Promoting sustainable consumption: the role of social norms, ingroup framing and identification

This thesis by publication incorporates three papers that address ongoing debate about the influence of social and individual level factors on sustainable consumption. Comprehensive yet parsimonious conceptual frameworks were developed for each of the papers pulling together extant gaps from social marketing and sustainable communication literature. The first paper investigates the influence of three major types of social norms on moral obligation to buy a sustainable product, taking in-group and environmental identity into consideration. The second paper investigates the influence of inspiration and in-group identity on purchase intention of a sustainable product. The third paper examines the effects of in-group framing and social comparison on the intention to increase number of sustainable actions. The frameworks have undergone an extensive validation process, including quantitative assessment using randomised controlled online experiments. Based on our findings across three studies, the sustainable messages will be most effective when emphasising: (a) both injunctive and descriptive norm appeals, (b) appealing to salient group identity, (c) feeling inspired by the behaviour of the reference group, and (d) upward comparison in a negatively framed social message. The results of our research extend previous research, providing insights into sustainable consumption and practical implications for social marketers in promoting sustainable behaviour with their marketing efforts. In particular, this research indicates that: (a) combined social norm appeals increase intention to purchase a sustainable product contingent on strength of environmental identity and in-group identity (paper I), (b) inspiration has a mediating effect on the relationship between combined social norm appeal and intention to purchase a sustainable product sooner (paper II), (c) social comparison has a moderating effect on the relationship between in-group framing and intention to increaser number of sustainable behaviours (paper III). Understanding the effects of novel moderators such as environmental identity, in-group identity (paper I) and social comparison (paper III) on the relationship between social norm appeals and behavioural uptake as well as investigating the effects of novel mediators of that influence adds further contributions (paper II) of this thesis. The results of the third paper show an important factor in overcoming the negative effects of upward comparison to other relevant group members - positively framed descriptive norms message. The findings extend previous research, providing insights into sustainable consumption. In addition, when consumers experience downward social comparison, framed messages do not create a significant increase in consumer‘s behavioural uptake of sustainable intentions. Finally, this research demonstrates that the use of salient identities for positive and negative in-group framing participants can help marketers and public policy managers to increase levels of sustainable consumption.Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, Business School, 202

Cross-cultural differences in consumers' attention to food labels

Purpose: Extended from Hofstede’s cultural framework, this study investigated the differences between the Australian (representing the Western culture) and Chinese (representing the Eastern Culture) consumers in regard to their attention paid to product attribute cues presented on food labels and the degree of such attention controlling for an individual-level moderator of product involvement. Design/methodology/approach: Data were collected using face-to-face interviews with semi-structured questionnaires for both Australian and Chinese samples. The questionnaire data were analysed using factorial between-groups analysis of variance (ANOVA) to investigate the influence of culture and product involvement on the attention paid/degree of attention to product nature-related (e.g. brand name), product assurance-related (e.g. country-of-origin) and health-related attribute (e.g. nutritional panel) cues. Findings: The findings revealed that Chinese consumers, as compared to Australian consumers, paid attention to more product-assurance cues (i.e. country of origin) and health-related cues (i.e. bioactivity indicators). The degrees of attention to these cues were also greater among Chinese consumers than for Australian consumers. Product involvement moderated the relationship between culture and attention towards product nature and product assurance-related cues. Practical implications: Results from this study enable exporters to customize their labelling design by strategically including label information that is more salient to certain export markets. Originality/value: This study offers a novel insight into the impact of culture on consumers’ attention to food product attributes and the interaction effects of product involvement on these relationships, hitherto underexplored

Regional differences in portion size consumption behaviour: Insights for the global food industry

Abstract: Given the influence of globalization on consumer food behaviour across the world, the purpose of this paper is to contribute to the theoretical discourse around food portion size as a global consumption-related symbol and its underlying socio-economic drivers for food industry strategy. Overall, 25,000 global food consumers were surveyed across 24 countries to elicit insight on portion size consumption behaviour as well as consumer perception on eating and drinking small portion size within selected socio-economic classes. The data was quantitatively analysed to answer the pertinent research objectives. In 20 out of the 24 global markets surveyed, large food portion size was statistically established as a prevalent consumption-related symbol. The paper found that there are regional differences in portion size food consumption behaviour, and further disparities exist across age, gender and income status in 24 countries covering all regions, including Australia, China, Mexico, South Africa, United Kingdom and United States of America. The outlined food industry implications reveal that adaptation and standardisation strategies are still relevant in global food and nutrition strategy as revealed by the variations in the preference for food portion sizes across various countries of the world

Children's food consumer socialisation: the impact of food advertising, parents, peers, and social norms on children's food preferences, food consumption, and obesity.

