Volume 10 Issue 1

The recent environmental issues the world has been experiencing recently have increased the awareness of consumers of the necessity of a sustainable consumption pattern to preserve the natural environment. Therefore, green consumption has increased, and companies needed to respond to the rising demand for green products by offering a wider selection of environment-friendly products for green consumers. This article aims to study the purchasing intention of green cosmetics in the case of female student consumers in Hungary. The paper extended the theory of planned behavior by including perceived quality and environmental concern as factors that influence the attitude of consumers towards green cosmetics. This research also takes into consideration the effect of subjective norms on the purchasing intention of green cosmetics. The study employs a quantitative study conducted in Hungary in December 2021 (n = 200). The data was analyzed using PLS-SEM to assess the proposed hypotheses. The results of the study were in line with the literature, with perceived quality and environmental concern having a positive influence over the attitude towards green cosmetics. Attitude and subjective norm also had a significant influence on the purchasing intention of green cosmetics. This research provides new insights into how managers can advance the consumption of green cosmetics, by enhancing the quality of their products and focusing their strategies on answering the concerns of consumers towards the environment.

This study aimed to investigate whether consumers' personal involvement with the COVID-19 pandemic led to hedonic or utilitarian buying motives, and how these buying motives might encourage impulse or planned buying behaviour. Furthermore, it examined whether these influences differed between a developed country (Germany) and a developing country (South Africa). The methodology involved a quantitative, descriptive, cross sectional survey, using a questionnaire based on the literature and sent by e-mail to a quota sample from an online-accessed consumer panel. Useable responses of 548 each from the two countries were analysed, showing that respondents with high levels of involvement with COVID-19 also show high levels of hedonic motivation, whereas utilitarian motivation appeared less important and not linked to a greater involvement with COVID-19. The study also found that a high hedonic motivation is associated with more impulsive shopping, whereas utilitarian motivation is not. The implication is that those with a utilitarian motivation tend towards planned shopping. Finally, the findings show that there appear to be no significant differences between the buying behaviour of consumers in a developing country and a developed country. This study contributed new knowledge about consumer shopping behaviour by examining the interaction of the hedonic/utilitarian construct and the impulsive shopping construct as components of consumer behaviour, research that has not been done before, and especially not in a developing country nor relative to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In Bangladesh, online shopping is gaining in motion. Various drivers are there for online shopping and the goal of this study has been set to explore drivers of online shopping according to their dominance among the young in the city of Dhaka. Adhering to a set of objectives; this study first identified a set of six motivational factors from among 21 variables (key factors for online shopping) with the help of an exploratory factor analysis. Then, a binary logistic regression was performed to find significant drivers for online shopping decision and the dominance of those drivers has been explored thereafter using marginal effect. In the aftermath, educational attainment as a socio-economic factor, and perceived risk (security), website factors, and product varieties as motivational factors have been found to be statistically significant drivers for online shopping. Considering the marginal effects, website factors, perceived risk, product varieties, and educational attainment have been found to have relevant effects. In this case, a Receiver Operating Characteristic curve (ROC) suggests that the fitted model has excellent discriminant power.

Determining the return on investment of international education has always been complicated and the COVID-19 pandemic makes it even more so, justifying the need for prospective international students to reach out to their social environs. This study sought to identify the word-of-mouth communications (WOMC) that international students receive when they are forming their intention to enroll abroad, or lack thereof. Employing qualitative approach, this study involved interviewing ten international students studying in a mid-size university in the USA. A key study finding is that, during the intention forming stage, not all of the international students involved in this study actively sought WOMC inputs as some already possess past study abroad experiences that they turned to. For those who did reach out for external input, they were particularly susceptible to WOMC that they received from friends or relatives who have studied abroad. Therefore, it implies that tie strength with the WOM givers and their expertise power are the determining factors in explaining prospective international students' WOM seeking behaviors. Pertaining to that, this study also concluded that online reviews were not among WOMC inputs typically sought after by the students in this stage.

This research focusses on the Japanese gay TV drama series Ossan's Love (2018) to investigate why the show attracted not only queer audiences, but also heterosexual audiences by analysing its textual periphery through paratexts such as promotional posters, articles and audience reviews. Normally, publicists tend to avoid emphasising a show's sexual minority themes in the story, considering that such a polemical theme would narrow the target audience. However, publicity for this show clearly indicated a gay theme in its promotional materials, and the show became popular nationwide. From the perspective of social identity theory, it is difficult to explain how such promotional strategies effectively attracted a heterosexual audience. Through paratextual analysis, this research identified the concept of an ‘ideal society'. At first, some people may think the show is a stereotypical comedy that makes fun of gay people, but they eventually recognise that none of the characters laughs at romance between men. It is likely that the show's such unbiased setting makes both heterosexual and homosexual audiences comfortable, diminishing the line between different sexual orientations.

In both traditional and digital channels, the marketing function aims at devising and implementing appropriate strategies and tactics for each stage consumers go through when they are considering a purchase. In the digital environment, brands interact with consumers with use of digital touchpoints, the growing number of which hinders effective and efficient coordination of marketing activities. The present research aims at investigating consumers' perceived reliance on alternative digital touchpoints throughout the consumer buying process, and examining the impact of personal characteristics and type of digital device used on consumer perceptions. Results from a non-probability sample of 92 consumers showed that participants exhibit increased reliance on corporate websites, online stores, Instagram, web enquiries and YouTube during their buying journey. However, it appears that consumer reliance on digital touchpoints is affected by personal characteristics, such as biological sex and generation. Female consumers report increased reliance on Instagram to identify potential needs whereas males depend on YouTube during most stages of decision making. Lastly, consumers who belong in younger generations report greater reliance on digital touchpoints than older consumers. Overall, identification of differences in user preferences of digital touchpoints facilitates digital marketing planning and targeting of distinct segments with appropriate tactics.