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We examine the interaction effect of country-level aggregate advertising spending and internet access on women's development. We explain why this interaction effect either enhances or discourages women's development. Our empirical analysis of aggregate advertising spending across forty-eight countries over five years uncovers a conditional effect. Advertising may have adverse consequences on women's development when internet access is low. However, in conjunction with high levels of internet access, advertising corresponds to advancing women's development. Through an experimental study, we show one possible mechanism for this development: on one hand, the growing trend of femvertising produces comments supportive of women's empowerment. On the other, stereotypically-sexist ads elicit psychological reactance to objectifying messages. Both the celebration of messaging that supports women and the criticism of sexist stereotyping are now being widely shared online. To explore this phenomenon globally, we conducted a qualitative analysis of social media responses to Dove ads aired within multiple countries. We find that consumers amplified empowering advertisements across a range of different cultural contexts. These findings have implications for advertisers, marketers, and policy makers: such constituencies should consider how advertising can facilitate women's development by providing marketplace conditions that promote personal evolution into unattained-but-attainable versions of the self., Author(s): Gautham Vadakkepatt [sup.1] , Andrew Bryant [sup.2] , Ronald Paul Hill [sup.3] , Joshua Nunziato [sup.4] Author Affiliations: (1) grid.22448.38, 0000 0004 1936 8032, Associate Professor of Marketing, School [...]

Research in marketing often begins with two assumptions: that consumers are able to choose among desirable products, and that they have sufficient resources to buy them. However, many consumer decision journeys are constrained by a scarcity of products and/or a scarcity of resources. We review research in marketing, psychology, economics and sociology to construct an integrative framework outlining how these different types of scarcity individually and jointly influence consumers at various stages of their decision journeys. We outline avenues for future research and discuss implications for developing consumer-based marketing strategies., Author(s): Rebecca Hamilton [sup.1] , Debora Thompson [sup.1] , Sterling Bone [sup.2] , Lan Nguyen Chaplin [sup.3] , Vladas Griskevicius [sup.4] , Kelly Goldsmith [sup.5] , Ronald Hill [sup.6] , [...]

Scholarship involving impoverished consumers and consumption is an important part of consumer research on well-being. Investigations have looked at domestic (US) poverty as well as its global manifestations at the base of the pyramid. Together they form a body of scholarship with underlying assumptions about what scholars, policy makers, and consumer advocates believe constitutes being poor versus not being poor. While these studies have much to offer, ambiguous definitions of impoverishment guide their research, which also include choices among possible measurement instruments. To address this deficit, our article approaches the differences in research focus across constituencies, seeking to understand how poverty is both defined and measured within our field. Under the conceptual foundation of the consumption adequacy perspective, we advance a definition of poverty that is used to determine the lived experiences of material impoverishment., The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too [...]

Our research shows that serving sizes influence perceptions of healthfulness of restaurant foods. This context is important as more restaurants begin to post nutrition information on menus. Yet, some restaurateurs use serving sizes smaller than what consumers normally consume at a sitting. We find that when nutritional information is framed using serving sizes cut in half, foods are perceived to be healthier. In addition, serving size framing may differentially affect consumers with various levels of dietary concern. Our results reveal that serving size interacts with dietary concern in a curvilinear manner., In the United States, nutrition labels are required for prepackaged foods. However, information on foods consumed at restaurants is less common. According to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner, [...]

'Shopping While Black' refers to negative experiences that African American consumers endure in the marketplace. The term was coined before the turn of the century and the tabulation of the [...]

The Internet has revolutionized the retailing landscape and how goods and services are sold and distributed to consumers. One avenue of significant growth in online selling comes from multichannel retailers who offer products in stores as well as over the Web. These hybrids may leverage their 'brick' locations by allowing customers to pick up or return orders purchased online at retail stores. This option lets Web-based buyers avoid added shipping costs and long package carrier lead times, albeit at a cost to retailers. To examine the viability of this strategy, we develop a mathematical model that examines the cost and value of providing in-store pickup and return. The model is used to determine the best subset of brick-and-mortar stores to handle in-store pickup and return demand. One of the principal takeaways is that not all retail stores should be offering in-store pickups and/or returns. Our computational results show optimizing the set of pickup and return locations may reduce system cost over baseline marketing policies where these services are set up at all or none of a retailer's stores. In addition, we show that retailers can significantly improve some consumer benefits at little extra cost. Keywords E-tailing * Internet marketing * Clicks and bricks * Optimization models, Orientation Internet marketing continues to account for an increasing portion of retail sales, and one area of significant growth involves multichannel retailers who sell goods and services using brick-and-mortar as [...]

