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This paper aims to examine the relationship between the development of consumer rights and the emergence of the contemporary consumer movement. Rethinking the contemporary consumer movement as a new social movement (NSM) enables a closer examination of the actors, opponents and goals of the movement, and how governments and other political institutions responded by conceptualising and developing a set of “consumer rights”.

The lens of NSM theory is used to examine the historical development of, and relationship between, consumer rights and the contemporary consumer movement.

As a NSM, the goal of the contemporary consumer movement is to bring about ideological change. However, this paper argues that the development of “consumer rights” can be read as an attempt by oppositional forces to co‐opt the goals of the movement, thereby neutralising the threat of the movement and negating the opportunity for radical ideological change. Identifying that co‐optation can occur not only through the actors, but also via the “totality” or goals of a movement, broadens our understanding of how NSMs decline or are institutionalised.

This paper offers a critical interpretation of the origins and purpose of “consumer rights”. It suggests that rather than being read as a success of the contemporary consumer movement, consumer rights actually represent a co‐optation of the movement, which served to placate consumer activists while actually maintaining the very structures of advanced market capitalism and consumer culture the movement sought to destabilise.

The authors are concerned with the problem of pricing the services provided by the clearing banks in the UK. Using group interviews, consumer attitudes to and perceptions of banking services are examined. Conclusions are drawn about the different benefits consumers receive from using banks and suggestions are made as to how these could be used as a basis for consumer‐orientated pricing policy.

Presents an exploratory study on travel agents’ attitudes towards automation. Surveys 167 travel agents from both Canada and New Zealand. Shows that there are four distinct groups of agents whose attitudes towards automation differ quite substantially and that these attitudes are related not so much to current use of technology but more to perceived future usage.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the characteristics and usefulness of opinion leaders and market mavens in relation to theatre guides as a way for theatres to develop new audiences.

Surveys and a small number of in‐depth interviews are conducted within a sample of 1,200 theatre patrons. A univariate analysis of variance analysis determines degrees of correspondence between levels of opinion leadership or mavenism and reported influential behaviour.

Opinion leaders are much more useful in the process of audience development than mavens given their propensity to engage in positive reinforcement behaviours particularly in their roles as theatre guides.

While the level of mavenism is related to provision of general market information, it is not related to diffusion of performance‐specific information. Also, the portrayal of opinion leaders as living in a “closed world” unlikely to be an effective cultural influence on non‐attendees, is not supported. A further limitation is that it could not gauge the effectiveness of the self‐reported influential behaviour of non‐attendees. Further research should measure the effectiveness of opinion leaders based on how many of the non‐attendees they influenced came to the theatre.

Theatres should identify opinion leaders and encourage their natural “guide” behaviour with targeted incentives and information as a method of building new audiences and developing new relationships.

This paper will help theatres to use their resources more effectively to increase audience attendance. Further, the identification and establishment of theatre guides based on the characteristics of opinion leaders is within the capability of all arts organizations.

Farmers' markets have provided new alternatives for small producers to obtain direct distribution to consumers over the past few years. The growth has been spectacular in several countries and this paper aims to understand this growth and how value might be created by looking at participation and cooperation amongst the traders at these markets.

A survey of farmers' market members was undertaken and findings are reported with descriptive statistics and exploratory analysis to profile aspects of cooperation amongst stallholders.

Over 80 per cent of the traders at the markets were involved in some form of cooperative activity, reinforcing the idea of markets as community‐based activities with high levels of interdependence amongst participants. Cooperation could be identified in different categories and increased over the length of time trading at the market but could not be directly related to performance or the reasons traders offered for doing business at the market.

The research was designed as an exploratory study and provides potential issues for further research as opposed to testing particular hypotheses.

The categorisation of cooperation methods offers traders ways in which they might seek to more formally organise joint efforts. Monitoring the degree of cooperation between traders and linking to performance would also provide the organisers of markets with a potential way of managing aspects of competitive advantage against competing food retailers.

This is the first paper to examine value creation and cooperation in this context and it provides a potential base for working towards sustainable competitive advantage for farmers' markets.

