Markets are complex ecosystems consisting of various interconnected actors, in which resources are integrated to co-create value. Said value co-creation within markets can be enhanced by creating higher resource density, hence shaping the market. However, market shaping research predominantly focuses on the activities of market shapers, rather than the equally important roles of other market actors within the ecosystem. While market shapers are instrumental in the process of shaping, this narrow focus fails to consider how all market actors inevitably are influenced or influence the market ecosystem. All market actors exert effort in the value co-creation process, including the process of market shaping. This study therefore explores effort in a market shaping context and examines the effects of effort reduction as a mechanism to facilitate market shaping as it leads to enhanced value creation. This is a conceptual study that uses theory adaptation approach to link the concept of value co-creation, market shaping, and effort. This study offers a conceptual framework and five propositions outlining the role of effort reduction in the value co-creation process with flow on effects to market shaping. The developed conceptual framework indicates how market shapers can enhance resource density and increase value creation by reducing the effort required of other market actors in the value co-creation process. This research offers effort reduction in the value co-creation process as a viable market shaping tactic and extends the focus beyond the focal market shaper to consider the broader context with numerous market actors within it.

This study investigates the association between Food Neophobia and the intention of the consumers to buy fish farmed with insect-based flours. The findings suggest that buying intention is strongly influenced by the attitude of consumers toward this type of fish and both Food Neophobia and Food Technology Neophobia negatively influence consumers’ attitude.

Current forces of change such as the digital transformation, the increasing importance of service and experiential luxury, new customer groups with diverse cultural backgrounds and spending habits or rising expectations with regards to transparency and sustainability, force brands to rethink the way they do business. In some cases, this means quickly building up new capabilities, which often exist outside a company’s own organizational structure and cannot easily be developed or integrated. Luxury ecosystems are considered one way of dealing with the challenges of an ever more dynamic, fast-changing and multi- faceted environment. In luxury ecosystems, capabilities are built in collaboration with partners from the same or different industries that share a common vision. However, the ecosystem approach, especially when actively communicated to the outside world and made part of the brand’s DNA, partially stands in contrast to the more traditional notion of exclusivity and the luxury brand as a bounded, proprietary system shrouded in mystery. Based on a qualitative approach, including multiple case studies and interviews, this study examines the opportunities of an ecosystem mindset for Swiss luxury companies, explores different forms and identifies the success factors and limits of the concept.

Financial well-being is a critical problem in consumer-finance research (Shim et al., 2009). Many consumers are becoming increasingly concerned about their financial well-being (O'Neill et al., 2005). Although there are many financial policies associated with consumers (Kozup & Hogarth, 2008), consumers still have difficulty with financial well-being (Short, 2005). This research is a vital topic to enable financial-policy researchers to understand consumers' financial well-being. For this proposed study, it is necessary to choose a group of consumers who understand financial well-being. While many groups would fit this scope, we chose international students. According to the U.S. Department of Commerce (2016), the number of international students pursuing U.S. college degrees has grown each year for the past ten years. This increase in the number of international students has an economic effect. According to the NAFSA report (2014), international students contributed $26.8 billion to the U.S. economy. International students also supported over 340,000 U.S. jobs. However, the actual condition of these international students is not well known. Some earlier studies have pointed to difficulties in studying and living because of differences in culture and language (Wang, 2004). However, research on financial problems due to cultural differences among international students is scarce. The study of these financial aspects of international students is an important economic, educational, and policy issue. However, many studies are biased toward quantitative research questionnaires for international students, which limits the attempt to interpret the data in the conventional knowledge framework (Pyvis, & Chapman, 2005). There is a lack of qualitative research to uncover the actual financial reality from the insiders' perspectives. Therefore, this qualitative research understands the diverse financial experiences and difficulties of international students through grounded theory, which a qualitative research method. This qualitative research, (1) seeks to understand what elements should be necessary for the financial well-being of international students, which will (2) allow international students to consider consumer financial support policies that will help them, and (3) help to understand the relationship between financial culture and financial well-being in the era of globalization.

The nature of NPD is conducive to SMEs improvising at all stages of the process. This has the potential to create new knowledge, which, if retained and harnessed, can then be applied at higher strategic levels within the firm. This paper examines this phenomenon, through a preliminary qualitative study.

With the consolidation of online shopping, there is a need to gain insight into consumer decision-making within the digital sphere. The purpose of this study was to investigate factors that influence online shopping intention of fashion products, among female Millennials. By means of a proposed conceptual model, seven hypotheses were tested and data was collected from three hundred young females in South Africa. The data analysis was conducted using SEM in SPSS 23 and AMOS 23, and the results indicated that four of the seven hypotheses were supported. The results from this study provide online fashion retailers with insight into how they can utilise online shopping platforms to reap the financial results from this concept.

Digital video advertising is an emerging creative format increasingly prevalent online. To attract audiences, creative strategies often employ narrative storytelling techniques that transport the viewer into an entertaining cognitive and affective experience. This study explores key engagement characteristics of creative executions across categorical digital video advertising formats.

The small tea growers (STGs) constitute a significant part of the tea industries in several tea producing countries in the world. STGs constitute 70 percent of the tea cultivation by area and 60 percent of the total tea production by volume. However, low profitability, limited marketing options, inefficient supply chain, and dependency on the large tea estates for processing has emerged as a serious threat to the sustainability of the STGs. Mostly, the STG’s role in the tea supply chain is confined merely to the cultivation of the tea leaves. In India too, the STGs are confronted with similar challenges. India is the second-largest tea producer in the world with about 50 percent of the total tea production coming from the STGs. Notably, considering the economic and environmental benefits, some of the STGs have taken to organic cultivation of tea. Further, some of them who adopted organic cultivation also took to processing and marketing of made tea like hand-made green tea, black tea, and other specialty products by themselves. This study seeks to understand and analyze the role of organic cultivation in providing market linkages and the development of value chain(s) for the STGs. The study was conducted in the state of Assam, which is recognized worldwide for the presence of one of the oldest and the largest tea industries. It used a qualitative value chain approach to analyze the current situation of the STGs involved in the production of organic tea. The study mostly relied on primary data collected from the various actors of the emerging tea value chain through a semi-structured interview schedule, in-depth interviews, and focused group discussions. The processing and marketing of tea by the organic STGs in Assam has indeed led to the development of tea value chain(s) for the STGs. Adoption of sustainable agriculture systems like organic cultivation has opened up new opportunities for the STGs to earn from tea processing and marketing by themselves. Although such developments are in a very initial stage, understandings from the present scenario add to the literature on the development of value chain and market linkages for the smallholders in the tea sector with implications for other agricultural sectors as well. Encouraging the STGs to produce orthodox tea products, especially green and black tea varieties, in larger quantity by mobilizing them for collective actions is likely to locate them in the global tea value chain. The study suggests such suitable policy measures to bring about transformations in the tea sub-sector. Appropriate institutional changes to develop sustainable tea value chain(s) controlled by the STGs would be the key to impart overall sustainability to the industry. Such developments are likely to help the tea industry in Assam and other tea producing regions to meet the changing consumer aspirations and sustain global competition.