Transformative service research and service design: synergistic effects in healthcare

ABSTRACT

This conceptual paper answers the question: How do we design service experiences in whole to increase the well-being of all participants in the healthcare system – patients, families, and caregivers? In order to do so, we position service design as an essential tool and even a mindset needed for transformative service research success. We discuss the transformative role service design plays in improving service and consumer entities’ well-being with a focus on how this approach can lead to improved healthcare service outcomes. We also add to the conversation surrounding service and consumer entities’ well-being by broadening the concept and application of service design to consider social, existential, psychological, and physical well-being. We particularly explore how healthcare services can benefit from further consumer engagement and collaborative patient–provider relationships, two key factors essential for redesigning the industry.     

Why buy new when one can share? Exploring collaborative consumption motivations for consumer goods

The notion of collaborative consumption or sharing economy—where consumers share access to ownership of properties such as cars, clothes and accommodations—has gained tremendous popularity in recent years. Development of communication technologies and peer‐to‐peer communities has enabled consumers to coordinate sharing activities through various online platforms. Collaborative consumption involves sharing of both intangible (e.g., music, space and car rides) and tangible assets (e.g., household items, clothes and furniture). Activities such as renting, swapping, trading and purchasing/selling used consumer goods are included in the latter. Despite increasing academic attention on collaborative consumption, little research has been pursued in the context of consumer goods. The nature of consumption for tangible goods can be entirely different from that of intangible goods because people can exercise greater control over tangible goods, which results in greater psychological ownership than that for intangible goods. To address this gap, the objective of this study is to develop a scale that examines consumer motivations for collaborative consumption of consumer goods. Following Churchill's paradigm of scale development, the procedures of scale item generation, purification and validation were conducted via in‐depth interviews, literature review and surveys. The study identified five underlying dimensions of collaborative consumption of consumer goods: concern‐for‐sustainability, social, variety‐seeking, fun and cost‐saving. Study findings and implications are discussed, and future research avenues are suggested.     

The hidden agenda: emotions in grocery shopping

In this paper, we demonstrate the complexity of consumer decision-making within the supermarket and use videographic techniques to gain greater insight into this. We propose that grocery shopping, often perceived as a routine behavior, can in fact, become quite complex. The broad pattern emerging from our study was that the less time the participant spent looking at the shelves, the less emotion displayed. Where there was longer time spent, there was also increasing physical interaction with the product and a greater display of mostly negative emotion. We suggest that this presents a conundrum for retailers. Does the lack of emotion indicate little or no commitment to the store and/or brand? Or are they so loyal there is no need for consumer engagement? This exploration suggests that further insight can be gained if the emphasis is on how the consumer interacts with their brands rather than assuming that all grocery decisions are predictive.     

The “right to consume”? Re-thinking the dynamics of exclusion/inclusion in consumer society

ABSTRACT

Consumption is a political relationship. This article considers competing political discourses around consumption as different versions of a hypothetical right to consume. In the first section, we consider how the domain of consumption can express the critical potential of the “right to the city,” a concept inspired by Henri Lefebvre that has had widespread influence in urban studies and related fields. In the second section we consider how the right to consume can also become a bulwark for capitalist ideologies of an individualistic and destructive right to consume. A third section concludes on recent trends in consumption studies that point to ways that capitalism seeks to assuage and manage these tensions through ongoing innovations in consumer technology and finance. New questions about rights and democracy must emerge to confront this new techno-economy of consumer relations. In short, while we affirm the right to consume for the most vulnerable, we also insist on deconstructing the system of consumption as it is currently configured.     

