Beauty in the eyes of its beholders: Effects of design novelty on consumer preference

In this research, we propose that promotion- (vs. prevention-) focused consumers should prefer a novel product design, an effect that we attribute to increased processing fluency. In addition, we propose that the effect of consumers’ regulatory focus should be moderated by product type, such that promotion- (prevention-) focused consumers should prefer more (less) novel designs only for utilitarian products; for hedonic products all consumers should prefer a novel design regardless of their regulatory foci. We obtain empirical evidence for these predictions across four experiments that use different operationalizations of regulatory focus and product type. We conclude by discussing the theoretical contributions and managerial implications of our research.     

Evolving from a rum state: Australia's alcohol consumption

Europeans settlers in the Australian colonies had a reputation of being heavy drinkers. Rum dominated during the first few decades, followed by beer. It took until the 1970s before Australia's annual per capita consumption of wine exceeded 10 L, and even then, wine represented only one‐fifth of national alcohol consumption. But over the next two decades, per capita wine consumption nearly trebled and beer consumption shrunk – the opposite of what happened to global alcohol consumption shares. This paper draws on newly compiled data sets to (i) reveal that Australia was not much more alcoholic than Britain or southern Europe during the nineteenth century and (ii) help explain why it took so long for a consumer interest in wine to emerge in Australia.     

“放心消费”推动许昌消费升级问题研究

消费、投资、出口是经济增长的三大引擎,随着生活水平的不断提高,消费市场的增长显示出稳定增长的态势,本文以许昌市放心消费创建工作开展以来的成果和数据着手,分析许昌市在城市品牌、文化底蕴、商业模式、政策支持等方面的特点和优势,找出现行工作的掣肘和不足,结合消费升级培养经济发展新动能的政策趋势,从打造放心消费品牌、深化消费引导、畅通维权渠道、强化维权执法、创造优良环境方面提出有针对性的对策措施。     

The virtual takeover: The influence of virtual reality on consumption

Looking to current trends, this paper explores the influence of Virtual Reality (VR) on consumption. Specifically, we focus on the influence that VR has on consumer spending by suggesting that identities created in VR will influence consumption behaviour in the real world. While other forms of technology allow consumers to create alternative identities, we suggest that the unique aspects of VR, bolstered by forthcoming advances, will make identities created in VR relatively more self-important and more salient in real world consumption. We also propose implications for marketing research and practice.     

Building nightclub brand personality via guest selection

This paper identifies that guest selection at exclusive nightclubs is a brand building process, and that the guests’ primary value to the clubs therefore is the image they bestow on the brand. The paper contributes to theory by providing empirical support for several mechanisms that have previously been stipulated in literature. It validates that companies build brand personality by controlling typical user imagery, and that for self-expressive product categories, negative user stereotypes are particularly powerful. It supports the theory of symbolic brand avoidance, as well as the notion that social rejection encourages people to elevate their perceptions of their rejecters and strengthens their predilection to affiliate with them. For practitioners, the paper shows managers in the hospitality industry that it is possible to build brands by controlling who is allowed to become a brand-user, and under which conditions this applies.     

When users decide to bypass collaborative consumption platforms: The interplay of economic benefit,perceived risk,and perceived enjoyment

Bypass, which consists of intentionally circumventing a collaborative platform in the final transaction phase, represents a threat for commission-based platforms. This paper examines collaborative consumers' motivations to bypass and proposes a conceptual model explaining bypass intention. Multigroup analysis of 549 UK respondents (310 accommodation-rental users; 239 ride-sharing users) using PLS-SEM shows that perceived enjoyment and perceived risk are strong predictors of bypass intention. Our findings also confirm the significant impact of economic benefit influencing bypass decisions, both directly and indirectly, by reducing perceived risk and increasing perceived enjoyment. This study extends the literature on collaborative consumers’ bypass motivations, identifying an interplay of utilitarian motive (economic benefit), hedonic motive (perceived enjoyment), and perceived risk. It also contributes to the field of misbehaviors in hospitality and tourism, by showing empirically the link between pleasure and deviance. Finally, it helps platforms to determine the types of exchange that are more prone to bypass.     

Uncertainty and affluent teenagers’ luxury buying-decision: The role of avoidance-related indecisiveness

Global teen population constitutes a sizable market in the luxury brands industry. However, little is known about the mechanism through which teens form an attitude towards luxury brands, particularly in the context of emerging economies. Drawing insights from self-concept theory, self-discrepancy theory, and social consumption motivation, our study proposes a theoretical framework to explain how teenagers' self-related perception influence social consumption motives through avoidance-related indecisiveness, thereby determining teenagers' attitude towards luxury brands. Using a sample of 610 affluent private school students across five major cities of India, we empirically validate our theoretical framework through structural equation modelling. Our study contributes to the existing literature by demonstrating the impact of teenagers’ self-perception on the display of avoidance-related indecisiveness and resisting social consumption motives of luxury brand purchases.     

Optimal Dynamic Taxation with Distinctive Forms of Social Status Attainment

We examine the role of both consumption‐ and wealth‐induced social comparisons in setting dynamic optimal income taxation. Under complete information, state‐invariant labor income taxes are used to remedy the externality caused by consumption‐induced social comparisons, while state‐contingent capital income taxes are used to remedy the externalities caused by both consumption‐ and wealth‐induced social comparisons. Under incomplete information, distinct types of agents are subject to an identical marginal capital income tax, which removes social comparisons. To solve the information problem, low‐productivity agents could be subject to a lower marginal labor tax than high‐productivity agents, which contradicts the traditional result in the Mirrlees–Stiglitz models.     

Do depicted suggestions of portion size on‐pack impact how much (un)healthy food children consume

In previous decades, portion and pack sizes of many foods tended to increase while, more recently, some foods started to downsize. These changes in actual portion sizes typically get coverage but less attention is given to the suggested portion sizes for multi‐serving food packages, and to what the impact is of the depicted portion sizes on‐pack. Using two studies with a mixed experimental design among young children, this paper examines the effects of depicted suggestions of portion size manipulation (regular vs. large—‘large’ corresponds to how brands typically depict portions). Both studies used a 2 × 2 × 2 crossover design, with the suggested portion size and food type as within‐ and order as between‐subjects manipulation. In Study 1, we used snacks (grapes and chocolate nuts). In Study 2, we compared two bread spreads (chocolate and cheese). In both the studies, we found that children ate more when presented with the larger depiction of the suggested portion size compared to the regular one. In Study 1, however, we found that children consumed more calories from the chocolate nut than the grape snack, while children did eat more grams of this healthier grape snack. We also showed that consumption in grams only differed between portion sizes when given grapes, which might be due to a possible ceiling effect of chocolate nut consumption. In Study 2, we also found a main effect for spread type as children ate more of chocolate compared to cheese spread. Our results indicate that this subtle on‐pack cue is persuasive. Moreover, policy makers and also marketers could use these insights to stimulate healthy eating in children.