Three distinct groups of banking customers in New Zealand are identified on the basis of their preferences for different payment methods. These are profiled in terms of membership of wider lifestyle groupings, as well as their demographic and socio‐economic characteristics, and other financial behaviours. The results demonstrate how psychological profiling can help in understanding consumers’ banking behaviour and preferences in the wider context of their lifestyle, as well as suggesting strategic directions banks can adopt.

This paper seeks to explore the rationale for, and development of, farmers' markets in New Zealand. The paper is based on and extends previous industry reports.

The research in this paper is viewed in the context of the dominance of globalised business in the food production and retailing process. Semi‐structured interviews and case studies were used to elicit the opinions, perceptions and attitudes of market managers, producers/growers, and customers.

It was found in the paper that farmers' markets provide additional outlets for entrepreneurial small‐scale farmers and producers, alternatives for consumers, and opportunities for communities, while their rapid growth is presenting challenges for some large competitors.

The paper finds that farmers' markets may be an important harbinger of the second industrial revolution where there is renewed respect for those small‐scale producers who meet the needs of discerning consumers.

The purpose of the paper is to improve traditional knowledge management models in light of complexity theory, emphasizing the importance of moving away from hierarchical relationships among data, information, knowledge, and wisdom.

Traditional definitions and models are critically reviewed and their weaknesses highlighted. A transformational perspective of the traditional hierarchies is proposed to highlight the need to develop better perspectives. The paper demonstrates the holistic nature of data, information, knowledge, and wisdom, and how they are all based on an interpretation of existence.

Existing models are logically extended, by adopting a complexity‐based perspective, to propose a new model – the E2E model – which highlights the non‐linear relationships among existence, data, information, knowledge, wisdom, and enlightenment, as well as the nature of understanding as the process that defines the differences among these constructs. The meaning of metas (such as meta‐data, meta‐information, and meta‐knowledge) is discussed, and a reconstitution of knowledge management is proposed.

The importance of understanding as a concept to create useful metaphors for knowledge management practitioners is emphasized, and the crucial importance of the metas for knowledge management is shown.

A new model of the cognitive system of knowledge is proposed, based on application of complexity theory to knowledge management. Understanding is identified as the basis of the conversion process among an extended range of knowledge constructs, and the scope of knowledge management is redefined.

The purpose of this paper is to reflect on an unusual course, a historically focused course on marketing theory taught to a range of students from their fourth year of study through to the doctoral level.

The staff, who have taught the course since before 2000 to date, reflect on its purpose, the curriculum and the student experience.

Studying the history of marketing theory has considerable value for able and engaged students, especially those wishing to proceed to masters or doctoral level study. Students who are exposed to the history of marketing thought are also likely to be better prepared for the business of the future.

The originality of this paper is centered on the uniqueness of the course being taught; insights are provided into this unusual curriculum.

Changing consumption patterns have led to a number of transformations throughout the food cycle, and understanding how and why people purchase local food is important. This paper aims to examine the characteristics of the people leading this phenomenon: those that prefer to buy locally produced food.

In order to explore the characteristics of local food purchasers, a single item question, “I try to buy a lot of locally produced food”, was included in the food section of a New Zealand consumer lifestyles survey for which 3,556 responses were collected. The full survey included 600 questions across the full attitude, interest and opinion schedule.

For people who express a strong intention to purchase local food, this behaviour is linked to the types of food they eat (e.g. unprocessed foods), where they buy it (e.g. at speciality stores), and how they cook it (e.g. follow recipes). A range of personality and other personal characteristics differ between local and non‐local food buyers, with the former segment being more liberal, interested in quality, and frugal.

Consumers who express an interest in purchasing local food are a demanding segment of the population whose interest in food makes them critical judges of produce. Local food must thus be fresh and value for money. Growing this sector requires making local food more accessible through mainstream retail outlets.

While something is known about why people buy local food, less is known about other aspects of local food consumers, the range of attitudes they hold towards food or their food‐related behaviours.