The Influence of Shared Attention on Product Evaluation

Shared attention is pervasive in our daily lives. In social media platforms, broadcasting services, and online stores, consumers today attend to objects or information with others to an unprecedented degree. Recent scholarship on shared attention enlightens our understanding of how such synchronous co-attention shapes individuals’ cognitive, affective, and behavioral responses. Whereas previous work has explored the effect of shared attention on a wide range of stimuli (i.e., evocative images or videos, political speech), the effect of shared attention on objects that are essentially scarce, such as products, remains elusive. In three studies, this dissertation examines how shared attention influences evaluations of products. The results indicate that shared attention leads to more positive attitudes toward and higher purchase intention of desirable products compared to other social contexts that do not involve shared attention (i.e., attending alone and attending asynchronously with others). Intriguingly, the effect of shared attention is reversed when products are perceived to be scarce. That is, shared attention leads to less positive product attitudes and lower purchase intention when perceptions of scarcity are high, whereas it leads to more positive product attitudes and higher purchase intention when perceptions of scarcity are low. Furthermore, the findings from this dissertation suggest that increased or decreased perceptions of similarity to the co-viewers may serve as a mechanism by which shared attention affects evaluations of desirable products. In all, this dissertation adds to existing knowledge by documenting the novel relationship between shared attention and scarcity and provides practical suggestions for marketers in devising communication materials by underscoring the importance of the social contexts in which consumers view products

Identifying Sustainable Style Consumers with Decision Tree Predictive Model

Sustainable Style consumption (SSC) refers to “a distinctive mode of pursuing an individual style whose design one perceives classic and at the same time speaks about oneself.†Current study identifies pivotal factors that describe sustainable style consumers by creating a decision tree with RPART (recursive partitioning) method. A decision tree of SSC was built based on six pertinent lifestyle traits. Results indicated that the largest segment (19%) of high SSC group was explained by high level of fashion consciousness and high frugality. Although high fashion consciousness was regarded to be negatively associated with sustainable apparel consumption, our results show that high fashion consciousness, jointly with high frugality and high social responsibility, characterizes the high SSC segment. As high SSC consumers are more likely to purchase more environmental apparel and engage in sustainable apparel divestment, our decision tree model can be used to efficiently target and develop marketing strategies

Clothing Communication via Social Media: A Decision Tree Predictive Model

Consumers are increasingly using social media (SM) as an important source of information and as a way to communicate about clothing. SM platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube have already been evaluated as successful business take-off tools by numerous clothing brands such as Burberry, Nordstrom, and ASOS (Kim & Ko, 2012). While personality differences have been examined in relation to SM use, one area that remains unexplored is the influence of personality traits on information exchange and dialogue about clothing (Hart et al., 2015). The current study addresses this issue by linking personality traits to clothing communication via social media (CCSM) measured by SM usage for the clothing product category

Profiling Second-hand Clothing Shoppers with Decision Tree Predictive Model

In the last twenty years, second-hand clothing market has drastically grown. Prior research has identified a number of factors that determine second-hand clothing shopping. Those factors can be categorized as product attributes (e.g., quality and uniqueness) or personal orientation, which can be either self-oriented (e.g., fashion consciousness and price-consciousness) or others-oriented (e.g., environmentally conscious consumption behavior and socially conscious consumption behavior). This study extends previous research on second-hand clothing by demonstrating the joint effect and the relative importance of product attributes and personal orientation factors (self-oriented and others-oriented) on second-hand clothing shopping by building a binary decision tree model using Recursive Partitioning (RPART) method. Results show that price-consciousness, quality, and uniqueness are the most important factors that characterize high second-hand clothing shopping. Surprisingly, high fashion consciousness, jointly with low price- consciousness and high ECCB described high second-hand shopping segment. Implications are discussed

β-cell metabolic alterations under chronic nutrient overload in rat and human islets

The aim of this study was to assess multifactorial β-cell responses to metabolic perturbations in primary rat and human islets. Treatment of dispersed rat islet cells with elevated glucose and free fatty acids (FFAs, oleate:palmitate = 1:1 v/v) resulted in increases in the size and the number of lipid droplets in β-cells in a time- and concentration-dependent manner. Glucose and FFAs synergistically stimulated the nutrient sensor mammalian target of rapamycin complex 1 (mTORC1). A potent mTORC1 inhibitor, rapamycin (25 nM), significantly reduced triglyceride accumulation in rat islets. Importantly, lipid droplets accumulated only in β-cells but not in α-cells in an mTORC1-dependent manner. Nutrient activation of mTORC1 upregulated the expression of adipose differentiation related protein (ADRP), known to stabilize lipid droplets. Rat islet size and new DNA synthesis also increased under nutrient overload. Insulin secretion into the culture medium increased steadily over a 4-day period without any significant difference between glucose (10 mM) alone and the combination of glucose (10 mM) and FFAs (240 μM). Insulin content and insulin biosynthesis, however, were significantly reduced under the combination of nutrients compared with glucose alone. Elevated nutrients also stimulated lipid droplet formation in human islets in an mTORC1-dependent manner. Unlike rat islets, however, human islets did not increase in size under nutrient overload despite a normal response to nutrients in releasing insulin. The different responses of islet cell growth under nutrient overload appear to impact insulin biosynthesis and storage differently in rat and human islets

