Journal of Marketing and Market Studies 08/2023

Access to Internet resources is a key prerequisite for taking advantage of the opportunities offered by the global web. It is also important to have the skills as well as a positive attitude to really benefit from their use. This represents an advantage in the phenomenon of digital inclusion, in which the older generations are systematically "catching up" with the younger ones. At the same time, however, a completely different trend is observed, consisting of limiting Internet use for reasons of security, protection of one's own health or the desire to build social relations in a traditional, nondigital way. The aim of this article is to compare the state of occurrence of both these phenomena in two age groups belonging to generations BB (baby boomers, 65–74 years old) and Z (16–29 years old), using the example of one of the most expansive network solutions – social media (SM). A statistical descriptive method and individual semi-structured interviews were used. The results show that although the differences in access to network services are steadily decreasing, they remain consistently high for SM. Z and BB use SM differently and in different ways – for generation Z they are a source of interesting content and a medium of communication, for BB – a source of information. Conclusions: the technological environment continues to differentiate between generations in terms of access, while the reasons for limiting the use of SM are two and they are common – time and usefulness of information. The research has the character of the first, preliminary research diagnosing the occurrence of the new phenomenon of disconnection of social media in Poland.

The article deals with the problem of researching consumer  behaviour in a crisis. Each crisis, especially a global one, causes several negative and positive consequences in the macroenvironment, in the micro-environment of enterprises, and the  behaviour of households and individual customers. The issue of researching consumer  behaviour in crisis is important because the world is internationalized, and numerous tensions threaten further crises. To achieve the goal, the focus was on identifying various problems of consumer  behaviour research in crisis: terminological, methodical, and empirical. The article considers terminological issues: the concept of crisis, the impact of the crisis on consumer  behaviour, and the planes and components of consumer  behaviour research in crisis. In the methodological aspect, the issues of selection of methodological paths, research methods, and methodological integration are considered. Empirical issues were related to the description of the current reaction of consumer  behaviour to the crisis and its future effects. The conclusions present original recommendations in the field of consumer  behaviour research in a crisis.

The traditional food market is a promising market and its position is expected to grow over a few years to come. Traditional food is positively perceived by consumers, mainly due to its quality characteristics. A review of the literature clearly shows that belonging to a particular generation (X, Y or Z) determines, among other things, the shopping approach, the way of shopping. Consumers from Generation Z declare purchasing traditional food, but their knowledge of it is superficial. The aim of the study was to identify the sociodemographic characteristics of purchasing behaviours of Generation Z representatives in the traditional food market. A diagnostic survey was conducted among 347 representatives of Generation Z. The indirect interview technique with authors' own online survey questionnaire (CAWI) was applied. The findings of the research provided detailed information based on which the importance and influence of selected sociodemographic characteristics on the purchasing behaviours of Generation Z representatives were established. Gender, place of residence and declared lifestyle differentiated the respondents' food choices. Gender had a major influence on food choice behaviour. On the other hand, taste of the product was the most significant food choice factor. The importance of health, environmental or economic values concerning this product category should be the object of educational and promotional activities.

Rynek żywności tradycyjnej jest obiecującym rynkiem i oczekuje się, że w ciągu kilku lat jego pozycja będzie rosnąć. Żywność tradycyjna jest pozytywnie postrzegana przez konsumentów głównie ze względu na jej cechy jakościowe. Dokonany przegląd literatury wskazuje, że przynależność do konkretnego pokolenia X, Y, Z warunkuje m.in. podejście zakupowe, sposób dokonywania zakupów. Konsumenci pokolenia Z deklarują nabywanie tej kategorii żywności, jednak wiedza o niej jest powierzchowna. Celem opracowania było rozpoznanie socjodemograficznych uwarunkowań zachowań nabywczych przedstawicieli pokolenia Z na rynku żywności tradycyjnej. Przeprowadzono sondaż diagnostyczny wśród 347 przedstawicieli pokolenia Z. Zastosowano technikę wywiadów pośrednich z wykorzystaniem autorskiego kwestionariusza ankiety internetowej (CAWI). Wyniki badań dostarczyły szczegółowych informacji, na podstawie których ustalono znaczenie i wpływ wybranych cech socjodemograficznych na zachowania nabywcze przedstawicieli pokolenia Z. Płeć, miejsce zamieszkania oraz deklarowany styl życia różnicowały czynniki wyboru tej kategorii żywności. Największy wpływ na zróżnicowanie czynników wyboru, którymi kierowali się młodzi respondenci, miała płeć. Natomiast najistotniejszym czynnikiem wyboru był smak produktu. Znaczenie zarówno walorów zdrowotnych, jak i środowiskowych czy gospodarczych w odniesieniu do tej kategorii produktowej powinno być przedmiotem działań edukacyjnych i promocyjnych.

Responsible consumption is a complex issue due to the wide range of issues it addresses, and consumers feel confused about what actions are desirable in practice from a sustainability point of view. This confusion is exacerbated by a phenomenon known as "greenwashing". The purpose of the study is to determine the effectiveness of trust in sustainable brands as a predictor of consumer behavioural intentions in the context of the food market. The results of CAWI quantitative research conducted among Polish consumers are presented. As a result of the conducted analyses, the significance and linearity of the links between trust in sustainable brands and consumer intentions has been confirmed as well as the importance of trust as one of the explanatory variables or as a mediating variable.

A dynamic transformation in the structures, forms and organization of retail trade has been observed for many years, as well as changes in the preferences and behaviour of customers of retail outlets. These phenomena have been further accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, research about changes induced by the pandemic are still in an initial phase of empirical recognition, which needs to be deepen and persistence of changes should be evaluated. The main aim of the study was to identify changes induced by the pandemic in the manner, form and frequency of purchases of different product groups by retail customers. To fulfil these tasks, the results of own research from two subsequent editions, i.e. from 2021 and 2022, were used. The obtained results indicate a growing percentage of customers who declared changes in retail purchases in the analysed period, while this increase was relatively lowest in the case of purchases of food products. The research results also reveal multi-directional changes in purchasing behaviour regarding the subgroups of products adopted for the analysis. In the case of groceries, customers were more likely to make larger one-off purchases by limiting their frequency than to purchase household supplies through online shopping. The opposite phenomenon was characteristic of clothing, footwear and consumer electronics/household appliances. Buying them the respondents transferred their shopping activity to the Internet, with a lower than in the case of food tendency to increase one-time purchases and to limit their frequency.