An ethnographic analysis of consumer information processing and decision-making at farmers’ markets

Purpose Farmers’ markets have grown rapidly in recent years and at the same time consumers increasingly desire to eat healthfully and sustainably. This research aims to analyze the way consumers process information regarding local food claims such as sustainability and organics when shopping for local foods at farmers’ markets. Design/methodology/approach This research uses ethnographic methods that included interviews with 36 participants, more than 100 hours of participant observation and prolonged engagement over a two and half-year period. Findings The findings indicate that there are two dominant types of consumers at the farmers’ market, hedonistic and utilitarian consumers. Hedonistic consumers rely on heuristic cues such as aesthetics, their relationship with the farmer and other peripheral sources of information when making purchase decisions. Utilitarian consumers, by contrast, carefully analyze marketing messages using central route cues and tend to be more conscious of their purchase choices. Practical implications This study will help farmers more effectively position their marketing messages and help consumers be aware how they process information in this space. Originality/value Unlike previous studies of consumer behavior at farmers’ markets that primarily use survey methods, this study uses observational and ethnographic methods to capture in situ interactions in this complex buying context. Further, while much work has been done on broad concepts of local food and organic preferences, this study provides a more in-depth look at consumer information processing in the farmers’ market space that reflects a mixture of organic and non-organic food.

Coordination Model of Consumer Information Sharing in the Online Tourism Supply Chain

This is a study of the coordination model of consumer information sharing in the tourism supply chain with e-commerce platforms as the core. On the basis of considering the risks, a game theory is used to explore the information sharing effort level and the output profit of the tourism supply chain under both, centralized decision-making and decentralized decision-making. Finally, numerical simulation is used to verify the model and put forward a method of coordination for all parties in the tourism supply chain to achieve maximum profit.

Personnel qualimetric assessment of the consumer information center of insurance organization

The object of the study was the system for assessing the quality of the information service personnel of the insurance company. When determining the approaches to improving the relevant components of the quality system, the organization took into account that the personnel assessment process is the most painstaking, complex and lengthy aspect of the firm’s activities. Mistakes in such a matter can not only cost one person’s dissatisfaction, but affect a certain number of problems regarding the stable functioning of an entire institution. The complexity of this issue lies in the absence, in general, of universal quantitative assessment criteria and the strong influence of the «human factor», which necessitates the use of expert qualimetric approaches with an increase in the objectivity of the assessment. In this regard, the work was aimed at developing an objective system for assessing personnel on the example of the information service of one of the insurance companies in Ukraine using qualimetric methods. Tools for the integrated qualimetric assessment of the quality of the information center employees’ activities, which consist in determining of the appropriate list and significance of the personnel performance quality indicators, were proposed with an analysis of the possibility of their identification and measurement. Additionally, it is recommended to take into account independent control using «mystery shopper», as well as the self-esteem of workers. The obtained results were used in the development of the Methodology (Procedure) of the quality system for the assessment of activities and personnel certification. The use of the outlined approaches makes it possible to increase the level of satisfaction of customers and consumers of insurance services, to increase the economic efficiency of the organization’s activities, to differentiate personnel by the quality of work with appropriate personal encouragement for training, self-realization and work productivity. The deliverables may be useful to organizations in the relevant domain and may be applicable in other similar settings.

PROCES DALjE HARMONIZACIJE EVROPSKOG POTROŠAČKOG PRAVA

At the time of the establishment of the European Communities in 1957, there was no special provision on consumer policy for the whole of Europe. At the time, individual consumer policies of member states reflected different national cultures, traditions, administrative systems and priorities. Consumer policy at European level has become necessary for them in order to have adequate protection when trading in the single market. The first special consumer protection program was adopted in 1975, which was the basis for a growing body of directives and regulations in the field of consumer protection. Currently, about 90 EU directives cover consumer protection issues. Key EU policy areas related to consumer protection are the protection of life, health and safety of consumers; consumer information; protection of economic interests of consumers; protection of legal interests of consumers.

How consumers' personalities, lifestyles and demographics predict SVOD genre and SVOD platform consumption

PurposeStreaming video on demand (SVOD) services are comprised of digital media content creation and content distribution that provide a vast array of genre content playable on an assortment of different technology platforms. Additionally, these digital services are equipped to collect data and information on consumers. However, these services do not capture extensive consumer demographics, lifestyles or personalities information.Design/methodology/approachTo resolve this discrepancy, collecting external information such as complete demographics, personalities and lifestyles of consumers can be useful in advancing SVOD consumer behavior knowledge. This study examined how consumer demographics, lifestyles and personalities may predict SVOD genre consumption and SVOD platform consumption. A survey was executed and disseminated to collect consumer information across these dimensions. Multiple linear regressions and a structural equation model were formed to explicate variance.FindingsConsumer demographics, lifestyles and personalities’ information do predict SVOD genre consumption and SVOD platform consumption.Originality/valueMedia selection and trait theory have not been applied to understanding unexplained variance behind consumer media consumption, and are often used to predict media consumption variance among consumers. These findings illustrate that, while digital consumer touchpoints are necessary to collect and analyze, marketers should not lose sight of easily-obtainable consumer data, much of which dictates consumption choices.

