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Marketing scholars increasingly aim to research social and policy problems to create and implement solutions with relevant stakeholders that drive societal impact. In 2022, Transformative Consumer Research and the American Marketing Association sponsored the first TCR-AMA Impact Festival, celebrating societally impactful research in marketing. Results and reflections from the conference point to successes and significant challenges facing scholars who seek to do research with societal impact. A TCR Impact Task Force of leading marketing and consumer scholars was surveyed in a two-stage Delphi study to understand these opportunities and obstacles more deeply and prioritize next steps for the academic community. The results provide an agenda for transformative consumer and marketing research. This agenda provokes fresh thinking for paradigm-level changes by advocating new research validities, methods of stakeholder engagement, initiatives for developing researchers' capacities, and more substantial institutional support to accelerate the success of impactful academic research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Thus, TCR (while supportive of policy solutions) focuses more on consumer perspectives, whereas PPM focuses on the actions of policy makers (while supportive of consumer perspectives). For example, MPP and TCR held a joint preconference in 2015, I JPP&M i regularly publishes special issues on TCR, and TCR often funds grant proposals from the PPM community. In other words, TCR aims to impact localized consumer states in its research implications, while PPM encourages centralized policy actions in its research implications. Research on marketing in society has become increasingly prevalent, as evident in many subgroups such as public policy and marketing (PPM), macromarketing, consumer economics, social marketing, marketing ethics, international consumer policy, Transformative Consumer Research (TCR), and the Subsistence Marketplaces Initiative ([9]). [Extracted from the article]

