Emotions in the Experiential Consumption of Mobile Phones

Although marketers have a strong interest in finding ways to engage with consumers through mobile phones, the everyday experiential, or affective consumption practices surrounding this technology have received limited attention in the literature. To address this limitation, we used appraisal theory, which specifies it is the way individuals appraise situations or events that elicit emotions. We conducted an experience sampling method study to explore the emotions that individuals experience during their interactions with and through their mobile phones and what situations or events elicit these emotions. The preliminary findings show a number of significant relationships between emotions and specfic clusters of situations and events. Additionally, age and gender were also important indicators. The research contributes to a deeper understanding of the experiential nature of mobile information technologies through consumers’ everyday-consumption-related emotions and the situations and events that elicit them.

Cross-cultural consumer/consumption research : dealing with issues emerging from globalization and fragmentation

To understand the effects of globalization and fragmentation, macromarketing scholars need insights about links between individual consumer behavior and societal outcomes. The challenge in this regard is to create a program of macrooriented cross-cultural research. This article offers a crosscultural consumer behavior research framework for this purpose. The framework encompasses four key areas of consumer behavior that are related to the forces of globalization and fragmentation, including the environment, identity, wellbeing,and market structure and policy. A discussion of these substantive areas is followed by a suggested macro-microoriented research agenda and a call for paradigm plurality in pursuing this agenda.

The interactions of consumption characteristics on social norms

Purpose: An extended Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) model tests how customer loyalty intentions may relate to subjective and descriptive norms. The study further determines whether consumption characteristics – product enjoyment and importance – moderate norms-loyalty relationships.----- Methodology: Using a two-study approach focusing on youth, an Australian study (n = 244) first augmented TPB with descriptive norm. A Singapore study (n = 415) followed up with how consumption characteristics might moderate norms-loyalty relationships. With both studies, linear regressions tested the relationships among the variables.----- Findings: Extending TPB with descriptive norm improved TPB’s predictive ability across studies. Further, product enjoyment and importance moderated the norms-loyalty relationships differently. Subjective norm related to loyalty intentions significantly with high enjoyment, whereas descriptive norm was significant with low enjoyment. Only subjective norm was significant with low importance.----- Research limitations: Single-item variables, self-reported questionnaires on intended rather than actual behavior, and not controlling for cultural differences between the two samples limit generalizablity.----- Practical implications: The significance of both norms suggests that mobile firms should reach youth through their peers. With youth, social pressure may be influential particularly with hedonic products. However, the different moderations of product enjoyment and importance imply that a blanket marketing strategy targeting youth may not work.----- Originality/Value: This study extends academic knowledge on the relationships between norms and customer loyalty, particularly with consumption characteristics as moderators. The findings highlight the importance of considering different norms with consumer behavior. The study should help mobile firms understand how social influences impact customer loyalty.

Alcohol consumption by undergraduate students

Assessed correlates of alcohol consumption (AC) in 212 undergraduates (81 "college" and 131 "noncollege" residents [COLRs and NCOLRs], mean ages 18.9 and 18.6 yrs, respectively) and studied the proportion who were drinking at potentially harmful levels (HLs). This study also examined changes in AC during the course of the 1st semester and predicted drinking levels in the 2nd semester from demographics, drug use, social variables and self-efficacy data. Data were collected using self-administered questionnaires. During both semesters, the COLRs reported drinking significantly more alcohol than NCOLRs, but during vacation the intake of the 2 groups was almost equal. Higher AC in the 2nd semester was best predicted by higher AC during the 1st semester, followed by more AC by friends and higher parental occupation status. Female COLRs were those most likely to be drinking at HLs. Results also showed that a significant proportion of COLRs were drinking at HLs.

Comparing "socially responsible" and "sustainable" commercial property investment

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to set out to explore the similarities and differences between jargon used to describe future-focussed commercial building product. This is not so much an exercise in semantics as an attempt to demonstrate that responses to challenges facing the construction and property sectors may have more to do with language than is generally appreciated. Design/methodology/approach – This is a conceptual analysis which draws upon relevant literature. Findings – Social responsibility and sustainability are often held to be much the same thing, with each term presupposing the existence of the other. Clearly, however, there are incidences where sustainable commercial property investment (SCPI) may not be particularly socially responsible, despite being understood as an environmentally friendly initiative. By contrast, socially responsible assets, at least in theory, should always be more sustainable than mainstream non-ethically based investment. Put simply, the expression of social responsibility in the built environment may evoke, and thereby deliver, a more sustainable product, as defined by wider socially inclusive parameters. Practical implications – The findings show that promoting an ethic of social responsibility may well result in more SCPI. Thus, the further articulation and celebration of social responsibility concepts may well help to further advance a sustainable property investment agenda, which is arguably more concerned about demonstrability of efficiency than wider public good outcomes. Originality/value – The idea that jargon affects outcomes is not new. However, this idea has rarely, if ever, been applied to the distinctions between social responsibility and sustainability. Even a moderate re-emphasis on social responsibility in preference to sustainability may well provide significant future benefits with respect to the investment, building and refurbishment of commercial property.

