New study explains how time influences consumer behaviour
TORONTO – Thursday, August 12, 2021 – Time is a key structural component of our lives and of the universe. It is therefore no surprise that consumers and marketers alike engage with the multiple orientations of time – the past, the present, and the future – in their daily consumption choices and marketplace activities.
A study recently published in the Journal of Consumer Research shows exactly how time is a cultural consumption resource. Specifically, it introduces the concept of consumer timework to capture the different ways marketplace stakeholders negotiate competing interpretations of how the past and the future relate using a wide range of consumption objects and activities.
This research was undertaken by Schulich School of Business Associate Professor Ela Veresiu in collaboration with Assistant Professors Thomas Derek Robinson from the Business School formerly Cass at City, University of London and Ana Babic Rosario from the University of Denver’s Daniels College of Business.
The co-authors argue that social tensions, conflicts, and breaks drive the past and the future apart in multiple incompatible ways that individuals and societies must contend with. In response, they identify four strategies of consumer timework. For example, one such strategy involves nostalgic consumption, which brings up the past through rose-coloured glasses.
“Our work directly responds to an observed decline in theoretical contributions in the marketing and consumer research. In this paper, we not only realign existing ideas on time and consumption, but also offer detailed future research directions,” said Veresiu.
You can read the full article here: Consumer Timework.
Ela Veresiu is available for interviews about the findings.