Susan Schultz Kleine

How Is a Possession "Me" or "Not Me"? Characterizing Types and an Antecedent of Material Possession Attachment

Material possession attachment, a property of the relationship between a specific person and a specific object of possession, reflects the extent of “me-ness” associated with that possession. The two Q-methodological studies reported here investigated the nature of this me-ness (and “not me-ness”). Study 1 explores different types of attachment and how these types portray various facets of a persons life story (i.e., identity). It shows how strong versus weak attachment, affiliation and/or autonomy seeking, and past, present, or future temporal orientation combine to form qualitatively distinct types of psychological significance. Study 2 begins development of a nomological network encompassing attachment by showing how mode of gift receipt (self-gift vs. interpersonal gift), as an antecedent, influences attachment type. Study 2 also examines aspects of successful and unsuccessful gifts. Both studies demonstrate that unidimensional affect fails to adequately describe or explain attachment. Together, the two studies suggest a more parsimonious way to represent person-possession relationships than has been offered in previous studies. Moreover, the findings help delineate the boundaries of attachment (e.g., What does it mean to say a possession is “not me”?).

Mundane Consumption and the Self: A Social-Identity Perspective

The self—a sense of who and what we are—is suggested as an organizing construct through which peoples everyday activities can be understood. Lifes mundane tasks and the consumer behaviors necessary to enact them are cast in a perspective of self little used by consumer psychologists—social—identity theory. Two structural modeling studies in support of the perspective are reported. The results of the first one imply that people use products to enact one of their social identities and that products relate only indirectly to the overall or global self. The second study indicates that the frequency with which activities are performed depends on the salience of the identity they represent and that such salience, in turn, depends on several enabling factors. Taken together, the studies provide theoretical support for the common-sense notion that we are attracted to products that are consistent with, and that enable the enactment of, the various social identities which make up our sense of self; the more important an identity to us, the more attractive its associated products.

Views of health in the lay sector: a compilation and review of how individuals think about health.

The way lay people think about health and wellness influences their health and wellness-related behaviors. This article integrates and synthesizes the research conducted to understand lay health worldviews. We identify 18 themes that capture the findings about lay health worldviews. The themes fall into four categories: definitions of health, explanations for health, external and/or uncontrollable factors impinging on health, and the place health occupies in people’s lives. The results lead to the observation that lay health worldviews - or health styles - are not understood in depth, particularly in US populations. Variation across the themes underscores the need for further descriptive research designed to understand consumers’ ways of thinking about health and how the many changes in the professional and folk sectors affect lay worldviews. This has implications with respect to understanding consumers’ health care behaviors and developing more effective communication strategies.

A place for emotion in attitude models

Abstract Finding ways and means to incorporate emotional experience into consumer and market research has been an ongoing challenge. We frame this challenge in the context of the information that is and is not normally collected in multiattribute attitude models. Our data show that retrospective reports about emotional experiences can be useful predictors of attitude when compared to traditional measures of cognitive structure, and that prior experience with a behavior can play a major role in moderating these relationships. The appeal of multiattribute attitude models has always been their value for predicting and diagnosing motives and preferences. Integrating emotive information into these models appears to be a way to build on this appeal.

Variations in Lay Health Theories: Implications for Consumer Health Care Decision Making

Wide variations in how contemporary consumers think about health and make health care decisions often go unrecognized by health care marketers and public policy decision makers. In the current global environment, prevailing Western viewpoints on health and conventional biomedicine are being challenged by a countervailing belief system forming the basis for alternative health care practices. The ways American consumers once thought about health have changed and multiplied in this new era of competing health paradigms. Our study provides empirical evidence for this assertion in two ways. First, it demonstrates that in the current environment consumers think about health and health care in a multiplicity of very different ways, leading to the conclusion that we should not classify health care consumers as either conventional or alternative. Second, the results provide clues as to how individuals holding diverse health theories make health care decisions that impact health behaviors, treatment efficacy, and s...Wide variations in how contemporary consumers think about health and make health care decisions often go unrecognized by health care marketers and public policy decision makers. In the current global environment, prevailing Western viewpoints on health and conventional biomedicine are being challenged by a countervailing belief system forming the basis for alternative health care practices. The ways American consumers once thought about health have changed and multiplied in this new era of competing health paradigms. Our study provides empirical evidence for this assertion in two ways. First, it demonstrates that in the current environment consumers think about health and health care in a multiplicity of very different ways, leading to the conclusion that we should not classify health care consumers as either conventional or alternative. Second, the results provide clues as to how individuals holding diverse health theories make health care decisions that impact health behaviors, treatment efficacy, and satisfaction judgments.

