Gift-giving behavior / BEBR No. 449

Includes bibliographical references

Conflicts at the bottom of the pyramid: profitability, poverty alleviation, and neoliberal governmentality

This article adopts the concept of neoliberal governmentality to critically analyze public policy failures in a bottom-of-the-pyramid (BOP) marketing initiative. This research shows that e-Choupal, an Indian BOP initiative, is hampered by a divide between poverty alleviation and profit seeking, which is inadequately reconciled by the neoliberal government policies that dominate contemporary India. The initiative sounds good, even noble, but becomes mired in divergent discourses and practices that ultimately fail to help the poor whom it targets. This research helps explicate the problems with BOP policy interventions that encourage profit seeking as a way to alleviate poverty

Post-Colonial Consumer Respect and the Framing of Neocolonial Consumption in Advertising

This study of the production, representation, and reception of post-colonial advertising in India reveals a politics of consumer respectability. The post-colonial politics of consumer respectability is located at the intersection of center–periphery relations, class divisions, and colorism in a way that it frames neocolonial consumption. Advertisers depict middle-class consumer respectability by asserting Indian nationalism and by degrading the West as a symbol of colonialism. Such depictions are class- and color-based and show under-class and dark-skinned consumers in subordinate positions. Furthering such neocolonial frames of consumption, Indian advertising advances the middle-class desire for Eurocentric modernity by reinforcing the colonial trope of India as temporally lagging behind the West. Finally, middle-class consumer respectability involves a neocolonial whitening of self with epidermalized shaping of inter-corporeality and agency. In uncovering the theoretical implications of advertising as a site of avenging degradation, desiring modernity, and whitening of self, this study contributes by offering insights into how the politics of post-colonial consumer respectability furthers neocolonial frames of consumption

Key concepts in artificial intelligence and technologies 4.0 in services

The emerging Industry 4.0 technologies that are impacting the global economy also represent an extraordinary opportunity to increase customer value in the service sector. Indeed, the ongoing Fourth Industrial Revolution differs from previous technologies in three main ways: (1) technological developments overcomes humans’ capabilities such that humans or even companies are no longer controlling technology; (2) customers embrace life in new technology-made environments, and (3) the boundaries between human and technology become to be blurred. This document explains these novel insights and defines the key AI-related concepts linked to each of these three distinctive aspects of Technologies 4.0 in services

Consuming postcolonial shopping malls

Through a naturalistic inquiry, we interpret shopping malls in India as post-colonial sites in which young consumers deploy the West in an attempt to transform their Third World identities. Shopping malls in former colonies represent a post-colonial hybridity that offers consumers the illusion of being Western, modern, and developed. Moreover, consumption of post-colonial retail arenas is characterised as a masquerade through which young consumers attempt to disguise or temporarily transcend their Third World realities. This interpretation helps us to offer insights into transitioning retail servicescapes of the Third World, which in turn helps to improve extant understanding of consumer identity and global consumer culture

Advertising Liminality: Advertising As Liminal Space of Social Transformation in China

Most research on Chinese advertising relies on content analysis and compares cultural values reflected in advertising with those of other countries. Through a semiotic approach, we focused on the political aspects of Chinese advertising, and examined the role of advertising in the country's transition to a consumer society. Our conception of advertising liminality examined the ritual of advertising during social transition and extended Sherry's cultural framework of advertising. We also contributed to our field by applying semiotic approach to the studies of Chinese advertising. [to cite]

Dragons in the Drawing Room: Chinese Embroideries in British Homes

Chinese embroideries have featured in British domestic interiors since at least the seventeenth century. However, Western imperial interests in China during the mid-nineteenth and early twentieth century created a particular set of meanings around Chinese material culture, especially a colonial form of nostalgia for pre-nineteenth century China, with its emperors and 'exotic' court etiquette. This article examines the use of Chinese satin-stitch embroideries in British homes between 1860 and 1949, and explores how a range of British identities was constructed through the ownership, manipulation and display of these luxury Chinese textiles

