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This study aims to examine vicarious consumption (VC) via the video-game streaming platform Twitch. The authors posit that watching someone play can offer the same enjoyment (measured through emotional experience, mood and joy) as playing.

A mixed-methods approach was used. A qualitative phase involving semistructured qualitative interviews, naturalistic inquiry and netnography generated testable hypotheses, which were tested using a two-condition, between-subjects field experiment.

This research advances the understanding of vicarious and experiential consumption by finding evidence that VC can produce the same levels of emotional experience, mood, attitude toward the product, joy, brand community loyalty and positive word of mouth. It also demonstrates the moderating effect of familiarity on mood change.

This research demonstrates evidence that VC can offer outcomes similar to active consumption (AC). The authors advance research on VC in a new context (video-game livestreaming vs esports and other contexts) and from a new perspective (viewing motivations vs consumer-oriented outcomes). This research thus presents opportunities to explore these and other affective, behavior and cognitive outcomes in other contexts.

To reach Twitch users, marketers must understand how and why media consumers watch. This research provides insight into the community necessary to create effective advertising.

Building upon Sjöblom and Hamari, focusing on motivations for VC of esports and other related works, the authors expand the context to video-game livestreaming as a whole and examine affective, behavioral and cognitive outcomes compared with AC. Though VC has been researched and conceptualized theoretically, empirical testing is rare. This research offers empirical evidence that VC can offer the same levels of enjoyment as AC.

This study examines the relationship between spectator motivation and sports consumption behaviours in the context of an adaptive sport. Respondents were spectators from five matches held in the Midwest United States involving registered United States Quad Rugby Association teams. The Motivation Scale for Sport Consumption (MSSC; Trail & James, 2001) was adapted to measure spectator motivation and predict repatronage intentions and online media consumption among wheelchair rugby spectators. Results indicated that two spectator motivation factors, physical skill and knowledge, were related to repatronage intentions. In addition, knowledge and vicarious achievement were found to be related to online media consumption.

The purposes of this research are to examine the extent to which daughters view their mothers as consumption role models, the extent to which daughters serve as consumption role models for their mothers, and the extent to which external role models are shared by mothers and their adolescent daughters.

Two qualitative studies focused on mothers‐adolescent daughters‐vicarious role models interactions as drivers of consumption behaviors in Western cultures. Study 1 included 20 in‐depth interviews with mothers and their adolescent daughters (conducted separately). Study 2 included five of the original dyads interviewed jointly and observed in fashion stores.

Regarding adolescent daughters' use as role models and fashion markers for their mothers, most mothers confirmed that their adolescent daughters' fashion opinion was very important. Second, based on consumer socialization arguments, mothers served as role models for their adolescent daughters. Most dyads shop for fashion items together and in the same stores. Regarding the issue of cognitive versus chronological ages, the studies suggest that there is a gap between mothers' cognitive and chronological ages in support of cognitive age theory and the youthfulness ideal of Western cultures. Notably, such a gap mostly failed to materialize for adolescent daughters. Hence, consumption similarity appears to be driven more by the gap for mothers than the gap for daughters. Finally, external role models such as celebrities did not have a great influence on mothers or their adolescent daughters.

The research used in‐depth interviews with and in‐store observation of mothers and adolescent daughters. Future research might use similar interviews with younger daughters. Another extension of the work reported here that can provide triangulation for the findings is to change from a qualitative to a quantitative methodology.

The purpose of this study is to provide insights into value creation within a newspaper consumption community, adding to current information research by demonstrating how an atypical consumption community can co-create value in ways different from those identified in extant research. The upheaval of the newspaper industry’s business model and value chain in the face of digitalisation has led to significant decreases in newspaper revenue. To stay successful in the modern digital climate, it is essential for newspapers to utilise the interactive features of Web 2.0 to find new value sources. To do so, it is necessary to focus not just on tangible financial value but also symbolic value. The study supports the notion that consumers collectively co-create value through consumption community practices.

Through the conduction of a netnographic exploration of active consumers on the Guardian website and interviews with passive consumers, the study’s aims of understanding co-creation in digitally facilitated newspaper consumption environment were achieved.

The findings have opened up new ways in which newspapers can harness value through consumption communities as well as suggesting the future scope of research. This study indicates that newspapers foster an atypical environment for the creation of a cohesive consumption community – something that has failed to be appreciated in extant information research – because their diverse content influences the formation of multiple community pools with members who do not always share the same beliefs. In addition, the study reveals that the Guardian’s online consumption community co-creates value without strict adherence to the prescribed contingencies set out in current literature. The findings uncover new patterns in community behaviour proving value to be created not just through their co-consumption but also through individual consumption.

This study contributes to discussions on how communities co-create value and how this differs with different article subjects (lifestyle and political and types of participants, both active and passive).

The purpose of the paper is to compare measures of subjective and objective knowledge as well as usage/experience measures in a credence service environment for two different samples, namely college students and non‐student adults.

Data were collected from two independent samples using self‐administered questionnaires and were analyzed using correlation and reliability analyses, factor analysis, discriminant analysis and one‐way ANOVA.

For the student sample, the results show that even though measures of subjective product knowledge, objective product knowledge, and product usage are correlated with one another, each represents one unique dimension of total product knowledge. The results for the non‐student sample show that subjective and objective knowledge converge into one dimension, product usage is a second dimension, and vicarious product knowledge a third dimension.

