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1 – 10 of over 71000This paper argues that there is a need to theorize socially constituted temporal phenomena, such as the fragmentation and multiplication of futures in media representations of…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper argues that there is a need to theorize socially constituted temporal phenomena, such as the fragmentation and multiplication of futures in media representations of technology, since this contextualizes consumption in important ways.
Methodology/approach
However, this argument requires a critique of agentic bias in phenomenological approaches to time. By drawing on Husserl, Heidegger and Ricœur, it is shown that phenomenological time is fundamentally intersubjective and contextualized in a tension between chronological and experienced time, rather than first and foremost created and felt by the individual consumer subject or experienced only as “flow.” This implies a switch from an egological to a sociological approach to time and consumption.
Findings
Thus, the multiplication of socially constituted narratives about the future, in late-modernity, disrupts instrumental modes of thinking about the consumer object, making it “unhandy” and “disturbing.” The meaning of the object therefore becomes “damaged.” However, this also allows the possibility for it to be known in wholly new ways.
Research implications
Since many definitions of consumption are future oriented, the fragmentation of the future speaks to how we form meanings about consumption. Thus, a socially constituted theory of consumer temporality impacts the experience of consumer objects.
Practical implications
This theorization of time and consumption suggests the possibility of comparative studies of temporality to understand the universe in which consumer choices can unfold.
Originality/value
This is the first attempt to apply the epistemological criteria from the context of context debate in regard to consumer temporality.
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Wolfgang J. Luhan, Michael W. M. Roos and Johann Scharler
We design an experiment to investigate the influence of announced future variations in interest rates and prices on consumption decisions. In an experimental implementation of the…
Abstract
We design an experiment to investigate the influence of announced future variations in interest rates and prices on consumption decisions. In an experimental implementation of the discounted utility model, the subjects learn the entire paths of inflation and interest rates prior to deciding on a consumption path. We decompose the total change in consumption that results from changes in either interest rates or inflation rates into anticipation and impact effects. While impact effects are of similar orders of magnitude as in the model, future changes in inflation or interest rates exert substantially smaller effects on current consumption than predicted by the model.
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John Rolfe, Darshana Rajapaksa, Jeremy De Valck and Megan Star
In 2020, mechanisms to limit the chain of transmission of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in Australia led to widespread restrictions on population mobility and business…
Abstract
Purpose
In 2020, mechanisms to limit the chain of transmission of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in Australia led to widespread restrictions on population mobility and business operations. Such conditions provide a natural experiment that may help to provide insights into consumer behaviour and future trends in food consumption. The overall objective of this study is to explore the possible impacts of COVID-19 on meat consumption patterns in Australia, both in the short and medium term, and to explore whether there have been impacts on the underlying drivers for consumption.
Design/methodology/approach
The research reported in this paper analyses the impacts of COVID-19 on meat and seafood consumption in Australia, drawing on a national random survey of 1,200 participants in June 2020. Survey data on past and current consumption rates are compared to respondent estimates of their future consumption behaviour, and ordered probit models are used to identify whether consumption changes can be explained by socio-demographic, attitudinal or economic factors.
Findings
Two potential scenarios were evaluated to explore future consumption trends. The first “acceleration” scenario is that the restrictions would encourage people to speed up existing declines in meat consumption, perhaps taking more account of credence factors such as health, animal welfare and environmental issues. The second “transformation” scenario is that people will change consumption patterns, perhaps moving more towards home-cooked meals and increased consumption. Slightly stronger support was found for the transformation scenario, indicating that consumption rates for most meats and seafood will be stable or increase over the next five years.
Originality/value
This study capitalises on changed social and economic settings generated by COVID-19 to test the effects on consumption of meat (chicken, beef, pork, lamb) and seafood at a national level. Ordered probit models are applied to evaluate participant data on their future intentions for meat consumption to test two scenarios, finding stronger support for the “transformative” scenario than the “accelerate” scenario.
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Tunyaporn Vichiengior, Claire-Lise Ackermann and Adrian Palmer
The purpose of this study is to explore consumer anticipation processes that occur after commitment to a purchase has been made, but before consumption occurs. The authors add to…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to explore consumer anticipation processes that occur after commitment to a purchase has been made, but before consumption occurs. The authors add to the knowledge and theory building about anticipation that occurs in this liminal phase by investigating the cognitive, emotional and behavioural processes that interact to influence post-consumption evaluations.
Design/methodology/approach
An abductive research approach used a phase-based research design using semi-structured interviews. The authors identify interactions between cognitive, emotional and behavioural processes that occur during anticipation and associate these with post-consumption outcomes.
