Search

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses several reports published within issue on topics including need for a marketing view of competition; consumer research; and Resource-Advantage Theory.

Compensatory consumption has been an increasingly researched yet widely debated area of consumer behaviour over the last 20 years. Extant research formulates the term as overwhelmingly negative, largely due to the simplistic and fragmented conceptualisations assumed in prior work. The purpose of the current paper is to present a comprehensive review of the umbrella term of compensatory consumption, incorporating a continuum of behaviours and accounting for the pre- and post-consumption periods including both positive and negative viewpoints. In addition, expanding upon the theory of need satisfaction, the current paper introduces a novel conceptual distinction between compensation and compromise. Finally, a proposed theoretical framework is presented that differentiates between compensatory and compromisory consumption based on the extent of consumer consciousness, rationality and rationalisation. Future research directions are offered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to understand the connection between development, marketing and transformative consumer research (TCR), with its attendant interest in promoting human well-being, this article begins by charting the links between US ‘exceptionalism’, ‘Manifest Destiny’ and modernisation theory, demonstrating the confluence of US perspectives and experiences in articulations and understandings of the contributions of marketing practice and consumer research to society. Our narrative subsequently engages with the rise of social marketing (1960s-) and finally TCR (2006-). We move beyond calls for an appreciation of paradigm plurality to encourage TCR scholars to adopt a multiple paradigmatic approach as part of a three-pronged strategy that encompasses an initial ‘provisional moral agnosticism’. As part of this stance, we argue that scholars should value the insights provided by multiple paradigms, turning each paradigmatic lens sequentially on to the issue of the relationship between marketing, development and consumer well-being. After having scrutinised these issues using multiple perspectives, scholars can then decide whether to pursue TCR-led activism. The final strategy that we identify is termed ‘critical intolerance’. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

An introduction is presented to articles published in this issue including articles on shopping by persons with disabilities, on consumer attitudes towards brand scandals and on employee motivation of sales personnel.

An introduction is presented to content in the current issue including articles by Bernard and Véronique Cova on research being conducted in Consumer Culture Theory, Russell Belk on the concept of the extended self, and Sally Dibb on social-marketing literature.

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses various reports within the issue on topics including brand engagement and loyalty, sustainability-oriented consumer research, and neuromarketing.

Films and documentaries can be highly useful pedagogic and research tools. They take complex topics that are theoretically and empirically rich and distill them into vehicles having the potential to deeply affect the way we look at marketing, consumer behavior, and the natural environment. They illuminate how our current consumption patterns are fundamentally problematic in ways that we rarely register because they are far removed from our sight. Using the work of Zygmunt Bauman on moral distance as well as two recent documentary films that bring the subject of waste to the fore, we explore these and related issues. Trashed (Brady 2012) highlights our planet’s finite resources and the hazards stemming from various waste disposal practices. Waste Land (Walker 2010) draws our attention to excess by profiling an example of how waste can be transformed into art. We make a case that these accounts can contribute to the “estrangement effect” articulated and praised by Herbert Marcuse and concomitantly provide us with examples of Transformative Consumer Research outside of the academy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article traces the emergence and subsequent decline of motivation research. It argues that contrary to recent opinion that interpretive consumer research emerged in the mid-1980s, an embryonic form of interpretive research can actually be found in the 1930s in the form of motivation research. It demonstrates that there are clear and distinct parallels regarding the ontology, axiology, epistemology, methodology and view of human nature between motivation research, interpretive research and, to a limited extent, critical theory. Not only is motivation research presented as an early form of interpretive consumer research, but in addition, Holbrook's and Hirschman's experiential analysis is shown to be a possible take-off point to make the case that motivation research represents an early root of Consumer Culture Theory. This genealogical exercise resituates the emergence of the CCT discourse by 80 years and interpretive research by 60 years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]