Changing the marketplace one behavior at a time: Perceived marketplace influence and sustainable consumption

This study introduces the construct of Perceived Marketplace Influence (PMI) and investigates its role in mediating the relationship between environmental concern and sustainable consumption behavior. A nationwide survey shows that Perceived Marketplace Influence plays an important role in mediating the relationship between concern and behavior, providing an explanation for prior inconsistencies in this relationship. Accordingly, Perceived Marketplace Influence plays a purposeful role in transforming environmental concern into behavior. This project extends previous research on the relationship between values, beliefs, and behavior by showing that one's perception of influence on the marketplace behavior of others significantly influences one's own marketplace behavior. Improved understanding of this relationship provides updated guidance to firms and policymakers for projecting and encouraging sustainable consumption behavior.     

Do consumers care about food miles? An empirical analysis in France

We conducted two qualitative surveys to identify whether food miles, defined as the distance that foodstuff travels between the production location and the consumption marketplace, matter for French consumers. First, two focus groups with ‘conventional’ consumers show that distance is a multidimensional concept, both positively and negatively perceived, and that most consumers are not concerned by food miles and their subsequent environmental impact. Second, 10 face‐to‐face interviews with consumers of locally grown organic food demonstrate that these consumers purchase local food for other reasons than reducing ‘food miles’ and buy imported organic food in spite of increased food miles. We shed light on this situation using theoretical concepts from economics and psychology. Some implications for policymakers and marketers are stressed.     

Perceived Marketplace Influence and Consumer Ethical Action

The present work presents two studies exploring the impact of perceived marketplace influence (PMI) on consumer decisions to engage in ethical marketplace action. Study 1 shows that PMI is associated with positive (negative) word‐of‐mouth in response to the ethical (unethical) actions of an organization. Study 2 shows that PMI is associated with the purchase of and willingness to pay for ethical products Fair Trade and philanthropy‐linked ethical products. Differences emerge between the two dimensions of PMI (PMI Consumer and PMI Organization) based on the hedonic or utilitarian features of the products. Results also show autonomous motivation to mediate the relationship between PMI and ethical intentions. We conclude with discussion of the implications of PMI for policy and consumer well‐being.     

‘Consumers’ Evaluation of Unethical Marketing Behaviors: The Role of Customer Commitment’

While there is a significant amount of research investigating managerial ethical judgments, a limited amount examines consumer judgments of unethical corporate behavior and its impact on the marketplace. This study examines how consumers’ commitment to a company impacts not only their ethical judgment of corporate behavior but also the outcomes of that judgment. The authors test hypotheses with data from 334 consumers and find that consumers’ level of commitment attenuates the level of perceived fairness. More specifically, highly committed consumers may forgive companies for behaviors when perceived harm is low, but become progressively dissatisfied as the level of perceived harm increases. Results of the study point to the importance of considering ethical behavior from a consumer perspective. If corporate actions are perceived as unethical, the company stands to lose favor with their most committed customers. Considering that more time, effort and investment is required to gain a new customer as to retain an old, this study shows that engaging in behavior perceived as unethical by consumers risks alienating the most committed customers.     

Examining Polish Market Mavens and Their Attitudes Toward Advertising

Abstract

In this paper, we offer some insights about Polish consumers with varying levels of general marketplace expertise, their role in diffusing product information, and their views of advertising. Market mavens are consumers who exhibit heightened interestin and knowledge about the marketplace. Because of their interest in communicating with others about the many aspects of the marketplace, these consumers can play an integral role for companies interested in diffusing marketing information. Our study results indicate that market mavens do indeed exist in Poland and they exhibit similar characteristics to market mavens identified in the U.S. They have more favorable attitudes toward advertising than other consumers. Additionally, they consider advertising as an important source of product and social image information. Although Polish mavens are less critical of advertising being misleading and confusing, they are concerned about advertising promoting materialistic values. Our findings imply that firms doing business in Poland would be well advised to target market mavens because they pay attention to advertising, have favorable attitudes toward advertising, and like to talk about marketplace phenomena with others.     

