Stress and consumer behavior

Although stress research has received increased attention in the behavioral and social sciences, it has been virtually ignored by marketing researchers. This paper attempts to advance the stress perspective as a useful framework in consumer research. First, the author presents theoretical and conceptual foundations of stress research. Second, the author develops a general conceptual model of the causes and consequences of stress on the basis of theory and research. The model serves as a blueprint for presenting theory and research on stress, organizing and interpreting findings of consumer studies in the context of stress theory, and developing propositions for needed research. Finally, the author provides a research agenda to guide future studies in this area.     

Life course perspectives on consumer behavior

Although marketing researchers have recognized the importance of early life experiences in shaping patterns of consumer behavior in later life, they have inadequate theoretical and methodological bases for investigating consumption-related issues over the life course. As a result, relatively little is known about the changes consumers experience over time, how they respond to these changes, and how early life experiences affect their consumer behavior. The life course approach, developed as an interdisciplinary program for studying various aspects of behavior, offers a framework for filling gaps in previous efforts to study consumer behavior over time. The purpose of this article is to advocate the life course approach for studying various types of market behavior. First, the author presents a general conceptual life course framework that serves as a blueprint for discussing theoretical perspectives and organizing, integrating, and reporting consumer research relevant to the life course paradigm. Second, methods of data analysis compatible with life course research are discussed. Finally, select areas of interest to marketing researchers (materialism and compulsive consumption) illustrate how the life course approach might contribute to previous efforts to study these consumer behaviors in an innovative way.     

中国居民消费行为的几点分析

消费,一直是国民经济中极为重要的一个组成部分。而中国居民的消费行为明显有着其自身独特的习惯和偏好,研究中国居民独特的消费行为特征对于如何刺激我国居民消费和扩大内需有着十分重要的意义。本文即指出了中国居民比较突出的几点消费者行为特征,并分析了其成因及影响,最终在此基础上给出了相应的政策建议。     

The role of aesthetic taste in consumer behavior

In light of the increasing interest in hedonic aspects of consumer behavior, it is clear that consumer taste plays a critical role in judgment and decision making, particularly for hedonic products and services. At the present time, however, our understanding of consumer aesthetic taste and its specific role for consumer behavior is limited. In this article, we review the literature from a variety of fields such as sociology, psychology, philosophy, and consumer behavior in order to develop a conceptual definition of consumer aesthetic taste. We then explore various issues related to taste and develop a conceptual framework for the relevance of expertise vs. taste in consumer decision-making. Finally, we present an agenda for future research on this important topic.     

The role of rationalization in consumer decision processes: A revisionist approach to consumer behavior

Consumer behavior theory, as it has largely evolved from economics with its rigid adherence to marginal utility theory, suggests that consumers are highly rational and that they basically strive to maximize utility or satisfaction by the careful rationing of resources. In this paper, the typical assumptions in consumer decision process models are reviewed and analyzed, the empirical evidence supporting the models of the rational consumer is challenged, the concept of rationalization is developed and the existential support for the concept is examined, the role and significance of alternative ego state on consumer decision processes are explained and finally, the rudiments of a revisionist approach to consumer behavior are advanced. An earlier draft of this paper entitled “Consumer Decision Processes: The Role and Influence of Rationalization” was presented at the annual meeting of The American Psychological Association Division 23 in 1977. The author was assisted in the preparation and development of this earlier draft by Dr. Chem Narayana. This assistance is herewith acknowledged.     

影响二手车市场消费者购买行为的因子分析

随着汽车大量进入家庭,我国汽车保有量和二手车消费群体数量不断增加,国内二手车市场不断成熟和扩大。本文通过实证研究方法,对汽车消费者的二手车购买行为进行因子分析,归纳出汽车消费者二手车购买行为的影响因子,为经销商改善二手车服务质量提供一定的理论依据。     

休闲经济与休闲产业

假日经济的本质特征是休闲消费,旅游业只是休闲产业的龙头产业之一。我们应当借鉴国外休闲产业发展的经验,采取有力措施,发展有中国特色的休闲产业,满足人们不断增长的消费需求。     

The impact of alternative consumer education strategies on safety knowledge and behavior

The article describes an experimental study which attempted to increase children's awareness of proper safety behavior as well as to increase actual safe behavior in the use of playground equipment. Results indicated that modest to substantial gains were made in both knowledge and behavior, and that among the alternative consumer education programs, the strategy that was most successful was the use of the greatest amount of information with the youngest children.     

