Patterns in biomass production are determined by resource input (productivity) and trophic transfer efficiency. At fixed resource input, variation in consumer biomass production has been related to food quality, metabolic type and diversity among species. In contrast, intraspecific variation in individual body size because of ontogenetic development, which characterizes the overwhelming majorit...

Online escrow is an emerging trust service in consumer-to-consumer auction markets to protect online traders from Internet fraud. This paper reports an empirical study on the factors affecting traders’ risk perception and their adoption of online escrow service. A web-based C2C auction experimental system has been implemented to dynamically collect subjects’ risk behavior during experiments. Th...

BACKGROUND Obesity may cluster in families due to shared physical and social environments. PURPOSE This study aims to identify family typologies of obesity risk based on family environments. METHODS Using 2007-2008 data from 706 parent/youth dyads in Minnesota, we applied latent profile analysis and general linear models to evaluate associations between family typologies and body mass index...

There is little research on trust and satisfaction in the electronic commerce from a longitudinal (preand postpurchase) perspective. Based on previous frameworks and theories, this study developed a combined model of consumer trust and satisfaction in the context of Internet shopping. From the valance framework and expectation-confirmation theory, several prepurchase and post-purchase factors s...

The business-to–consumer is the most visible business type of electronic commerce. Online shopping allows companies to provide product information and direct sales to their consumers. In order to effectively drive consumers to accept electronic commerce and online transactions, there is an urgent need to understand the factors that influence consumer behavior towards continued use of online tra...

This paper reports marketplace developments for consumer-driven health plans in spring 2002. Findings are from interviews with executives from start-up and health insurance firms, benefit consultants, employee benefit managers, Wall Street analysts, consumer organizations, thought leaders, and policymakers. We detail available evidence about the performance of consumer-driven health plans conce...

An exposure assessment and risk characterization was conducted to better understand the potential human health significance of trace levels of perfluorooctanoate (PFO) detected in certain consumer articles. PFO is the anion of perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA). Concentrations of PFO in the consumer articles were determined from extraction tests and product formulation information. Potential exposur...

We propose a structural credit risk model for consumer lending using option theory and the concept of the value of the consumer’s reputation. Using Brazilian empirical data and a credit bureau score as proxy for creditworthiness we compare a number of alternative models before suggesting one that leads to a simple analytical solution for the probability of default. We apply the proposed model t...

Active safety features and adjustments to the New Car Assessment Program (NCAP) consumer-information crash tests have the potential to decrease the number of serious traffic injuries each year, according to previous studies. However, literature suggests that risk reductions, particularly in the automotive market, are often accompanied by adjusted consumer risk tolerance, and so these potential ...

innovation has attracted considerable interest in recent years in improving competitive advantage for both profit and nonprofit organizations. service innovation offers the potential for substantially improving the performance, but performance gains are often obstructed by users’ unwillingness to accept and use available systems. this research aims to use the concept of reasoned action theory t...