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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Raquel Castaño and Maria Eugenia Perez
This paper aims to explore brand personality relationships in the context of original versus counterfeit products. Specifically, it investigates consumers’ perception of both…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to explore brand personality relationships in the context of original versus counterfeit products. Specifically, it investigates consumers’ perception of both original brands and their counterfeits.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors present four studies conducted with 657 Mexican consumers who own or have owned an original luxury-brand product as well as a counterfeit of the same brand. Data were analyzed through regression analyses, t-tests, correlation coefficients and one-way ANOVA.
Findings
Results show that consumers who voluntarily acquire both original luxury brands and their counterfeits transfer the symbolic personality traits of the original brand to the counterfeit, experience significantly higher coincidence between their personality traits and those of the original brand and also experience a stronger overlap between their overall self-concept and the original brand’s concept than with the counterfeit’s concept, and feel higher levels of love towards the original brands than towards their counterfeits.
Research limitations/implications
This study plays a relevant role in understanding how consumers form relationships with original and counterfeit brand products. Managers of original brands are advised to build their efforts around the idea of consumers’ love for the original brand, emphasizing issues of authenticity and congruence between consumers and their purchase decisions.
Practical implications
Managers of original brands are advised to build their efforts around the idea of consumers’ love for the original brand, emphasizing the trust element of a love relationship in order to encourage consumers to be “faithful” to the original brands.
Originality/value
This study provides insights into the relationships consumers form with brands and their counterfeits. This is novel because, so far, most of the studies on counterfeits have mainly sought to explain why and how consumers choose counterfeits instead of original brands.
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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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Maria Eugenia Perez, Dan Padgett and Willem Burgers
The purpose of this paper is to assess the role that elapsed time and culture may play in affecting intergenerational influence (IGI) on brand preference. The results of an…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to assess the role that elapsed time and culture may play in affecting intergenerational influence (IGI) on brand preference. The results of an empirical study conducted in Mexico reveal that coincidence in family life‐cycle stage emerges as an important factor in determining IGI strength.
Design/methodology/approach
A total of 600 questionnaires were collected from 300 dyads of mothers/daughters. This research extends Moore et al.'s basic methodology and findings to the Mexican context by including daughters at different stages of their family life cycle covering a time frame of up to 15 years out of the parents' household.
Findings
The findings support results from previous research conducted in the USA, signaling IGI as influencing brand preferences. However, the results diverge by demonstrating that in certain cultural contexts (e.g. Mexico), coincidence in family life‐cycle may have a stronger influence on IGI than the amount of elapsed time not living with parents.
Research limitations/implications
Understanding how IGI evolves in different cultural contexts may be applicable in the design of product and communication strategies leading to brand preference.
Originality/value
This study contributes to the literature by providing knowledge about the factors affecting consumers' brand preferences in Mexico, a country sharing cultural values with an important number of nations (including Latin America) where research conducted on these issues is scarce and where effective brand strategies need to be developed.
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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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– This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies.
Design/methodology/approach
This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.
Findings
Consumers who voluntarily acquire both original luxury brands and their counterfeits transfer the symbolic personality traits of the original brand to the counterfeit, experience significantly higher coincidence between their personality traits and those of the original brand and also experience a stronger overlap between their overall self-concept and the original brand’s concept than with the counterfeit’s concept, and feel higher levels of love toward the original brands than toward their counterfeits.
Practical implications
The paper provides strategic insights and practical thinking that have influenced some of the world’s leading organizations.
Originality/value
The briefing saves busy executives and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to-digest format.
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Julia Rey-Perez and María Eugenia Siguencia Ávila
The purpose of this paper is to present a methodology developed on the basis of the Historic Urban Landscape (HUL) notion applied for the city of Cuenca in Ecuador. The…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to present a methodology developed on the basis of the Historic Urban Landscape (HUL) notion applied for the city of Cuenca in Ecuador. The identification of cultural values – among all the actors involved in the city – draws up a series of sustainable urban development strategies.
Design/methodology/approach
This methodology is based on the city analysis from the local community and multiple disciplines such as geomorphology, environment, urban planning, historic cartography, architecture, archaeology, anthropology, and economy. Further qualitative data collection methods included 16 workshops with 168 citizens, specific surveys, mapping, and on-site observations. The challenge of this methodology is not only its implementation in the world heritage city of Cuenca in Ecuador, but also the integration of the management of the historic centre within the overall city development plan.
Findings
The application of the HUL concept has allowed the identification of a series of strategies for the urban development where the points of view coming from different stakeholders were gathered. The project reveals the existence of values and attributes, so far overlooked in the actual heritage management system. In addition, a Geographic Information System database has been created with all the information related to Cuenca with the possibility of making it available for the community in the future.
Research limitations/implications
The project has been developed within one year with scarce economic resources: that is the reason why the planned activities took longer than expected.
Social implications
Social participation has played a key role in the development of the project.
Originality/value
This research process in Cuenca has led to its incorporation as a Latin-American pilot city for a programme developed by the World Heritage Institute of Training and Research for the Asia and the Pacific Region.