Search results

Millennials, an understudied segment of the sustainable market, are enthusiastic about adopting greener lifestyles but fail to translate pro-environmental attitudes to actual behavior, thus understanding factors that motivate their actual purchase of green products is imperative. Using the consumer socialization framework, the researchers studied the impacts of social structural variables (i.e. age, gender, education and family structure), socialization agents (i.e. family, peers and mass media) and environmental concern on the buying behaviors of millennials from two of the world’s most populous nations: India and China.

Using online panels (Amazon M-Turk and sojump.com), online surveys were administered to an online sample of millennials aged 18-24 years from India (n = 253) and China (n = 255).

Hierarchical regressions showed that peer communication predominantly influenced green buying behavior of millennials from India, while family communication was most important to Chinese millennials. Environmental concern, an attitudinal outcome, directly impacted behavior and also mediated the relationship between significant socialization agents and buying behavior in both countries.

Considering the importance given to peers (India) and family (China), green marketers have to use specialized strategies when marketing their products to millennials in India and China. Instead of focusing on mass media campaigns, the study highlights the importance of “personal” social networks to curb the environmental issues plaguing their respective countries.

The current study extends the literature on millennials’ green consumer behavior by exploring millennials in India and China. The consumer socialization framework has not been applied to countries like India and China, and to understand green consumerism, the role played by influential agents such as family and peers in these collectivistic cultures and their potential to change green attitudes and behavior warrants further exploration. The possibility of mediating effects has been represented by weak correlations between socio-demographic and psychological factors. Using the consumer socialization framework, the current study explores environmental concern (EC) as a mediator in the model.

The purpose of this paper is to establish how consumer knowledge is transferred among family members in multi-generational families, based on the consumer socialisation theory. Understanding how consumers learn about consumption and are socialised as consumers is critical to developing marketing strategies throughout the family lifecycle. Central to current conceptions of consumer socialisation is the idea that individuals make decisions as outcomes of previous socialisation processes. However, socialisation takes place in the meso-level social setting and there is need to understand how these meso-systems interact when it comes to consumption.

Using a social system design and dyadic analysis, the authors tested knowledge transfer and consumer socialisation agency in multi-generation families in Vietnam, yielding a sample size of 654 individuals and 218 families.

The authors demonstrate the role of consumer socialisation agency on consumer knowledge transfer between people within families. The study illustrates that where knowledge is limited, family-related services and household products will be jointly considered within the family.

This study was undertaken within a single country setting, but the technique and findings have wider implications for collectivist family decision-making in other settings. The limitations of cross-sectional research are acknowledged; the method specifically overcomes issues with self-reported measures by collecting data from multiple people within the social system.

Our findings suggest that consumer knowledge and learning is bi-directionally transferred through consumer socialisation agency. In complex new market situations, marketers can target the social system and ensure that knowledge will be transferred between members.

Social system design and dyadic analysis have not previously been used to examine meso-level consumption settings. The results provide unique understanding of consumer learning in social settings.

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationships between the dimensions of the pre-purchase information search (PS) such as direction (reliance on the information sources-RIS) and pattern (reliance on the utilitarian value-RUV), moderating role of the online shopping experience (OSE), and their influence on the behavior of the socialization agents (family communication (FC), peer communication (PC), TV advertising-TVAdv, social media communication (SMC)) for buying branded apparel.

This study used a questionnaire, and a total of 458 responses were obtained. A measurement model with the dimensions of the pre-purchase information search and socialization agents was analyzed using confirmatory factor analysis. The conceptual model with hypotheses (direct and moderated effects) was analyzed using a moderated approach using Hayes Macros.

The findings confirm the significant influence of the dimensions of the PS (RIS and RUV) on the behavior of socialization agents for buying branded apparel with the strongest influence of RIS on SMC. The moderated effects of OSE between the dimensions of PS and socialization agents are found to be significant except for the relationship between RIS and FC. The direct effects of the RIS and RUV on the socialization agents are higher for consumers having high OSE and lower for consumers having low OSE.

