Browsing by Subject "Verbraucherverhalten"

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    Gesellschaftliches Management von Verbraucherbeschwerden : Funktion und Finanzierung
    (2011) Becker, Tilman; Heinze, Karen; Bundesanstalt für Landwirtschaft und Ernährung (BLE)
    Verbraucherreaktionen bei Unzufriedenheit mit einem gekauften Produkt oder einer in Anspruch genommenen Dienstleistung sind vielfältig und reichen von direkten Beschwerden bei Händlern oder Herstellern über Beschwerden bei Dritteinrichtungen bis hin zum Wechsel des Anbieters. Dabei können Beschwerden bei Dritteinrichtungen als Steigerung der anderen Beschwerdeformen betrachtet werden, da sie für den Verbraucher mit einem stärkeren Engagement und einem größeren Aufwand verbunden sind. Sie legen daher eine größere Unzufriedenheit seitens des Konsumenten nahe, insbesondere wenn man bedenkt, dass einer Beschwerde bei einer dritten Partei eine Beschwerde bei dem betreffenden Unternehmen vorausgegangen sein dürfte. Verstärkt vorgebracht werden Beschwerden bei Erfahrungs- und Vertrauensgütern; bei geringwertigen, schnelllebigen Gütern sehen Verbraucher hingegen eher davon ab sich zu beschweren. Dies kann durch unlauteres Geschäftsgebaren von Anbietern zu deren Vorteil genutzt werden. So entsteht beispielsweise durch die Unterschreitung der auf einer Verpackung angegebenen Füllmenge oder durch die verzögerte Wertstellung eines Betrages auf einem Kundenkonto für den einzelnen Verbraucher ein vergleichsweise geringer Schaden. In der Regel stehen den geschädigten Konsumenten vertragliche Ansprüche gegen den Anbieter zu; eine Durchsetzung scheitert aber bei diesen sog. Streu- und Bagatellschäden insbesondere wegen des krassen Missverhältnisses zwischen der Höhe des individuellen Schadens und dem mit prozessualer Durchsetzung verbundenen Aufwand oder etwa Beweisschwierigkeiten. Das hat zur Folge, dass sich Unternehmen weiterhin schädigend verhalten, der durch das unzulässige Geschäftsgebaren erzielte Gewinn bei ihnen verbleibt und sie demzufolge einen Wettbewerbsvorteil gegenüber lauter handelnden Unternehmen erlangen. Das rationale Verhalten des Einzelnen, auf eine Durchsetzung der eigenen Ansprüche zu verzichten, legitimiert damit kollektive Klagemöglichkeiten, um eine effektive Rechtsdurchsetzung zu gewährleisten und um volkswirtschaftliche Schäden zu verhindern. Bereits bestehende kollektive Klagemöglichkeiten konnten bislang das Durchsetzungsdefizit bei Streu- und Bagatellschäden jedoch nicht beseitigen. So zielen Unterlassungsklagen darauf ab, wettbewerbswidriges Verhalten zukünftig zu unterbinden; zurückliegende Schädigungen der Verbraucher werden damit nicht gleichfalls beseitigt, sondern müssen durch den einzelnen Verbraucher selbst geltend gemacht werden. Die Bündelung von Zahlungsansprüchen mehrerer Konsumenten ist bislang durch Einziehungsklagen möglich. Dabei treten die Betroffenen ihre Geldforderungen zum Zwecke der Einziehung an Verbraucherorganisationen ab und erhalten anschließend im Erfolgsfall wieder eine Auszahlung. Jedoch ist damit ein unverhältnismäßig hoher Verwaltungsaufwand für die Verbrauchereinrichtungen verbunden, da mit jedem an der Klage beteiligtem Verbraucher eine entsprechende Vereinbarung abzuschließen ist. Zudem müssen Forderungen und zugehörige Belege individuell bestimmt bzw. vorgelegt werden. Der ursprünglich gerade zur Beseitigung des Durchsetzungsdefizits bei Streuschäden etablierte Gewinnabschöpfungsanspruch ist praktisch kaum durchführbar, weil er u. a. mit hohen Anforderungen an die Beweispflichten verknüpft ist. Ist ein Gewinnabschöpfungsverfahren erfolgreich, ist die Auszahlung an betroffene Verbraucher nicht möglich, da durch das unlautere Verhalten des Anbieters eine Vielzahl anonymer gebliebener Verbraucher geschädigt wurde. Der Verletzergewinn wird dem Bundeshaushalt zugeführt, kommt also auch nicht den klageberechtigten Einrichtungen zugute. Die unrechtmäßig erlangten Gewinne von Unternehmen abzuschöpfen dient der Funktionsfähigkeit der Märkte und liegt daher im allgemeinen gesellschaftlichen Interesse. Die abgeschöpften Beträge für die Finanzierung zukünftiger kollektiver Klagen zu verwenden, würde ausgleichen, dass klageberechtigte Einrichtungen wie die Verbraucherzentralen oder deren Bundesverband zum einen das Prozesskostenrisiko tragen, jedoch bei erfolgreicher Prozessführung finanziell nicht profitieren. Zum anderen blieb die öffentliche Förderung dieser Einrichtungen in der Vergangenheit hinter der Entwicklung der Klagerechte für die Verbraucherorganisationen zurück. In diesem Zusammenhang kann die Realisierung des Verursacherprinzips durch eine gesetzlich legitimierte (Mit)finanzierung der Verbraucherarbeit durch die Anbieterseite eben gerade durch die Abschöpfung von Unrechtsgewinnen oder auch die Verhängung entsprechender Bußgelder als ein ökonomisch sinnvoller und juristisch realisierbarer Ansatz gelten.