Findings
Anticipation of a consumption experience, enacted through thoughts, emotions and actions, and undertaken with peers, is an experience per se, independent from and interdependent with the substantive experience, and contributes to performance of the substantive experience. The authors propose a framework in which anticipation – as a performative phenomenon – influences the overall evaluations of the substantive consumption experience in contexts of delayed consumption. The theoretical grounding of performativity makes a useful contribution through its linkage of thought processes to outcomes. The authors further locate their findings within the literature on attribution theory. By engaging in anticipation, informants perceived the locus of causality to be internal, and expressed pride in having anticipated if the subsequent experience was successful. By anticipating, informants perceived an ability to exert control over future events and felt ashamed of not having adequately anticipated if an experience was subsequently unsuccessful.
Research limitations/implications
The theoretical grounding of performativity makes a useful contribution through its linkage of thought processes to outcomes. The authors further locate their findings within the literature on attribution theory. By engaging in anticipation, informants perceived the locus of causality to be internal and expressed pride in having anticipated if the subsequent experience was successful. By anticipating, informants perceived an ability to exert control over future events and felt ashamed of not having adequately anticipated if an experience was subsequently unsuccessful.
Practical implications
The authors discuss the trade-off service providers face between encouraging anticipation, which raises expectations that might not be met, and facilitating anticipatory preparations, which may reduce the risk of service failure.
Originality/value
The authors provide a new lens by conceptualising anticipation as a performative process and identifying mechanisms by which anticipation is embedded in total consumption experience. This study has important generalisable implications for contexts where mechanisms of performative anticipation may be a means for ameliorating uncertainty about future consumption experiences.
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Rob Aitken, Leah Watkins and Sophie Kemp
The purpose of this study is to understand what a sustainable future would look like and the nature of the changes needed to achieve it. Continued reliance on economic growth to…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to understand what a sustainable future would look like and the nature of the changes needed to achieve it. Continued reliance on economic growth to meet the demands of a growing population is unsustainable and comes at an unacceptable social and environmental cost. Given these increasing demands, radical changes to present practices of production and consumption are needed to enable a sustainable future.
Design/methodology/approach
To address this the projective technique of backcasting was used in a pilot study to explore student visions of a sustainable future. An integrative framework comprising housing, clothing, travel, leisure and food provided the structure for six focus group discussions.
Findings
Thematic analysis identified three key characteristics of a sustainable consumption future, namely, efficiency, sharing and community and three critical elements, namely, the role of government, education and technology, necessary for its achievement.
Research limitations/implications
Demonstrating the usefulness of backcasting will encourage its application in a wider range of consumption contexts with a broader range of participants. The vision of a sustainable future provides a blueprint that identifies its nature, and the basis upon which decisions to achieve it can be made.
Originality/value
The research introduces the technique of backcasting and demonstrates its usefulness when dealing with complex problems, where there is a need for radical change and when the status quo is not sustainable. Unexpectedly, results suggest a commitment to prosocial values, collaborative experience, collective action and the importance of community. Research and social implications demonstrating the usefulness of backcasting will encourage its application in a wider range of consumption contexts with a broader range of participants. The vision of a sustainable future provides a blueprint that identifies its nature, and the basis upon which decisions to achieve it can be made.
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Considering the central role of narratives in the articulation of the self, processing experiences and conveying meaning, many scholars in marketing and consumer behaviours have…
Abstract
Purpose
Considering the central role of narratives in the articulation of the self, processing experiences and conveying meaning, many scholars in marketing and consumer behaviours have tried to study the subject. This pool of multi-disciplinary studies has yielded fragmented literature resulting in ambiguity. Therefore there is a need for an article, which studies the extant literature comprehensively. Hence, this paper aims to pursue two objectives, to summarize prominent research studies in consumption narratives and to suggest directions for future research.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper reviews 25 key studies on consumption narratives and highlights their most important contributions, methods and findings.
Findings
As in consumer narrative research, the concept almost always has been borrowed from different domains, the findings suggest a concise definition to fill this gap. Also, to enrich the findings, three-level of consumption narratives are discussed.
Originality/value
This paper serves as a basis to comprehend the essence of consumption narratives in the consumption context, to understand the research gaps and provides directions for future research.
Propósito
Considerando el papel central de las narrativas en la formulación de uno mismo, el procesamiento de las experiencias y la transmisión de significados, muchos académicos en marketing y comportamiento del consumidor han tratado de estudiar este tópico. Este conjunto de estudios de carácter multidisciplinar ha dado lugar a una literatura muy fragmentada y ambigua. Por tanto, se hace necesario un trabajo de investigación que estudie de menara exhaustiva la extensa literatura existente. En definitiva, este artículo persigue dos objetivos, resumir las investigaciones más destacadas sobre narrativas de consumo existentes en la literatura y sugerir orientaciones para futuras investigaciones.
Diseño/metodología/enfoque
Este artículo revisa 25 estudios clave sobre narrativas de consumo y resalta sus contribuciones, métodos y hallazgos más relevantes.
