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Social-Customer-Relationship-Management zeichnet sich vor allem durch die Möglichkeit eines zentralen, überregionalen Kundendialogs mit der Option einer inhaltlichen Segmentierung aus. Obwohl Wissenschaftler schon seit Längerem die Vorteile von Social CRM als ganzheitliche Marketingstrategie betonen, versuchen nur wenig Unternehmen eine ernsthafte Etablierung. Dabei eignet sich dieser Ansatz insbesondere für größere Firmen, die eine Palette unterschiedlicher Produkte überregional unter einem Markennamen vertreiben. Hier könnte Social CRM eine sinnvolle Bereicherung für das CRM-Instrumentarium darstellen und je nach Art der vertriebenen Produkte auch zum Qualitätsmanagement beitragen.
This study examines the relevance of integrated reporting quality (IRQ) to capital markets. We investigate whether IRQ benefits capital market participants by improving a firm's information environment, using analyst earnings forecast accuracy as a proxy. Our study focuses specifically on companies that publish integrated reports on a voluntary basis. Based on a scoring model, we assess IRQ and its effects with data from 2015 to 2019 of 101 companies. The results indicate no significant relationship between IRQ and analyst earnings forecast accuracy. Thus, IRQ does not appear to improve a firm's information environment, at least not currently in a voluntary setting. Drawing on previous literature in the field, this study further concludes that integrated reporting (IR) in general has not yet reached its full potential in benefitting capital markets. Potential implications of our results are that the standard setters should work to improve the specificity and rigor of their guidelines, and analysts should become more involved in developing IR guidelines to make them more relevant to their information needs. IR seems to unfold its benefits better in mandatory settings, which could call for regulators to make IR mandatory.
Automotive technology is in a state of upheaval. IN the field of human machine interface (HMI), the increasing interaction between vehicles, users, and the Internet results in an increment of controls needed, which ultimately has a negative impact on usability and overall car weight. An interdisciplinary team of researchers has been developing for the past two years more intuitive and lighter in-car user interfaces through smart textiles at Reutlingen University. With the newly developed operating and feedback properties, a 1:1 demonstrator was realized and then integrated into a car driving simulator.
The situation in the markets is changing rapidly and competition in the business sector is increasing rapidly. As a result, corporate marketing decisions are based on creating greater value for the consumer, which creates competitiveness and provides an advantage in competing for future customer loyalty. The purpose of this study is to determine whether there is a link between marketing communication tools and consumer perceived value in pursuit of consumer loyalty. Qualitative (observational research) and quantitative (a questionnaire survey) research methods were used to investigate the problem empirically. The observational research elucidated the value provided to the consumer by the research objects through marketing communication tools, supplementing the key questions for the quantitative study. Correlation and regression analysis were used in the study, with the results showing a statistically significant relationship between marketing communication tools and consumer perceived value in terms of user loyalty. It has also been determined that the greatest and strongest relationship in consumer value creation through marketing communication tools is the appropriate, mutually coordinated and complementary use of a package of marketing communication tools to achieve synergies that create the preconditions for increasing consumer loyalty in a competitive market.
Deutschland, quo vadis?
(2020)
Shutdown in Deutschland im März 2020. Stillstand in Handel und Industrie. Der Börsenwert einer beachtlichen Anzahl von Unternehmen hat sich in kürzester Zeit halbiert. Anleger warfen alles auf den Markt. Und bei der hohen Unsicherheit verloren sämtliche Anlageklassen, zeitweise sogar Gold. Selbst Konzerne wie die Lufthansa werden es ohne Staatshilfe nicht mehr schaffen zu existieren.