More than meets the eye: videography and production of desire in semiocapitalism

ABSTRACT

In the light of the recent proliferation of interest in videographic methods in marketing and consumer research, we wish to make a call for thinking critically about the medium. In this article, we challenge traditional means of semiotic analysis and consider contexts outside aesthetic symbolism that take into account wider agencements of videographic inquiry. We sensitise thinking about videographic production to include a broad scope of influence beyond production and spectatorship. By positing a mode of desiring relationalities in ‘semiocapitalist’ markets, and through the illustrative example of pop-music videos, we show how videography not only produces symbols, but also has the tendency to discipline the viewer into particular subjective positions. We hope to add to the conceptual toolkit of aspiring video scholars and encourage them to be increasingly critical and reflexive about their potential impact.     

Consumer spirituality

ABSTRACT

Consumers increasingly turn to the marketplace in search of spiritual well-being. In this introduction to the special issue, we unpack the concept of consumer spirituality. We define consumer spirituality as the interrelated practices and processes engaged in when consuming market offerings (products, services, places) that yield 'spiritual utility'. The market offerings are purposely designed to quench consumers’ thirst for meaningful encounters with one’s inner self or a higher external power. We identify three vehicles – materiality, embodiment, and technology – that consumers engage with to access consumer spirituality. By unpacking the concept of consumer spirituality along three themes - (1) shaping markets for consumer spirituality, (2) the means for accessing consumer spirituality, and (3) making sense of and researching consumer spirituality - we provide a future research agenda to advance scholarly explorations of consumer spirituality and to facilitate a systematic development of this nascent body of literature in marketing and consumer research.     

Reframing gender and feminist knowledge construction in marketing and consumer research: missing feminisms and the case of men and masculinities

Abstract

Gender has been theorised and studied in many ways and across different disciplines. Although a number of these theorisations have been recognised and adopted in marketing and consumer research, the significance of feminism in knowledge construction has largely remained what we would call ‘unfinished’. Based on a critical reframing of gender research in marketing and consumer research, in dialogue with feminist theory, this article offers theoretical and practical suggestions for how to reinvigorate these research efforts. The analysis highlights dominant theorisations of gender, relating to gender as variable, difference and role; as fundamental difference and structuring; and as cultural and identity constructions. This reframing emphasises various neglected or ‘missing feminisms’, including queer theory; critical race, intersectional and transnational feminisms; material-discursive feminism; and critical studies on men and masculinities. A more detailed discussion of the latter, as a relatively new, growing and politically contentious area, is further developed to highlight more specifically which feminist and gender theories are mainly in use in marketing and consumer research and which are little or not used. In the light of this, it is argued that marketing and related disciplines have thus far largely neglected several key contemporary gender and feminist theorisations, particularly those that centre on gender power relations. The potential impact of these theoretical frames on transdisciplinary studies in marketing and consumer research and research agenda(s) is discussed.     

Exploring consumer attitudes to online collaborative consumption: A typology of collaborative consumer profiles

Online collaborative consumption enhances peer networks, members of which communicate, collaborate, and even deliver services to one another via digital sharing platforms. Despite the tremendous increase in collaborative consumption, due in large part to the development of the Internet, the reality of the economic and social movements that underpin this trend is much less visible. Of course, not all consumers seek collaborative consumption or interact through online platforms. Using a qualitative approach, this paper aims to investigate motivational factors and barriers against collaborative consumption and to establish a typology of collaborative consumer profiles, identifying the most suitable type of online sharing platforms for each profile. The findings reveal the following collaborative consumer profiles: committed, pragmatists, intermittent, and skeptical, each demonstrating different preferences for the different type of online sharing platform.     

Is consumer psychology research ready for today’s attention economy?

ABSTRACT

Attention has become an area of major interest in marketing research as a dependent or moderating variable. In this article, we argue for respondent attention as a pivotal part of any consumer psychology research protocol and highlight the risks of not incorporating realistic attention components into research design. We propose four areas where this approach can help the external validity of consumer psychology research. Our recommendations include accounting for variability in the baseline attention levels; smart use of distractions; allowing for variability in attention over the task and avoiding attention leading/assumptive questions.     

