Consumer poetry : insightful data and methodological approaches

Within interpretive consumer research there is sustained interest in preserving the authentic emic voice of consumers within research accounts (Wallendorf and Belk, 1989). The use of diaries (Patterson, 2005) photography (Dion et al, 2014) and consumer verbatim (Corden and Sainsbury, 2006) all have heritage as evidence of the consumer within researcher interpretation. This paper considers the potential of consumer authored poetry as an additional source of the consumer insight. It argues that, despite notable calls (Sherry & Schouten, 2002) for the inclusion of poetry within interpretive consumer research, it remains largely absent as a source of consumer storytelling.It considers that there may be two bases for this. That there may be disciplinary reluctance to engage in the unfamiliarity of poetic deconstruction; and that there may be a lack of value placed upon the data and resultant insight which poetry can provide. To address these issues it suggests methodological considerations which may be useful for consumer researchers considering engagement with poetic materials

Farm retailing : motivations and practice

This paper investigates rural diversification strategies, specifically focussing upon farm retailing. The study reveals farmers’ different motivations and experiences of structural diversification through both farmers markets and wholly owned farm shops. Using a qualitative study of eight farm businesses we find that diversification is not always motivated by entrepreneurial objectives. Necessity (push) factors (such as agri-food market inequality) act as the catalyst transforming nascent diversification tendencies. Once the need for diversification is unlocked farmers face an entrepreneurial choice: those with push motivations (such risk reduction) choose non-entrepreneurial diversification in the form of farmers markets; while those with pull motivations (such as business growth) exhibit characteristics of entrepreneurship and engage in entrepreneurial diversification in the form of on-farm retailing

The Farmer gets a wife : hidden labour in farming households

Farming is a critical sector within rural economies (Phelan and Sharpley, 2012) but is uncertain and risky for those reliant upon it (Turner et al, 2003). The majority of UK farms are small family farms (Morell and Brandth, 2007) where a considerable share of household income is derived from farming, labour is provided by the family and the family lives on the farm (Calus and Van Huylenbroeck, 2010) compounding the impact of economic uncertainty. Previous research has focused on the Farmer as the “person responsible for the administration of the business” (Clark, 2009:219) when seeking to understanding work undertaken in these enterprises and the skills necessary for success. This paper seeks to broaden our understanding of farm work by investigating the hidden enabling work undertaken by the wider farming household. Using case-study methodology (Yin, 2009) analysis is based on observations and interviews with members of 8 households within the Scottish farming community. Extending extant work exploring the gendered nature of farming (Riley, 2009) it finds that farmers’ spouses and children play important roles in the diversified businesses that characterise contemporary farming. The unmeasured and unpaid nature of the farming household’s work allows farms to retain financial viability which external paid labour would destroy. It finds farmers’ spouses providing labour of high economic value and displaying skills such as entrepreneurial drive, opportunity identification and business management which are instrumental to successful business outcomes in contemporary family farm businesses

Doing family : the constructed meanings of family in family farms

This paper examines the meaning of family in family businesses and enriches the notion of ‘familiness’ as a resource conferring competitive advantage to the business. This paper responds to calls for the need to explore further the family as a socially constructed concept. Taking as its focus case studies from five Scottish family farms, it examines the ways in which family is performed and enacted. Emergent findings demonstrate that family is done and displayed through the core business, its diversification activities and embedding practices. Core activities provide scope for family members to negotiate their positions within the family and also demonstrate these outside of the home. Diversification activities are used as a way of extending the boundaries of the family business, providing roles for family and extended family. Family firms are shown to benefit from the wider networks and strong and weak ties of individual family members. Finally, it is shown that the accumulation of these practices can result in a stronger more enduring family businesses

Social labour : exploring work in consumption

This article develops understanding of consumer work at the primary level of sociality in the context of social networking sites. Drawing on ethnographic interviews and netnography, we reveal these sites as distinctive spaces of consumer-to-consumer work. To explain this work in consumption, we introduce the concept of social labour which we define as the means by which consumers add value to their identities and social relationships through producing and sharing cultural and affective content. This is driven by observational vigilance and conspicuous presence, and is rewarded by social value. This draws attention to the variety of work consumers enact within their social lives, indicating that consumer work is broader than previously acknowledged

"I know what I like" : parallel tastes in fine art consumption

This paper explores taste through practices in online and offline fine art consumption. Through online communities, art expertise has become democratised beyond established institutions but online art communities represent distinct and parallel practices, tastes and cultural capital. Online expertise does not grant cultural capital offline nor impact established taste regimes

