Editorial

Citation

Leventhal, R.C. (2009), "Editorial", Journal of Consumer Marketing, Vol. 26 No. 7. https://doi.org/10.1108/jcm.2009.07726gaa.001

Editorial

Article Type: Editorial From: Journal of Consumer Marketing, Volume 26, Issue 7

In this issue you will find a number of papers relating to the important area of consumer privacy (a matter we focused on particularly in our special issue on the theme – Vol. 20 No. 7, 2003). The study of consumer behavior is centered on obtaining information that is relevant as to how and why the consumer acts/reacts to products/services in the marketplace. With the increasingly sophisticated use of information technology around the globe and the growth of the digital economy, we have seen an increase in the misuse of personal information. Even with an intensified effort to safeguard consumer information, the individual consumer is still vulnerable to those individuals who seek to steal personal identities, invade personal privacy, and contribute to a sense of helplessness amongst the consuming population. Yet marketers are faced with knowing that if such information is not collected and used, then the ability to successfully market products/services is severely affected. All data sources have been shown to be equally vulnerable to deliberate or inadvertent disclosure. The implications of privacy compromise are potentially severe economic, social, and emotional problems. So marketers are faced with knowing that how information is used/abused transcends any particular company or organization.

In the Misplaced Marketing section, Levy and Royne examine privacy breaches in personal record health information that expose consumers to unsolicited marketing.

Tsarenko and Tojib develop a customer typology based on consumer attitude towards information privacy and examine the driving factors of privacy concern. Despite the fact that segmentation is perhaps one of the most useful concepts in marketing, it can be quite challenging to apply this concept to practice. Although the scope of this study was limited to investigating a more general perspective of customer privacy concerns in dealings with financial institutions, there is a definite need to examine the consumers’ level of comprehension of privacy statements and knowledge of the type of legislation that already exists.

Laric and Pitta address some of the privacy issues involved with the digitizing individual health records by looking at the possible contributions made by, and the applicability of, several business theories. Propositions advanced by several business theories are examined to the extent that they help to explore the relationships between users and managers of the digitized health records and the privacy of the patients’ health records. The authors then present a series of implications for marketers based on the framework that they have developed.

Canhoto examines the concept that the privacy issue has fueled the development of legal and technical mechanisms to protect customers’ anonymity and to prevent the misuse of customer data. However, data breaches continue to occur with greater frequency. The author presents new insights into the causes of such privacy breaches. Practical contributions to marketing managers concerning policy wording, job design and reward schemes are presented.

Guru and Ranchhod examine two issues: a comparison of mobile consumers’ perceptions regarding privacy issues in three different national and cultural contexts (England, France and Romania) and then investigate the strategic approach taken by respondents in these three countries for protecting their privacy. The authors found that both the country of origin and the personal profile of users influence the individual’s perceptions as they pertain to privacy threats in the mobile commerce environment as well as the privacy protection strategy that they adopt.

Maxwell, Lee, Anselstetter, Comer and Maxwell investigate whether there is a difference in how men and women respond to unfair prices and, if so, whether this gender difference extends across national cultures. Is this difference due to nature or nurture? The authors found that response to perceived price unfairness is due more to nurture than to nature as it relates to various cultures.

Yavas and Babakus employ mall patronage behavior to develop and test a patronage model consisting of three dimensions: these dimensions were utilitarian, hedonic and accessibility. The author’s second-order composite index provides a single metric to marketing managers; the first-order composite score provides marketing managers with three metrics and guide as to which dimension to focus on. At the lowest level (attribute level), marketing managers have access to attribute-specific metrics.

In addition to these articles you will also find the Computer currency section as well as our Book review section.

Richard C. Leventhal