The Hierarchy of Consumer Participation: Knowledge and Proficiency in Telecommunications Decision Making

This paper establishes a “hierarchy of consumer participation” that has striking parallels to the hierarchy of political involvement developed by Milbrath (1965, 1982). Analysis of consumer decision making required by the deregulation of telecommunications shows that independence of decision making, propensity to use sources of information, and propensity to influence others' decisions are highly interrelated. Four main types of consumers are identified: consumer influentials, active consumers, dependent consumers, and nondecision makers. The levels of consumer participation should be highly salient in defining targets and programs for consumer research, education, protection, and policymaking.     

Social media adoption behaviour: Consumer innovativeness and participation intention

With the emergence of social media, the trends of selfies have become common across various social networking platforms as a distinctive way of self-presentation. It has aroused the interest of various scholars to comprehend the consumer adoption behaviour for social media. Thus, built on the innovation diffusion theory (IDT) and theory of planned behaviour (TPB) perspective, this paper developed a model to empirically test whether and how critical factors of consumer selfie-posting behavioural intention on social media affect behavioural intention and word-of-mouth to consequently enhancing their adoption behaviour towards social media to post selfies. The data were gathered from 353 young consumers who post their selfies clicked via smartphone on their social media accounts. The results revealed that consumer innovativeness and participation intention directly and indirectly affect consumer adoption behaviour for social media to post their selfies. Additionally, the study identified that among all critical factors, participation intention and perceived behaviour control have strongest influence on behavioural intention to post selfies followed by consumer innovativeness, attitude towards selfie-posting and subjective norms. The study contributes to the extension of TPB by adding participation intention and positive WOM, adoption of social media. This research validated the significant roles of consumer innovativeness, participation intention, positive WOM and intention to post selfies in predicting the adoption behaviour. Practitioners and marketers of social media sites can improve the usability and effectiveness of positive WOM and intention to post selfies to attract more young consumers.     

Rethinking value co-creation and loyalty in virtual travel communities: How and when they develop

For marketers of virtual travel communities (VTCs), a vital issue is to understand how to maintain consumer stickiness and loyalty. Although existing studies have tried to explore this issue, researchers have not given detailed and specific answers from the value co-creation theoretic lens. Therefore, the present paper aims to bridge this research gap by investigating the relationship among consumer trust in VTCs, consumer co-creation behaviors and their loyalty. The moderating impact of community service quality (CSQ) on loyalty is also explored. Data from a two-wave survey were collected from 214 active users in a Chinese VTC (Mafengwo) and then analyzed using the ordinary least squares (OLS) technique with STATA 13. Results indicated that (1) consumer trust positively impacts on two dimensions of value co-creation behavior, namely, breadth participation and depth participation. (2) Depth participation is more conducive to cultivating both attitudinal and behavioral loyalty, while breadth participation has an inverted U-shaped influence on behavioral loyalty. (3) CSQ positively moderates the relationship between depth participation and attitudinal loyalty. But after controlling for the effect of attitudinal loyalty on behavioral loyalty, this study found that CSQ negatively moderates the relationship between depth participation and behavioral loyalty. This paper developed a comprehensive framework involving antecedent and consequence of consumer co-creation behavior and showed the importance of CSQ as a key boundary condition, enriching the existing VTC and consumer loyalty research from the perspective of value co-creation and trust theory. Corresponding practical implications and limitations are also discussed.     

Cause-Relating Marketing: The Effects of Purchase Quantity and Firm Donation Amount on Consumer Inferences and Participation Intentions

A conceptual model for a cause-related marketing (CRM) campaign, which examines the effects of purchase quantity and firm donation amount on consumer perceptions of the firm (i.e., firm motive and corporate social responsibility) and participation intentions, is developed and tested in three separate studies. In Study 1, we find the positive effect of firm donation amount on participation intentions was fully mediated by consumer inferences about the firm and the negative effect of purchase quantity on participation intentions was only partially mediated by these inferences. In Study 2, and consistent with the persuasion knowledge model, we demonstrate that the effects of purchase quantity on firm inferences and subsequent participation intentions are moderated by consumer participation effort where higher participation requirements (e.g., mail-in proof-of-purchase) yield more negative purchase quantity effects. We extend the model in Study 3 to incorporate multiple exchange mechanisms and find that although purchase quantity does affect participation intentions by social exchange, the effects of purchase quantity are primarily the result of the economic exchange. Recommendations for the design of cause-related marketing campaigns and for future research are discussed.     

