The Initial Stages of Consumer Trust Building in e-Commerce: a Study on Finnish Consumers

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A Qualitative Analysis of Consumers\u27 Perceptions of the Trustworthiness of e-Commerce

A lack of consumer trust hinders the development of electronic commerce. Although the importance of consumer trust in e-commerce is recognized and several studies have been done about the phenomenon, there is still confusion among researchers concerning different concepts related to trust. As an example, researchers have confused the concepts of consumer trust and trustworthiness and trust and risk. Furthermore, the lack of empirical studies concerning consumer trust has increased the confusion. This paper contributes by exploring what meanings consumers give to the less studied concept of trustworthiness in the context of e-commerce and by providing building blocks for further research. The findings of our study revealed altogether 11 different attributes of trustworthiness that consumers saw as important with respect to electronic grocery shopping

Nature Ambience in a Lunch Restaurant Has the Potential to Evoke Positive Emotions, Reduce Stress, and Support Healthy Food Choices and Sustainable Behavior:A Field Experiment among Finnish Customers

Laboratory experiments have indicated that exposure to restorative ambiences in food environments can lead to beneficial outcomes for consumers, but there is little evidence if this positive effect holds true in real-life consumption conditions. Therefore, the aim of this study was to analyze the effects of lunch restaurant ambience on customers’ emotional responses, stress recovery, food choices, and generation of plate waste. The expectation was that ambience inducing positive emotional responses would lead to alleviated stress, healthier food choices, and reduced plate waste. A field experiment with a baseline and two experimental ambiences (‘nature ambience’ to induce positive emotions and ‘fast food ambience’ to induce less positive emotions) including visual and auditory stimuli was conducted in a lunch restaurant for one week per ambience. Emotional responses, and objective and subjective stress were measured from a subgroup of participants (n = 32). Food choices and plate waste were measured for all customers (n = 1610–1805 depending on the study week). During ‘nature ambience’ week, customers more often chose vegetarian dishes and generated less plate waste. The results on emotional responses and stress recovery were partially in line with the expectations. The study provides real-life evidence that restaurant ambience modification could lead to beneficial consequences for customers

Trust, Risk, Privacy and Security in e-Commerce

The concepts, Trust, Risk, Privacy and Security, are widely used in various studies done by multiple disciplines, and they are often incorrectly referred to almost as synonyms. The aim is to clarify the concepts from the consumer viewpoint in ecommerce. The findings of our qualitative study suggest several relationships between the four concepts and serves as building blocks for further research

Screening techniques : clinicians\u27 views and approaches to assessing alcohol and substance use in older adults

This qualitative study examined how New York State licensed clinicians approach the initial assessment and ongoing treatment of older adults (55+) identified to be struggling with alcohol or substance misuse issues. The research questions specifically asked: Do clinicians assess for alcohol and substance misuse in the older adult patients they serve? What are the mediating factors within this assessment and treatment process? This study was initiated in an exploratory fashion because of the limited amount of research available which investigates the relationship between clinicians\u27 attitudes and approaches to this work with the rapidly growing older adult populations they serve. Given the constricted amount of literature available on this topic, a phenomenological approach was employed. Twelve licensed mental health clinicians, practicing for at least a year in the New York City Metropolitan area, were telephonically interviewed. The demographic characteristics of each are organized in Appendix E, and further expanded upon in the findings and discussion sections of this research report. In line with a phenomenological approach, the thematic analysis of participants\u27 responses was employed. The findings produced a depiction of therapeutic practice aligned with the available research: (1) clinicians often minimize assessment of alcohol and substance misuse practices in ever-growing older adult populations; (2) clinicians report a lacking standardization of preventative protocol for the assessment of alcohol and substance misuse in older adult populations; and (3) the therapeutic methods employed by clinicians in consultation with older adults, are viewed as needing the appropriate modifications in order to better provide comprehensive mental health treatment

Techno-economic prospects and desirability of 3D food printing:perspectives of industrial experts, researchers and consumers

3D food printing is an emerging food technology innovation that enables the personalization and on-demand production of edible products. While its academic and industrial relevance has increased over the past decade, the functional value of the technology remains largely unrealized on a commercial scale. This study aimed at updating the business outlook of 3D food printing so as to help entrepreneurs and researchers in the field to channel their research and development (R&D) activities. A three-phase mixed methods approach was utilized to gain perspectives of industrial experts, researchers, and potential consumers. Data were collected from two sets of interviews with experts, a survey with experts, and consumer focus group discussions. The results gave insights into key attributes and use cases for a 3D food printer system, including the techno-economic feasibility and consumer desirability of identified use cases. A business modelling workshop was then organized to translate these results into three refined value propositions for 3D food printing. Both the experts and consumers found personalized nutrition and convenience to be the most desirable aspects of 3D food printing. Accordingly, business models related to 3D printed snacks/meals in semi-public spaces such as fitness centers and hospitals were found to offer the highest business potential. While the technology might be mature enough at component level, the successful realization of such high-reward models however would require risk-taking during the developmental phase

