Search Results (745)

Under fault conditions, Photovoltaic-Storage-Charging Integrated Stations (PSCISs) are regarded as a key resource for enhancing distribution network resilience. However, traditional centralized optimization fails to account for conflicts of interest between the distribution network and PSCISs and neglects the actual response behavior of EV users. To address these issues, a coordinated emergency operation strategy for distribution networks and PSCISs based on the master–slave game is proposed. Firstly, a bilevel optimization framework based on the master–slave game is constructed, where the upper level performs system-level coordination and the lower level handles autonomous decision-making. For the upper level, the minimization of distribution network operation cost is set as the optimization objective by the dispatching center to determine power purchase prices and load shedding rates, which serve as guidance signals for lower-level PSCISs. In terms of the lower level, a dual-factor S-shaped response curve is introduced into the lower-level model to precisely characterize EV users’ nonlinear response behavior to price incentives. Furthermore, based on the signals received from the upper level, the maximization of each PSCIS’s profit is set as the optimization objective to determine the PV output, storage dispatch, and V2G incentive prices. Subsequently, Model Predictive Control (MPC) is employed to implement rolling optimization during the fault period, addressing the source-load uncertainties. Finally, an improved IEEE 33-node distribution network is used for case analysis and validation of the proposed operation strategy. The results indicate that the proposed strategy can effectively coordinate the interests of multiple parties, achieving synergistic improvements in both the economy and reliability of the distribution network. Full article

To explore the evolutionary dynamics of green product markets under bounded rationality, this study develops a tripartite evolutionary game model involving the government, passenger vehicle enterprises, and consumers, using China’s new energy vehicle (NEV) market as a case study. By integrating system dynamics with real-world data and policies, the paper simulates strategy evolution paths and identifies equilibrium conditions. The results show a unique evolutionarily stable strategy: the government refrains from regulation, enterprises actively produce NEVs, and consumers actively purchase green products. The government’s strategy is primarily influenced by enterprises, while enterprises’ strategy is mainly driven by consumers. Numerical analysis reveals that when the premium payment ratio of green products (price difference relative to conventional vehicles) is controlled between 27.27% and 31.82%, the market evolves most rapidly toward the ideal equilibrium. Furthermore, when the additional positive benefit ratio of green consumption falls below 36.36%, market formation and development are severely hindered; raising this ratio to 40.91% yields significant promotion effects, beyond which marginal benefits diminish. These findings provide quantitative benchmarks for policy design and strategic decision-making to foster self-sustaining green product markets. Full article

The article provides a comprehensive review of empirical studies on consumer attitudes, motivations, and behaviors in the functional food market. The main objective of this study is to identify groups of determinants and to update and systematize current knowledge on the influence of various factors on consumer purchasing decisions in this market. Based on an analysis of international research published between 2004 and 2025, four key groups of determinants were identified: (1) health- and trust-related factors, (2) cognitive and psychological factors, (3) perceptual and product-related factors, and (4) socio-demographic and segmentation factors. The analysis confirms that purchasing decisions in this product category are complex and multidimensional. They result from the interaction between rational factors (health-related and cognitive) and emotional-symbolic factors (psychological and sensory). The strongest predictors of functional food acceptance include perceived health benefits, trust in producers and information sources, sensory attractiveness, and product naturalness. Socio-demographic characteristics, such as age, education level, and income, further differentiate purchasing intentions and behaviors. Overall, the findings highlight the need for further comparative and cross-cultural research, as cultural and economic conditions may significantly shape consumer decisions across markets. The results obtained have both theoretical and practical implications. They contribute to a better understanding of consumer decision-making processes and emphasize the importance of promoting health awareness. Full article

Despite growing interest in sustainability, many consumers hesitate to purchase green sports products. This study investigates the reasons behind such hesitation by identifying and quantifying consumer-perceived barriers to purchasing green sports products using conjoint analysis. Four major barriers—price premium, quality concerns, lack of information, and credibility issues—were identified through a multi-stage process involving preliminary consumer surveys, an extensive literature review, and expert consultation. Data were collected from 294 consumers who evaluated 12 orthogonally designed product profiles representing different combinations of these barrier attributes. The results indicate that price premium is the most influential barrier overall and among consumers with low environmental involvement, whereas credibility concerns, particularly greenwashing, constitute the primary source of purchase hesitation among consumers with high environmental involvement. Further analysis of perceived purchase barrier configurations indicates that a 10% price premium, limited product variety, distrust of environmental certifications, and insufficient product information are jointly associated with higher perceived purchase resistance. These findings reveal that the prioritization of perceived purchase barriers differs systematically across consumer groups defined by environmental involvement. By clarifying the decision-making barriers that drive consumer hesitation, this study contributes to sustainability research by advancing the understanding of sustainable consumption from a behavioral decision-making perspective. The findings also provide practical insights for sporting goods brands seeking to reduce purchase resistance through strategies tailored to different levels of consumer environmental involvement. Full article