Für den Unternehmer wichtig ist, binnen welcher Fristen er als Käufer seine Rechte bei Sachmängeln geltend machen muss. Ist der Unternehmer Verkäufer, kann er sich erst nach Verjährungsvollendung endgültig zurücklehnen und sicher sein, dass keine Gewährleistungsansprüche gegen ihn mehr geltend gemacht werden können. Im nationalen Rechtsverkehr hat man sich auf Verkäufer- und Käuferseite mittlerweile an die zweijährige Regelfrist im BGB gewöhnt. Welche Fristen im Auslandsgeschäft gelten, ist dagegen oft unklar, weil sich die nationalen Verjährungsfristen oft unterscheiden: Allein in Europa gibt es bei der kaufrechtlichen Gewährleistung Verjährungsfristen zwischen sechs Monaten und sechs Jahren.
Zielgenau aus dem Hinterhalt
(2020)
Ambush-Marketing löst meistens heftige Reaktionen aus - bei Befürwortern und Gegnern. Die Idee des Ambush-Marketings ist es, von den Erfolgen des Sponsorings zu profitieren, ohne die Pflichten eines offiziellen Sponsors einzugehen. Ambusher besitzen keine Vermarktungsrechte an einer Veranstaltung, bauen aber dennoch durch ihre Marketingmassnahmen eine Verbindung zu einem Event auf. Der Grat zwischen der Verletzung von Sponsoren-Rechten und kreativ-innovativer Kommunikationspolitik ist dabei oft sehr schmal.
In Germany, mobility is currently in a state of flux. Since June 2019, electric kick scooters (e-scooters) have been permitted on the roads, and this market is booming. This study employs a user survey to generate new data, supplemented by expert interviews to determine whether such e-scooters are a climate-friendly means of transport. The environmental impacts are quantified using a life cycle assessment. This results in a very accurate picture of e-scooters in Germany. The global warming potential of an e-scooter calculated in this study is 165 g CO2-eq./km, mostly due to material and production (that together account for 73% of the impact). By switching to e-scooters where the battery is swapped, the global warming potential can be reduced by 12%. The lowest value of 46 g CO2-eq./km is reached if all possibilities are exploited and the life span of e-scooters is increased to 15 months. Comparing these emissions with those of the replaced modal split, e-scooters are at best 8% above the modal split value of 39 g CO2-eq./km.
Haptic softness is a central product attribute for many fabric-related retailers. Can those retailers use music - an easy to implement in-store atmospheric cue - to influence consumers' perception of this central product attribute? Across four studies, this research shows that high (vs. low) music softness enhances consumers' haptic softness perceptions. We argue that this cross-modal effect occurs owing to a transfer of softness-related associations from the auditory to the haptic modality. To better inform retail practice, we examine three managerially relevant boundary conditions at the product and store levels.
Mystery shopping (MS) is a widely used tool to monitor the quality of service and personal selling. In consultative retail settings, assessments of mystery shoppers are supposed to capture the most relevant aspects of sales people’s service and sales behavior. Given the important conclusions drawn by managers from MS results, the standard assumption seems to be that assessments of mystery shoppers are strongly related to customer satisfaction and sales performance. However, surprisingly scant empirical evidence supports this assumption. We test the relationship between MS assessments and customer evaluations and sales performance with large-scale data from three service retail chains. Surprisingly, we do not find asubstantial correlation. The results show that mystery shoppers are not good proxies for real customers. While MS assessments are not related to sales, our findings confirm the established correlation between customer satisfaction measurements and sales results.
This book aims to explore various aspects of the use of moving images in fashion retail and fashion apparel companies in-store or online. The use of moving images is growing in numbers and in relevance for consumers. Films can be used in various forms by fashion businesses in traditional media like cinema or TV and in modern forms like in social media or moving images in high street stores.
The book provides a data-oriented analysis of the state-of-the-art with certain future outlooks. Additional areas of covering fashion in moving images, such as ‘fashion company identity films’ or ‘fashion and music videos’ are covered in order to get a more complete analysis from a consumer influenced perspective.
