A THEORY OF CONSUMER’S PERCEIVED RISK UNDER THE HALO EFFECT

Despite being largely tackled by a manifold of sciences, perceived risk is still a rather unclear concept concerning its formation and update. In today’s economy, where poor purchase decisions are so easy to make, consumers have developed mental shields residing in actions based on perceived risk. This paper develops and tests a theory of perceived risk formation under the halo effect, based on correlation analysis in two forms: rankings individuals on their contribution to the correlations increase and partial correlations. Both internal and external halo effects were found, emerging from the perceived risk component – functional risk, financial risk, social risk, physical risk, psychological risk and time risk –, brand attitude, product category attitude, consumer’s regret, others’ regret expressed through word-of-mouth, recency, and awareness of awareness. The intricate halo that was revealed needs further attention from the scientific community in order to better delimit halo sources and, eventually, to explain its variability

The Effects of Faulty or Potentially Harmful Products on Brand Reputation and Social Responsibility of Business

Building a strong brand requires a good management of brand reputation over time. Social responsibility of business is a key factor in evoking a positive brand reputation. Both the product itself and brand related actions and communications define brand reputation in the eyes of consumers, thus influencing perceived corporate social responsibility. As a consequence, it can be easily hindered or endangered by many product related issues such as faulty products or potentially harmful products. The purpose of this article is to provide an insight on the link between brand reputation and social responsibility in order to help organizations provide better services and protection for consumers. We examined how brand reputation is influenced by the negative bias generated by brand related communications regarding potentially harmful products. This study also analyzes how under normal consumption circumstances, consumers' experiences related to faulty products can influence brand reputation. To investigate this, we propose a model based on perceptual brand constructs and possible outcomes of brand reputation. In both circumstances, negative spillover effects are highlighted using structural equation modeling. The findings reveal that both faulty products and potentially harmful products have a negative bias on brand reputation, but affected perceptual brand constructs are different

Customer Experience in Fintech

The purpose of this paper is to analyse customer experience (CX) in the fintech sector. Fintech is a dynamic and innovative field that fully benefits from advances in information and communication technology. The concept of customer experience is multidimensional, analysed from various perspectives, and with distinct valences in different industries. Based on the stimulus-organism-response (S-O-R) approach, we proposed a model in which customer experience in fintech is the result of customer’s evaluation of the stimuli proposed by fintech companies. Using partial least squares equation modelling (PLS-SEM), we tested a series of hypotheses and validated the proposed model. The results showed that perceived value, customer support, assurance, speed and perceived firm innovativeness are positively related to customer experience in fintech. In turn, customer experience is positively associated with loyalty intentions of the customer. Our paper contributes in identifying the dimensions, the determinants and the outcomes of customer experience in fintech, while from a managerial perspective, we demonstrate how fintech companies must integrate customer experience in their business models

From Ownership to Access: How the Sharing Economy is Changing the Consumer Behavior

Promoting the principles of circular economy and the new business models advocated by the circular economy can represent a solution for a more prosperous society, less dependent on primary and energy resources and more environmentally friendly. The sharing economy, which primarily involves the transformation of traditional market behaviors into collaborative consumption models, that ensure a more efficient and sustainable use of resources, is part of the circular economy and has generated business models that are compatible with it. This article discusses the possibility for the sharing economy to bring about profound changes in consumer behavior towards products and services and to highlight the factors that drive consumers’ shift towards the sharing economy. For this purpose we developed and tested a model in which the change in consumer mindset has as the main direct determinants the satisfaction with the services of the sharing economy and the intention to access such products and services. The study uses data collected through a questionnaire, applied to a sample of 320 customers of Uber – a symbol of the sharing economy, and processed using structural equation modelling. Research results show that there are premises for switching to an access-based consumption mode