Debt accumulation has been linked to materialism, impulsivity, shortsightedness, self-control, and lifestyle preferences. However, applying stigma theory allows novel insights into debt accumulation ...for middle-class individuals who access a variety of credit-related products. The authors define anticipated stigmatization of debt as the negative judgment and discrimination an individual expects to experience because of their consumer indebtedness. Results from a series of studies demonstrate that although financial stress motivates behaviors designed to reduce debt, debtors who anticipate stigmatization perform a variety of concealment behaviors (secrecy, social spending, and help avoidance) that hinder debt reduction and have negative effects on well-being. To understand how to help these individuals, the authors collaborated with a financial education company, designing a field experiment to examine the efficacy of a behavior change course. Individuals who anticipated stigmatization and formed new social connections in a community-based condition reduced their consumer debt. Although the emotional effect of community-based support has been examined in other stigma contexts, this study is the first to investigate the effect on well-being in a debt context and link social benefits to actual behavior change in terms of debt reduction behaviors and debt repayment.
Loyalty programs play a prominent role in many firms’ customer relationship management programs, but not all programs are successful. Providers need to understand not only what benefits customers ...want in a program, but also how they want to be treated as a loyalty member. We posit that because loyalty programs offer rewards that are time-bound (immediate or delayed), and that loyalty programs seek to develop a relationship that extends over time, an important, but overlooked dimension for hospitality managers to consider is how their customers view time. Our research focuses on customers’ temporal orientation—the tendency to think in the present, future, or past. We use depth interviews to explore existing casino loyalty program participants’ thoughts and feelings about their ideal loyalty program. We find the customers’ temporal orientation influences the type of relationship as well as the type of benefits sought in the loyalty program. Our research offers managerially practical insights for identifying customers more likely to engage in co-production of a long-term loyalty relationship as well as for creating communication strategies that are likely to interest and provoke different temporal mindsets.
Abstract This article takes a “then and now” perspective on social and cultural issues in the Journal of Consumer Research. The author had conversations with preeminent scholars who reflected on ...theoretical developments over time, what we know, and what we should be most concerned with now and in the future. This article can be used as a call to action for future consumer research dealing with society and culture.
Prior research on object valuation ignores the effect of non-ownership physical possession types such as
renting
and
borrowing
. Evidence from four experiments demonstrates that the valuation (i.e., ...willingness-to-pay) for rented objects is greater than the valuation for non-possessed or borrowed objects. Borrowed objects are not valued any differently than non-possessed objects. Psychological ownership mediates the relationship between valuation and non-ownership physical possession. Additionally, psychological ownership varies for different possession types (ownership, renting, and borrowing) as its contributing routes (control, self-investment, and knowledge) operate differently for each possession type. As further evidence of the psychological ownership based theoretical account, the research shows that rented objects are not valued higher than non-possessed objects if the control or self-investment routes of psychological ownership are suppressed. The moderating influence of product hedonism–utilitarianism and consumers’ tightwad–spendthrift tendency on the valuation of rented and borrowed objects is also examined.
This special issue is dedicated to providing insights into research on problem gambling, drinking and smoking. Drawing on compulsive consumption literature, the issue approaches from business ...management perspectives and examines various external factors with a focus on marketing effects on gambling, drinking and smoking behaviors. In particular, the papers in this issue are categorized on the basis of marketing mix into promotion, place, people, peer-culture, psychological and policy effects. A mix of methods including qualitative, quantitative and meta-analysis appears in this issue with a diversified sampling cohort. Highlights of each paper are summarized in this editorial.
Does It Pay to Be Good? Trudel, Remi; Cotte, June
MIT Sloan management review,
12/2009, Letnik:
50, Številka:
2
Journal Article
Recenzirano
That is a question that has long puzzled marketers who have heard from customers that they want to do business with ethically based firms defined as companies that produce products under conditions ...of progressive stakeholder relations, advanced environmental practices and respect for human rights. Marketers had no reason to doubt that sentiment, but they have always wondered if consumers would be willing to pay a higher price for ethically produced goods (since they tend to be more expensive to create.) It turns out that a series of controlled experiments proves that consumers will, in fact, pay a premium for ethically produced goods. But perhaps of equal interest is the fact that they will punish (by demanding a lower price) companies that are not seen as ethical. That relationship is not symmetrical. The punishment exacted is greater than the premium customers are willing to pay. How ethical do you have to be? Perhaps not as much as you might think. The research shows that a small degree of ethicalness "pays off." It is not necessary for a company's product to be "100% pure" in order to receive a price premium. This research is the first to find that consumers use price to punish unethical companies more than they use price to reward ethical companies, and that the ethicality of a company's behavior is, indeed, an important consideration for consumers (as demonstrated in their willingness-to-pay decisions). PUBLICATION ABSTRACT
Abstract
The natural environment is deteriorating. However, humans have not slowed down their pace of resource depletion and environmental destruction. This research takes a particular path to ...understanding environmental consumption—through a focus on temporal perspective. Evidence from six studies demonstrates the positive effect of a cyclical temporal perspective, versus a linear temporal perspective, on consumers’ pro-environmental behavior. The research shows that individuals with a cyclical perspective are more likely to include the environment in the self, which leads to higher pro-environmental behavioral intentions and more pro-environmental behavior. This temporal perspective effect is attenuated for consumers already high on green values. The authors also examine a marketer-controlled moderator and show that consumers are more likely to purchase a pro-environmental product when they see a temporal-perspective-congruent promotional appeal. The research contributes to both the time perception and the environmental consumption literature and offers several practical implications for organizations to promote sustainable consumer behavior.
Purpose
A growing stream of consumer research has examined the intersection of family dynamics, consumption practices and the marketplace. The purpose of this paper is to make sense of the complex ...nature of family for senior families (adult children and their elderly parents) who employ the use of elder care services and facilities.
Design/methodology/approach
This research analyses data gathered from in-depth interviews with adult siblings and their elderly parents through the lens of assemblage theory.
Findings
This paper advances a conceptulisation of the family as an evolving assemblage of components, including individual members; material possessions and home(s); shared values, goals, memories and practices; prominent familial attributes of love and care; and marketplace resources. Three features of the assemblage come to the fore in senior families: the fluid meaning of independence for the elderly parent, the evolution of shared family practices and the trajectory of the assemblage that is a function of its history and future.
Originality/value
This research focuses on a stage of family life that has been under-theorised; applies assemblage theory to the family collective, demonstrating that a family can be conceptualised as an ever-evolving assemblage of human and non-human components, and this is a useful lens for understanding how senior families “do” family; and argues for a broader notion of family – one that is not household-centric or focused on families with young children, that encompasses members and materiality and that foregrounds the dynamic, evolving nature of family life.
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