Conspicuous consumption versus utilitarian ideals: How different levels of power shape consumer behavior

Rucker, Derek D.; Galinsky, Adam D.

doi:10.1016/j.jesp.2009.01.005

Cited by 325 publications

(319 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“…According to Rucker and Galinsky (2009), at the end of 2007, consumer debt, excluding real estate debt, in America was at $2.5 trillion dollars, of which $972 billion was just in credit card debtwhich the authors call a "staggering" figure. Further, as Cohen (2007, p. 59) notes, nearly 60% of American cardholders do not pay off their outstanding balances in a timely manner, but instead roll over, on average, $5,000 each month; and the accumulation of untenable debt loads has prompted more than 1.5 million households to file for bankruptcy each year.…”

Section: Consumption and Personal And Economic Well-beingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mindful consumption: a customer-centric approach to sustainability

Sheth

Sethia

Srinivas

2010

J. of the Acad. Mark. Sci.

903

688

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How effectively business deals with the challenges of sustainability will define its success for decades to come. Current sustainability strategies have three major deficiencies: they do not directly focus on the customer, they do not recognize the looming threats from rising global over-consumption, and they do not take a holistic approach. We present a framework for a customer-centric approach to sustainability. This approach recasts the sustainability metric to emphasize the outcomes of business actions measured holistically in term of environmental, personal and economic well-being of the consumer. We introduce the concept of mindful consumption (MC) as the guiding principle in this approach. MC is premised on a consumer mindset of caring for self, for community, and for nature, that translates behaviorally into tempering the selfdefeating excesses associated with acquisitive, repetitive and aspirational consumption. We also make the business case for fostering mindful consumption, and illustrate how the marketing function can be harnessed to successfully implement the customer-centric approach to sustainability.

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Section: Consumption and Personal And Economic Well-beingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mindful consumption: a customer-centric approach to sustainability

Sheth

Sethia

Srinivas

2010

J. of the Acad. Mark. Sci.

903

688

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“…Note that status signaling, however, is not a definitional component of luxury fashion brands. Although signaling may be important to some, it is not critical for all consumers (Rucker and Galinsky 2009). …”

Section: Symbolic Signaling and The Source Of Designmentioning

confidence: 99%

All That is Users Might Not be Gold: How Labeling Products as User Designed Backfires in the Context of Luxury Fashion Brands

Fuchs

Prandelli

Schreier

et al. 2013

Journal of Marketing

184

210

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An emerging literature stream posits that drawing on users rather than internal designers in new product creation may benefit firms because the resulting products effectively satisfy consumer needs. Four studies conducted in the context of the luxury fashion industry uncover an important conceptual boundary condition of this positive user-design effect. Contrary to extant research, the results show that being “close” to users does not help but rather harms luxury fashion brands. Specifically, the authors find that user design backfires because consumer demand for a given luxury fashion brand collection is reduced if the collection is labeled as user (vs. company) designed. The results further reveal the underlying rationale for this reversal: user-designed luxury products are perceived to be lower in quality and fail to signal high status, which results in a loss of agentic feelings for the consumer. The authors explore several strategies luxury brands can pursue to overcome this negative user-design effect. Finally, they find that negative outcomes of user design are attenuated for luxury fashion products that are not used for status signaling—that is, product categories of a luxury brand that are characterized by lower status relevance for the consumer.

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“…Study 3 also serves to address several alternate explanations (i.e., symbolic consumption, affect) and better situate our work among the growing body of literature on compensatory consumption (e.g., Rucker & Galinsky, 2008;Rucker & Galinsky, 2009).…”

Section: Studymentioning

confidence: 99%