Editorial

Citation

Leventhal, R.C. (2010), "Editorial", Journal of Consumer Marketing, Vol. 27 No. 4. https://doi.org/10.1108/jcm.2010.07727daa.001

Editorial

Article Type: Editorial From: Journal of Consumer Marketing, Volume 27, Issue 4

Never let it be said that the consumer is an individual who is easy to understand and satisfy. We are living in turbulent times, which has seen the economic rise (and almost fall) of many countries in every part of the global marketplace in the last few years. The twenty-first century is turning out to be one of constant change and upheaval, in terms of how corporations are approaching the marketplace, especially from a global perspective. The ease of obtaining information has allowed the consumer to become not only better educated, but also more demanding in terms of what products/services that they want to try and adopt. As Bob Dylan sang, “the times are a changing” now and forever more.

Swilley seeks to understand consumer rejection of a technology, specifically wallet phone technology. The author’s findings suggest that consumers do not see a wallet phone as either easy to use or useful, as both were not found to be significant in their influence on attitudes toward wallet phones. Attitudes toward wallet phones had a negative affect on the intention to use this technology.

Tifferet and Herstein studied three concepts:

1. 1.

   whether individualism affects consumer’ preference for private versus national brands;

2. 2.

   the effect of individualism on the perceived importance of brand image dimensions (country-of-origin, packaging design and manufacturer reputation); and

3. 3.

   assess the degree of cross-cultural differences in individualism within a specific country, Israel.

The authors investigated these concepts from a psycho-behavioral aspect of private brand consumers as it relates to cultural differences.

Neeley, Min and Kennett-Hensel evaluated the relationship among consumer expertise, hedonic orientation, price consciousness, and consumption using wine as the focal point. The authors used five hypothesized relationships to carry out their study. Specifically it is shown how an individual’s perceived expertise and hedonic orientation impact price consciousness and ultimately, consumption.

Chtourou and Souiden examine the effects of the fun aspect on consumers’ adoption of technological products. In order to do this, the author’s used the technology adoption model (TAM) and modified it adding fun as an element of said model. Their results showed that fun is an important antecedent of the attitude toward the act (use of mobile devices), and fun was also found to fully mediate the effect of usefulness on attitude. The authors posit that the impact of emotions goes beyond the consumption of hedonic products and extends to the adoption of technological products.

Zolfagharian and Sun explore how bicultural consumers differ from monocultural consumers, and among themselves, in terms of country-of-origin effect and ethnocentrism. Although ethnocentrism does not significantly demarcate alternating biculturals from their integrating counterparts, alternators are more likely than integrators to provide a favorable evaluation of foreign brands and entertain the intention to purchase them.

Jansson, Marell and Nordlund believe that knowledge of “green” consumer behavior is important for both environmental and business reasons. They examine the determinants of “green” curtailment behaviors and consumer adoption of innovations marketed as “green” (eco-innovations), and analyze factors explaining these two types of “green” behaviors. Attitudinal factors and habits in combination prove to be effective determinants for curtailment behaviors and willingness to adopt eco-innovations. In addition, previous adoption is found to be a strong determinant of future willingness to adopt. Furthermore. beliefs and norms not only predict low-involvement post-purchase behaviors, but also adoption of high involvement eco-innovations.

Kwak and Sojka examine the degree of ethnic identity and demographic characteristics (the length of residency in the USA, education, income, age, and origin of ethnicity) in relation to brand purchase for status. Marketing practitioners need to be aware of the intensity of ethnic affiliation – not just ethnic affiliation – as an important concept in understanding their customers’ purchase behaviors. The author’s recommend that retailers targeting immigrant consumers with a high degree of ethnic identification, high income and/or younger in age should include high-priced prestige brands in their product lines.

Dalakas and Shoham test the unique explanatory power of the dimensions of egalitarianism as it relates to gift-giving. Strong social norms about gift giving “protocol” may override the effect of egalitarianism attitudes on gift-giving behavior. Marketers can benefit greatly from creating, nurturing, and promoting ritualistic and structured gift-giving situations. The authors also extend the use of gender-role attitudes as a predictor of gift-giving behavior.

In this issue you will also find our Book Review section for your interest.

Richard C. Leventhal