Understanding consumption in social virtual worlds: A sensemaking perspective on the consumption of virtual goods

Virtual consumption involves consuming virtual goods in cyberspace. Virtual consumption activities are evolving into an essential activity in social virtual worlds. Despite the growing importance of this activity, little research examines this phenomenon. The current study investigates the fundamental question of how users understand the consumption of virtual goods. Using the theory of social representations and core-periphery analysis, this study elicits and analyzes the social representation of virtual consumption. Study participants are 154 Second Life users. Results identify 32 concepts and relationships representing the collective perceptions of virtual consumption in this social virtual world. Social representation map interpretations point to several key themes that provide a foundation for future investigations of virtual economy consumption behavior.     

Covert distinction: how hipsters practice food-based resistance strategies in the production of identity

This paper reveals the processes by which food is used to express resistance to the mainstream and perform identity work within the hipster community of consumption. Based on the findings of a qualitative investigation, several resistance strategies involving food emerged: Vegetarian choices; Brand choices and avoidances; and Decommodification practices. We discuss how these strategies are framed by hipsters' discursive distaste for the commercial food marketing system but are, in practice, operationalised as subtle ways to achieve proper representation of their collective identity within the marketplace. Mundane consumption emerges as motor-force in allowing these consumers to surreptitiously maintain distinction and to protect their within-group identity from mainstream co-optation. We conclude by suggesting that the inconspicuous nature of mundane consumables such as food and alcohol products allows for idiosyncratic shared community performances that are covert and difficult for broader social currents to detect and co-opt.     

Trust,but Verify: MD&;A Language and the Role of Trust in Corporate Culture

Recent scholarship in philosophy, law, and information systems suggests that respecting privacy entails understanding the implicit privacy norms about what, why, and to whom information is shared within specific relationships. These social contracts are important to understand if firms are to adequately manage the privacy expectations of stakeholders. This paper explores a social contract approach to developing, acknowledging, and protecting privacy norms within specific contexts. While privacy as a social contract—a mutually beneficial agreement within a community about sharing and using information—has been introduced theoretically and empirically, the full impact on firms of an alternative framework to respecting the privacy expectations of stakeholders has not been examined. The goal of this paper is to examine how privacy norms develop through social contract’s narrative, to redescribe privacy violations given the social contract approach, and to critically examine the role of business as a contractor in developing privacy norms. A social contract narrative dealing specifically with issues of privacy is an important next step in exploring a social contract approach to privacy. Here, the narrative is used to explain to analyze the dynamic process of privacy norm generation within particular communities. Based on this narrative, individuals within a given community discriminately share information with a particular set of obligations in mind as to who has access to the information and how it will be used. Rather than giving away privacy, individuals discriminately share information within a particular community and with norms governing the use of their information. Similar to contractual business ethics’ impact on global commerce in explaining how and why norms vary across global contexts, the social contract approach to privacy explains how and why norms vary across communities of actors. Focusing on agreements around privacy expectations shifts the responsibility of firms from adequate notification to the responsibility of firms as contractors to maintain a mutually beneficial and sustainable solution.     

The Nature of the Self,Self-regulation and Moral Action: Implications from the Confucian Relational Self and Buddhist Non-self

The concept of the self and its relation to moral action is complex and subject to varying interpretations, not only between different academic disciplines but also across time and space. This paper presents empirical evidence from a cross-cultural study on the Buddhist and Confucian notions of self in SMEs in Vietnam and Taiwan. The study employs Hwang’s Mandala Model of the Self, and its extension into Shiah’s non-self-model, to interpret how these two Eastern philosophical representations of the self, the Confucian relational self and Buddhist non-self, can lead to moral action. By demonstrating the strengths of the model, emphasizing how social and cultural influences constrain the individual self and promote the social person leading to moral action, the paper extends understanding of the self with empirical evidence of the mechanisms involved in organizational contexts.

