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1 – 10 of over 10000Sung Ho Han, Bang Nguyen and Lyndon Simkin
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the dynamic process and the meaning of symbolic consumption according to the three symbolic needs (i.e. status needs, social needs…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the dynamic process and the meaning of symbolic consumption according to the three symbolic needs (i.e. status needs, social needs, status and social needs) to understand how symbolic messages are conveyed when consumers choose a brand.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper develops three dynamic models, categorized according to the consumers’ needs. The conceptual framework consists of the six constructs: collectivism/individualism, brand reputation, self-congruence, brand affect, brand identification and brand loyalty. Twelve hypotheses were developed and tested. Data were collected from consumers who had experienced well-known global chain restaurant brands. The three models were tested using confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modelling.
Findings
Findings highlight the important mediating role of brand affect in symbolic consumption, which previously has not been revealed empirically. Moreover, it is found that self-congruence does not mediate the relationship between brand reputation, collectivism/individualism and brand affect, despite its prominence in previous symbolic consumption studies. In the status and social needs models, brand reputation mediates between collectivism/individualism and self-congruence, brand identification, brand affect and brand loyalty.
Originality/value
This is the first empirical paper to investigate symbolic consumption in the context of three types of models, according to symbolic needs, in the context of restaurant consumption. The study also identifies the major components of the consumer’s symbolic needs based on the attributes of symbolic consumption. Moreover, this study reveals that when both social needs and status needs are mixed, a hierarchy exists between consumers’ symbolic needs. Finally, the study makes an important contribution to the literature by applying the concept of brand affect to symbolic consumption research and exploring the relationships between the external motivational factors and the internal elements of symbolic consumption.
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Albert Hasudungan and Harriman Samuel Saragih
This study aims to explore the relationship between personal innovativeness, perceived symbolic value and green purchase intentions within the context of sustainable consumption…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to explore the relationship between personal innovativeness, perceived symbolic value and green purchase intentions within the context of sustainable consumption. Specifically, it investigates how personal innovativeness influences both green purchase intentions and perceived symbolic value and examines whether perceived symbolic value mediates the relationship between personal innovativeness and green purchase intentions.
Design/methodology/approach
Using a survey-based quantitative approach, data were collected from a sample of Indonesian consumers using online panels via SurveyMonkey®. The study used Rogers’ diffusion theory to conceptualize personal innovativeness and drew on theories of symbolic consumption to frame perceived symbolic value. Partial least square structural equation modeling was used to test the proposed hypotheses and explore the relationships among the constructs.
Findings
The results indicate that personal innovativeness positively affects green purchase intentions and enhances the perceived symbolic value of green products. Moreover, perceived symbolic value influences green purchase intentions and partially mediates the relationship between personal innovativeness and green purchase intentions. These findings underscore the critical role of symbolic value in the adoption of green products and highlight personal innovativeness as a key driver in sustainable consumer behavior.
Originality/value
This research contributes to the sustainable consumption literature by integrating personal innovativeness with symbolic value considerations in green purchasing decisions, offering a novel insight into how individual traits and product symbolism interact to influence consumer behavior in the context of environmental sustainability.
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Wanrudee Tangsupwattana and Xiaobing Liu
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between emotional experience and symbolic consumption on brand loyalty. The authors also examine the differences in…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between emotional experience and symbolic consumption on brand loyalty. The authors also examine the differences in Generation Y consumer behavior through the comparison of Generation Y consumers’ income sources.
Design/methodology/approach
A conceptual model was developed to represent the proposed relationships among the related variables. Data from a total of 328 usable surveys were collected from Thai Generation Y consumers. The proposed hypotheses were tested using structural equation modeling analyses.
Findings
The study found that emotional experience has a significant and positive effect experience symbolic consumption, symbolic consumption provided a positive effect on brand loyalty.
Research limitations/implications
Time and resources limitation did not allow studying the larger sample. Future research should include more product categories. The sample can be extended to consumers in ASEAN countries to provide more comprehensive insights into consumer perceptions and brand behaviors.
Practical implications
The findings suggest that symbolic consumption is a key motivation to increase brand loyalty when developing marketing strategies for the Generation Y consumers.
Originality/value
This study identifies the components of symbolic consumption in meaning for conspicuous products and provides empirical support for the effect of emotional experience and symbolic consumption on brand loyalty in coffee shop industry.
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This paper furnishes an inaugural reading of abjective consumption by drawing on Kristeva’s psychoanalytic theory of abjection within the wider terrain of consumer cultural…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper furnishes an inaugural reading of abjective consumption by drawing on Kristeva’s psychoanalytic theory of abjection within the wider terrain of consumer cultural research. It offers a conceptual framework that rests on three pillars, viz. irrationality, meaninglessness, dissolution of selfhood.
Design/methodology/approach
Qualitative research design that adopts a documentary ethnographic approach, by drawing on a corpus of 50 documentary episodes from the TV series “My Strange Addiction” and “Freaky Eaters”.
