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Describes research on the processes and outcomes of consumer socialisation; it investigates the importance of the family as the main socialisation agent for young children. Shows how parents influence child behaviour directly through instruction in consumer skills, indirectly as models of consumer behaviour, and by supervision of the child’s consumer opportunities; also by influencing cognitive abilities, motivating the child to use its cognitive abilities in consumer situations, and teaching consumer skills which are unrelated to cognitive ability. Relates changes in US family demographic patterns to children as consumers: more single‐parent families and working mothers may mean less contact and socialisation of children by parents, while greater ethnic diversity and mixed‐race families affects the way that children are socialised. Test four hypotheses: that parents of younger children engage in less direct instruction of consumer behaviours than parents of older children; that parents engage in more direct consumer instruction, co‐shopping and co‐viewing with daughters than with sons; that more highly educated parents engage in more direct consumer instruction, co‐shopping and co‐viewing than do parents with lower levels of education; and that ethnicity is a factor in parental consumer instruction, co‐shopping and co‐viewing. Discusses the results of the survey questionnaire used for this US study of parents with children between two and eight years old; the results roughly confirm the first three of these four hypotheses.

Begins by defining consumer socialisation as the process by which young people learn to function in the marketplace; this is a key concept in studying children’s consumer behaviour and decision making. Outlines the ways that parents influence this process; they are role models, and communicate about purchases and consumption; co‐shopping and concept‐orientation are two aspects of this, as are the influence of the child and the amount of communication. Outlines the changes in family structure, including the increase in one‐parent families headed by women, which has resulted in more co‐shopping; the increase in the number of two‐income families; and the decline in numbers of children per family. Reports research on Belgian children on the four sub‐dimensions of parent ‐ child communication as affected by the family structure variables.

This study aims to propose increasing the number of dimensions around current intergenerational influence (IGI) construct and renaming it to intergenerational brand influence (IGBI). This research describes the development and validation of the items comprising the dimensions of this new construct.

This study performed a literature review to identify potential dimensions for IGBI based on previous research about IGI. Analysis of items used to measure IGI was conducted to establish a set for each dimension. A structured, self-administered survey was used. Item reduction, measure validation and regression analysis were conducted to measure the predictive validity of the instrument. Moreover, three separate studies were conducted to develop and validate IGBI construct.

IGBI quantifies the various interactions that contribute to intergenerational brand transfer. The interactions could be classified according to one of the five IGBI dimensions: communication, recommendation, observed behavior, good impression and co-shopping with parents.

IGBI recognizes the relevance of influence behaviors such as children observing their parents buy a brand, children participating in shopping and children attempting to develop a good impression through brand loyalty. The first two behaviors indicate the importance of brands advocating purchase behavior as a family activity. The measure of good impression suggests that consumers use brands to maintain family connections, which should be considered a pertinent brand strategy.

This study develops the aforementioned five IGBI dimensions that describe the interactions between parent–child consumers that result in brand transfer.

Since anthropometric dimensions vary during a lifetime, it is difficult to provide adequate sizing for all, especially growing, children. This paper aims to review children's sizing provision for girls aged 4‐8 years among four UK retailers (Adams, Debenhams, Marks & Spencer and Mothercare), an area of limited research.

Two research strategies were utilised: observational visits to retail stores (on sizing systems and environment) and face‐to‐face interviews with ten parents and five childrenswear garment technologists (on sizing of children's garments and fit issues).

UK retailers utilised various numerical size coding systems based on height, age and weight. Next, Asda George and Adams were the favourite shopping stores for children's wear. Parents were co‐shoppers with their children. While parents' key criteria for purchase were durability, fit, quality, price and washability, children's choice was based on colour, fashion and peer influence. Variation in sizing designation caused confusion. Parents have suggested varying lengths as a solution to accommodating different sizes; preferring a common system with age as key size code. Sizing inconsistency between brands and incomprehensible size codes are major factors in the creation of customer dissatisfaction with children's clothing. Providing ambient facilities for co‐shopping is vital.

The children's fashion sector is important to children, parents and retailers. Parents are co‐shoppers with their children and have key criteria for selecting to shop in a store. Marketers should be aware of core needs: sizing provision, shopping environment and the dynamics of co‐shopping. Sizing systems should be relevant to avoid dissatisfaction and confusion. More research is needed focusing on larger and other samples; target markets and psychological needs for shopping.

The area of children's shopping for clothing in the UK has a limited literature. Key issues revolve around garment sizing, garment fit, co‐shopping and consumer satisfaction. This study contributes to filling the gap in knowledge.

The purpose of this study is to explore the role of co-playing as a moderator of the relation between parents’ and children’s play of violent video games.

The study uses dyadic parent/child survey data to estimate the conditional effects in the model, both direct and indirect.

The positive effect of parents’ violent video game play of children’s playing behaviors is attenuated by parent/child co-playing. Parents’ knowledge of the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) ratings leads to higher levels of co-playing, thereby indirectly attenuating violent video game play in children as driven by parents’ play.

The paper extends the literature on consumer socialization and the impact of co-playing and identifies an antecedent for co-playing in this context.

The paper reveals that knowledge of the self-regulatory ESRB rules plays a valuable (indirect) role in mitigating violent video game play by children through an increase in co-playing, which attenuates the positive effect of parents’ play on children’s play.

The study incorporates data from both parents and children to investigate the relationship between parents and children’s violent video game play while empirically investigating the uncertainty in the literature concerning the moderating impact of co-playing.

The aim of this study is to assess and compare consumer skills of institutionalized children with those of family children. This paper also seeks to understand which skills might be more easily improved amongst institutionalized children with a single intervention of classroom instruction.