The purpose of this paper is to give an overview about the links between fashion businesses and film from a fashion business perspective. It focuses on the idea that digitalization brought much more film use for the fashion industry and that this development has just begun and not ended. This change finally also has an intense impact on the fashion industry, as fashion companies nowadays are content producers with films, too. The resulting closer connection with viewers via social media exposes fashion companies, gives on the other hand new influence potential to the fashion system. An in-depth future research about the fashion and film system is therefore required to develop answers for the current situation. This article should be interpreted more as a personal viewpoint of the author to this topic rather than a research paper based on the usual methodological criteria.
The limited focus on particular research designs, data analysis methods, and research objects frequently characterise customer research projects. However, standard practice regarding researching certain phenomena is not always correct, and, in many cases, could provide misleading results. In this paper, we call for a more holistic approach to customer research, which considers the entire research design and data analysis toolbox, while also recognising the importance of consumer groups other than costumers. At the same time, we call for using simple data analysis methods, which often suffice to show relevant effects, instead of overemphasising method complexity as is often the case in top-tier journals. Based on our discussion, we offer researchers and practitioners concrete recommendations for advancing their research design and data analyses.
Electronic word-of-mouth (eWoM) communication has received a lot of attention from the academic community. As multiple research papers focus on specific facets of eWoM, there is a need to integrate current research results systematically. Thus, this paper presents a scientific literature analysis in order to determine the current state-of-the-art in the field of eWoM.
This paper investigates if food ^ retailing mobile applications from Germany, Austria, USA and the United Kingdom are meant to stay a marginal topic in grocery shopping, or if they have the potential to significantly shape the future of grocery retailing by serving as competitive advantages that can fulfil customer requirements and satisfaction. It has filtered out success factors in form of functions of grocery apps and it has extracted key competencies that can be used to create customer value. The Kano model can help selecting the right app functions. But, there are other prerequisites, like customers’ general attitude towards technology and their acceptance towards any kind of apps, that play an important role looking at the big picture of apps in grocery retailing. However, this paper has contributed one vital part of giving more importance to apps in grocery retailing in form of app functions that clearly deliver customer value. In short, apps that fit customers’ needs and that provide usability and convenience clearly have the potential to shape the future of grocery retailing - if key barriers towards app use are eliminated and if incentives are given that overcome scepticism.
Electric freight vehicles have the potential to mitigate local urban road freight transport emissions, but their numbers are still insignificant. Logistics companies often consider electric vehicles as too costly compared to vehicles powered by combustion engines. Research within the body of the current literature suggests that increasing the driven mileage can enhance the competitiveness of electric freight vehicles. In this paper we develop a numeric simulation approach to analyze the cost-optimal balance between a high utilization of medium-duty electric vehicles – which often have low operational costs – and the common requirement that their batteries will need expensive replacements. Our work relies on empirical findings of the real-world energy consumption from a large German field test with medium-duty electric vehicles. Our results suggest that increasing the range to the technical maximum by intermediate (quick) charging and multi-shift usage is not the most cost-efficient strategy in every case. A low daily mileage is more cost-efficient at high energy prices or consumptions, relative to diesel prices or consumptions, or if the battery is not safeguarded by a long warranty. In practical applications our model may help companies to choose the most suitable electric vehicle for the application purpose or the optimal trip length from a given set of options. For policymakers, our analysis provides insights on the relevant parameters that may either reduce the cost gap at lower daily mileages, or increase the utilization of medium-duty electric vehicles, in order to abate the negative impact of urban road freight transport on the environment.
Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the service of the new business model Curated Shopping in the fashion industry as well as to analyze if the service provides a higher costumer added value in comparison to traditional services in retail stores and e-commerce platforms. It gives implications to curated shop operators how to optimize the service in each stage of the customer buying process.
Design/methodology/approach: The research methodology applied is an empirical study that uses the principal of mystery shopping in order to investigate the provided services during the selling process.