Experts and Amateurs: The Role of Experience in Internet Auctions

The use of auctions as a pricing mechanism has grown dramatically over the last few years. The introduction of electronic auctions has significantly widened the pool of consumers who participate in auctions and increased the number of companies attempting to sell their products in an auction format. Previous empirical research on auctions has focused almost exclusively on the behavior of professional bidders in high stakes common value auctions or the behavior of students in laboratory experiments. We collect data on a large number of electronic auctions, across four product categories, to explore the behavior of consumers bidding in a real marketplace. In particular, we focus on the role experience plays in their bidding behavior to uncover whether consumer learning drives the bidding process towards outcomes described in the theoretical literature on auctions. We find that experience does indeed lead to behavior which is more consistent with theory although the proportion of experienced bidders who behave in a manner inconsistent with theory remains quite large.     

Market mavens: Psychological influences

Market mavens are consumers who are highly involved in the marketplace and represent an important source of marketplace information to other consumers. Because of their influence on other consumers across a wide range of product domains, market mavens are particularly interesting to retailers. Previous studies have clarified the behavioral tendencies of market mavens. The present study focuses on psychological influences on market mavenism. A structural‐equation model of the normative influences on the psychology of the market maven is developed and tested. The hypothesized model describes relationships between global psychological constructs (self‐esteem, tendency to conform), consumer traits (susceptibility to interpersonal influence, consumer need for uniqueness), and a domain‐specific tendency (opinion leadership), placing the market maven construct in a normative, nomological network. The hypothesized model was supported by the data. The findings reveal the complexity of the market maven by disclosing their susceptibility to normative influence despite their need for uniqueness. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Consumer Self‐Confidence in Searching for Information

Consumer behavior is often driven by the extent to which consumers feel confident regarding their decisions, which frequently hinge, especially in high‐stakes situations, on their information search. This article examines a multidimensional self‐confidence concept to explore how consumer self‐confidence influences information search. Findings of a mail survey document that high‐confidence consumers engage in more intensive search activities and that demographic patterns shape consumer self‐confidence scores. The findings empirically support a multidimensional measurement of self‐confidence to predict search behavior and suggest avenues to enhance the self‐confidence needed to produce positive marketplace experiences.     

Extreme exclusion and relative deprivation in subsistence marketplaces: A study in a refugee settlement in Nakivale,Uganda

We study how refugees in a settlement face extreme marketplace exclusion through three phases of qualitative research. Overlaying the context of subsistence marketplaces, such exclusion is accentuated by refugee status, fleeing from unimaginable suffering. We interpret our findings in terms of relative deprivation, or the state of feeling deprived relative to some social reference, often used to understand how consumers feel deprived in terms of their relative financial status. We extend relative deprivation theory in research, introducing extreme marketplace deprivation. Whereas most relative deprivation research emphasizes social comparisons to other people, our study of the refugee settlement demonstrates the adverse effects of intrapersonal relative deprivation, that is, feeling deprived relative to one's past. We develop a theoretical framework to demarcate types of extreme marketplace deprivation, classifying these experiences in terms of consumption and livelihood along three facets (material, social, and psychological). We derive implications for consumer affairs.     

A Micromodel of New Product Adoption with Heterogeneous and Forward-Looking Consumers: Application to the Digital Camera Category

We develop an empirical model for the adoption process of a new durable product that accounts for consumer heterogeneity as well as consumers forward-looking behavior. Accounting for heterogeneity is important for two reasons. As the mix of consumers with different preferences and price sensitivities could change over time, firms need to update their marketing strategies. Further, it allows for a variety of shapes for the aggregate adoption process over time. As prices for durable and technology products fall over time with firms continually introducing enhanced products, consumers may anticipate these prices and improvements and delay their purchases in the product category. Forward-looking consumers optimize purchase timing by trading off their utilities from buying the product and their expectations on future prices, quality levels, and brand availability. Such forward-looking behavior will result in price dynamics in the marketplace as price changes today influence future purchases. And it results in different shapes of the new product sales pattern over time by influencing the time to take-off. We show how the parameters of our model can be estimated using aggregate data on the sales, prices, and attributes of brands in a product category. We apply our model to market data from the digital camera category. Our data are consistent with the presence of both heterogeneity and forward looking behavior among consumers. At the product category level, we are able to decompose the effects of the entry of Sony into primary demand expansion and switching from other brands. At the brand level, we find that there exist several segments in the market with different preferences for the brands and different price sensitivities leading to differences in adoption timing and brand choice across segments. For a given brand, we show how the changing customer mix over time has implications for that brands pricing strategies. We characterize how price effects vary across brands and over time and how price changes in a given time period influence sales in subsequent periods. Model comparison and validation results are also provided.     