In recent decades, bathroom design has undergone significant changes driven by technological advances, aesthetic trends, and social transformations. Despite their relevance to daily routines and quality of life, bathrooms remain underexplored with regard to how cladding materials influence users’ psychological experience. This study aims to analyze the effects of different bathroom cladding materials on perception, emotional response, and purchase intention. An online experiment was conducted using a single-factor experimental design with five types of cladding materials (ceramic, vinyl, wood, microcement, and natural stone). A total of 58 participants evaluated five virtual bathroom stimuli through self-report measures assessing perceived well-being, perceived stress, perceived functionality, perceived aesthetic preference, perceived cost, emotional valence, and purchase intention. Data were analyzed using nonparametric statistical tests. The results revealed significant differences across all perceptual dimensions depending on the cladding material. Wood and natural stone were associated with higher levels of perceived well-being and more pleasant emotional responses, whereas microcement was linked to higher perceived stress and lower aesthetic evaluations. In addition, affective variables—particularly aesthetic preference—emerged as the strongest predictors of purchase intention. These findings highlight the importance of bathroom materiality in shaping emotional experience and decision-making processes, and emphasize the role of cladding selection in promoting psychological well-being within domestic environments. Full article

As social media campaigns become increasingly important in grocery and supermarket retail communication strategies, there is little research on how consumers view campaign performance throughout their decision-making process, rather than isolated behavioral outcomes. This study examines how the five-stage decision-making process is influenced by consumer-perceived social media performance effectiveness (CP-SMPE), grounded in consumer decision-making theory and social media performance literature. The study uses a mixed-methods research design, combining qualitative interviews with the consumers and a quantitative survey of 300 grocery shoppers in Greece. Perceived return on investment, revenue contribution, lead generation, engagement, reach, cost efficiency, and quality of electronic word-of-mouth are components of social media performance conceptualized as a multidimensional construct. Exploratory factor analysis and PLS-SEM were employed to analyze quantitative data. The findings show that high perceived social media campaign performance influences all stages of the consumer decision-making process, both directly and indirectly, through sequential intermediate stages. It ultimately enhances purchase decisions and post-purchase outcomes. By adopting a consumer-centric, process-based perspective, this study contributes to research on digitally mediated retail decision-making by demonstrating how effective social media communication can support more informed, structured consumer choices. The findings suggest that social media communication can lead to more informed and potentially responsible consumption choices by improving information environments and decision support, even though sustainability outcomes are not directly measured. Full article

Urban mobility is increasingly affected by air pollution and traffic congestion caused by conventional private vehicles, as well as by insufficient flexibility of public transport. Micromobility devices (MMDs) can mitigate these and other negative impacts on quality of life due to their distinctive characteristics, the significance of which is investigated in this research. To address these challenges facing the modern city, a system of 15 hierarchically unstructured criteria influencing the deployment of MMDs in urban areas was established. The relative weights of these criteria were calculated based on the assessments of 16 experts and the criterion weights were determined using four multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) methods: ARTIW-L (Average Rank Transformation into Weight—Linear), ARTIW-N (Average Rank Transformation into Weight—Non-Linear), DPW (Direct Percentage Weight), and AHP (Analytic Hierarchy Process). The results indicate that the expert judgments are consistent, as Kendall’s coefficient of concordance 0.406 is 3.8 times greater than the minimum value of 0.106 (at a significance level 0.05 and 14 degrees of freedom). In addition, the consistency ratios (C.R.) calculated from the AHP pairwise comparison matrices were below 0.1. The demonstrated consistency of the expert judgements and the compatibility of all matrices justify adopting the average of the relative weights obtained using the four MCDM methods as the final solution. According to the experts, the most important criteria for MMD deployment are travel safety (0.1336), travel duration (0.1302), the influence of infrastructure quality on comfort (0.0841), impact on health (0.0805), and the cost of purchasing an MMD (0.0713), while the remaining criteria are of lower significance. Based on the research results it is expected that the identified micromobility implementation measures will be useful for decision-makers and urban development planners. Full article

