Rodrigo Marçal Gandia

Autonomous vehicles: scientometric and bibliometric review*

ABSTRACT This paper presents a scientometric and bibliometric review of the research on autonomous vehicles (AVs) to identify its main characteristics, evolution, and potential trends for future studies. Relevant articles were searched on WoS, yielding a research corpus of 10,580 papers, and the software CiteSpace was subsequently used for analysis. The results showed that AV research is heterogeneous and registered a growing demand over time. Multidisciplinarity is present, with 96 science fields being identified. As in any other sector, it is necessary to understand broader aspects of this industry such as the market factors surrounding it, as well as other economic and managerial issues. In this sense, we observed a migration of the research field from multidisciplinarity to pluridisciplinarity with a greater number of studies focusing on the latter. We understand that terminology standardisation contributes to achieving pluridisciplinarity. As such, it is important to highlight that sustainability, public policies, liability, and safety, as well as business issues such as performance and business models are some of the tendencies in the field of AVs. For future studies, we suggest a more in-depth analysis of publications in terms of individual search terms, as well as the sub-areas identified as trends in this paper.

Beverage capsule consumption: a laddering study

The purpose of this paper is to analyze consumer behavior based on the structures of attributes, consequences, and values identified by consumers of beverages obtained from capsules. Consumers of the brands Nescafe Dolce Gusto and Nespresso capsule-based beverages were selected, and comparatively analyzed to understand the possible differences perceived by the consumers of each brand.,Based on a soft laddering technique, 27 in-depth interviews were carried out among the users of Nespresso and Dolce Gusto. This technique allowed differentiating the attributes of each brand, as well as defining common/cumulative elements.,Individual values of achievement and personal pleasure, mainly reached through better living standards, were dominant for all consumers. Dominant chain analysis results showed the perceptions of consumers were different for each brand. Generally, both brands’ consumers seek quality and practicality. However, Dolce Gusto delivers a product perceived as having more functional benefits, thus serving consumers seeking more variety when it comes to different types of beverages. On the other hand, Nespresso serves a more selective niche market, whose consumers rather value brand quality and reliability.,The characteristics and product specifications show similarities with food consumption trends, which justify the growth of this market in recent years. Therefore, strategies and the consumers’ demand for the capsule market show a promising trend on the coffee and drinks market in Brazil, deserving special attention from both companies and producers.