Impact of ethical certifications and product involvement on consumers decision to purchase ethical products at price premiums in an emerging market context

In emerging markets, instances of increasing consumers focus on ethical aspects of the product are observed. To this end, we aim to examine the influence of two ethical certifications and two product involvement types on consumers willingness to purchase ethical products at price premiums in the Indian market. No animal cruelty certification and no child labor certification are chosen as the ethical certifications, and a shirt and a bar of soap are chosen as high and low involvement product categories. Data is collected from 206 respondents for the experiment, in which consumers willingness to purchase a product is evaluated for different product scenarios. The results of the study indicate that individuals show highest willingness to purchase products (a shirt or a soap) when both certifications (no animal cruelty, no child labor) are present. However, in comparing individual certifications, individuals prefer no animal cruelty certification for a shirt and no child labor certification for a bar of soap. The study provides insights to practitioners regarding consumers present perception of ethical aspects in the product and directions to increase sales of ethical products in the Indian market.publishedVersio

Grasp Detection with Force Myography for Upper-extremity Stroke Rehabilitation Applications

Grasp training is a key aspect of stroke rehabilitation. This thesis explores the suitability of Force Myography (FMG) classification for the two-class problem of grasping, regardless of grasp-type, versus a lack of grasping, for rehabilitation applications. FMG-based grasp detection in individuals with stroke was assessed with a protocol comprising of three grasp-and-move tasks, requiring a single grasp-type. Accuracy was lower, and required more training data for individuals with stroke when compared to healthy volunteers. Despite this, accuracy was above 90% in individuals with stroke. FMG-based grasp detection was further evaluated using a second protocol comprising of multiple grasp-types and upper-extremity movements, with healthy volunteers. The utility of classifying temporal features of the FMG signal was also assessed using Area under the Receiver Operator Curve (AUC). Accuracy with the raw FMG signal was 88.8%. At certain window configurations, model-based temporal features yielded up to a 6.1% relative increase in AUC over the raw FMG signal

Impact of ethical certifications and product involvement on consumers decision to purchase ethical products at price premiums in an emerging market context

In emerging markets, instances of increasing consumers focus on ethical aspects of the product are observed. To this end, we aim to examine the influence of two ethical certifications and two product involvement types on consumers willingness to purchase ethical products at price premiums in the Indian market. No animal cruelty certification and no child labor certification are chosen as the ethical certifications, and a shirt and a bar of soap are chosen as high and low involvement product categories. Data is collected from 206 respondents for the experiment, in which consumers willingness to purchase a product is evaluated for different product scenarios. The results of the study indicate that individuals show highest willingness to purchase products (a shirt or a soap) when both certifications (no animal cruelty, no child labor) are present. However, in comparing individual certifications, individuals prefer no animal cruelty certification for a shirt and no child labor certification for a bar of soap. The study provides insights to practitioners regarding consumers present perception of ethical aspects in the product and directions to increase sales of ethical products in the Indian market