This study addresses an ongoing debate about the influence of food advertising on children through the development of a comprehensive, yet parsimonious conceptual framework which pulled together extant gaps from the public health and marketing literatures and integrated the influence of external agents and child-related factors on children’s dietary behaviour and weight. The framework has undergone an extensive validation process, including qualitative refinement and quantitative assessment, relying on a randomised controlled experiment with children, a survey of children, and a survey of their parents. The analysis of variance shows that when children were exposed to a food advertisement, their preference for an advertised snack was influenced by their brand evaluation and friends’ preferences for a similar snack. Understanding of the advertisement’s selling and persuasive intents and nutritional knowledge did not reduce preference for, and evaluation of, the advertised product. This most likely occurred because most respondents grasped advertisement intent, resulting in insufficient variance for empirical analysis. In contrast, preference for a healthier snack (apple) amongst children exposed to the experimental advertisement was influenced by an evaluation of healthier snack’s taste, higher preferences for a similar snack amongst their friends, and more frequent parent-child communication about foods and food advertising. Overall, no statically significant differences were detected between experimental and control groups, suggesting that research which solely relies on experimental exposure while investigating the effect of food advertising on children does not account for a bigger picture of factors influencing children. Structural Equation Modelling showed that while parents’ social norms about fast foods, friends’ preferences for burgers, and social acceptability of burgers were related to children’s consumption of less healthy foods, more frequent parent-child communication about foods and food advertising and parents’ higher nutritional knowledge reduced unhealthy dietary behaviour. Exposure to fast food advertisements resulted in more positive evaluation of burgers, French fries, and soft drinks, which, in turn, were related to less healthy dietary behaviour. Nutritional knowledge and understanding of selling and persuasive intents in food advertisements (advertising literacy) exerted small, mediating effects on children’s dietary behaviour through attitudes, confirming the importance of these cognitive defences. A positive relationship was also detected between children’s dietary behaviour and weight. Across all models, brand evaluation/evaluations of food exhibited the strongest influence on children, followed by peers (experimental data) or parents’ social norms about fast foods (cross-sectional data), pinpointing parents’ crucial role in fight against childhood obesity provided that parents hold less positive social norms, possess higher nutritional knowledge, and communicate with their children about food and food advertising. The current study shows that parents who are frequently exposed to fast food advertising, or have lower education, or reside in an area where residents hold lower education and occupations, tend to exhibit more positive social norms about fast foods, which, in turn, are related to children’s more frequent consumption of a number of less healthy foods. This study has identified important indirect pathways to childhood obesity through parents, peers, social norms, food advertising, and children’s attitudes that have important implications for public policy and social marketing.Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, Business School, 201

The impact of values and learning approaches on student achievement: Gender and academic discipline influences

This paper presents results from a longitudinal study of sojourner students which was conducted at an international university in Germany from 2004 to 2007. The study followed a cohort of undergraduate students from the first week of their studies to their graduation. Participants completed three questionnaires: the Portrait Value Questionnaire (Schwartz et al., 2001), the Study Process Questionnaire (Biggs, 1987b), and the Student Background Questionnaire (Matthews, Lietz, & Darmawan, 2007). Structural Equation Modelling was used to examine how personal values influenced students' learning approaches and how these, in turn, were related to students' achievement. It was also examined how robust these relationships were once gender and discipline area (i.e., Social Sciences or Natural Sciences) were included in the models and whether or not they changed over time. Results showed that specific combinations of values were related to each learning approach. Certain consistency of these relationships was observed over the three years. The deep and achieving learning approaches were associated with higher achievement, whereas students who displayed more characteristics of the surface learning approach had lower academic performance. Finally, analyses pinpointed higher performance of female students and the predominant absence of effects of academic discipline on learning approaches or achievement over time.Liudmila Tarabashkina, Petra Liet

Contemporary young consumers and food consumption - implications for social marketing research

Marketing has undergone profound changes during the past 30 years with a shift from television advertising to digital marketing and development of more engaging campaigns between brands and individuals. This change has also affected young consumers (i.e. children aged less than 13 years), who attracted marketers’ attention in the mid-1980s, who have ever since been marketing aggressively to this group across multiple media channels, engaging in the so-called “cradle-to-grave” marketing. Research shows that exposure to food advertising is associated with biased product evaluations extending into adulthood and the last two decades have also noted a substantial increase in the rates of childhood obesity and overweight levels worldwide. Although research about young consumers and their food consumption started more than 40 years ago, current discussion centres predominantly around the impact of food advertising on children and extant knowledge remains fragmented and inconclusive in relation to a number of external, as well as internal influences. In particular, it is still unclear how children choose healthy and less healthy foods under the influence of different socialisation agents and their own consumer knowledge about advertising or nutrition. Extant gaps impede effective policy development and successful social marketing campaigns since the full extent of children’s susceptibility to food advertising remains unclear. This paper was inspired by work conducted under PhD candidature supervision by Prof. Pascale Quester and provides a review of social marketing literature to highlight the gaps in our knowledge and delineate important directions for future social marketing research in relation to young consumers’ food consumption.Liudmila Tarabashkina and Roberta Crouc

Food advertising, children's food choices and obesity: interplay of cognitive defences and product evaluation: an experimental study

To investigate the role of product evaluations, nutritional and persuasion knowledge on children's food choices conducted because of limited evidence about the role of product evaluations on consumer choices in conjunction with cognitive defences.A randomised controlled 2 × 2 factorial experiment with an exposure to a food and a control (toy) advertisement conducted in a non-laboratory setting at an annual event traditionally visited by families.Children aged 7-13 years with biometric/weight data representative of the general Australian population.Height and weight (converted into body mass index z-scores) measured in addition to children's nutritional and persuasion knowledge, product evaluations, age and gender.The factors that undermine children's cognitive defences relate to taste, social appeal of foods and low nutritional and persuasion knowledge. An interplay between the above-mentioned factors was also observed, identifying four groups among young consumers, alluding to a complex and at times impulsive nature of children's decisions: (1) knowledgeable children with less positive product evaluations choosing a healthy snack; (2) knowledgeable but hedonism-oriented children seeking peer conformity choosing an advertised product; (3) knowledgeable children who chose a snack belonging to the same product category; and (4) less knowledgeable children with positive product evaluations and low nutritional knowledge choosing snacks from the advertised product category. Obese children were more likely to belong to a cluster of less knowledgeable and hedonism-oriented children.The problem of consumption of less healthy foods is complex and multiple factors need to be considered by health practitioners, social marketers and parents to address the issue of childhood obesity. Nutritional knowledge alone is not sufficient to ensure children make healthier food choices and emphasis should also be placed on persuasion knowledge education, targeting of peer norms, self-efficacy and stricter regulation of advertising aimed at children.L Tarabashkina, P Quester and R Crouc