• Asian Journal of Business Environment
• /
• v.5 no.4
• /
• pp.5-11
• /
• 2015

Purpose - The purpose of this research is to identify how idiocentric consumers and allocentric consumers respond to retail store environments and how such responses affect their consumer behaviors in a sustainable consumption setting. Method - Data were collected from 422 U.S. adult consumers via a web-based survey. Two store settings were created, perceptually related (eco-friendly clothing displayed with greenery)or perceptually-unrelated (eco-friendly clothing displayed without greenery), and consumers were asked to take the survey based on the given store setting. Results - Allocentric consumers perceived a product and its display environment were related whereas idiocentric consumers perceived the two were unrelated. Also, the former exhibited higher purchase intentions when the product and store environment were related (eco-friendly clothing displayed with greenery), but the latter did when the two were unrelated (eco-friendly clothing displayed without greenery). Conclusions - This research suggests that retailers should consider consumer self-concept at personal-level when implementing marketing strategies. This research also demonstrates that consumers are influenced by store environment in relation to their self-concept and that self-concept can be temporarily modified by various stimuli such as visual displays.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
• /
• v.37 no.3
• /
• pp.395-405
• /
• 2017

This study aims to investigate the effects of socioscientific issues (SSI) instruction on promoting college students' character and values as citizens, and to compare the effects based on the psychological factor - idiocentrism and allocentrism. Thirty-one college students who enrolled in the SSI course participated in this study. The SSI course provided the students with opportunities to explore various aspects of five topics, to express and share their own opinions, and to identify reasonable alternatives. The students with distinct tendencies were classified into two groups (i.e. idiocentric and allocentric groups) based on the personal value orientation scores before the instruction, and they responded to the questionnaire to examine their character and values as citizens before and after the instruction. The results showed that the students' social and moral compassion and socioscientific accountability improved significantly after the SSI course. The overall effects of the SSI program on students' character and values were not significantly different between two groups. However, the post-mean score of the allocentric group in socioscientific accountability was higher than the one of the idiocentric group. This study shows that SSI instruction could positively affect character development regardless of psychological tendencies, and could be implemented in the science classroom as a good instructional approach to integrating science education and character education.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
• /
• v.64 no.5
• /
• pp.291-303
• /
• 2020

This study aimed to explore the patterns of college students' dialogic argumentation in the context of nanotechnology issues, and to compare these patterns based on their idiocentrism and allocentrism. Nanotechnology represents the characteristics of socioscientific issues in that it is widely used in various fields, but at the same time, it includes the likelihood of negative effects. 33 college students who enrolled in science-related course participated in this study. Participants were divided into idiocentric groups and allocentric groups based on the INDCOL scores, and they participated in group discussions on nanotechnology. All discussions were audiotaped and analyzed using the framework of discourse clusters and schemes. Results showed that participating students engaged in dialogic argumentation with the process of exchanging of individual perspectives, exploration of different perspectives, and coordination and negotiation; specifically, they spent most of their time in exploring different values and perspectives regarding nanotechnology. Results also indicated the differences in discourse clusters and discourse schemes between idiocentric and allocentric groups. Allocentric groups more often negotiated to settle on a group decision than idiocentric groups did, and discourse schemes in their negotiation process were slightly different from the ones in idiocentric groups.