Consumption and the postmodern city

Probes into the consumer culture in the postmodern city through a survey of a population that recently moved into refurbished homes in downtown Manchester, England. Attraction to the middle class of culturally based urban regeneration; Cultural consumption and lifestyle; Sociology of contemporary cultural change.

Innovation and the city : a macromarketing approach to industry development

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to propose and demonstrate the relevance of marketing systems, notably the process of product management and innovation, to urban development challenges. Design/methodology/approach – A macromarketing perspective is adopted to construe the city as a product and begin the application of the innovation process to urban management, following the steps commonly proposed for successful innovation in product management. An example of the application of the initial new product development steps of idea generation and opportunity identification is presented. Findings – The innovation process provides guidelines and checkpoints that enable corporations to improve the success rate of their development initiatives. Cities, like corporations, need to innovate in order to maintain their image and functionality, to provide a myriad benefits to their stakeholders and, thereby, to survive and grow. The example here shows how the preliminary NPD steps of idea generation and opportunity identification enrich the process of identifying and analysing new industry opportunities for a city. Practical implications – By conceptualising the city as a multifaceted product, the disciplined planning and evaluation processes pertinent to NPD success become relevant and helpful to practitioners responsible for urban planning, urban development and change. Originality/value – The paper shows how pertinent concepts and processes from marketing can be effectively applied to urban planning and economic development initiatives.

Show me a bad kid and I’ll show you a lousy parent : making parents responsible for youth crime in Australian and Canadian Contexts

This article surveys literature bearing on the issue of parental liability and responsibility for the crimes of young offenders, with a particular focus on comparing different approaches to dealing with the issue in Australia and Canada. This comparative analysis of Australian and Canadian legislative and policy approaches is situated within a broader discussion of arguments about the “punitive turn” in youth justice, responsibilisation, and cross-jurisdictional criminal justice policy transfer and convergence. Our findings suggest that there are significant differences in the manner and extent to which Australia and Canada have invoked parental responsibility laws and policies as part of the solution to dealing with youth crime. We conclude by speculating on some of the reasons for these differences and establishing an agenda for additional needed cross-jurisdictional research. In particular, we argue that it would be fruitful to undertake a cross-jurisdictional study that examines the development and effects of parental responsibility laws across a larger number of different Western countries as well as across individual states and provinces within these national jurisdictions.

Socioeconomic differences in takeaway food consumption and their contribution to inequalities in dietary intakes

Background Takeaway consumption has been increasing and may contribute to socioeconomic inequalities in overweight/obesity and chronic disease. This study examined socioeconomic differences in takeaway consumption patterns, and their contributions to dietary intake inequalities. Method Cross-sectional dietary intake data from adults aged between 25 and 64 years from the Australian National Nutrition Survey (n= 7319, 61% response rate). Twenty-four hour dietary recalls ascertained intakes of takeaway food, nutrients and fruit and vegetables. Education was used as socioeconomic indicator. Data were analysed using logistic regression and general linear models. Results Thirty-two percent (n = 2327) consumed takeaway foods in the 24 hour period. Lower-educated participants were less likely than their higher-educated counterparts to have consumed total takeaway foods (OR 0.64; 95% CI 0.52, 0.80). Of those consuming takeaway foods, the lowest-educated group was more likely to have consumed “less healthy” takeaway choices (OR 2.55; 95% CI 1.73, 3.77), and less likely to have consumed “healthy” choices (OR 0.52; 95% CI 0.36, 0.75). Takeaway foods made a greater contribution to energy, total fat, saturated fat, and fibre intakes among lower than higher-educated groups. Lower likelihood of fruit and vegetable intakes were observed among “less healthy” takeaway consumers, whereas a greater likelihood of their consumption was found among “healthy” takeaway consumers. Conclusions Total and the types of takeaway foods consumed may contribute to socioeconomic inequalities in intakes of energy, total and saturated fats. However, takeaway consumption is unlikely to be a factor contributing to the lower fruit and vegetable intakes among socioeconomically-disadvantaged groups.

Sportway toward sport event consumption

Research has lead to a proliferation of multi-attribute scales to understand the motives for sport event attendance. The large number of potential motives, coupled with the long questionnaires needed to measure them, creates challenges for sport marketing research in natural populations. This research brings parsimony to the study of sport consumer behaviour by developing and testing a core set of five SportWay facets of motivation. Results provide guidance to sport marketing professionals and academics in survey development decisions related to selecting the most appropriate motives and items.