International Journal of Consumer Studies最新文献

This paper examines Generation Z consumers' perceptions of a good life beyond consumerism and how their perceptions and practices have evolved during crises and the cultural context in which they live. We present a unique theoretical and empirical cross-cultural investigation which focuses on the ecological crisis and COVID-19 pandemic, and the changes they have caused to Gen Zs' daily lives in the United States (California) and Finland. Two large qualitative data sets were collected through focus group interviews and open- and closed-ended surveys before and during COVID-19 and analyzed via the PERMA framework. Findings revealed that Gen Zs' pathways that lead to a good life include: healthy behaviors and balance; positive and meaningful relationships; happiness and positivity; meaningful things; productivity and goals; and daily routines. Findings also indicated that since COVID-19, Gen Zs are increasingly shifting toward virtuous behaviors and eudaimonic-oriented life, in which moderation, meaningfulness, and self-realization play key roles. Gen Zs are characterized as a global consumer cohort and a driver of change for a sustainable future, thus understanding how these future professionals, leaders, and mainstream consumers perceive a good life provides theoretical and practical insights into how to provide ecologically sustainable well-being for nature and future generations.

In recent years, we have witnessed accelerated digital interactions among new technology users as a means of communication, leading to addictive behaviours owing to the overuse of smartphones and other new technological interfaces that have reshaped our daily routines. Thus, we adopted the social cognitive theory and the attachment theory to explore and understand the users' app adaptations and how mobile app characteristics, through their influence on smartphone addiction, impact mobile shopping behaviour. We designed an online survey to gather responses from 302 mobile app shoppers in India. We analysed the data using the partial least squares structural equation modelling technique. The results indicate that perceived privacy and security, personalization, contextual offers, and retailers' reputations trigger smartphone addiction. Moreover, the interaction between smartphone addiction and app incentives encourages mobile shopping intentions and frequent purchases. These findings would presumably enhance mobile app characteristics as the stimulus of a closer relationship between consumers and retailers. We present valuable avenues for practitioners to strategically manage their businesses' mobile app environment.

The notion of ‘anthropomorphism’ has been a subject of intrigue for transdisciplinary academics and scholars for the longest time, as the origin of this concept dates back to the BCE (Before Common Era). Over the past few decades, anthropomorphism literature has been burgeoning in the marketing discipline and its subfields (branding, advertising, consumer behaviour, etc.). This relatively novel stream adopts anthropomorphism as a concept and offers fascinating insights into consumers and their choices, behaviour, and intentions. Although there have been several qualitative review-based assessments of anthropomorphism within the marketing field, none have been informed by quantitative tools or through a framework-based approach. Our hybrid variant of systematic review fills this gap by using bibliometric techniques (performance analysis, co-authorship analysis of countries and authors, and co-word analysis of keywords) and Theories-Context-Characteristics-Methods (TCCM) framework to show the evolution, trends, and intellectual structure of anthropomorphism in consumer behaviour research. We depict the evolving trajectory and trends over time using a sample of 432 peer-reviewed journal articles and 27,671 secondary references (between 2005 and 2023) on anthropomorphism in consumer behaviour. Significant results include identifying and describing the most influential authors, articles, journals and countries, different research streams, their development, and future research directions. We also present six knowledge clusters delineating the intellectual knowledge structure of the field. An additional section depicting theories employed, characteristics explored, contexts examined, and methods utilized in the domain have also been presented. Furthermore, we used the TCCM framework to orchestrate possible trajectories for future research. By doing this, we offer academics and practitioners a systematic comprehension of the advancements in the domain and a comprehensive road map for future research.

Subjective well-being is an important research topic in consumer psychology. We conducted two experimental studies to examine the joint effects of environmental uncertainty and social density on consumer subjective well-being. The first study (N = 200) adopted a 2 (environmental uncertainty: high vs. baseline) × 2 (social density: high vs. low) design. Analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) analysis indicated that low social density improved consumers' life happiness after they experienced high environmental uncertainty. Moderated mediation analysis using the PROCESS macro found that the psychological process of control compensation was the underlying mechanism. The second study (N = 193) aimed to further demonstrate the control compensation effect and adopted a 2 (control boost: boost vs. no boost) × 2 (social density: high vs. low) design. ANCOVA analysis indicated that low social density improved life happiness reported by consumers who received no control boost after they experienced high environmental uncertainty. These findings provide significant implications for consumer advocacy from theoretical and practical standpoints.

The COVID-19 pandemic appears to be winding down. But has its psychological effect of the pandemic also faded? This next stage remains uncertain, which needs to be explored further. This article aims to understand changing consumer attitudes in post-pandemic times. In this regard, the present study conducts a cross-country analysis to examine and compare the COVID-19 fear appeals of consumers in India and Spain (if they still exist) that may have an influence on the future use (FU) and recommendation of online food services (OFS). The study integrates the concept of fear appeal, the theory of planned behaviour and cultural values to observe differences between Indian and Spanish consumers, in influencing their intention to use OFS. The findings confirm the importance of hygiene risk, with very low or no significance of perceived COVID-19 risk on OFS usage in both countries.

