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- Autio, Minna, et al.
(författare)
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Understanding co-consumption between consumers and their pets
- 2016
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Ingår i: International Journal of Consumer Studies. - : Wiley. - 1470-6423 .- 1470-6431. ; 40:1, s. 125-131
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Pets live with people; they participate in people’s everyday life activities and are often seen as human-like family members. Consumers in the industrialized countries are investing more money in their pets and spending more time with them than ever before. The pet and the owner can even be considered to form a unit that consumes together. In this article, we develop a conceptual understanding of co-consumption by examining how pets act as co-consumers in everyday consumption. The pet owner and pet have joint consumption experiences in which they interact with other actors such as service providers. The consumer (pet owner) consumes because of the pet, meaning that he or she constantly needs to take the pet into account in choices and activities beyond petrelated consumption, such as what kind of car to buy, where to work, whom to marry and how to live. The co-consumer (pet) also acts as an active agent who experiences, feels, suffers and likes the goods and services that the consumer buys for the pet. Reciprocally, the pet provides the consumer (pet owner) with companionship, support and a boost to wellbeing. As such, our research suggests that co-consumption provides an understanding not only of consumption with pets but also of other contexts, especially those in which the aim is shared well-being such as consumption together with children, the disabled or the elderly.
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| 2. |
- Hakala, Inkeri, et al.
(författare)
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Young Finnish and German Consumers’ Furniture Acquisition – Wooden, Inherited or Just Low Price?
- 2015
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Ingår i: International Journal of Consumer Studies. - : Wiley. - 1470-6423 .- 1470-6431. ; 39:5, s. 445-451
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Home decorating is an arena to build up identity and reflect individual taste. Home also represents people's lifestyles and culturally defined aesthetic values and norms. In our study, we focus on the procurement of furniture amongst young Finnish and German consumers who are in the life phase of building up their homes. We study more specifically which aspects of furniture are meaningful for them, and what kind of furniture they consider most valuable for them. Our study shows that for consumers in both countries, visual appearance, price and quality are the most important aspects in furniture acquisition, followed by functionality and ecological aspects. They picture wooden furniture as aesthetic, ecological, durable and expensive. To express their stance towards environmental and ethical values, and because of budgetary reasons, young consumers favour second-hand, inherited and recycled furniture instead of eco-labelled furniture. Consumers also stress the productivity in the process of creating something new. It seems that recycled or inherited furniture appears as a safe ground for young adults struggling to meet their contradictory economic and environmentally sound ideals. A global retailer Ikea represents for young people convenience, availability, low price and youthful design as well as globally shared metaphor for discussing furniture choices and values in live.
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| 3. |
- Holmberg, Ulrika, 1966, et al.
(författare)
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Young consumer identity in a restrictive school environment — Addictive substances, symbolic goods and consumer skills
- 2016
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Ingår i: Children and youth services review. - : Elsevier BV. - 0190-7409. ; 68, s. 100-106
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- For young people, consuming is an act of constructing identity, where goods, services and styles are important parts of signifying who they are. Our study focuses on young people who are living in restrictive environments, such as special boarding schools. They have been placed there because of social and educational reasons. Although aspects of education and health of young people in out-of-home care have been studied, their consumer behavior has been given limited attention. Our study shows that young people openly report the use of addictive substances such as cigarettes, alcohol, drugs as well as gambling. They also build up their consumer identity by appreciating symbolic goods, such as clothes, music and sport. Spending on expensive clothes serves their favorable self-image. The fact that the schools provide all their essential needs makes the learning of consumer skills challenging although the schools reinforce management skills such as planning the use of money. Young people struggle with their identities at the borders of their school environment (i.e. education, school discipline) and the temptations of consumer culture. Even if they manage to break their damaging life path, they will be consumers throughout their life, meaning their consumer skills need to be strengthened by special education.
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