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    Managing Share Economy : positive und negative Auswirkungen bei der Einführung von Access-Based Services
    (2019) Lehr, Adrian Marinus; Büttgen, Marion
    In the last few years, services that allow consumers to use goods for short time periods have gained considerable relevance (Baumeister et al. 2015; Bert et al. 2016). This phenomenon is known as sharing or share economy (Wallenstein 2016) and follows the principles of borrowing, renting, bartering and sharing, and focuses in particular on collaborative consumption (Botsman and Rogers 2010). This dissertation project is focused on access-based consumption or access-based services (Schaefers et al. 2016). These services are defined as "market-mediated transactions that provide customers with temporally limited access to goods in return for an access fee, while the legal ownership remains with the service provider". A common practical example is car sharing. Starting from the main drivers of this trend towards non-ownership-oriented forms of consumption, this dissertation addresses the positive and negative effects for companies that want to move into this sector. Based on a systematic literature review, the thesis identifies several important research gaps in this emerging field. This dissertation project makes several important contributions to the research to close these gaps. The thesis examines three central research questions. A first research question addresses the impact of the development towards service-oriented business models of the so-called access-based services for manufacturing companies. This work shows in detail which customer-side effects arise from the use of access-based services with regard to the product or brand used. The role that access-based services can play in the adoption and diffusion of new products is also highlighted. Furthermore to these positive effects, this dissertation project also addresses the issue that in many cases the introduction of access-based services does not lead to the intended commercial success. Thus, this research examines the question which features and characteristics an access service must have in order to be accepted by the customer. This also shows that these offers result in a cost-intensive operation. The third question of this dissertation is dedicated to the issue that companies try to establish themselves in this new market through a communicative positioning of less innovative, more classical rental concepts as sharing offers. For this purpose, the concept of sharewashing on the basis of established greenwashing is introduced within this dissertation project. Thus, one of the objectives of the thesis is to examine the effects of such a misleading approach. The results show that such sharewashing leads to a loss of customer acceptance. Thus, this work also contributes to the research stream of marketing ethics. In summary, the present work addresses different, but interdependent questions in the field of access-based services. To answer the questions, several theoretical concepts (information integration theory, attribution theory, adoption theory) and research streams (innovation, trial, consumer skepticism) were referred to, which were also extended within this work. A longitudinal field study, a field study including company data, a qualitative study, a factorial survey design and two experiments were applied. This dissertation thus makes comprehensive contributions by demonstrating how and under what conditions corporate behavior within the access-based services market can lead to positive, but also possible negative effects for companies.
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    Ökokaufhaus - Konzept der Zukunft? Empirische Analyse der Effekte eines innovativen Unternehmenskonzept auf Umwelt und Gesellschaft
    (2006) Gebhardt, Beate; Schulz, Werner F.
