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Consumer socialisation agency within three-generational Vietnamese families

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to establish how consumer knowledge is transferred among family members in multi-generational families, based on the consumer socialisation theory. Understanding how consumers learn about consumption and are socialised as consumers is critical to developing marketing strategies throughout the family lifecycle. Central to current conceptions of consumer socialisation is the idea that individuals make decisions as outcomes of previous socialisation processes. However, socialisation takes place in the meso-level social setting and there is need to understand how these meso-systems interact when it comes to consumption. Design/methodology/approach – Using a social system design and dyadic analysis, the authors tested knowledge transfer and consumer socialisation agency in multi-generation families in Vietnam, yielding a sample size of 654 individuals and 218 families. Findings – The authors demonstrate the role of consumer socialisation agency on consumer knowledge trans...

Immigrant and second-generation Turkish entrepreneurs in melbourne Australia: A qualitative investigation of entrepreneurial motivations

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the key differences between first- and second-generation immigrant entrepreneurs in their path to entrepreneurship. The aim of the study is to better understand entrepreneurial motivations amongst immigrants by comparing first- and second-generation entrepreneurs in their motivation for business entry, reliance on co-ethnic market, use of social and financial capital, business planning and marketing practices. Design/methodology/approach – Using an interpretivist approach and a qualitative design, this study comprises 20 in-depth interviews with first- and second-generation Turkish entrepreneurs (TEs) in Melbourne, Australia. Turks in Australia were chosen because of their high level of entrepreneurial activity. In order to uncover deep-seeded motivations, participants were interviewed in a face-to-face format guided by a semi-structured interview guide. Findings – The second-generation TEs were distinctively different from their first-generation counterpa...

Family communication for the modern era: a typology

Purpose – This paper aims to offer an interrogation for the purposes of theoretical clarity, precision and validity. Family communication patterns (FCPs) about consumption is a commonly used measure in consumer socialisation. However, it has not been properly assessed for validity in marketing since it was developed in the 1970s. Previously developed and commonly used scales were used to examine communication styles and communication quality to test whether these older measures were still valid and applicable to the modern consumer context. Design/methodology/approach – Critique of extant measures suggested the need for a more precise and contemporary conceptualisation of family communication about consumption. A new conceptualisation was then empirically tested using a psychometric theory approach to scale development. By using a dyadic design, family communication between parents and young adult children in 180 families was examined. Findings – The early concepts are now outdated and do not readily tran...

Stereotyping - predispositions, activations and applications in cross-cultural service interactions: views from service providers in Malaysia.

The aim of the article was to explore for stereotyping patterns in crosscultural service interactions. This research was set within the context of luxury hotel in Malaysia, where most of the service providers are non-Western. In-depth interviews and written diaries were used to develop deep narratives for the patterns of stereotyping adopted by the service providers. Predispositions, activations and applications of stereotypes were examined considering implicit theory and power distance. Associations between the service providers’ culture and position and their tendency to activate and apply stereotypes were found. The findings highlight the increasing complexity in cross-cultural service interactions within the South East Asian region. This study provides management with insights into service interactions in the contemporary context of Asia, where socio/economic and cultural boundaries are blurring. Practical and theoretical recommendations are made for both management and further academic research on this issue, which has potential to influence guest satisfaction and ultimately business viability.

Decision-making dynamics between Spanish mothers, fathers and children

Purpose n n n n nThe purpose of this paper is to investigate the roles of mothers, fathers and children in family decision-making (FDM) processes in families with different characteristics in terms of household structure, parents’ resources and family communication styles. As several structural changes regarding families have taken place within the last decades, there is a need to update the theories around FDM – in particular, regarding to the role of women and children. n n n n nDesign/methodology/approach n n n n nA survey was distributed to 520 individuals in 183 families, where mothers, fathers and children above nine years living at home completed the survey. n n n n nFindings n n n n nThe study demonstrates that the product category largely influences FDM dynamics, as well as housework division, parental characteristics and communication style. The study also reveals that structural changes may put more pressure on mothers. This pressure can partly be relieved if the family encourages children to become independent consumers rather than trying to control their consumption. Moreover, when fathers take a larger part in the housework, traditional gender roles become more fluid. n n n n nSocial implications n n n n nFor policymakers concerned with equality within the family, it may be a better approach to enable fathers to more actively participate in household chores than to try to change behaviour through information about equality. n n n n nOriginality/value n n n n nThis study extends the understanding of FDM in contemporary households by taking into account the views of all family members and produces a more complete picture of the decision-making dynamics within families.

Consumer socialization agency in tourism decisions

This study introduces consumer socialization agency (CSA; i.e. the act of influencing another about consumption) as the reason why consumers learn through peer communication on social media tourism sites. Based on an online panel of 193 US consumers, the study investigated how a personal connection to a tourism site (i.e. customer engagement [CE]) and a connection with peers on social media (i.e. peer group identification) drives CSA about tourism, which, subsequently, influences learning about tourism-related consumption decisions (i.e. peer communication). Our model establishes that identification with peers on social media and CE with tourism sites are antecedents to consumer socialization. Consumers need to feel engaged with tourism social media sites to participate in socialization and feel connected to their peers on social media in general. Consumer socialization, or the willingness to teach/influence tourism-related skills to friends, influences the willingness to learn new tourism consumer skills, including tourism-related decision-making. We propose that for a tourism site to be successful, it must enable social exchange of knowledge and ideas (through enabling consumer socialization), not just individual user experience.

Design Issues in Cross-Cultural Research: Suggestions for Researchers

This chapter builds on the first five chapters in this handbook that explained the research design typology. The focus here is on design issues in cross-cultural research. This chapter is intended to serve as a guide for practitioners to apply and integrate the research design typology layers into a scholarly manuscript. In contrast to the broad scope of the first five chapters, this chapter concentrates on how to integrate specific components of the typology regardless of which ideology the researcher holds on the continuum (positivist, post-positivist, pragmatist, interpretivist, or constructivist).