Consumer3

Journal of Consumer Behaviour / Consumer liehav. 5: 97-101 (2006) Published online in Wiley InterScience (www,interscience,wiley,com), DOI: 10,1002/cb,37

Editorial Changing Perspectives on Customer Behaviour This special issue of the Journal of Consumer Behaviour on 'Changing Perspectives on Customer Behaviour' represents the culmination of the fourth conference in the very successful international series of Customer Research Academy Workshops (CRAWS4) held in Manchester March 31 -April 2nd 2004, Co-chaired by Professor Barbara Lewis, Dr, Kalipso Karantinou and Professor Margaret Hogg, the fourth workshop was attended by over forty academics from the United States, Canada, South Africa, Germany, Spain, France, Ireland, Sweden, Finland, Eire as well as the UK, Sessions covered: the impact of new technology on customer behaviour; identity and consumption; retailing and relationships; and service quality. The emphasis in the workshops is on interaction. With some strict chairing (!) presentation of papers was successfully restricted to half of the timetable, to allow wideranging discussion by all participants of topical issues such as: surfing and purchasing on the Net; psychic distance and online internationalisation; the use of longitudinal methods for examining internet shopping behaviour; young consumers and their dislikes; alcohol consumption of young adults; older consumers online; unwrapping Christmas in the UK; compulsive consumption; the impact of the euro on customers' perceptions of prices; simulating service encounters in consumer research; service excellence and relationship management and the knowledge economy. After a rigorous revie^v process ^vhich involved two or three rounds of revision, four of the best papers have been chosen for publication in this special issue. All the papers reflect, in different ways, changing perspectives on customer behaviour—and all the papers offer theoretical, empirical and practical insights to our understanding of customer behaviour.

The first paper: Predicting and exptaining the propensity to bid in online auctions: a comparison of two action-theoreticat modets by Michael Bosnjak, Dirk Obermeier and Tracy Tuten captures one of the key changes in retailing and customer behaviour over the past 10 years, the development of online auctions. The authors used two online research methods to collect data in two stages from nearly Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd,

Journat of Consumer Behaviour, March-Aprit 2006

^*

Editorial

200 German participants in order to compare two well-established theoretical models in consumer behaviour research: theory of planned behaviour (Azjen 1985,1991) and Technology Acceptance Model (JAM) (Davis, 1989). The study seeks to determine which theory is best suited to predict and explain consumers' propensity to use online auctions and actual usage, and in so doing aims tofilla gap in the literature by addressing the processes leading to the decision to enter an online auction where past studies focused on antecedents and moderators. Confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modelling were used to analyse the data, and to compare the two models for their predictive power and practical utility for understanding customer behaviour in relation to online auctions. The authors conclude that while both models were capable of explaining a large amount of variance associated with predicting the propensity to bid in online auctions, the TAM was more parsimonious and provided more actionable recommendations for improving online auction sites. However, they also indicate that customer behaviour in online bidding is not just an economic activity, but also involves entertainment and pleasure (from the process of bidding and winning), thus pointing to the need for theory-building in this area to combine rational and hedonic aspects of customer behaviour. In the second paper: Emerging perspectives on customer relationships, interactions and loyalty in Irish retail financial services Deirdre O'Loughlin and Isabelle Szmigin question the appropriateness of Relationship Marketing theory to understanding the interactions between customers and their financial suppliers (Irish banks). The increasingly competitive and turbulent marketplace for Irishfinancialservices (caused, for instance, by deregulation and technological advances) has meant that Irish banks have had to re-evaluate their marketing strategies (including the use of relationship marketing) and their understanding of what constitutes 'loyalty'. Using qualitative data collected via structured interviews with 50 customers (aged between 26 and 63 and drawn from a range of socio-economic groups), the authors investigate the nature and type of customer interaction and the incidence and nature of customer loyalty in this industry sector. Their research identifies shortcomings in the relationship approach and suggests that relationships, other than particularly opportunistic ones, are rare within Irish financial services. The authors thus problematise the relevance of Relationship Marketing to this industry sector, extending earlier critiques (e.g. Fournier etal., 1998), and suggest that we must move on from a Utopian, wishful thinking on business relationships to considering alternative concepts, which better depict the current customer-supplier exchange reality. With the third paper: Social meanings in Christmas consumption: an exploratory study of UK celebrants' consumption rituals by Sally McKechnie and Caroline Tynan the focus moves from customers to consumers. Their paper contributes to the increasingly important Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Journal of Consumer Behaviour, March-April 2006