One limitation of the present study is that its results are anchored in the context of hospitals and might thus be most relevant to this particular choice of service. In terms of implications, the “vicarious” component of total product knowledge the study uncovers for non‐students is a promising field for future studies because it is identified as one of the dimensions of total knowledge for those non‐student consumers who have a fairly low degree of objective knowledge and direct product experience.

Marketing managers should to take into account that, for adults, subjective knowledge is a better indicator of their objective knowledge than for students (or perhaps similar segments).

The present study is one of the first studies to investigate simultaneously the three dimensions of consumer product knowledge in a credence service environment.

The paper aims to examine changes concerning spending on personal care products and services, and socio‐demographic variations between households.

The data were derived from the Finnish Household Budget Survey from 1998 (n=4,359), 2001 (n=5,495) and 2006 (n=4,007) provided by Statistics Finland. The main analysis of personal care consumption was conducted by examining the purchasing costs of personal care products and appliances, and the amount of spending on personal care services. The differences in expenditure patterns are analysed according to the respondents' gender and age, level of education and income, and type of household.

The results indicate that household spending on personal care products and services has generally increased. However, the share of total consumption has not changed dramatically. The gender of the highest earner of the household along with household income is the key predictor of this type of consumption expenditure across all household types. The effects of these two variables have become stronger.

The data do not make it possible to differentiate between individual level and household level spending decisions across all household types.

Contrary to common belief, gender differences concerning personal care consumption have not diminished.

This study examines actual changes in personal care consumption according to socio‐demographic variables.

Outlines uses and gratifications theory and its limited advertising applications to date. Presents findings from a qualitative study which identifies many marketing and non‐marketing uses of advertising by young Scottish adults. Argues that this supports a view of audiences as active, selective and sophisticated consumers of advertising. Suggests that the active, reward‐seeking consumer of advertising challenges traditional models of advertising effectiveness and requires a reorientation of the advertising‐planning process.

A growing body of sociological literature defines physical appearance as a form of capital, a convertible resource in contemporary societies. The purpose of this study is to examine the importance of consuming on children’s fashion as a part of this appearance-oriented consumer culture. We investigate if the mothers we interviewed see their children as their extended self and actually are negotiating their own aesthetic capital through their children’s clothing.

In this study, we utilise 10 semi-structured themed interviews with Finnish mothers who were recruited from a popular Facebook group, focused on discussing children’s fashion.

Results indicate that women see their children as their extended self, and as such, they can be seen negotiating their own aesthetic capital through consuming practices for their children. Additionally, the investment in the physical appearance of children can be seen as a construction of a contemporary understanding of proper motherhood in the middle-class context.

Although extensive research has been carried out in expenditure on children’s fashion, this research offers a novel approach by combining research on parenting in a consumer culture with the theory of aesthetic capital to explore the materially based construction of parenting in the Finnish context.

Many markets are conceptualized as a stratified low- and middle-income “pyramid” of consumers. Emerging markets are sites of rapid consumer mobility, and thus the middle class there is connected to, and often supports, low-income relatives and employees. Therefore, this paper aims to establish that African income groups are not insular, but rather interrelated and have strong social ties reinforced with longstanding communal values, such as ubuntu.

Using a between-subjects experimental vignette design, the propensity of the middle class to cover low-income individuals on an insurance product was assessed.

Income strata are interrelated and can inform value propositions, which is demonstrated in this paper with insurance, where the middle class are willing to include others, depending on their social proximity, on their insurance cover.

The context for this study was personal home insurance; hence, the generalisability of the results is circumscribed. Other more tangible forms of cover, such as medical, funeral or educational insurance, may engender far stronger effects.

Marketers tend to view low- and middle-income consumers as independent. A view of their interrelation will change the design of many products and services, such as a service catered to the poor but targeted at their support networks. An example of such a service is insurance, which is traditionally hard to sell to the poor. A less atomistic approach to income strata could have implications for vicarious consumption, as well as a reconsideration of the disposable income of both groups.

The pyramid is an interconnected network of social and economic ties.

This study aims to explore consumer motivations to mitigate the contagion effect in access-based consumption after instances of prior customer misbehavior. Reverse contagion, demonstrated through customer citizenship behavior, entails using both firm-provided and personal resources to cocreate value, even in the presence of norm violations by others. The research delves into the influence of empathy, narrative appeal and past misbehavior severity on customer behavior, specifically in the context of reverse contagion.

Two scenario-based studies and a field study were used within the context of scooter-sharing to assess the conceptual model. Study 1 (n = 156) and Study 2 (n = 97) were conducted through surveys. Study 3 (n = 54) was a field study.

The results emphasize the crucial role of empathy in breaking the cycle of misbehavior contagion. Specifically, the findings suggest that narrative appeals have the potential foster greater empathy, encouraging customers to counteract the contagion. However, the intensity of prior misbehavior lessens the efficacy of narrative appeals in triggering reverse contagion, thereby moderating the mediating effect of empathy.

This study investigates reverse contagion stemming from customer misbehavior in accessed-based consumption. It delves into the impact of empathy, narrative appeal and previous misbehavior on the dynamics of value codestruction and cocreation. This comprehensive examination of these factors within a unified framework represents a new contribution to the literature. The results illuminate this intricate phenomenon, offering valuable insights for managers to address adverse customer behavior and harness the positive aspects of reverse contagion.