The authors propose that mindfulness is an antidote to mindless consumption, which adversely affects individual and collective well-being. The concept of mindfulness is explained and applied to the consumption context. More specifically, the authors examine mindful consumption as an ongoing practice of bringing attention, with acceptance, to inner and outer stimuli, and the effects of this practice on the consumption process. The transformative potential of mindful consumption is reviewed across domains of consumer, societal, and environmental well-being, with suggestions for future research. The article highlights some of the challenges to realizing the transformative potential of mindful consumption and concludes with suggestions for the actions that consumers, institutions, and policy makers could take to promote mindful consumption.
This article examines online behaviors that increase or reduce risk of online identity theft. The authors report results from three consumer surveys that indicate the propensity to protect oneself from online identity theft varies by population. The authors then examine attitudinal, behavioral, and demographic antecedents that predict the tendency to protect one's privacy and identity online. Implications and suggestions for managers, public policy makers, and consumers related to protecting online privacy and identity theft are provided.
This article introduces the dialogical nature of self to study consumers' inner dialogs in order to understand consumers' marketplace decisions and conflicts. The authors explore the meaning of consumption at multiple self levels and dialogical relationships to manage differences. The study uses mixed methods including in-depth interviews, multidimensional scaling, cluster analysis, and metaphors to distill important voices in their informants. They find that the consumption stories vary across self levels. The meta-self level reflects a dispassionate representation of the primary I-positions in consumers and does not explain what the consumers experience at the time of actual consumption. An examination of inconsistent consumption preferences at the level of I-positions reveals that dialogical relationships labeled compartmentalization, compassion, negotiation, and coalition can avoid and manage conflicts, while relationships involving opposition and domination reflect unresolved conflicts. Suggestions to use the dialogical self model for addressing issues of negative selves, addictions, and domination in future research are provided. (c) 2009 by JOURNAL OF CONSUMER RESEARCH, Inc..
In an effort to make the marketing process seamless and more efficient, marketers are surreptitiously and inextricably coupling information gathering and marketing. To understand the welfare implications of these practices better, this essay extends the conceptualization of covert marketing to include both information gathering and marketing communications. The authors present a multistage exchange framework that helps identify factors affecting marketer and consumer welfare when covert practices are used. They use the framework to discuss the benefits and harms related to these types of covert marketing practices as well as consumer reactions to such practices.
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