Nutrition issues in Codex: health claims, nutrient reference values and WTO agreements: a conference report

BACKGROUND: Codex documents may be used as educational and consensus materials for member governments. Also, the WTO SPS Agreement recognizes Codex as the presumptive international authority on food issues. Nutrient bioavailability is a critical factor in determining the ability of nutrients to provide beneficial effects. Bioavailability also influences the quantitative dietary requirements that are the basis of nutrient intake recommendations and NRVs. HEALTH CLAIMS: Codex, EFSA and some national regulatory authorities have established guidelines or regulations that will permit several types of health claims. The scientific basis for claims has been established by the US FDA and EFSA, but not yet by Codex. Evidence-based nutrition differs from evidence-based medicine, but the differences are only recently gaining recognition. Health claims on foods may provide useful information to consumers, but many will interpret the information to mean that they can rely upon the food or nutrient to eliminate a disease risk. NUTRIENT REFERENCE VALUES: NRVs are designed to provide a quantitative basis for comparing the nutritive values of foods, helping to illustrate how specific foods fit into the overall diet. The INL-98 and the mean of adult male and female values provide NRVs that are sufficient when used as targets for individual intakes by most adults. WORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION AGREEMENTS: WTO recognizes Codex as the primary international authority on food issues. Current regulatory schemes based on recommended dietary allowances are trade restrictive. A substantial number of decisions by the EFSA could lead to violation of WTO agreements

Social Deprivation Is Associated With Lower Access to Pre-emptive Kidney Transplantation and More Urgent-Start Dialysis in the Pediatric Population

Introduction Socioeconomic status (SES) is recognized as an important determinant of kidney health. We aimed to evaluate the association of social deprivation with different indicators at kidney replacement therapy (KRT) initiation in the French pediatric metropolitan population. Methods All patients with end-stage kidney disease (ESKD) who started KRT before 20 years old in France between 2002 and 2015 were included. We investigated different indicators at KRT initiation, which are as follows: KRT modality (dialysis vs. pre-emptive transplantation), late referral to a nephrologist, and dialysis modality (hemodialysis [HD] vs. peritoneal dialysis [PD], urgent vs. planned start of dialysis, use of catheter vs. use of fistula for HD vascular access). An ecological index (European Deprivation Index [EDI]) was used as a proxy for social deprivation. Results A total of 1115 patients were included (males 59%, median age at dialysis 14.4 years, glomerular/vascular diseases 36.8%). The most deprived group represented 38.7% of the patients, suggesting pediatric patients with ESKD come from a more socially deprived background. The most deprived group was more likely to initiate KRT with dialysis versus kidney transplantation. Among patients on HD, the odds of starting treatment in emergency with a catheter was >2-fold higher for the most deprived compared with the least deprived children (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] 2.35, 95% CI 1.16–4.78). Conclusion Children from the most deprived area have lower access to pre-emptive transplantation, have lower access to PD, tend to be late referred to a nephrologist, and have more urgent initiation of HD with a catheter

Solo and Joint Aspects of Consumer Behavior

Consumers make decisions about solo and joint aspects of consumer behavior across many spheres of their lives, with consequences for their own and others’ well-being. Whether it be planning for leisure activities, deciding on household purchases, or figuring out what to dispose of from their closets, consumers often decide whether to do things on their own or to involve other people. Further, marketers often provide both solo and joint versions of their consumption offerings. Given the importance of both solo and joint experiences to consumers’ well-being and to marketers’ practice, my dissertation examines consumers’ decisions about solo and joint aspects of consumer behavior. Essay 1 examines how making acquisition (vs. disposal) decisions about household products influences the choice to involve others (i.e., household partners) in decision-making. Essay 2 examines how making decisions for oneself (vs. for other people) affects preferences regarding solitary versus social consumption activities. Finally, Essay 3 examines when, how, and why consumers desire to incorporate solitary time into social consumption experiences. Taken together, these three essays offer novel theoretical and practical insights into solo and joint experiences, interpersonal decision-making, the customer journey, and ways to boost social well-being