What Do They Know? Integrating the Core Concept of Customer Value into the Undergraduate Marketing Curriculum and Its Assessment:

The purpose of this article is to encourage discussion among marketing educators about the logic and structure of current undergraduate marketing curricula. The authors offer one alternative conceptualization of marketing, whereby current marketing knowledge is organized around the core concept of capturing and creating customer value for a sustainable competitive advantage. They argue that one of the primary benefits to this approach is that marketing students, future business decision makers, will be better able to grasp the linkages between key concepts. A guide for curriculum conceptualization and assessment is provided.

Enhancing Students’ Role Identity As Marketing Majors

An undergraduate student’s major often becomes an important part of his or her self-definition. A student’s major identifies him or her with respect to certain classes, places on campus, behaviors, aspirations, and with certain other people. When a student selects marketing as a major, he or she is choosing not just to receive the attributes and benefits of the major but also to become something through a process of role-identity development. The more effectively this identification process takes place, the better the outcomes for the student and, potentially, for marketing educators. This article identifies and empirically demonstrates variables that marketing educators can influence to facilitate the role-identity development process. As marketing educators work to attract more and better undergraduate students to marketing, it may be time to pay greater attention to enhancing the identification process that links students with marketing.

Exploring How Role-Identity Development Stage Moderates Person–Possession Relations

In this article, we examine how person–possession relations vary across three stages of the role-identity cultivation processes. We explore stage-related variation in the accumulation of role-related consumption stimuli and their self-relevance in a cross-sectional sample of two freely chosen athletic role-identities. Results show that as individuals cultivate an identity they accumulate more role-related possessions, social ties, and media commitments, and evaluation of those elements becomes more positive, yet the impact of those stimuli on self-conception declines. Ultimately, the results suggest that a full understanding of person–possession relations must include consideration of how role-identity cultivation stage moderates relations between people and consumption stimuli.

On the Symbolic Meanings of Souvenirs for Children

This paper explores the symbolic meanings that children of elementary school age attach to souvenirs from different types of vacation destinations. Data from interviews and pictorial projectives illustrate the meaning of souvenirs for children, including how children skillfully use souvenirs in their everyday lives and how they interpret souvenirs as symbols of people, places, and experiences. More specifically, the interview data reveal the meanings attached to souvenirs which are possessed, including how souvenirs are clearly distinguished from other objects which are possessed and how they are used for their contemplation and action value, for their communicative properties, and to provide continuity across time and place. In addition, the data from pictorial projectives reveal the latent motives of souvenir acquisition as well as how different types of places lead to different types of souvenir choices. Thus, the paper demonstrates the many layers of meaning associated with souvenirs in both acquisition and consumption processes and provides evidence that the meanings between children, places, and objects are inextricably linked.

Differences in symbolic self-completion and self-retention across role-identity cultivation stages

Purpose This paper aims to provide evidence that theory-based effects of role-identity cultivation stages on self-symbolizing consumption activities do exist. Design/methodology/approach Specific focus is placed upon differing motives between rookie versus veteran role-identity actors and how these differences lead to symbolic self-completion and self-retention behaviors. Effects of these motives are examined in the context of college student identity transitions. Findings Evidence is found for a pattern, whereby role-identity rookies with fewer role-identity-related possessions are more likely to self-symbolize the role-identity outwardly than veteran consumers having more role-identity-related resources, such as possessions. Self-retention via possessions is also more evident with rookies making the transition from one role-identity to the next, replacement role-identity. Findings are replicated for both readily available and favorite possessions related to a role-identity. Research limitations/implications Future role-identity research in marketing may miss unique and important insights without accounting for role-identity cultivation stage. Practical implications Current evidence highlights the importance of identity cultivation stage, symbolic self-completion and self-retention as factors to consider in understanding market segments associated with respective role-identities. Originality/value Extant research does not yet account for how consumption activities serving both symbolic and functional purposes support role-identity transitions. This inquiry is directed at contributing to this need.