This research delineates and critically examines extant empirical research on marketplace morality within the context of transformative consumer research. The authors identify how public policy can be leveraged to promote moral consumption in the marketplace in line with the transformative consumer research objectives of personal and collective well-being. They conduct a systematic review of the last decade of marketing literature and find that the definition of what is considered "marketplacemorality" has been rather narrow. Subsequently, the authors propose a broader definition and develop a typology of moral consumption behaviors based on the valence of moral judgment/behavior (moral or immoral) andmoral content (harm, fairness, loyalty, authority, and purity). The authors find that most research has focused on understanding one-time (im)moral behaviors in narrow domains, which have local implications and short-term impact. This research proposes that there is untapped potential in investigating repeated (im)moral behaviors associated with lifestyle choices and habits and that these have wider, long-term moral implications (e.g., wastefulness, overindulgence, pollution, authenticity, discrimination). Finally, the authors consider the underlying motivations for (im)moral behaviors and offer recommendations for policy development and research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the concepts of omission and commission as marketplace trauma within the theoretical framework of cultural trauma theory. The authors identify the meanings and processes of the people, activities, and outcomes likely when marketplace omission and/or commission occur, as well as the factors that elevate these events from collective to cultural trauma. The authors use concepts of social structure, collective practices, and collective discourse in exploring the interconnectivity of marketplace traumas and their actors, victims, and consequences (i.e., constrained consumption, damaged marketing systems, and institutional privilege). They then leverage the same framework to propose further research and corrective actions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Responsibilization, or the shift of functions and risks from providers and producers to consumers, has become an increasingly common policy in service systems and marketplaces (e.g., financial, health, governmental). Because responsibilization is often considered synonymous with consumer agency and well-being, the authors take a transformative service research perspective and draw on resource integration literature to investigate whether responsibilization is truly associated with well-being. The authors focus on expert services, for which responsibilization concerns are particularly salient, and question whether this expanding policy is in the public interest. In the process, they develop a conceptualization of resource integration under responsibilization that includes three levels of actors (consumer, provider, and service system), the identification of structural tensions surrounding resource integration, and three categories of resource-integration practices (access, appropriation, and management) necessary to negotiate responsibilization. The findings have important implications for providers, public and institutional policy makers, and service systems, all of which must pay more active attention to the challenges consumers face in negotiating responsibilization and the resulting well-being outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article provides a framework to guide the construction of transformative stories by social impact organizations (SIOs) including nonprofit organizations, public policy entities, and for-profit social benefit enterprises. This framework is built from the integration of the academic literature on narratives and narrative construction relevant to SIO story construction. This transformative story construction framework outlines how SIOs can assemble and craft authentic and effective stories that convey the organization's impact, engage audiences, and call those audiences to action as well as how SIOs can develop and manage a portfolio of such stories. The framework also provides recommendations to guide the marketplace practice of transformative story construction by SIOs. Finally, the authors pose questions to engage SIOs in collaborative research to refine the practice of constructing stories with the power to transform. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite growing awareness of the importance of gender equality in the advancement of global economies, the involvement of marketing and policy in (re)producing and resolving gender injustices remains understudied. This article proposes a transformative consumer research approach to studying gender-related issues. It develops the "transformative gender justice framework" (TGJF), which identifies perspectives from three enfranchisement theories: social and distributive justice, capabilities approach, and recognition theory. By applying a multiparadigmatic analysis, the authors encourage a dialogic and recursive approach so that scholars and policy makers can assess the interactions between structural, agentic, and sociocultural forces that underlie gender injustices. They argue the TGJF is necessary for full comprehension of the complex, systemic, glocalized, institutionalized, and embodied nature of gender injustices, as well as how policy, markets and marketing can both perpetuate and resolve gender injustices. To demonstrate the TGJF's analytical power, the authors apply the framework to one site of gender injustice (i.e., the sex tourismindustry), propose applications across additional sites, and discuss questions it raises for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors propose that mindfulness is an antidote to mindless consumption, which adversely affects individual and collective well-being. The concept ofmindfulness is explained and applied to the consumption context. More specifically, the authors examine mindful consumption as an ongoing practice of bringing attention, with acceptance, to inner and outer stimuli, and the effects of this practice on the consumption process. The transformative potential of mindful consumption is reviewed across domains of consumer, societal, and environmental well-being, with suggestions for future research. The article highlights some of the challenges to realizing the transformative potential of mindful consumption and concludes with suggestions for the actions that consumers, institutions, and policy makers could take to promote mindful consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this essay, the authors explore the emergence, growth, and future of the transformative consumer research movement. The notion of a social movement is used to conceptualize the organizing activities of research performed with the goal of enhancing consumer well-being. The authors trace the informal/formal and individual/collective actions that support their claim that transformative consumer research is an academic movement. They reflect on the future hurdles the movement faces to remain healthy and dynamic as well as the significant synergies that exist with public policy researchers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The first purpose of this Policy Watch article is to discuss the Food and Drug Administration's regulatory authority over the manufacture, marketing, and distribution of tobacco products. In doing so, the authors describe the public health goals and priorities from the Food and Drug Administration's Center for Tobacco Products. Then, the authors present current consumer and marketing research in important areas of reducing the death and disability resulting from tobacco use, such as the impacts of health warnings, modified risk tobacco products, new tobacco products, and public education campaigns. Finally, the authors identify important research gaps and offer specific opportunities for consumer researchers to consider. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Americans have increasingly busy lifestyles and desire quick and nutritious food choices. To provide consumers with at-a-glance nutrition information, many food manufacturers have introduced front-of package (FOP) nutritional labeling systems. The purpose of this review is to reach out to the marketing and public policy discipline by identifying research needs on FOP systems not only to aid decision making for federal agencies, but also to help advance research on this important topic. We describe the many FOP systems, the FDA's regulatory background and approach to FOP systems, recent experimental research and gaps in knowledge, and research needs on FOP nutrition labeling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How and when the federal government should intervene to protect consumer privacy is a challenging issue. This article summarizes how the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) became the primary federal privacy regulator. It explains the enforcement tools at the commission's disposal in the context of emerging trends and specific challenges in the privacy arena. Finally, the article details topics for which additional research would be helpful to the FTC's mission to protect consumer privacy and concludes with a call for researchers to collaborate with the FTC to help shape privacy policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Marketing researchers commonly use photographic methods to generate observational data and delve into the lived experiences of research participants. These visual data-gathering techniques, however, can be embedded into a broader research methodology aimed to generate constructive social and policy changes. The authors systematically analyze prior empirical studies using photographic methods to identify when these methods are appropriate and most effective. They identify key research processes, workbench issues, and ethical dilemmas when employing transformative photographic methods across individual, group, and community levels of analysis. Finally, they propose best practices for conducting more compelling research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay explores sustainable consumption and considers possible roles for marketing and consumer researchers and public policy makers in addressing the many sustainability challenges that pervade the planet. Future research approaches to this interdisciplinary topic must be comprehensive and systematic and would benefit from a variety of different perspectives. There are several opportunities for further research; the authors explore three areas in detail. First, they consider the inconsistency between the attitudes and behaviors of consumers with respect to sustainability. Second, they broaden the agenda to explore the role of individual citizens in society. Third, they propose a macroinstitutional approach to fostering sustainability. For each of these separate, but interrelated, opportunities, the authors examine the area in detail and consider possible research avenues and public policy initiatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction to the journal is presented in which the editor discuss the essays on topics related to transformative consumer research (TCR) obtained from the 2nd Transformative Consumer Research Conference which was held at the Villanova University in 2009.

