Journal of Macromarketing

doi: 10.1177/02761467241227519pmid: N/A

Darmody, Aron; Zwick, Detlev

doi: 10.1177/02761467231202017pmid: N/A

In this commentary we explore how, in a market system that increasingly demands the participation of consumers as co-creators through self-service technologies, these technologies pose significant challenges to various consumers. We call this increase in demand the ‘everyday-ification’ of co-creation and consider its effect on consumers who are either unwilling or unable to co-create value. We look at how marketers are motivated to persistently replace human labor with technologies, not to primarily benefit consumers, but to discipline consumer labor and to maximize profits and shareholder value. Through this lens we examine five key issues with self-service technologies. First, we discuss how costs and benefits associated with self-service technologies are unequally allocated, before addressing how consumers’ choices are managed, consumers’ rising sense of powerlessness and increased vulnerabilities, consumers’ service failure responsibilization, and the cybernetic bureaucracy of life through self-service technologies.

Castelo Branco, Thaíssa Velloso; Alfinito, Solange

doi: 10.1177/02761467231209896pmid: N/A

Despite the aging population, studies on the subject are scarce, notably focusing on the impotence experienced by older adults when purchasing food products. This research aims to analyze the vulnerability of older people during their food purchases. Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, we conducted 17 telephone semi-structured interviews with people aged 60 or over, food buyers in person, identified as independent. The content analysis using the software IRAMUTEQ showed problematic packaging and labels; predisposition to repeat previous choices due to the wide variety of foods; excessive portions incompatible with the social changes experienced by older adults; reduction of commensality; physical elements of the supermarket excluding older adults; and the COVID-19 pandemic as an impediment to maximizing well-being due to changes in habits and alternative shopping modalities needs. As a contribution, we propose an empirical vulnerability model that considers the particularities of older people for the food market and other markets.

Pham, Hanh N.; Thai, Nguyen T.; Heffernan, Troy William; Reynolds, Nina

doi: 10.1177/02761467231201507pmid: N/A

Governments and policymakers play a crucial role in promoting consumer behaviors to mitigate climate change. The research on environmental policies over the past decades has not significantly increased knowledge regarding how effectively these policies help consumers embrace pro-environmental behaviors. Using the motivation–opportunity–ability (MOA) framework, this systematic review reveals that regulatory policies that constrain opportunities are more likely to promote pro-environmental behavior. Furthermore, economic policy instruments that facilitate opportunities are also more likely to promote pro-environmental behaviors. Despite being more commonly employed, informational policy instruments are less effective than regulatory and economic instruments. Although informational policy instruments that target opportunities instead of motivations and abilities can result in better outcomes, behavior change remains a challenge. This systematic review is significant because it clarifies mixed results in the literature regarding the effectiveness of environmental policies in promoting pro-environmental behaviors. Accordingly, a framework of MOA-based policy mix is proposed to help policymakers develop effective instruments that stimulate pro-environmental behaviors.

Yan, Tony; Hyman, Michael R.

doi: 10.1177/02761467231204041pmid: N/A

Marketing regulations are warranted when unfettered marketing practices compromise many people's positive and negative liberties. We elucidate these liberties’ multifaceted but interdependent connotations for societally justified marketing regulations from a novel framework integrating the social sciences, philosophy, history, and marketing. The limitations of unbalanced or less represented market or government regulation notwithstanding, overcoming marketing imbalances and enhancing personal and societal liberties via pluralistic, well-designed, enforceable, and multilateral regulations can advance a pluralistic democracy's diverse market-related interests. By informing companies and consumers about societally responsible liberties, well-regulated marketing can spur common goods creation.

Stanton, Julie V.; DeQuero-Navarro, Beatriz; Domegan, Christine; Wooliscroft, Ben

doi: 10.1177/02761467231222536pmid: N/A

In addition to summarizing the articles included in this Special Issue, this editorial introduction provides a content analysis of 22 years of the Journal of Macromarketing with a focus on quantitative studies. Linking the rich foundation of macromarketing scholarship with novel and purposeful quantitative analysis can provide the evidence needed to help convince policymakers to change the system. Yet macromarketing scholarship has not capitalized in this way on its strengths in explaining marketing and societal connections from a macro perspective. As conceptual models are developed, authors should consider how to support quantitative researchers in extending and testing those models, and all macromarketing scholarship should be purposeful in developing future research agendas that continue their important momentum.

