The Older Consumer as Innovator: Does Cognitive Age hold the Key?

In the light of changing demographics and the increasing importance of the older consumer to marketing, this paper seeks to identify whether some older consumers may be identified as more innovative in their consumption than others. As a first step towards a fuller understanding of these consumers, the authors suggest using and comparing two measures, one related to domain specific innovative behaviour and the other concerned with the cognitive age of consumers. It was proposed that those consumers with a younger cognitive age might be more likely to be innovative in their consumption behaviour than others of the same chronological age. In this study the authors looked at innovative behaviour towards holiday destinations. The authors found no evidence of a younger cognitive age being linked to domain-specific innovativeness and suggest that this could be due to older consumers becoming increasingly ageless in their consumption behaviour.     

中西方老年消费者感知年龄维度属性的比较研究

从感觉、视觉、兴趣和行为等4个侧面,对中国老年人进行感知年龄维度属性的本土化检验发现,感知年龄与实足年龄之间差异为4岁,中西方有着较大差异.感知年龄反映文化和社会规范意涵,相对于实足年龄更适于预测老年人的消费行为.     

Context Effects on Older Consumers’ Cognitive Age: The Role of Hedonic versus Utilitarian Goals

This paper deals with older consumers’ cognitive age (i.e., the age they feel), which is self‐assessed as systematically lower than their chronological age (i.e., their actual age). Such a tendency would lead older consumers to display attitudes and purchasing behaviors, which are not typical of people of their real age. Two studies show that cognitive age is not an immutable construct but varies according to its context of reference, so that the same individual may feel different ages under different circumstances. Results demonstrate that the declared cognitive age is affected by the physical environment, the social references, and the product categories that the consumer is using when self‐assessing it. Furthermore, the tendency of older consumers to feel younger is stronger when these consumers are pursuing in these contexts hedonic rather than utilitarian goals. These findings provide novel inputs for the development of appropriate ways to measure cognitive age and to deal with it when targeting senior consumers and positioning hedonic versus utilitarian goods.     

Insurance Sales Agents and the Internet: The Relationship Between Opinion Leadership,Subjective Knowledge,and Internet Attitudes

The Internet offers a number of opportunities and threats for insurance sales agents. On the one hand, the Internet provides opportunities to communicate with and reach customers. However, it also introduces the risk of losing business to insurance providers or competitors. These opportunities and threats create a need to understand the characteristics that may affect the views of insurance agents regarding the Internet and its impact on their business. This paper compares insurance sales agents' scores on an opinion leadership scale (Flynn, Goldsmith, and Eastman 1996) and subjective knowledge scale (Flynn and Goldsmith 1999) with their attitudes toward the Internet. The results suggest that those insurance sales agents with a higher level of subjective knowledge about the Internet are more likely to be opinion leaders about the Internet. Both opinion leaders and those with higher levels of subjective knowledge have a more positive attitude about the Internet, but only the relationship with opinion leadership is significant. In addition, those insurance sales agents who are younger (than the approximate mean age of 46 years old) are more likely to be opinion leaders and have a higher level of subjective knowledge of the Internet. The results suggest that perceived knowledge and the willingness to discuss the Internet with others impact one's attitude of it, and that the younger insurance agents will play a leading role in how the Internet will be used.     

Towards the use of chronological age in research – A cautionary comment

In recent years, this journal published several articles that used chronological age in their models to distinguish customer behavior between younger and older people. While all these articles are in line with the growing importance of age-related research, chronological age is not discriminant when behavior and motivations enter the fray. By taking two recent articles in this journal as examples, this short note calls for a cautious application of chronological age and highlights other age-related constructs for research. The note ends with practical implications and avenues for further research in age-related projects.     

Antecedents of cognitive age: A replication and extension

Cognitive age has been an important construct in studies of older consumers. The present study builds upon previous research by providing theory‐based antecedents of cognitive age. The results suggest that differences in cognitive age do not merely reflect differences in chronological age, and that a person's cognitive age is influenced by his or her experiences of life events that serve as markers of transitions into social roles people are expected to enact at different stages in life. In addition, the experiences of health‐related events, such as chronic conditions, make people aware of their aging, affecting their cognitive age. The influence of cognitive age on consumer‐behavior variables is also examined, and directions for future research are suggested. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Why Do Responses to Age‐Based Marketing Stimuli Differ? The Influence of Retirees’ Group Identification and Changing Consumption Patterns

This study analyzes how retired consumers respond to age‐based marketing stimuli using survey data from 236 retirees over the age of 60 years. Specifically, it investigates the factors that influence retirees’ intentions to use senior discounts and intentions to accept exclusive offers for seniors (e.g., educational classes for seniors), as well as their evaluation of age‐related labels (e.g., “60+”). The results show that retirees who identify more strongly with other retirees and who generally change their consumption patterns following retirement are more likely to respond positively to age‐based marketing stimuli. Additionally, the data suggest that cognitive age negatively moderates the role of retirees’ identification with other retirees in terms of their responses to age‐based marketing stimuli. However, the influence of these variables differs significantly across the types of stimuli considered. The findings help to explain ambiguities in previous studies that did not consider differences among mature consumers beyond age and age‐group membership or among the types of stimuli. The implications of these findings with respect to effective marketing to retired consumers are discussed.     