    Sustainable production and management in companies and sustainable consumption on the part of the consumers are the objectives, which are defined as trend-setting. However, it is not yet clear what role trade may play, as it is sometimes designated as the motor, sometimes the inhibitor of sustained development. With the shopping mall ?Ökokaufhaus Rommelmühle? in Bietigheim-Bissingen, an idealistically motivated eco-preneur wants to implement and realize different objectives of sustainable development in compagny concept. It opened in the autumn 1998. The innovative project incorporates the ecological shopping mall with nearly 6,000 m2 sales area, together with approx. 100 people who live in the old main building and in new, ecologically built houses. It is intended as a concept for the future, from which the economy, environment and society profit equally. The central question of this work is: can a company innovation in trade such as the ecological shopping mall actually promote steps towards sustainability? Apart from efficiency and consistency strategies, sufficiency strategies must also be successfully implemented. For this purpose the "Ökokaufhaus Rommelmühle" and its surrounding field is considered in the years 1998 to 2002 on the basis of various empirical investigations. The analyses of all aspects the Rommelmühle, as well as a further survey of other existing and planned ecological shopping malls in Germany, highlight the situation of an innovative trading venture on the eco-market. The results are summarized in the following four theses. Thesis 1: The basic idea of the eco-shopping mall is trend-setting. The idea of an ecologically influential and sustainably organised trading venture is still regarded as very positive. Today consumers demand more social and ecological responsibility from companies. In Germany people´s sense of responsibility remains high beyond the ecological dimension. Companies are slowly beginning to be sensitised. Despite the failure of the concept, the basic idea of an ecological shopping mall still meets with great enthusiasm. The idea of ecologically acting and the life-style of sustainably organised trade companies remains firm in people?s minds. This is a first and in a long-term view a central result of this work. Thesis 2: Eco-shopping malls enable a hybrid sustainable development Also in an ecologically motivated pioneering company the basis for corporate continuity is formed by the economic dimension. Thus the chances of changing ecologically and socially relevant elements in corporate operations depend on economic affordability. At present an ecological shopping mall in its realized or planned form is economically unsuccessful or at least endangered in its economic survival. If it can assert itself on the market, it acts as an innovative ?David? in the eco-niche. Eco-efficient basic conditions (like structure of buildings) and infrastructural offers (supply of goods) as typical ecological innovations in the eco-shopping mall substantially improve the chance of more sustainable production and consumption patterns. However, the ecological shopping mall sets as a potential supporter of sufficiency strategies provides no significant impetus. Even in planning, in the eco-shopping mall social components were subordinate to ecological aspects and in business a community-oriented approach was completely thwarted. In addition, the ecological shopping mall is an expensive supply installation and like the whole eco- market it is visited particularly by more highly educated consumers and by the older generation. Thesis 3: The establishment of eco-shopping malls is a matter of time. Particularly for economic reasons, the concept of an ecological shopping mall has no future ? at least in the short term. The demand for ecologically high-quality products is limited except with regard to organic food. The offer of different ecological branches of trade in one house hardly causes spill-over effects. However, in view of the production in industries and in the reflections and way of consuming of society at large in the long-term the beginning changes promise framework conditions, which could result in the success of eco-shopping malls in the future. Today in the ecological industries different lines of success in diffusion processes can still be observed. For example, the trade with eco-clothing has remained in the eco-niche, stigmatised since the eighties. And also the ecological building industry so far has not been able to develop remarkable movement, despite legally established standards of thermal insulation. Organic food alone, the oldest ecological commercial sector, is already on an economical successful course and enjoys increasing social acceptance. Historical experience shows: also the great department stores of the 19th Century developed over decades from offering a single branch of trade to a full range of products. Thesis 4: Ecological shopping mall is a model and chance for advancement in the trade. In the future the design and structure of an ecological shopping mall will be adapted to the things the economy will offer and the requirements of society. The ecological shopping mall of the future will not have much in common with the eco-mall Rommelmühle - analysed as a general case study. But the aim of this innovative idea will connect the past and the future: to place things again in a comprehensive context, to unite sustainable production/management and sustainable consumption, to see society and the environment as an interconnected whole. These expectations of people today will form the basis for how the companys will act tomorrow.
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    Quality ambiguity and the market mechanism for credence goods
    (2004) Benner, Dietrich
    With credence goods consumers cannot judge actual quality neither before purchase - ex ante - nor after purchase - ex post -. Trust has to replace own examination and verification. Applying Choquet-Expected Utility theory, a general model of credence goods is developed which takes the problem of trust explicitly in its view and generalizes the problem of quality uncertainty on the ?market for lemons? of Akerlof (1970) to ?quality ambiguity? with credence goods. The model shows the market mechanism only performing well in providing credence goods when consumers? trust in given information is not too low. With trust too low, sellers of credence goods will be driven out of the market by trust induced adverse selection. In market equilibrium prices will always be lower compared to equilibrium prices for experience goods.