Mateja Kos Koklic

The fashion industry contributes significantly to the rising environmental and social costs of pollution, water use, and carbon emissions (Geneva Environment Network 2025). Product repair1 has been...

This study examines the psychological mechanisms underlying digital piracy and proposes a framework that considers the perception of potential negative consequences for the individual (personal risk) and for society (moral intensity) as key factors associated with piracy behavior and rationalization. The conceptual model is tested using online survey data from two online panel samples of adults in the US (n = 625, age range = [18, 92], M = 42.44, SD = 16.43) and Slovenia (n = 514, age range = [18, 65], M = 43.51, SD = 13.14). The multi-group analysis indicates that perceived moral intensity is related to both lower participation in digital piracy and lower rationalization of this behavior in both countries. Furthermore, perceived personal risk is linked with lower likelihood of having ever engaged in piracy, but it is not significantly associated with either frequency of piracy behavior or rationalization for those who have engaged in digital piracy at least once in either country. This suggests that concern for individual consequences is not a deciding factor in determining frequency of piracy. The results also show that engaging in digital piracy is associated with cognitive rationalization strategies and with greater normalization of such behavior. These findings highlight the interplay between perceptions of potential negative consequences, digital piracy behavior, and rationalization and provide a basis for practical implications, particularly for marketers in the online entertainment industry.

This research contributes to the literature on consumer digital asset consumption by developing a novel model that examines the effects of psychological ownership on two dark‐side consumption behaviors: digital hoarding and digital piracy. It further examines how these behaviors influence consumer psychological outcomes, specifically, anxiety and consumer well‐being. Two empirical studies were conducted. Study 1, an online survey of 625 respondents, recruited through quota sampling from a US consumer panel (Centiment), revealed that perceived psychological ownership is positively related to both digital piracy and digital hoarding. Digital hoarding increases consumer anxiety and indirectly lowers perceptions of well‐being. Digital piracy increases anxiety; however, for highly collectivistic consumers, it also enhances perceptions of well‐being, while lowering them for more individualistic consumers. Collectivism moderates the relationship between psychological ownership and both digital hoarding and digital piracy, with effects being more pronounced among high (vs. low) collectivistic consumers. Uncertainty avoidance also moderates the relationship between psychological ownership and both digital hoarding and piracy, with effects being stronger for consumers with low (vs. high) levels of uncertainty avoidance. Study 2, conducted as an online experiment with 177 participants recruited from a Prolific panel, confirmed psychological ownership as an antecedent of digital hoarding and digital piracy. This research enhances the theoretical and empirical understanding of the dark sides of consumer digital asset consumption and offers important public policy implications.

The peer‐to‐peer (P2P) sharing economy, as an attractive alternative to permanent ownership, creates a triadic relationship among three groups of participants: service enablers, providers, and consumers. One of its main features is the expansion of the user's role to the roles of consumer and provider, or “prosumer.” However, in their role as prosumers, individuals may have an aversion to participating in the P2P sharing economy market due to their sense of powerlessness and lack of control, suggesting that their vulnerability needs to be considered. Despite their importance, prosumers have not received commensurate attention in the sharing economy literature. To address this gap, we examined prosumer vulnerability's impact on risk perceptions in the role of prosumer and illuminated these risks' impact on intentions to participate. The results from a U.S. survey indicate that vulnerability is a significant driver of all risk types, for both consumers and providers. Furthermore, psychological risk and security risk are found to significantly decrease intention to participate. Unexpectedly, social risk increases intention to participate among consumers and providers, while privacy and health risks are insignificant.

This research examines the ethically minded consumer behavior (EMCB) and its antecedents and consequences in the context of ethical clothes. Its objective is to test the relationships among the reasons for and against buying, subjective knowledge, EMCB and intention to purchase ethical clothes. The authors use survey data from 280 consumers to test the conceptual model. Support is provided for the majority of the hypothesized relationships: reasons for buying and subjective knowledge positively and reasons against buying negatively affect EMCB, and EMCB in turn positively influences the intention to purchase. Additionally, reasons against buying decrease the intention. The study also discusses implications for companies.

In response to the growing importance of environmental issues, more and more consumers are turning to anti-consumption by reducing, rejecting, or avoiding consumption. Covering the intersection of sustainable consumption and anti-consumption, previous studies relied on socio-cognitive models to explain this decision. In order to extend their findings, we consider the moral and emotional perspectives to examine reducing consumption for environmental reasons in a particular context, i.e. air travel. It is against this backdrop that we propose a conceptual model that includes moral foundations as the main antecedent, followed by anticipated guilt and personal responsibility, while intention to reduce consumption (i.e. air travel) for environmental reasons, positive word of mouth about reducing air travel (WOM) and environmental activism represent the outcomes. The proposed model is tested on a sample of 511 respondents from a UK online consumer panel. Our results confirm the importance of moral foundations, anticipated guilt and personal responsibility and their interplay in the prediction of intention to reduce consumption for environmental reasons. Anticipated guilt influences WOM, while personal responsibility influences activism. In addition, intentions to reduce consumption for environmental reasons have a positive impact on WOM and environmental activism. There are several implications for public policy makers and NGOs that fight against climate change that derive from these findings, as well as research opportunities for academics interested in this topic.

