Category: Market Trends and Consumer Behaviour

Beyond Traditional Metrics: Developing and Validating a Multidimensional Scale for Consumer Financial Well‐Being Summary This paper develops and validates a new, consumer-centred scale for Consumer Financial Well‑Being (CFW). The authors propose CFW as a second‑order reflective construct measured by four first‑order dimensions: Financial Wisdom, Financial Security, Financial Preparedness & Satisfaction, and Financial Resilience. The scale […]

Navigating the Complexity of Sustainability Communications: The Influence of Product Type, Media Type, and Brand Realism Summary This peer-reviewed study (Park & Minton, Psychology & Marketing) reports three experiments (total N = 1,153) examining when sustainability claims build trust and persuade consumers. The experiments test interactions among product type (search, experience, credence), media channel (digital […]

Experiencing Dehumanization, Seeking Uniqueness: The Effect of Organizational Dehumanization on Uniqueness‐Seeking Consumption Summary This paper treats organisational dehumanisation — feeling treated as mechanistic or replaceable — as an ontological threat to one’s sense of humanness. Across one preliminary survey and five experiments, the authors show that experiencing organisational dehumanisation increases consumers’ preference for uniqueness-seeking consumption. […]

Cross Ownership Versus Merger Under Product Differentiation Summary This paper compares passive cross ownership (CO) — noncontrolling shareholdings among rivals that create partial cooperation — with full horizontal mergers in oligopolistic markets with horizontally differentiated products. Under Cournot (quantity) competition the authors find that insiders (the cooperating firms) generally prefer symmetric CO to a merger. […]

Charity Without Choice: The Impact of Receiving Prosocial Gifts on Subsequent Donations Summary This paper examines how receiving prosocial gifts — donations made to a charity in someone else’s name — affects recipients’ willingness to donate to the same charity later. Across four experiments, the authors find that when a prosocial gift is unrequested, recipients […]

Love Affair With Thin Air: Mortality, Mastery, and the Consumerism of Mountaineering Summary This paper reframes mountaineering as a mortality-buffered identity practice rather than merely a thrill-seeking recreational pursuit. Using ethnography and depth interviews from a guided Mount Rainier expedition plus digital netnography, the authors apply Terror Management Theory (TMT) to show that climbers derive […]

First Response Matters: The Impact of First Public Response to Social Media Complaints on Observers’ Brand Attitude Summary This paper tests how a brand’s first public reply to social media complaints shapes bystanders’ attitudes towards the brand. Using signalling theory and four experiments, the authors compare two first-response strategies: privately-oriented (ask to take the conversation […]

Understanding Gen Z Consumers: A Typology of (Un)sustainable Purchases Summary This study applies neutralisation theory to explain the paradox between Gen Z’s pro-environmental attitudes and their often unsustainable purchasing behaviour. Using 25 semi-structured interviews, the authors identify six neutralisation techniques Gen Z uses to rationalise unsustainable purchases: four established techniques (denial of responsibility, condemning the […]

When Less Pressure Leads to More Talk: Sales Tactics and Word‐of‐Mouth Summary This paper reports five experiments across multiple retail contexts (clothing, travel, fitness, electronics) showing that salespeople who encourage customers to deliberate — rather than pressuring them to buy — trigger more positive word‑of‑mouth (WOM). The authors develop a psychological account: encourage‑to‑deliberate tactics increase […]