Contemporary consumers, societies, and ecologies face many challenges to well-being. Consumer researchers have responded with new attention to what engenders happiness and flourishing, particularly as a function of consuming more wisely. Consumer wisdom has been conceptualized as the pursuit of well-being through the application of six interrelated dimensions: Responsibility, Purpose, Flexibility, Perspective, Reasoning, and Sustainability (Luchs, Mick, and Haws 2020). However, up to now, the roles of marketing management and government policies with respect to enabling and supporting consumer wisdom have not been thoroughly and systematically considered. To do so, we adopt an integrative approach based on a range of theoretical and empirical insights from both wisdom research in the social sciences and in consumer research. We weave those insights into the stages of an expanded version of the circular economy model of the value cycle, within which we also include the traditional four Ps of the marketing mix. This approach allows us to identify how marketing practices and public policies can enable and support consumer wisdom, resulting in advancements to well-being and the common good as well as restorations to the missions and reputations of business and government.

Purpose The purpose of this study is to advance the understanding of consumer innovativeness during aging. This study explores why older consumers have decreased innovativeness and how awareness of age-related change affects the adoption of innovation. Design/methodology/approach A survey was conducted on 200 older consumers aged 50 and older to investigate whether awareness of age-related change influences innovativeness. Findings The results show that awareness of age-related change causes older consumers to have a decreased tendency to adopt novel products. Moreover, the stereotype threat of older consumers is found to play a mediating role. Older individuals who sense they are negatively viewed as older people restrict their innovativeness to avoid situations that would confirm their incompetence to others. Furthermore, the effects of older consumers’ stereotype threat on innovativeness are moderated by self-monitoring. Older consumers who exhibit high self-monitoring cope with stereotype threat by showing increased innovativeness; however, the opposite effect occurs in older consumers with low self-monitors. Originality/value The findings deepen the understanding of older adults’ consumption behavior regarding innovative products and show why people are reluctant to adopt innovative products and services because they grow older by identifying the underlying process that hinders customer innovativeness.

The number of older people in South Korea is growing dramatically, and the socio-psychological needs of these people have begun to change from those of elderly people in the previous Confucian culture. The anti-aging industry is popular among older South Korean consumers, and the Korean mass media have begun to broadcast new images of older people. The purpose of this research was to explore older Korean people's anti-aging needs by examining their consumptionrelated thoughts and behaviours in daily life. A theoretical framework is formulated to organize the coping processes and psychological mechanisms used by older Koreans to meet their anti-aging needs. A total of 25 older Korean consumers were interviewed, and the qualitative data are analysed to determine the main causes and, attributes of, and reactions to their anti-aging needs. The analysis of the in-depth-interviews shows that the older consumers' negative age stereotypes act as a stressor and that their need for anti-aging products is a defensive reaction. It is also found that older Korean consumers change their consumption behaviours to cope with negative age stereotypes and to satisfy their anti-aging needs, and two types of coping behaviours (problemfocused and emotion-focused) are revealed. The results of this study contribute to the academic explanations of the anti-aging phenomenon among older Koreans and enhance understanding of the perspectives of older Eastern consumers by revealing the existence of their anti-aging needs.

This study explores the relationship between old‐age stereotyping and older consumers' masstige product consumption, specifically, their intention to purchase masstige brand products, with a focus on their motivational drives from an identity‐signaling perspective. We surveyed 533 people aged 54 to 64 years in South Korea. Structural equation modeling was used to analyse the mediating effect, and hierarchical regression analysis was applied to test the moderating effect. Our results indicated that among older consumers in South Korea who felt threatened by old‐age stereotypes, intention to purchase masstige brands was high. Their dissociative motivation, that is, their motivation to dissociate from their age group, and the symbolic value of masstige brands as signifiers of a youthful, desirable identity were found to mediate both the threat of old‐age stereotyping and intention to purchase masstige brands. Furthermore, we found that interdependent older consumers were more sensitive to old‐age stereotyping and had a stronger motivation to dissociate from the “old‐age” group. The findings offer insights into masstige brand consumption by older South Korean consumers that may be useful for both academics and marketers.

Purpose This paper aims to identify factors affecting the continued intention to use mobile social network services (m-SNS) among middle-aged and older adults in Korea, based on the focal characteristics of mobile services and SNS. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected through an online questionnaire to understand m-SNS usage from 358 people aged over 40 years in Korea. Findings Results show that middle-aged and older users of m-SNS are strongly motivated to seek information; they prefer to use m-SNS on a habitual basis because of the ubiquitous connectivity of mobile services. Furthermore, they perceive the usefulness of m-SNS in expanding their social networks. These results can be used to identify factors that affect continued use of m-SNS by the middle-aged and older generation in Korea. Originality/value This paper expands the literature on SNS acceptance among middle-aged and older adults, the population that, in future, is expected to constitute the majority of m-SNS users. This paper can also help understand factors that affect mature consumers’ continued use of m-SNS.