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An editorial is presented in which the authors consider the effects of artificial intelligence (AI) on scholarly publishing, with particular focus given to consumer research. Topics of discussion include digitization of consumer research practice, questions surrounding the use of GenAI during the research process, the use of GenAI as a support tool in editorship, and human adoption of AI.

This paper systematises the theoretical perspectives that inform the consumer-object relationship (C-OR) debate and its evolutionary trajectories to organise how a theory of the object has been developed in marketing and consumer research. We build on a diachronic critical reading of the key turning points in the debate to conduct a systematic review, combining a bibliometric and semantic-lexicographic analysis. Our analysis organises the contribution that each theoretical perspective offered to the development of a theory of the object, highlighting the interplays, contrasts, mesh-ups, and distinctions in terms of theoretical underpinnings, vocabularies, and ideological viewpoints. In so doing, it raises awareness about the significance of embracing diverse theoretical perspectives to guide further inquiry on the expanding role of smart and technological objects in C-OR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is growing concern about the proliferation of radical groups and violent content on social media platforms such as YouTube. These platforms present unique capacities to promote radicalised content, as they allow the flourishing of digital creators who amass large audiences and communicate their ideas in a compelling video format. Notwithstanding, consumer research has not yet provided a conceptualisation of such antagonistic online consumer gatherings in the ephemeral social media context. We investigate this phenomenon by combining netnographic sensibility with digital methods to explore the case of pro-gun YouTubers in Brazil. We propose the notion of online consumer counterpublics, which are online consumer collectives socio-technically shaped and promoted by social media influencers and their audiences on social media platforms based on strong oppositional discourses, ideas, affectivities, and values associated with a consumption topic, and who develop a compelling counter-hegemonic social identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article looks at the issue of whether and how work in the scholarly field of consumer research is relevant for various audiences. It notes concerns have been voiced about the content of the periodical failing to offer such relevance. It offers a framework for assessing different kinds of relevance that a consumer research study may have which includes considerations such as the targeted audience of the research question, the importance of the research topic, and whether the research results are actionable.

In this recursively reflexive comment, I reflect on the seven commentaries that critically elaborate upon my proposals about the radically decentering ontological implications of Russ Belk's conceptualization of the extended self. These wide-ranging commentaries address a nexus of thought provoking and intriguing topics that significantly expand and enrich this discussion about the future of consumer research (as we can best envision it from the limits of our contemporary standpoints). I am thrilled to have provided an impetus for these reflections and, as a secondary benefit, they have helped me to better crystallize my initial reflections via the reflexive trope of the consumer as an elusive epistemic object, endlessly pursued by marketing researchers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this commentary, I draw on Annemarie Mol's work to ponder the implications of multiple ontologies of the body that are enacted in research as well as in domains such as athletics. I highlight the work of consumption scholars who have been demonstrating the relational entanglements of human bodies various other-than-human bodies and materialities, revealing a more distributed performance of the body and the self. I note the possibilities of reading Belk's oeuvre through the lens of multiple ontologies and enactments. In doing so, I question the linear and uni-directional evolution from "heavier" to "lighter" ontologies of the self in consumer research that Thompson's commentary seems to imply. I finally highlight the politics of ontological enactments and their implications for bodily wellness and autonomy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Craig Thompson (2024) offers an analysis of how Belk's distinction between the consumer's core self and extended self continues to be conceptually ambiguous and persistently troublesome as an onto epistemological foundation in consumer research. He notes that the recent proliferation of consumer technologies may lead us to finally see things for what they are and thus to forsake our lingering longing for an agentic core self in control. We offer a theological reading that stretches backwards for insights to what guarantees us the very problem of the self and the questions we can ask of it. We also offer grounds for believing that the trouble goes back to times immemorial, is largely non-negotiable, and is here to stay. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Belk's conceptualisation of the extended self is one of the most influential articles published in the history of consumer research. However, less scholarly attention has been given to the broader ontological implications of Belk's later arguments that his original distinction between a core and extended self should be abandoned. In this comment, I first highlight how Belk's original formulation marked a contested transition from a dualistic view of consumers as possessing a core self that remains distinct from the socio-material world to a dialectical understanding of consumer selves as emerging from a centre-to-periphery network of relations. His ensuing update implicitly denotes another ontological shift towards an even more de-centred view of the 'extended self'. However, Belk's reformulation of the extended self in the digital age lacked a culturally established, alternative praxeomorphic model needed to fully disentangle the extended self from the 'heavy' ontology of the core self. Contemporary socio-technical innovations are beginning to offer a praxeomorphic means to ontologically re-vision consumers as distributed networks whose life narratives function as ledgers of their assembled experiences. As an emerging praxeomorphic future shaped by the mass diffusion of AI technologies is rapidly taking shape, I suggest that 'consumer research', as we currently understand it, may soon be radically transformed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is born of the joy and pain of