On the significance of statistically insignificant results in consumer behavior experiments

Experimentation is the sine qua non of consumer behavior research, and much of what is thought to be known about the behavior of consumers is based on findings from experiments. However, many articles that report consumer behavior experiments contain one or more results that are significantly insignificant. That is, one or more experimental results are so unusually weak or minuscule that they are unlikely to have come about by chance. As such, significantly insignificant results can be due to the “failure” of the theory underlying an experiment and/or the flawed design or implementation of an experiment. Consequently, significantly insignificant results have implications for the theories and methodologies employed in consumer behavior experiments, the quality of conclusions drawn from the experiments, and the credibility of the consumer behavior research discipline as a whole.     

An empirical test of the Causative Markov model of consumer behavior

This paper examines an extension of the Markov model of consumer brand switching behavior, which captures the nonstationarity in the consumer decision processes over time. The extended model has been labeled as the Causative Matrix model. The model is put to test on empirical data, and compared with the stationary version of the model. The Causative Matrix model is shown to be a better forecasting tool. Its ability to yield additional insights into consumer brand choice processes is also discussed.     

消费者行为学本科教学模式研究

消费者行为学是市场营销理论的重要组成部分之一,而且随着流通领域竞争的不断加剧,消费者行为学已经成为营销专业的热门课程。为适应社会主义市场经济的发展,必须建立适合社会发展和人才培养需求的教学模式,通过教学引导学生发现和掌握消费者在消费活动中的心理与行为的特点及其规律,改善和优化其消费行为,提高学生的综合能力。     

An empirical study of innate consumer innovativeness,personal characteristics,and new-product adoption behavior

This article explores the relationships between innate consumer innovativeness, personal characteristics, and new-product adoption behavior. To do this, the authors analyze cross-sectional data from a household panel using a structural equation modeling approach. They also test for potential moderating effects using a two-stage least square estimation procedure. They find that the personal characteristics of age and income are stronger predictors of new-product ownership in the consumer electronics category than innate consumer innovativeness as a generalized personality trait. The authors also find that personal characteristics neither influence innate consumer innovativeness nor moderate the relationship between innate consumer innovativeness and new-product adoption behavior. Subin Im is currently an assistant professor of marketing at San Francisco State University. His primary scholarly interest includes the organizational aspects of innovation, new-product development for marketing strategy, the consumer side of the innovation adoption process, organizational learning in new-product development, moral hazard and adverse selection model, and research methodology using multivariate statistical techniques. His current research projects include creativity in new-product development, market orientation and innovation, consumer innovativeness, entrepreneurship and organizational learning in new-product development, the development of the creativity measure, the validation of the innovativeness measure, and the testing of nonlinear effects in structural equation modeling. He received his Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Subin worked in banking and semiconductor industries before he joined academia. Barry L. Bayus is a professor of marketing in the University of North Carolina's (UNC) Kenan-Flagler Business School. Prior to joining the marketing faculty at UNC, Barry worked in both industry and academia. He has also served as an expert witness in patent infringement cases involving high-tech products. His teaching and research interests are in the areas of new-product design and development, marketing analysis and strategy, and technological change. His recent research is concerned with the creation and evolution of new markets and the historical evolution of products, as well as new-product development issues such as speed to market, product life-cycle management, new-product preannouncements, product proliferation, firm entry, and exit timing in dynamically changing markets. Charlotte H. Mason is an associate professor of marketing in the University of North Carolina's Kenan-Flagler Business School, where she leads the MBA Customer and Product Management concentration. Her industry experience includes work for Procter & Gamble, Booz, Allen and Hamilton, as well as consulting projects. Her research focuses on the development and testing of marketing models and applications of multivariate statistics to marketing problems. She is currently investigating issues relating to the analysis and use of large customer databases as well as strategic issues surrounding customer portfolio management. Her research has been published inMarketing Science, theJournal of Marketing Research, theJournal of Consumer Research, Marketing Letters, theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, and theJournal of Business Research. She is on the review boards of theJournal of Marketing Research and theJournal of the Academy of Marketign Science and is coauthor (with William Perreault) ofThe Marketing Game!, a strategic marketing simulation.     

国内外休闲旅游与休闲城市研究述评

在对休闲内涵阐释的基础上,梳理了国内外关于休闲旅游与休闲城市研究的相关文献,发现国内休闲旅游及休闲城市研究成果呈现迅速增长的趋势,但是研究学科的角度较为单一,且以对策性建议为主.在此基础上,指出了休闲旅游与休闲城市研究努力的方向.     

