Edgardo Ayala, David Flores, Claudia Quintanilla and Raquel Castaño
This paper aims to seek to provide a more comprehensive view of the determinants of experienced well-being by incorporating personal characteristics suggested to be significant…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to seek to provide a more comprehensive view of the determinants of experienced well-being by incorporating personal characteristics suggested to be significant predictors of global well-being, such as income, materialism, religiosity, community mindedness and sleep quality (Diener et al., 1999; Frey and Stutzer, 2002), as well as time-use activities (Kahneman and Krueger, 2006) and contextual elements, such as day of the week (Csikszentmihalyi and Hunter, 2003; Kahneman et al., 2004a) and the presence of companions, into a single model of predictive experienced well-being using the day reconstruction method (Kahneman et al., 2004a).
Design/methodology/approach
The authors applied the day reconstruction method to a sample of 1,823 episodes from 104 undergraduate students at a private university in Mexico to determine time assignment and emotional experience. Data were analyzed using a panel data regression model.
Findings
It is currently accepted that experienced well-being depends on how people assign their time; however, the results suggest marginal and interaction effects between time assignment and sharing activities with others. Individuals experience an increase in well-being when any activity is done with others, independent of the valence or the duration of the activity. Also, while money does not produce higher well-being, the share of the budget that is spent with others does cause people to experience more well-being. Finally, the results indicate that personal characteristics are equally important to experienced well-being.
Research limitations/implications
The sample was restricted to students; thus, to achieve external validity, it is necessary to replicate this analysis within different populations as well as groups of different ages and occupations.
Originality/value
The authors provided an integrative model of experienced well-being that combines personal characteristics, time assignment and contextual factors. In addition, this model provides a more accurate gauge of the impact of personal characteristics on well-being than previous studies by controlling for time assignment and by measuring the impact on experienced, rather than global, well-being.
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Maria Eugenia Perez, Claudia Quintanilla, Raquel Castaño and Lisa Penaloza
This paper aims to explore the inverse consumer socialization processes, differences in technology adoption and changes in extended family dynamics occurring between adult…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to explore the inverse consumer socialization processes, differences in technology adoption and changes in extended family dynamics occurring between adult children and their middle-aged and elderly parents when technology is consumed.
Design/methodology/approach
Six focus groups, segmented into parents (50 to 75 years old) and adult children (18 to 35 years old) and grouped by gender and marital status, were conducted. Research questions examined consumption patterns, technology use, family structure and interactions between parents and adult children when consuming technology.
Findings
This study acknowledges different levels of technology adoption coexisting in extended families between adult children, who act as influencers, and their parents, who model their technology consumption after them. It further reveals a limited inverse consumer socialization process, as parents’ resistance to change hinders them from acquiring from their adult children significant knowledge, skills and attitudes regarding new technologies. This process is complicated by frustrations resulting from the parents’ limited ability to learn new technologies and their children’s lack of knowledge regarding andragogy (the art and science of teaching adult learners). Finally, this study reveals intergenerational alterations in extended family dynamics as aging parents depend on their adult children for their expertise with technology and children gain authority in an asymmetrical, two-way process.
Originality/value
This research reveals important limits in the inverse socialization process into technology between adult children and their parents, with attention to its effects on families and society.
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Jeffrey G. Blodgett, Aysen Bakir, Anna S. Mattila, Andrea Trujillo, Claudia Quintanilla and A. Banu Elmadağ
Previous research indicates that dissatisfied consumers in other countries react differently as compared to those in the USA, due to their cultural orientation. These studies…
Abstract
Purpose
Previous research indicates that dissatisfied consumers in other countries react differently as compared to those in the USA, due to their cultural orientation. These studies, however, have not recognized that retail policies (regarding returns and exchanges) in the USA are much more liberal and “consumer friendly” than in other parts of the world, and thus it is possible that their conclusions are flawed. The purpose of this study, therefore, was to determine the extent to which cross-national differences in complaint behavior are due to cultural vs situational factors.
Design/methodology/approach
To examine this issue, a two-part study was conducted. Study 1 compared consumers living in China, India and Mexico to cohorts who immigrated to the USA. Study 2 compared individuals from those same countries to subjects who are native to the USA.
Findings
The findings indicate that situational factors (i.e. consumer-oriented vs restrictive refund/return/exchange policies) have a large impact on consumer complaint behavior (i.e. redress, negative-word-of-mouth and exit), and that the effects of culture are minor.
Research limitations/implications
To infer cause-effect, and establish scientific theory, one must rule out alternative hypotheses. Researchers who are investigating cross-cultural complaint behavior must take situational factors into account.
Practical implications
With the emergence of “global consumers” consumer expectations around the world are changing. Astute retailers should institute and promote more liberal return policies, thereby mitigating consumers’ perceived risk.
Originality/value
This study dispels the notion that culture is responsible for differences in cross-national consumer complaint behavior.
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Flor Morton, Teresa Treviño and Claudia Quintanilla
The purpose of this paper is to understand the ritual, roles and symbolic meanings of family grilling consumption experiences in northeast Mexico.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to understand the ritual, roles and symbolic meanings of family grilling consumption experiences in northeast Mexico.