institutional life. It responds to recent work by Craig Thompson and is a response to an invitation to participate from the Editor of the JMM (Mark Tadajewski). It seeks to take seriously the role of consumer research and consumption within society. It seeks to tell 'better stories' about the past, present and what it sees as a reimagined future for consumer research. To do so, it revisits some of the canonical works of consumer research, such exemplary work it suggests are worthy of revisiting and critiquing if we are to chart a rejuvenated form of consumer research that takes seriously our contemporary predicament and is more critical and incisive in its intent. With renewed purpose it takes on board the insights around Bauman's notion of 'liquid times', offers a range of opportunities, possibilities and dangers around the conflicted consumer self and puts forward an ABC of critical consumer research, where notions of affect, breakdown, contradiction are taken seriously for their theoretical and practical insights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Looking back at 50 years of Journal of Consumer Research methods and interviewing some of the field's most respected methodologists, this article seeks to craft a core set of best practices for scholars in consumer research. From perennial issues like conceptual validity to emerging issues like data integrity and replicability, the advice offered by our experts can help scholars improve the way they approach their research questions, provide empirical evidence that instills confidence, use new tools to make research more inclusive or descriptive of the "real world," and seek to become thought leaders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scientific communities such as journals or professional societies have their own ways of creating and sharing knowledge called "epistemic cultures." Drawing on prior reflexive scholarship and conversations with eight preeminent consumer researchers, this article explores some of the central tenets of epistemic culture at the Journal of Consumer Research (JCR): midrange scope, differential insight, meaningful impact, and multidisciplinary field. It also provides some guidance to new consumer researchers on how to accomplish epistemic fluency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reflects on the study of consumer-related emerging topics in the Journal of Consumer Research (JCR) and looks ahead to consider what the next generation of emergent issues might be that capture consumer researchers' attention and interest. Drawing on conversations with eminent scholars who have made major contributions to JCR by introducing emerging topics to our literature, the author (i) provides a commentary of past approaches to researching novel emerging topics, (ii) suggests some domains from which new emerging topics for consumer research can be sourced, such as new digital technologies (e.g. artificial intelligence) and major societal challenges (e.g. climate change, sustainability, and health), and (iii) offers guidance on how to approach research on important emerging topics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article takes a "then and now" perspective on social and cultural issues in the Journal of Consumer Research. The author had conversations with preeminent scholars who reflected on theoretical developments over time, what we know, and what we should be most concerned with now and in the future. This article can be used as a call to action for future consumer research dealing with society and culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The assessment of consumer scholarship must move beyond a mere counting of the number of "A"s on a researcher's CV to include at least some measure of impact. To facilitate a broader assessment of scholarship in consumer research, we provide detailed statistics on the productivity and citation impact of the field's 340 main gatekeepers: the editors, associate editors, and editorial board members of the Journal of Consumer Research and the Journal of Consumer Psychology. In addition, we introduce a new metric, called the p -index, which can be interpreted as an indicator of a researcher's propensity for thought leadership. Using this metric, we show that productivity and thought leadership do not necessarily go hand in hand in consumer research and that a combination of the two is a good predictor of the level of esteem that consumer scholars enjoy among their peers and of the receipt of major career awards. Our analyses provide greater transparency into how productivity, citation impact, and propensity for thought leadership are currently distributed among prominent consumer scholars. Furthermore, the detailed descriptive statistics reported can serve as useful benchmarks against which other consumer researchers' records may be meaningfully compared. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we review the ways in which replication has been and could be featured in consumer behavior, using Journal of Consumer Research as a specific setting. We present a framework for thinking about the generalizability of research findings and differentiate various potential benefits that replication can have for understanding variability in consumer research findings. We then define four different types of replications, describe how researchers can use these approaches to produce distinct benefits, and give guidance regarding conducting, interpreting, and the potential contributions of these different types of replications. We conclude with a discussion of various ways in which replication could be more fully integrated into different phases of the scientific research process, taking into account the contribution necessary for publication. In particular, we identify opportunities to incorporate independent replication into original papers, to increase the replication-based contribution in papers that build on prior work, and to use systematic replication in conjunction with meta-analysis to synthesize and confirm conclusions from a mature research literature. More fully integrating replication into scientific practice can yield a new equilibrium, in which replication is routine, typically consistent with previous results, and recognized as necessary for establishing an empirical generalization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research studies the impact of articles appearing in the top four journals for consumer research— JCR , JMR , JM , and JCP— by examining factors that influence scholarly, public, and practical impact. This conceptually distinguishes between "incongruent novelty" (novelty arising from incongruity between an article and other existing articles) and "recombinant novelty" (novelty based on drawing from more disparate references). Incongruent novelty is decomposed into two components: (1) topic incongruity—incongruity between