Findings: The study showed that information about the customer should be collected carefully and as holistic as possible in order to assort a suitable outfit. The consumer is able to benefit from the service by saving time and enjoying a stress-free way of shopping. Nevertheless there are limitations in the personal service to give individual and inspiring advice by the curator caused by the physical distance to the customer.
Research limitations: The survey was conducted under 10 mystery shoppers and 4 curated shop operators in Germany, limiting findings to these mystery shoppers and operators.
Practical implications: One implication for the shop operators is to collect consumer information carefully and expand the assortment and brand portfolio in order to provide fashion goods to inspire the consumer. The shop operators are on the right track still there is huge potential to provide a more shopper-oriented service.
Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the value of the web representation of certain fashion hot spots and how these results can be shown on fashion maps in an illustrated way.
Design/methodology/approach: A new ranking was created, which was evaluated with a self-instructed index, to gain solid results. Numbers were collected from Google, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and web.alert.io. Additionally, fashion maps were created for an illustrative visualization of the results.
Findings: Compared with the ranking of a trend forecasting agency, called Global Language Monitor, which concepted a ranking of non-virtual fashion cities, the web representation and therefore the ranking of the research project, differs mainly in the situation of the cities among the first 10, viz. the rank on which a city occurs, but fewer in the actual cities mentioned.
Research limitations: The research was limited to subjective analysis of data, leading to partly subjective results, as well as the selected number of social media platforms, that had been used.
Originality/value: This is the first study to explore the web representation value of fashion metropolises in comparison to their non-virtual ranking. The results are partly based on results that already existed, concerning transformations of fashion cities or in general which cities own the status of a fashion city.
This case study describes the emerging customized omnichannel loyalty solution of Marc O’Polo from a customer’s perspective. After the introduction of Marc O’Polo and their general omnichannel strategy, the loyalty program is described in detail, like Marc O’Polo for members and the mobile app, social media, direct mail and in-store capabilities. A discussion chapter closes the case study with research implications and open questions for Marc O’Polo.
Loyalty programs become more important in an omnichannel environment of fashion retail business. After the definition of customer loyalty and loyalty programs the main characteristics of omnichannel loyalty programs are described. As touchpoints of omnichannel loyalty programs mobile, social media, direct mail and in-store capabilities are detailed. A discussion chapter closes with recommendations for fashion retailers.
This case study of Breuninger aims to analyze how Breuninger adapts to the emerging omnichannel environment in fashion business. From a consumer’s perspective Breuninger and the general omnichannel strategy of Breuninger is explained, before the loyalty program of Breuninger is analyzed in detail. Key factors as the mobile app and the mobile Breuninger card, social media, direct mail and in-store capabilities are described. A discussion chapter finalizes the case.
There is no doubt that the amplification of channel integration towards an omni-channel structure is a powerful idea whose time has finally come. The digitally cross-linked world postulates all-encompassing, ubiquitous, and unobtrusive future services. In the concomitant, increasingly competitive market, retailers are starting to lay the foundation for omnichannel, meeting the expectations of a digitally cunning audience wanting their shopping experience to be as seamless and uncomplicated as possible. Nevertheless, recent researches show that there are still enough avenues for further research on omnichannel. Until now, the performance of companies was solely considered by experts from a suppliers’ point of view. It would be rather interesting to find out whether the desire to meet the increased cus-tomer expectations is also recognized by the customers themselves. This paper seeks to answering how the purchasing behavior has changed and what customers demand. In addition, it elaborates the opportunities that are promoted by omni-channel. Searching out all the effects, the paper will get to a final step, where it can be attested how the omnichannel performance of fashion and lifestyle retailers can be measured from a consumers’ perspective by developing an exclusive index. The study is confined to four fashion and lifestyle retailers: Hugo Boss AG, Levi Strauss & Co, Pull and Bear as well as COS. Using the scientific method of mystery shopping and a multi-item checklist including 54 key performance indicators, the paper aims to examine to which extend the four selected retailers provide a seamless customer journey, according to the five decision-making phases.