Spiritual myths of consumption: puritanism,transcendentalism and the consubstantiation of the American consumer

ABSTRACT

Contemporary consumer trends in America are profoundly influenced by the enduring religious values of Puritanism and the more secular spiritual values of Transcendentalism. Both belief systems have deeply penetrated American collective memory. While they share common historical roots, the tensions that emerge from their differences describe a typology of three enduring collective myths of American culture – the Myth of the American Dream, the Myth of the American Adam and the Myth of American Exceptionalism. These myths, in turn, define three contemporary consumer movements – Voluntary Simplicity, Transformational Consumption and Radical Consumption.     

New identities from remnants of the past: an examination of the history of beer brewing in Ontario and the recent emergence of craft breweries

Abstract

We present an exploratory analysis of historical narratives and data covering 200 years of beer brewing in the Canadian province of Ontario. These data are used to illuminate the process of collective identity emergence in established organisational fields. We argue that established fields are typically littered with identity remnants from ancestral organisations and related institutional configurations that can facilitate the successful emergence of new collective identities. In our analysis we first show how multiple identity elements fell by the wayside as the beer brewing field matured and settled on a corporate path. We go on to detail how some of these identity elements were subsequently recovered during the recent decades which marked the successful emergence and proliferation of craft beer brewing. Our study has implications for research on collective identity and organisational legacy, and we stress the importance of taking a historical lens for understanding present day phenomena.     

Identity Distancing and Targeted Advertisements: The Black Sheep Effect

ABSTRACT

This research examines the effect of target marketing using the black sheep effect, which occurs when individuals judge likable ingroup members more positively than similar outgroup members, while judging unlikable ingroup members more negatively than similar outgroup members. The results of two experiments show that individuals feel more targeted by ads that feature members of their ingroup that are more prototypical and likeable, and feel less targeted by advertisements featuring models who violate the group's positive image on some trait, making them nonprototypical and unlikeable. Theoretical implications regarding the impact of intragroup processes in consumer persuasion effects and target marketing are discussed.     

Why Country of Origin Still Matters in Food Retailing: Implications for Promotion Management Research

ABSTRACT

Despite considerable focus on the role of country image (CI) and country of origin (COO) in international marketing and consumer behavior research over the past fifty years, several meta-analyses suggest that knowledge of the impact on consumer decision-making is limited. Even though they are among the most commonly traded items, food products (have not received as much attention from researchers as other product categories (i.e. consumer electronics, cars, apparel and footwear). Further, most of the research that focuses on food was conducted prior to the introduction of mandatory labelling requirements in many major retail markets. This critical review contributes to the literature examining the role that this information plays in food retailing within the context of international trade in food. From this critical review, a research agenda is developed, highlighting several major avenues and methodological approaches with the aim of enhancing the relevance and validity of COO research in food retailing and promotion management.     

Celebrity Endorsements in Advertisements and Consumer Perceptions: A Cross-Cultural Study

ABSTRACT

We studied consumer perceptions of celebrity endorsements from a cross-cultural perspective. In empirically examining consumer perception of celebrity endorsement, we used Hofstede's cultural dimensions to develop research propositions and examined these propositions through focus group discussions involving consumers from India and the United States. Findings indicated that specific differences and similarities exist in how consumers across India and the United States perceive celebrity endorsements. There is a positive, although moderate, impact of celebrity endorsements on attention and exposure of consumers. Implications for marketers as well as suggestions for future research are discussed.     

Consumer involvement in research using oral history: ‘What are people's experiences of health and well‐being in Halton?’

The purpose of this paper is to describe a qualitative oral history case study that involved consumers in research and followed a collaborative approach in the north‐west of England. This study had two aims: (1) to increase local voluntary groups research capacity through active involvement in research; and (2) to explore the community's historical perceptions of health and well‐being. The research team included four lay researchers from local voluntary groups supported by an academic researcher. Data collection used semi‐structured interviews based on oral history life stories that focused on health and well‐being. Thematic data analysis and mind maps were used to create a collective narrative. This paper will provide a brief synopsis of the findings from the main themes of health and well‐being, and reflect on the process of consumer involvement in research using oral history. Outputs have included dissemination at a local and national level, increased knowledge and confidence in the research process, and involvement in other related initiatives, such as Local Involvement Networks, partnership working with local libraries and collaboration with the regional archivist.     