Immigration, culture, and ethnicity (IC&E) research has a lengthy history in consumer research, though most research focuses narrowly on identity (and related topics) and has been done at the individual level of analysis. First, the authors discuss the need for research focused on assessing well-being at the collective level and highlight the important role of social networks and communities in improving consumer well-being and creating effective policy interventions. Next, they explore the utility of the emerging intersectionality conceptual framework for research on well-being and IC&E. They offer specific suggestions for designing policy-oriented research using this approach and illustrate the process by taking a well-regarded IC&E study and reimagining its design using a process-centered approach to intersectionality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay provides an overview of research programs related to consumer well-being (CWB) and discusses the ethics perspectives and public policy implications of the programs. The author groups CWB research programs into five ethics perspectives: (1) ethics of consumer sovereignty, (2) duty ethics of nonmaleficence, (3) ethics of stakeholder theory, (4) ethics of social justice, and (5) ethics of human development and quality of life. Ethical guidelines and public policy implications are then logically deduced to assist professional and industry associations in setting CWB standards, to train member organizations to develop and implement programs to enhance CWB, and to monitor the extent to which the entire profession or industry is contributing to society through CWB. These ethical guidelines can also help government institutions and nongovernmental organizations create public policies to ensure that institutions deliver higher levels of CWB. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article assesses the impact of the Supreme Court decision Moseley v. V Secret Catalogue Inc. on methods of proving trademark dilution in federal court. It also examines federal court decisions that have interpreted Moseley's rulings on trademark dilution. The article concludes that brand owners are most successful in federal court when the challenged junior user's brand is identical to the senior user's brand. In light of results that indicate that consumer surveys play a minimal role in post- Moseley cases and are susceptible to rejection by courts, this article suggests alternative survey approaches that could better satisfy the rigorous requirements of any foreseeable statutory regime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses "intertemporal choice," which examines behavioral regularities in how people think about consumer decisions that involve trade-offs of costs and benefits over time. Research into these decisions is relevant to the analysis of public policy issues concerning the priority given to the immediate present vs. the future in most consumer decisions. The authors find that many consumers tend to underweigh outcomes in the distant future while simultaneously overweighing outcomes in the present.

The authors present a six-stage model of the policymaking process and evaluate the extent to which survey research has played a role at each stage. The authors identify areas in which additional research would be helpful in the development and evaluation of public policymaking. In addition, the authors explore three case studies--patient package inserts, direct-to-consumer advertising, and environmental marketing guides--to illustrate the role consumer research has played and could have played in the policy-development process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is one of many organizations studying influences on consumer privacy online. The authors investigate these influences, taking into consideration the current body of literature on privacy and the Internet and the FTC's core principles of fair information practice. The authors analyze these influences to assess the underlying factors of privacy concern online. The authors examine the current recommendations and actions of the FTC in light of the results of an e-mail survey of online consumers in the United States that assessed their attitudes toward privacy online. The authors find that the FTC's core principles address many of online consumers' privacy concerns. However, two factors not directly incorporated in the five principles, the relationships between entities and online users and the exchange of information for appropriate compensation, may influence consumers' privacy concerns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article comments on the Pontifical Council for Social Communications' Ethics in Advertising document. The document is about the effects on consumers of particular advertising techniques and content. Role of advertising in increasing the flow and reducing the costs of information to consumers, which also contribute the achievement of an efficient allocation of resources and benefit consumers. It explicitly recognizes that advertising informs prudent consumer decisions.