The findings contribute to the growing body of literature on the PS, highlighting the importance of consumer socialization for the purchase decision of consumers in emerging markets. No previous studies have applied a psychological approach to explain the variation in the external search incorporating the dimensions like direction (RIS) and pattern (RUV), which did not receive research attention so far. This study uniquely sets a new direction for the researchers by establishing a theoretical linkage between the dimensions of PS that can act as antecedents and can significantly influence the behavior of socialization agents using the consumer socialization approach based on the social learning theory. The results reveal the strongest influence of SMC and establish the moderating role of OSE for the buying decision of branded apparel. The findings are valuable for online marketers who must acknowledge that social media is the strongest platform for reaching customers and must create a formal page for displaying their latest updates about their products and services. Marketers must engage all the family members through online contests and feedback sessions for developing trust for online shopping platforms.

Advertising clutter has fueled the rise of nontraditional advertising methods. The current study, conducted in India, adopted the consumer socialization framework to assess product placement attitudes and behaviors.

A questionnaire-based survey was conducted to gauge consumers' responses to product placements. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was applied to analyze the relationship between different variables.

The results revealed that young Indian adults are positive about product placements as they believe that incorporating brands into the content adds realism. The authors found that socialization agents significantly impact viewers' attitudes toward product placements which in turn influence their purchase intentions. The authors also found that product acceptability impacts consumers' purchase intentions.

This paper provides important insights into consumers' perceptions of product placements. Based on the findings, marketers can formulate effective product placement strategies.

Most of the studies existing in this area have been conducted in the developed markets except a few which have been conducted in the emerging markets. Hence, the present study is an attempt to fill this research gap. This study is among the first to establish a relationship between product acceptability and consumers' purchase intentions.

The consumer competence concept is loaded with ambiguity in the academic as well as in the public use of the term. The purpose of this paper is to examine the concept theoretically and empirically.

Consumer socialization theories were compared and combined for the theoretical background, and a mixed‐methods methodology was applied for the empirical part. The study included young adults aged 18‐25, who had recently established their first household. Qualitative and quantitative methods were used to explore the way in which young consumers establish their first household, particularly with respect to how new, complex buying decisions are managed.

Guidance from family and friends was found to be of major significance as regards complex consumer decisions made in the transition period from home to first household. The young adults did not display very high levels of consumer competence in actual consumption decisions, however, more competent approaches were reported when respondents were faced with hypothetical purchase situations. The young consumers' own understanding of what consumer competence requires showed some degree of correspondence with traditional notions of “desirable consumer socialization,” but also added a fundamental consumer competence to the list: to carefully consider one's need to make a purchase.

The study included only a certain segment of young consumers. Future studies of consumer competence may include consumers of other age groups, consumers at different transitional life stages, or consumers with other cultural backgrounds to make comparative studies of the consumer competence of different segments of the population and across nations.

The study highlights a concept of importance to both consumers and marketers, which has previously been largely overlooked or only implicitly referred to.

Despite years of research into consumer socialization, little research examines men’s roles in consumer socialization processes. The purpose of this paper is to attend to this gap and to investigate consumer socialization processes in single-father households.

To study consumer socialization processes, this paper develops its insights using grounded theory, deploying qualitative data to develop theory. The data include long interviews with both fathers and their children used to understand the processes of consumer socialization.

This paper finds six socialization processes: entrustment, entrainment, education, emprise, estrangement and elevation. These processes emerge based on different types of household resource gaps or aspects of men’s gender identity.

The main implications are to study the roles played by cultural context and family type in socialization processes. Studies could examine whether the processes uncovered here occur in other family settings, as well as whether they vary based on children’s age and gender.

Household brands, products and services could target resource-scarce households using appeals that portray offerings as a means to develop children’s responsibilities, independence and involvement in household management. Marketers could also use advertising appeals that depict playful product usage and learning situations or more broadly position brands as identity brands making them more appealing to men who are striving to be better fathers.

This paper uniquely identifies a number of previously uncovered consumer socialization processes, as well as factors that influence them.

This paper aims not only to provide an insight into the nature of the relationship between parental financial role modelling and consumption behaviour of young people, but also to explore the consumer socialization process that children undergo in the parent‐child dyad.

Qualitative research in the form of personal in‐depth interviews was conducted in order to extract new knowledge and reach a greater understanding regarding the impact that this relationship may have on future consumption behaviours within the youth market.

It is clear that parents are able to exert a huge amount of influence over the financial behaviour of their children (although this obviously differs between families) and are able to do so through the informal teaching of financial lessons, by allowing children to observe their own financial patterns and by guiding their children through significant financial decisions by offering advice and approval (or disapproval) when asked. Key financial attitudes and behaviours of young home‐leavers are almost directly related to the parental financial education they received whilst growing up and still living at home and in many cases parental influence is still present even once the child has moved away from home and is responsible for making their own financial decisions.