Our premise is that researchers have much to gain from an understanding of the global marketplace experiences of impoverished consumers. We argue that influences of absolute and relative restriction, across [...]

To link to full-text access for this article, visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2009.01.014 Byline: Ronald Paul Hill Keywords: Subsistence marketplaces; Base of the pyramid; Stakeholder theory; Naturological approach Abstract: Marketing as exchange has been the sine qua non of the field for over thirty years. While buyer-seller dyads dominate traditional conversations, other forms of transactions are included as long as value transfer occurs. The most logical extension is Stakeholder Theory, an approach with the same basic structure for understanding, maintaining, and advancing important relationships among firms and their constituencies. Together, they posit that self-contained individuals or units have a marked impact on one another, which passes across defined boundaries at discrete periods of time. Yet the failure to capture organic and dynamic ways in which such entities interact necessities a new approach, such as the naturological perspective that recognizes porous boundaries and reverberating consequences of marketing exchanges, especially among consumers and other impacted parties who survive at or near the proverbial bottom of the economic pyramid. Author Affiliation: Villanova University, 800 Lancaster Avenue, Villanova, PA 19085, United States Article History: Accepted 1 January 2009 Article Note: (footnote) [star] Ronald Paul Hill is the Richard J. and Barbara Naclerio Chairholder in Business and Senior Associate Dean of Intellectual Strategy at the Villanova School of Business. He is thankful for the inspiration provided by Bill Frederick and Madhu Viswanathan, as well as two very helpful reviewers.

To link to full-text access for this article, visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijresmar.2008.07.007 Byline: Ronald Paul Hill (a), Alison Watkins (b) Keywords: Marketing; Sales; Simulation; Exchange relationships Abstract: This study significantly expands upon previous research by Hill and Watkins [Hill, Ronald Paul and Watkins, Alison, (2007), 'A Simulation of Moral Behavior within Marketing Exchange Relationships,' Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 35 (2), 417-429] involving business-to-business exchanges through the use of a more sophisticated simulation and a different theoretical orientation. Profitability implications for sellers and firms in the context of information sharing and dynamic firm adaptation are explored using q-learning evolutionary models and embedded artificial trading agents in a competitive environment. This method allows buyer agents to react to complex and evolving circumstances based on historical information about seller agents. The results suggest that sellers with more cooperative strategies are more profitable in the long run, especially when firms employ multiple agents. Author Affiliation: (a) Marketing & Business Law, Villanova School of Business, United States (b) Information Systems, College of Business at the University of South Florida St. Petersburg, United States

This article examines the impact of discoveries and methods of neuroscience on marketing practices as they relate to the exercise of individual free will. Thus, our focus centers on ethical [...]

This investigation examines how consumers perceive and experience predatory lenders. Findings reveal that industry practices are carried out to the detriment of persons typically defined as 'vulnerable,' such as elderly, [...]

To purchase or authenticate to the full-text of this article, please visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1542-734X.2007.00466.x Byline: Ronald Paul Hill (1), Jeannie Gaines (2) Author Affiliation: (1)University of Maryland at College Park (2)University of South Florida St. Petersburg

Diamondoids were detected in the extracts of a series of coals and rocks varying in maturity, lithology, source input, and depositional enviromnent. At the same maturity level, diamondoids are generally about a magnitude more abundant in source rocks than in coals. The concentrations of diamondoids are maturity dependent. However, while diamondoids become more abundant with the increasing thermal maturity, a diminution in diamondoid concentrations is observed at the maturity value of about [R.sub.o] = 4.0% in both coals and rocks. The occurrence of diamantane destruction at 550 [degrees]C during pyrolysis suggests that diamondoids may be eventually destroyed at high temperatures in the Earth. Here we propose three main phases of diamondoid life in nature: diamondoid generation (phase I, [R.sub.o] < 1.1%), diamondoid generation and enrichment (phase II, 1.1% [less than or equal to] [R.sub.o] [less than or equal to] 4.0%), and diamondoid destruction (phase III, [R.sub.o] > 4.0%). Keywords: diamondoids, thermal maturity, coals, source rocks, oil cracking, vitrinite reflectance, diamondoid destruction.