In a globalized world the importance of a proper segmentation method for identifying target consumers has been increasing. Vast majority of the research in this area focuses on the usage or development of different techniques. Lifestyle is a good criterion for dividing people into groups which then can be better targeted. This article addresses the research question, which classical methods exist to segment markets with the aid of lifestyle. The purpose of this paper is to illustrate several instruments, such as A.I.O., Roper Consumer Styles, VALS-Method, the Sinus-Milieus, Sigma-Milieus, RISC-Method and Semiometrie but also Discriminant and Conjoint Analysis which proved of value in the past. Furthermore it deals with the benefits of this methods but weaknesses are also considered. Therefore several existing literature is examined, and information is collected by institutes providing the typologies. Obvious is, that new methods e.g. predictive analytics already play a major role in marketing, because it can be found much literature about it. In the literature research also appear research implications, because besides the provided information from institutes and journals, there is hardly no data to find if and how companies use the instruments. Furthermore, some important databases cannot be scanned because they are not accessible without paying.
The following paper is dealing with the issue on which actual consumer lifestyle segmentation methods there are for particular European countries and accordingly for Europe as a whole. This is important for corporations to be able to place their products accurately by a consumer orientated marketing concerning the constant change of values and minds. Researching current literature, internet sources and documents, the state of the science is presented by a detailed description of the most popular lifestyle segmentation methods used in European countries. In addition to that, these instruments are discussed individually and then compared to each other. All instruments, the Sinus-Milieus, Euro-Socio-Styles, Roper-Consumer-Styles, RISC and Mosaic, are serving the same purpose even so they differ pretty much from each other. Each market research company has its own method to generate their model just as different segments and definitions for them. Furthermore every segmentation method is illustrated in a different way. This paper demonstrates all these instruments in detail and shows its advantages and disadvantages. Summing up literature research concerning the main research question, there are several models segmenting consumers in different lifestyle groups for e.g. in Germany, France or Great Britain, but still less models referring to the entire European market.
Knowing your customer, i.e. your target market, is critical for the success of a company and its’ products. The current socio-demographic changes in the United States issue new challenges to marketers and practitioners. Actual fashion consumer seg-mentation approaches within the United States have received little attention in media and scholarly literature. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to present the existing academic literature addressing fashion consumer style preferences, particularly highlighting the most promising consumer groups within the United States: Hispanics and African-Americans. For this, a literature review was chosen with a subsequent critical discussion and comparison of both segments including findings of academic researches as well as market research agencies and actual lifestyle clustering approaches regarding these consumer groups. The findings show, whilst the published literature on consumer segmentation in the apparel industry provides only a surficial understanding of the fashion buying behaviors of Hispanics and Black Americans, it could be found that both ethnic groups are highly interested in fashion, price sensitive, and they are over indexed in apparel spending habits. Especially within the Hispanic population factors such as age and level of acculturation play a vital role in the purchasing choice of apparel, footwear and accessories and require further research.
This research is about Omnichannel Retailing and addresses the question how the omnichanneling of retailers in the fashion market can be measured. Our sources will include books, interviews, newspapers and scientific databases.
Omnichanneling is a current topic in the fashion market, retailers all over the world face the question on how to adapt to the challenges Omnichannel Retailing sets. We are going to define what Omnichanneling is by explaining the differences between Multiple-, Multi-, Cross- and Omnichannel Retailing. After we defined omnichanneling itself, we took a set of 26 retailers to evaluate regarding their Omnichannel capabilities. Then we create an index with criteria that can measure the Omnichannel capability of each retailer.
The Omnichannel Score is based on 31 criteria, which analyze the retailers in offline, online, mobile and social aspects enables to see differences between retailers. Our findings were that retailers in the US fashion market are more advanced in Omnichannel Retailing than retailers in the German fashion market. Our top three Omnichannel retailers were Sears with an Omnichannel Score of 91, followed by KOHL’S and Marks&Spencer, both with a Omnichannel Score of 88. The best Omnichannel Retailer from Germany was Adidas with the fourth place and an Omnichannel Score of 81.