The sharing economy, as an attractive alternative to permanent ownership, creates a triadic relationship among three groups of participants: service enablers, providers, and users. One of its main features is the expansion of the role of the consumer to the roles of user and provider, called “prosumer”. Despite their importance, prosumers have not received commensurate attention in the sharing economy literature. To address this gap, we examine the impact of consumer vulnerability on risk perceptions in the role of prosumer (i.e., user and provider), and illuminate the impact of these risks on intentions to participate. Results from a U.S. survey indicate that vulnerability is a significant driver of all types of risks, for both users and providers. Health risk, psychological risk and security risk are found to significantly decrease intention to participate. Unexpectedly, social risk increases intention to participate among users and providers, while privacy risk is insignificant.

Background: The availability and use of mobile apps in health and nutrition management are increasing. Ease of access and user friendliness make diet-tracking apps an important ally in their users’ efforts to lose and manage weight. To foster motivation for long-term use and to achieve goals, it is necessary to better understand users’ opinions and needs for dietary self-monitoring. Objective: The aim of this study was to identify the key topics and issues that users highlight in their reviews of diet-tracking apps on Google Play Store. Identifying the topics that users frequently mention in their reviews of these apps, along with the user ratings for each of these apps, allowed us to identify areas where further improvement of the apps could facilitate app use, and support users’ weight loss and intake management efforts. Methods: We collected 72,084 user reviews from Google Play Store for 15 diet-tracking apps that allow users to track and count calories. After a series of text processing operations, two text-mining techniques (topic modeling and topical n-grams) were applied to the corpus of user reviews of diet-tracking apps. Results: Using the topic modeling technique, 11 separate topics were extracted from the pool of user reviews. Most of the users providing feedback were generally satisfied with the apps they use (average rating of 4.4 out of 5 for the 15 apps). Most topics referred to the positive evaluation of the apps and their functions. Negatively rated topics mostly referred to app charges and technical difficulties encountered. We identified the positive and negative topic trigrams (3-word combinations) among the most frequently mentioned topics. Usability and functionality (tracking options) of apps were rated positively on average. Negative ratings were associated with trigrams related to adding new foods, technical issues, and app charges. Conclusions: Motivating users to use an app over time could help them better achieve their nutrition goals. Although user reviews generally showed positive opinions and ratings of the apps, developers should pay more attention to users’ technical problems and inform users about expected payments, along with their refund and cancellation policies, to increase user loyalty.

BACKGROUND The availability and use of mobile apps in health and nutrition management are increasing. Ease of access and user friendliness make diet-tracking apps an important ally in their users’ efforts to lose and manage weight. To foster motivation for long-term use and to achieve goals, it is necessary to better understand users’ opinions and needs for dietary self-monitoring. OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to identify the key topics and issues that users highlight in their reviews of diet-tracking apps on Google Play Store. Identifying the topics that users frequently mention in their reviews of these apps, along with the user ratings for each of these apps, allowed us to identify areas where further improvement of the apps could facilitate app use, and support users’ weight loss and intake management efforts. METHODS We collected 72,084 user reviews from Google Play Store for 15 diet-tracking apps that allow users to track and count calories. After a series of text processing operations, two text-mining techniques (topic modeling and topical n-grams) were applied to the corpus of user reviews of diet-tracking apps. RESULTS Using the topic modeling technique, 11 separate topics were extracted from the pool of user reviews. Most of the users providing feedback were generally satisfied with the apps they use (average rating of 4.4 out of 5 for the 15 apps). Most topics referred to the positive evaluation of the apps and their functions. Negatively rated topics mostly referred to app charges and technical difficulties encountered. We identified the positive and negative topic trigrams (3-word combinations) among the most frequently mentioned topics. Usability and functionality (tracking options) of apps were rated positively on average. Negative ratings were associated with trigrams related to adding new foods, technical issues, and app charges. CONCLUSIONS Motivating users to use an app over time could help them better achieve their nutrition goals. Although user reviews generally showed positive opinions and ratings of the apps, developers should pay more attention to users’ technical problems and inform users about expected payments, along with their refund and cancellation policies, to increase user loyalty.