Williams, C.C. and Martinez-Perez, A. (2013) Why do consumers purchase goods and services in the informal economy? Journal of Business Research, 67 (5). 802 - 806. ISSN 0148-2963
Abstract
To evaluate critically the dominant discourse that consumers acquiring goods and services in the informal economy are rational economic actors seeking a lower price, the results of a 2007 Eurobarometer survey involving 26,659 face-to-face interviews in 27 European Union member states form the basis for analysis. The finding is that achieving a lower price is the sole motive for just 44% of informal economy purchases, one of several rationales in 28% of transactions, and not a rationale in 28% of acquisitions. Consumers also use the informal economy to circumvent the shortcomings of the formal economy in terms of the availability, speed, and quality of goods and services provision, as well as for social and redistributive reasons, with multilevel mixed-effects logit regression analysis revealing how the prevalence of these rationales significantly varies across populations. The paper concludes by discussing the theoretical and policy implications of the findings.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2013 Elsevier. This is an author produced version of a paper subsequently published in Journal of Business Research. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. Article available under the terms of the CC-BY-NC-ND licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/) |
Keywords: | Consumer behavior; Informal sector; Underground economy; Shadow economy; European Union |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Social Sciences (Sheffield) > Management School (Sheffield) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 16 Oct 2015 16:58 |
Last Modified: | 19 Dec 2016 02:29 |
Published Version: | https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2013.11.048 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Elsevier |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1016/j.jbusres.2013.11.048 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:89107 |