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The purpose of this study is to advance the understanding of consumer innovativeness during aging. This study explores why older consumers have decreased innovativeness and how awareness of age-related change affects the adoption of innovation.

A survey was conducted on 200 older consumers aged 50 and older to investigate whether awareness of age-related change influences innovativeness.

The results show that awareness of age-related change causes older consumers to have a decreased tendency to adopt novel products. Moreover, the stereotype threat of older consumers is found to play a mediating role. Older individuals who sense they are negatively viewed as older people restrict their innovativeness to avoid situations that would confirm their incompetence to others. Furthermore, the effects of older consumers’ stereotype threat on innovativeness are moderated by self-monitoring. Older consumers who exhibit high self-monitoring cope with stereotype threat by showing increased innovativeness; however, the opposite effect occurs in older consumers with low self-monitors.

The findings deepen the understanding of older adults’ consumption behavior regarding innovative products and show why people are reluctant to adopt innovative products and services because they grow older by identifying the underlying process that hinders customer innovativeness.

Previous research on age-related loyalty is sparse, contradictory and suffers from methodological limitations and criticisms. This study aims to apply two methodological advances to fresh purchasing data to give a much clearer picture of age-related differences in brand loyalty.

An online brand choice survey (n = 1,862) is used to examine age-related loyalty within three low-involvement categories in New Zealand. The polarisation index (φ) is adopted as the measure of loyalty to control for confounding influences present in prior research. Results for chronological age are validated through comparison with results for measures of cognitive, biological and sociological age, as well as household life cycle.

Contrary to prior research, age-related differences in loyalty are detected in two of the three low-involvement categories studied. The third category does not show detectable loyalty for any age group. Although differences in brand loyalty are broadly present across all age measures, no alternative measure outperforms chronological age in detecting variations in age-related loyalty.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first evidence that age-related brand loyalty is present in low-involvement categories. However, effects are small and easily obscured by confounding factors. More research is needed to determine how results vary by category.

Despite showing minor differences in loyalty, older consumers still purchase from a wide portfolio of brands and so should not be ignored by marketers. Future research can investigate loyalty for older consumers by adopting the method of analysing differences in polarisation (φ) for chronological age groups.

Previous contradictory findings and methodological concerns about measurement of age-related loyalty are resolved through use of the polarisation index (φ) as a measure of loyalty and by confirmation that chronological age performs as well as any other age measure.

Purpose – This chapter offers an integrative review of psychological and neurobiological differences between younger and older adults that might impact economic behavior. Focusing on key health economic challenges facing the elderly, it offers perspectives on how these psychological and neurobiological factors may influence decision-making over the life course and considers future interdisciplinary research directions.

Methodology/approach – We review relevant literature from three domains that are essential for developing a comprehensive science of decision-making and economic behavior in aging (psychology, neuroscience, and economics), consider implications for prescription drug coverage and long-term care (LTC) insurance, and highlight future research directions.

Findings – Older adults face many complex economic decisions that directly affect their health and well-being, including LTC insurance, prescription drug plans, and end of life care. Economic research suggests that many older Americans are not making cost-effective and economically rational decisions. While economic models provide insight into some of the financial incentives associated with these decisions, they typically do not consider the roles of cognition and affect in decision-making. Research has established that older age is associated with predictable declines in many cognitive functions and evidence is accumulating that distinct social motives and affect-processing profiles emerge in older age. It is unknown how these age differences impact the economic behaviors of older people and implies opportunities for path-breaking interdisciplinary research.

Originality/value of the chapter – Our chapter looks to develop interdisciplinary research to better understand the causes and consequences of age-related changes in economic decision-making and guide interventions to improve public programs and overall social welfare.

Education and training is vital in improving age-related care provisions. However, a lack of awareness and understanding of dementia could be a factor in meeting the age-related needs of people. This paper aims to examine the impact dementia education has on caregivers’ confidence to provide person-centred care for people with intellectual disability and identifies additional training needs.

A systematic scoping review was completed using preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses to guide the process of mapping existing evidence of dementia education and training programmes available to caregivers of people with intellectual disability.

A search of five electronic databases identified 11 articles that reported on the role of dementia education in improving the knowledge of caregivers in effectively delivering the age-related care. Findings suggest that improved training provision is needed to support early diagnosis and increase caregivers’ confidence in meeting the physical and psychological needs of older adults with intellectual disability.

This review contributes to the literature by identifying the value of and need for continued development in dementia education and training to improve person-centred dementia care.

Researchers in the field of occupational stress and well-being are increasingly interested in the role of emotion regulation in the work context. Emotion regulation has also been widely investigated in the area of lifespan developmental psychology, with findings indicating that the ability to modify one’s emotions represents a domain in which age-related growth is possible. In this chapter, we integrate the literatures on aging, emotion regulation, and occupational stress and well-being. To this end, we review key theories and empirical findings in each of these areas, summarize existing research on age, emotion regulation, and stress and well-being at work, and develop a conceptual model on how aging affects emotion regulation and the stress process in work settings to guide future research. According to the model, age will affect (1) what kinds of affective work events are encountered and how often, (2) the appraisal of and initial emotional response to affective work events (emotion generation), and (3) the management of emotions and coping with affective work events (emotion regulation). The model has implications for researchers and practitioners who want to understand and facilitate successful emotion regulation and stress reduction in the workplace among different age groups.

Little systematic applied research has been conducted on how age‐related cognitive impairments might affect older adults' usage of web service and this paper aims to fill some of that gap.

An analysis of the relationship between the cognitive changes of aging and the usage of web services. Supported by field research with the key stakeholders, including older adults and organisations that provide services for older adults. This consists of focus group sessions with key stakeholders and individual interviews with older adult users. Older adult users also complete an online form using a think aloud protocol. The data are analysed using a thematic content analysis technique.

Issues around older adults' relationship with technology and the challenges they face along with the strengths and weaknesses of online forms and means to improve them. In particular, there are issues of fear and frustration, inconsistency and visual clutter, and a feeling of neglect by service providers. Users also identify a strong need for human rather than machine support when struggling with the technology.

The findings only now being applied to an existing system in the Delivering Inclusive Access to Disabled and Elderly Members (DIADEM) project and it still needs to evaluate of usability of DIADEM. Further research also needs to consider the technology adoption model for system like DIADEM.

The findings have implications in form design and transaction delivery for online services.

The perception of neglect by service providers is new and this with the needs for consistency and for human support lead to novel approaches in the DIADEM system.

Appropriate self‐regulation of exposure to driving in view of age‐related declines in driving ability is a significant problem for older individuals in the UK, as programmes designed to encourage and support self‐regulation are sorely lacking. This paper outlines the development of a CD‐based Mixed Media and Virtual Reality (MMVR) programme, consisting of: information and reference material; cognitive tests; and virtual reality (VR) driving simulator components, all of which are orientated to address the older driver. The research on the self‐regulation of driving that informs the rationale and development of the ‘shell’ of the MMVR programme is overviewed, followed by a description of state of development of the cognitive tests and VR driving simulation components of the CD. It is argued that the development of programmes such as that proposed in this paper are necessary to reconcile the mobility needs of the expanding UK elderly population and public safety concerns.