Resultados
Teniendo en cuenta que en la investigación sobre narrativas de consumo el concepto ha sido casi siempre tomado de diferentes ámbitos, los hallazgos sugieren una delimitación conceptual más concisa para cubrir este vacío. Asimismo, para enriquecer los resultados se analizan tres niveles de narrativas de consumo.
Originalidad
Este artículo sirve de base para comprender la esencia de las narrativas de consumo en el contexto del consumo, entender las brechas de investigación que aún existen en este ámbito y proporcionar guías para futuras investigaciones.
目的
考虑到叙事在自我表达、处理体验感受和传达意义方面的中心作用, 许多营销学者和消费者行为学者都试图对这一主题进行研究。由于研究成果横跨多个学科, 而导致文献支离破碎, 造成了歧义。因此, 有必要对现存文献进行综合研究。因此, 本文的研究目标有二, 一是总结当前消费叙事研究的主要成果, 二是为今后的研究指明方向。
设计/方法/方法
本文回顾了关于消费叙事的25个主要研究, 并强调了它们最重要的贡献、方法和发现。
研究结果
由于之前的消费者叙事研究中, 消费者叙事的概念几乎总是从不同的领域借用, 研究结果提出了一个简明的定义来填补这一空白。此外, 为了丰富研究结果, 本文还讨论了三个层次的消费叙事。
本文独创性
本文作为理解消费语境中消费叙事本质的基础, 来理解研究的差距, 为今后的研究指明方向。
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John L. Stanton, James Wiley and Peter Charette
There is always a significant amount of speculation as to how the American diet changes over time. Some of speculation is based on what’s good for people, and others base their…
Abstract
There is always a significant amount of speculation as to how the American diet changes over time. Some of speculation is based on what’s good for people, and others base their speculation on various supply and demand issues and the impact of world social changes. However one approach to forecasting the demand for various food products in the American diet is to extrapolate how America’s eating habits would change based on two different scenarios. The first scenario is an cohort model. In this scenario individuals continue their eating habits as they get older. The second scenario is the aging model, with which it is assumed that as people age they adopt the eating habits of the group that they’re moving into.
In this chapter we will evaluate these two scenario-based extrapolation models for projecting food consumption. Data comes from the National Health and Nutrition Examination survey (NHANES), which is conducted regularly by the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS). It measures levels of consumption with a level accuracy usually not associated with traditional business data services. The specific food items consumed in a 24-hour period are collected for over 30,000 people along with an extensive list of biometric, anthropometric, social, and clinical variables.
The models we evaluate assume that new consumers will enter the market based on projected population growth rates and that consumers “exit” the market based on projected death rates. This chapter applies the models to a subset of the total food variables in the database. Food groups that are pertinent to current issues were selected, such as beef, carbonated soft drinks, and snack foods.
The models forecast food consumption of the by 5 year increments from age 1 to age 85+ an aging cohort model extrapolate how eating habits could be expected to changeover this time interval. The implications of this exercise are essential to the forecasting and management of food processors. The extrapolations may provide guidance for potential changes in capital investment or entry into other markets.
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Andrea Sisto and Roberto Zanola
A number of papers have empirically investigated the demand for cinema by applying the rational addiction model proposed by Becker and Murphy (1988). However, they fail to take…
Abstract
A number of papers have empirically investigated the demand for cinema by applying the rational addiction model proposed by Becker and Murphy (1988). However, they fail to take account of the relationship between movie and television consumption. The purpose of this paper is to extend previous works on cinema demand by including both cinema and television movie consumption. To this aim a panel-data generalized method of moments (GMM) methodology is used to estimate a dynamic model of double rational addiction as proposed by Bask and Melkersson (2004) using a sample of monthly time- and cross-sectional series covering the 20 Italian regions over the period 2000–2002.
The fundamental problem of designing a wide scope general revenue tax can be reduced to the selection of the base used for administering the tax. Our current personal income tax…
Abstract
The fundamental problem of designing a wide scope general revenue tax can be reduced to the selection of the base used for administering the tax. Our current personal income tax is a hybrid version of a tax assessed on the basis of a tax unit's annual income receipts. An alternative to an income‐based tax that has received much theoretical treatment but little actual application is an expenditure‐based tax. An expenditure tax (also called a consumption tax or cash flow tax in the context of this paper) differs from an income tax in that it exempts net saving and investment from the tax base. Though the details of a consumption tax design are discussed more fully elsewhere in this paper, the tax base of an expenditure tax is roughly determined by subtracting net savings from gross receipts (including wages, tips, salaries, income from investments, interests, etc.). Withdrawals from savings constitute dissavings and are appropriately included in net savings. The cash flow tax, with wealth transfers deductible to the donor and included in the tax base of the recipient, would be a tax on an individual's standard of living. Similar to the present income tax standard deduction, some universal credit or exemption for a small level of consumption could be allowed.