摘要:

This article gives an overview of consumer protection issues and the body of scholarly research in the human sciences that addresses these issues. A consumer rights approach is adopted for defining consumer protection issues, and the various articles in this journal issue are briefly described in the context of this approach. Next, overviews are presented of consumer protection issues in the consumer movement, and of consumer protection research relating to consumer behavior and to the societal contexts in which this behavior occurs. Finally, a typology of consumer protection research areas is proposed, based on the human effects of consumer policy initiatives.

ISSN:0022-4537    

DOI:10.1111/j.1540-4560.1991.tb01808.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1991

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

How do consumer problems become transformed into consumer issues? One view is that consumer problems go through three stages. First, they are publicized by the mass media, then they arouse public opinion, and only then are they addressed by public policymakers. A second, less unidirectional view holds that the process is sometimes reversed, with issues originating from policymakers. This article attempts to specify the media, public, and policy agendas so that the two views can be assessed. Evidence from the period of 1960–1987 supports the view that consumer issues began on the policy agenda but then followed the unidirectional pattern of media to public opinion to governmen

ISSN:0022-4537    

DOI:10.1111/j.1540-4560.1991.tb01809.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1991

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

Since the early 20th century, advertising has been a focus of concern for the consumer movement. As advertising itself has changed, it has raised new issues for consumer advocates. Both self‐regulation and external control have been utilized to deal with the consumer problems advertising has presented. With the rise of persuasive national advertising in the Progressive Era, advertising leaders launched a “Truth in Advertising” movement to establish their craft's credibility, but the industry's narrow concept of truth prevented it from dealing with some of the larger issues that advertising raised. State laws and the new Federal Trade Commission (FTC) accompanied this self‐regulation. In the 1920s and 1930s, a consumer movement attacked deceptive advertising, but internal reform was limited. A reinvigorated consumer movement, a more active FTC, and advertising based on market segmentation characterized the 1960s and 1970s, and advertising interests initiated new self‐regulatory procedures in 1971. More recently, deregulation has emerged as a rival method for promoting consumer well‐being. The broadened focus of consumerism suggests that advertising will continue to be a matter of concern for consume

ISSN:0022-4537    

DOI:10.1111/j.1540-4560.1991.tb01810.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1991

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

This paper reviews research on young children's responses to television commercials in the context of the history of attempts to regulate television advertising directed to children. Concern with regulation emerged in the 1960s, when children were recognized as a market in their own right. The few available and relevant empirical studies played a clear role in shaping early Federal Communications Commission (1974) policy. Subsequent research demonstrated that young children have difficulty distinguishing between programs and commercials, that most manifest little or no understanding of commercials' persuasive intent, and that those who do not understand persuasive intent are highly vulnerable to commercial claims and appeals. These findings led the Federal Trade Commission (1978) to attempt to ban television advertising to children too young to understand persuasive intent. However, the history of regulatory attempts demonstrates that research findings are not a dominant influence on policy decisions. Rather, policy is a result of competing value orientations (e.g., protection of the marketplace or protection of the child) and the political maneuvering they engender.

ISSN:0022-4537    

DOI:10.1111/j.1540-4560.1991.tb01811.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1991

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

A review of 28 field‐tested product information programs for consumers revealed the characteristics that distinguish successful from unsuccessful programs. Success in changing purchase or consumption behavior was associated with increases in information benefits and decreases in processing effort. Greater intensity of consumer participation in a program, such as through personal goal setting, also was associated with higher success rates. In contrast, hortatory reminders that neither provided new benefits nor reduced effort costs were unsuccessful. Similarly, a program's magnitude per se was unrelated to its success. We conclude that the design of product information programs should be guided by a cost‐benefit analysis of information use from the consumer's perspect

ISSN:0022-4537    

DOI:10.1111/j.1540-4560.1991.tb01812.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1991

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

Information provision, the favored means of consumer protection in the United States at least since 1906, is an attractive public policy for two primary reasons: (a) information provision allows more choice in the marketplace than does direct regulation, and (b) it is less costly both for the regulators and the regulated. Unfortunately, information policies have unconsidered side effects. First, their effectiveness rests on assumptions that people will read labels, understand them, and act on them. These assumptions are called into question by a wide range of experimental and field data. Second, information policies are generally regressive in impact. Consumers with fewer monetary resources typically also have fewer of the kinds of resources needed to understand and use information. Short‐term solutions include applying results of research to label design, especially using symbols along with words to aid nonreaders of English. Longer term solutions include widespread consumer education concerning labels and product risks as well as decreasing the inequalities among U.S. citizens that contribute to their different abilities to utilize product informatio

ISSN:0022-4537    

DOI:10.1111/j.1540-4560.1991.tb01813.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1991

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

Research on consumer satisfaction, dissatisfaction, and complaining behavior, as a consumer‐protection social issue, began in response to government public policy needs. How it developed into a valuable approach for public policy and private business decision making is the focus of this article. Topics discussed include alternative definitions of satisfaction and dissatisfaction, special groups of vulnerable consumers, situations where satisfaction is legally constrained, and how dissatisfaction can lead to social change. The error of treating dissatisfaction as cognitive rather than emotional is emphasized. Three dissatisfaction outcomes (voice, exit, and retaliation) are described, along with a discussion of longer run consumer grudge holdin

ISSN:0022-4537    

DOI:10.1111/j.1540-4560.1991.tb01814.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1991

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

Drawing on social movement theory, supporters of a social movement can be divided into those seeking benefits for themselves, and those seeking benefits for others or the public at large. In addition, organizational leaders can be divided into volunteers and professionals. Using these distinctions, four organizational categories were created. When this typology was applied to the organizations of the consumer movement, the four categories of organizations were found to differ in their agendas, tactics, and future prospects.

ISSN:0022-4537    

DOI:10.1111/j.1540-4560.1991.tb01815.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1991

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

As consumer‐controlled organizations, cooperatives have played a vanguard role in consumer protection. This article reviews consumer protection programs of the economically strong European cooperatives, and presents examples of protection programs by American cooperatives in two diverse sectors, funerals and foods. Research questions are posed relating to consumer protection and to social psychology. The article ends by examining the future of consumer cooperatives and assessing their potential contributions to their members as well as to consumers at larg

ISSN:0022-4537    

DOI:10.1111/j.1540-4560.1991.tb01816.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1991

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

Although consumer boycotts have been of considerable interest to theorists and practitioners, social scientific knowledge about them is limited. This article seeks to advance scholarly understanding by developing a taxonomy of boycott actions, and by identifying factors believed likely to influence their effectiveness in furthering the consumer interest as well as other interests. The analytical framework draws distinctions between media‐oriented and marketplace‐oriented boycotts as well as those against surrogate targets vs. nonsurrogate targets. The article presents an action‐oriented research agenda and an assessment of the likely future for consumer boycotts in advancing the consumer int

ISSN:0022-4537    

DOI:10.1111/j.1540-4560.1991.tb01817.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1991

数据来源: WILEY