The literature on mobile banking has extensively explored various mechanisms underlying service acceptance and continuation. However, there is a lack of research on how the service experience and outcomes differ between digital natives (users born after the digital age) and digital immigrants (users born before the digital age). This study aims to fill this gap by investigating how mobile banking application experience, satisfaction and continued use intention interrelationships differ between digital natives and digital immigrants. The study posits that four components of mobile banking application experience (pragmatic, ease of use, emotional and sensorial) drive continued use intention directly and indirectly through satisfaction. The hypothesized relationships are analysed using a sample of 215 digital natives and 203 digital immigrants and employing the multi-group analysis in the partial least squares structural equation modelling technique. The study finds that while pragmatic, ease of use and emotional experiences significantly predict satisfaction and continued use, the pattern of associations varies across the digital cohorts. Sensorial experience was consistently found to be insignificant. Satisfaction mediated between the experience dimensions and continued use. The findings suggest that bank managers should recognize the relevant experiences to achieve the satisfaction and continued use of the digital cohorts.

Previous literature uses first-order meta-analyses to overcome the divergent theories about customer relational benefit, which produced mixed results in terms of the associations found. Originally conceptualised as unidimensional, customer relational benefit is an integrative multidimensional concept that includes trust, commitment, loyalty, satisfaction, word of mouth, and other constructs involved in long-term relational exchanges. The authors conduct a second-order meta-analysis on 41 first-order meta-analyses on customer relational benefits, generating 3.8 million observations and 3462 independent samples, resulting in an overall generalisation of the relationships between these constructs. We test three theoretical models and propose an alternative rival framework. Main results indicate that the product- versus consumer-related model generates strong variance in loyalty. Second, the cognitive–affective–conative–behavioural model is not superior in terms of explaining and predicting loyalty, but our three-stage model performs better. Third, the service-profit chain model is an alternative in terms of generating a sequence of effects (serial perspective). Fourth, our new alternative framework (a three-stage model based on the temporal sequence of loyalty) works better for explaining some constructs.

Given the importance of content that integrates into consumers' daily lives, marketing academics are becoming more interested in content marketing. Although academics have studied digital marketing research for decades, their understanding of content marketing remains limited. The purpose of this study is to perform a comprehensive review of the existing literature on content marketing and an equally comprehensive research analysis in the field. Accordingly, the study synthesizes 112 items of content marketing literature, using bibliometric analysis and the TCCM framework, to examine the evolution of content marketing research over the last 7 years (2015–2021). Furthermore, the study also develops an integrated conceptual framework, showing antecedents, mediators, moderators, and consequences of content marketing. This systematic review demonstrates that content marketing research continues to develop because of emerging technologies and online platforms, which provide opportunities for enhancing content strategies and practices. Finally, the paper suggests certain areas that have been neglected but which would lead to further investigations that advance this area of study. This comprehensive literature study adds to the body of knowledge on content marketing.

The conceptualization of self-congruity is more than five decades old. However, the research on its effect on consumer behaviour is still evolving, ensuing the literature developed being fragmented and dispersed. This concern state-of-art summarization of the literature to consolidate knowledge on self-congruity. The purpose of this review article is to structure the self-congruity literature on understanding consumer behaviour developed over five decades in terms of significant theories, contexts, frameworks, and methodologies. This review also aims to provide an integrative research model and outline future research directions. To this end, Scientific procedure and rationales for systematic literature reviews (SPAR-4-SLR) protocol with the lens of the Theory, Context, Characteristics, Methods (TCCM) framework was adopted for review procedure. The review was conducted with a corpus containing 339 research articles on exploring self-congruity facets and its effect on consumer behaviour published between 1973 and 2022. The findings are reported using TCCM convention adopting inductive approach. Further, based on the review findings, an integrative model of self-congruity is put forth summarizing the research frameworks and constructs adopted as antecedents, modifiers, and implications in investigating self-congruity effect on consumer behaviour. This review paper concludes recommending future research agendas with the intention of expanding self-congruity research in emerging contexts applying cutting-edge methodology.

This study provides a quantitative overview of contemporary consumer behavior research in the 21st century (2001–2020) to inform future research directions in consumer behavior research. Using co-citation analyses, this study identifies the most cited authors, publications, and academic journals in consumer behavior research in each of four 5-year intervals in 2001–2020 to profile research themes and relationships among different research clusters. Key research themes are then mapped based on co-citation matrices. The results show that major research themes in consumer behavior research in the last two decades have shifted from the focus on fundamentals of consumer behavior, consumers' decision-making process, development of more robust measures and analytical methods to the focus on service quality and consumer satisfaction, online consumer behavior and virtual communities, sustainable consumption, as well as the experiential aspects of consumer behavior. The findings help map the invisible knowledge network embedded in contemporary consumer behavior research and shed light on future research agenda in consumer behavior studies.