<p>This study explores the associations between consumer gratitude and perceptions of consumer confidence and economic welfare. From a random stratified sample of adults living in the southeastern U.S., the findings reveal that a grateful outlook is positively associated with favorable perceptions of the U.S. economy, state economy, future job growth, and future income earned. Additionally, the results indicate significant differences between grateful and ungrateful individuals in terms of their perceptions of the U.S. economy, job growth, and anticipated income for the upcoming year. The results suggest that managers may want to focus on developing strong relationships with grateful customers, given that grateful customers may help firms survive tough economic times.</p>
Purpose – Given the economic downturn, the purpose of this study was to determine if a relationship exists between economic perceptions and consumers' motivation to consume for status and if this relationship was moderated by education level. Design/methodology/approach – A stratified random sample of adult consumers in the southeastern USA were surveyed by telephone. The hypotheses were tested utilizing structural equation modeling. Findings – The results indicated that those consumers with a lower level of perceived economic welfare (i.e. see the economy and their family's financial situation as worse this year versus last year) were less motivated to consume for status. Furthermore, this relationship was positively moderated by education. No relationship was found between consumer confidence (i.e. consumers' perceptions of the economy in the future year) and status consumption. The results suggest that those consumers who perceive themselves to be financially better off this year versus last, particularly those more educated, are more motivated to consume for status. Research limitations/implications – The main research limitation was that the sample skewed to be older, female and Caucasian, though the sample did match Census figures for the critical variable of education. Additionally, the phone response rate was 9 percent, but it is important to recognize that this was for a non-student sample. Practical implications – The results suggest that marketers, targeting luxury consumers in the current stagnant economy, aim for more educated consumers who see their economic welfare as improving. This implication stems from the research findings revealing that consumers who feel they are recovering economically from the recent economic downturn, especially those with higher education levels, may more likely be status consumers. Originality/value – With the democratization of luxury there is renewed interest in luxury consumption research. While research suggests there is a relationship between economic conditions and status consumption, few studies have measured consumer economic perceptions in relation to status consumption and none have examined how education may play a moderating role in explaining why people buy luxuries in a tough economic climate.
The thrill of going over a volume on contemporary popular culture is compounded when the activity betokens a celebrity system whose members may be already enjoying a measure of popularity, and whose fame has the potential of reaching a wider public. The reader could casually drop a statement like "Oh, I knew that artist before she became a global household name" to admiring colleagues, and in effect replicate the outward spread of stardom whose processes new media have
The article investigates the disjunctive mirroring of images and representations through films that evoke the larger socioeconomic and political relations between Singapore and the Philippines. The two films analyzed are about related plights of Filipina domestic workers in Singapore, whose body, labor, and travel provide the nexus for illumination of the cultural politics of representation of the self and other. The sense of self and identity in film alludes to the larger polity in which Philippine and Singaporean self-representations quote and implicate the other. What then becomes interestingly poised is that the representations do not necessarily dialogue, more so ending in a failure of engagement. Partly coded in myth making, the representation of the self in films and binational polity is distinguished from the authority of the other, initially foregrounding then later abjecting the conditions in which the other can render visible the self. The article calls for an abandoning of essentialism, vulgarities, and cultural misrepresentation for a genuine dialogue to ensue.
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