The customer journey for the purchase of visual art and the impact of eWOM information

In this study, the influence of eWOM information on consumer decision-making will be applied to the case of hedonic products and particularly visual art. Namely, even the art industry is quickly expanding into online mediated channels and attracting new markets and online art audiences (Skate's, 2014). As such, art-buying patterns are rapidly transferring to online channels where a significant growth of online art spaces is revolutionizing communication and established hierarchies in this sector with social media aiding validation and increasing buyers' confidence (Arttactic, 2014). Facebook, Twitter and Instagram are thus becoming major platforms for finding and sharing information about art, which is transforming art appreciation and collecting into a social activity with a sharing of knowledge and tastes. This study applies a qualitative method of data collection in order to delve into the phenomenon and acquire insight about consumer attitudes and understanding of behaviours (Hanson and Grimmer, 2007)

"I regularly weigh up just getting rid of Facebook" : exploring restriction as a form of anti-consumption

Recent years have witnessed increased interest in anti-consumption with various conference and journal special issues devoted to clarifying our understanding of the concept (Lee et al. 2011; Lee, Cherrier, and Belk 2013). This body of research reveals that anti-consumption is manifested in a variety of ways, some more extreme than others. Lee et al. (2011) identify three non-exclusive types of anti-consumption: reject, restrict and reclaim. A review of relevant literature reveals theoretical advancements in relation to rejection and reclamation, but restriction has received significantly less attention. To address this imbalance, this paper aims to gain a deeper understanding of restriction as a form of anti-consumption. The context for our study is Facebook. Social networking sites have been shown to facilitate anti-consumption (Hutter and Hoffman 2013), but research has yet to investigate anti-consumption of social networking sites themselves. The contribution of our paper is twofold. First, we demonstrate that restriction may be more wide-ranging than currently acknowledged and we illustrate how restriction enables consumers to negotiate tensions between their anti-consumptive discourses and their decision to continue to consume. Second, while previous research favours more extreme examples of anti-consumption such as dumpster diving (Fernandez, Brittain, and Bennett 2011), Freeganism (Pentina and Amos 2011) and boycotting (Friedman 1999), we contribute by demonstrating how anti-consumption develops within mundane, daily practices

The democratisation of expertise

As individuals engage in new activities and social collectives they begin the journey from novice to expert (Leder et al:2004). In pursuits such as wine, gourmet food, and art it has been argued that the oenophile, gourmand, and aficionado can more fully appreciate their respective experiences (Clarkson et al :2013). However such experiences have historically been regarded as high threshold and as such expertise has been available to few, guarded by gatekeepers and as such difficult for the lay individual to achieve. Based upon a qualitative study with art buyers and gallery owners this paper suggests that the contemporary art buyer challenges these assumption. It argues that, with the increase in a 'social media savvy society', individuals can develop their expertise using a new range of tools which speed their advancement to expert status and indeed alter the meaning of expertise. No longer is expertise the preserve of the critic or art seller with vested interests in desirable taste rather it becomes democratised as novices use online resources to quickly increase the breadth of their consumption knowledge; develop requisite vocabulary to differentiate stimulus properties, finely tune preferences and explore their refinement; and build relationships with artists directly enhancing their in-group status. Online art communities therefore come to represent a distributed form of cultural authority. One can now demonstrate taste without acquisition but rather by association and simultaneously claim of authority and expertise about what constitutes good taste

“They were built to last”: anticonsumption and the materiality of waste in obsolete buildings

Previous consumer research on waste has prioritized disposable and low-involvement possessions. The authors extend scholarship into the context of obsolete buildings as a means to better engage with the complex materiality of waste and to explore the role anti consumption plays in consumers’ valuations of end-stage consumption. This study focuses on the phenomenon of urban exploration, a subculture who seek to discover and explore derelict buildings. Drawing on an ethnographic study including in-depth interviews, the authors reveal how anti-consumption manifests in the urban environment in terms of alternative understandings of value. In contrast to the economic valuations that often dominate public policy decision making, this study highlights the need for policy makers to consider diverse, and perhaps conflicting, value regimes. The authors propose an Obsolescence Impact Evaluation that enables a systematic assessment of the stakeholders potentially impacted by redevelopment and demolition, differing regimes of valuation relevant to the decision and potential uses of the buildings. The authors suggest various ways that public policy makers can take advantage of this tool