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In this conceptual paper, we offer a revised perspective of exchange which is relevant across diverse institutional and economic contexts. We discuss and compare food sharing exchange systems in India and the US. We focus on the antecedents and drivers of food sharing exchange systems, the processes by which institutional actors influence food sharing exchange systems and the underlying reasons due to which food-sharing systems emerge. Our work substantively builds on the extant literature on the theory of exchange and institutional theory in marketing. We develop a compelling exchange narrative of how institutional actors can drive consumer welfare across diverse exchange systems.

This paper takes a multi-method approach, combining neuroscience methods and behavioral experiments to investigate emotions triggered by olfactory-related information and related consumer decision-making outcomes. In the online context, olfactory information is limited to visual forms of triggering olfactory sensations. The effectiveness of using sensory congruent brand names in online ads to trigger emotions, and the influence on attitudes toward the ad, brand and purchase intentions are examined. Moreover, individual differences in olfactory sensitivity were considered, revealing moderating effects on cognitive and emotional processes. Findings provide managerial and organizational implications for online advertising, branding decisions and market segmentation decisions.

When cultures interact within the family, consumption decisions take on meaning beyond simply who is the decision maker. The usual compromises all spouses face are amplified when one spouse is displaced from another country. Interviews and observation are used to examine the lived-world of bi-national (where spouses are from different countries of origin) and mono-national families. Key themes emphasize how members of families insert their cultures in navigating consumption decisions and reconciling preferences. Using food consumption as context, findings reveal the extent to which individual partners relinquish part of their personal cultural identities to gain a synergistic collective identity at the family level. In discussing strategies of acknowledgment, negotiation, accommodation and unification, implications are drawn for family decision-making, family identity and consumer–brand relationship theory.

The binational household, in essence, is a marriage of cultures, providing a bridge between previously disconnected cultural dispositions and consumption experiences. This essay posits that studying the role and impact of this culturally diverse micro-setting adds to the field's knowledge and appreciation of culturally heterogeneous interactions. Understanding the impact of the binational family has several societal and public policy implications. The authors challenge researchers to think of the binational family as an important and relevant context in which to explore marketplace diversity, inclusion, and creativity.

Stevenson and Case (2005) define olfactory imagery as “being able to experience the sensation of smell when an appropriate stimulus is absent.” Olfactory imagery is a form of odor presentation in addition to actual odors. In some cases, odors associated with a product are not necessarily accessible in the marketplace. For example, products are packaged or boxed and shown visually through pictures or ads. Online stores and e-commerce are also marketplaces generally restricted to the possible presentation of sensory information, including odor/scent. However, the relationship and performance between olfactory imagery and real odors have been shown to be very similar (Carrasco and Ridout 1993; Lyman 1988). These studies used multidimensional scaling (MDS) to identify the qualitative dimensions that underlie similarity judgments between real and imagined odors. Mental imagery literature has also provided evidence that odor imagery, along with visual imagery, can be developed and processed in the brain similarly to sensory processing occurring during actual stimuli. This is shown using fMRI and PET (Djordjevic et al. 2005). These authors discovered that olfactory imagery can affect the perception of odor. What has not been explicitly examined is whether odor imagery can also affect the emotions of individuals.