Branding before the brand: Marks,imitations and counterfeits in pre-modern Europe

Abstract

This article aims to analyse the practices of branding adopted in the European pre-modern economy in order to communicate information about the product to the consumer. It examines the nature and function of master’s marks and collective marks and their interaction with processes of imitation and counterfeiting, and takes a stance in the debate on the origins of the modern brand, arguing in favour of the thesis that early forms of brand may be found only in the economic context of the eighteenth century and not before.     

Historical research in marketing theory and practice: a review essay

Abstract

This paper reviews 30 years of interdisciplinary scholarship that deals with marketing history or the history of marketing thought. We have ranged across the humanities and social sciences to review the very best scholarship that these domains have produced which speaks to issues likely to concern the readers of the Journal of Marketing Management (JMM). These domains include: the history of marketing management, history of market research, history of market segmentation, product management history, retailing and channels history, promotion history, advertising history, the history of marketing thought, and marketing and the management of subjectivity, among others. Given obvious page limitations we have nevertheless tried to appeal to the paradigmatic span of the readers of the JMM. With this in mind, we have critically reviewed material that will be of interest to managerially oriented academics, as well as those who subscribe to consumer culture theoretics and critical marketing studies.     

A theatrical perspective on service performance evaluation: The customer-critic approach

Abstract

In this article, the customer-critic approach is presented as a complementary approach to existing service performance evaluation. It is based on methods, derived originally by Patrice Pavis, that have a distinguished pedigree in the evaluation of theatrical performances. An adaptation of Pavis's evaluation framework is illustrated in the context of a restaurant service performance. A focus on the work of Pavis directs attention to the mise-en-scène or metatext of a performance as a vehicle for consumer analysis, and explicitly acknowledges the value of nurturing and enhancing the critical capacity of an audience. Although an audience should be made aware of the main components of a performance, most importantly they should be encouraged to take a holistic, rather than fragmented, view of what is being presented. In addition, unlike other research approaches, the customer-critic process involves customers before, during, and after the performance, and builds in the opportunity for both reporting and reconstruction. It is an approach to data collection and analysis more closely aligned to the Service-Dominant Logic of marketing than methods currently adopted by service managers, recognising consumers as operant resources and the ‘value in use’ of the performance from a consumer experience perspective.     

Roots of Marketing and Consumer Research at the University of Chicago1

The marketing and consumer research fields began to flourish in the late 1940s after World War II. Social Research, Inc. was founded in 1946 by members of the University of Chicago's faculty. Students at the University's interdisciplinary Committee on Human Development and the Departments of Sociology, Anthropology, and Psychology worked at Social Research, Inc., pioneering the application of behavioral methods of research to problems of business and other organizations. This paper traces the transmission of knowledge from the academic setting to the business environment. It notes especially the influence of members of the university faculty and their theories of human behavior on the emerging fields devoted to the study of consumption and culture.     

Tradition Versus Change: Evaluating the Currency of Some Traditional Chinese Values in Today's Business Environment

Abstract

In the last decade, the discussion about how marketing is changing has focused largely on practices in more affluent industrialized economies. Far less attention has been given to understanding the marketing strategies and practices of firms in emerging and transition economies. In this paper, we compare marketing of multinational firms versus local firms in Argentina. We identify the environmental characteristics of Argentina's emerging economy and, using survey data of 96 firms, we group firms into five clusters. We refer to two clusters as “traditional/local” as they use very basic marketing methods, with one serving business markets and the other consumer markets. The other three clusters we refer to as “progressive” as they represent state-of-the-art practices. The first two of these are foreign-owned and serve consumer and business markets, the third represents locally-owned service firms. The managerial implications are examined.