Kulutustutkimuksen seura ry

Lataa / Download Kulutustutkimus.Nyt 1-2/2018 (5.2 MB, pdf)

Editorial: Special issue on “Markets in Transition”
Hanna Leipämaa-Leskinen & Henna Syrjälä

We had the pleasure to host the Nordic Conference on Consumer Research at the University of Vaasa, June 13-14, 2018. This was the fifth time this biennial conference took place, meaning that already for ten years consumer and consumption scientists from different Nordic countries have gathered together. This time, the conference was themed as Markets in Transition referring to the idea that present-day consumer markets are under constant changes stemming from various global megatrends, such as digitalization and sustainability. For us consumer researchers, this poses both pivotal need for research as well as intriguing avenues for exploration.

The current special issue builds mainly on the papers presented in NCCR2018 each of them addressing the conference theme from different angles. […]

Download Leipämaa-Leskinen’s and Syrjälä’s editorial (320 KB, pdf)

 

The functions of memorable consumption experiences – Case Leijona brand
Linda Turunen and Pirjo Laaksonen

Although consumers’ brand decisions are influenced by prior experiences via memory, the brand meanings stored in memories have received little attention in marketing and consumer behavior research. This study analyzes brand-related consumption experiences in order to find out what makes these experiences memorable for a consumer. The study was conducted by investigating brand memories from the point of view of the uses or functions of episodic memory. The empirical data consists of 1048 written stories about memorable consumption experiences related to a Finnish watch brand. The empirical data was explored through content analysis with deductive logic to uncover how memory functions (self-reflective, social and directive functions) come into existence in written stories. The findings revealed that the brand is tied to consumers’ life stories in multiple ways, and the meanings of the branded product were created particularly in socially, spatially and temporally specified consumption situations.

Download Turunen’s and Laaksonen’s article (730 KB, pdf)

Roles of consumer-citizens in food waste reduction
Elina Närvanen, Nina Mesiranta and Malla Mattila

This paper describes and analyses the roles of consumer-citizens in reducing food waste. As one of the most crucial sustainability challenges, food waste provides a theoretically interesting context to explore the roles and responsibilities given to and taken by consumer-citizens. Reducing food waste provides opportunities for consumer-citizens to change their own consumption decisions and practices as well as influence others in pursuit of a more sustainable consumer society. We review literature on consumer-citizenship and identify three main roles of consumer-citizens in sustainable consumption at the micro, meso and macro levels: decision-makers, communal consumer-citizens, and change agents. We illustrate the key characteristics of these roles by constructing three narratives based on insights gained from an ongoing qualitative research project that examines consumer-citizens as active reducers of food waste. The paper provides a contribution to research related to sustainable consumption, political consumerism, and food waste. It also has implications for policy-makers.

Download Närvänen’s, Mesiranta’s and Mattila’s article (750 KB, pdf)

Prosuming news in an unbounded media landscape – A study of young adults
Anu Norrgrann, Annika Ravald, Emma Buss, Erica Hjerpe and Saga-Charlotte Storbacka

This paper explores acts of news prosumption in a landscape where traditional business models of media companies are challenged by new consumption patterns. It focuses on young adult consumers of the Internet generation, whose ways to relate to news media can be seen as symptomatic for the broader shift of news consumption from passively received, standardized news to increasingly individualised and socially shared content. This context illuminates nuances of prosumption and provides new theoretical and managerial insight into the activities that consumers engage in when consuming news. The paper draws on data from consumer diaries, followed up with in-depth interviews. A typology of six consumer profiles in news prosumption – metaphorically termed the bumblebee, the window peeker, the researcher, the sponge, the relayer and the megaphone – is presented, highlighting the variety in which consumers engage in personalized assembly, usage and spread of news content.

Download Norrgrann’s, Ravald’s Buss’, Hjerpe’s and Storbacka’s article (800 KB, pdf)

Conveying personality traits through product design for a symbolic product
Laure Jacquemier-Paquin, Gaelle Pantin-Sohier and Caroline Lancelot-Miltgen

Product design, through its sensory attributes, plays a major role in product perceptions and its consumers’ understanding. These attributes convey rich symbolic associations and contribute to shape a brand image and some personality traits. A natural flower is a singular product, expressive and particularly evocative through its design. The expressive and leaving nature of flowers make us consider them as brands, owing human-like traits. An experiment being run on two flowers’ species (tulips and roses) with 509 French participants shows how the shape of the flower (pointed or rounded petals) and the brightness of its color (pink for the lighter and burgundy for the darker color), influence the perceived flower’s character, with gender as a moderating variable. The findings confirm the power of design to shape consumers’ perceptions, especially for symbolic products such as flowers.

Download Jacquemier-Paquin’s, Pantin-Sohier’s and Lancelot-Miltgen’s article (1.0 MB, pdf)

Kansallisen tunnemaiseman rakentuminen: Pelon ja ilon rytmit verkkokeskusteluissa
Krista Lagus, Mika Pantzar, Minna Ruckenstein

Verkkokeskustelut tarjoavat kulutustutkimukselle ainutlaatuisen ikkunan tunnesanastojen ja -rytmitysten analyysiin. Taustoitamme tunneanalyysin historiallisia lähtökohtia ja kuvaamme Suomi24-verkkokeskusteluaineiston tukemana tunnepuheen ajallisia rytmityksiä kehittämämme sentimenttianalyysityökalun avulla. Teoreettisena lähtökohtana on Henri Lefebvren rytmianalyysi, jonka virittämänä tunnistamme vuorokauden, viikon ja vuoden sisäistä vaihtelua 56 miljoonan viestin aineistostamme. Tarkastelemme tunnepuhetta sanastolähtöisesti ja visuaalisesti keskittyen pelkoon ja iloon liittyvien sanojen määrälliseen esiintyvyyteen. Löytämiemme säännönmukaisuuksien taustalla on mutkikkaita yksilöllisiä ja sosiaalisia vuorovaikutussuhteita, joita tunneaggregaattimme karkeasti kuvaavat. Pohdimme kuinka tunnepuheen tutkimusta voi kehittää ja hyödyntää kulutuksen talouden rytmien ja rytmihäiriöiden tutkimuksessa.

Lataa Laguksen, Pantzarin ja Ruckensteinin artikkeli (1.3 MB, pdf)

An Interview with Professor Frank Trentmann: ‘There is no doubt that consumers continue to be active’
Visa Heinonen

Professor Frank Trentmann has studied at the University of Hamburg, London School of Economics and Harvard University where he received his PhD in 1999. He worked as an Assistant professor at Princeton University before he was nominated as Professor of History at Birkbeck College, University of London 2006. Professor Trentmann is a very multidisciplinary scholar, which one can easily observe by looking at the themes of his publications. During 2002−2007 Professor Trentmann was the director of the Cultures of Consumption research programme, where 68 experts from different fields of science from law, geography and management to fashion and history formed a research community and which was co-funded by the British research councils, ESRC and AHRC with £5 million. Trentmann has also been a research fellow and a visiting professor of many European and US Universities […]

Download the full interview (1.5 MB, pdf)

Lectio praecursoria:  Evoluutiopsykologia kuluttajatutkijan työkalupakissa
Samuel Piha

’Jokaisella instrumentalistilla on työkalupakki. Kun instrumentalisti etenee urallaan pidemmälle ja oppii yhä enemmän, hänen työkalupakkinsa täyttyy, hänellä on pakissaan yhä enemmän selitysmalleja.’

Lataa Pihan lectio praecursoria (370 KB, pdf)