A Hybrid Model: Price and Branding Issues

Brand extension has been extensively discussed during the past two decades. The current research identifies and examines the effect of several price-related variables on consumers’ judgments of brand extensions. We expect and find that consumers’ price expectations of a brand extension are affected by the price of the parent brand. The relative price of the parent category in relation to the extension category also affects consumers’ price expectations of the brand extension’s price, and moderates the effect of the parent brand price. In addition, the impact of the price of the parent brand and relative price of the parent category on brand extension evaluations is moderated by the distribution or heterogeneity of prices in the extension category. Finally, we find that the impact of consumers’ expectation of the brand extension’s price is stronger when they are confronted with the actual price of the extension than when they are not. Keywords: hybrid model, price perception, Brand extensions, Brand attitude

Impact of Consumer Awareness on Purchase Intentions: An Ethical View

An increasing number of people make their consumption decisions on the basis of ethical values, such as environmentally friendly products and production methods, labour standards (wage rates and working conditions), and human rights. Ethical consumerism is a growing phenomenon that underpins ethical trade activities. The purpose of this study is to examine consumers’ awareness of both environmental and Fair Trade issues and to examine their associated purchase behaviors.  In addition, the study compares the relationship between ethical awareness and ethical purchase behavior across these two ethical issues in a sample of Iranians consumers.  The sample was composed of undergraduate students at Islamic Azad University. One-hundred five respondents completed a self-administered survey which assessed their awareness and purchase behaviors.  A comparison between environmental and Fair Trade issues on both awareness and purchase behavior was conducted.  T-tests revealed a significant difference between awareness of Fair Trade and environmental issues (means = 2.63 and 3.01 respectively, t = -4.52, p <.0001).  However, there were no significant differences between green purchase behavior and Fair Trade purchase behavior (means = 2.73 and 2.79 respectively, t = -.442, p = .44). Keywords: consumer Awareness, purchase intentions, environmental issues, Trade issue

How empowering small and mid-cap firms develops national exports

Having a sustainable growth in economy of developing countries requires appropriate infrastructures and part of it depends on gaining market share in international market. In this paper, we present an empirical investigation to find out the effects of various factors on helping export for small and mid-cap firms. The proposed study designs a questionnaire in Likert scale consists of 70 questions and distributes it among some randomly selected small and mid-cap firms. The study considers whether or not improving relationships between countries positively influences on empowering firms and export capabilities. In addition, the study also considers whether or not improving national strategies for developing exports positively influences on empowering firms and export capabilities. The study also tries to find out whether or not changes on rules and regulations harms export capabilities. Using structural equation modeling, the study confirms that empowering small and mid-cap firms contributes the whole economy through boosting export