Segments of sustainable food consumers: a literature review

Sustainable food consumption is an important aspect of sustainable development. When adopting a sustainable food lifestyle, consumers are confronted with complex choices. Today's food consumption is too complex to be explained by socio‐demographic factors exclusively. A broader perspective is needed. In order to explain behaviour across different consumer segments better, relatively homogenous segments of food consumers were identified by segmenting food consumers based on a wide range of variables. The current study aims to provide an overview of published studies that have segmented consumers with regard to sustainable food consumption. The literature review has been conducted by searching SciVerse Scopus for all relevant articles available until November 2010. The main criterion for including a specific study was the inclusion of empirical analyses of primary data, resulting in consumer segments with regard to sustainable food consumption. Sixteen articles were incorporated in the final analysis. First, the variables used for segmentation and profiling in the included articles have been categorized into three levels of abstraction: personality characteristics, food‐related lifestyles and behaviour. The three levels of abstraction proved to be helpful in categorizing the segmentation studies. The findings indicate that variables on all three levels were efficient in differentiating consumer segments regarding sustainability. In addition, the importance of price and health differed across the segments, although these variables are only indirectly related to sustainability. Second, the three most frequently identified consumer segments with regard to sustainable food consumption were: ‘greens’, ‘potential greens’ and ‘non‐greens’. These segments differed from one another on all three levels of abstraction. This implies that future segmentation studies should include variables on all levels of abstraction to get a complete picture of existing sustainable consumer segments. Marketers should be aware that targeting specific segments based on socio‐demographic variables exclusively is not sufficient. Personality characteristics, lifestyle and behaviour are all important to take into consideration. Attempts at stimulating sustainable consumption might be most effective when differences across consumer segments are taken into account. Future research is needed to explore the characteristics of different sustainable food consumer segments with respect to their potential contributions in promoting sustainable development.     

Consumer Credit Risk and Pricing

Previous academic studies viewed borrower rejection as a sign of market imperfections in the consumer credit markets, but this view was based upon the assumption that differences in the levels of borrower creditworthiness could not be accurately identified. Today, it is possible to differentiate between types of borrowers, and riskier borrowers can participate in credit markets if they are willing to pay relatively higher borrowing costs. Hence, a more critical issue concerning the performance of these markets should be whether loan prices correctly reflect the level of borrower credit risk. This paper reexamines consumer participation in credit markets looking specifically at issues related to the pricing of borrowers of different credit risk.     

Reconstructing consumer participation in evidence‐based health care: a polemic

Consumer participation in the evidence‐based health‐care movement is largely seen as important by those who promote evidence‐based health care but is surrounded by a range of competing discourses that variously critique medicine, nursing or health‐care systems; situate consumers as powerless players within systems characterized by controlling health professionals; or politicize the role of the consumer as activist and defender of patient rights. This paper explores these competing discourses and develops an argument that asserts that the social construction of the evidence‐based movement has rendered previously accepted terminology regarding the user or receiver of health services relatively meaningless. The result has been the ‘politicisation’ and ‘professionalisation’ of consumer participation and the time has come to reconstruct consumer participation in evidence‐based health care – from the generation of evidence to guideline development.     

Can conscious consumption be learned? The role of Hungarian consumer protection education in becoming conscious consumers

The purpose of this research is to examine how consumer consciousness can be defined, along what dimensions it might be measured and, according to these dimensions, how conscious Hungarian university students are. In addition, it is also discussed how their consumer protection education might contribute to their consumer consciousness. Two hypotheses have been proposed concerning factors potentially affecting conscious consumer behaviour (gender; participation in consumer protection education). To test these hypotheses, a questionnaire survey has been conducted with a total of 280 respondents, whom are undergraduate students of a Hungarian university. It is found that different aspects of consciousness dominate the consumer decisions of females and males. Female respondents appear to be characterized more by hedonistic consumption but they are more price sensitive than males. Veblen effect is stronger for males, and they have greater trust in well‐known brands. Although the survey revealed that both research variables might affect consumer behaviour (not only gender but the participation in consumer protection education as well), the role of education cannot be unambiguously identified in the process of establishing consumer consciousness. On the one hand, the results show that the behaviour of ‘trained’ consumers is mainly characterized by price sensitiveness, while the other (‘non‐educated’) group is more reliant on marketing and brands. However, on the other hand, it might also be concluded that young adults participating in the survey already have their own consumer habits and preferences; therefore, their consumer behaviour is more difficult to be formed by means of education during their university years. These findings are nevertheless limited to Hungarian university students and cannot be generalized to the entire society or other countries.     

