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The idea of an evoked set is a central unit of analysis in understanding consumer decision making. Previous work in marketing has not examined how consumers make evoked set decisions in an unreactive manner. This article conceptualizes consumers' evoked set formation as a categorization process in which evoked and inept set memberships may rest on different brand situational variables. This notion is tested empirically with good results, and suggestions are offered for managers and academic researchers.

With continuing, apparently unending, television network media inflation, most major television advertisers are seeking more efficient ways to reach target consumers with their commercials. Some of the actions which have been advocated include:

The hierarchies of effects models have been perpetually updated across different time period. Ever since the evolution of the primary customer path indicated through the Attention, Interest, Desire, Action model in the 1900s, the hierarchical frameworks have witnessed a significant transformation in context to the present age of Web connectivity. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to understand the transformation in the hierarchy of effects models in the age of connectivity.

This paper is conceptual in nature and an attempt to provide an overall view of the shifting dimension in the customer path as indicated in the various hierarchies of effects models since evolution up to the age of digitalisation.

It is observed that in the age of connectivity customer loyalty is expressed in terms of brand advocacy rather than repurchase, and that the customer path has been redefined. This seems pertinent because of the swift exchange of information that occurs among the online customer communities.

This paper identifies a need to provide a contemporary outlook to the customer path in the age of internet connectivity.

A high level of product involvement is typically assumed to accompany higher information search, a fewer number of acceptable alternatives, and a higher number of choice criteria than does low level of product involvement. Inferring the level of product involvement from these behavioral or evaluative characteristics is, however, potentially misleading. Two factors are identified as mediating the relationship between the high level of involvement and these characteristics: (1) product trial, and (2) the consumer learning stage. The results of the present study support this view. Even for high involving products, considerable variations exist in these characteristics, depending on product trialability and consumer learning stage. Several strategic marketing implications stemming from these results are offered.

Although the food retail market has continued to grow steadily during the 1990s, the number of retail outlets forced out of business has also increased. In order to remain competitive, the food retailer needs to make full use of all the “tools” within the marketing management toolkit. Sales promotion, although a popular marketing tool, has never enjoyed the academic scrutiny afforded to the more glamorous field of advertising. Research that has been done has tended to concentrate on price‐based promotions. These have been the most popular among food retailers, as in many other markets, but there is growing awareness that non‐price‐based promotions can add value for the consumer while meeting a range of marketing communications objectives. This article looks at the use of consumer competitions, one of the most popular non‐price promotional tools, with a survey of 1,232 competitions which were jointly or wholly sponsored by food retailers.

Methodological pluralism in consumer research is usually confined to post‐positivist interpretive approaches. Argues, however, that a positivistic stance, radical behaviourism, can enrich epistemological debate among researchers with the recognition of radical behaviourism′s ultimate reliance on interpretation as well as science. Although radical behaviourist explanation was initially founded on Machian positivism, its account of complex social behaviours such as purchase and consumption is necessarily interpretive, inviting comparison with the hermeneutical approaches currently emerging in consumer research. Radical behaviourist interpretation attributes meaning to behaviour by identifying its environmental determinants, especially the learning history of the individual in relation to the consequences similar prior behaviour has effected. The nature of such interpretation is demonstrated for purchase and consumption responses by means of a critique of radical behaviourism as applied to complex human activity. In the process, develops and applies a framework for radical behaviourist interpretation of purchase and consumption to four operant equifinality classes of consumer behaviour: accomplishment, pleasure, accumulation and maintenance. Some epistemological implications of this framework, the behavioural perspective model (BPM) of purchase and consumption, are discussed in the context of the relativity and incommensurability of research paradigms. Finally, evaluates the interpretive approach, particularly in terms of its relevance to the nature and understanding of managerial marketing.

Bringing spiritual and religious perspectives to management and organization research requires clarifying the methodological implications and grappling with the diversity that characterizes the research community. This article aims to address both of these issues. The focal question addressed here is, how might spiritual and religious researchers effectively engage in interfaith dialogue in the ostensibly secular field of management and organization studies?

This article takes exception to privileging secularism over other faiths and argues for admitting spiritual and religious perspectives into the field of management and organization studies. It addresses how theological reflection can be carried out within a spiritually and religiously pluralist research community in management and organization studies.

Section 2 characterizes secularity and raises the possibility of moving beyond secularism to interfaith dialogue in the field of management and organization studies. Section 3 reviews influential perspectives on dialogue to identify attitudes and behaviors conducive to social learning. Section 4 introduces theological reflection as a method for conducting management and organization research and provides guidance and methods for pursuing interfaith dialogue.

This article proposes interfaith dialogue as a way to explore important assumptions, ultimate concerns and innovative practices that currently go largely unraised in management and organization research.

This article adds to the methods available in the field by characterizing effective dialogue and introducing and explaining theological reflection. It contributes general guidance and proposes specific methods for moving to interfaith dialogue among researchers working from diverse faiths.