Consumer Stated Preference for Acer Laptop from Online Reviews

Consumer preference is a hot topic in the domain of marking management and e-commerce. Many previous studies have been conducted in this field. Whereas, there are rarely studies building on the particular commodity such as laptop. Therefore, this study explores comprehensive features that affect consumer preference for laptops by mining the online reviews. Firstly, we collect 6531 online reviews for Acer laptop from Amazon.cn and code these reviews with Nvivo10. Secondly, we develop a feature-based consumer preference model named MCPL based on the review text analysis. Considering the data imbalance of the collected 6531 product reviews, we adopt a random cluster sampling method to extract 50 groups with 100 samples per group. Then the correspondent regression analyses are conducted for the 50 groups of reviews. Finally, the meta-analysis is creatively conducted to integrate the multiple liner regression results of different groups. According to the result of meta-analysis, we demonstrate dominant features on behalf of the consumer preference of laptop and draw practical implications for enterprise competition strategies to facilitate product design or improvement

Consumer Purchase Intention: An empirical study of consumer buying behaviour respect to Country of Origin, Brand Awareness, Brand Loyalty, Brand Image, and Perceived Quality.

Masteroppgave i International business and marketing (MSc

Investigations of Factors that Affect Consumers' Online Word Of Mouth Behavior

This dissertation includes two essays investigating factors that affect consumers' online word of mouth (WOM) behavior. The first essay studies how consumers as online posters make an online forum choice decision when they are motivated to influence other consumers. We propose that consumers have theories about effective word of mouth persuasion, acting as intuitive media planners in making online forum choices. Specifically, consumers possess audience beliefs (i.e. how loyal to the brand) and beliefs about effective persuasion (i.e. surprising and novel things are more impactful). Across three studies, we demonstrate that posters prefer posing positive messages on a brand-neutral forum (e.g., Digital Camera Forum) to a brand-specific (e.g., Nikon Forum) because positive brand information is not surprising to the later audience. However, when posting negative brand information, posters are equally likely to choose either forum since negative brand information is perceived as diagnostic and surprising to all audience. We further offer a boundary condition in which the poster's primary motive is not to persuade and affect others but to affiliate with others. Under affiliation motive, message valence does not affect forum choice since posters are not considering message valence as a way to being impactful. The second essay investigates the role of product rating scale in a product rating task, and how it can drive WOM behavior. We argue that rating scale can affect a rater's likelihood of engaging subsequent WOM behavior. Specifically, conducting three experiments, we show that participants' WOM intention are higher after evaluating their consumption experience on a 5-point rating scale than on a 2-point rating scale. We suggest that rating scales can affect a rater's certainty belief regarding the rating score assigned (i.e., high rating certainty leads to higher WOM intention). We further provide evidence that rating certainty mediates the impact of rating scale on WOM intention

The application of practical geometry and the golden ratio in product design

There have been numerous researchers who, over the years, have explored the relationship between the golden ratio and how it relates to the human perception of beauty. Although the golden proportion is one of the aesthetic characteristics contained in many masterpieces of art and design, it is still largely thought of as little more than an aesthetic guideline, that is, if indeed it is even being considered at all. This thesis asserts that golden proportion and practical geometric knowledge can be used as an extremely effective means of codifying the creative process, inspiring and influencing creative design decisions. This thesis is concerned with examining the application of practical geometric knowledge as an integral part of the design process. It also documents the development of the author’s geometric refinement tools and discusses the results of their performance in testing by scrutinizing the opinions of design students and professional designers who both had their designs modified by the author’s refinement tools. The relationship between geometric knowledge embedded in design classics and bestselling items was also examined. This thesis describes a mixed methods approach with multiple analyses, from which qualitative and quantitative data (about the implementation of applying geometric knowledge) was gathered via two geometry workshops, interviews with the professional designers, as well as an analysis of visual materials consisting of two hundred selected design examples. Based upon the process of employing geometric knowledge and its experiments, the thesis presents a descriptive analysis of the data to test theoretical propositions and draw conclusions about the value of applying practical geometry as design knowledge and as a practical tool for a design in the modern context. The significance of this thesis is that it elucidates upon the use of the golden ratio, and practical geometry as a practical design refinement tool, with the ability to transform the perception of practical geometry from being merely an aesthetic guideline which appears in masterpieces from the past, to a directly applicable practical design technique. The main contribution this thesis makes to the field of design practice is that it attempts to further understand the results achieved by codifying designing styles and design decisions, a process which can be described as objective rational knowledge in practice. This thesis frames individual design participants’ perspectives of the golden ratio and the relationship between modern designs and the masterpieces of history. Thereby, hopefully providing a historical perspective and a modern context for the golden ratio. Further to that, it is the author’s hope that this work will provide inspiration to today’s designers, motivating them to begin implementing practical geometry into their designs and in the future generations of design education to come

Building Brand Reputation in the Digital Age: Identifying effective brand communication to win the moment of truth online

