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Integrating new technological attributes into existing products is a common way to innovate and is supposed to meet consumers’ functional needs. This paper aims to demonstrate how adding such attributes also increases willingness to pay (WTP) a premium for a product by activating consumers’ social need to feel unique.

The data were collected through a quantitative survey based on a nationally representative sample (N = 345). A choice-based conjoint analysis was used to estimate the perceived value of the new technological attribute and WTP a premium.

The perceived value of the new technological attribute has a positive effect on WTP a premium only for consumers with a high degree of social innovativeness (linked to their need for uniqueness) because they interpret this innovation as an opportunity to differentiate themselves from others.

When companies innovate by introducing new technological attributes, their communication should emphasize and trigger these attributes’ high performance and uniqueness. Thus, consumers seeking social differentiation through innovation will be much less sensitive to price and will be more prone to pay a premium for these products.

The main contribution of this article is to show that integrating and emphasizing a new technological attribute can increase consumers’ WTP a premium beyond that of the attribute’s functional value. Thus, new technological attributes will decrease the price sensitivity of consumers high in social innovativeness and increase their WTP a premium for the product, because they consider it as a means to stand out from others.

This paper aims to achieve a better understanding of the social dimension underlying green purchasing behavior by assessing the impact of environmental concern ascribed to relevant others.

A survey was conducted among 468 French interviewees. Using a scenario, respondents were asked to choose between two similar products: one is very fashionable but harmful to the environment and the other has comparable features with a lower negative impact on the environment. In parallel, respondents had to cite four relevant others and to make several attributions about them. Environmental concern was one of these attributions.

Ascribed environmental concern increases the probability to choose the product with a low environmental impact over the more harmful alternative. This process is mediated by perceived social risk and self-incongruity associated with the environmentally unfriendly product.

Conclusions are drawn on the basis of a specific choice for a particular product category.

Environmentally responsible consumers should be encouraged to express their convictions publicly within their social network.

Consumers are more inclined to adopt an environmental reading of what they plan to buy when they ascribe environmental preoccupations to their referent others either to preserve their social ties or to preserve their self-congruity. This proximity effect should be exploited to promote pro-environmental behaviors.

Most studies on the determinants of green behavior either focus exclusively on individual predispositions or tackle social influence too explicitly. By assessing the effect of ascribed environmental concern instead on individual environmental concern, this research offers an original approach.

To model the relationships between consumer need for uniqueness and attention to social comparison information with fashion opinion leadership and fashion opinion seeking.

A total of 201 US undergraduate students were surveyed and standard scales were used to measure consumer need for uniqueness, attention to social comparison information, fashion opinion leadership, and fashion opinion seeking.

Both consumer need for uniqueness and attention to social comparison information were positively related to fashion opinion leadership. Attention to social comparison information was also positively related to fashion opinion seeking, but consumer need for uniqueness was negatively related to fashion opinion seeking.

The findings are limited to US consumers and the convenience sample. Other limitations include the specific measures used, and the cross‐sectional survey method prevents one from making causal statements. The effects of other, unmeasured variables could not be assessed.

Apparel marketers seeking to encourage opinion leaders to promote their lines of new clothing might devise appeals emphasizing the social significance of the new products and how they bestow uniqueness on their owners. Such appeals might be more effective than those not stressing these psychological motivations. Appeals to consumers more likely to seek than to give opinions might also stress the social significance of the clothing, but appeals to uniqueness might not be effective with these consumers. Perhaps a belongingness appeal would be more effective.

These psychological concepts have not been studied very much in the clothing/fashion product domain. They give new insights into the psychology of clothing opinion leaders and opinion seekers.

To encourage sustainable consumer practices, public policy makers introduce new ecological measures, including mandatory programmes that require companies to provide environmental information about their products, even if the information is not flattering. Few academic studies consider the potential impacts of such mandatory eco-labels on consumer behaviour; the purpose of this paper is to seek to identify conditions in which a generalized eco-label in stores might modify consumers’ purchase choices.

Two quasi-experimental studies (n=333, 126) manipulate environmental information with a simple, traffic light – shaped eco-label. The measures focus on respondents’ choice or purchasing intentions, perceptions of the environmental harmfulness of each product, and individual characteristics (i.e. environmental concern, price sensitivity, familiarity with environmental information about the product category).

The presence of an eco-label influences consumers’ beliefs about products’ environmental harm and thus choice. The effect of perceived harmfulness on choice is moderated by environmental concern and price sensitivity, though combined effects arise for only one of the two product categories tested (dish soap, not yoghurt). With a third product category (paper towels), Study 2 confirms the influence of familiarity with environmental information.

Familiarity with environmental information accounts for some differences across product categories, but other factors also come into play. These results must be interpreted carefully due to the use of a fictive eco-label.

