"Silver" product design: Product innovation for older people

Aging populations challenge companies across different countries and industries to respond to the changing needs, demands and expectations of their growing shares of older customers. This opens room for improving or developing innovations - products as well as services - that correspond to the diverse expectations. New product development for older customers or 'Silver' product design is one way to approach the 'silver' market - without explicitly excluding younger customers. Research in this field is still in its infancy. Silver product design focuses on individual autonomy, representing an elementary aspect of good life, disappearing in a more or less continuous manner over the life cycle of a human being. Offering solutions that will allow people to maintain or recover autonomy and to use products and services in an independent manner therefore seems to be a promising avenue for companies innovating across different industries. The general concept of autonomy can be perceived as a boundary-spanning argument and a common denominator for starting development initiatives leading to innovations targeting the silver market. Cross-case analysis based on four different product innovations addressing typical needs of older people are used to present how firms in different industrial contexts and user-settings address such needs, which have their roots in a need to stay autonomous and independent. Technological, marketing and strategy-related observations as well as communalities and differences of the cases are being discussed and very first implications for managing the front end of silver product development sketched. --Demographic change,aging,older users,silver market,innovation management,silver product design,individual autonomy

Ethically minded consumer behavior: Scale review, development, and validation

AbstractThis paper details the development and validation of a new research instrument called the ethically minded consumer behavior (EMCB) scale. The scale conceptualizes ethically minded consumer behavior as a variety of consumption choices pertaining to environmental issues and corporate social responsibility. Developed and extensively tested among consumers (n=1278) in the UK, Germany, Hungary, and Japan, the scale demonstrates reliability, validity, and metric measurement invariance across these diverse nations. The study provides researchers and practitioners with a much-needed and easy-to-administer, valid, and reliable instrument pertaining to ethically minded consumer behavior

The Use of Qualitative Content Analysis in Case Study Research

This paper aims at exploring and discussing the possibilities of applying qualitative content analysis as a (text) interpretation method in case study research. First, case study research as a research strategy within qualitative social research is briefly presented. Then, a basic introduction to (qualitative) content analysis as an interpretation method for qualitative interviews and other data material is given. Finally the use of qualitative content analysis for developing case studies is examined and evaluated. The author argues in favor of both case study research as a research strategy and qualitative content analysis as a method of examination of data material and seeks to encourage the integration of qualitative content analysis into the data analysis in case study research

Baby Boomers of Different Nations: Identifying Horizontal International Segments Based on Self-Perceived Age

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate self-perceived age among Baby Boomers in the UK, Germany, Japan, and Hungary, and identifies two horizontal segments based on the way consumers view their age. Design/methodology/approach Questionnaires were used to sample 880 Baby Boomers. Structural equation modeling is used to investigate multinational measurement invariance of the cognitive age scale. Findings Two distinct segments are identified, providing support for a young-at-heart consumer culture in all nations in the study. Results also find cognitive age to exhibit partial measurement invariance, which is expected given the disparate nations under study. Research limitations/implications This research contributes to cross-cultural global age research which is still in an early pioneering stage. The study builds on a small number of previous studies that validate cognitive age, extends current knowledge of the measurement properties of cognitive age, and identifies two distinct international segments of Baby Boomers. Further research needs to delve into the antecedents of self-perceived age, particularly in the ways in which different life experiences and cultures may impact age identities. Practical implications The study has implications for marketing managers wishing to target the increasingly important young-at-heart Baby Boomer. Originality/value The study uses four non-American countries, uses samples matched for chronological age, and does not use convenience samples, which make it unique in the cognitive age literature. The study has value for marketing managers, global age researchers, and consumer culture researchers

A cross-national study of the ecological worldview of senior consumers

This paper presents the results of a cross‐national study into the ecological worldview of senior consumers using the N ew E cological P aradigm (NEP ) scale. It was designed to examine the extent to which senior respondents in the UK , G ermany, J apan and H ungary are endorsing the NEP scale and which factors determine NEP in the four countries under study. Our study is the first of its kind to measure the ecological worldview of older consumers across different nations. Examinations of the overall frequency and mean distributions of the NEP scale showed that the majority of seniors in each country support the NEP statements, but there is no general support for pro‐NEP orientation. The relationship between values [using list of values (LOV ) scale] and environmental attitudes was tested through a series of regression analyses calculated separately for each country. According to the results, a very weak relationship between some of the LOV values and the NEP scale was found in all the samples. Our study contributes to both cross‐cultural environmental attitude research and to consumer studies in general