Padela, Shoaib M. Farooq; Wooliscroft, Ben; Ganglmair-Wooliscroft, Alexandra

doi: 10.1177/02761467231157616pmid: N/A

This paper presents Systematic Theory Mapping (STM), a comprehensive and systematic method, as the first step toward defining and dealing with complex and wicked problems. Social systems exhibit a messy, multifaceted, and multi-level composite of problems characterized by causal complexities and non-linear interactions of numerous contributing variables. Exploring such a wicked composite of problems for causal explanations and theory building through reductionist empiricism is unrealistic, expensive, and futile. Systems thinking is required to understand the configurations driving wicked problems and navigate their causal complexities. We construed brand externalities as a wicked problem and provided an illustrative example for STM. A systematic narrative review is used to amalgamate diverse stakeholder perspectives and capture the structures and processes that generate brand externalities. System dynamics, employing a causal loop diagram, is used to organize the findings and develop a causal theory of brand externalities. The proposed method can help scholars, managers, and policymakers better define complex managerial and social problems and identify the likely consequences of their actions.

Manis, Kerry T.; Cockrell, Seth; Friske, Wesley

doi: 10.1177/02761467231172157pmid: N/A

Trust has long been recognized as an important component of marketing systems. However, while macromarketing researchers argue that a lack of trust in business can impact other components of marketing systems, very few empirical studies in marketing investigate the determinants or outcomes associated with this type of trust. Accordingly, we begin with the premise that trust in major corporations is a critical, micro-level attitude that affects the performance of a marketing system. Then, we investigate the factors that influence trust in major corporations by analyzing how perceptions of government involvement in business, political ideology, and other attitudinal and demographic variables affect trust. Using hierarchical linear modeling, we find that trust has a curvilinear relationship with perceptions of free-market competition, in which too much trust, or too little, leads to negative perceptions - trust plays a critical mediating role in constructing beliefs about free markets. Additionally, we show that macroeconomic variables influence the first stage of attitude formation toward major corporations, with gross domestic product (GDP) per capita and foreign direct investment (FDI) acting as moderators in our analysis. Overall, the multi-level moderated-mediation model used in this research embodies a true systems approach to the analysis of marketing systems by demonstrating how the economic outcomes of marketing systems (e.g., GDP and FDI) can also have feedback effects on participants within a marketing system.

Krasnikov, Alexander; Shultz, Clifford; Solovyov, Ivan; Haddadi, Mehran; Danilina, Natalia; Leontyev, Daniil; Chaltsev, Vladislav

doi: 10.1177/02761467231179880pmid: N/A

The authors introduce meta-analysis as a compelling tool for macromarketing research in an increasingly complex and data-driven world, and share an example of its application. They synthesize and generalize empirical findings on the relationships between marketing systems (MS) and quality-of-life (QOL), two concepts integral to macromarketing. Results indicate dimensions of MS are positively associated with QOL, suggesting that marketing systems enhance consumer well-being across contexts and metrics. The promotion dimension of MS has the highest correlation with QOL; the strongest positive MS-QOL relationship was estimated for personal health. Measurement, cultural, and socioeconomic factors that affect the strength of MS-QOL relationships also were assessed. Results suggest the association between MS and QOL is stronger in studies based on primary/subjective measures of QOL constructs, in samples drawn from developed economies, and in more indulgent, uncertainty-tolerant, and long-term-oriented cultures. Implications for theory, policy, practice, and opportunities for further research are discussed.

Witkowski, Terrence H.

doi: 10.1177/02761467231220377pmid: N/A

This special issue consists of three articles that examine, in turn, the advertising portrayals of women in recent issues of Guns & Ammo magazine, the morality of firearms as discussed by the creators and consumers of Brazilian social media, and the appropriation of Native American characters and language by major U.S. gun companies.