Consumer perceptions of carbon labeling in print advertising: Hype or effective communication strategy?

Eco-labels are being used more frequently in the marketplace. Recently, carbon-neutral labels have emerged on product packaging and advertisements as a popular form of eco-label. How consumers view these specific labels is of both conceptual and practical interest. Therefore, in a mixed-experimental design building on congruity theory and Deighton's two-step model of advertising effectiveness, the authors examine how consumers view the credibility and environmental concern of companies who use these labels, as well as their resulting purchase intentions. A 2(product) × 2(label) × 3(information) mixed design was used to examine consumer perceptions and behavior intentions. Product category (environmentally neutral vs. environmentally harmful) was a within-subjects factor; the presence/absence of the carbon-neutral label and information (positive/negative/control) was both manipulated between-subjects factors. Results show that the presence of a carbon-neutral label in an advertisement, regardless of the type of product, leads to more favorable perceptions of company environmental concern. However, there is a more pronounced increase in consumer perceptions of company environmental concern for an environmentally harmful product than for an environmentally neutral product.     

Consumer consumption intentions of smaller packaged snack variants

Smaller snack package variants are ubiquitous in the food marketplace. Although it is assumed that consumers intend to consume less because snacks are placed into smaller packages, consumer intentions are never measured. This research examines dietary‐restrained consumers' consumption intentions of smaller snack package variants found in the marketplace described by snack type (i.e. less healthy, more healthy – as per Guiding Stars® food labelling system) and front‐of‐package calorie labelling (99 calories, 100 calories). We conducted an online experiment wherein 203 participants were exposed to the aforementioned snack package variants and their consumption intentions were subsequently measured. A regression analysis revealed that consumers who are highly dietary restrained intend to consume more when (a) the snack is relatively healthier and (b) it includes 99‐calorie front‐of‐package labelling. We discuss the idea that dietary‐restrained consumers are not likely to view smaller packaged snacks as portion control devices, but rather, as a means to eat more of a healthier food.     

Organics: marketplace icon

This essay explores and debates the status of organics as a marketplace icon. Organic products are somewhat unique in having a place in both mainstream and niche markets. The breadth of organic products and sales continue to rise, and certification processes have become more sophisticated, stringent and successful. Organics are loved and loathed by consumers, and loved and loathed (and often parodied) in popular culture. The market is both friend and enemy of organic products and organic consumers. What organics mean is complicated and confusing, and their benefits for both the natural environment and human health are contested. Scrutiny of organics allows us to explore how the relationship between regulations, the market and popular culture contribute to the development of an icon, firmly rooted in the marketplace, while also maintaining its status as ambivalent commodity. I conclude that organics are indeed marketplace icons – but decline to offer advice on whether or not I recommend becoming an organic consumer (despite my own avid purchase of all things organic).     

Low literacy,policy and consumer vulnerability: Are we really doing enough?

A perennial issue in transformative consumer research and public policy is the plight of low‐literate vulnerable consumers. Low‐literate consumers have been observed misinterpreting labels, misusing products and purchasing the wrong item, which leads to devastating outcomes as they continue to make poor decisions out of ignorance. Based on a thorough review of past studies on consumer literacy and vulnerability, we explore how stigma and attribution operate as underlying mechanisms for influencing how low‐literate consumers behave in the marketplace. This paper problematises blanket statements that all low‐literate consumers are vulnerable and addresses the possibility that universal policy actions may inadvertently create further marginalization for those it is meant to protect. Our paper contributes by introducing a new typology of low‐literate consumer vulnerability to challenge conventional understandings of who the vulnerable consumers are in relation to their literacy level and actual marketplace behaviour. From a policy standpoint, the insights gained from our review speak to the need for differentiating low‐literate consumers in terms of their status of vulnerability, which inform public policy initiatives and effective consumer education for their empowerment and protection.     

