How does the theory of consumption values contribute to place identity and sustainable consumption?

The importance of consumers’ role in sustainable consumption is reflected in the vision of the Sustainable Development Education Panel: To educate consumers to make informed consumption decisions, to take responsibility for their actions and to realize the impact of consumption decisions on future generations. However, educating and informing consumers alone is unlikely to change deeply entrenched unsustainable consumption behaviour. A multi‐faceted approach is required – enforcing sustainable development initiatives through legislation, promoting corporate social responsibility programs on the part of business, and (most importantly), supporting communities that engage in sustainable consumption. This study examines the proposition that individuals who identify with their community (i.e. the residential suburb or a locality where identity is understood geographically) are more likely to engage in sustainable consumption. Specifically, it examines how consumption value (i.e. the perceived value of living in a particular residential suburb) contributes to place identity and to environmental attitudes and sustainable consumption behaviour. Structural equation modelling is used to verify the conceptual model using data from a telephone survey of 561 residents from two inner city suburbs in Auckland, New Zealand. The results support the proposition that environmental attitude and sustainable consumption behaviour is enhanced by consumption values through place identity. Residents who enjoy living in their community, value a clean and healthy environment and believe their suburbs are unique tend to develop a stronger identity with their residential suburb, and are more positive towards sustainable consumption. The results have important implications for social marketers, property marketers and city councils who strive to encourage sustainable consumption among its citizens.     

Social marketing: A pathway to consumption reduction?

This article considers the potential of the discipline of marketing to contribute to consumption reduction from a social marketing perspective. The authors review the difficulties of applying conventional marketing theory and practice in pursuit of more sustainable consumption, and the logic of applying an adapted form of social marketing to promote more sustainable lifestyles and reductions in consumption. This study also uses a health-oriented social marketing campaign to demonstrate the potential of a social marketing approach to address ingrained forms of consumer behavior and to successfully ‘de-market’ products.     

“This is who i am”: Identity expressiveness and the theory of planned behavior

This paper explores the role of self‐identity expressiveness and social identity expressiveness in the context of Multimedia Messaging (MMS) adoption. An extended version of the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) including a wider array of identity and social influences is developed and tested. As hypothesized, self‐identity expressiveness and social identity expressiveness prove to be significant determinants of intentions to use. Moreover, the extended TPB model explains 62% of the variance in usage intentions. The paper also investigates the relationship between self identity expressiveness and attitude and between social identity expressiveness and subjective norm. The study results indicate that the concept of subjective norm alone is insufficient to capture the rich universe of identity and social influences driving behavioral intentions. Implications for marketing managers and scholars are discussed. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Attitudes and recycling: Does the measurement of affect enhance behavioral prediction?

Recent attempts to improve the influence of social marketing have often focused on behavioral strategies, largely neglecting the concept of attitude. This is understandable given the weak performance of attitudinal variables as a predictor in past studies of proenvironmental behavior. However, we suggest that part of the reason for the poor association between attitudes and such behavior is the possibility that many altruistic acts such as recycling are subject to affective influences that may not be fully captured by commonly employed attitude measures. We also suggest that attitude strength might moderate the extent to which affective reactions account for additional variance in behavior. Specifically, it is predicted that affect is more important for weak than for strong attitudes. Empirical results are presented to support these suggestions. © 1994 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Beyond Just Being There: An Examination of the Impact of Attitudes,Materialism, and Self-Esteem on the Quality of Helping Behavior in Youth Volunteers

ABSTRACT

Young people represent a strong and growing source of volunteers for not-for-profit organizations (NPO) and are an important focus for NPO marketing efforts. Using helping behavior theory, this paper reports a study conducted with a sample of teenagers to examine influences on their decision to volunteer and their goal setting for fund-raising. The relationship between three individual variables (attitude toward the organization, self-esteem, and materialism) and the quality of helping behavior provided was found to be mediated in large part by attitude towards the actual volunteering task. Implications for NPO marketing and future research are discussed.     