This paper conducted a pilot study with a sample composed of two subgroups (38 institutionalized children and 36 non-institutionalized children). To assess children’s knowledge, a questionnaire and an interview were used. The class intervention lasted 30 minutes.

Results suggest that institutionalized children have lower levels of knowledge regarding consumption-related practices and lower levels of accuracy at estimating prices than non-institutionalized children. Results also showed that, in other skills, there are no differences between institutionalized or family children, as in attitude toward advertising or in making decisions based on price/quantity evaluations or based on the use of the same strategy in different situations. Regarding the class intervention, it was concluded that it could improve the attitude toward advertising of only the institutionalized children.

There is much research today focused on children’s ability to act as educated consumers. This research is focused mainly on children who live with their parents, but it is also important to take into consideration children who do not live in a typical family environment, the institutionalized children, because they will also become consumers. Research on institutionalized children is focused on evaluating their development and well-being and does not assess consumer competencies and skills.

Reports on two studies conducted in Hong Kong, one in 1989, the other in 1994, to see if children’s socialization as consumers has changed in the intervening years. Formulates hypotheses, based on the earlier research, that children will receive spending money by the time they are four, that the amount will increase as they get older, children will spend money by the age of four, they will also save money, older children will visit more shops than younger children, and children will go shopping without parents by the age of four. Outlines the research methodology used – 318 questionnaires used for analysis, composition of the sample of respondents, demographics – and records how analysis of variance was used to make comparisons with data from the earlier study. Considers income, spending and saving attitudes in children, as well as how they spend and what they buy. Finds that, in 1994 (compared to 1989) children aged 6, 9, 10, 11 and 12 receive more money; 4, 7 and 10 year olds spend a higher percent of their income, saving has decreased for 4, 7 and 10 year olds, children’s real income has doubled since 1989, independent shopping trips seem to have been postponed until the child is 6 but co‐shopping with parents has increased for all ages; most shopping trips without parents focused on food stores and street vendors that were easily accessible from home, but purchasing behaviour has not changed significantly. Indicates that Hong Kong children are pursuing a western (US) model of spending income, rather than the Chinese model of saving, and that children are undergoing consumer socialization and consumer education – as evidenced by the single fact that in 1994 $161.8 million was spent in Hong Kong by children aged 4‐12.

The purpose of this paper is to determine whether there is a difference in the development of shopping lists and use of advertisements as pre-store food-buying practices in terms of planned shopping by South African consumers who dwell in different socio-economic status (SES) areas. The paper also considers the influence of shopper and socio-demographic characteristics on pre-store food-buying practices in a developing country.

A self-administered questionnaire was used to survey 1 200 consumers in retail stores in low, middle and high SES areas in South Africa. A generalised linear model was employed for the statistical analysis of pre-store food-buying practices within the SES area groups in a developing country.

South African consumers that reside in high SES area displayed the largest of shopping list development, while consumers who dwell in low SES areas showed the highest incidence of advertisement usage. Several shopper and socio-demographic characteristics were also found to have an influence on pre-store food-buying practices in different SES areas in South Africa.

A qualitative approach would offer a deeper understanding of consumers’ pre-store food shopping predispositions as opposed to the quantitative approach, which was adopted for this study. A longitudinal design would also provide a more extensive representation of pre-store food shopping practices over a longer time frame than cross-sectional research. The survey was conducted on Saturdays, whereas consumers who shop during the week may have different shopping and socio-demographic characteristics.

Astute food brands, marketers and grocery stores could use the findings of this study to assist with their marketing efforts that they direct at consumers in different SES areas in South Africa and other developing countries.

The findings of this study may assist consumers in developing countries, especially those who reside in low SES areas, with food-buying strategies to reduce food costs, make wiser purchase decisions and reduce shopping.

No study (to the best of the researchers’ knowledge) has considered shopping list development and use of advertisements’ pre-store food-buying practices in different SES areas in a developing country. Furthermore, there is a dearth of research analysing shopper and socio-demographic characteristics in relation to pre-store food-buying practices among different SES areas in developing and developed countries.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how types of virtual brand community (VBC) benefits influence VBC loyalty through specific types of interaction.

The study targeted 250 brand community users to conduct an empirical analysis using SPSS 19.0.

Consumers’ perceived benefits (functional, experiential, and symbolic) were found to be the leading variables in inducing consumer loyalty. Brand community managers should not focus only on the benefits offered by the brand community, but also on how these benefits can be associated with human-to-computer and consumer-to-consumer (C2C) interaction.

The virtual community (VC) has an important role as a marketing tool. As the VC within the virtual space has gradually been increasing, its importance has grown as well, therefore making research studies on heightening members’ brand community site loyalty important.

This study broadens and contextualizes our understanding of what type of VBC interaction can be further activated in the process of enhancing the members’ VBC loyalty, which is affected by consumers’ perceived benefits.

This paper aims to explore the mother–adolescent daughter shopping trip to better understand the experiences and process that occur during these shopping trips. Adolescent girls and their mothers are an important shopping companion pair that has received minimal study.

This research investigates the mother–adolescent daughter shopping trip using in-depth interviews with 28 mothers, adolescent daughters and retail employees in the USA.

The interviews reveal that the mother–adolescent daughter shopping trip consists of three important developmental experiences: conflict and struggle, education and influence and bonding between mother and daughter. Similarities and differences between middle- and high-school daughters relative to these issues are explored.

This study is the first to bring together the interplay processes of conflict, education and influence and bonding during mother–adolescent daughter shopping trips. This study extends research regarding family identity interplay, companion shopping, adolescent identity development and consumer socialization. The authors find that the mother–adolescent daughter shopping trip involves daughters’ efforts to separate from their mothers and form their own identities, often producing struggle and conflicts; daughters developing as consumers and individuals; and an opportunity to bond.