The energy system is transforming in clean, low-carbon, safe, and efficient directions. As a key carrier of energy consumption, the operation optimization of the integrated energy system (IES) in industrial parks has become an important lever for facilitating energy transformation. This paper focuses on the modeling of the operation optimization of the IES, pays attention to the impact of electricity–carbon–green certificate coordination, and studies the operation optimization of the IES considering hydrogen energy utilization. Firstly, the topological structure of IES is analyzed, and a model of the integrated energy system in industrial parks covering multiple energy links, such as electricity, heat, and gas, is constructed. Hydrogen energy conversion units such as electrolyzers, fuel cells, and methane reactors are introduced. Secondly, the impact of electricity, carbon, and green certificate markets on the operation of IES is analyzed, and a green certificate-carbon trading integration mechanism is designed, along with the establishment of a corresponding market trading model. Then, with the system’s energy purchase and sale costs, electricity curtailment costs, carbon market transaction costs, green certificate transaction revenues, and equipment operation and maintenance costs as the core, an IES daily optimization scheduling model is constructed to minimize the overall cost. Finally, the feasibility of the model constructed in this paper is verified through a case study in the industrial park in the north of Dezhou, Shandong Province, and the result shows that the cost of IES is 15,013.7 yuan under the optimal operation schedule. The utilization rate of new power energy reaches 89.6%, and the 2.135 green certificates are converted into the carbon market. Meanwhile, comparative analysis across multiple scenarios and sensitivity analysis of single factors are conducted to discuss the necessity and effectiveness of the factors considered in this paper, providing a decision-making basis and inspiration for managers to carry out IES operation scheduling. Full article

This study is based on the practical context of the livestream e-commerce industry’s shift from “traffic competition” to “quality competition”. Addressing the limitations of existing research that predominantly focuses on streamers’ external traits while overlooking intrinsic qualities and frequently employs linear models that oversimplify the decision-making processes of consumer purchasing behavior (CPB), a theoretical framework grounded in the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) is developed to explain how streamer traits drive consumer trust and identification through dual pathways. This study adopted a mixed-method approach combining structural equation modeling (SEM) and artificial neural networks (ANNs). By analyzing 408 valid questionnaires, it systematically investigated the driving mechanisms through which streamer traits affected consumers’ trust and identification. The study found that streamers’ integrity significantly enhanced perceived trust and perceived identification via the central route. While awareness could strengthen identification, it had no significant effect on trust building, revealing the inherent tension between “traffic” and “quality”. ANN analysis further demonstrated that the nonlinear combination of traits more effectively predicts consumer responses than traits. This study provided empirical support for the “quality transformation” of livestream e-commerce from both theoretical and methodological perspectives, offering important implications for platforms to develop a quality assessment system centered on trust and identification and to optimize the streamer cultivation mechanism. Full article

Artificial intelligence (AI) marketing technologies are reshaping customer engagement in service sectors, yet their performance within integrated digital ecosystems remains poorly understood. Existing research often examines AI tools in isolation, overlooking how the holistic quality of the virtual customer experience (VCE) shapes their impact on consumer decisions, particularly in intangible service contexts such as telecommunications. This study addresses this gap by investigating the influence of four AI technologies—chatbots, dynamic pricing, voice search, and visual search—on purchasing decisions, with VCE tested as a critical moderating mechanism. Using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) and survey data from 487 telecommunications customers in Saudi Arabia, the findings confirm significant positive direct effects for all four AI tools. Moreover, the VCE significantly amplifies these individual relationships and further strengthens their combined contribution to decision quality, enabling the model to explain 71.2% of the variance in purchasing decisions. The results indicate that competitive advantage in AI-enabled service markets depends not on deploying isolated technologies, but on orchestrating a coherent, high-quality virtual experience ecosystem. By integrating the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and Stimulus–Organism–Response (SOR) framework, this study advances the theoretical understanding of how AI and experience design jointly enhance digital decision-making. Practically, it underscores the need for managers to prioritize integrated VCE design to drive sustainable consumption and strengthen customer loyalty in increasingly digital service environments. Full article

Artificial intelligence (AI) and computer agents are increasingly shaping daily decision-making and commercial interactions. This study investigates the influence of computer agents’ attributes on negotiation results and proposed a systematic method to evaluate the negotiation outcomes. Specifically, it examines the effects of negotiation timespan (synchronous vs. asynchronous), concession tactics, and issue-search mechanisms on both economic and perceptual results in human-agent negotiation. In an experiment, human buyers negotiated purchase of mobile plan contracts with computer agents programmed with one of three concession tactics (conceding, neutral, or competitive) and one of two issue search mechanisms (breadth-first or depth-first). Negotiations occurred under either synchronous or asynchronous timeframes. The experimental results suggest that on the group (dyad) level, timespan has marginal effects on agreement rate, while tactic has a significant impact. On the individual level, agents’ tactics have significant effects on the objective outcomes, while search mechanisms have a significant influence on the subjective outcomes. Full article

