Judith Holdershaw and Roman Konopka
The intent of displaying country of origin (COO) detail on food packaging is to inform consumers' purchase decisions. Of interest is whether how the COO information is displayed…
Abstract
Purpose
The intent of displaying country of origin (COO) detail on food packaging is to inform consumers' purchase decisions. Of interest is whether how the COO information is displayed is important to consumers. This study examines the importance of attributes associated with the visibility of COO labelling in the context of packaged fresh meat.
Design/methodology/approach
Best–worst Scaling (BWS) is used to investigate consumers' preferences for label attributes. Treatments involved two countries (New Zealand and Australia), four font sizes and two placement positionings of COO information on the packaging.
Findings
First, the study indicated consumers' preference for domestic than imported meat. This finding supports the intent of COO labelling, which is to inform product selection. Second, the authors ascertained that how COO information is displayed in terms of visibility is important also. Consumers indicated a preference for larger than smaller font size. However, where the COO detail is located on the packaging is of less importance.
Originality/value
While regulations increasingly apply to provision of COO labelling of fresh foods, surprisingly little research has considered consumers' preferences for labelling practice. The study’s findings have implications for public policy decisions and contribute guidelines for retail practice.
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Philip Gendall, Judith Holdershaw and Ron Garland
Presents the findings of a study designed to investigate the effect of odd pricing on respondents’ purchase probabilities for six products ranging in price from $5 to $100. The…
Abstract
Presents the findings of a study designed to investigate the effect of odd pricing on respondents’ purchase probabilities for six products ranging in price from $5 to $100. The products tested were a block of cheese, a frozen chicken, a box of chocolates, a hair dryer, an electric kettle and a food blender, and the data were collected in a mall intercept of 300 household shoppers. For each product a demand curve was estimated and the differences between expected and actual purchase probabilities at each odd price level examined. For all six products, demand was higher than expected at one or both of the odd price points tested. This effect was particularly marked for the lower‐priced food items (cheese, chicken and chocolates) and for prices ending in the digit 9. Provides support for the assumption that odd pricing generates greater than expected demand and for the common practice of setting retail prices which end in 99 cents or $99.
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Judith Holdershaw, Philip Gendall and Malcolm Wright
The purpose of this paper is to test whether, in the context of blood donation, the predictive ability of the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) extends from behavioural intention…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to test whether, in the context of blood donation, the predictive ability of the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) extends from behavioural intention to actual donation behaviour, and whether extended versions of the TPB perform better than the standard version.
Design/methodology/approach
Intentions to donate blood predicted by the TPB are compared with an accurate measure of blood donation behaviour obtained following a mobile blood drive by the New Zealand Blood Service.
Findings
When the observed outcome is donation behaviour rather than behavioural intention, the TPB model's performance drops. Extending the variables in the model to include moral obligation and past behaviour does not improve its predictive ability, and neither does the use of belief‐based variables.
Practical implications
The TPB is much less effective in predicting blood donation behaviour than it is in predicting intentions to donate blood. But only actual donation behaviour yields medical supplies. This study suggests that to advance the goal of increasing donation rates, attention needs to turn to methods other than the TPB to identify variables that do predict donation behaviour.
Originality/value
The present study gathered one of the largest samples used for TPB blood donation research; this enabled predictions made using the TPB to be tested against actual behaviour, rather than behavioural intention, the measure typically used in blood donation studies. Because blood donation is a low‐incidence behaviour, previous studies have been hampered by small sample sizes, that inevitably contain few donors, and no measure of actual donation behaviour.
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This study aims to analyse the use of psychological pricing in online food retailing. In stationary grocery shops, psychological prices with nine-endings have been a…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to analyse the use of psychological pricing in online food retailing. In stationary grocery shops, psychological prices with nine-endings have been a well-documented phenomenon for many decades. However, little is known about the relevance of this pricing practice in the growing grocery e-commerce sector.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors investigate the frequency of nine-ending prices at Amazon Fresh for more than 10,000 products from May 2019 until March 2020 for the customer location Berlin, Germany. Applying a within–between logit model, the authors identify the determinants for the use of nine-ending prices.
Findings
The authors find that more than 70% of all prices end in the digit 9. This indicates that Amazon Fresh applies psychological pricing to a similar degree as traditional offline grocers. Nine-ending prices are more likely for so-called “want” products such as snacks and sweets than for “should” products such as fruits and vegetables. Also, psychological price endings are used less for products with a higher price level and for products with temporary sales promotions.
Originality/value
This study is the first to analyse psychological pricing practices for the world's largest online food retailer Amazon Fresh. The study results contrast with most previous empirical and theoretical studies, which suggest that the use of psychological prices would decline in an online context.