Purchasing decisions

By the early 1980 s the federal labeling requirements had taken effect and all residential appliances were labeled with yellow Energy Guide stickers. Initial studies, however, suggested that theses stickers were not particularly effective in specific purchase decisions. More recent analysis has found that despite high levels of awareness of the label, significant comprehension problems exist with it. 

Even when the time comes to make a purchasing decision, an energy-efficient motor purchase is not a certainty. Sometimes an energy-efficient motor will be the economically efficient choice at other times, not. The capital investment decision is based on the cost in relation to performance, efficiency and reliability. Moreover, the decision depends on the application and the amount of time the motor is in operation. It can be the major component of a product (drill or mixer), or a minor component (computer disk drive) it can be the major component cost of a product (fan), or it can be a minor component cost (stereo tape deck) it can run almost constantly (fan, pump, and machinery), or only a few minutes a day (vacuums and power tools). For example, contractors purchase circular saws almost solely based on performance and reliability. Time is money, and since the saw is operating only a few minutes a day and the contractor is often not responsible for the electricity costs to run the motor, energy efficiency is not a consideration performance and reliability are what matter most. On the other hand, an industrial user, who runs huge electric motors twenty-four hours a day to work pumps, machinery, and ventilation equipment, is very concerned tvitli energy efficiency as well as performance and reliability. 

In addition to the pigment concentration in the respective food source, the color quality is of major importance for plant material quality assessment and selection during production and storage. Color quality also strongly affects consumer purchase decisions. Since red beet is still the sole betalain source exploited commercially, quality parameters have been developed for beet preparations. The most important one is the so-called color shade representing a ratio of two absorbance values, namely for betaxanthins and for betacyanins, respectively, A (at 535 mn)/A (at 480 nm). 

Grunert K G and Andersen S (2000), Purchase decision, quality expectations and quality experience for organic pork , 9th Food Choice Conference, Dublin, Trinity College, 28-31 July. 

Studies on biotechnology purchase decisions that used the theory of planned behavior (Fishbein and Ajzen, 1975) generally yielded results that support consumers attitude toward biotechnology as an important determinant of purchase decisions. However, one important point to note is that the most important attitude in purchase decisions was the one toward the specific product in question, not the general attitude toward biotechnology. 

Since the consumer s car purchasing decision is based on after-tax consumer car prices, PACE-T(H2) requires further input of tax data for the model regions. These data are taken from DIW (2002) and MWV (2005). 

Consumers on a daily basis make purchasing decisions on the basis of perceptions of how products stack up against one another. Many factors may affect perceived product attractiveness price, function, look, style, status, etc. And while products vary across indication and consumers are not identical in their choice criteria, understanding the process through which purchasing decisions are made is vital when analyzing consumer markets. 

Mandates have several justifications. Absent mandates, health plans may have an insufficient incentive to cover vaccines. Such coverage may not be demanded because individuals do not take account of the health and financial externalities in their purchase decisions (Summers 1989). Also, people may underestimate the probability of contracting various diseases (Jensen and Morrisey 1999). Vaccines are more likely to interfere with the spread of the disease than are drug treatments. As the probability of contracting a disease falls, fewer persons maybe expected to demand to be vaccinated for the disease. Also, market power of sellers of vaccines may be lower than for drug treatments. With drugs, persons who may benefit from the treatment are identifiable to sellers, thus allowing firms to extract consumer surplus... 

No less important are specifications issued by industrial consumers. Consumers are making purchasing decisions on the basis of the manufacturers processing capability and requiring the inspection of production control charts and data. 

This basic formula has been used to develop an economic order quantity (EOQ) model (Carroll, 1998 Huffman, 1996 Silbiger, 1999 Tootelian and Gaedeke, 1993). While the EOQ model may be difficult to derive and calculate, it is often incorporated into computer software used by many pharmacies to manage their inventory and make purchasing decisions. The EOQ model describes the level of inventory and reorder quantity at which the combined costs of purchasing and carrying inventory are at a minimum. The formula is... 

Studies indicate that women make most pharmacy purchase decisions (Raven, 1984). Other findings regarding consumer behavior in pharmacies include... 

Only 42 percent of all pharmacy purchases are planned by consumers before their arrival at the store. More than half of pharmacy purchase decisions are made after the consumer has entered the store. 

Crude Oil purchase decision Gasoline production decision... 

Several vendors manufacture liquid dispensers, plate storage and incubator devices, and plate detection instruments that are the three major components used in compound screens. Selection of equipment is usually based on several factors including need, previous experience, recommendations, cost, available funding, and quality of post-sale service provided by the instrument vendor. Many instruments from different manufacturers such as the photomultiplier tube (PMT)-based plate readers exhibit similar function and performance. Therefore, reliability, cost, and service quality become the dominating factors for purchase decisions. 

Have more time to make a purchase decision... 

Purchasing decisions made by consumers have the ability to directly impact production methods and thereby both environmental security and social equity. 

Procurement managers can captivate their company s attention by defining purchasing decisions as an entrepreneurial value proposition. To this end, they need to specify and formulate the value contribution made by purchasing to the company s overall business challenges. They then need to quantify the value added by various improvements in procurement, and to allocate that value to each function or business unit (Fig. 11.5). Value in this sense means the optimization of cost and quality over the lifetime of a purchase, getting more for the same price (addi-... 

One of the problems that frequently faces the analyst or chromatographer is the choice of a detector for a given application. The technical capabilities, ease of operation and cost all play a part in the decision. Some of the properties of the detector that have been previously discussed will be again very briefly summarized and presented in a way that may help in a purchasing decision. 

Collections of e-journals, online and CD-ROM, can be purchased so that you can access your own personal virtual library from your desktop. One of the largest collections is that from the publisher Elsevier Science, which provides access to over 1000 of its journal titles at ScienceDirect.com. Other collections include the Wiley Interscience and the American Chemical Society. Obviously, many of the titles in these collections will not be directly related to the pharmaceutical sciences, so a careful examination of the journals included is recommended before making a purchasing decision. You may find it more economical to use pay per view rather than take out a subscription to the full text of a collection/title. 

The FDA felt the best way for consumers to select any OTC product is to cautiously read the label and talk to the pharmacist or physician in case of questions or doubts before product use. There are several things that the consumer should look for, when selecting an OTC medication, specifically the warnings. The important sections of the label that consumers need to review and evaluate before making purchase decisions can be seen in Table 4. 

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