Effective influencer marketing: A social identity perspective

Social networking in the form of online communities and social groups is a characteristic of social media communication that has profound implications on the identity dynamics and behavior of social media users. Drawing from social identity theory, this research brings the social identity construct (i.e., followers' perception of the self in relation to the influencer community) to the literature on influencer marketing and examines the effect of followers' social identity, along with their interest fit and the influencer's opinion leadership, on their purchase intention. This research also examines the moderating role of storytelling, a pervasive approach of social media influencers, in enhancing the social identity–purchase intention link. Empirical results from 467 Instagram users show that all three factors positively impact followers' intention, but social identity has a more salient effect than the others. Storytelling posts can enhance these effects. Studying influencer marketing through the social identity angle contributes to better understanding of influencer marketing effectiveness.     

Market Mavens in Social Media: Examining Young Chinese Consumers' Viral Marketing Attitude,eWOM Motive,and Behavior

A paper survey of 835 Chinese college students was conducted to examine young Chinese consumers' social media use, market mavenism, viral marketing attitude, and product recommendation behavior. Structural model testing results showed that young Chinese consumers' perceived pleasure, affection outcome expectation, and subjective norm of viral marketing affected their market mavenism while their subjective norm and pleasure influenced their viral marketing attitude. More importantly, young Chinese consumers' frequency of product recommendations on social networking websites was determined by their social media use, viral marketing attitude, and electronic word of mouth motive to help the company and market mavenism.     

Moral Schemas and Business Practices: The Ethics of Guangzhou Migrant Marketers

This article explores the ethics of migrant marketers in Guangzhou. Data were collected from 357 migrant marketers who lived in Guangzhou. A model of Ethical Action has been developed to test the antecedents and outcomes of the ethical decision-making process. It measured moral intention using four ethical scenarios. The results show that the egoistic schema had a positive effect on their intention to act unethically, while the legislative schema exerted a negative effect. The results confirm that moral intention was a strong predictor of an individual’s subsequent actual behavior, and it fully mediated the influence of the legislative schema on actual behavior. This study adds to ethics literature by incorporating the construct of social identity and found a moderating effect between the legislative schema and moral intention. The relationships were stronger for individuals who were lower rather than higher in social identity. Analysis of these results lead to a discussion of the implications for marketing ethics in China.     

Does Cultural Background Affect Volunteering Behavior?

The purpose of this qualitative investigation is to help nonprofit organizations which rely heavily on the support of volunteers increase the effectiveness of their marketing by accounting for differences in cultural background among community members. It was conducted in the multi‐cultural Australian context and included 79 participants from different cultural backgrounds. Findings indicate that as a whole, cultural groups differ significantly with respect to their attitudes, social norm and perceived behavioral control over volunteering. Nonprofit organizations are unlikely to be successful in attracting volunteers from a range of different cultural backgrounds unless they account for heterogeneity among volunteers and customize marketing messages. To the authors' knowledge this is the first study that investigates differences in attitude, social norm and perceived behavioral control regarding an important social marketing issue: changing the volunteering behavior of individuals in a multi‐cultural society.     

Discussing Brand Information on Social Networking Sites: Implications for Global Brand Marketing

Due to the proliferation of information that global brands disseminate on social networking sites (SNS), how to induce SNS users to discuss such information is a topic deserving intensive research efforts. In recent years, scholars have begun to explore the topic from several perspectives. However, there is still a lack of conceptual theorization and empirical verification with more comprehensive probing into the psychological processes through which SNS users become motivated to engage in discussing brand information provided by brand marketers. The current study, based on integrative reconfiguration of relevant theories and a large-scale survey, develops and validates a theoretical model to explicate the key determinants in this regard. Data were obtained from 1518 respondents, who have been active SNS users for at least one year. Confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling facilitate validation of the model. According to the research findings, affective attitude is a stronger factor than instrumental attitude in predicting the discussion behavior of SNS users relative to brand information intentionally designed and disseminated by brand marketers. Additionally, past behavior in discussing online business news, alongside subjective norm and perceived behavioral control, exercises significant effect on such behavior. Most noteworthy, identity construction generates the greatest impact on behavioral intention and actual behavior among SNS users to discuss brand information that brand marketers provide to them. In general, the current study contributes to making better use of SNS for global brand marketing.     