Can we learn to live differently? Lessons from Going for Green: a case study of Merthyr Tydfil (South Wales)

Participation at the local level is an important factor in determining the success of programmes developed to achieve sustainable development. This paper is concerned with debates over the role of the individual citizen in relation to that participatory process. In particular, it focuses on the UK Governments’ citizens environmental initiative ‘Going for Green’ (GFG). Through this initiative a five‐point Green Code was developed to assist in the delivery of its sustainable development message to the general public. The initiative's overall approach to participation was based on an assumption that the primary barrier to translating environmental concern into local action was a lack of information, and that individuals would respond to messages in a similar way. As a research strategy, the case study was used to evaluate how the initiatives’ pilot Sustainable Communities Project was implemented in two comparative geographical communities in Merthyr Tydfil (South Wales). Research findings from this study have demonstrated that the case study was invaluable in terms of understanding the participatory process and experiences of broad a range of community stakeholders. Promoting a single model of participation, GFG was found to restrict the participatory process in terms of who was encouraged to participate, the scope of their participation, and those outcomes that could be achieved. This paper concludes that if significant progress is to be made in relation to achieving sustainable development, the role of the individual citizen needs to be extended beyond that of a consumer of the environment, and involve active participation in a process that is based on collective action.     

Sustainable consumption

Participation at the local level is an important factor in determining the success of programmes developed to achieve sustainable development. This paper is concerned with debates over the role of the individual citizen in relation to that participatory process. In particular, it focuses on the UK government's citizens’ environmental initiative ‘Going for Green’. Through this initiative a five‐point Green Code was developed to assist in the delivering of its sustainable development message. The initiative's overall approach to participation was based on an assumption that the primary barrier to translating environmental concern into local action was a lack of information, and individuals would respond to messages in a similar way. As a research strategy, the case study was used to evaluate methods and processes used to implement the initiative's pilot Sustainable Communities Project in two comparative geographical communities in Merthyr Tydfil (South Wales). Research findings from this study have demonstrated that the case study was invaluable in terms of understanding the participatory process and experiences of a broad range of community stakeholders. Promoting a single model of participation was found to restrict the participatory process in terms of who was encouraged to participate, the scope of their participation, and those outcomes that could be achieved. This paper concludes that if significant progress is to be made in relation to achieving sustainable development, the role of individual citizens needs to be extended beyond that of a consumer of the environment, and also include active participation in a process that is based on collective action.     

Consumer Complaining and Community Involvement: An Exploration of Their Theoretical and Empirical Linkages

Drawing upon Smith's [16] participation theory, it is proposed that consumers who complain are also very likely to be active in other areas of social, economic and political life. The relationship between consumer complaining behavior and political and citizen participation is investigated in this paper. Using data from a 1980 survey of Pennsylvania adults, it was found that complaining behavior was significantly related to community involvement in a multivariate analysis in which other key variables were controlled. Implications are explored for both consumer education and the study of consumer complaining behavior.     

Permission Marketing and Privacy Concerns — Why Do Customers (Not) Grant Permissions?

Little is known about the influence of motivators that drive consumers to grant permission to be contacted via personalized communication. In this study, a framework is developed to investigate the effect of select drivers of consumers granting permission to receive personalized messages. The authors distinguish between drivers related to benefit and cost to the consumers. They identify the influence of perceived personal relevance, entertainment, and consumer information control as well as monetary incentives and lottery participation as benefit-related factors. Cost-related factors entail the registration process, privacy concerns, and perceived intrusiveness. The authors find that, except for monetary incentives and lottery participation, the identified drivers significantly influence consumers' decision to grant permission. The strong negative influence of privacy concerns on the probability of granting permission can be lessened by two benefit-related factors, namely message content with entertainment value or personal relevance for the consumer. The study helps to improve firm measures aimed at getting more permissions — granted by customers for interactive campaigns.     

Canadian university consumer studies courses: a content analysis

This study entailed a content analysis of Canadian university consumer courses offered in 14 human ecology, home economics or related programmes using the Classification System for Consumer Concepts (Classi)¹. Both the baseline data and the refined research methodology fill a gap in the literature as there has not been an examination of consumer studies university courses or curricula in Canada. The three aspects of consumer education (decision making, resource management and citizen participation) are evident in the collection of 58 courses. However, a small number of the 154 Classi concepts received an inordinate amount of coverage in the course outlines leading one to conclude, rightly so or not, that many relevant concepts are under or totally unrepresented. Focus seemed to be on: (a) consumer decision making and marketplace behaviour (especially consumer behaviour); then (b) family and household resource management (especially financial planning); rather than (c) activism, advocacy and protection. Preliminary analysis suggests that the courses seem to be preparing graduates for careers in consumer studies (applied science) and consumer science (basic science) more so than consumer affairs.     

Consumer participation in using online recommendation agents: effects on satisfaction,trust, and purchase intentions

Online product recommendation agents (RAs) are gaining greater strategic importance as a critical touch-point between marketers and consumers. Yet, the role of consumer participation in using RAs has not been examined. This study shows that greater consumer participation in using an RA leads to more satisfaction, greater trust, and higher purchase intentions, related to the RA and its recommendations. In contrast, the financial risk (associated with the product under consideration) reduces satisfaction, trust, and purchase intentions, and it also moderates the effect of consumer participation on these same variables. The findings extend the literature and suggest actionable implications for marketing strategy.     