Monitoring of compliance of quality and safety of sunflower honey with the requirements of the national standard

Honey natural is one of unique booties of beekeeping. It is not only sweet addition to the ration but also valuable product that contains many important substances, in particular vitamins, micro-macronutrients, enzymes, irreplaceable amino acids and other, that must be in the food ration of everybody. For this reason for today honey is one of products, that occupies the not last place among commodity turnover. It touches not only markets but also trade network of shops and supermarkets. In recent year many producers that buy up honey on apiaries appeared in a trade network, buying honey in apiaries, package and will realize. Such honey needs careful veterinary control in relation to quality and unconcern, in fact he is one of food products, that sufficiently often yields to falsification, and to the consumer, it is almost impossible, independently to distinguish a quality product from an imitation. Therefore the aim of our research was to analyse accordance of indexes of quality and unconcern of honey natural of different producers, that will be realized in the trade network of city in relation to accordance to DSTU 4497:2005 “Natural honey. Specification”. The material of our research was samples of sunflower honey from several domestic producers, selected in the trade network. The research was conducted on the basis of Multidisciplinary Laboratory of Veterinary Medicine (Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and Biotecnologies of Odessa State Agrarian University) and on the basis of the laboratory of Department of Veterinary-Sanitary Inspection (Stepan Gzhytskyi National University of Veterinary Medicine and Biotechnologies, Lviv). Sampling, organoleptic and physicochemical analysis of natural honey, as well as determination of radiological parameters were performed in accordance with DSTU 4497:2005. According to the results of the analysis of the labeling, it is established that the packaging of all investigated products contains the basic production and consumer information in accordance with Article 6 of the Law of Ukraine “On information for consumers about food”. However, the labels of all test samples do not contain separate information provided by the requirements of DSTU 4497:2005 on labeling, namely: the labels of samples №№ 1 and 3 do not indicate the grade of honey, vitamin content and storage temperature of honey, and the expiration date from the date of packaging, not the day of manufacture; on the label of the sample № 2 – the date of packing is not indicated. The study of organoleptic, physicochemical and radiological parameters of sunflower honey samples demonstrates their compliance with the requirements of the regulated DSTU 4497:2005 “Natural honey. Specification”.

Gegar Vaganza: Persepsi Pengguna dan Penempatan Produk D’Herbs dalam Rancangan Realiti Televisyen di Malaysia

This study examines the types of product placements used in the television show Gegar Vaganza, particularly in its 5th season and looks at the consumer perceptions on the product placements used by D’Herbs Holdings Sdn. Bhd. Qualitative content analysis and in-depth interviews were conducted on eight respondents. The saturation of advertisements in the market has prompted marketers to turn to media product placement to deliver messages to the audiences more effectively. This study found that integrated implicit product placement received positive feedback on the process of recalling a brand or product. On the other hand, integrated explicit placements received positive perceptions in increasing the level of consumer information, however, received negative perceptions towards consumer purchasing intentions.

The Welfare Impact of Targeted Advertising Technologies

We analyze the welfare implications of consumer data sharing, and restrictions to that sharing, in the context of online targeted advertising. Targeting technologies offer firms the ability to reach desired audiences through intermediary platforms. The platforms run auctions in real time to display ads on internet sites, leveraging consumers’ personal information collected online to personalize the ads. The online advertising industry posits that targeted advertising benefits advertising firms (that is, merchants who want to target ads to the desired consumers), consumers who see ads for preferred products, and the intermediary platforms that match consumers with firms. However, the claims that targeted advertising benefits all players involved have not been fully vetted in the literature. We develop an analytical model to analyze the economic and welfare implications of targeting technologies for those three players under alternative consumer information regimes. The regimes differ in the type and amount of consumer data available to the intermediary and to the advertising firms, and reflect the presence or absence of technological or regulatory restrictions to personal information flows. We find evidence of incentive misalignment among the players, as the intermediary prefers to share only a subset of consumer information with firms, whereas advertising firms prefer having complete information about the consumers. As such, a strategic intermediary with the ability to control which information is shared during the auction can have an incentive to use only the information that maximizes its payoff, overlooking the interests of both advertising firms and consumers. The information regimes that maximize consumer welfare vastly differ depending on consumers’ heterogeneity along two dimensions: a horizontal dimension, capturing consumer’s heterogeneity in product preferences; and a vertical dimension, capturing consumers’ heterogeneity in purchase power. Consumers prefer none of their personal information to be used for targeting only in limited circumstances. Otherwise, consumers are either indifferent or prefer only specific types of information to be used for targeting.

Different Forecasting Horizons Based Performance Analysis of Electricity Load Forecasting Using Multilayer Perceptron Neural Network

With an uninterrupted power supply to the consumer, it is obligatory to balance the electricity generated by the electricity load. The effective planning of economic dispatch, reserve requirements, and quality power provision for accurate consumer information concerning the electricity load is needed. The burden on the power system engineers eased electricity load forecasting is essential to ensure the enhanced power system operation and planning for reliable power provision. Fickle nature, atmospheric parameters influence makes electricity load forecasting a very complex and challenging task. This paper proposed a multilayer perceptron neural network (MLPNN) with an association of recursive fine-tuning strategy-based different forecasting horizons model for electricity load forecasting. We consider the atmospheric parameters as the inputs to the proposed model, overcoming the atmospheric effect on electricity load forecasting. Hidden layers and hidden neurons based on performance investigation performed. Analyzed performance of the proposed model with other existing models; the comparative performance investigation reveals that the proposed forecasting model performs rigorous with a minimal evaluation index (mean square error (MSE) of 1.1506 × 10-05 for Dataset 1 and MSE of 4.0142 × 10-07 for Dataset 2 concern to the single hidden layer and MSE of 2.9962 × 10-07 for Dataset 1, and MSE of 1.0425 × 10-08 for Dataset 2 concern to two hidden layers based proposed model) and compared to the considered existing models. The proposed neural network possesses a good forecasting ability because we develop based on various atmospheric parameters as the input variables, which overcomes the variance. It has a generic performance capability for electricity load forecasting. The proposed model is robust and more reliable.