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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 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.

This paper explores how siblings act as agents of consumer socialisation within the dynamics of the family network.

Key consumer socialisation literature is reviewed, highlighting the growing role that siblings play in the lives of contemporary children. The authors’ interpretive, exploratory study is introduced which captures the voices of children themselves through a series of in-depth interviews.

A series of socialisation behaviours are documented, with children working in both positive and negative ways to develop the consumer skills of their siblings. A fourfold typology of sibling relationships is described, capturing the dynamic of sibling relationships and parental approaches to parenting vis-à-vis consumption. This typology is then used to present a typology of nascent child consumer identities that begin to emerge as a result of socialisation processes within the family setting.

The role siblings play in the process of consumer socialisation has potentially important implications in terms of the understanding of the socialisation process itself, and where/how children obtain product information. Scope exists to explore the role siblings play as agents of consumer socialisation across a wider variety of family types/sibling variables presented here (e.g. to explore how age/gender shapes the dynamics of sibling–sibling learning).

Through adopting a networked approach to family life, the authors show how the wider family dynamic informs sibling–sibling relationships and resulting socialisation behaviours. The findings problematise the view that parents alone act as the main conduits of consumer learning within the family environment, highlighting how parent–child relationships, in turn, work to inform sibling–sibling socialisation behaviour and developing consumer identities.

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.

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.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate a marketer-sponsored edutainment centre as a consumer socialisation agent by examining effects on preference for the sponsor brands and the degree of socialisation children experience.

Interviews were undertaken with 16 children in their analytical stage of development as well as one of their parents immediately prior, immediately after, and one week following a part-day visit to the heavily branded edutainment centre Kidzania.

Results suggest that children did experience consumer socialisation. There was a movement in brand preferences towards the sponsored brands. The children also demonstrated advances in transaction knowledge. Specifically, significant increases were found in product and brand knowledge, shopping scripts and retail knowledge, with some children moving beyond perceptual and analytical thought and demonstrating reflective thought. In contrast, most children did not demonstrate an analytical level of advertising and persuasion knowledge.

Findings are constrained by the children’s specific experiences and the aptitude of both the children as interviewees and the parents as observers/interpreters. Although delayed measures were used this does not necessarily confirm permanency of the effects.

This is the first study to date to examine a marketer-sponsored edutainment centre as a socialisation agent. Specifically, the study contributes to the understanding of this new, participatory form of marketing communications by demonstrating its value in achieving brand objectives while fostering the consumer socialisation of children.

The purpose of this paper is to report an empirical study on children's buying behaviour in China, with a special focus on their information sources.

The key literature on consumer socialisation of children is reviewed. Primary data were collected from a sample of 155 children aged ten‐13 using questionnaire survey. Various statistical methods such as Pearson correlation and tests were employed to analyse the data.

Chinese children regard television commercials as an important information source for new products. However, they place greater level of trust in interpersonal information sources, especially in their parents who are perceived as the most credible information source with respect to their learning about new food products.

The paper has made a contribution to the extant literature on Chinese children as consumer. The findings would be valuable in assisting companies, specially those in the food industry, to have a better understanding of Chinese children's buying behaviour.

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 research reported here was a first attempt to determine where Chinese children as consumers learn information about new products and their attitudes toward different sources of information. Chinese children’s usage of the mass media was also examined, as was the relationship between mass media usage and information sources. The findings show that Chinese children utilize a wide variety of information sources to learn about new products including parents, retail outlets, and the mass media, and surprisingly they consider the newest medium, television, to be the most important of all. The effects of gender, age and family occupation were also considered. Some important marketing implications are suggested.

The study aims to explore the role of media in enhancing financial knowledge, financial self-efficacy, and financial planning propensity among working adults in India.

Primary survey-based data (n = 542) were analyzed using covariance based-structural equation modeling.

Media has a positive impact on financial knowledge. Financial knowledge positively mediates the relationship between media usage and financial self-efficacy and financial planning propensity. Also, financial knowledge and financial self-efficacy positively mediate the relationship between media usage and financial planning propensity.

The role of media as a significant agent of consumer socialization is an under-researched area. The authors contribute to the existing literature by demonstrating the role of media in improving financial knowledge and financial self-efficacy to promote financial planning propensity among working adults.