Investigating the antecedents of customer brand engagement and consumer-based brand equity in social media

The current research is concerned with identifying and testing the role of three main predictors: consumer involvement, consumer participation, and self-expressive brand on the customer brand engagement (CBE). The customer brand engagement is treated in the current study as multidimensional constructs comprising three main aspects: cognitive processing (CP), affection (AF), and activation (AC). It was also proposed a direct influence for these three aspects of CBE on consumer-based brand equity (CBBE). Using online surveys, we gathered data from fans/followers of mobile phone service providers, via Facebook fan pages in Jordan. The data were analysed using structural equation modelling. Based on structural equation modelling analyses (SEM), it was supported that CBE aspects were largely predicted by the role of consumer involvement (INV), consumer participation (COP), and self-expressive brand (SEB). However, we find that activation impact one dimension of the CBBE dimensions, namely, brand loyalty. Further, we find that brand awareness/associations affect perceived quality but not brand loyalty. To validate the CBE scale, future studies could investigate the impact of the scale using other social media platforms for different brands. The limited amount of empirical research on CBE was the motivation behind this research. In particular, there is no study that has investigated the main predictors of CBE and its consequences over developing context by proposing and testing the association between the antecedents of CBE with the dimensions of CBE, which in turn affect the dimensions of CBBE.     

Variations in the contractual terms of cooperative advertising contracts: An empirical investigation

Cooperative advertising arrangements between manufacturers and resellers contain two principal components in their payment schedules: a participation rate and an accrual rate. We analyze 2,156 cooperative advertising plans to see how they vary across consumer and industrial products, as well as between convenience and nonconvenience consumer products. We also study how participation and accrual rates vary by the level of manufacturer concentration across product categories. We find that both participation and accrual rates are higher for consumer products than for industrial products and within consumer products are higher for convenience products than for nonconvenience products. We find mixed results for the effect of manufacturer concentration on these rates. We discuss how these results are consistent with existing perspectives on cooperative advertising.     

Chronic consumer debtors: the need for specific intervention

Many studies of consumer debtors have identified risk factors associated with chronic consumer debt. Chronic consumer debtors exist in an environment of ongoing efforts to survive financially and meet their debt commitments. Despite otherwise favourable economic conditions for the community at large such as low interest rates and low levels of unemployment, the chronic consumer debtor remains continuously at peril of overcommitment. An analysis of financial counselling interviews in New South Wales (the largest state in Australia) has been used to identify the group that the authors believe to be most at risk of chronic consumer debt in Australia. Other independent studies are provided to support the choice of the identified group. The situation for chronic consumer debtors is contrasted to the situation for acute cases. While financial literacy and support programmes can be provided to the community, the ability to target programmes towards a specifically identifiable group concentrates activities on measures aimed to alleviate the distress caused by ongoing financial hardship for one particular consumer group. The challenge of reducing chronic consumer debt has the potential to raise awareness and understanding of risk factors for consumer debtors generally. Thus, concentrated efforts towards alleviating chronic consumer debt may lead to a reduction in consumer financial overcommitment.     

The Effect of Consumer Participation on Price Sensitivity

This study examined the noneconomic factors affecting consumers’ participation in purchase decisions, focusing in particular on the social aspect of the buyer‐seller interaction. In addition, we attempted to clarify the association between consumer participation and price sensitivity. Of the four social dimensions of consumer participation—preparation, relationship building, information exchange, and intervention—our results indicated that the first three dimensions are negatively associated with price sensitivity but the intervention dimension is not. Additionally, we also found that, given the same level of preparation, industries typically characterized by higher participation, such as hair salons, are associated with lower consumer price sensitivity as compared to those typically characterized by lower participation, such as fast food restaurants. Similarly, given the same level of relationship building, information exchange, and intervention, industries typically characterized by higher participation have lower consumer price sensitivity than those typically characterized by lower participation.     

Low involvement,low price and low quality image renegotiated – a case study of staple food package design

The food sector is identified as one of the fastest growing industries introducing package innovations and new package designs. This article is based on a packaging development project of a food company producing eggs. The case presents the company's first-time engagement with package development. The materials generated during development project serve as a starting point for an interpretive single case study. The units of analysis are three perspectives identified by the various research as essential for the packaging development project. These are the food company's, an outsourced branding and packaging consultants' and that of the consumers'. This study is motivated by how the package attributes are perceived as meaningful in the particular context and by how the package attributes are created when a low involvement primary food product package is developed. The exposition of case study findings is organised according to a theory-led literature review outlining the essential package attributes and a project-led case describing how these attributes were created during the project. The results show signs of substantial qualitative differences in contribution of the participants as well as the quality of information they provided for the package development. Moreover, findings on packaging development indicate that the practical interplay between company, external consultancy and information generated by the consumer research provide together a backed up and sharper view on packaging development decisions made during the project.