an article's topic and other existing topics at the time and (2) article incongruity—incongruity between an article and other existing articles on the same primary topic. By integrating topic modeling and word embedding to measure these constructs, we demonstrate varying impacts of types of novelty on three types of impact. Overall, our findings illustrate that topic and article incongruity have effects above and beyond recombinant novelty. For both scholarly and public impact, our results suggest that moderately high topic incongruity has the largest influence, suggesting that researchers should address novel topics. Additionally, scholarly citations are positively affected by lower and higher (vs. moderate) levels of article incongruity, suggesting that researchers either engage in programmatic research or add a new approach to the existing research on a topic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Race has been a market force in society for centuries. Still, the question of what constitutes focused and sustainable consumer research engagement with race remains opaque. We propose a guide for scholars and scholarship that extends the current canon of race in consumer research toward understanding race, racism, and related racial dynamics as foundational to global markets and central to consumer research efforts. We discuss the nature, relevance, and meaning of race for consumer research and offer a thematic framework that critically categorizes and synthesizes extant consumer research on race along the following dimensions: (1) racial structuring of consumption and consumer markets, (2) consumer navigation of racialized markets, and (3) consumer resistance and advocacy movements. We build on our discussion to guide future research that foregrounds racial dynamics in consumer research and offers impactful theoretical and practical contributions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This meta-meta-analysis study quantifies the development of scientific knowledge in consumer research by summarizing the findings of 222 meta-analyses that together include 2481 meta-analytic effect sizes. The results provide an overview of how much we know and how knowledge has developed in consumer research over time. By explaining 7.8% variance (r = 0.28) in consumer-relevant dependent variables, the findings show that consumer research, a comparatively young discipline, is relatively effective at knowledge development compared to other disciplines. Furthermore, the accumulation of knowledge is significantly increasing, suggesting that our discipline is still in the growing phase of its life cycle and generating continuously improving explanations of consumer-related phenomena. The development of knowledge varies across consumer-relevant dependent variables, with strong explanations for relationships but significantly weaker ones for memory , affect , and attitudes. Moreover, the knowledge synthesized in meta-analyses is fairly—though not fully—representative of the content of primary research on consumers overall. The findings convey a future research agenda by identifying under-researched areas, advising on the selection of dependent variables, providing indicators for the expected contributions of future studies, suggesting implications for career strategies of consumer researchers, and discussing explanations for the observed knowledge growth effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Digital advertising platforms have emerged as a widely utilized data source in consumer research; yet, the interpretation of such data remains a source of confusion for many researchers. This article aims to address this issue by offering a comprehensive and accessible review of four prominent data collection methods proposed in the marketing literature: "informal studies," "multiple-ad studies without holdout," "single-ad studies with holdout," and "multiple-ad studies with holdout." By outlining the strengths and limitations of each method, we aim to enhance understanding regarding the inferences that can and cannot be drawn from the collected data. Furthermore, we present seven recommendations to effectively leverage these tools for programmatic consumer research. These recommendations provide guidance on how to use these tools to obtain causal and non-causal evidence for the effects of marketing interventions, and the associated psychological processes, in a digital environment regulated by targeting algorithms. We also give recommendations for how to describe the testing tools and the data they generate and urge platforms to be more transparent on how these tools work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With its 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the United Nations (UN) developed 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a "blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet." This initiative raises the question: how has the Journal of Consumer Research (JCR) shed light on the SDGs? This research analyzes 50 years of consumer research through the lens of the SDG and makes four contributions. First, the authors provide a content analysis of articles in JCR and how it relates to the SDGs over time; they also analyze the Journal of Consumer Psychology (JCP) and Journal of Public Policy & Marketing (JPP&M) with regard to the SDGs. Second, this research reveals where JCR has made progress and achieved impact (via Altmetric) but also identifies gaps in the literature. Thus, the analyses shed light on what research in JCR , JCP , and JPP&M understands (and does not understand) about consumer behavior and points the way to future SDG-oriented research. Finally, based on insights from interviews with thought leaders, sociology of science, UN data dashboards, and an exploratory survey in three countries (the U.S. France, and Singapore), the authors provide recommendations on how the field can (better) incorporate the SDGs in research, teaching, and service. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Trust is one of the highly important concepts of consumer research; yet it is characterized by a striking lack of generalizations and consensus regarding the relative strength of its antecedents, consequences, and moderators. To close this important gap, the current research reports a comprehensive large-scale meta-analysis shedding light on a wide variety of the antecedents, consequences, and moderators of the individual consumer's trust and their relative importance. Empirical generalizations are based on 2,147 effect sizes from 549 studies across 469 manuscripts in numerous disciplines, representing a total of 324,834 respondents in 71 countries over a five-decade span (1970–2020). The key findings are thus that (1) integrity-based (vs. reliability-based) antecedents are more effective in driving trust, and (2) trust is more effective in improving primarily attitudinal (vs. primarily behavioral) outcomes. Moderation analyses unpack further heterogeneity. Notably, both integrity-based and reliability-based antecedents have become stronger drivers of consumer trust in recent years. Theoretical and practical contributions are discussed in addition to advancing important future directions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research enriches the field's perspective on value and argues that to seriously address inequality during the next 50 years, consumer research must explore processual aspects of value hierarchy and consider its relationship to inequality. Doing so recognizes the duality of structures as embodying outcomes and agency, as well as the need to view value not only as what it is but also as what it does. To begin to address limitations in the literature, we use empirical evidence from an investigation of the cancer care market from 1970 to 2021 to understand how value hierarchy shapes and manifests as inequality. This is conceptualized as: distribution of multilevel resources, consolidation of consumer power, stratification of consumer agency, and (de)credentialization of worthiness. Building on each of these, we discuss a research agenda for future JCR inquiries and introduce "value hierarchy as inequality" as a big-tent issue for consumer research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past 50 years, consumer researchers have presented extensive evidence that consumer preference can be swayed by the decision context, particularly the configuration of the choice set. Importantly, behavioral research on context effects has inspired prominent quantitative research on multialternative decision-making published in leading psychology, management, economics, and general interest journals. While both streams of research seem to agree that context effects are an important research area, there has been relatively limited interaction, communication, and collaboration between the two research camps. In this article, we seek to initiate an active dialogue between the two sides. We begin by providing a critical overview of the two literatures on context effects, discussing both their strengths and weaknesses, as well as disparities and complementarities. Here, we place particular emphasis on deepening consumer researchers' understanding of context effects by drawing on prominent quantitative research published in non-marketing journals over the last decades. Importantly, we provide a roadmap for the future that can inspire further research and potential collaborations between the two camps, overcoming silos in knowledge creation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last 50+ years, there has been a huge rise in interest in consumer language research. This article spotlights the emergence and evolution of this area, identifying key themes and trends and highlighting topics for future research. Work has evolved from exploration of broad language concepts (e.g. rhetorics) to specific linguistic features (e.g. phonemes) and from monologues (e.g. advertiser to consumer) to two-way dialogues (e.g. consumer to service representative and back). We discuss future opportunities that arise from past trends and suggest two important shifts that prompt questions for future research: the new shift toward using voice (vs. hands) when interacting with objects and the ongoing shift toward using hands (vs. voices) to communicate with people. By synthesizing the past, and delineating a research agenda for the future, we hope to encourage more researchers to begin to explore this burgeoning area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the 1990s, the marketing literature has seen the emergence of research dedicated to consumers with disabilities (CWD). This work is mostly based on the social model of disability, which encourages practitioners to eradicate the physical and architectural barriers faced by individuals. However, in the field of disability studies, the social model is increasingly criticised both for being too radical and for neglecting the subjective experience of disability. In this paper, we attempt to illuminate existing views, while advocating new perspectives, for conceptualising and representing disability in consumer research. With this in mind, we first briefly present the major conceptual foundations and models of disability research. Then, we systematically review marketing literature on CWD to examine the perspectives used when studying this phenomenon. Finally, we propose a research agenda aimed at advancing the understanding of consumption and disability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the changes made by the Academy of Marketing to better meet the needs of the academic community and shape the direction of the Academy. The annual conference introduced capacity building research workshops in 2018, which became even more important when the 2020 conference was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The article highlights 18 workshops that focused on reframing marketing priorities and explored various topics such as consumer research during the pandemic, digital assessments, sustainability in marketing, and virtual engagement. The article also mentions six papers in a special issue that examine the role of technology in marketing practices, teaching, and future imagining. The papers cover topics such as assessment strategies for work-ready graduates, online consumption of the arts, virtual community building, online religious engagement, entrepreneurial decision-making, and stakeholder co-creation of smart cities. The article concludes by encouraging readers to embrace the opportunities to advance marketing priorities through technology. [Extracted from the article]

The promotion of diversity and inclusion in advertising has the potential to bring about positive change in society. Despite its importance, there has been limited research on consumer reactions to these initiatives, making it challenging to understand their complexities and nuances fully. To address this gap, this study employs a mixed-method approach, combining a typology of reactions to diversity and inclusion advertising (DIA) with qualitative interviews to provide a comprehensive framework for researchers and practitioners. Underpinned by social identity theory, this study segments individuals based on their attitudes and perceptions toward DIA and their level of belief congruence with the message. The resulting framework sheds light on the interplay among individual perceptions, execution considerations, and brand-related perceptions, highlighting the importance of understanding the attitudes of each segment. Critically, three of the four segments suffer from brand-related perceptions, be it a lack of authenticity or engagement or perceptions of selfish motives, making it imperative for practitioners to understand and address