Findings
The findings from this analysis point to different orders of mediatized discourse that are simultaneously operative in different actors’ frames (e.g. moralizing, medical), in Goffman’s terms, yet none of which attains to address the phenomenon of abjective consumption to its full-blown extent.
Research limitations/implications
Although some degree of bias is bound to be inherent in the data because of their pre-recorded status, they are particularly useful not in the least because this is a “difficult sample” in qualitative methodological terms.
Practical implications
The multi-order dimensionalization of abjective consumption opens up new vistas to marketers in terms of adding novel dimensions to the message structure of their communicative programs, in line with the three Lacanian orders.
Social implications
The adoption of a consumer psychoanalytic perspective allows significant others to fully dimensionalize the behavior of abjective consumption subjects, by becoming sensitive to other than symbolic aspects that are endemic in consumer behavior.
Originality/value
This paper contributes to the extant consumer cultural research literature by furnishing the novel conceptual framework of abjective consumption, as a further elaboration of my consumer psychoanalytic approach to jouissance consumption, as well as by contrasting this interpretive frame vis-à-vis dominant discursive regimes.
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Masayuki Yoshida, Jeffrey D James and J. Joseph Cronin
Throughout this study, the authors sought to identify the antecedents and consequences of a multi-dimensional consumption-value construct. Data were collected from sports…
Abstract
Throughout this study, the authors sought to identify the antecedents and consequences of a multi-dimensional consumption-value construct. Data were collected from sports spectators in Japan (n=372) and the United States (n=396). The results indicate that three quality dimensions (functional, technical and aesthetic quality) have a significant impact on their respective value dimensions in the context of sporting events. Moreover, the constructs of entertainment and community prestige have positive effects on customers' behavioural intentions.
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In the purchase intention of green products context, researchers have mainly investigated the role of symbolism but have mostly discussed symbolic attributes/meanings in terms of…
Abstract
Purpose
In the purchase intention of green products context, researchers have mainly investigated the role of symbolism but have mostly discussed symbolic attributes/meanings in terms of social status only. This research aims to investigate the impact of four perceived symbolic meanings of green clothing (status, environmentalism, innovation and fashion symbols) on consumers' purchase intention of green clothing through their attitude toward it. Besides, the moderating role of a consumer mindset in the indirect relationship between symbolic attributes and the purchase intention of green products through consumer attitude is examined.
Design/methodology/approach
The data were collected through a survey from a sample of 325 respondents in Turkey, especially younger ones. The data were analyzed via confirmatory factor analysis and hypothesized relationships were tested with multiple and simple regression analyses and PROCESS macros in SPSS.
Findings
All symbolic meanings of green clothing impact purchase intention positively and indirectly through consumers' attitudes toward it. The results of moderated mediation analyses showed that the impact of symbolic meanings, except for environmentalism symbol, on purchase intention through consumer attitude was significantly moderated by the consumer mindset.
Originality/value
This research contributes to the under-researched areas of the impact of various symbolic attributes/meanings of green clothing on consumers' purchase intention. Besides, this study advances the role of consumer mindset in consumer behavior research in such a way that it connects mindsets of personality, consumers' attitudes toward green products and their green purchase intention. Furthermore, this study addresses the gap in regard to the role of mindsets of personality on sustainable/environmental behaviors. It will provide implications for fashion marketing managers to develop appropriate targeting, positioning and communication strategies for consumers' mindsets.
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Jordi de San Eugenio Vela, Joan Nogué and Robert Govers
The purpose of this paper is to propose an initial, exploratory and tentative theoretical construct related to the current consumption of landscape as a key symbolic and physical…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to propose an initial, exploratory and tentative theoretical construct related to the current consumption of landscape as a key symbolic and physical element in territorial representation and evocation, and for the deployment of place branding strategy. It constructs a line of argument to support what shall be referred to as “landscape branding”, that is, the paradigmatic role of landscape in place branding. It is, therefore, of interest to define the value of landscape as a social and cultural construction, which is why the paper awards importance to the specific analysis of their capacity for visual and/or aesthetic evocation within the context of a general branding strategy for geographical spaces.
Design/methodology/approach
To develop a sufficient proposal for sustaining “a theory of landscape branding”, the paper deploys a meta-analysis, that is, an extensive review and interpretation of the literature related to visual landscape and place branding, to propose a tentative initial approach to landscape-infused place branding theory.
Findings
The relationship existing between landscape images and texts and their possible situating and subsequent interpreting within the context of the political, cultural and economic logics of contemporary society give rise to a renewed analytical framework for cultural geographies (Wylie, 2007). At this point, place branding becomes a recurring argument for the consumption of carefully staged places, representing, to use Scott’s terms (2014), the arrival of a cognitive-cultural capitalism characteristic of post-Fordism.