After two decades of research, public policymakers, researchers, and managers still have questions regarding the use, abuse, and overall effectiveness of comparative price advertising. Using an integrative review of the literature as a basis, the authors examine the state of substantive knowledge regarding comparative price advertising effects. They use meta-analytical procedures to assess the effects of (1) presence of an advertised reference price, (2) advertised reference price levels, and (3) advertised sale price levels on consumers' internal reference price, perceived value, price offer believability, purchase likelihood, and search intentions. Evidence indicates that comparative price advertising is a powerful advertising tool, with a strong opportunity for deception, that requires careful management and monitoring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author discusses the more general lessons that can be learned from Jacoby and Szybillo's (1995) and Stewart's (1995) articles on the Federal Trade Commission v. Kraft, Inc. (1991) case. The lessons relate to issues of materiality, definitions of the universe, context effects, and questionnaire wording. Because of the complexity of questionnaire design, it is not surprising that experts will disagree, and such disagreements need not lead to reductions in public confidence about consumer surveys. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors review the principal surveys offered as evidence in FTC v. Kraft, Inc. (1991). The authors explain that the FTC's survey (Stewart 1987) is flawed in universe definition, question wording, experimental design, and analyses, and argue that though Kraft `s survey (Jacoby 1988) employed generally recognized and accepted scientific practices, especially as applied in surveys conducted for litigated matters, the FTC Commissioners relied on the survey proffered by the FTC Staff In addition, they dismissed Kraft's main findings and only relied on it for the one uncontested finding that supported the FTC's position. The authors discuss the implications of such actions and also respond to Stewart's (1995) article, which presents contrasting analyses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author presents a response to a review by Jacoby and Szybillo (1995) of two empirical studies offered as evidence in Federal Trade Commission v. Kraft, Inc. (1991). He reviews the rationale for the design of the Federal Trade Commission research and responds to specific criticisms offered by Jacoby and Szybillo. The author also examines the Kraft materiality survey and concludes that it did not address the question of the materiality of claims. Finally, the author raises some general issues related to the use of survey research in litigation and the need for standards for extrinsic research in cases involving implied claims. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports the main findings of a national survey designed to empirically establish a set of weighting factors on product violation that could be used as input in the allocation of resources by the Consumer Product Branch of Consumers and Corporate Affairs Canada. A conceptual framework is presented describing the method used to derive these weights. It was found that violations were perceived to occur more frequently for clothing and accessories, fresh fruits and vegetables, and cleaning and paper products. These ratings were shown to be related to purchasing behavior and quality violations were perceived much more serious than quantity violations and labelling violations, in that order. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Results of a laboratory study show the similarity in physical appearance of two brands (e.g. a store brand and a national brand) is significantly related to consumer perceptions of a common business origin between them. Other factors, particularly the actual origin of the two brands, also contributed to perceptions of common origin. Legal implications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Measurement of attitudes toward and evaluation of U.S. efforts in consumerism have been receiving increased attention. Most evaluation has focused on intracultural measures. An alternative would be an intercultural comparison; however, differing perceptions of individuals have traditionally made it difficult to validate cross-cultural attitudinal instruments. In this study, separate factor analyses assured that perceptual clusters formed by samples from different cultures were similar. A validated, reliable instrument is presented for comparing U.S. and Swedish respondents with respect to relevant consumerism issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Marketing scholars are becoming more concerned with the impact of their discipline on the development of human well-being. The study of quality-of-life (QOL) is a means to that end. The marketing effort in QOL research has been unsystematic and fragmented. An attempt is made in this conceptual paper to (1) review selected marketing research in QOL, (2) introduce a theoretical framework which synthesizes QOL constructs, and (3) suggest possible measurements of those QOL constructs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article deals with the overall relationship between product liability and market segmentation. The legal concepts of foreseeability and notice are related to market segmentation in the context of disadvantaged consumer segments. In addition, the role of marketing research in supporting or defending a liability allegation is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents experience of the author as a Consumer Research Specialist at the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in Washington DC from July 1, 1992, through June 30, 1993.

The article presents experience of the author as head of the Office of Impact Evaluation at the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) from 1978 to 1980.

Two of the brightest lights in our TCR community were Dr. Geraldine "Gerri" Rosa Henderson and Dr. Jerome D. Williams. Dr. Williams coauthored one of these articles and was incredibly proud of it being published with a dedication to Dr. Gerri Henderson's memory. Dr. Jerome D. Williams Dr. Jerome Williams was a marketing scholar, educator, and mentor to scholars coming after him, especially scholars of color. [Extracted from the article]

In response to Karpatkin's (1999) article, the author identifies and discusses two critical but often overlooked questions for policymakers, consumer advocates, and consumer researchers. First, what exactly is the consumer interest? Second, what is the role of consumer research and consumer advocacy in promoting that interest? Using the minimum wage as an example, the author argues that policies adopted to improve consumer welfare often harm some of the very people they are intended to help. She raises the question of whether a universal ‘consumer interest’ exists in a world of heterogeneous consumers. She further discusses the complementary but distinct roles of advocacy and research in identifying and promoting policies that improve social welfare. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses the advances in the professional application of consumer research in public policy for marketing in the United States. Shift from expert opinion to database judgement as basis for consumer reaction assessment; Application of consumer psychology; Development of self regulation-system in advertising; Structural improvements to make advertising more truthful; Welcome for consumer research.