     

Pinning and Promotion: How Local Television Stations Are Using Pinterest for Branding and Audience Connectivity

Over the past decade, social media have become an increasingly important component in the ways broadcasters communicate with their audiences. A relative newcomer to that mix is the social network Pinterest, which enables followers to post photos and other types of visuals based on topics of interest. A content analysis examined how 85 local television stations are using that social network for promotion and branding. Results showed that, rather than promotion, use of Pinterest primarily revolves around lifestyle content, including postings by stations and interactivity by followers.     

Brand value: how affective labour helps create brands

One way brands create value is by engaging the capacity of cultural labourers to animate affective connections with consumers. Brands assemble social spaces that harness the communicative capacities of cultural actors. A mode of branding that works by managing an open-ended social process depends on affective labour. Affective labour involves not only the capacity of individuals to produce specific meanings and feelings, but also the open-endedly social capacity to stimulate and channel attention and recognition. This affective labour does not always depend on making particular “authentic” representations, but on facilitating a general circulation of meaning. By investing in social spaces and relations corporate brands engage popular musicians in new forms of labour. This article examines the participation of popular musicians in branding programmes run in Australia by corporate brands between 2005 and 2010. I examine the accounts of musicians and managers who participate in these programmes to consider how they make their participation in social relations that create brand value meaningful. They employ a variety of practices: identifying with brands, endorsing brands' claims of socially responsible investment in culture, and distancing themselves from their own participation in branded space.     

Social representations as a diagnostic tool for identifying cultural and other group differences

The aim of this research is to develop a procedure for data collection within a social representations perspective that may be of use in diverse contexts in which investigators wish to understand and compare the norms and values associated with a particular social object in different social or cultural groups. The social representation of sport is studied in two culturally distinct countries, Morocco and France, with the use of an innovative procedure derived from the Model of Basic Cognitive Schemes (Rouquette, 1990, 1994b). The results reveal a difference in the appropriation of values related to sport in the two countries: the social representation of sport for the Moroccans is focused around hard work related to sport (the education, discipline, and training necessary to achieve competitive performance), whereas for the French, importance is also given to the recreational aspects of sport (sport for pleasure, as a leisure activity and as a way to relax). © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Public Policy of Urban Mobility: Impact of the History and Practices on Young Drivers’ Social Representation of 30 km/hr

The research is part of the project of generalization of the 30 km/h in Angers (France) that funded the study. It aims at providing material to build awareness campaigns for young drivers. The goal is to understand their representations of the 30 km/h within the structural approach of social representations. We focus on the “calling into question” technique in order to confirm the central core composition. The sample is composed of French students living in Angers. Results reveal the role of both historical aspects and the experience of driving in the structuration of the representation. Drivers and non-drivers do not have the same representation of the 30 km/h. Men and women share the same representation under the definition of the central core theory. But our results highlight peripheral differences related to individuals’ practices. Finally, we discuss the definition of representational elements and we explain the relevance of this study for communication.     

Study on the steady state of the propagation model of consumers’ perceived service quality in the community group-buying

The consumption stickiness relationship established by community group buying is a typical complex social network. The network structure, member size, interaction frequency and purchase quantity are determined by the effective communication of customer perceived service quality (PSQ). This paper introduces the social reinforcement effect to construct a G-SCIR model of PSQ propagation in the community group-buying, and improves the calculation method of propagation probability and node status attributes. We use numerical simulation methods to explore how the social reinforcement effect can promote the spread of PSQ and achieve a steady state by influencing recovered nodes. The simulation results show that the G-SCIR model proposed in the paper has better stability and higher coverage than the traditional SCIR model. The change trend of the attributes of each node in the network is also closer to the real one, which can effectively simulate the propagation process and evolution characteristics of PSQ in the context of community group-buying. Meanwhile, the paper verifies that the steady state of PSQ propagation is usually affected by its initial conversion probability of community group-buying, its upper limit and social reinforcement factor, and there are significant Markov properties in the propagation process of PSQ. The findings may further enrich the community business and online group buying theory, and provide theoretical reference and practical guidance for community group-buying enterprises to optimize market layout and formulate scientific communication strategies.     

