The interactions of consumption characteristics on social norms

Purpose: An extended Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) model tests how customer loyalty intentions may relate to subjective and descriptive norms. The study further determines whether consumption characteristics – product enjoyment and importance – moderate norms-loyalty relationships.----- Methodology: Using a two-study approach focusing on youth, an Australian study (n = 244) first augmented TPB with descriptive norm. A Singapore study (n = 415) followed up with how consumption characteristics might moderate norms-loyalty relationships. With both studies, linear regressions tested the relationships among the variables.----- Findings: Extending TPB with descriptive norm improved TPB’s predictive ability across studies. Further, product enjoyment and importance moderated the norms-loyalty relationships differently. Subjective norm related to loyalty intentions significantly with high enjoyment, whereas descriptive norm was significant with low enjoyment. Only subjective norm was significant with low importance.----- Research limitations: Single-item variables, self-reported questionnaires on intended rather than actual behavior, and not controlling for cultural differences between the two samples limit generalizablity.----- Practical implications: The significance of both norms suggests that mobile firms should reach youth through their peers. With youth, social pressure may be influential particularly with hedonic products. However, the different moderations of product enjoyment and importance imply that a blanket marketing strategy targeting youth may not work.----- Originality/Value: This study extends academic knowledge on the relationships between norms and customer loyalty, particularly with consumption characteristics as moderators. The findings highlight the importance of considering different norms with consumer behavior. The study should help mobile firms understand how social influences impact customer loyalty.

Willingness to trial functional foods and vitamin supplements: the role of attitudes, subjective norms, and dread of risks

Australian non-users of vitamin supplements (N = 162) and functional foods (N = 226) responded to a questionnaire examining their attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioural control from the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB), risk dread and risk familiarity, and willingness to engage in free product trials. The impact of participants’ gender and age was also examined. Attitude and subjective norms were significant determinants of non-users willingness to trial each of the health products. Participants’ dread of the risk associated with the product was also a determinant of willingness to use functional foods. The overall models predicted between 25% and 30% of the variance in people’s willingness to trial the products. The findings provided some support for the TPB in predicting people’s willingness to trial functional foods and vitamin supplements and suggested, for willingness to trial functional foods, that non-users are also influenced by their dread of the risk associated with product use.

Protective behavior in adolescent friendships : the influence of attitudes toward the consequences, friendship norms and perceived control

The current study sought to understand adolescent protective behavior in friendship using a Theory of Planned Behavior framework. In particular, the study sought to consider a young persons’ direct and active intervention to inhibit their friends’ risky behavior or to assist them when the behavior leads to injury. The role of attitudes regarding the consequences, norms and control about protective behavior were examined both qualitatively through focus groups (n= 50) and quantitatively through surveys from a sample of 540 Year 9 students (13-14 years old). There was some support for the theory with attitudes regarding the consequences of the behavior and norms predicting intended protective behavior. A path analysis was conducted with a sub-sample of 140 students which showed that intentions to be protective and perceived control to undertake protective behavior directly predicted such behavior after a 3 month interval. Attitudes towards the consequences and norms only indirectly predicted protective behavior via intention. The findings provide important applied information for interventions designed to increase adolescent protective behavior in their friendships.

Environmental and pro-social norms : evidence on littering

The paper investigates the relationship between pro-social norms and its implications for improved environmentsl outcomes. This is an area, which has been neglected in the environmental economic literature. We provide empirical evidence to demonstrate a small but significant positive impact between perceived environmental cooperation (reduced public littering) and increased voluntary environmental morale. For this purpose we use European Value Survey (EVS) data for 30 European countries. We also demonstrate that Western European countries are more sensitive to perceived environmental cooperation than the public in Eastern Europe. Interestingly, the results also demonstrate that environmental morale is strongly correlated with several socio-economic and environmental variables. Several robustness tests are conducted to check the validity of the results.

A point interpolation method with locally smoothed strain field (PIM-LS2) for mechanics problems using triangular mesh

A point interpolation method with locally smoothed strain field (PIM-LS2) is developed for mechanics problems using a triangular background mesh. In the PIM-LS2, the strain within each sub-cell of a nodal domain is assumed to be the average strain over the adjacent sub-cells of the neighboring element sharing the same field node. We prove theoretically that the energy norm of the smoothed strain field in PIM-LS2 is equivalent to that of the compatible strain field, and then prove that the solution of the PIM- LS2 converges to the exact solution of the original strong form. Furthermore, the softening effects of PIM-LS2 to system and the effects of the number of sub-cells that participated in the smoothing operation on the convergence of PIM-LS2 are investigated. Intensive numerical studies verify the convergence, softening effects and bound properties of the PIM-LS2, and show that the very ‘‘tight’’ lower and upper bound solutions can be obtained using PIM-LS2.