Thesis purpose: The central purpose is to deliver a theoretical and practical contribution to existing literature in the fields of brand identity as well as brand reputation and particularly brand communication as a connecting link, lying in between. Further, the authors attempt to provide thorough understanding of the influence of online brand communication on consumers’ decision-making process respectively the critical moment of truth online. In this context, a newly created brand management model is introduced. Theoretical perspective: The literature review covers the interconnectedness between brand identity and brand reputation and theoretically examines the consumer decision-making journey in an online context. It creates the basis for the subsequent empirical research. Thereby existing brand identity frameworks have been reviewed in detail. Methodology: The authors apply a grounded theory strategy. Thereby a mixed method approach is used by combining both qualitative and quantitative data collection. Empirical Data: Empirical data is gathered through in-depth interviews with twelve technology affine consumers. Subsequently, quantitative data is collected through an online survey in order to further evaluate the qualitative findings. Conclusion: The authors conclude that multiple online communication channels have an impact on the creation of positive brand reputation and consequently a consumer’s decision making process. Thereby valuable guidance to the management process of online brand communication in order to establish positive brand reputation is provided. This is presented through a newly created model- The Brand Identity Communication Reputation Matrix (BICRM), which builds upon existing theory in the fields of brand reputation

Evaluating Material Consumption at the Intersection of Technological Innovation and Shifting Consumer Demand: A Case Study of Consumer Electronics

Increasing availability of consumer electronics offers the potential to improve quality of life, extend educational access, and improve efficiency of industrial processes, yet introduce their own set of challenges including increasingly diverse material supply chains, the fastest growing waste stream, and high life cycle resource demands. A significant body of research has been developed to understand material and energy flows across the product life cycle, but to date, that research has neglected to understand aggregate material flows across a community of interrelated products that are consumed, used, and disposed of together. This research explores that research gap, first evaluating the possibility of natural dematerialization due to technological innovation as a means of reducing material flows across the life cycle. A case study of a laptop computer over subsequent generations reveals that innovation is being realized as improved performance, rather than reduced material consumption, and thus total product mass is relatively constant over time. Extending the boundaries of the study from a single product over time to a group of products that interact within the average U.S. household reveals that, although per product material consumption stays relatively constant over time, community consumption increases as more products are consumed. Similar research has been conducted evaluating energy consumption by a community of products, resulting in a recommendation for a more energy efficient community of products. Lack of data linking community structure and consumption choices, however, raises the question of whether consumers would willingly adopt these alternative communities. Therefore, the final phase of the research collects data regarding consumption choices, product interactions, and changes in community structure, and models changes in community structure as the result of increasing technological awareness and improved product quality. The results from the model indicate that these types of improvements may shift the community structure, they do little to reduce community material consumption. Future research efforts should be directed at “closing the loop” and improving material recovery and recycling, in addition to educating consumers to move them toward more sustainable consumption (i.e. in general, consuming less)

The study of COO effects on consumers perception: the case study of Chinese laptop market

Country of Origin (COO) effects has been subjected to a number of studies since the 1960s. Researchers suggest it is a highly context-based phenomenon that can give different results, depend on the nature of the studies. This dissertation seeks to find out how country of origin affects consumers’ perceptions and purchasing decisions in the context of Chinese laptop market. Four hypotheses were constructed base on previous COO studies, which have provided theoretical basis for this dissertation. Both qualitative and quantitative researches were carried out through semi-constructed interviews and questionnaire survey. The result shows that COO has significant impact on Chinese consumers’ perception towards foreign made and Chinese made laptop. Chinese consumers generally believe foreign made laptops are better-quality but more expensive; whereas Chinese made laptop are general poorer in quality, but the prices are more acceptable. However, at real purchasing situation, the COO effects decrease significantly, when consumers have access to the real product and have more information other than COO cue to evaluate a product. In addition, the result also shows that the level of COO effects on consumers’ perception in the Chinese laptop market is positively associated with the level of consumers’ education and income level. As their education or income level increase, consumers tend to give higher evaluation on foreign brand laptop, but give lower evaluation on Chinese domestic laptop. However, there is no strong evidence suggest the level of COO effects is associated with either consumers' gender or age difference. This study can help firms to gain an in-depth understanding of the Chinese laptop market. Base on the advantages that foreign and Chinese firms have, several practical managerial strategies were also discussed that aim to help firms to achieve further success

Comparing the Apple iPad and non-Apple camp tablet PCs: a multicriteria decision analysis

This study mainly evaluates the performances of Tablet PCs such as the Apple iPad based on a benefits, opportunity, costs, and risks (BOCR) conceptual framework with qualitative and quantitative criteria. We apply four methods, namely, the multiple-criteria decision-making (MCDM) tools (grey relational analysis (GRA), the technique for order performance by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS), the VlseKriterijumska Optimizacija I Kompromisno (VIKOR) method, and fuzzy approach) to evaluate and select the tablet PCs’ rankings and then construct a tablet PCs evaluation performance model under an analytic hierarchy process (AHP). The empirical results reveal that a firm's revenue growth, capacity for profitability, product design and product function are highly important evaluation indexes. This indicates that Tablet PC companies should channel more efforts into their product innovation for creating revenue growth and maintaining customer loyalty. Finally, fuzzy AHP also leads to the same findings