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This paper investigates the determinants of credit card use and misuse by student and young professionals. Critical to the research is the impact of materialism and knowledge on selection of the appropriate credit card.

This study uses survey research and partial least squares to investigate credit card behaviors of students versus young professionals.

In a comparative study of young professionals and students, it was found that consumer knowledge, as expected, leads to better consumer selection of credit cards. Materialism was also found to increase the motivation for more optimal consumer outcomes. For more experienced consumers, such as young professionals, it was found that despite them being more knowledgeable, they were more likely to select a credit card based on impulse.

This paper examines how materialism may in fact encourage some consumers to make better decisions because they are more motivated to develop better knowledge. It also shows how better credit card selection may inhibit impulse purchasing.

The purpose of this paper is to explore new trends in social networking such as social tourism and determine motivations resulting in visiting others when traveling. A research model is created based on mixed-methods research approach to identify motivations that influence use and factors that result in the willingness to meet others through the social networking tourism (SNT) site.

The current research implements a mixed-methods approach using qualitative data from a questionnaire to identify motivations that were implemented in a theoretical model tested empirically using survey data. The qualitative study consisted of 11 social tourism users followed by a quantitative study using a survey that was administered to 793 social tourism users.

The results of the qualitative study identified networking, curiosity, understanding, and economic benefits as motivations for using social tourism sites. Based on validity and reliability testing, the final research model included only the motivations for networking and economic benefits. The survey results showed that trust, attitude, and use were significant antecedents to the dependent variable willingness to meet with networking and economic benefits as antecedents to attitude and use.

This is an exploratory study so there are several limitations. First, while two motivations were ultimately identified, it is possible that other motivations should be explored. Trust is also a limitation in the current research that identifies trust as an antecedent to the willingness construct without researching factors that influence trust. Further research should be conducted to expand on the current research.

While there has been significant research conducted in the area of social networking, niche areas and special purpose social networks remain unexplored. The current research explores the niche area of SNT to develop a model identifying motivations for use and also creates a new construct identified as behavioral willingness to perform an action when risk is involved. Willingness to meet others through the site and its antecedents were evaluated in the current research.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how the material nature of legacy technology makes its users passionately prefer it over its digital alternatives.

This ethnographic study uses data from 26 in-depth interviews with vinyl collectors, augmented with longitudinal participant–observation of vinyl collecting and music store events.

The findings reveal how the physicality of vinyl facilitates the passionate relationships (with music, the vinyl as performative object and other people) that make vinyl so significant in vinyl users’ lives.

As this study examines a single research context (vinyl) from the perspective of participants from three developed, Anglophone nations, its key theoretical contributions should be examined in other technological contexts and other cultures.

The findings imply that miniturisation and automation have lower limits for some products, material attributes should be added to digitised products and that legacy technology products could be usually be reframed as tools of authentic self-expression.

This study explains what can happen beyond the top of the “S” curve in the Technology Acceptance Model, furthering our understanding of consumers’ reactions to the proliferation of digital technology in their lives.