Identifying the critical factors of customer behavior: An integration perspective of marketing strategy and components of attitudes

The purpose of this empirical study is to operationalize the relationship of green marketing's influence on consumer attitudes via the mediating role of marketing mix towards green products to validate the proposed research model in the Taiwanese context of explaining consumers' willingness to be environmentally friendly. The model is based on structural equation modeling (SEM) from data collected from 977 online consumers. The findings revealed that green consumption intention was significantly and indirectly driven by attitude to green products. Additionally, the effect of perceived quality on marketing mix and consumer willingness in environmental concern is both significant and positive. However, when a restaurant has high consumer social responsibility (CnSR) for marketing mix, the consumer attitudes of cognitive, affective, and behavioral model (C-A-B model) is less effective. These findings have contributed to the revival of the theory of planned behavior (TPB) and offer a comprehensive understanding of consumer attitude, consumer social responsibility, marketing mix and perceived quality impact that a restaurant has on the ability to raise consumer willingness to purchase green products or food. We provides valuable suggestions to marketers to design from the perspective of green marketing policies and strategies in order to accommodate Taiwan's indigenous green restaurants.     

Modeling consumer engagement on social networking sites: Roles of attitudinal and motivational factors

This paper reports on a study that seeks to assess an extended typology of consumer social networking engagement behaviors. Drawing on uses and gratifications theory, this study assesses consumer engagement with social media, where consumer engagement incorporates consumer responses to marketing communications. The paper argues that certain motivations for social media use serve as antecedents to general attitudes toward social networking sites, which subsequently affects attitudes toward marketers' social networking sites. These attitudes then influence subsequent consumer engagement behaviors. The results show that social facilitation motivation, participating and socializing motivation, and information motivation positively influence consumers' general attitudes toward social networking sites, which had a strong effect on their attitude toward marketers' social networking sites. The relationship between attitudes toward social networking sites and engagement with social networking sites was mediated by attitudes toward marketers’ social networking sites also mediated. The current study brings together the online advertising perspective and the consumer motivation/gratifications perspective of using social media in branding and marketing into a conceptual model that holds up to empirical testing. The paper ends with a discussion of some limitations of the study and proposes avenues for future research.     

Marketing eco-fashion: The influence of brand name and message explicitness

This study investigated the influence of two variables – brand name and message explicitness – on attitude toward advertisement and attitude toward brand, and further, explored the impact of attitude toward advertisement, attitude toward brand, and other variables on consumer purchase intention. A questionnaire with an experimental design component was administered to 343 college students. Results revealed that respondents formed positive attitudes toward apparel brand when the advertising message contained explicit information about environmentally friendly products. Attitude toward brand, subjective norm, attitude toward advertisement, eco-fashion involvement, and environmental commitment were strong predictors of intention to purchase an environmentally friendly apparel brand. Implications are that apparel marketers may build more positive attitudes toward brands by providing explicit information about environmentally friendly products in their marketing claims. This may be one way for marketers to attract college students who are interested in purchasing environmentally friendly products, but who are not fully committed to a green lifestyle. Further, marketers may be able to reach those who are less interested in purchasing environmentally friendly products by raising awareness and knowledge of the benefits associated with their products and brands, which may help to establish a sustainable market for eco-fashion.     

Who Receives What? The Influence of the Donation Magnitude and Donation Recipient in Cause-Related Marketing

Cause-related marketing campaign structural elements (CSEs) are individual message components that are selected for campaigns and have the ability to influence consumer intentions and behavior. In this study, the impact of donation magnitude (small; large) and donation recipient (branded and well-known; branded and fictitious; unbranded and well-known) on the dependent variables of consumer attitude toward the offer, attitude toward the alliance, and participation intention is explored by means of a 2?×?3 between-subjects experiment. Despite significant differences in familiarity with and attitude toward the donation recipient, significant differences between groups in terms of the dependent variables were not found. The nature of the sample (Generation Y), their attitude toward helping others and charitable organizations, social exchange theory, and equity theory are explored in an attempt to clarify the lack of significant differences pertaining to the dependent variables.     