This paper examines the potential effects of a generalized, mandatory programme. It also addresses the lack of consistent label effectiveness across product categories, with a possible explanation based on perceived familiarity with environmental information.

This study aims to identify consumer segments among luxe-bargain shoppers using a fuzzy clustering method based on psychographic variables related to both luxury consumption and bargain processes and profiles the identified segments in behavioral tendencies.

The sample consists of 500 consumers who purchased a luxury brand at a bargain. The analyses involve running a confirmatory factor analysis, a fuzzy clustering analysis based on psychographic variables, and ANOVA for profiling the segments.

A fuzzy clustering analysis identifies four distinct segments: deal hunters, sale-prone shoppers, active luxe-bargain shoppers, and royal shoppers. Each consumer segment exhibits differences in consumer characteristics, demographics, and behavioral tendencies. The study provides insight into varied luxury consumers.

In an effort to fill the gap between traditional framework in luxury research and today ' s luxury market that provides accessibility of luxury items at lower price points to mass consumers, this study introduces a new concept of “luxe-bargain shopper” and examines varied luxury good consumers in the bargain shopping context. However, the findings of the current study should be interpreted with caution due to sampling method, product category of luxury brands, the limited number of luxury brands used in the study.

The results provide marketing suggestions for each segment of luxe-bargain shoppers.

There is virtually no luxury study conducted in the context of bargain shopping. By examining luxe-bargain shoppers using a robust fuzzy clustering method, this study extends our knowledge of luxury consumption as well as provides a new perspective to segmentation research.

The purpose of this paper is to propose and empirically examine a consumer perceived value (CPV) formation model in the context of the US casual sportswear market. The effects of investigated contingency factors on perceived values are empirically determined.

CPV was measured by four dimensions: price, quality, social and emotional values. The investigated contingency factors included gender, age, race, income level, and retailer type. The primary data were gathered by a nation‐wide survey of US consumers and the applied statistical techniques were exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, and multiple regression analysis.

The statistical analysis of 4,949 eligible survey responses shows that four value dimensions accounted for 77 percent of CPV variance. For the effects of contingency factors, race did not significantly affect the formation of any perceived values. In contrast, gender, income level, and retailer type significantly affected perceived price and emotional values, while perceived quality value was significantly affected by all contingency factors except race, and perceived social value was only significantly affected by age and income level.

Incorporation of gender, income level, and retailer type information in developing marketing strategies can help companies more effectively convey price and emotional values to consumers. In contrast, information relating to gender, age, income level, and retailer type should be considered in marketing quality value to consumers, while age and income level information is more critical for properly marketing social value to consumers.

Companies need to know, more than ever, about how consumers are redefining their values, as the current economic crisis has dramatically changed consumer preference. This study responded to this emerging need and provided timely empirical evidence.

Recently, the sharing economy has attracted considerable attention. This emerging paradigm is driven by powerful technological forces and has the potential to change the way consumers access very important markets such as the car market. Indeed, access-based consumption may attract more participants as it enables consumers’ freedom of lifestyle and more flexible identity projects. The empirical literature has so far paid very little attention to car sharing services; when it has, it has focussed mainly on people who are already using them. The purpose of this paper is to consider the drivers behind the adoption intention of car sharing services.

A large multinational survey is carried out in three European capitals: London, Madrid and Paris. Using quota sampling, 2,159 licensed car drivers are recruited through the online panel of TNS Sofres. The sample is representative of the population of licensed car drivers in each city. The questionnaire is developed using established scales from previous research. An OLS regression analysis is performed to test our hypotheses, with a likelihood of choosing a car sharing option as the dependent variable.

The study demonstrates that knowledge, environmentalism, possession-self link and involvement with cars are important determinants of consumer behaviour in the car sharing services market. In addition, the user demographics suggest a target market of younger, predominantly male and urban customers. The empirical findings are consistent across the three capital cities, implying that providers can market their car sharing services in a similar manner.

As important determinants of consumer behaviour in the car sharing services market are underlined, several managerial implications arise from the study. Car sharing providers should promote awareness to help people not only to expand their experience with the service but also to be informed about the potential environmental benefits. Further, a stronger possession-self link in the automotive context is suggestive of a greater willingness to use car sharing systems. Managers should also take into account that it is much more difficult to engage individuals in car sharing services who are highly involved with car, than those who express very little attachment to the product. As people under 45 years old are far more likely to use these services, this generation effect is progressively moving the frontiers of the car retailing sector to a broader mobility service sector.

The foremost contribution of this paper is to demonstrate empirically how consumer intention to use car sharing is driven. To do so, the study addresses the general population of car drivers, interviewing users of the service as well as non-users.