To link to full-text access for this article, visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2005.01.001 Byline: Karen L. Becker-Olsen (a), B. Andrew Cudmore (b), Ronald Paul Hill (c) Keywords: Perceived corporate social responsibility; Consumer belief; Marketing Abstract: The use of corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives to influence consumers and differentiate product offerings has become quite common. This research builds on the growing body of marketing literature through two investigations that manipulate consumers' perceptions of fit, motivation, and timing of corporate social initiatives embedded within promotions. We find that low-fit initiatives negatively impact consumer beliefs, attitudes, and intentions no matter what the firm's motivation, and that high-fit initiatives that are profit-motivated have the same impact. Furthermore, consumers consider the timing (proactive versus reactive) of the social initiative as an informational cue, and only the high-fit, proactive initiatives led to an improvement in consumer beliefs, attitudes, and intentions. Author Affiliation: (a) Lehigh University, United States (b) Florida Institute of Technology, United States (c) University of South Florida St. Petersburg, United States Article History: Received 23 May 2004; Accepted 5 January 2005

The use of corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives to influence the purchase decisions of consumers and differentiate product offerings has become quite common. Consumer perceptions of fit, motivation, and timing of corporate social initiatives that were embedded in promotions play a significant role and only the high-fit, proactive initiatives influence consumers positively.

The purpose of this research is to examine the impact of individual and firm moral philosophies on marketing exchange relationships. Personal moral philosophies range from the extreme forms of true altruists and true egoists, along with three hybrids that represent middle ground (i.e., realistic altruists, tit-for-tats, and realistic egoists). Organizational postures are defined as Ethical Paradigm, Unethical Paradigm, and Neutral Paradigm, which result in changes to personal moral philosophies and company and industry performance. The study context is a simulation of an exchange environment using a variation of the prisoners' dilemma game. A literature review is provided in the opening section, followed by details on the simulation, discussion of the results, and the implications for theory and practice. KEY WORDS: moral philosophies, marketing exchange relationships, prisoner's dilemma game.

This research examines women's experiences of and responses to intimate partner violence using the perspective of the extended self. From in-depth interviews with a demographically diverse group of women in the United States, the primary theme to emerge was that chronic abuse is experienced as the male partner's ongoing campaign to incorporate the abused woman into his extended self by appropriating or destroying the aspects of her that give her autonomy. The most important implication for agencies serving abused women is that many of their clients are faced with the daunting task of repairing or reconstructing their core and extended selves, a process that may necessitate the long-term commitment of agency resources without the imposition of restricted, institutionally imposed identities that would serve only to impede clients' reclamation of their autonomy. Keywords: consumption; extended self; domestic violence; social services

This investigation is motivated by the lack of scholarship examining the content of what firms are communicating to various stakeholders about their commitment to socially responsible behaviors. To address this query, a qualitative study of the legal, ethical and moral statements available on the websites of Forbes Magazine's top 50 U.S. and top 50 multinational firms of non-U.S, origin were analyzed within the context of stakeholder theory. The results are presented thematically, and the close provides implications for social responsibility among managers of global organizations as well as researchers interested in business ethics.

This research takes a retrospective look at modern consumption opportunities of the U.S. poor from both sides of the marketing exchange relationship. The paper opens with a critical assessment of the consumer-behavior literature and its primary focus on middle-class Americans. The next section profiles the impoverished and their purchasing habits and closes with a summary of how both have changed over the last forty years. Then a theoretical account is presented using consumer literature from the same timeframe. The paper ends with a discussion of common business practices and moral dilemmas that have continued over these decades, along with an ethical paradigm involving distributive justice to guide future management tactics.

We show that 85% of variation in total organic carbon can be explained by mineral surface area in a black shale deposit from two locations in the late Cretaceous Western Interior Seaway, United States. This relation suggests that, as in modern marine sediments, adsorption of carbon compounds onto clay mineral surfaces played a fundamental role in the burial and preservation of organic carbon. Our data also provide evidence for organic matter within the smectite interlayer. This association implies that organic carbon sequestration in a representative oil-prone black shale facies may be more closely related to patterns of continental weathering and clay mineralogy than to ocean water chemistry or marine productivity., The stratigraphic record is punctuated by intervals of organic carbon-rich sediments that form laterally persistent black marine shale and mudrock (1, 2). Many of these are important petroleum sources. It [...]

It is one of the true honors of my academic career to be named Editor of Journal of Consumer Affairs (JCA) for the next three years (with possible extension). There [...]

This article fills a gap in the sales literature by focusing on an acute stressor, loss of a major sale or account, and by providing a framework to study sales relationship dissolution as a negative life event. Data were obtained through 16 in-depth interviews with salespersons from a variety of industries. All informants described themselves as generally successful while having lost a major account or new business in the recent past. The article is composed of the following sections: (1) a summary of relevant research from stress, sales management, and relationship literatures; (2) an explanation of the methodology; and (3) a summary of themes and metaphors evoked by salespersons, communicating the experience of loss as a negative life stressor.