The influence of social capital through social media: a study of the creation of value in shopping behaviour

When consumers access information from groups through social network sites (SNSs), they develop social capital in the form of bonding and bridging ties with these groups. The purpose of this study is to investigate the influence of these bonding and bridging behaviours on consumers’ use of the social network information (SNI) gained from SNSs in their purchasing decisions. The study integrates constructs from the Technology Acceptance Model and the concept of flow to examine how these behaviours influence consumers’ perceptions of how useful the SNI is, of how easy the SNI is to use, and how they engage with SNI. The study utilizes structural equation modelling to examine questionnaire data from a random sample of social network users. The findings demonstrate that bonding and bridging ties influence consumers’ perceptions of the usefulness and ease of use of the information provided by SNSs, and therefore influence their use of the information when making shopping decisions. In addition, consumers who access SNI through bonding ties are likely to have flow experiences which further contribute to their use of the information. This study makes a theoretical contribution by expanding knowledge of the social capital influences on consumers’ perceptions of the value of the social media shopping experience.     

Using Games in Community Disaster Prevention Exercises

Currently, there is a growing interest in disaster prevention exercises such as games, debates, workshops, and “town walks” that involve the active participation of community members as an alternative to seminars in which disaster prevention experts simply share their knowledge and skills. We have developed a disaster prevention game called Crossroad for use in local disaster prevention programs. It is a group learning game, in which players read cards with a scenario written on each card. The scenarios were derived from extensive, focus-group interviews with disaster veterans of the Kobe Earthquake of 1995 that killed more than 6400 people and described the dilemmas faced by these veterans. To deal with the dilemma, each player was required to make a “Yes” or No decision on two conflicting alternatives. We used Crossroad as a part of tsunami disaster prevention, community-building workshops for citizens of Kishiwada city in Osaka, Japan. The results suggested the importance of motivating local people to find a socially “viable” solution through their own strength, rather than forcing a community to accept a universally “correct” solution prescribed in advance by outsiders. It is concluded that the Crossroad game can be used effectively as a new communication medium to promote the active participation of community members.     

How can non-fungible tokens bring value to brands

Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have registered tremendous growth in the past year, and their importance is expected to increase with the expected development of Web3. From a brand perspective, NFTs can be seen as representations of the brand components, such as the product, the logo, or the image. I argue that NFTs have immense potential to become standalone brand assets. I illustrate how this can be achieved by relating the brand's NFT strategies to the marketing funnel stages. Brands can turn into an NFT their physical products such as shoes, shirts, or art to attract brand awareness, generate cross-selling opportunities, and spark stronger perceived ownership of certain brand elements. Importantly, NFTs can allow brands to form a highly engaging brand community that can support the brand, blend online and offline product ownership, and potentially create a bond between the brand and consumers. These exciting possibilities generate a rich research agenda I present in this paper.     

Cultural Differences in Consumer Engagement in Brand-Related SNS Groups: A Cross-Cultural Study of China and the United States

To gain a better understanding of consumer engagement in brand-related social network site (SNS) groups, this study examines how consumers engage with the brand and other members of the groups among different national cultures through the lens of brand community characteristics and collective value creation practices within brand communities. Through conducting a directed qualitative content analysis of two cases—consumer wall posts in a Facebook group and a Renren group—this study finds supporting evidence that although consumers in both groups actively shared their product use experiences, consumers in the Renren group tended to explicitly express their shared consciousness with other group members, share their product use experiences in a modest and respectful way, and actively engage in social networking, while consumers in the Facebook group tended to focus on product use sharing. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed.     