these challenges. Finally, we move away from a one-size-fits-all approach to DIA, offering a framework for practitioners, including tailored recommendations for each segment, enabling them to navigate the complex interplay among individual perceptions, execution considerations, and brand-related perceptions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Marketing research targeting poor consumers has been developing recently. The specific characteristics of these consumers make it difficult to conduct empirical research. This difficulty has raised the question of how to adapt the methods and techniques usually used in marketing. This article provides a multidisciplinary review of the difficulties encountered in addressing people living in poverty and enables researchers to assess this population and anticipate their needs. In addition, based on a literature review of the methods used in 83 empirical marketing studies published between 1990 and 2021, our study provides researchers with a vade-mecum to guide them in their choice of research design. Concrete and detailed recommendations are provided to facilitate their involvement in the field of poor consumers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While outstanding in observing the contemporary experience of being a "consumer" to become a "canonical article" in consumer research, as Thompson deftly analyzes, Belk's "Possessions and the Extended Self" is subject to varied traps of remaining within the "mainstream marketing's ideological boat." This commentary attempts to highlight these ideological traps as we hopefully escape contemporary capitalism's system of production of consumer subjectivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay gives closer historical consideration to the unprecedented disciplinary impact of Belk's (1988) conceptualization of the extended self. This canonical article initially appeared to be another flashpoint in the paradigmatic conflict between positivist and interpretivist consumer researchers. However, Belk's portrayal of consumers as agentic actors who produce their own identities through a network of possessions and symbolic artefacts proved to be highly compatible with interdisciplinary trends toward a more holistic and socio-culturally situated understanding of consumer behavior. Accordingly, Belk's "extended self" created an ontological bridge between interpretivist studies of consumers' co-constituting relations to the socio-material world and consumer psychologists' quest to expand their research interests beyond the study of rational decision making processes. While some marketing historians have suggested that the extended self's seminal influence derives from its generative "vagueness," I propose that its transformational effects on the broader field of consumer research trace to a genius of mythopoesis and a genius of timing. I then discuss how the logic of ontological reconfiguration, manifest in Belk's conceptualization, can foster more synergistic and innovative inter-paradigmatic dialogues between consumer culture theory (CCT) and consumer psychology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With this article we hope to achieve two goals. The first is to encourage consumer behavioral researchers to consider Bayesian methods for analyzing experimental and survey data. As such, we provide what we hope will be a persuasive set of arguments for trying Bayes. The second goal is to survey the different uses to which the Bayesian posterior distribution can be put. We organize this survey in terms of loss functions and propose that such loss functions can be chosen so as to simply describe a consumer behavioral phenomenon, to highlight a managerial implication, or to emphasize a theoretical contribution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Family and consumer sciences research from graduate theses and dissertations and the resulting degrees have been reported annually in the Family and Consumer Sciences Research Journal since 1992. Requests for the 2023 data began in September 2024 when 528 email invitations were sent to contacts at 163 US universities and colleges with family and consumer sciences programs. Forty‐six institutions responded with data and reported that 1550 graduate degrees were conferred collectively, with 1027 non‐thesis master's degrees, 241 master's theses, and 282 dissertations completed. This review reports graduate degree completion and highlights topical trends of the theses and dissertations completed by reporting programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wicked problems pose both immediate and existential threats. Within this article we explore the underlying nature of wicked problems, including the social traps embedded in them. We deconstruct the ecosystem surrounding single‐use plastics to make key points regarding controversies and conflicting interests surrounding wicked problems. We propose that wicked problems may be reframed by unpacking the relationships between individuals and collectives and how social traps are understood in terms of time horizon, ownership, responsibility, and involvement. We argue that resolutions to social traps are paramount to resolving wicked problems in the case of single‐use plastics and to wicked problems more generally. We draw from marketing, psychology, public policy, and consumer research literature to suggest specific ways marketing can mitigate or perhaps eliminate the insidious dynamic of social traps and wicked problems, and in turn affect positive outcomes to enhance the short‐term and long‐term well‐being for many consumers and stakeholders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tourism is one of the sectors with the highest demand for fresh water. Indicators suggest that water consumption by tourists is more than double that of residents. This phenomenon can be explained by tourists' interest in engaging in unique experiences, which frequently entails putting sustainable practices aside. To mitigate the environmental impact of tourism and promote sustainable practices, the state of Quintana Roo has implemented the Sustainable Tourism Master Plan 2030, linking the government and companies to reduce environmental impacts by reducing tourists' water consumption. Despite these efforts, the use of fresh water by tourists continues to be more than double that of residents. Consequently, tourists' sustainable behavior is not significantly influenced by external factors, such as awareness campaigns, but depends more on the personal aspects of each individual. Generation Z stands out for being more aware of environmental problems and showing a willingness to modify their behavior towards more sustainable practices. The objective of this study was to explain the factors that influence the sustainable behavior related to water consumption among Generation Z tourists. The methodology