7 research outputs found
Are Consumers Ready for Augmented Reality? Factors Influencing Online Footwear Purchasing Intentions Using AR Technology
No full textSome online retailers flourished during the COVID-19 pandemic time. Apparel retailers face the dilemma of how to adapt a considerable part of their businesses to mobile commerce. Augmented Reality (AR) applications offer the capability to try clothing and footwear items virtually. We address critical factors for consumers to adopt AR to shop apparel in general and footwear in particular. Based on a real-life pilot, we present six Research Propositions that can be addressed in future research and introduce a novel approach to evaluate the UTAUT2 constructs that result in a new way to view Habit and Price Value often ignored in extant research
Digital Assets in Mental Accounting: How Cryptocurrency and NFTs Influence Charitable Choices
No full textThe emergence of cryptocurrencies, Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs), and other blockchain applications have transformed how businesses and their stakeholders create, perceive, and exchange value in a purely digital space. Drawing upon Mental Accounting Theory, we investigate how individuals categorize, manage, and exchange crypto-related value in their minds, focusing on whether cryptocurrencies and NFTs are managed within the same mental ledger and how this cognitive framework can facilitate cryptocurrency donations in exchange for NFT rewards. Our research reveals that cryptocurrency holders view NFTs as value-holding assets congruent with cryptocurrencies. As a result, benefactors are more likely to make charitable cryptocurrency contributions when receiving NFTs in return, particularly when the philanthropic contribution is framed as buying the NFT versus receiving the NFT as a thank-you gift. This study not only provides insights into consumer behavior in the context of blockchain but also introduces new research directions in Mental Accounting by highlighting how the discrepancy between NFT creation costs and perceived value enhances their potential as a tool for raising charitable funds within the blockchain ecosystem
Beyond Reality: Investigating the Power of Scarcity and Rarity on Consumer Attitudes in Metaverse Fashion Retail
No full textThis research explores consumer attitudes and behavior in a metaverse retailing environment, mainly focusing on how perceptions of scarcity and rarity influence consumers’ views of purchasing virtual wearables. Our findings diverge from preconceived notions about scarcity in physical/online retail, opening the door to a new understanding of how metaverse citizens may perceive scarcity of products. While it may appear simple to assume that physical-world strategies can seemingly be exported to virtual worlds, we uncovered a more complex story. The influence of the supply (availability) information on consumer attitudes in the metaverse is mediated by consumers’ need for uniqueness. Specifically, seeing the virtual offerings as relatively abundant increased consumers’ need for uniqueness, which improved the likelihood of purchase, a puzzling result. The mystery is better understood when considering how all items in exclusive collections in the metaverse can preserve their rare status, thereby fully separating scarcity and rarity. Unlike in physical retail environments, our findings indicate an interaction: high product availability (low scarcity) increases the likelihood of purchasing only when product rarity is high. These surprising results provide novel insights for academics and practitioners to consider the combinatorial effects of availability information and product rarity, as well as the virtual customers’ characteristics, particularly their need for uniqueness as a mediator to their attitudes toward virtual products
Intrinsic Cultural Factors That Helped Vietnam Overcome the COVID-19 Pandemic Compared with Other Countries.
No full text The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic emerged in Wuhan, China, spread nationwide and then onto many other countries between December 2019 and early 2020. The implementation of strict quarantine measures in Vietnam has kept a large number of people in isolation and has eventually put the disease under control. Social and physical distancing turned to be an efficient way of slowing the spread of disease and stopping chains of transmission of COVID-19 as well as preventing new ones from appearing (World Health Organization, 2020). Analyzing the World Health Organization (WHO) data, we could see a clear difference in the reported numbers between Vietnam, a developing country, and the USA, one of the leading developed countries in the western hemisphere. We tried to address the question if there are factors that helped local governments to implement helpful rules. We argue that Eastern Asian cultural traits played a role in reducing the spread of COVID-19. We recommend to take this commentary paper, and further research those cultural factors that positively affected the slowdown of the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic in Vietnam
How Do Consumers in General Evaluate, Judge, and Act toward Shoplifting? The Moderating Effects of Personal Characteristics and Motives
No full textDespite 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
Understanding Mental Health Services and Help-Seeking Behaviors Among College Students in Vietnam
No full textObjective: Due to the significant higher prevalence, yet less attention of mental health problems among Asian college students, we decided to investigate the effectiveness and efficiency of mental health services and help-seeking behaviors in Vietnamese universities. By conducting this study, we hope to contribute to current literature on the factors that contribute to professional mental health taking behavior of college students in Vietnam as well as suggest strategies to reduce possible barriers that prevent them from seeking professional help.
Design: We first conducted a pilot study to test the reliability and validity of our measurements. We then made necessary adjustments and distributed the final questionnaires to a university in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Collected data was analyzed through exploratory factor analysis.
Results: Among the three measurements of psychological openness, help-seeking propensity, and indifference to stigma, results indicated that the model explains students’ help-seeking intention reasonably well than others.
Conclusions: Using theory of planned behavior, this study aims at examining predictors of professional mental health seeking behavior among college students in Vietnam. Our findings indicate that help-seeking propensity significantly influences Vietnamese students’ intention to seek professional healthcare. Through this study, we suggest some guidance to the school administrators the factors that encourage students to take professional mental care
