Consumer Participation and Pro-Poor Regulation in Latin America

utilities, privatization, public goods, regulation

Consumer participation in the health system

The following 2012-13 Victorian General Audit report provides details on consumer participation within the Victorian health care system.Consumers should be meaningfully involved in decision-making about their healthcare and treatment, and broader health policy, planning and service delivery. There is genuine commitment and effort from the Department of Health and health services to facilitate meaningful consumer participation. The department has led implementation of consumer participation through strong policy direction and this has translated into appropriate policies, systems and activities in the four audited health services. Implementing consumer participation is relatively recent and a challenging process, and health services do not always provide sufficient staff training, resources or support to integrate consumer participation across their organisation. Consequently, achievements both between and within health services vary. There are opportunities to enhance consumer participation at all levels, including better supporting consumers to understand and engage with basic health service information, and better involving consumers in organisational strategic planning and evaluation. This will become increasingly important as new national accreditation standards are implemented from January 2013, with significantly higher expectations and evidence requirements for consumer participation. The department’s leadership has firmly placed consumer participation on the agenda of Victoria’s public health services. However, to further improve, the department needs to address gaps in its own implementation of consumer participation, provide better oversight of health services’ consumer participation activities and evaluate the impact of its main consumer participation policy

Consumer participation in commercial hospitality

Purpose – This paper examines customers’ participation in the production of commercial hospitality. Drawing on a study of queer consumers (i.e. lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals), the paper considers the ways in which frequently circulated understandings, or myths, shaped consumers’ actions. The case study is used to highlight previously under examined dimensions of participation. Design/methodology/approach – The paper draws on an ethnographic study of bar culture. The principal method of data collection was participant observation, which involved working at one venue for 27 months, as well as social visits throughout a five-year period. Participant observation was complemented by semi-structured interviews with 26 informants, 19 of whom were interviewed repeatedly during the research. Findings – The paper suggests that three myths were evident in consumers’ behavior: commonality, mutual safety, and the opportunities for liberated, playful consumption. Focusing on two particular aspects of participation: performative display and frontline labor, the paper discusses the ways in which these myths influenced patrons’ actions. Research limitations/implications – The study suggests that an examination of the cultural dimensions of patronage provides crucial insights into consumer participation. The results will be relevant to social scientists and management academics seeking to understand the relationship between shared interest and identity, consumption, and the production of hospitable spaces. Originality/value – This study provides a new understanding of both the nature of and motivations for consumer participation. This challenges existing approaches, which have tended to focus narrowly on the managerial aspects of participation in the service sector

Consumer involvement in mind: a study of participation in a voluntary organisation for mental health

The thesis is a study of consumer participation, focussing on a case study of MIND. Data were collected from interviewing, participant observation and examination of records. The following are the main conclusions. In order to understand consumer participation, and effectively to increase it, it is necessary to be aware of: the different types of such involvement; the extent to which it includes opposition or collaboration with people in authority; the various types of participant; and the levels and degrees of participation. Levels vary from involvement in decisions about the individual's own care to Central Government policy-making; whilst degrees of participation range from information to the total running of an organisation. Also important is the extent to which consumer participation is openly declared, conscious, and formal or informal. This was found to vary considerably within MIND. MIND has its origins in a beneficent organisation, but from the nineteen seventies, increasing efforts were made to facilitate consumer participation. Almost all respondents were in favour of this, but there was considerable uncertainty about the most effective means to facilitate such involvement, and doubts about whether proposed policies for its implementation would be successful. Respondents often mentioned psychological gains and the value of individuals' skills and abilities as benefits of consumer participation. However, difficulty in taking on responsibility was frequently said to result in problems. The attitudes and aptitudes of members with experience as consumers or mental health professionals, and the personal influence of National/Regional MIND staff, were seen as crucial in facilitating or hindering consumer participation, as were organisational factors such as the structure of meetings, the complexity of functions, and the relationship between different levels of MIND, which resembled Rhodes' description of central–subcentral government relations. The influence of National/Regional MIND on Local Associations was limited because the latter were autonomous charities. The thesis also covers methodological and ethical problems, and the implications of the finding for implementing policies to increase consumer participation in voluntary organisations

Consumer Participation - The Case of Public Housing

The participation of consumers, especially those from the deprived segments of society, in administrative decision-making, poses some perplexing dilemmas for public officials. Can the demands for participation be reconciled with the exigencies of administrative efficiency and effective service delivery. Our study focuses on consumer participation in public housing, an institution that today serves three million of the most deprived groups in society. The data used in the study came from a national sample of housing projects and was collected in 1978 by IWD\u27s division of Policy Studies. It was used to test the hypothesis that tenant participation would explain part of the variance in our dependent variable, the quantity and quality of housing services and resources. The findings are consistent with existing research that postulates that by granting the poor increased participation in the decisions of agencies that allocate goods and services, their access to such services was increased. The findings also make clear that tenant organizations lack the power to alter the provision of local government neighborhood services outside the projects

