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Do digital technologies of early 21st century capitalism promote or reduce consumer sovereignty? This chapter addresses this question by examining John Kenneth Galbraith’s critique of consumer sovereignty during the post-war period of industrial society and looks at the insights he provides to understand the impact of platform capitalism on consumer sovereignty today. This chapter has the following sections: (1) I review the main postulates of Galbraith’s theory; (2) I highlight the main differences between traditional advertising and online behavioral advertising; (3) I explain how online behavioral advertisement strengthens Galbraith’s dependence effect and revised sequence theories; (4) I then discuss normative challenges raised by digital platform corporations to individual sovereignty; and (5) finally, I argue that platform capitalism is a mature form of Galbraith’s “new industrial state.”

Consumer boycotts may be understood as consumer behaviour, and the concept of consumer sovereignty is identified here as the implicit paradigm for the marketing desciple, this is then applied to illustrate and explain the workings of consumer boycotts which are seen to have two dimensions: degree and domain, information is shown to be important in determining the domain of consumer sovereignty and pressure groups may play an important role in providing this. Three case examples of boycotts support the argument.

Gives a brief look at the problem of consumer satisfaction in a Marxist economy. Suggests that, in such an economy, consumer satisfaction is not the ultimate aim, but rather the emphasis is on product for consumption and not needs and tastes. Questions whether reform aiming at managerial freedom and consumer choice would be acceptable in a socialist economy. Proposes that this is a crucial for the future development of European socialist economies.

To help shape a more cohesive research program in marketing and consumer research, this paper presents a systematic effort to integrate current research on consumer empowerment with highly influential theories of power. A conceptual overview of power consisting of three dominant theoretical models is developed onto which is mapped existing consumer empowerment research.

A synthetic review focuses on three perspectives of consumer power: consumer sovereignty, cultural power and discursive power, drawing from sociological, philosophical and economic literature. These models are then applied to consumer research to illuminate research applications and insights.

Research of consumer empowerment has grown significantly over the last decade. Yet, researchers drawing from a variety of intellectual and methodological traditions have generated a multitude of heuristic simplifications and mid‐level theories of power to inform their empirical and conceptual explorations. This review helps clarify consumer empowerment, and offers a useful map for future research.

Researchers in consumer empowerment need to understand the historical development of power, and to contextualize research within conflicting perspectives on empowerment.

The paper makes several contributions: organizes a currently cluttered field of consumer empowerment research, connects consumer and marketing research to high‐level theorizations of power, and outlines specific avenues for future research.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the historical origins of consumer well‐being as well as the factors that shaped its evolution.

The paper presents a review of original publications that highlight classic views of consumer well‐being, including schools of thought on functionalism, management, buyer‐behavior, macromarketing, and consumer activism.

There has been a tendency to understand consumer well‐being as a function of economic‐based choice, where a “more‐is‐better” ideology has motivated much of the extant literature on the topic.

Integrating literature from the twentieth century demonstrates that perspectives on consumer well‐being have been influenced by forces beyond the classic economic model. The paper speculates that incorporating more community‐oriented and contextually‐bound criteria into the understanding of consumer well‐being may yield new research insights.

Purpose – This chapter seeks to understand the concept of consumer misbehavior, especially in the form of consumer deviance and/or dysfunction.

Method/approach – We review the marketing literature on consumer misbehavior, organizing the major themes scholars have used. We also differentiate between two perspectives researchers can employ: (1) misbehavior as deviance and (2) misbehavior as a wider construct.

Findings – Marketers generally overlook consumer misbehavior and put the cost down as that of running a business. Furthermore, they are burdened by the notion of customer sovereignty which is the dictum that “customers are always right.” But customers also lie, cheat, steal, harass, and abuse. Consumer misbehavior is thus multifaceted which in turn makes the definition difficult to pin down. After reviewing the many definitions of consumer misbehavior, including cyber misbehavior, the authors concluded that the disruption perspective is more managerially useful than the perspective based on violation of norms. This is because disruption of the business is not only harmful or unlawful but can lead to a loss of well-being, material resources, and reputation of individuals and/or organizations.

Implications – The chapter proposes a Pre-di-post framework that can be used to deal with customer misbehavior.

Originality/value – Most marketing scholars have focused primarily on misbehavior as deviance, yet this limits the kinds of problems one tends to focus on and the range of solutions one normally considers. We offer an alternative perspective where misbehavior may be instead “an unremarkable consequence of normal conditions” which may suggest a wider range of amelioration strategies.

The purpose of this paper is to review Advertising in a Free Society – a defence of the advertising industry – by Ralph Harris and Arthur Seldon, and to evaluate its status as a justifiable forgotten classic of the marketing literature.

