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Topic Review
The Half-Truth Effect and Its Implications for Sustainability
Half-truth is defined as “a statement that mingles truth and falsehood with deliberate intent to deceive”. 
  • 1.8K
  • 23 Jun 2022
Topic Review
The Impact of Airbnb Brand on Consumer Involvement
Airbnb is one of the leading businesses in the hospitality industry, and is one of the fastest growing corporations in sharing economy services. The brand operates on a marketplace platform, and connects travelers with hosts all over the world. Trust is essential for purchase intentions, particularly online, and the degree of involvement determines whether or not the brand is committed to its promises. In the context of Airbnb, users pay for their services online, and are allowed to present reviews for future travelers. Unlike other business models, Airbnb has to preserve its image by providing innovative and quality services for travelers, especially in the hospitality industry, where the product attributes only differ slightly. With Airbnb’s rapid growth, the aspects of brand personality become critical when establishing a positive brand image and positioning the company as a platform that provides unique experiences to its users and possesses a distinct identity.
  • 1.8K
  • 20 Jul 2022
Topic Review Peer Reviewed
Organizational Justice: Typology, Antecedents and Consequences
Organizational Justice is an individual’s perception that events, actions, or decisions within an organization adhere to a standard of fairness. Justice researchers have categorized justice into four types, differentiated by how fairness is evaluated by employees: distributive, procedural, interpersonal, and informational justice. Organizational justice perceptions have consequences for the employee and the organization: increasing job satisfaction, commitment, and trust; and decreasing turnover, counterproductive work behaviors, and even workplace violence. Contemporary organizational justice research seeks to understand how to restore justice after an injustice has occurred. 
  • 1.6K
  • 08 Jul 2022
Topic Review
Understanding Pet Food Attribute Preferences of US Consumers
This encyclopedia entry is dedicated to pet food attributes and builds on the work of Meike Rombach and David Dean. Partial least squares structural equation modelling shows that pet food purchase involvement positively impacts subjective and objective knowledge about pet food. Subjective knowledge appears to be the strongest factor impacting the importance consumers place on all three attributes. This is followed by objective knowledge. Socio-demographic factors such as gender, age, income, and education appear to have a limited impact as predictors for the importance consumers place on the product attributes.
  • 1.5K
  • 17 Jan 2022
Topic Review
Sustainable Consumption and Value Orientations
Sustainable consumption refers to consumption choices that are made by consumers who are considering environmental, social  and/or ethical issues during their purchase decision. When engaging in sustainable consumption, consumers assess whether products are benevolent to the environment, recyclable or conservable, and responsive to social, ecological and ethical concerns. Personal value orientations capture the importance that individuals attach to certain general values and the extent to which individuals adhere to these values as guiding principles in their lives. Three types of values have been associated with pro-environmental behaviour: egoistic (threats to oneself), social–altruistic (threats to others), and biospheric (threats to nature or the environment). 
  • 1.5K
  • 01 Jun 2021
Topic Review Video
The Role of Identity in Eating Behaviors
Identity is a major construct in the fields of psychology and anthropology that can relate to both the maintenance of eating behaviors and cultural sensitivity. Social and self-identities, as well as ethnic, religious, ethical, eater-type, and other behavior-based identities, are associated with eating behavior change and maintenance.  Identity measurements greatly vary in type and complexity, but the most robust include some accounting for multiple identities and identity shifting over time. Multiple aspects of identity reciprocally reinforce eating behaviors, and change maintenance is associated with identity salience and identity centrality. Identity is an important way to understand the internal landscape of individuals and may be underutilized and heterogeneously applied in eating behavior research. The inclusion of identity assessments seems to lead to better outcomes and increased predictive and explanatory power regarding eating behaviors and can be especially meaningful within differing cultural, normative, and environmental scenarios. 
  • 1.3K
  • 01 Sep 2022
Topic Review
Activism and Social Media
Given their social nature, human beings have a constant need for interacting, cooperating, and communicating with others to work towards the satisfaction of their multiple needs. In this context, activism can be understood as the diversity of behaviors that people exhibit within society and the aim to make problems of social interest visible. Such actions are developed in-person or in digital environments through the internet. These forms of participation are interrelated, and therefore not independent from each other, giving rise to the term “hybrid activism” characterized by the development of integrated actions in both online and offline platforms.
  • 1.3K
  • 25 Sep 2021
Topic Review
Collaborative Platforms for Sustainable E-Learning in Higher Education
E-learning platforms have become more and more complex. Their functionality included in learning management systems is extended with collaborative platforms, which allow better communication, group collaboration, and face-to-face lectures. Universities are facing the challenge of advanced use of these platforms to fulfil sustainable learning goals. Better usability and attractiveness became essential in successful e-learning platforms, especially due to the more intensive interactivity expected from students.
  • 1.3K
  • 09 Aug 2022
Topic Review
Owner and Cat Relationship
This entry provides a short overview of the different ways cat owners describe the relationship with their cat, how this might relate to an antropomorphic view of (role of) the cat, which owner-and cat-related charateristics are related to such views and how different views are associated with different living environments of cats.  
