In an attempt to gain differentiation, companies are allocating resources to corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives. At the same time, they are giving consumers a more active role in the process of creating value. In this sense, consumer participation represents a new approach to gain competitive advantage. However, the effectiveness of consumer participation in CSR campaigns still r...

Although consumer profiling advocates tout benefits from personalization, consumer advocacy groups oppose profiling in online markets because of concerns about privacy and price discrimination. Policies such as opt-out or opt-in that provide consumers the option to voluntarily participate in profiling are the favored compromise. We compare voluntary profiling to no profiling and show that volun...

OBJECTIVES The aim of this article is to discuss the cultural construction of the assisted living consumer. Based on theories of consumer studies, it focuses on organizational strategies employed by assisted living practitioners to promote consumer choice and independence while mediating potential risks. METHODS Data include field notes, participation in manager-training programs, and intervi...

This overview discusses articles published in this issue of the Health Care Financing Review, entitled "Consumer Information in a Changing Health Care System." The overview describes several trends promoting more active consumer participation in health decisions and how consumer information facilitates that role. Major issues in developing consumer information are presented, stressing how orien...

BACKGROUND This is the fourth in a series of papers reporting a program of Sustainability in Health care by Allocating Resources Effectively (SHARE) in a local healthcare setting. Healthcare decision-makers have sought to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of services through removal or restriction of practices that are unsafe or of little benefit, often referred to as 'disinvestment'. A ...

In the previous research (Terashima and Dawson, 2004), we discussed a support system for small grocery retailers in order to regenerate them. The purpose of this paper is to show a mechanism which increases customer value of the support system by focusing on customer participation, because increasing customer value has a high priority as the next step for the system. In this paper, we first sho...