Motivations for consumer participation on Facebook brand pages

Merkpagina’s op Facebook maken steeds vaker deel uit van een geïntegreerde marketingstrategie en stellen merken in staat om te communiceren met hun fans en engagement te creëren (Stelzner, 2013). Consumenten die fan worden van een merkpagina hebben meerdere mogelijkheden om te interageren met een merk. Deze interacties verschillen in mate van activiteit, gaande van eerder passief gedrag (vb. merkgerelateerde inhoud lezen en bekijken) tot zeer actief gedrag (vb. zelf creëren en publiceren van content) en worden ingegeven door verschillende motivaties (Muntinga, Moorman & Smith, 2011). Op basis van de Uses & Gratifications Approach (Katz, 1959) en recent onderzoek naar merkgerelateerd gedrag op sociale media (Muntinga, Moorman & Smith, 2011; Muntinga, 2013, Nadkarni & Hofmann, 2012), kunnen zes motivaties worden onderscheiden die consumenten aanzetten tot participatiegedrag op Facebook merkpagina’s: sociale interactie, informatie, entertainment, beloning, empowerment en persoonlijke identiteit. Ondanks het onmiskenbare commerciële potentieel van sociale netwerksites zoals Facebook, blijft onderzoek naar het participatiegedrag van consumenten op sociale media beperkt (Pöyry, Parvinen & Malmivaara, 2013). Deze studie gaat daarom na door welke motivaties het participatiegedrag van consumenten via merkpagina’s wordt ingegeven. Daarnaast wordt de modererende invloed van merkbetrokkenheid op de relatie tussen de motivaties en het participatiegedrag onderzocht. Aan de hand van een online survey bij 228 Facebookgebruikers waarvan 76 mannen (33.3%) en 152 vrouwen (66.7%), met een gemiddelde leeftijd tussen 18 en 25 jaar (SD = 1.39), werd in de eerste plaats gepeild naar het participatiegedrag van consumenten op Facebook merkpagina’s. Hiertoe werd aan de respondenten die aangaven fan te zijn van één of meerdere merkpagina’s (N = 191) gevraagd om één merk waarvan zij fan zijn, te noteren. Vervolgens werd hun betrokkenheid met dit merk gemeten (Voss, Spangenberg & Grohman, 2003). Hierna duidden zij met dit zelf gekozen merk als referentie, via een schaal van 1 (nooit) tot 7 (altijd) aan hoe vaak zij een aantal uit de literatuur ontleende activiteiten op de merkpagina uitoefenen (Bushelow, 2012; Gummerus et al., 2012, p. 864; Li, Bernoff, Fiorentino & Glass, 2007; Muntinga et al., 2011). Tenslotte werd gepeild naar zes verschillende motivaties voor dit participatiegedrag op basis van het werk van Jan & Kunz (2012), Muntinga (2013), Gummerus et al. (2012) en Wallace, Buil, de Chernatony & Hoganet (2014). Allereerst toonde een principale componentenanalyse aan dat interacties op de merkpagina gecategoriseerd kunnen worden in twee categorieën: actief participatiegedrag (het zelf plaatsen van een bericht, foto of video op de merkpagina, het plaatsen van reacties op berichten, foto’s en video’s van het merk en het reageren op berichten en reacties van anderen op de merkpagina) versus passief participatiegedrag (berichten, foto’s en video’s van het merk lezen, bekijken, liken en delen). De resultaten van een regressieanalyse wijzen uit dat actief (R2 = .102, F (6, 184) = 9.058 , p < .001) en passief participatiegedrag (R2 = .185, F (6, 184) = 8.648, p < .001) voorspeld worden door verschillende motivaties. Motivaties voor actief participatiegedrag zijn ‘empowerment’ (β = .26, t = 3.05, p = .003, ‘beloning’ (β = .17, t = 2.29, p = .023) en ‘sociale interactie’ (β = .19, t = 2.15, p = .033). ‘Informatie’, ‘entertainment’ en ‘persoonlijke identiteit’ blijken in dit onderzoek geen significante predictoren te zijn van actief participatiegedrag. Passief participatiegedrag wordt ingegeven door de behoefte aan ‘entertainment’ (β = .19, t = 2.75, p = .007) en ‘sociale interactie’ (β= .21, t = 2.47, p = .015). We vinden geen significant verband tussen de motivaties ‘informatie’, ‘beloning’, ‘empowerment’ en ‘persoonlijke identiteit’ en passief participatiegedrag. Een regressieanalyse (R2 = .301, F (13, 177) = 5.87 , p < .001) wijst op een modererende invloed van merkbetrokkenheid op de relatie tussen de motivaties ‘sociale interactie’ (β = .39, t = 3.56, p < .001) en ‘entertainment’ (β = -.19, t = -2.40, p = .017) en actief participatiegedrag. De behoefte aan sociale interactie is voor mensen met een hoge merkbetrokkenheid dus belangrijker om actief te participeren, de behoefte om ge-entertaint te worden is voor hen dan weer minder belangrijk. Op de relatie tussen de motivaties ‘informatie’, ‘beloning’, ‘empowerment’, ‘persoonlijke identiteit’ en actief participatiegedrag, is er geen sprake van een modererende invloed van merkbetrokkenheid. We stellen geen modererende invloed vast van merkbetrokkenheid op de relatie tussen elk van de onderzochte motivaties en passief participatiegedrag (R2 = .590 F (13, 177) = 7.29 , p < .001). Deze studie toont aan dat marketeers kunnen inspelen op verschillende motivaties van de consument, naargelang het gedrag dat ze willen stimuleren

Consumer participation and the trust transference process in using online recommendation agents

Online product recommendation agents (hereafter RAs) can provide important benefits to consumers. But whether consumers trust RAs and integrate an RA\u27s recommendations into their product choices has not yet been examined. Nor has there been research on whether different levels of consumer participation in using RAs lead to different levels of trust in the RA. Using an experimental design that combined the benefits of a field study with those of a lab study, active consumer participation in using an RA was found to have increased consumers\u27 trust in the RA, which in turn increased intentions to purchase based on the RA\u27s recommendations. The study also proposed and found support for a trust transference process, hitherto not tested in the RA context, wherein trust in the website was a key driver for trust in its RA and the RA\u27s recommendations. These findings extend the extant literature on RAs as well as research in offline contexts on consumer participation and the trust transference process. Managerial implications and directions for future research are also provided