How Do Consumers Adopt Imported Products in an Era of Product Overcrowding?

When individuals decide to adopt imported products, they associate these products with one or more places. Thus, consumers are likely to think about the new cultures, ideas, and behaviors associated with these places. When adopting imported products some consumers seek some type of novelty without altering existing decisional and/or behavioral structures whereas other consumers seek novelty to create new consumption situations. Nonetheless, current research has failed to explain how determinant the influence of the product’s place and the process of adopting this product are on consumer’s purchase intention. Therefore, this research analyzes: 1) the influence of the product’s place market development level on consumers’ purchase intention, 2) the process followed by consumers during the adoption of imported products, 3) the effect this process has on consumers’ purchase intention, and 4) the moderating effect of social influence and prior product knowledge on this process. A survey of 491 participants from Mexico and the United States revealed: 1) that significant differences in consumers’ purchase intention are due to the product’s place market development level; 2) that the process followed by consumers during the adoption of imported products represents an explanation chain sequentially described by the consumer attitudes toward that imported product, the behavioral intention to use that imported product, and the selection, evaluation and acceptance of that imported product; 3) that this adoption process has a determinant effect on consumers’ purchase intention for imported products; and 4) that social influence and prior product knowledge also influence consumers purchase intention for imported products. Overall, this research makes a theoretical contribution in three particular ways: 1) by providing an enriched and customized framework to fully understand the product adoption process of consumers when deciding to purchase imported products, 2) by identifying the differences on consumers’ purchase intention due to different levels of market development associated to both, the imported product and the consumer, and 3) by proposing that the product adoption process represents an explanation chain

Managerial Performance Measures And Shareholder Value Creation: The Case Of Latin American Companies

In this paper we examine whether Economic Value Added (EVATM) is a good predictor of shareholder value creation (SVC) for a group of Latin American companies. We also examine whether EVATM is a better predictor of SVC than competing accounting-based measures of managerial performance. The relationship of these predictors to SVC is paramount in a study of factors influencing shareholder value creation such as the compensation of a firm’s executives. Our results show strong correlations between EVATM and SVC. They also indicate that EVATM outperforms competing measures even after controlling for the potential effects that these last metrics have on SVC. Moreover, they reveal different levels of SVC sensitivity to changes in EVATM across countries and significant differences in EVA’s association with SVC across industries

Cave Winch: When a Looter\u27s Tool Becomes an Artifact

As an archaeologist, it is often difficult to empathize with looters and collectors, but we would like to ask that you put aside any pre-conceived notions of judgment as we consider the question: when does a looter’s tool become an artifact? For the two of us, this particular dialogue began in the summer of 2013 on an excavation at Sierra Diablo Cave in western Texas. In that cave was a winch that we assume was constructed on or near the site as a tool for excavating deposits near the rear of the cave

Consumer Propensity to Adopt Illicit Goods: Theory, Methods, and Results

The purpose of this study is to examine consumer propensity to adopt illicit goods. The adoption of illicit goods is a worldwide problem that undermines legitimate markets, funds criminal organizations, and harms the most vulnerable in society. International organizations, such as World Economic Forum, have called for the study of the demand of illicit products. Research is crucial to understanding the demand for these products and can contribute to public policy addressing this issue. This research uses two theoretical frameworks: The Theory of Planned Behavior and the Theory of Marketing Ethics. Using the Theory of Planned Behavior, research results suggest that subjective norms influence consumers’ propensity to adopt illicit goods. Using the Theory of Marketing Ethics, research on consumers’ ethical orientation found that both teleological and deontological orientations influence consumers’ ethical judgement and intention. Theoretical and methodological conclusions are derived, and managerial and policy implications are offered

Controlling the exchange interaction using the spin-flip transition of antiferromagnetic spins in Ni81_{81}Fe19_{19} / α\alpha-Fe2_2O3_3

We report studies of exchange bias and coercivity in ferromagnetic Ni$_{81}$Fe$_{19}$ layers coupled to antiferromagnetic (AF) (0001), (11$\bar{2}$0), and (11$\bar{0}$2) $\alpha$-Fe$_2$O$_3$ layers. We show that AF spin configurations which permit spin-flop coupling give rise to a strong uniaxial anisotropy and hence a large coercivity, and that by annealing in magnetic fields parallel to specific directions in the AF we can control either coercivity or exchange bias. In particular, we show for the first time that a reversible temperature-induced spin reorientation in the AF can be used to control the exchange interaction.Comment: 15 pages, 5 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev. Let

College Sport Ethics: Moral versus Consequentialist Drivers of Student Ethics in Sport Activities EXTENDED ABSTRACT

This study aims at explaining why college students cheat in sport activities. Knowing what induces students to cheat from their own rationale for cheating is the first objective and uncovers the first gap. Understanding how students solve ethical dilemmas in general and how such routine is applied to sport activities is the second objective and leads to visualize the second gap. Based on empirical research, this study evaluates the competing roles of morality or deontological norms and the consequences or teleological norms in the formation of ethical judgment and ethical intentions (Hunt and Vitell, 1986). Previous research shows that the deontological norms prevail over the teleological norms; notwithstanding their debatable effects in situations involving ethical dilemmas versus those that do not (Hunt and Vasquez-Parraga, 1993). This ethics theory and methodology were applied to a 2 x 2 randomized experimental design and a scenario reflecting a student conduct in a sport routine that included a moral or immoral act with positive or negative consequences to the actor