Purchase power: An examination of consumption as voting

Abstract

There has been a reported increase in political activity through the marketplace in the form of ‘consumer votes’. The use of marketplace votes by consumers to address their concerns about societal issues is a phenomenon that has growing relevance for firms, since they are often affected by such consumer citizenship. Therefore, this paper aims to enhance our conceptual understanding of the consumer voting phenomenon. It explores marketplace power relations and the constraints and enabling mechanisms they may pose to consumers seeking change through consumer voting. Consumer voting practices, consumer sovereignty discourses, and power tensions in marketplace encounters are examined in relation to Foucault's notions of power, technologies of the self, and governmentality. Foucault provides a critical lens to illuminate the potential for consumer resistance, an approach that so far has been somewhat neglected by the extant marketing and consumer research literature.     

Narratives of technology consumption in the face of marketplace discrimination

This study presents a phenomenological inquiry into the lived experiences of discriminated consumers to understand how they liberate themselves from offline marketplace discrimination. We explore the critical role that information technology plays to facilitate this process, revealing how discriminated consumers use technology to prepare for battle offline, temporarily seek refuge online, and withdraw permanently online. Our findings have implications to the technology consumption literature by highlighting how discriminated consumers may adopt technological consumption practices that allow them to successfully navigate the marketplace.     

Social stratification and mobility among Chinese middle class households: An empirical investigation

Middle class (MC) consumers’ demand for a better quality of life continues to drive economic growth in emerging markets (EMs). Given their importance for the dynamically transforming economy in EMs, the present study examines the extent to which consumption patterns are associated with social stratification and mobility among China's MC consumers. Building on the extant literature that links material and culture consumption to social stratification, we construct a typology of MC households in contemporary China, identifying the factors by which these newly emerging MC households vary or are similar in their consumption behavior. We find that, of the three widely recognized stratifying dimensions (income, education, and occupation), educational attainment is the strongest indicator explaining the variance in culture consumption among the MC households, while occupation plays a relatively weak role in explaining their consumption patterns. Among the alternative pathways into the social class position of MC, our findings suggest that merely becoming wealthy is negatively related to culture consumption of these new MC households while becoming MC defined by educational attainment or belonging to the core middle class (whose status is achieved on all of the three stratifying dimensions) has a profound effect on both material and culture consumption. The findings support the conclusion that social stratification and mobility are of importance for China's MC consumers in shaping and maintaining their lifestyles and consumption patterns.     

Providing assets in the sharing economy: Low childhood socioeconomic status as a barrier

In the past few decades, the modern marketplace has offered consumers a proliferation of models for consumption based on sharing and access. Extant literature provides systematic examinations of motives for consuming products through the sharing economy on the demand side, but factors that affect consumers' asset-providing decisions on the supply side remain understudied. The current paper explores whether the socioeconomic environment one grew up in might produce a long-lasting impact on willingness to sharing one’s unused assets. Results from the analysis of a national-level field dataset and six preregistered studies (combined N = 45,289) reveal that lower childhood socioeconomic status can hinder consumers’ asset-providing behavior, an effect that holds beyond the influence of other factors such as current SES and asset availability. We identify greater territorial feelings towards one’s assets as a central mechanism driving the decreased asset-providing behavior of consumers with a lower childhood socioeconomic background, and we show that asset providers’ closeness to potential borrowers attenuates the negative impact of lower childhood SES.     

Consumer issues in the evolving environment: characterizations of the U.K. marketplace

It is now 10 years since Greyser and Diamond¹ published their study which examined how U.S. consumers viewed the marketplace. This study, to some extent, is a reprise. It aims to provide an insight into how the U.K.'s marketplace is characterized by household consumers, private and public sector organizations. The result suggests that fundamental changes have occurred in the perception of the marketplace, with less visible consumer activism and less overt support for antibusiness sentiments.