Psychographic

About: Psychographic is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 1307 publications have been published within this topic receiving 39696 citations.

Perceptions on Social Responsibility: The Entrepreneurial Vision

Abstract: This article outlines the results of an inquiry into the nature of entrepreneurial commitment to social responsibility as a business philosophy. Findings show that the respondents, as a group, reported a strong orientation to this view. Several social responsibility topics emerge in a position of special prominence to entrepreneurs, and their preferences for these topics do not widely vary. Furthermore, the degree of attachment to social responsibility, as an operational construct, correlates with several demographic and psychographic dimensions.

Personalized online learning management system and method

Abstract: A system and method for adaptive online learning management for creating and/or publishing customized, personalized, adaptive, and student-specific online course content to enable and provide an efficient learning environment to each student based on the dynamically changing self-evolving student's profile. A student's profile can be created based on factors such as demographic profile, psychographic profile, learning style, personality traits, interests, social networking profile, social media interactions, online interaction characteristics, social networking circle attributes, prerequisite knowledge assessments, social profile, skill, and performance of the student, wherein the student's profile can be processed with respect to a learning object repository to generate a defined set of student-specific learning objects that best suit the profile of the student. A online course content can accordingly be generated based on the defined set of student-specific learning objects.

Modelling the travel mode choice of Australian outbound travellers.

Abstract: The development of package tourism has been a significant feature in the post-war expansion of tourism (Pearce, 1988). The packaging of travel service is unique and different from the packaging of consumer products in a general store. A package tour is identified as a trip planned and paid for in a single price far in advance, covering both commercial transportation and accommodation (often meals and sightseeing are also included) (Morrison, 1989). Packages are popular with customers because they make travel easier and more convenient. At the same time, package tours help the industry to increase business in off-peak periods and attract specific or new target markets (Morrison, 1989). The package tour, therefore, provides many benefits to both travellers and tourism service groups and has become one of the greatest influences in the travel and tourism industry. Abstract This paper presents a choice model of package tours by Australian outbound travellers. The choice model is built using sociodemographics, travel characteristics, and psychographic attributes to predict the probability of choosing package tours using logit analysis. In contrast to earlier studies on packaged vacations, psychographic variables were included into the model to understand the travel mode choice by Australian travellers. The findings indicate that package purchasers are likely to be older, tend to travel with larger party size for touring/city/resort/cruise trip type, and seek a "being & seeing" benefit.

The Importance of Older Consumers to Small Business Survival: Evidence from Rural Iowa

Abstract: Small retail businesses in rural areas must compete for their limited consumer base with nearby giant discount and chain stores. Many rural community residents are enticed to shop beyond the local marketplace, creating a leakage of tax income from the community and reducing net sales for small retail business managers (Papadopoulos 1980; Stone 1995). Outshopping, coupled with consequences arising from agricultural adjustments and population outmigration, has been found to greatly reduce the survival rate of small independent retailers in several rural communities in the U.S. (Aryes, Leistritz, and Stone 1992; Bryant 1989) and in several rural communities located in the United Kingdom, Finland, Norway, Sweden, and Greece (Jussila, Lotvonen, and Tykkylainen 1992; Monk and Hodge 1995; Simmons and Kalantaridis 1996). Retail concerns in several rural Midwestern U.S. communities have decreased from 60 percent of all business establishments to 33 percent (Strange 1996). Although small business managers in rural communities are often dependent on a changing economic environment, they can also be responsive to these changes as active decision-takers. Rural retail businesses faced with declining numbers of customers can employ various adaptive strategies. For example, two strategies have been successfully employed by rural retail shop owners in Lapland, Finland (Jussila, Lotvonen, and Tykkylainen 1992). The efficiency strategy concentrates on reducing overhead or production costs by focusing on a specific segment of the customer market. As a second solution, the small business manager pays more attention to market differentiation and attempts a market increase by combining new activities or service offerings. Although several studies have attempted to assess the causes of rural consumer outshopping behavior, little is understood about those consumers who inshop - meaning those who choose to shop with local businesses (Anderson and Kaminsky 1985; LaForge, Reese, and Stanton 1984; Miller and Kean, 1997a; Samli, Riecken, and Yavas 1983). For small retail businesses that are located in rural areas, identifying potential consumers from a limited population base (efficiency strategy) and accurately interpreting the likelihood of their adopting specific products or services offered to meet their needs (entrepreneurial strategy) require an understanding of the rural community and its marketplace. Generally, one of the first steps in developing a focused or target market strategy of efficiency is to analyze the characteristics of potential customers. Through analyses of demographic and psychographic information, consumers in a market can be segmented by identifiable characteristics differentiating them from others in the market area (Solomon 1994). Demographic information describes characteristics of the population such as age or income, whereas psychographic information frequently pertains to consumers' lifestyle or activities, in addition to their personality as expressed by their interests and opinions (Mowen 1990). Additional psychological aspects of the consumer are also important. Knowing something about rural residents' attitudes, motivations, and behavior with regard to their interests in and opinions of the community and its marketplace will further the rural retailer's ability to efficiently target viable segments in the rural community (Jarratt and Polonsky 1993). Demographic analyses of age trends have identified consumers in both the baby boom and elderly age segments as critically important to marketers in several regions of the U.S. (Mowen 1990). As the first consumers of the baby boom generation (born between 1946 and 1964) pass their fiftieth birthday, their consumption behavior will continue to affect marketing strategies for many years to come. The "senior citizens" or elderly market is traditionally defined as consumers aged 65 years and older (Lambert 1979; Tongren 1988). Lengthening life spans and the celebrating of 75 million baby boomers' 65th birthday beginning in the year 2011 will result in a great increase in the elderly population. …

Upper echelons theory revisited: The need for a change from causal description to casual explanation

Abstract: This paper presents a review of the past and present upper echelons research with the intention of drawing attention to the need for a change of direction from causal descriptive studies to causal explanatory studies. Review of the extant literature indicates that many of the organizational researchers have shown greater interest in studying relationships between top management characteristics (in the form of demographics) and organizational outcomes. This has continued despite the effort by Priem, Douglas and Gregory to draw attention to the limitations of demographic proxies of psychographic variables of top management teams and the caution that the role of the entire top management team in strategy development may be over-exaggerated. Since many of the studies failed to show empirically how or why top management demographics related to organizational outcomes, implications for theory and research are discussed. 1. BACKGROUND There is some reason to believe that organizations parallel the profile of the dominant individuals who manage the affairs of the organization and that some organizational pathologies may reflect pathologies in the personality of these dominant individuals. Their perceptions of the corporate environment can be said to determine to a large extent how organizations or business units act in response to their environment. Thus, the organizations are what their leaders think, feel, perceive, and believe. This was the thesis of the seminal paper by Hambrick and Mason (1984), known as the Upper Echelons (UE) perspective.