The Social Construction of Consumer Literacy: Consumer Empowerment among Adult Literacy Learners

This study explores how adult literacy learners negotiate the consumer marketplace. Findings challenge the functional model of literacy and support the conceptualization of consumer literacy as a social practice

An Empirical Comparison of Consumer Innovation Adoption Models: Implications for Subsistence Marketplaces

So called “pro-poor” innovations may improve consumer wellbeing in subsistence marketplaces. However, there is little research that integrates the area with the vast literature on innovation adoption. Using a questionnaire where respondents were asked to provide their evaluations about a mobile banking innovation, this research fills this gap by providing empirical evidence of the applicability of existing innovation adoption models in subsistence marketplaces. The study was conducted in Bangladesh among a geographically dispersed sample. The data collected allowed an empirical comparison of models in a subsistence context. The research reveals the most useful models in this context to be the Value Based Adoption Model and the Consumer Acceptance of Technology model. In light of these findings and further examination of the model comparison results the research also shows that consumers in subsistence marketplaces are not just motivated by functionality and economic needs. If organizations cannot enhance the hedonic attributes of a pro-poor innovation, and reduce the internal/external constraints related to adoption of that pro-poor innovation, then adoption intention by consumers will be lower

The stigma turbine:A theoretical framework for conceptualizing and contextualizing marketplace stigma

Stigmas, or discredited personal attributes, emanate from social perceptions of physical characteristics, aspects of character, and “tribal” associations (e.g., race; Goffman 1963). Extant research emphasizes the perspective of the stigma target, with some scholars exploring how social institutions shape stigma. Yet the ways stakeholders within the socio-commercial sphere create, perpetuate, or resist stigma remain overlooked. We introduce and define marketplace stigma as the labeling, stereotyping, and devaluation by and of commercial stakeholders (consumers, companies and their employees, stockholders, institutions) and their offerings (products, services, experiences). We offer the Stigma Turbine (ST) as a unifying conceptual framework that locates marketplace stigma within the broader sociocultural context, and illuminates its relationship to forces that exacerbate or blunt stigma. In unpacking the ST, we reveal the critical role market stakeholders can play in (de)stigmatization, explore implications for marketing practice and public policy, and offer a research agenda to further our understanding of marketplace stigma and stakeholder welfare

Consumer empowerment in multicultural marketplaces: Navigating multicultural identities to reduce consumer vulnerability

In the context of increasing cultural diversity, consumers are negotiating their identities and subsequent behaviours within multiple cultures and subcultures. Multicultural marketplaces include consumers from diverse ethnic groups, religious groups, nationalities, people living in particular geographic regions or groups that share common physical/mental disabilities, beliefs, values, attitudes or a way of life. Identity negotiations within a multicultural marketplace may present consumers with particular vulnerability challenges when a state of powerlessness arises from asymmetric marketplace exchange. Through the use of introspective vignettes, this paper identifies major categories of coping behaviours and shows that some coping strategies exacerbate and perpetuate vulnerabilities, while others prove beneficial and facilitate building resilience. The paper calls for an advocacy framework for consumer empowerment in multicultural marketplaces by developing a comprehensive framework of coping strategies that enhance consumer empowerment and resilience

Branding beyond prejudice : cultural branding and consumer well-being in multicultural marketplaces

Today’s marketplaces are increasingly multicultural as more individuals negotiate complex cultural identities. Brands play a role in materializing individual identities – however, little is known about how culture-based brand appeals might affect consumers’ identity dynamics, positively or negatively. The paper provides a framework and a model that examines the interaction between three different types of multicultural marketplaces (assimilation, separation, and mutual integration) and different voices that brands might use in their cultural appeals (Branding Ignorance, Branding Tolerance, and Branding Engagement). It identifies how these different voices (strategies) might exacerbate consumer vulnerabilities in different types of marketplaces and provides recommendations for how to use culture-based branding appeals in a benevolent manner

No harm done? Culture-based branding and its impact on consumer vulnerability: a research agenda

Brands, as actors participating in the marketplace's social discourse, have the ability to lower and, equally, raise social and cultural boundaries. As such, it is important to understand better effects of brand-related cultural cues on consumer vulnerability, especially given the unprecedented diversification of cultural contexts in society today. First, we discuss the importance and complexity of cultural identity in the marketplace. Next, we explore the role of brands in creating social identity conflict. Finally, based on marketplace complexities and the role of brands as social actors, we offer several suggestions for research that will increase our understanding of how brand-based cultural cues might minimise feelings of consumer vulnerability and lower social and cultural boundaries within society. We demonstrate that relying on demographic characteristics when addressing cultural diversity in advertising appeals may result in misrepresentations or incomplete representations of complex cultural identities. Advertisers' failure to understand and reflect cultural identity complexities may aggravate consumer vulnerability and result in consumer withdrawal from the marketplace or from a particular brand. This paper calls for the need to deepen our understanding of mono- and multi-cultural consumer identification and behaviour in increasingly multi-cultural marketplaces. The social role of brands is to represent people's ideas about themselves and the world. An evolution in culture-based advertising and branding is proposed to address multiplicity in cultural identities and limit consumer vulnerability in the new reality of increasing cultural diversification in the marketplace. The paper contributes an augmented view of cultural identity that integrates links with multiple national, racial, ethnic groups and other cultural groups not connected to individuals through ancestry. It articulates the main research areas into consumer and brand vulnerabilities in multi-cultural marketplaces. Such a view would enable culture-based advertising and branding to enhance social cohesion in promoting cultural tolerance and diversity

Towards intercultural competency in multicultural marketplaces

Intercultural competency plays a pivotal role in creating a more equitable and just marketplace where situations of marketplace vulnerability are minimized and resiliency is enhanced. Intercultural competency is the ability to understand, adapt, and accommodate another’s culture. In this essay, a framework of intercultural competency development in multicultural marketplaces is presented. Resilience building actions for multicultural marketplace actors, specifically, consumers, businesses/marketers, community groups and NGOs, and policy makers, are discussed for three phases of intercultural competency development