Marketing channels have faced rapid structural and functional transformations during the last few decades. While a large body of research has been devoted to understanding the supply-side aspects of marketing channels, much less research has taken the demand-side perspective to study consumer perception of channel position and functions. This article extends the channel literature to a broader domain and develops a consumer-based theoretical framework reflecting factors that influence consumer perception of and reaction to channel strategies and decisions. The authors conceptualize that consumers’ perceived channel value is a critical factor in determining their loyalty behavior. Seven important channel features are identified that would positively influence the perceived channel value. The relationship between perceived channel value and channel preference is strongly dependent on the level of customer value co-creation. The article concludes with research implications and suggestions of avenues for future research.

Despite a growing interest in environmentally sustainable practices, consumers continue to prioritize taste, quality, and price above environmental concerns when purchasing food products. Previous studies have shown that environmental claims or messages may not uniformly enhance product perceptions. This research examines strategic approaches to framing substantively identical environmental benefit claims differently across product types to enhance consumers' sensory and quality evaluations as well as their willingness‐to‐pay for sustainable foods. Results from two experiments show that consumers' assessments of sustainable utilitarian and hedonic food products can be enhanced if environmental claims are strategically framed in accordance with the nature of product types. The alignment of utilitarian food products with an environment‐focus frame that emphasizes environmental benefits and hedonic food products with a self‐focus frame that stresses the personal relevance of these protections and benefits can enhance consumers' experienced tastiness, quality evaluations, and willingness‐to‐pay for sustainable foods.

Mathematics anxiety, an emotional state resulting in negative responses to math problems and numerical information, has been extensively studied in educational psychology. Research on the impact of math anxiety on consumer purchase decisions, however, is still in its nascent stages. This paper examines the interaction between math anxiety and different promotion framing formats on consumers’ perceived savings, price acceptability, and purchase decisions. Across two studies, we demonstrate that consumers with varying levels of math anxiety respond differently to various promotion frames: a gain versus a reduced loss and a single discount versus multiple discounts. We further show that consumers with insufficient math ability may experience negative affect and heighten math anxiety, particularly when faced with numerical and arithmetic tasks commonly encountered while shopping.