Thought leadership in marketing theory and method

As we write this editorial, we are sitting in our respective homes, during a period when we would usually attend annual academic conferences. These conferences provide the opportunity to share research, to have conversations with colleagues regarding what we are working on, hear about new areas of research, new approaches and new methods. Often, we return home tired, but refreshed and inspired. At the same time, such conferences can result in group think, we sometimes recycle old ideas and structures; as pressures of work increase, time and space to think about new approaches or areas of research may decrease. We can often work in isolation in our home institutions as the sheer breath of the field of marketing and consumer research means that departments house colleagues with widely divergent research interests and philosophical and methodological approaches. The tried and tested conference format of short presentations where we distil the highlights of our studies, followed by a few questions from the audience, is often insufficient for the thoughtful dialogue needed when wishing to move our research forward. If we are lucky, we end up in a session with similar papers, likeminded authors and an engaged audience and our discussion can spill out into the coffee or lunch break. But, all too often, such conversations are rushed and end abruptly in an attempt to get to the next session, grab some fresh air, drink bad coffee, or go off in search of better coffee, review the publisher stands or check in at home. For this reason, we proposed a new format for the annual Academy of Marketing Conference starting from 2018. With the introduction of conference workshops aimed at 'cutting edge theory, methods or pedagogy' we aimed to bring together a critical mass of colleagues already working on specific theoretical, methodological or pedagogical approaches or interested in finding out more about what we hoped would be rewarding engagement

Crescent marketing, Muslim geographies and brand Islam: reflections from the JIMA Senior Advisory Board

Purpose – To bring together the thoughts and opinions of key members of the Journal of Islamic Marketing’s (JIMA) Editorial Team, regarding the recently branded phenomenon of Islamic marketing - in the interests of stimulating further erudition. Design/methodology/approach – The authors adopted an ‘eagle eye’ method to investigate this phenomenon: Where attempts were made to frame general principles and observations; alongside a swooping view of key anecdotal observations - in order to ground and enrich the study. We participated in an iterative process when analysing longitudinal and contemporary phenomenological data, in order to arrive at a consensus. This was grounded in: Triangulating individual and collective researcher findings; critiquing relevant published material; and reflecting upon known reviewed manuscripts submitted to marketing publications – both successful and unsuccessful. Findings – We assert that a key milestone in the study and practice of marketing, branding, consumer behaviour and consumption in connection with Islam and Muslims is the emergence of research wherein the terms “Islamic marketing” and “Islamic branding” have evolved – of which JIMA is also a by-product. Some have construed Islam marketing/branding as merely a niche area. Given the size of Muslim populations globally and the critical importance of understanding Islam in the context of business and practices with local, regional and international ramifications, scholarship on Islamic marketing has become essential. Western commerce and scholarship has been conducted to a limited extent, and some evidence exists that research is occurring globally. We believe it is vital for “Islamic marketing” scholarship to move beyond simply raising the flag of ‘Brand Islam’ and the consideration of Muslim geographies to a point where Islam – as a way of life, a system of beliefs and practices, and religious and social imperatives – is amply explored. Research limitations/implications – An ‘eagle eye’ view has been taken, which balances big picture and grassroots conceptual findings. The topic is complex – and so while diverse expert opinions are cited, coverage of many issues is necessarily brief, due to space constraints. Practical implications – Scholars and practitioners alike should find the thoughts contained in the paper of significant interest. Ultimately, scholarship of Islam’s influences on marketing theory and practice should lead to results which have pragmatic implications, just as research on Islamic banking and finance has. Originality/value – The paper appears to be the first to bring together such a diverse set of expert opinions within one body of work, and one that provides a forum for experts to reflect and comment on peers’ views, through iteration. Also the term Crescent marketing is introduced to highlight how critical cultural factors are, which shape perceptions and Islamic practises

Materializing digital collecting: an extended view of digital materiality

If digital objects are abundant and ubiquitous, why should consumers pay for, much less collect them? The qualities of digital code present numerous challenges for collecting, yet digital collecting can and does occur. We explore the role of companies in constructing digital consumption objects that encourage and support collecting behaviours, identifying material configuration techniques that materialise these objects as elusive and authentic. Such techniques, we argue, may facilitate those pleasures of collecting otherwise absent in the digital realm. We extend theories of collecting by highlighting the role of objects and the companies that construct them in materialising digital collecting. More broadly, we extend theories of digital materiality by highlighting processes of digital material configuration that occur in the pre-objectification phase of materialisation, acknowledging the role of marketing and design in shaping the qualities exhibited by digital consumption objects and consequently related consumption behaviours and experiences