discussed in the context of closed-loop supply chain design. As an exploratory attempt to understand smartphone recycling from the consumers' perspectives, this article presents critical factors influencing consumers' attitudes and behaviors in China, and sheds new lights on future academic research directions as well as on managerial applications and policy-making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose Building on the Chinese guanxi perspective, the purpose of this paper is to develop a theoretical model that explains the indirect effects of social support from friends on social commerce intentions, as mediated through the relational aspects that potential buyers develop with sellers.Design/methodology/approach Hypotheses are tested with partial least squares (PLS)-graph applied to data collected via a survey of social media users (n=511). SPSS and PLS-graph are the statistical analysis tools used in this study.Findings Relationship exists in social commerce interactions and its quality can be captured by swift guanxi and trust. These swift relationships matter as they drive users’ behavioral intentions on social commerce sites. The informational and social support people receive from friends helps in improving the relationship quality and can indirectly influence user behaviors on these sites.Research limitations/implications This study has relied on a convenient sampling and this may limit the generalizability of the findings. Future research should employ broader and more random sampling techniques to re-validate and extend the findings.Originality/value The interpersonal aspect of relationship quality has received little attention in the social commerce literature. This study develops a theoretical model that explains consumers’ intention in social commerce. The findings reveal the mechanisms through which different types of social support indirectly influence social commerce intentions. They provide a unique glimpse into consumer behavior in Chinese settings, in which the guanxi aspect of relationship quality highly matters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a highly competitive market, service quality can be the core competitive advantage for airline’s profitability and sustained development. This paper has investigated the differences in the passengers’ expectations and perceptions of the service quality of China’s four major domestic airlines: Air China, China Southern Airlines, China Eastern Airlines, and Hainan Airlines in China’s domestic market. The results will assist airline management to improve service quality by reducing the difference. Surveys were conducted with domestic passengers at Shanghai Hongqiao Airport and Shanghai Pudong Airport in China. The results show that there are significant differences of service quality between passengers’ expectations and perceptions among major Chinese airlines. Passengers consistently rate ‘good safety records’ as the first priority of seven SERVQUAL dimensions, but low price remains the most important factor that passengers consider when choosing a Chinese airline. The conclusions reached in this work suggest that Chinese airlines should consider improving service quality rather than providing cheaper air tickets in order to gain competitive advantage. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Under the restriction of carbon neutral and carbon peak, the development of green building has become the strategic demand of most countries in the world. Despite the rapid development of green building in China, there are still some problems, such as insufficient market development force under the government's leadership, emphasizing design and neglecting operation. In order to realize high-quality synergistic development of green building market, this paper constructs a new synergistic development framework of green building market, establishes a tripartite evolutionary game model including local governments, developers and consumers, uses the analysis tool of evolutionary game theory and synergistic theory to explore the unilateral ESS and the system ESS of green building market. In order to verify the model, this paper adopts a case study method, takes a residential building project in Tianjin, China which has awarded a three-star mark in green building design evaluation as an example for numerical simulation, discusses the influence of government guidance on the system evolution trajectory, demonstrates the interactive process of stakeholders' behavior, and finds out the key factors affecting the system equilibrium strategy. The result shows that (1) the means of government guidance will affect the speed and result of system evolution; (2) the strategy of stakeholders depends on the comparison of costs and benefits; (3) the probability of ideal events is positively correlated with the economic benefits and negatively correlated with incremental cost of green building. This study can provide theoretical guidance for local governments, developers and consumers to make scientific decisions, and provide practical enlightenment for government to play a more active role in green building market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Food technologies often have an ambivalent effect on customer value perceptions toward innovative food products. While objective benefits may contribute positively to customer value perceptions, subjective negative evaluations may subtract value. In this paper we propose a model and provide empirical evidence on how customer value is constructed and its relationship with willingness to pay in the context of innovative food products. We test our model in a cross-sectional study across two international markets (the UK and China; N = 1004) and two innovative food products. Our results show that, in the context of innovative food products, customer value is constructed as a trade-off between perceived values that individuals assign to the product and perceived costs that consumers experience. Specifically, perceived values have a positive and dominant effect on customer value in both markets. We further show that the central role of customer value on willingness to pay is not universal and may vary across international markets, with the positive effect of values on willingness to pay being mediated by customer value only in China. Finally, from types of costs purchase costs are found to subtract customer value and only in the UK, thus highlighting their role as being context-specific. • We propose a model on how customer value is constructed in the context of innovative food products. • We test our model across the UK and China, and two innovative food products. • Customer value is constructed as a trade-off between perceived values and perceived costs. • Customer value on consumer response is not universal and may vary across international markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chinese government has attempted to promote food traceability system with all strength, but the application process of this system is very slow. The reason is that the adopters have a low level of system application, which causes the system to be invalid at the source of traceability. This paper applies literature research method to analyze the influencing factors for slow application process of the food traceability system in China from various angles including manufacturer, technology, consumer and law, and further concludes that the applying intention of manufacturers, cognizing and purchasing intentions of consumers, and legal environment are important factors for slow progress of system application. On the basis of the research conclusions, the paper proposes practical ways for better construction of food traceability system in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mr Sheng Wang demonstrated his perception of Mercedes-Benz's unfair treatment and insensitivity to Chinese buyers by having his Mercedes sports coupe towed by a water buffalo through his Chinese hometown, Wuhan. But he did not stop there. Next, he ordered workers, specifically hired for this purpose, to pound the car with sledge hammers and sticks until the exterior was completely disfigured. Journalists love the story's inherent drama, and in subsequent days, media reports showed images of the car being towed and ultimately smashed. The event created strong public awareness about both Mr Wang's dissatisfaction about the treatment he received from Mercedes-Benz and the subsequent Mercedes-Benz's management reactions triggered by the event. In our paper, we explore this case in more detail, highlighting the crucial role of brand fairness in managing brands in China. Although brand managers implicitly emphasize the importance of fairness in branding strategies, brand management emphasizing fairness is an underdeveloped research concept. Our paper provides an understanding of theories and concepts of brand (un)fairness and brand fairness management illustrated by what we refer to as the Mercedes-Benz case. We identify three dimensions of Brand Fairness Management: prevention, procedures, and outcomes. This framework will assist brand managers in China in developing successful brand fairness strategies and management programs. We posit that implementing these branding practices will increase the likelihood that consumers perceive the brand in question as fair, leading to an increase in loyalty and positive word-of-mouth. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To assist filtering and sorting massive review messages, this paper attempts to examine the determinants of review attraction and helpfulness. Our analysis divides consumers’ reading process into “notice stage” and “comprehend stage” and considers the impact of “explicit information” and “implicit information” of review attraction and review helpfulness. 633 online product reviews were collected from Amazon China. A mixed-method approach is employed to test the conceptual model proposed for examining the influencing factors of review attraction and helpfulness. The empirical results show that reviews with negative extremity, more words, and higher reviewer rank easily gain more attraction and reviews with negative extremity, higher reviewer rank, mixed subjective property, and mixed sentiment seem to be more helpful. The research findings provide some important insights, which will help online businesses to encourage consumers to write good quality reviews and take more active actions to maximise the value of online reviews. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]