Editorial

99 group of studies into the social meanings which surround consumption. Their chosen site for investigation is Christmas. They develop a conceptual framework (derived from McCracken, 1986; Holt, 1995) which they use to analyse their qualitative data collected via focus groups with seventeen women (held before Christmas, and w^hich dealt w^ith anticipation of and preparation for Christmas; the experience of Christmas; and the post-festivity clearing up) and follow-up reflective interviews with six of the original focus group participants about a month after Christmas. From their data they identify how special rituals (e.g. possession, exchange, grooming and divestment, see McCracken, 1986) are combined with ordinary behaviours (playing, classifying, experiencing and integrating see Holt, 1995) by these women to create the social meanings which surround their families' experiences of Christmas. The fourth paper: Getting hammered... students coping with alcohol by Maria Piacentini and Emma Banister deals with a topic which has attracted increasing attention from public policy makers: attitudes to alcohol amongst the young. They draw on identity and coping theories to develop an understanding of attitudes amongst drinkers and non-drinkers within social settings dominated by alcohol. A two stage research design was used for this exploratory study. In the first phase, stories were collected from 16O young people about the role that alcohol plays in their life and in their friends' lives. In the second phase, eight depth interview's were held. The findings indicated that young people have a range of possible selves (Markus and Nurius, 1986) and multiple identities which are relevant to alcohol consumption, and employ a range of coping strategies to help them deal with social situations linked to the consumption of alcohol. Participants who prioritised higher order personal goals (e.g. self-realisation via academic or sporting achievements) tended to emphasise these identities when discussing the role of alcohol in their lives; and they tended to prioritise longerterm goals over shorter-term goals (such as fun, relaxation and abandonment) associated with drinking occasions. A focus on the consequences of drinking alcohol (rather than simply the immediate hedonic experience) appeared to moderate their consumption behaviour. Those who did not feel in control of their drinking relied on emotion-focused strategies, aimed at helping them either alter the meaning of the source of distress or avoid thinking about it. The fifth and final paper in this special issue Lean Consumption and its influence on brand by Edward Truch was not presented at CRAWS4. However, it offers an academic's view informed by the practitioner world because Truch's consultancy company (KnowledgePartners) undertakes market research for many leading U.K. companies. His paper makes two potentially significant contributions to the debates about changing perspectives on customer behaviour. First of all, he takes the very current concept of Lean Consumption, which was first discussed by Womack and Jones in their Harvard Business Review article (2005) and operationaUses it.

Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Journal of Consumer Behaviour, March-April 2006

100

Editorial

Womack and Jones (2005) described six principles of lean consumption and these are operationalised by seven dimensions tested via a Likert-type scale. Second, the study establishes an important linkage between lean consumption and brand warmth. Brand warmth represents the positive feelings which customers have towards product and retail brands, assessed via the same seven dimensions derived from Womack and Jones' (2005) six principles of lean consumption. Brand warmth is intricately linked to customer loyalty and customer satisfaction, and thus feeds directly into company financial performance. Lean consumption and brand warmth both potentially represent important hidden drivers of corporate and national wealth. This paper underlines the centrality of the workshop theme in current marketing thought i.e. the importance of customers to company success; and our changing perspectives on customers as representing one of the key intangible assets of companies. Acknowledgements We would like to thank all the reviewers for their invaluable contribution to this Special issue of the Journal of Consumer Behaviour (2005) on 'Changing Perspectives on Customer Behaviour'. Dr Susan Auty, Lancaster University Management School Dr Charles C Cui, Manchester Business School Professor Chris Easingwood, Manchester Business School Professor Robert East, Kingston University Dr Sue Eccles, Lancaster University Management School Professor Christina Goulding, Wolverhampton University Dr Mark Healey, Leeds University Business School Dr Kathleen Keeling, Manchester Business School Dr Andrew Lindridge, Manchester Business School Professor Pauline Maclaran, Leicester Business School, De Montfort University Professor Vincent-Wayne Mitchell, Cass Business School, City University Professor Jonathan Schroeder, Exeter University Dr Avi Shankar, Exeter University Dr Julie Tinson, Stirling University Professor Sarah Todd, Otago University, Dunedin, NZ Dr Darach Turley, Dublin City University Dr Helen Woodruffe-Burton, Lancaster University Management School Dr Judy Zolkiewski, Manchester Business School.

References Ajzen 1.1985. From Intentions to actions: a theory of planned behaviour. In Action-control: from Cognition to Behaviour, KuhlJ, BeckmanJ (eds). Springer: Heidelberg, Germany; 11-39. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Journal of Consumer Behaviour, March-ApHl 2006

Editorial

101 Ajzen 1.1991. The theory of planned behaviour. Organizational Behavior und Human Decision Processes 50: 179-211. Davis FD. 1989. Pereeived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and user acceptance of information technology. MIS Quarterly 13: 319-340. Fournier S, Dobscha SS, Mick DG. 1998. Preventing the premature death of relationship marketing. Harvard Business Review 76(1): 42-51. Holt DB. 1995. How consumers consume: a typology of consumption practices. Journal of Consumer Research 22(June): 1-6. Markus H, Nurius P. 1986. Possible Selves. American Psychologist 4l(9): 954-969. McCracken GC. 1986. Culture and consumption: a theoretical account of the cultural meaning of consumer goods. Journal of Consumer Research 13(1): 71-85. Womack J, Jones T. 2005. Lean consumption. Hamard Business Review 83(3): 58-68. Kalipso M. Karantinou, Margaret K. Hogg and Barbara R. Lewis American College of Greece Lancaster University Management School and Manchester Business School, UK October 2005

Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Journal of Consumer Behaviour, March-April 2006