大力发展消费信贷 积极倡导信用消费

近年来，随着经济的不断增长，中国消费信贷进入了快速发展阶段，不仅总量迅速上升，而且消费信贷品种呈现多元化发展。在简要分析了制约消费信贷发展的因素后，提出应采取的对策。     

Relationship marketing and the consumer

Conclusion Collectively, the responses of the individuals interviewed reveal that there is a multitude of reasons for participating in a marketing relationship. Although many of the reasons are cognitive in nature, many others are affective. This affective “dimension” of relationship marketing remains unexplored but would seem to offer great promise for explaining the long-term nature of a firm-consumer relationship. Moreover, a liberal interpretation of the collective responses of the interviewed individuals suggests an alternative fundamental axiom of relationship marketing consistent with the definition of Angeles (1992): Consumers enter into a marketing relationship because they expect to receive positive value from their participation. Acceptance of this axiom would seem to suggest a conceptualization and research agenda much broader and potentially more productive than that associated with the axiom currently being offered. Sheth and Parvatiyar have raised a question that, despite its obviousness in retrospect, has yet to be addressed satisfactorily. Hopefully their article will prove to be the genesis of an answer. Although no one is likely to agree with all of their propositions, or even their speculation that relationship marketing will ultimately improve marketing productivity, Sheth and Parvatiyar have done the discipline a service by focusing attention on a neglected topic. Indeed, what they have effectively done is to challenge the discipline to debate what they believe to be the fundamental axiom of relationship marketing in consumer markets. Regardless of the outcome of this debate, marketing knowledge will have advanced. A former editor of theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science and theJournal of Marketing Research, he is currently working on a new formula for determining sample size in surveys.     

论人类休闲社会与中国休闲产业

休闲社会是人类追求的发展目标.由休闲消费滋生的休闲产业,在全球范围引人注目.马克思主义的休闲学说,既是对人类进步的关怀,也是西方上个世纪产业结构调整、社会发展方向转变、休闲产业壮大的理论基础.中国经济的持续增长与国民生活质量的提高,以及科学发展观的实施,为中国的休闲与休闲产业的发展奠定了基础.     

Anticipatory consumer socialization

While most consumer socialization research has focused upon the development of consumer orientations that young people can enact, little research exists on how children and adolescents develop consumer orientations that have relevance for adult consumer behavior. This article addresses the concept of anticipatory consumer socialization by focusing on a variety of consumer cognitions and how they are acquired.     

Measuring consumer innovativeness

The development of a self-report scale to measure domain specific consumer innovativeness is described. A major problem faced by researchers interested in the diffusion of innovations has been the difficulty in measuring the innovativeness construct in a reliable and valid way. Several operationalizations have been proposed and are commonly used, yet none has received substantial evidence supporting its reliability and validity. A series of six studies describes the development and evaluation of a six-item, self-report scale to measure innovativeness within a specific domain of interest familiar to the consumer. The scale is shown to be easy to administer, highly reliable and valid, and adaptable across domains.     

Pre-release consumer buzz

“Buzz” during the period leading up to commercial release is commonly cited as a critical success factor for new products. But what exactly is buzz? Based on an extensive literature review and findings from a theories-in-use study (consumer depth interviews and focus groups), the authors argue that pre-release consumer buzz (PRCB) is not just a catchword or a synonym for “word of mouth” but is a distinct construct for which a precise, shared conceptual understanding is notably absent. The authors define PRCB as the aggregation of observable expressions of anticipation by consumers for a forthcoming new product; they conceptualize the construct as being manifested in three distinct types of behaviors (communication, search, and participation in experiential activities) along two dimensions (amount and pervasiveness). PRCB is unique because prior to, versus after, a product’s release, (1) differing information is available, (2) differing mental processes occur, and (3) consumers’ behaviors have differing effects on other consumers, affecting diffusion differently. A quantitative study using secondary data for 254 new products illustrates the performance of the theory-based conceptualization.     

Linking consumer behavior constructs to international marketing strategy: A comment on wills,samli, and jacobs and an extension

In a 1991 article by Wills, Samli, and Jacobs, a new approach to international marketing strategy development was presented. Two micro constructs, involvement and learning theory, and two macro constructs, cultural context and the diffusion process, were linked in an integrative matrix summarizing various tactics for promoting and distributing a VCR around the world, within the bounds of a global marketing strategy. This comment sharpens the focus and extends the thrust of their work. It examines their proposed research agenda, clarifies certain constructs, and suggests a reformulated approach to theory development. It also proposes an approach to segmenting the world market for VCRs, incorporating four levels of felt involvement and two rates of product learning. Finally, suggestions for future research are outlined. She received a Ph.D. in International Marketing from Bradford University Management Centre, England, and is bilingual in English and French. She has taught in England, France, and Morocco, and has published in theJournal of the Market Research Society, Journal of the Operational Research Society, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Business Research, International Marketing Review, Advances in International Marketing, International Journal of Advertising, European Journal of Marketing, and theJournal of Business and Industrial Marketing.