Purpose of this research paper is to assess the state of the art concerning the relevance of consumer segmentation models in the fashion industry with regards to current changes in technology, market structure and consumer behavior.
The paper is composed of a qualitative literature review and an empirical study in form of a survey. They are contrasted in order to identify both similarities and differences.
Findings reveal that consumer segmentation is still relevant. Notwithstanding, an adaptation of classification models is necessary according to occurring changes. External models, segmenting consumers by means of lifestyle or fashion typologies, are used. However, it is striking that most companies of the empirical study already apply internal segmentation models with tendency to rise. Moreover, research has shown that consumer classification models in the USA make use of different criteria than in Europe.
Language barriers within the literature review and a low sample size in the empirical study give research limitations. Future management implications can be directed to the identification of procedures for the efficient application of internal segmentation models.
The purpose of this paper is to determine the relevance of social media for luxury brand management. It employs both a multi-methodological approach: After analyzing the online performance of the three luxury brands Burberry, Louis Vuitton and Gucci, the empirical research includes a survey as well as an eye tracking test executed with Tobii Studio. The findings reveal that online and social media have given luxury fashion businesses the opportunity to establish a sustainable interaction with their customers and distinguish themselves from the competition. Still, the online business holds many challenges for luxury companies to overcome. This paper gives instructions as to how social media can be effectively incorporated into a luxury company.
In times of e-commerce and digitalization, new markets are opening, young companies have the possibility to grow and new perspectives arise in terms of customer relationship. Customers require more possibilities of personalization. In the same time, companies have access to new and especially more information about the customer. Seems like it was a correlation that could evolve greatly if there weren't privacy issues. Vast amount of data about consumers are collected in Big Data warehouses. These shall be analyzed via predictive analytics and customers shall be classified by algorithms like clustering models, propensity models or collaborative filtering. All these subjects are growing in importance, as they are shaping the global marketing landscape. Marketers develop together with IT scientists new ways of analyzing customer databases and benefit from more accurate segmentation methods as that have been used until now. The following paper shall provide a literature review on new methods of consumer segmentation regarding the high inflow of new information via e-commerce. It will introduce readers in the subject of predictive analytics and will discuss several predictive models. The writing of the paper is not based on own empirical researches, but shall serve as a reference text for further researches. A conclusion will complete the paper.
Like many others, fashion companies have to deal with a global and very competitive environment. Thus companies rely on accurate sales forecasts - as key success factor of an efficient supply chain management. However, forecasters have to take into account some specificities of the fashion industry. To respond to these constraints, a variety of different forecasting methods exists, including new, computer-based predictive analytics. After the evaluation of different methods, their application to the fashion industry is investigated through semi structured expert interviews. Despite several benefits predictive analytics is not yet frequently used in practice. This research does not only reflect an industry profile, but also gives important insights about the future potential and obstacles of predictive analytics.
Nenne sie niemals Senioren!
(2017)
The paper focuses on a recently introduced paradigm for the logistic process of picking, with respect to the man-to-goods and goods-to-man concept: the robot to-goods. First the task and system architecture of the fast deployable autonomous commissioning system are described, then the economic efficiency of the system is analysed in a real business case scenario using a simplified method, which is explained and discussed. The clearly positive net present value of the investment and the short payback period obtained in the business case prove how the robot-to-goods paradigm for the commissioning process, implemented through the automation of the forklift platform, is economically attractive for small and medium size enterprises.
Das Buch analysiert die Herausforderungen der Distribution in Afrika am konkreten Beispiel der Distributionslogistik in Westafrika und bietet konkrete Lösungsansätze für Unternehmen. Afrika rückt seit einigen Jahren zunehmend als Absatzmarkt für westliche Unternehmen in den Fokus. So nimmt auch die Frage nach dem passenden Distributionsansatz eine zentrale Rolle bei Markteintritt und -bearbeitung ein. Dabei sind die größten Herausforderungen, die Güter zeitnah, zuverlässig und kostengünstig an die Kunden zu liefern.
