Tonya Williams Bradford and Sonya Grier
The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship of dietary restriction and food well-being (FWB) in an under-researched population using a novel but growing approach to…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship of dietary restriction and food well-being (FWB) in an under-researched population using a novel but growing approach to transition to healthier eating patterns.
Design/methodology/approach
This study uses individual interviews of African-American participants in a food detoxification program, a specific form of food restriction used to transition to healthier eating.
Findings
Results identify how food socialization and food literacy enable individuals to transform their relationship with food and enhance their FWB. Unlike prior research that focuses on food as the source of pleasure, this study finds that food is deployed as fuel, and this transition results in pleasure.
Originality/value
This research explains how a voluntary transition to healthier eating enables people to pursue FWB and extends the understanding of FWB (Block et al., 2011). In addition, this research contributes novel insights related to transformative consumer research efforts to motivate change. Findings have implications for marketing theory and practice, including the development of social marketing campaigns to support healthy eating patterns, especially for at-risk populations.
Details
Keywords
Individuals use money, time, and effort to consume, yet implicit in most consumer research is the availability of these resources, particularly money. While the literature…
Abstract
Purpose
Individuals use money, time, and effort to consume, yet implicit in most consumer research is the availability of these resources, particularly money. While the literature provides an explanation of many aspects of consumption experiences, an explanation of how money is used to fund consumption is needed.
Methodology
In the present research, I explore ordinary consumer behaviors through depth interviews with individuals regarding everyday experiences to develop an understanding of the relationship between earmarking money and consumption.
Findings
Prior research finds consumers earmark monies thereby allocating it to distinct purposes, such that this earmarking influences consumer behaviors. Emergent from these data, I find evidence for two categories of consumer behaviors: protective, which are those addressing responsibilities in daily life; and, prospective which are those for shaping and representing identity. Further, I find protective or prospective behaviors are systematically associated with earmarking of money to either indexical or prosaic accounts, respectively, to fund consumption in support of the behaviors.
Research limitations/implications
This study explores everyday experiences to develop an understanding of how monetary earmarks are used to fund consumption. Other resources necessary for consumption, specifically time and effort, were not examined, yet are influential in consumption experiences and therefore are in need of study.
Originality/value of chapter
These findings contribute a distinct pattern of funding evident in the relationship between types of earmarks and categories of everyday behaviors.
Details
Keywords
Tonya Williams Bradford, Sonya A. Grier and Geraldine Rosa Henderson
Purpose – We study weight loss communities to contribute to the understanding of how gifting, sharing, and the relationship between them allow individuals to pursue status…
Abstract
Purpose – We study weight loss communities to contribute to the understanding of how gifting, sharing, and the relationship between them allow individuals to pursue status transitions for a social identity.
Methodology – We employed archival netnography to capture emic experiences for a stigmatized circumstance in American society. We analyze data from four communities to obtain a broad range of consumer experiences within fee versus free communities.
Findings – We explain how individuals differentially employ sharing and gifting to create and sustain communities in support of status transitions within a social identity. Further, we describe roles of gifting, sharing, and prosumption, and their contributions to the transformative process of weight loss.
Research limitations/implications – The data comes from communities that may be viewed as stigmatized within the United States, one cultural milieu. Future research should examine these concepts across additional contexts and cultures.
Practical implications – Our analysis reveals the basis for virtual community development in support of status transitions. These results underscore the necessity to examine how consumers co-opt market resources to enact private, albeit life altering, goals.
Originality/value of paper – Most extant literature focuses either on gifting or sharing with little attention to how consumers employ community and membership to achieve personal goals. Our research articulates how individuals employ market resources to enact customized rituals and achieve individual goals within communities.
Details
Keywords
Wael Hadid and S. Afshin Mansouri
The extant literature on lean service reveals a noticeable lack of theoretical models establishing the core constructs of lean service, their interrelation and impact on…
Abstract
Purpose
The extant literature on lean service reveals a noticeable lack of theoretical models establishing the core constructs of lean service, their interrelation and impact on organizational performance. The purpose of this paper is to address this gap by proposing a theoretical model in which lean constructs are identified and operationalized to establish their interrelation and impact on organizational performance.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper synthesizes information drawing on a systematic review of the literature on lean service, other relevant academic literature to develop a theoretical model and a set of propositions. Drawing on the universal theory, socio-technical systems theory and contingency theory (CT), the paper highlights and clarifies the potential impact of lean service on operational and financial performance.
Findings
This study identifies a comprehensive set of lean technical practices, lean supportive practices, inhibitors and expected outcome of lean service. Expected relationships among those constructs are established by developing a conceptual framework with several propositions based on the relevant literature and the socio-technical system theory, the universal perspective and the CT, when relevant. Moreover, six influential contextual variables on the lean-performance relation are identified based on a review of the management accounting literature, organizational strategy literature and diversification literature to overcome limitations of previous studies.
Originality/value
This paper covers a gap in the literature by identifying and operationalizing lean service constructs and offering a theoretical model with several propositions that establish relationships between lean constructs and overcome limitations in previous studies by identifying six contextual variables that are important factors in the lean-performance associations.