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Transformative Consumer Research

SPECIAL ISSUES

 Search the Special Issues associated with each Transformative Consumer Research Conference for a particular conference year or journal using the filters below.

From self-quantification to self-objectification? Framework and research agenda on consequences for well-being

Lane Peterson Fronczek, Martin Mende, Maura L. Scott

2022

Journal of Consumer Affairs

Measuring, recording, and visualizing a consumer's physiological, behavioral, and psychological features with the use of technologies is a growing phenomenon. Within academic literature and popular press, this phenomenon has been termed self-quantification, lifelogging, self-tracking, personal informatics, among others. This research conceptualizes consumer psycho-physiological quantification and explores the unique consumer journey with quantification practices. This research introduces a conceptual framework that accounts for distinct stages and aspects of consumer quantification at the acquisition/adoption, usage, and disposal stages of consumption. Adopting a novel theoretical perspective, the authors draw on objectification theory to examine the consequences of consumer psycho-physiological quantification and develop propositions that link it to self-objectification and consumer well-being. Finally, the authors outline evolving issues around the consumer quantification framework and identify a research agenda. Taken together, this research provides a foundation for future research into the unique facets of consumer psycho-physiological quantification and consequences for consumer well-being.

Getting real about consumer poverty: Deep processes for transformative action

Martina Hutton, Canan Corus, Joshua D. Dorsey, Elizabeth Minton, Caroline Roux, Christopher P. Blocker, Jonathan Z. Zhang

2022

Journal of Consumer Affairs

To uncover pathways for understanding and alleviating poverty, this paper offers an alternative approach for examining the real and unseen processes of destitution and in-work poverty which shape the lives of consumers. We apply a critical realist paradigm structured around three core tenets—stratified realities, complex causations and generative structures—to surface the nuanced complexities of these issues. A critical realist lens encourages impact by focusing on the deep causes of enduring social problems and provides transformative consumer research scholars with an integrative way to work toward transformative policy action.

Mindfully aware and open: Mitigating subjective and objective financial vulnerability via mindfulness practices

Julia B. Bayuk, Hyunjung Crystal Lee, Jooyoung Park, Serkan Saka, Debabrata Talukdar, Jayati Sinha

2022

Journal of Consumer Affairs

Our research presents mindfulness as a potential intervention to mitigate financial vulnerability, defined as the ability to handle unexpected future financial setbacks. As potential interventions to mitigate consumer financial vulnerability, we provide a conceptual framework on how two types of mindfulness practices (i.e., non-judgmental awareness and openness to experience) can mitigate the subjective and objective financial vulnerability differently. We suggest ways to manipulate the two types of mindfulness and discuss the results of our initial pilot study, focusing on lower-income consumers. In addition, we propose fruitful avenues for future research and provide recommendations for managers and policymakers to better address consumer financial vulnerability and enhance consumer welfare via mindfulness practice.

Have you found what you are looking for? How values orientations affect pro-social change after transformative service experiences

Anne Hamby, Justine Rapp Farrell

2022

Journal of Consumer Affairs

Past research on transformative service experiences suggests that participating individuals may experience positive, as well as (unintended) negative well-being consequences. Most of this work has examined aspects of the service provider and the service experience as a causal factor, underemphasizing aspects of the participants in such experiences as a determinant. Implementing a longitudinal design in the context of a cross-country bike trip to benefit multiple sclerosis, the authors investigate how changes in participants' civic attitudes and skills, as well as perceived personal change and connection to the experience, may depend upon the participants' underlying values orientation. Emerging findings indicate that values associated with achievement and growth may lead to undesirable changes in civic attitudes, while values associated with external validation promote positive personal change and enhanced connection to the organization and cause. Implications for transformative service organizations and research limitations are discussed.