What Advertisers Need to Know about the iYGeneration: An Australian Perspective

A great challenge exists today: how to reach youth (a.k.a. the iYGeneration) who consume multiple media concurrently, who can access information on demand, and who have intertwined virtual social media networks in their lives. Our research finds that Australian youth multi-task and rarely use traditional media, although significant differences between males and females, as well as late tweens and 20-somethings, exist. Technology convergence facilitates two-way dialogue, allowing growing social interactions to occur in their technological environments. Our findings show that in order for marketing communication professionals to effectively communicate with this market, it is crucial to know exactly how the iYGeneration use media, which media they use, and when they use it.     

Social support abroad: How do self-initiated expatriates gain support through their social networks?

On arrival, expatriates need to establish new social ties in order to succeed in the host country. In this study, we are investigating the social networks of self-initiated expatriates, focusing on the process of how they source social support. Building on information seeking theory, we have created a model connecting specific characteristics of network members (host country knowledge, employment status and host country origin) with the frequency of contact and support they provide. The model was tested through multilevel mediation analysis on 165 expatriates and their 575 network members. We contribute to the existing knowledge on expatriate networks by a theoretically driven categorization of network members and a detailed empirical analysis on the level of a relationship/tie. Our results show that expatriates rely on different network members for different types of support. Practical implications include the use of mentors to facilitate expatriate access to higher status individuals who can offer important support.     

Euphemisms and hypocrisy in corporate philanthropy

Over the past two decades, a growing number of large multinational corporations have come to view philanthropy as an important part of their business operations. This has stimulated research on the many different strategies that are pursued by these corporations in their attempts to become more philanthropic while remaining economically responsible. In this situation, some researchers have argued, corporations run the risk of being caught out as hypocrites. Through an analysis of the corporate social responsibility reports of the biggest multinational corporations, this article shows how the risk of hypocrisy is managed communicatively through the use of euphemisms. The article argues that the use of euphemisms makes it possible to communicate both economically and philanthropically without manifest contradictions. Euphemisms, however, are also risky in their own right.     

A lack of insight: do venture capitalists really understand their own decision process?

What decision criteria do venture capitalists (VCs) use to make their investment decisions? This question has received much attention within entrepreneurship literature (i.e.,Wells 1974; Poindexter 1976; Tyebjee and Bruno 1984; MacMillan, Seigel, and Subba Narasimha 1985; MacMillan, Zeman, and Subba Narasimha 1987; Robinson 1987; Timmons et al. 1987; Sandberg, Schweiger, and Hofer 1988; Hall and Hofer 1993; Zacharakis and Meyer 1995) for a number of reasons. First, VC-backed ventures achieve a higher survival rate than non-VC-backed businesses (Kunkel and Hofer 1990; Sandberg 1986; Timmons 1994). Second, a better understanding of the decision process may lead to even better survival rates. Finally, entrepreneurs seeking venture funding benefit if they understand what factors are most important to the VC.Although past research has greatly contributed to our understanding of the decision, it may be biased and somewhat misleading. The majority of past studies rely on post hoc methodologies (e.g., interviews and surveys) to capture the decision process. Post hoc methods assume that VCs can accurately relate their own decision processes, but studies from cognitive psychology suggest that people, in particular experts, are poor at introspecting. Introspection is subject to rationalization and post hoc recall biases. Using social judgment theory and the associated lens model as a framework, the current study investigates how well VCs introspect about their own decision process and, by extension, whether the past research efforts are biased.The current research uses policy capturing, a real-time method common in cognitive psychology, to capture the VC's “actual theories in use” versus their “espoused theories” (Hitt and Tyler 1991). Policy capturing requires that VCs make a series of real-time decisions based on various information factors. Regression analysis of each VCs' decision captures how important each of the information factors is to her/his actual decision process. After the VCs make their decisions, they provided a weighting of how they believe they used the information factors. Comparing the captured decision policies to stated decision policies provides a measure of VC insight.The findings suggest that VCs are not good at introspecting about their own decision process. Even within the confines of a controlled experiment, which greatly reduces the amount of information considered, VCs lacked strong understanding of how they made decisions. Most decision-makers would like to have all relevant information available for their decision. However, as more information becomes available, insight diminishes. Finally, this study finds that VCs are very consistent in their decision process, even though they do not necessarily understand how they make their decisions.VCs face a plethora of information when making an investment decision (i.e., business plan, outside consultants, due diligence, etc.). It may be difficult for VCs to truly understand their intuitive decision process because of all the noise caused by this information overload. This lack of systematic understanding impedes learning. VCs cannot make accurate adjustments to their evaluation process if they do not truly understand it. Therefore, VCs may suffer from a systematic bias that impedes the performance of their investment portfolio. The methodology used in this experiment can be modified and used as a training tool for active VCs. In addition, the consistent nature of VC decision-making (even if they do not have a strong understanding of that process) is favorable to the development of decision aides. Decision aides can minimize the danger of salient information (e.g., the lead entrepreneur is a winner) clouding the VC's judgment.Past research also needs to be interpreted in a new light. Although VCs undoubtedly use some of the information cited in past studies, the relative importance of that information needs to be reevaluated. VCs may not, for instance, rely most on the background of the entrepreneurial team. In addition, it is likely that the past studies provide more information factors than VCs actually use. People have a tendency to overstate the information they believe they relied upon and to use far less information (typically three to seven factors) to make a decision than they actually think they use. The methodology used in this experiment has the potential to identify the more relevant information factors cited in previous work.Even though VCs are experts in the new venture funding realm, their decision process has room for improvement. Almost 40% of all backed ventures fail to provide a return to the VC. Considering the billions invested each year, a modest improvement in the failure rate can have a substantial impact on venture portfolio returns. That improvement starts by better understanding the decision process. This study is a step in that direction.     

