Dr Fred Chao

Electrified vehicles have become a solution to greenhouse gas emissions. However, the diffusion of this sustainable transportation is slow, and consumer innovativeness is suggested to have a weak predictive power on electrified vehicle adoption. The aim of this study was to understand how consumer innovativeness and involvement may affect customers¿ electrified vehicle purchase behavior. The results indicate that consumer innovativeness has less ability to predict electrified vehicle adoption. This finding offers insights for the formulation of marketing strategies on facilitating electrified vehicle adoption, which should focus on highly involved consumers with a high level of consumer innovativeness. This study highlights the importance of the role of personality traits and supports the proposition that of distinction between consumer innovativeness and involvement. This study focuses on the role of personality traits on consumers¿ actual electrified vehicle adoption behavior rather than purchase intention.

© 2017, © Emerald Publishing Limited. Purpose: Academic research and consumer polls often report strong consumer support for environmentally responsible products (ERPs), and yet the proportion of sales they account for is often comparatively small. The purpose of this paper is to address one of the p urported reasons behind this ¿attitude-behaviour gap¿ by measuring the influence of six relatively untested factors on consumer attitudes towards environmentally responsible clothing (ERC). Design/methodology/approach: This study employed a consumer household sample. It also used a quantitative survey approach to collect its data and structural equation modelling to analyse it. Findings: Of the six factors, four were found to have a significant influence on consumer attitudes: altruism, status enhancement, perceived consumer effectiveness (PCE) and happiness. Originality/value: Altruism, environmental concern, PCE and self-identity have consistently featured in other environmental contexts, but less so in the specific context of ERC. Happiness and status enhancement have yet to appear in any study relating to the purchase of ERPs.

Purpose ¿ While the internet has emerged as a retail force to be reckoned with, its¿ success is dependent, at least in part, on other promotional tools. One such tool is permission e-mail marketing (PEM). Operating within the framework of the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), the purpose of this paper is to explore the influence of PEM on the perceived value derived from internet shopping. Design/methodology/approach ¿ Data were collected through an online survey in Melbourne, Australia. Utilising a sample of 338 consumers, the resulting data were analysed using structural equation modelling. Findings ¿ The results of the study indicate that PEM positively influences the perceived usefulness, ease of use and enjoyment derived from shopping online. Furthermore, it also serves to reduce the perceived risk. PEM serves as an important extension of the TAM, with the findings from this study highlighting not only what the sources of online shopping value are, but also how they can be influenced. Research limitations/implications ¿ The limitation applies to the research context in which the study was carried out ¿ fashion shopping. Practical implications ¿ The study confirms the importance of PEM and highlights to retailers that they have another important tool at their disposal. Originality/value ¿ This study highlights the importance of PEM and support the proposition that its key source of value lies in providing information that the consumer wants. Such relevance is the key of distinction between PEM and SPAM. Despite the rapid growth of internet shopping in Australia, very few online shopping studies have been conducted in an Australian context. This study helps to address such an oversight.

This paper draws on the consumer innovativeness literature to examine the relationship between existing vicarious innovativeness scale and other forms of consumer innovativeness scales and its role on predicting new product purchase intentions in Australia and China. This study found that existing vicarious innovativeness scale is negatively associated with other forms of consumer innovativeness. Contrary to a significant body of academic research, this study demonstrates the ability of the existing vicarious innovativeness scale in predicting new product purchase intentions rather than new product adoption behaviour. The results have important implications by validating the existing vicarious innovativeness scale in a cross-cultural context. The results of this study question the existing vicarious innovativeness scale that it should only be considered as a measurement for vicarious learning. Instead, further research should seek additional sources of both innovators' and imitators' new product information acquisition in order to develop a proper scale to better measure vicarious innovativeness.