employed was cross-sectional, with a quantitative approach, focused on attitude variables, subjective norms, and perceived control as determinants of sustainable behavior. This research is also considered nonexperimental, as there was no direct intervention with the subjects of the study, A non-probabilistic convenience sampling method was used to collect data directly from Generation Z tourists in the state of Quintana Roo, specifically from the destinations of Tulum, Playa del Carmen, Bacalar, and Cancún. These locations were selected due to their prominence as major tourist attractions within the data collection areas, without further differentiation or classification. Data were collected through a face-to-face survey conducted over a period of two months, with a total of 408 respondents participating, of whom 57.8% were male. The results revealed that subjective norms and perceived control influence sustainable water consumption behavior, while attitudes do not have a direct impact. These findings will provide governments and businesses with a basis to design more effective strategies that encourage sustainable behavior among Gen Z tourists, thus offering a starting point for understanding the behavior of other generations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: This paper presents a case study review of an Australian research partnership between an independent mental health lived experience-led research network and an academic organisation established for the research and treatment of disorders of the brain and mind. The aim of the study was to explore the principles and practical requirements needed for a successful partnership that promotes inclusive research practices and power sharing and provide a framework to improve the operationalization of future similar partnerships. Methods: This study was led and conducted by lived experience researchers. We used a mixed-method approach to data collection for data triangulation. An environmental scan of peer-reviewed and grey literature on mental health research partnerships was conducted, followed by a three-part data collection with members of both organisations. Data collection comprised an online survey, in-depth interviews, and a roundtable discussion to integrate findings and formulate recommendations. Results and Conclusion: This case study explores and describes a missed opportunity of a consumer led mental health research organisation to work successfully with an established mental health research organisation. Poor communication and unclear processes led to unmet expectations on both sides. Findings suggest the use of reflective practice by team members of both partner organisations may have been helpful in identifying further improvements to inclusive research practice, empowering consumers in inclusive mental health research. Plain English summary: Background: Involving people in research who have used mental health services improves research outcomes. The Consumer Led Research Network (CLRN) was formed to progress this in Australia and entered into a partnership with the Brain and Mind Centre (BMC), a large, established, research centre. A short, written agreement was made to guide the partnership. Aim: This study explored the principles and practices used to work together. The paper suggests a framework to guide similar work. Methods: Independent consumer researchers worked with CLRN and BMC to carry out the study. People from both groups took part in a survey and individual interviews. The findings of the survey and interviews were analysed and discussed at a group meeting. Results and Conclusion: The study found that the partnership was not well set up to allow success. A better start may have been made if both parties had outlined at the outset what they wanted to result from the partnership. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Multicancer detection tests (MCDs) are blood‐based tests designed to detect multiple cancer types. It is currently unclear whether these cancer screening tests improve mortality. To understand awareness of MCDs among providers and patients, as well as explore how they perceive the benefits, harms, and acceptability of MCDs, we have undertaken a focus group study in primary care physicians (PCPs) and laypersons to explore knowledge, attitudes, and expectations of cancer screening using MCDs. Methods: We conducted six focus groups with 45 PCP participants and 12 focus groups with 80 layperson participants. Participants were identified via a consumer research firm and found eligible following the completion of a screener survey. Moderators used a semi‐structured guide containing open‐ended questions and prompts to facilitate the discussion. Recordings were transcribed and coded line by line using a codebook developed based on questions and emerging discussion concepts, and emergent themes were identified. Results: Both PCP and layperson participants felt the that benefits of MCDs included ease of use and potential ability to detect cancers early. However, they felt that additional data is needed to overcome some of the concerns related to MCDs. PCP participants expressed concerns related to lack of practice guidelines, cost of diagnostic follow‐ups, privacy and insurance issues, fear/anxiety related to confirmation of MCD results, and malpractice liability related to perceived false negative test results. Layperson participants expressed concerns related to costs, insurance coverage, and privacy, as well as anxiety over the confirmation of a positive test result. Conclusions: There is a major need for more rigorous data regarding MCDs to inform the development of guidelines for use as cancer screening tools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given economic downturns and environmental concerns, promoting innovative consumption patterns is urgently needed. Swap is a promising collaborative consumption pattern that redistributes ownership of goods without using money. In the past, no research has focused on swap platform quality due to a lack of empirical resources. Therefore, this study aims to construct theoretical methods for evaluating and optimizing the quality of swap platforms. Analyzing consumer characteristics and motivations, the study creates a user profile that guides swap platforms' market positioning. Then a quality evaluation model for swap platforms is constructed to identify areas for improvement. Data were collected from core users of a start-up swap platform in Shanghai, including 20 in-depth interviews and 180 survey questionnaires. The findings reveal that the main consumers in Shanghai's swap market are highly educated women aged 20 to 40, with upper-middle incomes. They are motivated by functional, charitable, economic, and hedonic factors. Using grounded theory and the IPA method, this study developed a quality evaluation model for swap platforms, consisting of 18 