Interaction of natural survival instincts and internalized social norms exploring the Titanic and Lusitania disasters

To understand human behavior, it is important to know under what conditions people deviate from selfish rationality. This study explores the interaction of natural survival instincts and internalized social norms using data on the sinking of the Titanic and the Lusitania. We show that time pressure appears to be crucial when explaining behavior under extreme conditions of life and death. Even though the two vessels and the composition of their passengers were quite similar, the behavior of the individuals on board was dramatically different. On the Lusitania, selfish behavior dominated (which corresponds to the classical homo oeconomicus); on the Titanic, social norms and social status (class) dominated, which contradicts standard economics. This difference could be attributed to the fact that the Lusitania sank in 18 minutes, creating a situation in which the short-run flight impulse dominates behavior. On the slowly sinking Titanic (2 hours, 40 minutes), there was time for socially determined behavioral patterns to re-emerge. To our knowledge, this is the first time that these shipping disasters have been analyzed in a comparative manner with advanced statistical (econometric) techniques using individual data of the passengers and crew. Knowing human behavior under extreme conditions allows us to gain insights about how varied human behavior can be depending on differing external conditions.

The international search for ethics norms : which consumer behaviors do consumers consider (un)acceptable?

Purpose: Businesses cannot rely on their customers to always do the right thing. To help researchers and service providers better understand the dark (and light) side of customer behavior, this study aims to aggregate and investigate perceptions of consumer ethics from young consumers on five continents. The study seeks to present a profile of consumer behavioral norms, how ethical inclinations have evolved over time, and country differences. ---------- Design/methodology/approach: Data were collected from ten countries across five continents between 1997 and 2007. A self-administered questionnaire containing 14 consumer scenarios asked respondents to rate acceptability of questionable consumer actions. ---------- Findings: Overall, consumers found four of the 14 questionable consumer actions acceptable. Illegal activities were mostly viewed as unethical, while some legal actions that were against company policy were viewed less harshly. Differences across continents emerged, with Europeans being the least critical, while Asians and Africans shared duties as most critical of consumer actions. Over time, consumers have become less tolerant of questionable behaviors. ---------- Practical implications: Service providers should use the findings of this study to better understand the service customer. Knowing what customers in general believe is ethical or unethical can help service designers focus on the aspects of the technology or design most vulnerable to customer deviance. ---------- Multinationals already know they must adapt their business practices to the market in which they are operating, but they must also adapt their expectations as to the behavior of the corresponding consumer base. Originality/value: This investigation into consumer ethics helps businesses understand what their customer base believes is the right thing in their role as customer. This is a large-scale study of consumer ethics including 3,739 respondents on five continents offering an evolving view of the ethical inclinations of young consumers.

Order supported by law : the enforcement of norms in virtual communities

As online social spaces continue to grow in importance, the complex relationship between users and the private providers of the platforms continues to raise increasingly difficult questions about legitimacy in online governance. This article examines two issues that go to the core of egitimate governance in online communities: how are rules enforced and punishments imposed, and how should the law support legitimate governance and protect participants from the illegitimate exercise of power? Because the rules of online communities are generally ultimately backed by contractual terms of service, the imposition of punishment for the breach of internal rules exists in a difficult conceptual gap between criminal law and the predominantly compensatory remedies of contractual doctrine. When theorists have addressed the need for the rules of virtual communities to be enforced, a dichotomy has generally emerged between the appropriate role of criminal law for 'real' crimes, and the private, internal resolution of 'virtual' or 'fantasy' crimes. In this structure, the punitive effect of internal measures is downplayed and the harm that can be caused to participants by internal sanctions is systemically undervalued.

Unsteady natural convection in a triangular enclosure under isothermal heating

The fluid flow and heat transfer inside a triangular enclosure due to instantaneous heating on the inclined walls are investigated using an improved scaling analysis and direct numerical simulations. The development of the unsteady natural convection boundary layer under the inclined walls may be classified into three distinct stages including a start-up stage, a transitional stage and a steady state stage, which can be clearly identified in the analytical and numerical results. A new triple-layer integral approach of scaling analysis has been considered to obtain major scaling relations of the velocity, thicknesses, Nusselt number and the flow development time of the natural convection boundary layer and verified by direct numerical simulations over a wide range of flow parameters.

Scaling of free convection heat transfer in a triangular cavity for Pr>1

Unsteady natural convection inside a triangular cavity subject to a non-instantaneous heating on the inclined walls in the form of an imposed temperature which increases linearly up to a prescribed steady value over a prescribed time is reported. The development of the flow from start-up to a steady-state has been described based on scaling analyses and direct numerical simulations. The ramp temperature has been chosen in such a way that the boundary layer is reached a quasi-steady mode before the growth of the temperature is completed. In this mode the thermal boundary layer at first grows in thickness, then contracts with increasing time. However, if the imposed wall temperature growth period is sufficiently short, the boundary layer develops differently. It is seen that the shape of many houses are isosceles triangular cross-section. The heat transfer process through the roof of the attic-shaped space should be well understood. Because, in the building energy, one of the most important objectives for design and construction of houses is to provide thermal comfort for occupants. Moreover, in the present energy-conscious society it is also a requirement for houses to be energy efficient, i.e. the energy consumption for heating or air-conditioning houses must be minimized.