Scholarship involving impoverished consumers and consumption is an important part of consumer research on well‐being. Investigations have looked at domestic (US) poverty as well as its global manifestations at the base of the pyramid. Together they form a body of scholarship with underlying assumptions about what scholars, policy makers, and consumer advocates believe constitutes being poor versus not being poor. While these studies have much to offer, ambiguous definitions of impoverishment guide their research, which also include choices among possible measurement instruments. To address this deficit, our article approaches the differences in research focus across constituencies, seeking to understand how poverty is both defined and measured within our field. Under the conceptual foundation of the consumption adequacy perspective, we advance a definition of poverty that is used to determine the lived experiences of material impoverishment.
Electronic cigarettes (e‐cigarettes) are battery‐operated devices used to deliver nicotine by vapor and are positioned as a safer alternative to traditional tobacco cigarettes. As a recent entrant to the market, little is known about how consumers perceive the health risks of these devices, raising the question of whether consumers are making informed product adoption and use choices. Study 1 evaluates different consumer usage segments (vapers, smokers, dual users, and nonusers) in terms of their level of perceived risk. Study 2 examines how different groups of consumers' risk perceptions are influenced by on‐ad warning labels. Results show that vapers operate as a distinct consumer segment with lower perceptions of harm than other segments, although illustrate greater likelihood to respond to health messaging and on‐ad warning information.
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