indicators that clearly distinguish areas of weakness and strengths. This study provides valuable insights into the methodological research of quality evaluation for swap platforms and offers practical suggestions for their optimization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Embracing diversity and promoting inclusion is a critical challenge for marketers to meet the diverse consumers' needs and have a positive social impact. Despite increasing attention to diversity and inclusion, and calls to address inequalities, there appears to be a lack of a thorough understanding of diversity and inclusion in consumer research, and how marketing can effectively contribute to an inclusive and equity‐oriented society. Previous reviews and conceptual articles often focus on specific types of diversity or contexts. This study aims to provide a comprehensive examination of diversity and inclusion in consumer research through a systematic literature review of 52 articles combined with the theory, context, characteristics, and methodology (TCCM) framework. Our findings highlight that companies can actively foster inclusion and enhance equity through their policies, also by addressing stigmatization and marginalization. A conceptual framework outlines the impacts of these policies on individuals, society, and company performances, followed by a detailed research agenda for future studies. This article emphasizes the role of marketing in fostering inclusion but also stimulates practitioners to contribute through policies beyond representation and advertising, such as service and product design, and ensuring vulnerable consumers access to resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We set forth an agenda for Moral Foundations Theory (MFT) research in consumer psychology, focusing in particular on four pathways: (1) factoring in multiple identities, including moral identities, to account for contextual elevation or suppression of moral foundations in predicting which decisions consumers moralize and when; (2) broadening the methodological usage of MFT to include more targeted causal research as well as expanding the utility of correlational research; (3) increasing discriminant validity between MFT and other constructs by studying moral foundations as individually manipulable and focusing on their incremental predictive validity over and above demographics and related constructs; and (4) recognizing that researcher biases regarding morality can leak into the publication process, necessitating clear distinctions between prescriptive versus descriptive research. These pathways facilitate more precise and stronger predictive validity for applying MFT in consumer psychology, yielding greater theoretical and practical utility across researcher perspectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Questionnaire consumer survey research is primarily used for marketing research. To obtain credible results, collecting responses from numerous participants is necessary. However, two crucial challenges prevent marketers from conducting large-sample size surveys. The first is cost, as organizations with limited marketing budgets struggle to gather sufficient data. The second involves rare population groups, where it is difficult to obtain representative samples. Furthermore, the increasing awareness of privacy and security concerns has made it challenging to ask sensitive and personal questions, further complicating respondent recruitment. To address these challenges, we augmented small-sized datawith synthesized data generated using deep generative neural networks (DGNNs). The synthesized data from three types of DGNNs (CTGAN, TVAE, and CopulaGAN) were based on seed data. For validation, 11 datasets were prepared: real data (original and seed), synthesized data (CTGAN, TVAE, and CopulaGAN), and augmented data (original + CTGAN, original + TVAE, original + CopulaGAN, seed + CTGAN, seed + TVAE, and seed + CopulaGAN). The large-sample-sized data, termed "original data", served as the benchmark, whereas the small-sample-sized data acted as the foundation for synthesizing additional data. These datasets were evaluated using machine learning algorithms, particularly focusing on classification tasks. Conclusively, augmenting and synthesizing consumer survey data have shown potential in enhancing predictive performance, irrespective of the dataset's size. Nonetheless, the challenge remains to minimize discrepancies between the original data and other datasets concerning the values and orders of feature importance. Although the efficacy of all three approaches should be improved in future work, CopulaGAN more accurately grasps the dependencies between the variables in table data compared with the other two DGNNs. The results provide cues for augmenting data with dependencies between variables in various fields. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to present an alternative perspective to the article on consumer vulnerability recently published in this journal by Russell-Bennett et al. (2024). Design/methodology/approach: The approach is collegial but firm in its analysis of their discussion about how vulnerable consumers feel and react, as offered without appropriate review and details from previous research. Findings: The perspective given by the authors is found to lack sufficient substance and foundation in the consumer vulnerability literature across several leading journals in the field. Alternative interpretations are presented and articulated. Originality/value: All ideas expressed as a counter to their arguments come from decades of experiences working with vulnerable peoples across multiple contexts and communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This study aims to explore how a postmodern tribe enacts and re-interprets ideologies as a part of consumers' collective experience, to enhance our understanding of consumer communities in conjunction with ideological capacities. Design/methodology/approach: The community of "presenteers" is conceptualized as a self-organized tribe with heterogeneous components that generate capacities to act. Netnographic observation was conducted on 18 presenteer accounts and lasted around six months. Real-time data were collected by taking screenshots of the posts and stories that these users created and publicly shared. Data were analysed by adopting assemblage theory, combining inductive and deductive approaches. Firstly, a qualitative visual-textual content analysis of the tribe's defining components was conducted. Then, the process continued with the thematic analysis of the ideological underpinnings of the tribe's enactments. Findings: Findings shed light on the ways in which consumer communities interpret the entanglement of religious, political, and cultural ideologies in shaping their experiences. In the case of the presenteers tribe, findings reflect a