As China’s electric vehicle (EV) market transitions from rapid growth to high-quality development, competition among brands is shifting from purely technological aspects to more holistic expressions involving spatial design and brand positioning. This study investigates the coupling mechanism between spatial aesthetics and brand positioning and its influence on consumer purchase intention. Drawing on Gibson’s theory of spatial aesthetics and the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), we develop a theoretical framework that integrates perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use of spatial aesthetics with brand cognition. Empirical analysis is conducted using coupling coordination degree modeling and multiple regression, based on 1576 valid questionnaires collected from 4S dealerships of nine major EV brands in China. The results indicate that spatial aesthetic elements—such as environmental visual flow, invariance, and affordance—positively affect consumers’ perceptions of technology and brand recognition. Furthermore, the degree of coupling between spatial aesthetics and brand positioning perceptions significantly enhances purchase intention, particularly among consumers of safety-oriented and luxury EV models. These findings confirm the synergistic effect of spatial experience and brand strategy in shaping consumer behavior, enriching the theoretical understanding of EV consumer psychology and offering practical guidance for strategic decision-making in product design and brand communication. Full article

The growing integration of digital technologies with physical consumption spaces has led to the emergence of phygital environments, fundamentally transforming consumer decision-making processes. At the same time, sustainability has become an increasingly important normative and strategic context shaping contemporary consumption. While phygital solutions are often associated with sustainability-oriented claims, empirical evidence explaining how consumer behavior in phygital environments relates to sustainability remains limited. This study examines consumer behavior in phygital purchasing contexts through the prism of sustainability, focusing on the decision-making mechanisms that may support sustainability-oriented choices rather than treating phygital behavior as sustainable consumption per se. Using a two-stage analytical approach, the study first identifies key purchasing dimensions characterizing consumer behavior in phygital environments and then empirically tests the direction and strength of their relationships within a theoretically grounded structural model. Based on survey data collected from 2160 consumers, Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) was employed to identify latent purchasing dimensions, followed by Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) and covariance-based structural equation modeling (CB-SEM) to validate the measurement model and examine hypothesized relationships. The results reveal four interrelated purchasing dimensions—purchase pragmatism, emotional commitment to the purchase, purchase comfort, and purchase pleasure—that shape consumers’ engagement in phygital purchasing processes. The findings suggest that phygital environments may foster sustainability-oriented decision-making by enhancing information access, decision efficiency, emotional engagement, and experiential value. However, the study does not directly measure environmental or sustainability outcomes; instead, it clarifies how established dimensions of consumer decision-making operate within phygital environments when analyzed from a sustainability-oriented perspective. The study offers theoretical implications for research on phygital consumer behavior and sustainability-oriented marketing, as well as managerial insights for designing phygital customer experiences that may support more informed and responsible consumption choices. Full article

With the rapid growth of e-commerce platforms, consumers increasingly make purchase decisions without direct physical interaction, particularly for tactile-dependent categories such as furniture and home décor. Drawing on embodied cognition, this study investigates how visual-based tactile cues influence consumers’ purchase intention on e-commerce platforms. Using experimental methods, two studies manipulate the level of visual-based tactile cues (high vs. low) and examine their effects on purchase intention. The results show that richer visual-based tactile cues significantly increase purchase intention. Contrary to traditional information overload assumptions that additional visual detail may hinder decision-making, this effect occurs through enhanced immersion rather than increased cognitive burden, suggesting that visual-based tactile cues operate as embodied sensory triggers instead of purely informational inputs. Furthermore, cross-modal mental imagery moderates this process in a counterintuitive way: the indirect effect of visual-based tactile cues on purchase intention via immersion is stronger when consumers’ imagery ability is lower, indicating a compensatory role of external sensory cues. By conceptualizing visual-based tactile cues as an innovation in interactive marketing within new media environments, this research offers actionable design implications for e-commerce platforms in enhancing tactile perception through visual presentation and improving conversion effectiveness. Full article

This study integrates the SOR framework with signalling theory, centring on information disclosure transparency as the core construct, to systematically examine its direct and indirect effects on consumers’ purchase hesitation. It specifically investigates the mediating roles of seller uncertainty and product uncertainty, whilst also testing the moderating effects of product price, type, and attributes. The research employs PLS-SEM in conjunction with the PROCESS Macro for empirical validation, drawing on 814 valid responses collected from online consumers in Taiwan. The principal findings indicate the following: (1) information disclosure transparency exerts a significant negative direct effect on purchase hesitation (B = −0.582, p < 0.001); (2) both seller uncertainty (indirect effect = −0.061) and product uncertainty (indirect effect = −0.060) exhibit partial mediation; (3) the model demonstrates strong predictive relevance for purchase hesitation (Q² = 0.486), underscoring its robust explanatory power in consumer decision-making processes; and (4) product price, type, and attributes significantly moderate the relationships between information disclosure transparency and the two uncertainty constructs. By extending signalling theory—originally developed in traditional markets—to the digital consumption context, this study provides empirical support for the signalling efficacy of information disclosure. It thereby offers an alternative theoretical lens for analysing consumer behaviour in online environments. Full article