Explaining the environmentally sustainable consumer behavior: a social capital perspective

Purpose - The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of social capital within a community on the adoption of consumer eco-behaviour or environmentally sustainable behaviour of consumers. The authors draw on the behavioural perspective model (BPM) of consumer behaviour and social capital theory in arguing that social capital shapes a consumer's knowledge of environmental issues and pro-environmental attitudes, which in turn influence a consumer's perceived capability to engage in eco-behaviour. Design/methodology/approach - This study uses partial least squares approach to structural equation modelling of survey data involving 1,044 consumers in the Philippines. It involves testing of a measurement model to examine the validity and reliability of the constructs used in the study. This is followed by testing of the structural models to test the hypothesised relationships of the constructs. Findings - The results suggest the substantive influence of social capital on environmental knowledge, pro-environmental attitudes and eco-capability. Both knowledge and attitudes have positive effects on eco-capability, which in turn positively shapes eco-behaviour. Research limitations/implications - Future studies can examine how social capital as a multi-dimensional construct impacts context-specific consumer behaviour. Practical implications - Social and environmental marketing may focus on social network activation to encourage eco-behaviours of consumers. Social implications - Findings highlight the role of social capital within one's community as a resource channel to encourage environmentally responsible consumer behaviour. Originality/value - The study extends the BPM by offering a social capital view as a more nuanced explanation of consumer eco-behaviour.

Understanding poverty and promoting poverty alleviation through transformative consumer research

Consumer research holds potential for expanding society's understanding of how people experience poverty and mechanisms for poverty alleviation. Capitalizing on this potential, however, will require more exploration of how consumption experiences shape individual and collective well-being among the poor. This article proposes a framework for transformative consumer research focused on felt deprivation and power within the lived experience of poverty. The framework points to consumer choice, product/service experiences, consumer culture, marketplace forces, and consumption capabilities as research streams with potential to help alleviate poverty. Future research in these areas will expand pathways for transforming the lives of the poor by alleviating stress, engaging marketplace institutions, fulfilling life aspirations, leveraging trust and social capital, and facilitating creativity and adaptation.

Applying a transformative consumer research lens to understanding and alleviating poverty

Increasing attention to global poverty and the development of market-based solutions for poverty alleviation continues to motivate a broad array of academicians and practitioners to better understand the lives of the poor. Yet, the robust perspectives residing within consumer research remain to a large degree under-utilized in these pursuits. This paper articulates how applying a transformative consumer research (TCR) lens to poverty and its alleviation can generate productive insights with potential to positively transform the well-being of poor consumers.

Weaving a web: subaltern consumers, rising consumer culture, and television

Cultivation analysis suggests that television influences local cultures through its complex repertoire of images and narratives, which constitute a representation. Through a discursive analysis of television content in India we contend that rising material aspirations and consumer culture are significantly influenced by this medium. Dialectics of turmoil and tranquility mark this development for the working class population. On the one hand, there is domestication of unrest among subaltern groups, as they withdraw from collective political struggles to narrower and more tranquil forms of emulation and economism. On the other hand, these attempts at emulation have resulted in the poorer sections of society devoting their limited resources to aping a lifestyle well beyond their reach and further compromising their quality of life. The other pole of the dialectic is the increase in turmoil that results from tearing the traditional social fabric and support systems. This turmoil progressively manifests itself in increasing materialism and greater monetization of relationships for these subaltern groups.

A model driven approach to care planning systems for consumer engagement in chronic disease management

This work demonstrates a model-driven approach to the development of care plan systems, amenable to: (a) a flexible and extensible definition of care plan scope; and (b) deployment of care plan viewing and tracking functionality to a wide range of physical computing devices. The approach utilises a care plan domain model from which guideline implementers formulate care plan templates aligning to specific clinical guidelines. A clinical end user would subsequently constrain that template (e.g., selecting a subset of available activities and specific targets) to create a care plan instance for an individual patient. An XML care plan visualisation definition created using the Marama tool is transformed to OpenLaszlo script from which Shockwave Flash objects can be compiled, creating Flash applications that run on a variety of hardware for both clinical and patient users. The approach is illustrated with respect to an overweight and obesity guideline.