Although there are limitations, the present study does have implications for the impact parents can have on the spending behaviour of their children; it may be that the most important thing parents can do is teach their children about financial responsibility and successful consumer decisions at a young age so that they grow up with these life skills.

In terms of practical implications, by identifying the specific areas where financial knowledge and awareness may be lacking, the research may help educational and financial institutions to design financial management courses in order to help young people achieve greater financial freedom.

The paper reveals the characteristics of the consumption relationship children enjoy with their parents, describing the role of financial education within families and conceptualising the various forms of consumption relationships that exist between young consumers and their parents.

The relationship between parental influence and youth consumption behaviour has already been identified using quantitative research methods but very little is known about the actual extent of this relationship, which is addressed by this paper.

Building on consumer socialization theory, the purpose of this paper is to examine antecedents and consequences of generating and sharing brand-related content on social media in a restaurant context.

A scale development process was undertaken to develop the scale for brand-related user-generated content (BRUGC). Then the authors tested the antecedents and consequences of BRUGC using 375 responses obtained through a mall-intercept survey. The hypotheses were tested using structural equation modeling with AMOS.

Study findings revealed that age, time on Facebook, number of Facebook friends, Facebook usage intensity, and need for self-enhancement were key antecedents of both the generation and sharing of BRUGC. The results also indicated that gender, race and need for self-affirmation were not significantly related to generating and sharing BRUGC. Both generating and sharing BRUGC were positively associated with attitude and intentions toward the restaurants.

This study is the first to develop a BRUGC scale through a rigorous scale development process. It thus contributes to consumer socialization theory literature in considering social media as a socialization agent. The findings provide valuable insights for both academicians and social media managers and aid in enhancing BRUGC.

This study aims to examine aspects of children’s sustainability socialization. Many studies examine children’s attitudes to sustainability. However, few studies build an understanding of how, where and when children are socialized to sustainability.

Interviews with 30 children explore the socializing agents (who), learning situations (where), learning processes (how) and learning effects (what). The study also delineates and compares the environmental, self and social dimensions of sustainability.

Socialization to environmental sustainability is highly structured and formal, and children rarely go beyond the knowledge and actions they are taught. Socialization to the self dimension combines formal and informal mechanisms with a greater propensity for elaboration and generalization. Meanwhile, socialization to societal sustainability involves unstructured and individualized processes and outcomes.

This is an exploratory study. Future research could develop scales to measure children’s sustainability dispositions and actions. Researchers could then use such scales to examine the sustainability socialization of children from other demographic and cultural groups.

The findings indicate that children are often positively disposed towards sustainability but lack the knowledge and direction needed to exercise this desire. Thus, marketers should more clearly articulate how their product solves a sustainability problem.

This paper could inform sustainability education policy. It has practical applications in the area of sustainability curriculum design in schools.

Being the first study that explores children’s socialization to three dimensions of sustainability, this paper provides a unique contribution to consumer behaviour theory and would be of interest to academics, practitioners and social marketers.

The purpose of this paper is to identify how reality television (RTV) influences the socialization of teenage consumers in a developing country. While the influence of television on consumer behaviour has been researched extensively in developed countries, the effect of RTV on consumer socialization has not, particularly in the context of developing countries.

A combination of qualitative and quantitative research methods was used to develop the theoretical model, constructs and measurement variables. The data were then analysed, and the hypotheses tested and confirmed using structural equation modelling.

RTV has a positive influence on the socialization of teenage consumers in a developing country. Teenagers’ consumption-related cognition, attitude and values are strongly affected by RTV. Furthermore, their consumption-related attitude is affected by consumption-related cognition and values. Social structural variables (parental control, peer-group influences, gender differences and social class differences) have an effect on teenagers’ RTV involvement and consumer-socialization process.

Current consumer-socialization literature identifies the role of TV in consumer socialization. However, there is very little extant literature about the role of RTV in consumer socialization, particularly from a developing-country perspective. Furthermore, in the present literature, consumption-related cognition, attitudes and values are considered outcomes of consumer socialization; however, this has not been empirically tested regarding teenagers’ involvement in RTV and its consumer-socialization outcomes. This research considers the involvement of teenagers with RTV, and the influences of various social structural variables from a developing-country perspective.