Neben den unmittelbaren Herausforderungen aus dem unzulänglichen Zustand der physischen Transportinfrastruktur stellen die indirekten, weichen Faktoren Unternehmen bei der Distributionslogistik immer wieder vor Probleme. Die dargestellten Lösungsansätze basieren u. a. auf Interviews mit Unternehmen, die bereits Erfahrungen bei den logistischen Herausforderungen in Westafrika gemacht haben. So bekommen westliche Unternehmen konkrete und praktikable Hinweise für einen erfolgreichen Markteintritt in (West-)Afrika.
Suppliers need to improve their relational capabilities if they are to enhance customer trust. Debate about such capabilities is dominated by an interpersonal approach. This paper provieds novel marketing options by expanding insights into alternative types of relational capabilities. Furthermore, the moderating role of customer preferences on the effectiveness of relational capabilities is evaluated.
Willingness-to-pay for alternative fuel vehicle characteristics : a stated choice study for Germany
(2016)
In the light of European energy efficiency and clean air regulations, as well as an ambitious electric mobility goal of the German government, we examine consumer preferences for alternative fuel vehicles (AFVs) based on a Germany-wide discrete choice experiment among 711 potential car buyers. We estimate consumers’ willingness to-pay and compensating variation (CV) for improvements in vehicle attributes, also taking taste differences in the population into account by applying a latent class model with 6 distinct consumer segments. Our results indicate that about 1/3 of the consumers are oriented towards at least one AFV option, with almost half of them being AFV-affine, showing a high probability of choosing AFVs despite their current shortcomings. Our results suggest that German car buyers’ willingness-to-pay for improvements of the various vehicle attributes varies considerably across consumer groups and that the vehicle features have to meet some minimum requirements for considering AFVs. The CV values show that decision-makers in the administration and industry should focus on the most promising consumer group of ‘AFV aficionados’ and their needs. It also shows that some vehicle attribute improvements could increase the demand for AFVs cost-effectively, and that consumers would accept surcharges for some vehicle attributes at a level which could enable their private provision and economic operation (e.g. fast-charging infrastructure). Improvement of other attributes will need governmental subsidies to compensate for insufficient consumer valuation (e.g. battery capacity).
Impact of brand and country image on the perception of sustainability in the fashion business
(2015)
The fashion and textile industry is presently confronted to participate in the sustainability movement and society demands corporate social responsibility. Today, it is crucial for fashion companies to be able to measure, monitor and improve environmental and social performance, due to the fact that there is a heightened awareness of sustainable practices by stakeholders. The purpose of this study is to investigate fashion consumers on their sustainable perception of a fashion company. More specifically, the objective of this study is to highlight the fashion consumer`s awareness in regards to the sustainable practices of a fashion company by considering the brand and country image factors. An experimental research design was utilized for the study and the researcher surveyed 120 fashion students. The basis of the surveys within the experiment is the present sustainable practice of the fashion brand H&M. This research aims to understand, if and how fashion consumers are influenced by a fashion brand image or its souring practices, when it comes to evaluate the sustainable performance of a fashion company. Results show that participants have significantly different perceptions when considering the fashion brand image of H&M on the one hand and the sourcing countries of H&M on the other. The result of this research provides useful information about the actual state of affairs in sustainable knowledge of the consumer and the related power of a brand's image and its sourcing strategies.
