Content design of advertisement for consumer exposure: Mobile marketing through short messaging service

The success of mobile phone-based short messaging service (SMS) commercials as a tool of promotional marketing depends upon the wording, statement, language, presentation − in other words, the overall content of the message. If consumers are not exposed to the mobile phone SMS containing promotional offers, marketers would less likely to achieve any benefits by sending SMS to prospective consumers. This study is aimed to identify and empirically examine the critical variables that can attract consumers to open and read the advertisement on the SMS. To address consumer exposure, the study was designed on the conceptual paradigms of the UTAUT2 with the inclusion of three external constructs: personalization, self-concept, and trust. Through a consumer survey, this study found significant variations from the UTAUT2 to provide new constructs to capture consumer intentions for exposure to the product. By doing so, this study has developed and tested an extended version of UTAUT2, which is named as UTAUT-CEMM (Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology of Consumer Exposure for Mobile Message). It revealed that consumer segmentation and target marketing is the most effective way to communicate with consumers through promotional marketing conducted by the mobile phone SMS. It also suggested that this promotional marketing is valuable only for highly reputable vendors/retailers.     

Understanding the effects of physical experience and information integration on consumer use of online to offline commerce

Online to Offline (O2O) commerce commands intense attention from both academic and practical fields, but the unique features of O2O commerce and how these features affect consumer use of O2O commerce remain unclear. Based on an analysis of the features of O2O commerce, we build a research model integrating perceived value theory and the technology acceptance model to examine the influence of the features of O2O commerce on consumer use intention. The research model is tested with data collected from a field survey using structural equation modelling. Two crucial features of O2O commerce, namely, “physical experience” and “integration of online and offline information”, are shown to exert significant impacts on consumer use intention via the classic core constructs of perceived benefit, perceived usefulness, and perceived value. The findings validate the two features’ impact on consumer use of O2O commerce via both technological and economic attributes. The implications for merchants’ and platforms’ operation in O2O commerce are discussed.     

商品房销售欺诈行为的法律适用

随着我国市场经济的发展和住房制度的改革,房地产市场逐渐活跃起来。然而,商品房销售过程中的不法行为也随之出现。从应当适用《消费者权益保护法》对商品房销售欺诈行为加以调整的角度,探讨如何在我国现有法律框架下,加大对商品房消费者合法权益的保护力度。     

对惩罚性赔偿制度的思考

惩罚性赔偿制度作为一般民事赔偿制度的例外,在英关法系得到普遍的承认,我国的《消费者权益保护法》第49条对此制度也有所涉及。通过分析我国《消费者权益保护法》对于惩罚性赔偿制度的相关规定,对其进一步的完善进行了分析和思考。     

Understanding and enabling marketplace literacy in subsistence contexts: The development of a consumer and entrepreneurial literacy educational program in South India

To function in the economic realm, two important resources that individuals need are finances and know-how. Whereas there has been considerable attention on microfinancing, we describe an educational program that focuses on enabling generic skills about the marketplace and complements these important efforts. We conducted research aimed at understanding lives and marketplaces in subsistence contexts in urban and rural parts of a state in South India. We used the research as a basis for developing a consumer and entrepreneurial literacy educational program. This program uses the “know-why”, or an understanding of marketplaces, as a basis for the know-how of being an informed buyer or seller. Despite the difficulties with abstract thinking that low-literate individuals experience, we enable deeper understanding of marketplaces by leveraging the social skills that participants bring to the program and relating educational content back to their lived experiences. Such understanding can enable individuals to place themselves on a path to lifelong learning. Implications of this work for research and practice in non-formal education are discussed.     

Social media use and consumer shopping preferences

We empirically explore the associations between social media use at home and shopping preferences using survey data. We focus on popular retail firms including brick-and-mortar firms such as Walmart, Target, Nordstrom, and Best Buy, and online retailers, such as Amazon, Walmart, Target, and Best Buy. Social media use of popular platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Skype and a general category Other Social Media are analyzed. We find that use of LinkedIn, Skype and Other Social Media at home, in the model without control variables, is associated with shopping at Nordstrom, Walmart and Target. Shopping online at Amazon, Best Buy and Walmart, without control variables in the model specification, is associated with use of Facebook, Skype, Twitter and Other Social Media at home. We report additional insights using an alternative specification that includes social media use at work. Media Richness Theory (MRT) and Strength of Weak Ties from Social Network Analysis (SNA) and related theories help explain our results. Our results have important implications for social marketing campaigns and social media policies for consumer retail firms.     

New Fiction,Adult Education,and the Library

Although sales of popular fiction are increasing steadily, the number of serious novelists able to support themselves by writing is decreasing. Because early library emphasis on raising popular taste has lessened and adult education efforts within libraries have diminished, libraries are often held responsible for the novelists' plight. In addition, adult education in general has moved from an emphasis on the liberal arts to a concentration on practical, "how-to" courses. The Great Book Discussion Program was the last major liberal arts adult education effort sponsored by a library. A program for discussion of subsidized quality new fiction is proposed. Novelists would be subsidized by library purchases. Such discussion groups would sometimes appear on a related public television show. The plan would provide fiction with a springboard other than publishers' promotions and literary establishment endorsements.     

Evolution of an academic–public library partnership

A partnership to improve access to health information via an urban public library system was established in St. Louis, Missouri, in 2011. A multiyear project was outlined that included an information needs assessment, a training class for public library staff, information kiosks at library branches for delivering printed consumer health materials, and a series of health-related programming. The partnership evolved to include social service and community organizations to carry out project goals and establish a sustainable program that met the health and wellness interests of the community.     

Empowerment within brand communities: Overcoming the Achilles’ Heel of scale-free networks

This study explored how consumer interactions evolve within an emerging brand community. Since newly formed brand communities are marked by the presence of scale-free networks, an ethnographic study among individuals in their second year of tailgating at American football games was conducted to examine whether group leaders were able to empower their followers and alleviate the Achilles’ Heel of scale-free networks. The authors investigated whether member empowerment led to a more balanced network of consumers, whereby individual group members increased their involvement and loyalty towards the group itself and the larger brand. Social network theory was used to examine the changes in relationships among individual consumers within the brand community, specifically focusing on the construct of centrality. Marketing implications associated with the changes and developments of these evolving brand communities are discussed.