novel ideological interplay between neo-Ottomanism, post-feminism and consumerism. Research limitations/implications: The study offers a deep dive into a unique tribe that is being organized around the consumer-created practice of "presenteering" and investigates consumer communalization in alignment with the ideological turn in culture-oriented interpretative research on consumers, consumption, and markets. This exploration helps to bridge the research on the communalization of consumers with the recent discussions of ideology in the postmodern market. Originality/value: The study offers a deep dive into a unique tribe that is being organized around the consumer-created practice of "presenteering" and investigates consumer communalization in alignment with the ideological turn in culture-oriented interpretative research on consumers, consumption, and markets. This exploration helps to bridge the research on the communalization of consumers with the recent discussions of ideology in the postmodern market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to systematically review the existing literature on the concept of consumer sovereignty. Design/methodology/approach: By leveraging a systematic literature review using a data-driven approach and quantitative methodology, this study provides an overview of the intellectual structure of consumer sovereignty research. Findings: We explored the main topics that researchers tackled in consumer sovereignty research. Furthermore, we identified the theoretical lenses used in these studies. Finally, we proposed a research agenda to advance the scholarly debate on consumer sovereignty. Research limitations/implications: Some limitations should be acknowledged. First, the study only studied and analyzed consumer sovereignty articles that were published in peer-reviewed academic journals. Second, our review comprised journals identified in Scopus. Third, in this study, we have taken into account only articles written in English. Practical implications: The authors expect the current review to significantly impact the identification of theories for the main trends in the academic analysis of consumer sovereignty and consumer behavior. Originality/value: This study is the first to provide an integrated view of the body of consumer sovereignty. This review provides a strong contribution to consumer sovereignty literature by recommending a new research agenda for the concept of consumer sovereignty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Africa is home to 27 of the world's 28 poorest, marginalised and most vulnerable countries. There are limited studies on the challenges and opportunities of researching marginalised consumers in Africa, even though more than 440 million marginalised consumers consume products and services that require market research. This paper aims to critically identify and discuss the challenges and opportunities for researching marginalised consumers in Africa using insights from empirical studies conducted in various countries between 2009 and 2022. The paper proposes a conceptual framework that outlines the methodological and operational challenges and enablers for market research and concludes with practical guidelines of considerations that researchers should take for researching the marginalised in Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The attraction effect (AE) occurs when the addition of an inferior alternative (i.e. a decoy) to a choice set increases the choice share of the alternative to which it is most similar (i.e. a target), a phenomenon that violates the regularity principle. The AE occurs reliably when the attribute values are represented numerically, but not when the stimuli are perceptual. Such conceptual replication failures indicate a lack of clarity about the mechanisms that produce the AE. The present research develops a framework—the 3A framework—that specifies the distinct functions of ambiguity, accessibility, and applicability in the choice process. These factors, and their attendant mechanisms, explain when and why the AE emerges. They also specify conditions under which the AE is attenuated. Seven main experiments and four supplementary experiments examine when and why the AE emerges with perceptual stimuli, provide support for the 3A framework, and offer insights about how to produce the AE in choice contexts involving perceptual stimuli. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mediation analysis is used to study the relationship between stimulus and response in the presence of intermediate, generative variables. The traditional approach to the analysis utilizes the results of an aggregate regression model, which assumes that all respondents go through the same data-generating mechanism. We introduce a new approach that is able to uncover the heterogeneity in mediating mechanisms and provides more informative insights from mediation studies. The proposed approach provides individual-specific probabilities to mediate as well as a new measure of the degree of mediation as the prevalence of mediation in the sample. Covariates in the proposed model help describe the variation in the probability to mediate among respondents. The empirical examination of published studies demonstrates the presence of heterogeneity in mediating processes and supports the need for this new approach. We present evidence that the results of our more flexible heterogeneous mediation analysis do not necessarily agree with the traditional aggregate measures. We find that the conclusions from the aggregate analysis are neither sufficient nor necessary to claim mediation in the presence of heterogeneity. A web-based application allowing researchers to analyze the data with the proposed model in a user-friendly environment is developed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Consumers often receive and evaluate temporal information, such as the number of days it will take a package to arrive or the number of days a vacation will last. Across eight preregistered studies (N  =   4,758), we examine how using days-of-the-week information in descriptions of temporal intervals (e.g. "ordered on Monday, February 1, delivered on Saturday, February 6" vs. "ordered on February 1, delivered on February 6") affects consumers' duration perceptions. We propose that the days-of-the-week framing prompts people to rely on narrow-span implicit scales characterized by lower thresholds for magnitude categories. These implicit scales lead people to judge objectively equivalent temporal intervals to be longer, which in turn has downstream consequences for consumers' time-versus-money tradeoffs, work planning, and provider-switching decisions. This research adds to our understanding of how decision context can activate different implicit scales and how these scales shape consumer judgments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]