Lealtad en el Aire: Factores Reales y Ficticios de la Formacion de Lealtad del Pasajero de Líneas Aereas

28 p.La lealtad del pasajero ha crecido en importancia en el servicio de líneas aéreas comerciales internacionales, debido especialmente a la crítica situación por la que atraviesa el sector turístico en los últimos años y la mayor competencia entre los proveedores del servicio en un mercado que se ha achicado. Por esta razón se ha aumentado la promoción del servicio y se han acentuado los programas de clubes destinados a crear lealtad. Sin embargo, la membresía múltiple a esos clubes y la tenue satisfacción con cada servicio han vuelto inefectivos a dichos programas, como queda demostrado en los frecuentes cambios de aerolínea o la postergación de vuelos por parte del cliente. Los estudios clásicos de la lealtad indican que éste es el resultado directo de la satisfacción del cliente, razón por la cual surgieron los “programas de lealtad.” Este vínculo directo ha sido cuestionado en estudios recientes, según los cuales la lealtad se encuentra determinada por factores relacionales y no transaccionales. Este estudio explora dichos factores respecto de la lealtad del pasajero de líneas aéreas. Los datos primarios provienen de una encuesta en el Aeropuerto Internacional de Santiago. La evidencia empírica demuestra que el proceso generador de lealtad en el servicio de líneas aéreas está determinado por el compromiso, la confianza, y la satisfacción, en ese orden de importancia

Explaining Loyalty in Higher Education: A Model and Comparative Analysis from the Policy of Gratuity, a Case Applied to Chile

Since the 1980s, numerous transformations in higher education were experienced in Latin America, and especially in Chile, a country that allowed private entities to enter the education systems and develop a market. The opportunity triggered an increase of coverage and competition to capture and retain students, followed by marketing strategies delivering student satisfaction and pursuing student loyalty. Moreover, since 2012, higher education institutions in Chile have been allowed to adopt a policy of gratuity, giving families the co-responsibility of dealing with the cost of education. So, some institutions adopted gratuity and continued receiving funds from the state, but others did not, relying instead on family income. The split in the financial responsibility of higher education seems to have generated varied reactions from the students and their families, including their satisfaction with and loyalty to the institution. Despite the abundant literature on higher education, however, a few studies attempt to explain and compare student satisfaction and loyalty across types of institutions, such as those that opted for gratuity versus those that did not. This study examines a set of relevant attributes for understanding that phenomenon; attributes such as quality of service, satisfaction, trust, commitment, and loyalty. The results reveal a prevalence of trust and familiarity among the students attending an institution with gratuity. In contrast, the results demonstrate a preponderance of commitment and satisfaction among the students attending a non-gratuity institution that relies on family, private, and personal funds to support their education. View Full-Tex

How Do Consumers in General Evaluate, Judge, and Act toward Shoplifting? The Moderating Effects of Personal Characteristics and Motives

Despite the seriousness of shoplifting, consumers’ evaluations, judgements, and intentions toward shoplifting remain underexplored by scholars from business ethics, marketing, retailing, and consumer behavior. We propose a new shoplifting ethics model, which integrates Hunt and Vitell’s theory of ethics with Nadeau, Rochlen, and Tyminski’s typology of shoplifting, by incorporating the moderators of consumers’ personal characteristics (i.e., age, gender, marital status, income) and shoplifting motives (i.e., social, experiential, economic, emotional) onto the relationships among deontological evaluation, teleological evaluation, ethical judgment, and intention. Based on a two-by-two randomized experimental design, two shoplifting cases (i.e., swapping price tags, stealing products) are investigated in four scenarios (i.e., deontologically unethical condition with positive consequences, deontologically unethical condition with negative consequences, deontologically ethical condition with positive consequences, deontologically ethical condition with negative consequences). We discover that age, marriage, and income enhance the relationship between consumers’ deontological evaluations of shoplifting and ethical judgments of shoplifting; that employment strengthens the relationship between the ethical judgments of shoplifting and shoplifting intentions; and that marriage enhances the relationship between consumers’ teleological evaluations of shoplifting and shoplifting intentions. Nevertheless, the economic factor weakens the relationship between consumers’ deontological evaluations of shoplifting and ethical judgments of shoplifting. We find that ethical judgments of shoplifting mediates the relationship between consumers’ deontological/teleological evaluations of shoplifting and shoplifting intentions. The results imply that younger, single, unemployed, and low-income consumers engage in more shoplifting activities compared to their older, married, employed, and high-income counterparts. Moreover, even though acknowledging the inherent wrongness of shoplifting and its negative consequences, consumers can still be impelled by economic reasons to participate in shoplifting. We contribute to the ongoing debate on whether economic reasons change consumers’ ethical judgments of shoplifting and whether economic disadvantage motivates consumers to shoplift. Contrary to conventional wisdom, negative consequences and punishment do not fully deter consumers from shoplifting. Under the contingencies of personal characteristics and shoplifting motives, shoplifting intention is influenced directly by ethical judgment and indirectly by deontological and teleological evaluations. Theoretical and practical insights are discussed to help policy makers and store managers prevent shoplifting behavior