The paradoxes of smartphone use: Understanding the user experience in today's connected world

Aida Faber, Colleen Bee, Marina Girju, Naz Onel, Anne Marie Rossi, Marina Cozac, Richard J. Lutz, Gia Nardini, Camilla Eunyoung Song

2022

Journal of Consumer Affairs

We use a paradox approach (Mick & Fournier) to explore how consumers use and experience their smartphones. To do so, we use a mixed method approach where we interviewed 28 participants across seven focus groups to learn more about when and how they used their smartphones. Participants reported many tensions with regard to their smartphone use, from which we derived one overarching paradox and five specific paradoxes, including two new paradoxes. To support and extend our qualitative findings, we also administered a questionnaire examining the proposed paradoxes and their possible connections to important consumer consequences such as ambivalence, attachment, and well-being. Overall, we found evidence of a push and pull (or ambivalent) relationship between participants and their smartphones. Specifically, its great functionality and reliability make the connection cherished, but this ongoing reliance takes away the very same things it was meant to help build.

Vaping and dynamic risk construction: Toward a model of adolescent risk-related schema development

Emily C. Tanner, John F. Tanner Jr, Franklin Velasco Vizcaino, Zhiyong Yang

2022

Journal of Consumer Affairs

Adolescents experience vulnerability because their brains are not fully developed and they have limited knowledge and experience, inhibiting their ability to assess and mitigate risks. Drawing on literature from different disciplines, this paper develops a model that illustrates the dynamic nature of information and experience acquisition and ongoing risk and benefit assessment. New concepts are created to reflect better adolescent risk-related schema: fungibility, fog of vulnerability, and points of tension, all of which are useful in understanding how intentions and in-the-moment decisions are made in the context of vaping.

Digital exchange compromises: Teetering priorities of consumers and organizations at the iron triangle

Monica C. LaBarge, Kristen L. Walker, Courtney Nations Azzari, Maureen Bourassa, Jesse R. Catlin, Stacey Finkelstein, Alexei Gloukhovtsev, James Leonhardt, Kelly Martin, Maria Rejowicz-Quaid, Mehrnoosh Reshadi

2022

Journal of Consumer Affairs

Societal well-being is challenged by the complexity and intangibility of the compromises inherent in digital exchanges. Increasingly these exchanges rely on technology, with competing priorities that challenge cooperation and communication among key parties involved. The authors examine the factors that drive tensions between consumers and organizations in digital exchanges, as well as how and why interest groups, lawmakers, and bureaucrats (also known as the “iron triangle”) try to mediate these exchanges through policy and regulation. By explicating the nature of these relationships, the authors illustrate various trade-offs faced by all parties and depict a novel, comprehensive framework to facilitate holistic assessment of the factors underlying these ubiquitous but complex digital relationships with vague ethical stewardship. This framework serves as a lens to help guide business and regulatory policymaking and as a platform for identifying future research opportunities.

Taming Complex Problems Using The Problem-Solution-Impact Research Process Model

Jane E. Machin, Natalie Ross Adkins, Christina Chan-Park, Elizabeth Crosby, Justine Rapp Farrell, Ann M. Mirabito

2022

Journal of Consumer Affairs

The transformative consumer research (TCR) and transformative service research (TSR) movements seek to encourage, support, and publicize research benefiting consumer welfare. In this article, we introduce design thinking (DT) as a rigorous, effective, and creative problem-solving process well-suited to tackle the multi-dimensional problems TCR/TSR researchers address. A scoping review of TCR/TSR and DT literatures examining complex issues, such as health and well-being, inequality, and sustainability, reveals each orientation's theoretical and methodological strengths as well as its opportunities to more effectively catalyze positive change. Specifically, DT would benefit from the rigorous theoretical perspective brought by TCR/TSR researchers. In turn, transformative consumer and service researchers can find inspiration in the participatory ideation and prototyping techniques central to DT. The problem-solution-impact (PSI) research process model for transformative change draws from the strengths of the two traditions to creates a rigorous and relevant approach to addressing the world's most complex and dynamic problems.

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