This article explores how neutralisation can explain people’s lack of commitment to buying Fair Trade (FT) products, even when they identify FT as an ethical concern. It examines the theoretical tenets of neutralisation theory and critically assesses its applicability to the purchase of FT products. Exploratory research provides illustrative examples of neutralisation techniques being used in the FT consumer context. A conceptual framework and research propositions delineate the role of neutralisation in explaining the attitude-behaviour discrepancies evident in relation to consumers’ FT purchase behaviour, providing direction for further research that will generate new knowledge of consumers’ FT purchase behaviour and other aspects of ethical consumer behaviour. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2007attitude-behaviour gap, ethical consumerism, ethical decision-making, fair trade purchase, neutralisation,

This paper applies the persuasion knowledge model to explain consumers' responses to charity guilt appeals. With data obtained through a stimuli-driven survey, the research examines the relationships between knowledge of persuasion tactics and charities, and the level of felt guilt experienced in response to an advertisement and subsequent donation intentions. The findings show that guilt arousal is positively related to donation intention, and that persuasion and agent knowledge impact the extent of guilt aroused. The research confirms that consumers are active rather than passive processors of marketing communications by revealing the role of persuasion and agent knowledge as methods of coping with and informing responses to guilt appeals. Specifically, the research finds that manipulative intent and the respondents' skepticism toward advertising tactics in general are negatively related to guilt arousal but that their affective evaluation and beliefs about a charity are positively related to feelings of guilt. However, it also shows that there is a positive direct relationship between perceived manipulative intent and the intention to donate.

The article reports research into the effect of music tempo and musical preference on consumer behavior in a restaurant. The research investigates the extent to which these two variables influence actual and perceived time spent dining, the amount of money spent, and outcomes in terms of enjoyment of the experience and future behavioral intentions. The results show that music preference provided a better explanation of actual time spent dining than tempo, although neither variable had a significant effect on perceived time. Time spent in the restaurant was the most powerful predictor of money spent in the restaurant. Finally, the outcomes of the restaurant encounter were found to be significantly related to musical preference, but the effects of music tempo were nonsignificant. ᭧ 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.There is growing interest amongst service providers in the use of atmospherics as a means of enhancing the appeal of service environments and influencing consumer behavior in service settings. Academic interest in this area has grown following Kotler's (1973) article emphasizing the importance of atmospherics in the field of marketing, and more so since the Donovan and Rossiter (1982) application of the Mehrabian and Russell (1974) model of environmental psychology to the retail context.

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This paper explores the dialogical dimensions of discursive legitimation in social media sites to understand how organisations produce knowledge of legitimacy in concert with their stakeholders. Drawing on the dialogical theories of Bakhtin and Nikulin, we consider the potential for conceptualising discursive legitimation as a product of dissent: an ongoing 'allosensual' dialogue comprised of different voices and competing knowledge claims. We explore this through a micro-level analysis of organisation-led social media sites, wherein organisational practices are increasingly subjected to public scrutiny and where knowledge of legitimacy can be significantly shaped. Our dialogical lens highlights three interrelated functions of discursive legitimation. Discursive authorisation represents attempts to assume a credible 'voice' in-relation-to-'other' voices, within the dialogue. Discursive validation represents attempts to subject truth claims about legitimacy to rational, normative and moral verification. Finally, discursive finalisation represents attempts to harmonise dissent, either by co-opting or antagonising stakeholders towards consensus. Primarily, this paper unpacks the role of social media in legitimation processes, whilst also elaborating on organisational attempts to control stakeholder dialogue in online contexts.