The digital divide experienced by older consumers in smart environments

The continuing transition of the Internet from wired to mobile has facilitated changes in Internet use. By focusing on older consumers as a potentially disadvantaged group, this study examines whether smart environments have the potential to bridge the digital divide. Data were derived from an analysis of the 2013 South Korean Information Divide data set (n = 2386 for those 60 years and older; n = 5841 for those under 60 years). The existence of a digital divide in the smart environment was verified by comparing younger and older South Koreans; this showed that continuing consumer education is needed to enhance older people's experience and skills regarding information and in its use of communication technology. The digital divide was measured based on three aspects: accessibility, competence, and usage. In smart environments, gaps in accessibility and competence between the age groups increased whereas the gap in information usage decreased. Compared with the personal computer‐based environment, members of both groups in the smart environment exhibited increased usage levels with regard to social relationship services, while the gap between the groups with regard to use of convenience services was reduced.     

Factors Impacting the Adoption of the Internet among SMEs

The Internet can extend market reach and operational efficiency of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and enhance their contributions to the U.S. economy. This paper reports an empirical study conducted to identify the factors that impact SMEs involvement with the Internet. Internal and external variables such as firm size, self-efficacy, prior technology use, etc. are used to predict the level of Internet involvement. This involvement is examined in terms of ownership of a web site (adoption) and use of the Internet for selling purposes (routinization). Logistic regression is used to examine the relationships between internal and external factors and SMEs involvement with the Internet. The results suggest that specific factors contribute to the SMEs involvement with the Internet – prior technology use and the customer service subscale of perceived competitive pressure influence both stages of Internet adoption. Moreover, the relative importance of some of these predictor variables decreases as the level of Internet involvement increases. Past media use does not explain SME behavior – in terms of adoption or routinization. These findings can be used to develop strategies to build SME involvement with the Internet.     

Employee age and voluntary development activity

It is known that older workers undertake less formal training than younger ones, but little information is available about age-patterns in voluntary development activities undertaken in an employee’s own time. In a study of 1798 manufacturing workers, age and ten other factors were examined in relation to four types of activity: participation in a tuition refund scheme, learning in an employee development programme, attendance at an employee development centre, and use of a personal development record. Significant age- differences were found, and key influential factors were identified as older workers’ lower educational qualifications (representing both cognitive and affective differences) and their more limited learning motivation (linked to lower learning confidence and greater perceived time constraints). However, older individuals who had previously undertaken each form of development were as positive about that previous activity as were younger participants. Possible interventions to increase voluntary development at older ages include rewards for participation, enhancement of basic skills, pretraining in appropriate learning strategies, sequential exposure to graded learning demands, and steps to change organisational stereotypes of older staff.     

The fashion‐conscious behaviours of mature female consumers

Under‐appreciation of mature consumers as a numerous and comparatively wealthy market segment has resulted in not only lost revenues for business, but also lost consumption and service opportunities for the elderly. In response to expressed needs for more research into actual and desired consumption by older consumers, this study examined the apparel and shopping preferences of mature women in America. Independent living residents were surveyed concerning fashion consciousness, fashion information sources and shopping behaviours. Young and mature consumers’ reactions to female apparel ensembles were compared. Mature subjects purchased apparel for pleasure or need, but less for conformity. Decisions were influenced more by fit and comfort than by fashion, despite suggestions that dressing stylishly was important. New fashions were encountered via catalogue illustrations, social gatherings and window displays. Subjects high in fashion consciousness had greater financial and social involvement with fashion, greater chronological‐to‐cognitive age differences and larger clothing budgets. Young and mature consumers’ responses to apparel illustrations differed significantly. As the mature market expands, attention to age‐divergent definitions of fashion (such as those based upon admiration of comfort) will determine the success of apparel businesses. Assessment of cognitive age will facilitate identification of those mature consumers most predisposed toward fashion consumption.     

It Don't Come Easy: Overcoming Obstacles to Technology Use Within a Resistant Consumer Group

To identify ways in which resistance can be overcome and technology's potential realized, we study acceptance and use of a specific technology, the Internet, by a specific resistant group, older consumers. Using interviews and a survey of consumers who are over 65 years old, we discover that curiosity and proactive coping drive technology optimism, which then predicts adoption and heavier usage. Motivated seniors with technology discomfort get help to adopt and continued assistance to learn usage repertoires. Surprisingly, technology discomfort is positively rather than negatively related to usage enthusiasm. Implications are drawn for consumer groups resistant to technology.     

