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The purpose of this paper is to examine a form of anti-consumption termed moral avoidance.

The study builds and tests a model of moral avoidance, using a sample (n=457) of adults aged 50-94 years.

Two distinct forms of this type of anti-consumption emerged, one based on exploitation of eco-systems and one on exploitation of humans. Ecology concerns and perceived consumer effectiveness are significant antecedents to both forms, while ethical ideology also impacts anti-consumption for social reasons. Greater numbers practice this form of anti-consumption for social reasons than for ecology reasons.

The study uncovers new underlying reasons why people practice moral avoidance and in so doing guides managers in their targeting and decision making.

The study is the first to demonstrate that this form of anti-consumption has two different perspectives: planet and people. Moreover, older adults are important ethical consumers, but no previous study has explored them from an anti-consumption perspective.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate self-perceived age among Baby Boomers in the UK, Germany, Japan, and Hungary, and identifies two horizontal segments based on the way consumers view their age.

Questionnaires were used to sample 880 Baby Boomers. Structural equation modeling is used to investigate multinational measurement invariance of the cognitive age scale.

Two distinct segments are identified, providing support for a young-at-heart consumer culture in all nations in the study. Results also find cognitive age to exhibit partial measurement invariance, which is expected given the disparate nations under study.

This research contributes to cross-cultural global age research which is still in an early pioneering stage. The study builds on a small number of previous studies that validate cognitive age, extends current knowledge of the measurement properties of cognitive age, and identifies two distinct international segments of Baby Boomers. Further research needs to delve into the antecedents of self-perceived age, particularly in the ways in which different life experiences and cultures may impact age identities.

The study has implications for marketing managers wishing to target the increasingly important young-at-heart Baby Boomer.

The study uses four non-American countries, uses samples matched for chronological age, and does not use convenience samples, which make it unique in the cognitive age literature. The study has value for marketing managers, global age researchers, and consumer culture researchers.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the experiences of older consumers with a range of product packaging.

The study uses qualitative diary research (QDR). Ten seniors recorded all their experiences with packaging over a two-week period. Using a frame narrative that views ageing as multidimensional, diary entries uncover rich data that goes beyond physical age-related issues.

In addition to physical problems with packaging, older adults experience psychological frustration and feelings of alienation. Social implications of dependence on others are also discovered, despite many being purchasers of up-market luxury products.

The study is exploratory and due to its qualitative methodology findings cannot be generalised to the wider population. Nevertheless it provides a starting point for future research into packaging and senior consumers.

The study has implications for all managers who participate in planning and designing brand packaging and calls for them to work more closely with ergonomics and design professionals in order to better plan for the needs of a large and growing sector of the population.

Findings suggest that the basic need to feed oneself is hampered by some packaging, which of course is detrimental to the quality of life of older adults.

Few studies consider packaging and older consumers and this is particularly true in the marketing literature. This is the first study to use QDR in this context, and as such has several advantages over recall studies. The study also makes a contribution to knowledge pertaining to vulnerable consumers.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of identity-based consumer perceptions on the brand avoidance of foreign brands across multiple markets.

Focussing on general product category brands, the study was conducted across two countries, i.e. New Zealand (Study 1) and Pakistan (Study 2), using online surveys. Study 1 explores the perceptions of university students, whereas Study 2 evaluates the perceptions of a more heterogeneous population across the country. Partial least squares–structural equation modelling was used to analyse the model.

First, the results confirm that individual-level identity-based drivers (undesired self-congruence and negative social influence) consistently predict brand avoidance for foreign brands across both markets, whereas country-level drivers (consumer ethnocentrism and animosity) have inconsistent effects across the markets. Second, the study demonstrates that avoidance attitude fully mediates the relationship between antecedences and intentions to avoid foreign brands.

The finding that undesired self-congruence is the strongest predictor of brand avoidance across the markets reinforces the importance of brand image congruence with the target audience. Considering the negative effect of social influence, especially on social media (i.e. Facebook and Twitter), this finding cautions managers to constantly monitor the prevailing negative word of mouth (online or offline) about the brand to mitigate its potential effect.

Drawing on social identity theory, this study explores the identity-based pre-purchase determinants of brand avoidance at the country level and at the individual level. These determinants have never been explored yet in the context of brand avoidance.

While robots have increasingly threatened frontline employees’ (FLEs) future employment by taking over more mechanical and analytical intelligence tasks, they are still unable to “experience” and “feel” to occupy empathetic intelligence tasks that can be handled better by FLEs. This study, therefore, aims to empirically develop and validate a scale measuring the new so-called empathetic creativity as being creative in practicing and performing empathetically intelligent skills during service encounters.

This study adopts a multistage design to develop the scale. Phase 1 combines a literature review with text mining from 3,737 service robots-related YouTube comments to generate 16 items capturing this new construct. Phase 2 assesses both face and content validity of those items, while Phase 3 recruits Prolific FLEs sample to evaluate construct validity. Phase 4 checks this construct’s nomological validity using PLS-SEM and Phase 5 experiments dedicated effort (vs natural talent) as an effective approach to foster FLEs’ perceived empathetic creativity.

The final scale is comprised of 13 refined items that capture three dimensions (social, interactive and emotional) of empathetic creativity. This research provides timely implications to help FLEs in high-contact services stay competitive.

This study introduces the new construct of empathetic creativity, which goes beyond the traditional definition of creativity in services and highlights the importance of empathetic intelligence for FLEs in future employment. This study also develops a multi-item scale to measure this construct, which can be applied to future service management research.

This research aims to develop and test a model of digital health communication media (DHCM) use for healthy food information – DHCM usage – during the Covid-19 pandemic. More specifically, this research investigated the simultaneous effects of perceived threat of Covid-19, e-health literacy, attitude toward DHCM usage, knowledge toward DHCM usage, facilitating conditions and information quality on the DHCM usage.

The empirical data were collected through a survey. The respondents of the survey are 192 DHCM users who lived in Tangerang Regency. Structural equation modelling (SEM) analysis was performed.

The DHCM usage during the Covid-19 pandemic is significantly affected by the attitude towards the DHCM usage and the facilitating conditions. However, the DHCM usage during the Covid-19 pandemic is not significantly affected by the perceived threat of Covid-19, e-health literacy, information quality and knowledge of the DHCM usage.

This research was conducted only in Tangerang Regency and employed a purposive sampling technique. Future research should be conducted in other contexts to examine the stability of the research findings.

In order to improve DHCM usage for healthy food information, it is important for building a positive attitude towards DHCM usage and ensuring the availability of the facilitating conditions.

This paper is the first that develops and tests a model of DHCM usage for healthy food information during the Covid-19 pandemic.