PRICING AND SEMIMARTINGALE REPRESENTATIONS OF VULNERABLE CONTINGENT CLAIMS IN REGIME‐SWITCHING MARKETS

Using a suitable change of probability measure, we obtain a Poisson series representation for the arbitrage‐free price process of vulnerable contingent claims in a regime‐switching market driven by an underlying continuous‐time Markov process. As a result of this representation, along with a short‐time asymptotic expansion of the claim's price process, we develop an efficient novel method for pricing claims whose payoffs may depend on the full path of the underlying Markov chain. The proposed approach is applied to price not only simple European claims such as defaultable bonds, but also a new type of path‐dependent claims that we term self‐decomposable, as well as the important class of vulnerable call and put options on a stock. We provide a detailed error analysis and illustrate the accuracy and computational complexity of our method on several market traded instruments, such as defaultable bond prices, barrier options, and vulnerable call options. Using again our Poisson series representation, we show differentiability in time of the predefault price function of European vulnerable claims, which enables us to rigorously deduce Feynman‐Ka? representations for the predefault pricing function and new semimartingale representations for the price process of the vulnerable claim under both risk‐neutral and objective probability measures.     

Writing the differences: Poststructural ist pluralism,retextualization, and the construction of reflexive ethnographic narratives in consumption and market research

Representing social realities in a narrative form is central to the interpretive processes by which market‐oriented ethnographies are constructed. In recent years, the process of textualization has shifted from a taken‐for‐granted aspect of the ethnographic enterprise to a central focus of ethnographers’ reflexive considerations. This shift reflects the realization that textualization poses dilemmas of representation that can not be resolved through additional fieldwork or other methodological procedures. This paper addresses these workbench problems by devising an alternative narrative formretextualization‐based on a poststructuralist version of critical pluralistic analysis. We first discuss how non‐realist genres of ethnographic writing have emerged in response to a heightened sensitivity toward ideological positions embedded in research narratives. We then discuss how the use of retextualization can facilitate the development of reflexivity in consumption research by destabilizing the representational authority of the ethnographic text through expressions of divergence, dissensus, and contested interpretations.