Design/methodology/approach
This study adopted a phenomenological approach and conducted 73 in-depth interviews and in situ observations during family grilling experiences.
Findings
Based on an examination of the phases, symbolic meanings, and ritual elements of grilling events in Mexico, the results of this study identify a third type of family food consumption ritual, the escape ritual, which has different characteristics than routine and festive family food consumption rituals.
Practical implications
The findings indicate the emergence of a more sophisticated family grilling experience that uses new accessories and products. Companies could align their marketing strategies for grilling products and segment their communication messages based on the roles of participants and the symbolic meanings identified in this study.
Originality/value
This research studies an experience in light of both ritual and escapism literature.
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Raquel Castaño, María Eugenia Perez and Claudia Quintanilla
The purpose of this paper is to provide a framework on the experience of cross‐border shopping. This experience is constructed on narratives, rituals, and intergenerational…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to provide a framework on the experience of cross‐border shopping. This experience is constructed on narratives, rituals, and intergenerational transfers that move beyond the simple description of experienced events to provide explanatory frameworks of family identity construction.
Design/methodology/approach
Nine in‐depth interviews are conducted with three generations of North Mexican women from three families who shop frequently across the border.
Findings
The findings highlight different processes associated with the experience of cross‐border shopping. First, each family works throughout the years to construct its own identity using the tales of their shared experiences. Second, an intergenerational transfer of knowledge going from grandmothers to mothers to granddaughters in each family occurs as result of the experiences lived together. Third, common knowledge is developed both by Mexican consumers and North American retailers that translates into particular commercial practices. Finally, all our contributors are immersed in a national culture, the North Mexican, sharing and transmitting values like thriftiness, malinchismo, and the relevance of family ties. These values affect their shopping patterns, generating important consequences for both the Mexican and North American economies.
Originality/value
The authors' intent is to contribute to the understanding of the process of family identity construction through consumption. This consumption occurs in a particular context; cross‐border shopping. The experience is singular in the sense that families spend considerable amount of time together while traveling and establishing their shopping routines. This work depicts the shopping rituals passed down from generation‐to‐generation and the derived construction of meaning within the family.
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María Eugenia Perez, Raquel Castaño and Claudia Quintanilla
The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between the consumption of counterfeit luxury goods and identity construction. The argument is that through the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between the consumption of counterfeit luxury goods and identity construction. The argument is that through the consumption of counterfeit luxury goods consumers obtain real and symbolic benefits that allow them to express a desired social image and further their identity.
Design/methodology/approach
A total of 37 in‐depth interviews were conducted with women who owned both originals and counterfeits of luxury fashion products.
Findings
The findings highlight three main themes describing inner benefits that consumers attain with the purchase and consumption of counterfeit luxury goods: first, being efficient by optimizing their resources; second, having fun by experiencing adventure, enjoyment, and risk; and third, fooling others expecting not to be caught. But most important, through the accomplishment of these goals consumers of counterfeit luxury goods construct an identity in which they perceive themselves as “savvy” individuals.
Originality/value
The intent is to contribute to the understanding of the process of identity construction through consumption. This consumption occurs in a particular context; the consumption of counterfeit luxury goods. The experience is singular in the sense that this paper shows the existence of consumers who can afford the prices of luxury fashion brands but decide to buy counterfeits and also because it depicts how individuals can construct a confident self‐image from an ethically questionable behavior. The consumption of counterfeit luxury brands serve consumers a self‐concept expressive function (by helping them to communicate who they are) and an adaptive social function (by rewarding them with social acceptance).
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Alberto Lopez and Rachel Rodriguez
The purpose of this study is to understand and explain the process by which child consumers form relationships with brands. Specifically, the authors attempt to understand how…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to understand and explain the process by which child consumers form relationships with brands. Specifically, the authors attempt to understand how child consumers conceptualize brands, why and how they decide to engage in relationships with brands and why they decide to breakup with brands though sometimes reconcile with them.
Design/methodology/approach
A mixed methodology was followed in this research. On the basis of an ethnographic approach, ten in-depth interviews were conducted among 8-12-year-old girls. Subsequently, a survey was completed by 122 children (boys and girls) to quantitatively examine the hypotheses formulated after the qualitative phase.
Findings
Findings from both the qualitative and quantitative studies highlight and confirm that children conceptualize brands according to visual branding components, signs and promotional activities. Furthermore, children make moral evaluations of brand behaviors and judge them as “good” or “bad”. More importantly, the authors propose two typologies: one for the reasons children decide to engage in a positive relationship and another for why children engage in a negative relationship with a brand. Additionally, the authors found that children report having an active or passive relationship role according to the characteristics of the brand relationship. Moreover, despite their young age, children report having broken up relationships with several brands; the reasons are categorized into positive and negative breakups. Finally, the authors found that positive breakups lead to more probable brand relationship reconciliation than negative breakups.
Originality/value
Despite a vast body of literature in the child consumer behavior field, there is scarce research regarding brand relationship phenomena. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first empirical research conducted with child consumers, addressing brand relationship formation, dissolution and reconciliation.