Consumer acceptance of the mobile Internet

Technological innovations are often designed to help consumers save time. However, some consumers refuse to use innovations and downgrade their usability with increasing usage time. The purpose of this research is to find out how consumers?? personality in younger (vs. older) men (vs. women) affects behavioral choices of the mobile Internet, as an example of new technology, and how usage time affects perceived ease of use of innovative (vs. established) media. The study shows that innovativeness, low desire for social contact, and technology optimism, in interaction with demographics, determine whether consumers choose mobile Internet services over substitutes. Job-related dependency on technology and gender directly affect choice behavior. The study reveals that ease of use is downgraded as more time is spent using the mobile Internet, whereas there is no such relation for established media. The results help explain overoptimistic forecasts that were made in the field of technology acceptance.     

辅导员助理制度在大学新生教育管理工作中的探索与实践

面对高校在校生人数持续上升、专职辅导员人数严重不足的情况,运用高年级优秀学生的自身优势,参与对低年级尤其是新生的教育管理,一方面可以提升高年级优秀学生的管理素质;另一方面利用他们之间年龄、兴趣、成长阶段的相似性,达到对学生更好的沟通和管理。     

Age or size? Contributions to job creation

Small firms have been identified as drivers of job creation, although the evidence on their contribution to net employment growth has been disputed. This article shows that job turnover and firm growth vary systematically across firm size groups and that smaller firms do indeed make an important contribution to new job creation. There is a significant caveat, however; we find that it is not firm size per se that is driving these results but rather firm age. We show that younger firms are consistently more dynamic than older firms. We also find a strong inverse relationship between employment growth and size for young firms, but this declines very markedly for older age groups. This provides some support for the Gibrat’s law prediction that size and growth are independent, but only once the firm has moved beyond the start-up stage.     

Cognitive insights into the highly skilled or expert salesperson

A cognitive psychology based approach is used to investigate the highly skilled or expert salesperson. The study utilized verbal protocol analysis to identify differences in the decision processes of expert and less‐skilled salespeople as they progressed through a difficult selling situation. The results of this study indicate that experts in sales share several similarities with experts in such diverse fields as chess, medicine, physics, and teaching. For example, expert salespeople were shown to reach better decisions in a faster and more confident manner than their less‐skilled contemporaries. Further, in resolving current problems, experts were shown to be more likely to utilize their memory of previous selling situations, as well as to employ different strategies for customer interactions than less‐skilled salespeople. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Workforce age and technology adoption in small and medium-sized service firms

This paper provides empirical evidence on the relationship between the age structure of the workforce and the adoption of new or significantly improved technologies. Moreover, it attempts to identify the role of teamwork in this relationship. The econometric analysis is based on data of 356 small and medium-sized German firms from the knowledge-intensive services and ICT services sectors. The results show that, compared to employees younger than 30 years, an older workforce is negatively related to the probability of technology adoption. On the contrary, the dispersion of the employees’ age within the workforce seems not to be connected with the probability of technology adoption. However, in firms with intensive use of teamwork a homogenous workforce in terms of age is positively related to the probability of technology adoption.     

The Influence of Consumers’ Cognitive and Psychographic Traits on Perceived Deception: A Comparison Between Online and Offline Retailing Contexts

In this article, we examine the role of several consumers’ cognitive and psychographic traits in their perceptions of retailers’ deceptive practices (perceived deception) and the different effects on perceived deception associated with online vis-à-vis in-store shopping. Building on theoretical models of persuasion in consumer behavior, we hypothesize that the antecedents of perceived deception in traditional settings are the same as those on the Internet, while the intensity of the impact of these antecedents differs between the online and the offline environment. Results suggest that the effects of individual’s cognitive traits (Internet-based information search and perceived Internet usefulness) and risk aversion on perceived deception are more relevant when consumers shop online than when they purchase from traditional stores. Conversely, psychographic traits (shopping enjoyment and materialism) play a more important role in explaining perceived deception in the traditional shopping context as compared to the online channel. Several theoretical and managerial implications are derived from these findings.     

Exploring the influence of customers' time horizon perspectives on the satisfaction–loyalty link

Anecdotal evidence suggests that older individuals behave more emotionally and less cognitively due to their decreasing biological, cognitive, and/or social abilities, or a combination thereof. However, in the psychology and aging literatures, recent research indicates that the sense of future time is a better predictor of consumer perceptions, attitudes, and behaviors than chronological age. Tying in with these research streams, this paper introduces individuals' future time perspective (FTP) as a moderator of the well-known satisfaction–loyalty relationship. More precisely, this paper demonstrates that FTP influences the satisfaction–loyalty relationship by (1) driving customer loyalty, and (2) moderating the relationship between these two constructs. Besides contributing an important concept to the business research literature, the findings provide evidence that explains the previous heterogeneous results of chronological age-related research. This concept allows for a more nuanced analysis of aging's impact on the perceptions, attitudes, and behaviors of consumers.