Das Journal of Consumer Policy sucht wissenschaftliche Beiträge zum Thema “Consumer Socialization, Buying Decisions and Consumer Behavior in Children”, Submission deadline: October 31, 2012
Call for papers – Journal of Consumer Policy
Special Issue “Consumer Socialization, Buying Decisions and Consumer Behavior in Children”
JCP Editor: Lucia A. Reisch, Copenhagen Business School, Denmark
Guest Editors:
Hanna Schramm-Klein, University of Siegen, Germany,
Gunnar Mau, Shoppermetrics, Hamburg, Germany & University of Siegen, Germany
This is a call for papers on the consumption and buying behavior of children and adolescents for a forthcoming special issue of the Journal of Consumer Policy.
Research has shown that children lack the cognitive development and social experience to process marketing communications with the sophistication of adults. This is because cognitive and affective abilities mature over the years from birth to adolescence. The negative impact of this immaturity is exacerbated by the fact that children lack the knowledge and wealth of experience of adults in the context of buying decisions and this is a matter of particular concern when the trade or the manufacturer seeks to influence those buying decisions. It is only once they have grown up that children acquire the knowledge and experience to equip them for their role as market participants and to understand the rules of the consumer environment.
Understanding how children develop is important to retailers and manufacturers. Children are exposed to many marketing messages. An increasing amount of advertising is targeted directly at them and a large number of products are specifically devised for purchase by children. Children also have a major influence on the buying decisions of parents or grandparents.
This situation has increasingly encouraged research to address the issue of how children consume goods and services and how they make their buying decisions. Of particular importance has been how children acquire the skills to use the market offerings based on their own objectives and needs and under what circumstances children are in need of protection.
Results are available from a wide range of disciplines as researchers from marketing and consumer research, psychology, medical science, sociology, economics and science of education have all examined the topic.
This Special Issue seeks to collate the findings of the different research perspectives and thus to promote future research in the field.
Research questions and topics that may be addressed include but are not limited to:
- How do children consume goods and services and how do they make their buying decisions?
- Under what circumstances does the state of development of a child lead to her/him making poor buying or consumer decisions?
- What role do parents, teachers, peers, other interest groups, media, advertising and marketing communication play in consumer socialization?
- How can children, parents, teachers and other interest groups receive support in helping children to make buying decisions based on their own needs and objectives?
- What can or should statutory regulations or political instruments (such as taxes) do to help children make informed buying decisions?
- Are there findings on trends or long-term changes in children’s consumer behavior or consumer socialization?
- What is the legal status of children and how does this affect them as consumers?
We welcome all types of papers – empirical studies as well as conceptual papers and literature reviews which offer strong frameworks for research programs, content analyses, surveys, experiments and in-depth interviews or other qualitative methods.
All papers should bear a clear relation to children’s consumption or buying behavior and should explicitly address the implications of findings on consumer policy. We also suggest that submissions refer to seminal research on the topic published in earlier issues of JCP.
Submission Requirements & Information
Submissions have to follow the manuscript format guidelines for the Journal of Consumer Policy. Further details regarding submission are available at the journal website.
For inquiries please contact the Journal’s Editor in Chief, Prof. Dr. Lucia Reisch.
Submission deadline: October 31, 2012