Marketing channels are among the most important elements of any value chain. This is because the bulk of a nation´s manufacturing output flows through them. The intermediaries (e.g., distributors, wholesalers, retailers) constituting marketing channels perform specific distribution functions,such as transportation, storage, sales, financing, and relationship building, better than most manufacturers. Over his distinguished career, Louis P. Bucklin investigated many questions about the structuring and functioning of marketing channels using conceptual, empirical, and microeconomics model-based methodologies. Today, the academic marketing literature contains hundreds of articles that have employed these three broad classes of methodologies to investigate issues of channel intermediaries´ interorganizational relationships, for example, power-dependence, relational outcomes, conflict and negotiations, and manufacturing firms´ channel strategy, for example, channel structure, selection, coordination and control. So far, however, there has been no review of how the three different methodologies have contributed to advancing knowledge across this set of channels research domains.
The purpose of this paper is to review, compare and contrast the body of published literature regarding consumer related emotions in fashion shopping behavior. This paper analyses 39 academic articles which focus on emotions in fashion shopping behavior between 2000 and 2013. Therefore articles which examine the influence of environmental stimuli in a retail setting as well as articles which focus on the impact of factors affecting individuals especially in shopping for fashion were analysed. Most of the articles are based on the SOR paradigm. A larger focus is recently placed on the research of emotions and consumers’ behavior in online fashion environments. The influence of stimuli, occurring in endogenous and exogenous ways, on consumers’ emotion and resulting behavior could be confirmed in most studies. However the determination of addressed emotions is already widely researched, the impact on consumers’ shopping behavior has to be analysed more detailed.
The purpose of this paper is to illustrate the communication of sustainability of fashion retailers via their websites with a focus on the involvement of the consumer and the varying communication processes, based on the sender-receiver model. For the empirical study, 10 fashion retailers were analyzed in terms of their communication of sustainability via their websites, with a focus on the consumer involvement. The results of empirical study were applied to the theoretical communication process model and illustrate the varying communication processes among the ten fashion retailers. The communication of sustainability via the Fashion retailer´s websites varied strongly. Only one fashion retailer communicated environmental- and social as well as all consumer-related aspects. As a result, the loop of the communication process has only been closed for one fashion retailer. Accordingly, these findings confirm that there is a need for fashion retailers to inform consumers in a holistic way about sustainability, especially in terms of sustainable fashion consumption when communicating sustainability via websites.
The purpose of this study is to evaluate online German fashion shopping websites from a customer perspective, based on a two-dimensional conceptual framework covering
shopping experience and shopping quality. As the research methodology, an exploratory mystery shopping approach was used in order to compare online shops. The results were as follows. First, four categories of online shops were identified: heroes, marketing winners, process winners, and underperformers. Second, three main levers for improvement were elaborated: emotionality of websites, reducing complexity, and the introduction of an industry standard of payments. From These results, it is possible to analyze and benchmark websites and to adapt online Marketing decisions as well as general management strategies for online fashion Shopping companies. The study has originality and value as it is the first time that an Evaluation of websites has combined the consumer´s perspective before the purchase and its fulfillment (e.g. delivery) after the online purchase.
In the luxury Fashion industry, consumers could be categorized into two groups: fashion leader and Fashion follower. Both groups of consumers purchase luxury fashion products aim at satisfying both their functional needs and social needs (i.e., social influence). Thus the demands of both consumer groups are related. In this paper, we construct a model to examine the effects of pricing and online retail service in luxury fashion firms with social influence. To maximize profit, we identify the optimal prices and online retail service when the luxury fashion firms provide the non-differentiated and differentiated online retail services, respectively. More insights are discussed.
This article focuses on potential economic implications of a free trade agreement (FTA) between the European Union (EU) and the Indian Federation. The economic implications are evaluated by estimating an Extended gravity model for all existing FTAs with the Indian Federation. Moreover, we control for the trade contribution of EU member countries in our econometric model during the period from 1990 until 2008. The results show a significant increase in trade, if there is a free trade agreement between India and another country. Interestingly, we find that India has the largest positive impact from FTAs with more advanced economies. Thus, we reaffirm the potential benefits of trade relationships between the EU and India.