Advertising in a Free Society is placed in historical context (the Cold War), summarised and reviewed.

During the 1950s, as the UK experienced a period of affluence and growing consumerism, the advertising industry was again subject to the criticisms that had been levelled at it by influential scholars in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Against this context, Advertising in a Free Society deserves to be remembered as one of the earliest defences of advertising and remains highly relevant. Harris and Seldon were leading figures in the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), joining shortly after its inception, which became an influential group both in the UK and abroad, influencing policy on free markets.

Although Advertising in a Free Society attracted few citations (going out of print between its publication in 1959 and 2014 when it was republished by the IEA), and largely forgotten by marketing scholars, it provides a significant source for marketing historians interested in advertising criticism, the growth of the British advertising industry and the role of advertising in democratic societies. A reanalysis of the text situated in its historical context – the height of the Cold War – reveals that the text can be viewed as an artefact of the conflict, deploying the rhetoric of the period in defending the advertising industry and highlighting the positive role that advertising could make in free societies.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the Internet's paradoxical nature from the perspective of consumers.

First, it is discussed that negotiations between companies and consumers about their respective shares of power lead to different models of consumer power. Second, the paradoxical effects of technology on social relations and an individual's sense of identity and responsibility are discussed. These changes have altered not only consumer behaviour but also the relationship between producers and customers, in the sense that power shifts to consumers. The case of the international music industry is used as an example. This case embodies many of the studied aspects of the paradox concept and proves useful in the development of implications for companies and their strategies.

The paper finds that while negotiations between companies and consumers about their share of power lead to different models of consumer power, the effects of technology on social relations and individuals' sense of identity and responsibility lead to changes in consumption behaviour.

The paper identifies how business practices have changed in response to the changes in intellectual property matters and the power constellations between companies and consumers. The theoretical models presented in this paper represent different positions that companies and consumers can take and are helpful in explaining the current power struggles, such as file sharing activities, which on a more individual level also correspond to paradoxical effects of the Internet (social relations, deindividuation effects).

This paper takes a fresh look at the Internet's paradoxical nature from a consumer point of view. It is argued that some of the Internet's paradoxical effects stem from socio‐political and socio‐cultural changes, for example, a power shift from companies to consumers, and normative and anti‐normative behaviours.

Increasingly, reports of consumers are witnessed expressing their concerns regarding corporate practices through behaviours of boycotting, buycotting and voice. The theory of consumer votes suggests that such consumers may view their purchases as “votes” in the marketplace. The purpose of this paper is to explore consumer voting within competing theories of community.

The study adopts an exploratory approach through semi‐structured in‐depth interviews with a purposive sample of ten ethical consumers.

Findings reveal that consumers adopted a voting metaphor in their approaches to ethical consumption. While choices were mainly individual in nature they were characterised as part of a wider, largely imagined community of like‐minded consumers.

This research is limited to a single country and location and focused on a specific consumer group. Expansion of the research to a wider group would be valuable.

Findings reveal consumers active in registering their discontent towards companies considered to be unethical, while rewarding those considered ethical. This has important implications for marketers interested in appealing to this group. Findings also reveal consumers taking responsibility through marketplace actions for ethical/political issues. This view of consumer votes as being more effective than political votes is pertinent, given reports of a decline in engagement with traditional political participation.

Limited empirical attention has been given to consumption as voting explored within the context of community. However, with reports of a rise in consumer ethical concerns and reports of a search for community in society this suggests that further exploration of this area is worthwhile.

This paper seeks to explore the ethical implications of creating committed customer relationships.

The paper uses an empirical study to test a series of hypotheses concerning the impact of customers' commitment to a brand on their behaviors toward that brand. It then contrasts these behavioral changes with the assumptions of ethical frameworks.

Customers' behaviors toward a brand change as they become committed to the brand. They shop less, consider fewer brands, and are willing to pay more. These changes violate assumptions of less stringent ethical frameworks. The result is that, as customer commitment increases, the ethical burden on the brand also increases.

This research is limited by the scope of the sample, automobile finance. Future research should explore customer commitment in other product and service categories to determine the extent to which commitment varies.

The implications of these results are that, when a brand does a great job of satisfying customers and building trust, commitment develops, which increases the ethical burden on the brand. The very brand actions that develop commitment high quality, good service, caring about the customer, must actually increase in importance once strong customer relationships are built.

The findings in the paper are unique, in that they evaluate a marketing model in terms of ethical impact, rather than simply in terms of increased sales or market share. These findings should be valuable to any brand manager who is focusing on building or managing customer‐brand relationships.