A taste of things to come : Effect of temporal order of information and product experience on evaluation of healthy and sustainable plant-based products

Current patterns of meat consumption are considered unsustainable. Plant-based products are presented as a solution. However, while some plant-based products thrive, others do not make the cut due to the information “framing” effect issues related to the way information is presented to the consumers. Information on the nutrition and health properties of food products are usually made available at the point of purchase, but their effect on consumer product evaluation and subsequent purchase intent can also occur later, during or after consumption. This research demonstrates that the effect of nutrition information on product evaluation and purchase intention depends on when such information is made available–before first tasting or after first tasting–and that the information interacts with the taste experience in its effect on product evaluation and subsequent purchase intent. Using three plant-based products as an example, we conducted a cross-cultural experimental sensory evaluation with temporal order of information as the main between-subject experimental condition (informed before taste vs. informed after taste vs. control condition), and product experience phase (expectation vs. experience vs. post-experience phase) and information content as within-subject conditions. Information content had two levels: lower vs. higher share of oat protein in the product (i.e., source of protein vs. high in protein). The results indicate that information generally increases consumers’ purchase intentions with information before tasting having a higher weight when compared to the condition when information was presented after tasting. Presenting the information before tasting also mitigates a drop in the evaluation of taste after tasting, observed in the two other conditions. Further, taste acts as a healthiness cue, but the direction of the inference depends on the availability of health-related information: tasting in the informed condition increased the healthiness perception, whereas tasting in the uninformed condition had the opposite effect. Giving the information before the first tasting also increased the weight of healthiness as compared to taste in the formation of purchase intentions. These findings contribute to a better understanding of the effect of temporal order of information and product tasting have on the consumers’ product evaluations of plant-based products from theoretical and managerial perspectives.© 2022 Banovic, Arvola, Pennanen, Duta, Sveinsdóttir, Sozer and Grunert. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.fi=vertaisarvioitu|en=peerReviewed

Biosidit ja korjausrakentaminen

Biodisit ja korjausrakentaminen -hankkeessa selvitettiin biosidien käyttöä homeiden torjunnassa sekä arvioitiin biosideille altistumista ja terveydellistä merkitystä käytettäessä niitä homeidentorjunnassa korjausrakentamisessa. Biosidien käyttöä ei pääsääntöisesti suositella sisätiloissa homeongelmien ratkaisuksi, homesiivouksen tehosteeksi tai homeiden ehkäisyyn, koska tiedot eri biosidiyhdisteryhmien vaikutuksista erilaisiin mikrobeihin ovat usein puutteelliset. Mahdollisten vakavien haittavaikutusten vuoksi suosittelemme, että erityisesti polyguanidiiniyhdisteitä (PHMB), booriyhdisteitä (dinatriumoktaboraatti) ja isotiatsolinoniyhdisteitä ei käytetä lainkaan. Yrityksille tulisi tuottaa yhdenmukaista ja puolueetonta koulutusta ja koulutusmateriaalia biosidien ominaisuuksista ja turvallisesta käytöstä

Immunohistochemistry in Ovarian Malignancies: A Comparative Study in Two Different Time Eras

Background: To assess role of immunohistochemistry in identifying primary and secondary ovarian malignancies. Methods: In this descriptive cross sectional study 65 cases of ovarian malignancies diagnosed during the year 2001, with a limited immunohistochemistry support were included. An equal number of cases (65 cases) diagnosed during the year 2012, with an extended immunochemistry support, were used for the comparison. Immunostains used in these cases were CK, CK7, CK20, Cdx2, PLAP, WT1, inhibin, Calretenin, Melan A, CD99, GCDFP15, Mammoglobin LCA, CEA, AFP, CD30 and CD10. Results: The frequency of metastatic carcinoma has changed tremendously being 3% in 2001 and 35.4% in 2012. The frequencies of other malignancies in 2001 in descending order of frequency were surface epithelial tumour (74.2%), germ cell tumours (16.2%), sex cord stromal tumours (1.5%) and others (3%). In 2012, apart from metastatic carcinoma, the frequency in descending order of frequency was surface epithelial tumours (35.4%), germ cell tumours (18.5%), sex cord stromal tumours (16.2%), and others (4.6%). There was not much difference in median ages (42.74 +15.4 and 39.54 + 15.8) Conclusion: IHC has helped in identifying primary and secondary ovarian malignancies