  • 1.3K
  • 24 Jan 2022
Topic Review Peer Reviewed
Iranian Household Electricity Use Compared to Selected Countries
Buildings account for nearly 40% of energy use in global contexts and climatic conditions tend to contribute to consumption. Human activities are also influential in energy consumption and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions that lead to global warming. Residential buildings are responsible for a considerable share. There are countries aggravating this situation by heavily relying on fossil fuels. Oil-rich countries are allocating an energy subsidy to the public, making energy cheaper for their consumers. This may result in negative consequences, including households’ inefficient energy use behaviours in countries such as Iran. Beyond the impact of energy subsidy allocation, this study aims to explore the climatic and non-climatic factors that affect the increase in domestic electricity use, particularly in Iran. For this purpose, this study begins with a comparative analysis between countries with and without the energy subsidy to examine the trends in domestic electricity use. Afterwards, the tendency of households’ electricity use in Iran will be analysed in consideration of climatic and non-climatic factors among several provinces in Iran. This study exploited published statistical data for the analysis. The results indicate the tendency of increased domestic electricity use due to the country’s generous subsidy offered to the public as well as climatic and non-climatic factors in Iran. These results may provide an opportunity for future studies regarding building occupants’ inefficient energy use behaviours for policy enactment in Iran and other oil-rich countries.
  • 1.2K
  • 29 Sep 2022
Topic Review
Digital Media for Behavior Change
Digital media are omnipresent in modern life, but the science on the impact of digital media on behavior is still in its infancy. There is an emerging evidence base of how to use digital media for behavior change. Strategies to change behavior implemented using digital technology have included a variety of platforms and program strategies, all of which are potentially more effective with increased frequency, intensity, interactivity, and feedback. It is critical to accelerate the pace of research on digital platforms, including social media, to understand and address its effects on human behavior. 
  • 1.2K
  • 30 Sep 2022
Topic Review
Neuropeptides in Anxiety and Depression
In modern society, there has been a rising trend of depression and anxiety. This trend heavily impacts the population’s mental health and thus contributes significantly to morbidity and, in the worst case, to suicides. Modern medicine, with many antidepressants and anxiolytics at hand, is still unable to achieve remission in many patients. The pathophysiology of depression and anxiety is still only marginally understood, which encouraged researchers to focus on neuropeptides, as they are a vast group of signaling molecules in the nervous system. Neuropeptides are involved in the regulation of many physiological functions
  • 1.2K
  • 13 Sep 2022
Topic Review Video Peer Reviewed
Unraveling Neurodiversity: Insights from Neuroscientific Perspectives
Neurodiversity is a concept and a social movement that addresses and normalizes human neurocognitive heterogeneity to promote acceptance and inclusion of neuro-minorities (e.g., learning disabilities, attention disorders, psychiatric disorders, and more) in contemporary society. Neurodiversity is attributed to nature and nurture factors, and about a fifth of the human population is considered neurodivergent. What does neurodiversity mean neuroscientifically? This question forms the foundation of the present entry, which focuses on existing scientific evidence on neurodiversity including neurodiversity between and within individuals, and the evolutional perspective of neurodiversity. Furthermore, the neuroscientific view will be synergistically integrated with social approaches, particularly in the context of the normalization of neurodiversity and its association with the medical and social models of disability. This multidimensional analysis offers a cohesive and comprehensive understanding of neurodiversity, drawing insights from various vantage points, such as social, psychological, clinical, and neuroscientific viewpoints. This integrated approach fosters a nuanced and holistic discussion on the topic of human diversity.
  • 1.2K
  • 10 Aug 2023
Topic Review
Product Attributes, Evaluability, and Consumer Satisfaction
Consumer satisfaction is considered essential to long-term business success. Organizations have a need to produce products and services that yield highly satisfied and loyal consumers. Having loyal consumers reduces the costs for firms, since the expenses for acquiring new consumers are much higher than those for keeping existing ones. Studying the factors that determine consumer satisfaction is of vital importance for a company, as consumer satisfaction has been described as the best indicator of a company’s future profits. In addition, several studies have indicated that there are positive effects of consumer satisfaction on overall brand equity and its different aspects, i.e., retailer awareness, retailer associations, the retailers’ perceived quality, and retailer loyalty. Most studies of consumer satisfaction have been based on the overall satisfaction with a product as a whole, while only a few have related consumer satisfaction to the performance of product attributes. We aimed to study which type of product attribute leads to the most satisfaction, thus providing clues for providers to improve their products. We focused on attribute evaluability and analyzed the ease or difficulty in evaluating a product’s attribute. This was assumed to be related to consumer satisfaction Although evaluability has usually been manipulated experimentally, we studied evaluability as a consumer’s perceptions of product attributes. We aimed to show the effects of attribute evaluability on consumer satisfaction outside of the laboratory context, in a real consumer setting. This aim matched the endeavor in research to study the scaling-up of small-scale laboratory findings to larger markets and settings, as advocated by List.  Another basic process in the formation of consumer satisfaction is a judgment of product performance that is relative to the reference point of the product’s performance expectations. In general, the positive disconfirmation of expectations (the perceived realizations of performance exceeding expectations) will lead to consumer satisfaction, whereas negative disconfirmation (the perceived realizations of performance falling short of expectations) induces dissatisfaction. From prospect theory, it is known that negative deviations from a reference point are judged more negatively than their commensurate positive deviations are judged positively, thus indicating asymmetric effects of product evaluations.  A hitherto under-researched topic is whether consumer satisfaction differs when it is due to an attribute expectation disconfirmation of easy-to-evaluate versus difficult-to-evaluate attributes. This topic is theoretically interesting, because such differences may be driven by different psychological processes. Also, it is of practical significance, because it provides a clue to providers in regard to the type of product attributes for which negative expectation disconfirmation needs to be avoided. We consider attribute evaluability as a factor that moderates the effects of attribute disconfirmation on consumer satisfaction.