Practical implications
From a practical perspective, the landscape branding approach provides several benefits. First of all, regardless of the fact that many commentators have argued that logos, slogans and advertising campaigns are relatively ineffective in place branding, practitioners still seem to be focussed on these visual design and advertising tools. The landscape branding approach facilitates an identity-focussed perspective that reconfirms the importance of linking reality with perception and hence reinforces the need to link place branding to policy-making, infrastructure and events.
Social implications
Landscapes’ imageability facilitates visual storytelling and the creation of attractive symbolic actions (e.g. outdoor events/arts in attractive landscape and augmented reality or landscaping itself). This is the type of imaginative content that people easily share in social media. And, of course, landscape branding reiterated the importance of experience. If policymakers and publics alike understand this considerable symbolic value of landscape, it might convince them to preserve it and, hence, contribute to sustainability and quality of life.
Originality/value
The novelty lies not in the familiar use of visual landscape resources to promote places, but in the carefully orchestrated construction of gazes, angles, representations, narratives and interpretations characteristic of geographic space, which somehow hijack the spontaneous gaze to take it to a certain place. Everything is perfectly premeditated. According to this, the visual landscape represents a critical point as a way of seeing the essence of places through a place branding strategy. In this sense, that place branding which finds in visual landscape a definitive argument for the projection of aspirational places imposes a new “way of seeing” places and landscape based on a highly visual story with which to make a particular place desirable, not only for tourism promotion purposes but also with the intention of capturing talent, infrastructures and investment, among other objectives.
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Fang Jia, Zhilin Yang, Li Ji and Shen Xu
Previous literature suggests that people might purchase symbolic products to signal their social identity. However, in the organizational context, subordinates as customers might…
Abstract
Purpose
Previous literature suggests that people might purchase symbolic products to signal their social identity. However, in the organizational context, subordinates as customers might choose products with less brand prestige than what they want and can afford, just to make sure their choices are below the invisible “red-line” set by the brands of their supervisors. The authors term the phenomenon as “boss ceiling effect,” and term the behavior that people often downgrade their original choice to make sure the brand prestige is lower than that of the product owned by their boss as “downgrading behavior,” which have not been explored and well explained by existing literature so far. The paper aims to discuss this issue.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors conduct qualitative study to explore the existence of boss ceiling effect and providing possible influential factors of brand downgrading attitude. The quantitative study empirically examines the relationships among undesired self, perceived risk, organizational culture balance, and downgrading attitude and intension.
Findings
The authors find that undesired self-congruence and perceived risk are positively related to the downgrading attitude. In addition, the culture balance directly affects the brand downgrading attitude negatively and also moderates the relationship between undesired self-congruence and downgrading attitude positively and the relationship between perceived risk and downgrading attitude negatively.
Originality/value
The authors contribute to both organizational culture research and symbolic consumption research by considering symbolic consumption behavior in organization context. It is of great practical implications for marketers of symbolic consumption to understand the downgrading behavior.
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In postmodernity, consumption is a prime site for the negotiation of conflicting themes of freedom and control. Explores the consumption of symbolic meaning through five…
Abstract
In postmodernity, consumption is a prime site for the negotiation of conflicting themes of freedom and control. Explores the consumption of symbolic meaning through five consumption dialectics: the material versus the symbolic, the social versus the self, desire versus satisfaction, rationality versus irrationality, and creativity versus constraint. Argues that consumers are engaged in authentic choices in the construction and communication of self and social meanings, and that these consumption choices can be conceptualized as the exercise of existential freedom, even if constrained by inequalities in the economic system and by ideological hegemony.
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Allie S. Grotts and Tricia Widner Johnson
This paper aims to examine a consumer segment, Millennial, and its status and conspicuous consumption tendencies. The current research was conducted to determine if handbags can…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to examine a consumer segment, Millennial, and its status and conspicuous consumption tendencies. The current research was conducted to determine if handbags can be used as a symbolic representation of status.
Design/methodology/approach
A total of 598 females participated in this study through an electronically administered questionnaire. Eastman, Goldsmith, and Flynn's Status Consumption Scale was altered with permission and used to test and measure the status consumption of handbags.
Findings
The research findings indicated that handbags are being used in the process of status consumption and suggested characteristics of female Millennial consumers who are likely to use this process.
Research limitations/implications
The findings are limited to 18‐25 year old females in the United States, at a Midwestern university and cannot be generalized to other nationalities or age cohorts. The findings in this study are valuable in adding to the literature on status consumption by examining a product domain not previously studied for its ability to convey status and facilitate a complete self.
Practical implications
The findings are valuable to marketers because defining traits of Millennial consumers, a unique target market, have been discovered and proper marketing tactics may be deployed with the use of these results in the marketplace.
Originality/value
This paper fills a gap in the literature by examining handbags, which have not previously been researched for their status and conspicuous consumption abilities in an appropriate sample of college Millennial aged females.
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