Category: Market Trends and Consumer Behaviour

First Response Matters: The Impact of First Public Response to Social Media Complaints on Observers’ Brand Attitude Summary This research paper examines how a brand’s first public reply to a social media complaint shapes observers’ attitudes toward the brand. Drawing on signalling theory, the authors compare two first-response strategies: privately-oriented (asking to take the conversation […]

GenAI Use Behavior and Post‐Failure Perceptions Among People With Functional Disabilities: A Multimethod Study Summary This multimethod paper studies how people with functional disabilities (hearing, visual and mobility impairments) adopt generative AI (GenAI) and how they react when services fail. Two studies were run: Study 1 surveyed 284 participants to identify motivational drivers of GenAI […]

Experiential Engagement: A Scale for Experiential Contexts Summary The paper develops and validates a short, unidimensional six-item scale of “experiential engagement” that is intended to be generalisable across experiential contexts (e.g., sport, music, arts). The authors conduct a systematic review of 25 context-specific engagement scales (466 items), reduce and adapt items to capture three recurring […]

When Less Pressure Leads to More Talk: Sales Tactics and Word‐of‐Mouth Summary This paper reports five experiments across clothing, travel, fitness and electronics contexts that compare two sales approaches: encourage-to-deliberate (agency-supportive, noncoercive) versus pressure-to-purchase (coercive, scarcity-driven). Across studies the encourage-to-deliberate approach consistently produced stronger positive word-of-mouth (WOM) intentions and actual sharing behaviour. The authors identify […]

Beyond Traditional Metrics: Developing and Validating a Multidimensional Scale for Consumer Financial Well‐Being Summary This paper develops and validates a new, multidimensional Consumer Financial Well‑Being (CFW) scale and tests it across two national contexts (India and the United Kingdom). The authors frame CFW as a second‑order reflective construct composed of four first‑order dimensions: Financial Wisdom, […]

Navigating the Complexity of Sustainability Communications: The Influence of Product Type, Media Type, and Brand Realism Summary This research paper (Park & Minton, Psychology & Marketing) investigates when sustainability messages build consumer trust and persuade, using the Persuasion Knowledge Model as its theoretical lens. Across three experiments (total N = 1,153), the authors test sustainability […]

The Rise of the Deinfluencers: Perceived Similarity and Anticipated Emotions in Advocating Mindful Consumption on Social Media Summary This paper examines how deinfluencers — creators who discourage purchases and promote simpler, sustainable living — affect consumers’ mindful consumption. Drawing on social cognitive theory, the authors propose and test a model across four studies. Key mechanisms […]

Love Affair With Thin Air: Mortality, Mastery, and the Consumerism of Mountaineering Summary This paper reframes mountaineering not as mere thrill-seeking but as a sustained identity project shaped by mortality salience. Drawing on ethnography of a Mount Rainier expedition, depth interviews and netnography, the authors apply Terror Management Theory (TMT) to show how climbers find […]

Experiencing Dehumanization, Seeking Uniqueness: The Effect of Organizational Dehumanization on Uniqueness‐Seeking Consumption Summary This paper examines how organizational dehumanization — the sense of being treated like a machine or interchangeable cog — acts as a deep, ontological self-threat and drives people to seek uniqueness through consumption. Across one preliminary survey and five follow-up studies, the […]