  • 1.1K
  • 15 Nov 2021
Topic Review
Employee’s MOB and Firm’s IMM
A successful organization depends primarily on employees' effort, attitude, behavior, and interaction. All these factors are employee-related and play a critical role in accomplishing the organization’s strategy. Scholars have confirmed that employees’ attitudes and behaviors positively influence a firm’s accounting measures and stock returns. Therefore, it is crucial for a firm to entice employees to engage in market orientation behavior (MOB) to attain sustainable competitive advantages and excel at business performance. In the early 1970s, Kotler introduced internal marketing and suggested that a firm should market to its employees before marketing to its customers. Soon after the emergence of this concept, firms began to view jobs as products and employees as internal customers. To be successful, a business must retain talented and competent employees; internal marketing can help businesses resolve this issue. Internal marketing is regarded as a model component of service marketing management and a measurable scale for empirical research.
  • 1.1K
  • 29 Jun 2021
Topic Review
Live Streaming and Consumer Purchase Intentions
As a new business model, live-streaming commerce has great commercial value. Interactivity, visualization, entertainment, and professionalization play considerable roles in consumer behavioral responses and that their psychological mechanisms are different. Male respondents are more satisfied with interactivity than females. E-commerce platforms are more interactive, visible and professional than social media platforms, and the trust mechanism of social media platforms is immature.
  • 1.1K
  • 28 Jan 2022
Topic Review
Barriers to Sustainable Farming Practices
Research has a critical role in supporting the implementation of farming practices that are appropriate for meeting food and climate security for a growing global population. Notwithstanding progress towards more sustainable agricultural production, the rate of change varies across and within regions and is, overall, too slow. Understanding what is and is not working at the implementation level and, critically, providing justified explanations on outcomes, is an important contribution of the literature. It is suggested that a greater application of theory in adoption research could increase the contribution of the literature. 
  • 1.1K
  • 10 May 2021
Topic Review
The Complexity of the Human–Animal Bond
The human–animal relationship is ancient, complex and multifaceted. It may have either positive effects on humans and animals or poor or even negative and detrimental effects on animals or both humans and animals. A large body of literature has investigated the beneficial effects of this relationship in which both human and animals appear to gain physical and psychological benefits from living together in a reciprocated interaction. However, analyzing the literature with a different perspective it clearly emerges that not rarely are human–animal relationships characterized by different forms and levels of discomfort and suffering for animals and, in some cases, also for people. The negative physical and psychological consequences on animals’ well-being may be very nuanced and concealed, but there are situations in which the negative consequences are clear and striking, as in the case of animal violence, abuse or neglect. Empathy, attachment and anthropomorphism are human psychological mechanisms that are considered relevant for positive and healthy relationships with animals, but when dysfunctional or pathological determine physical or psychological suffering, or both, in animals as occurs in animal hoarding.
  • 1.1K
  • 26 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Understanding Apple Attribute Preferences of US Consumers
Fresh apples are a commonly consumed and widely available product in food markets around the world.
  • 1.1K
  • 17 Jan 2022
Topic Review
Tougher Plastics Ban Policies in China
After the Chinese government's new plastics ban policies issued in 2020, another set of tougher plastics ban measures were introduced in Shanghai, China in 2021. The tougher plastic ban polices completely forbade the usage of plastic carrier bags and required all supermarkets to sell only cloth or nylon carrier bags priced from RMB 1.0 to 39.0. Tougher plastics ban policies are penalty-oriented. The tougher plastics ban policies produce positive plastics reducing effects by observing significantly decreased usage of charged carrier bags by 46%, and significantly increased usage of old plastic bags and reusable bags by 117% and 36%, respectively. Policy execution loopholes are found in some supermarkets which do not follow the tougher plastics ban measures. Fortunately, the spill-over effects from tougher-measure-executing supermarkets fix this issue to some extent. The tougher 2021 measures fail to be the most powerful impacting factor on people’s usage of each type of bag. To produce better plastics reducing results, other bag-targeted measures are necessary.
  • 1.0K
  • 19 Oct 2021
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