平台经济视阈下社会责任消费行为意向驱动因素研究

平台经济的快速发展使得平台型社会责任消费问题日益被关注。立足平台经济情境下社会责任消费行为的“利他”属性，基于弱关系理论和消费者—企业认同理论，从社会互动视角对计划行为理论进行重塑,在问卷调查基础上通过统计分析方法研究社会责任消费行为意向驱动因素。实证显示：行为态度、社会规范、感知行为控制及平台企业社会责任认同对社会责任消费行为意向的生态消费、善因消费和诚信消费三个维度均有不同程度的正向影响，其中社会规范是最大的影响变量；行为态度在社会规范、感知行为控制、平台企业社会责任认同与社会责任消费行为意向之间起中介作用。修正后的计划行为理论实现了个人与社会、理性逻辑和情感逻辑的有机统一，能对平台经济视阈下社会责任消费行为意向进行有效的解释与预测,从而为平台社会责任生态化治理提供一定启示。     

Purchasing behaviour for environmentally sustainable products: A conceptual framework and empirical study

Although there are some instances of prior research on the relationship between attitude and purchase intention for environmentally sustainable products, literature is scant about mediating role of attitude on the relationship between environmental knowledge and purchase intention for environmentally sustainable products. Following the theory of planned behaviour, this study develops and tests a conceptual framework, which provides several insights. First, the attitude towards environmentally sustainable products mediates the relationship between environmental knowledge and purchase intention. Next, this mediated relationship is moderated by the environmental knowledge. Third, the subjective norm is not significantly related to the purchase intention - contrary to established findings - in a collectivistic culture considered in this study. And last but not the least, the direction of subjective norm as a moderator on relationship between environmental knowledge and attitude is not supported. The findings of this study offer some important guidance for marketing theory, retailing practices for environmentally sustainable products and public policy.     

Beating the recession blues: Exploring the link between family ownership,strategic marketing behavior and firm performance during recessions

This study explores whether family firms exhibit unique marketing behavior and whether their unique behavior in turn helps them outperform non-family firms during periods of economic contraction. Findings based on a sample of 275 large publicly listed U.S. firms reveal that family firms outperform non-family firms during recessions. This superior performance is partially driven by family firms' proactive marketing behavior and their relatively strong emphasis on corporate social responsibility (CSR). During recessions, while non-family firms tend to decrease their advertising intensities and rates of new product introduction (NPI), family firms are likely to maintain relatively high levels of advertising intensity and rates of NPI. Unlike non-family firms, family firms are also likely to maintain high levels of corporate social performance (CSP) during recessions. These results underscore the benefits of proactive marketing behavior and a continued emphasis on CSR during economic downturns. The authors also add to the scant family-firm literature, demonstrating the family firm to be an effective organizational form.     

Value co-creation and social media: Investigating antecedents and influencing factors in the U.S. retail banking industry

This study seeks to examine and unearth antecedents to co-creation behaviours within a U.S. retail banking context. A critical aspect for marketing managers and academics alike, co-creation has a strong influence on tangible factors such as profit and intangible factors such as referrals, satisfaction and feedback. Antecedents were identified as trust, customer engagement and participation attitude whilst social media usage was a consumer characteristic identified as influencing co-creation. Data was collected from 489 U.S. retail banking customers via an online survey. The data was analysed via structural equation modelling. The findings indicate that customer engagement influences trust, co-creation and participation attitude. Participation attitude was found to influence trust and co-creation but trust had no direct effect on co-creation. The study further found that social media usage intensity influenced co-creation behaviours. The findings contribute in three ways. First, this is one of the first studies to scrutinise participation attitude in an attempt to explain co-creation behaviours for U.S. banks over social media. Second, identification of precursors to value co-creation has been ascertained in a U.S. retail banking social media context. Third, the study additionally contributes to the findings that social media usage has a moderating effect in value co-creation and offers a potential segmentation strategy.     

How focused identities can help brands navigate a changing media landscape

In today's rapidly changing and fast-paced media landscape, consumer attention is a rare and fractured commodity. Within this environment, marketing and branding must serve customers who are attending to multiple media simultaneously, while brand placement moves brands outside of advertisements and into incidental exposure. Some brands offer a strong, consistent, and focused brand identity on all consumer-facing fronts, from advertising to event promotion and retail environments. These brands can retain their effectiveness in this new media reality, as mere exposure is all that's required to activate their rich brand identity. At the same time, brand exposure effects illuminate the vast role of nonconscious attention and processing in consumer cognition and behavior. New research shows that even incidental exposure to a brand can alter consumer behavior in manners consistent with brand identity, producing effects which may persist outside of marketing contexts and occur even when the product is not purchased or consumed. These findings suggest that strong brand identities can retain effectiveness in the modern media environment, but further work is needed to explore their multi-dimensional effects on consumer life.