This paper presents an ethical approach to the use of lobbying within the context of the relationships among U.S. organizations, their lobbyists, and government officials. After providing a brief history of modern-day lobbying activities, lobbying is defined and described focusing on its role as a strategic marketing tool. Then ethical frameworks for understanding the impact of these practices on various external constituencies are delineated with an emphasis on the communitarian movement advanced by Etzioni. Consistent with the call for 'informed advocacy' by Laczniak (1993), the paper closes with an examination of the ethics of specific lobbying activities. KEYWORDS: business strategy, communitarianism, ethics, lobbying

One very important aspect of integrated marketing communications is the development and maintenance of a long-term relationship between the consumer and the marketer. The QVC television home shopping channel has proven to be effective in such a mutually beneficial relationship. An examination of taped interactions between QVC program hosts and viewers illustrate how the hosts build parasocial relationships with viewers and employ these relationships to encourage them to buy products through the channel. Marketers who wish to establish such relationships with consumers should learn from QVC's experience.

The impact of the death of a family member on household consumption patterns is studied. Results show that families undergo changes depending on their relationship with the deceased. The death of a spouse leads to changes in household roles, while the death of a child often causes communication problems within the household. The possessions of the deceased also become sacred items, and serve as mementos of ties with the deceased.

Fetal tissue research and transplantation poses a marketing challenge for healthcare providers as formal channels for donating tissue are still virtually nonexistent, thanks to the prolife Reagan and Bush administrations. Educating the public, and women in particular, about the proven effectiveness of fetal tissue in treating diabetes and other serious diseases is crucial to creating an environment conducive to donation.

Abortion is the most frequently performed surgical procedure in this country, yet its provision to consumers remains one of the most contentious issues within our society. The purpose of this article is to broaden our understanding of this problem by examining abortion from a consumer-behavior perspective. The phenomenological study described in this article revealed that (1) a wide gap exists betweem the language of public debate and that of private decision making, (2) the language of private decision making reflects a moral standard used frequently by women yet virtually ignored in the public debate, and (3) women who take charge of their own decisions cope better with the emotional aftermath, whether their decision is for birth or for abortion. The article closes with a discussion of policy implications that arise from the feminist look at the abortion dilemma as well as broader implications for consumer behavior. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)

Eleven million women and one million men in the United States suffer from eating disorders--either self-induced semistarvation (anorexia nervosa) or a cycle of bingeing and purging with laxatives, self-induced vomiting, [...]

A study on the status of homelessness in the US reveals that homeless persons were not properly consulted by social service providers on their preferences among various available goods and services. In addition, the methods used by providers to meet the consumer needs of the homeless have not changed much during the late 20th century. Some recommendations that can serve as alternative options in providing more humane treatment to the homeless are presented.

This study is part of a year long ethnographic investigation of a shelter for homeless women. The children who also live at this facility are accompanied by their mothers and other siblings and acclimate quickly to the shelter environment. However, the loss of cherished possessions due to their homeless condition as well as the inherent instability and uncertainty in their living arrangement lead these children to seek to restore a sense of self through friendships and fantasies. Social policy implications for improving their lives are briefly described. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.), The problem of homelessness has become one of the most compelling social dilemmas of the last decade (King et al. 1989). This sub-population has become increasingly diverse (Hill and Stamey [...]

This article investigates homelessness among adult women, an important and growing subpopulation among the homeless. To examine their situation within a consumer-behavior context, an ethnographic case study of a shelter for homeless women run by an order of Roman Catholic sisters was performed. The study focused on how these women became homeless, the effects of early life experiences on their homelessness, available emotional and financial support, possessions that were lost, maintained, or became available during their homeless period(s), their perspectives on their lives at the shelter and its ability to act as a 'home,' and their fantasies about home life. Public policy implications and contributions of these findings to the developing literature in consumer behavior regarding the meaning of possessions are discussed. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)

This research utilized an ethnographic approach to advance our understanding of the survival strategies employed by the homeless in our society. We examine the types of possessions consumer, how possessions are acquired through nontraditional employment and scavenging, and why some products are purchased while others are scavenged. We also look at the tools used to facilitate search, acquisition, storage, and consumption of these products. Finally, we consider the importance of community for protection of self and possessions and how community among the homeless affects consumption. Emergent themes that allow interpretation of the description are presented. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)