Research on consumer behaviour has revealed that the prospect of reachinga personal value is the virtual buying motive. Bearing this in mind, the researcher, aswell as the marketer, is not only able to observe whether one product is preferred toanother, but also to understand why this product is...

Nowadays, consumers usually do not just consider the functional use of a product. At least equally important are the emotional experiences that are tied up with the product and that are sated with non-material elements of a product. Which non-material elements of a product are considered...

The aim of this study is to contribute to the explanation of consumer behaviour.To do so, it is not sufficient to identify the product characteristics most relevant tothe consumer. Moreover, the reasons why consumers attach meaning to the productattributes have to be found out, whereas the...

In order to meet with the obstacles of market saturation and the resulting cut-throat competitionin the home countries of most of the top food retailers, they use the chance to participate in theincreasing standard of living in Asia, South America and Central- and Eastern Europe. Thus,retail...

Since the seminal work of Adam Smith, markets have been considered an efficienttool for co-ordinating the behaviour of economic agents. The basic characteristicof a market economy is that the complex system of interaction amongindividuals is not centrally coordinated. Under the assumption of...

Internationalization is one of the most important trends in retailing today. This process is not new, however hasaccelerated in the last two decades. It was less than 30 years ago that almost all of the world’s retail firms were purenational firms with a negligible share in foreign markets....

Because loyal consumers are less likely to switch to competitors and because they are more tolerant toincreases in price than non-loyal consumers, one of the main aims of firms is the “generation” of loyal consumers.But what is consumer loyalty? The marketing literature emphasises that for...