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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 study is to examine the causes of consumer stockpiling by Muslim consumers during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Specifically, this paper examines exposure to COVID-19 information and its relationship with panic buying directly, indirectly through anxiety and as moderated by resilience.

In the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, this study surveys 1,006 Muslims from a sample of 1,392 UAE citizens and residents about their exposure to COVID-19 information, anxiety, resilience and panic buying.

Greater exposure to COVID-19 information had a direct effect on panic buying yet a much weaker indirect effect through increased anxiety. This mediating effect is only significant at moderate to high levels of resilience, suggesting panic buying is a particular coping response of resilient individuals who experience anxiety after greater exposure to COVID-19 information. Anxiety was found to increase panic buying above that directly related to COVID-19 information exposure.

Findings provide some guidance for policymakers where a nuanced approach to building and directing resilience and in directing information flows are needed to curtail panic buying within their Muslim populations.

While the phenomenon of consumer stockpiling is referred to as panic buying, the findings suggest that anxiety plays a smaller role in the process than preparedness prompted by crisis-related information exposure. Furthermore, this is the first study to date to specifically examine COVID-19 related panic buying among a Muslim population.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the antecedents, cultivation, behaviours and consequences of materialism in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Given the UAE’s dramatic transformation into a developed and commercialised nation, such an investigation is highly warranted.

In this study, four focus groups and 25 in-depth interviews with UAE nationals were conducted. A conceptual model theorising the antecedents, cultivation, behaviours and consequences of materialism in the UAE emerged from a grounded theory analysis of the primary data and existing literature.

Rapid development, commercialisation and a substantial increase in new wealth have led to the development and socialisation of material values. Conspicuous and status consumption is creating an increasingly judgmental consumer society that is further cultivating material values in an ongoing cycle. Traditional Emirati values are also being expressed through materialistic displays. The consequences of materialism for the Emirati population include both positive and negative impacts on well-being, an increase in financial distress, delayed marriage and family conflict.

The model guides policy makers beyond constraining consumption via advertising and financial regulation towards breaking the cycles that cultivate harmful materialistic tendencies. The use of a more socio-cultural approach is recommended, which includes building self-esteem, resilience to judgements, use of cultural influencers, re-direction efforts and campaigns raising awareness and recognition of materialism as a social problem.

This is the first study to develop a comprehensive model of the antecedents, cultivation, behaviours and consequences of materialism in an emerging market.

The purpose of this paper is to provide an explanation for why young consumers adopt interactive technologies.

The data analysed in this paper was taken from a series of in‐depth interviews and two online surveys initially conducted for the 2005 and 2006 Lifelounge Urban Market Reports.

The results suggest that five key values held by young consumers explain their adoption of interactive technologies. Following the explanation of each finding is a vignette of how the social networking site MySpace utilises interactive technologies to enable young consumers to convey their values.

This paper fills a gap in the literature by providing a values‐based structure of why young consumers adopt interactive technologies.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects that local interpretation and the glocalisation of the Australian Hip Hop culture have on the consumption practices of members, exploring the reasons for such effects, and drawing marketing implications.

Three principal methods of ethnographic research were used: participant observation, informal conversations, and semi‐structured in‐depth interviews.

The findings suggest that symbolic representation within the Australian Hip Hop culture takes the form of consumption of brands congruent with the values of authenticity and self‐expression at the core of the Australian Hip Hop culture. Many mass‐produced Hip Hop brands originating in the USA were not perceived as authentic as their meanings were associated with commercialisation and artificiality by cultural members. Furthermore, members of the Australian Hip Hop culture appear to express authenticity by being true to themselves, refusing to imitate African‐American Hip Hop style and rejecting what they perceived as “black” Hip Hop brands. Finally, members of the Australian Hip Hop culture also represented their geographical place via consumption, and used symbolic consumption as a form of subcultural capital.

This paper fills a gap in the literature by providing a detailed analysis on the effects of interpretation and the glocalisation of the Australian Hip Hop culture on consumption.

This English translation of Heinrich von Stackelberg’s Marktform und Gleichgewicht will be welcomed by economists working in the field of industrial organisation and beyond. It has been overdue for more than 80 years. This translation will allow matters to be set straight concerning a number of fundamental theoretical issues connected to Stackelberg’s work as well as allow to clarify a number of misunderstandings that go back to the first reviews of Stackelberg’s 1934 classic on competition theory.

The article reviews the Lagos Plan of Action (LPA) towards economic development in Africa by the year 2000 and examines the level of preparedness in African countries to implement the Plan. Nigeria is used as a case study. The Lagos Plan of Action approved a strategy to de‐emphasise external links with the West and East. This calls for the development and full utilisation of Africa′s basic human resource and African‐driven technology. The article examines the internal resources and structure in Nigeria such as education, management, finance, work ethics – the building blocks upon which the success of the delinking depends.

Additive manufacturing is a recent technology used in the production of composite materials. The use of continuous fibres as reinforcement is necessary to achieve high mechanical performance. However, making these materials more environmentally friendly is still challenging. The purpose of this study was to investigate the feasibility of 3D printing a composite made of continuous regenerated cellulose fibres using a standard 3D printer generally used for printing polymers.

The production process was based on a pre-impregnated filament made from a tape containing continuous cellulose fibres and Pebax^® matrix. 3D printed composite samples were fabricated using fused deposition modelling. The tape, filament and 3D printed composites were first analysed by means of modulated differential scanning calorimetry and micrography. Tensile tests were then performed, and the mechanical characteristics were determined at each step of the production process. Fracture surfaces were investigated by field-emission gun–scanning electron microscopy.

Results showed that the mechanical behaviour of the material was maintained throughout the production process, and the 3D printed biocomposites had a stiffness equivalent to that of traditionally manufactured continuous cellulose fibre composites. The obtained 3D printed composites showed an increase in strength value by a factor of 4 and in tensile modulus by a factor of 20 compared to those of unreinforced Pebax^® polymer.

This paper demonstrates the feasibility of 3D printing composites based on continuous cellulose fibres, paving the way for new biocomposites made by additive manufacturing.