Recherche et Applications en Marketing (English Edition)

This research defines ultimate time pressure (UTP) as the consciousness of a limited time remaining to live (due to proximity of death) and related feelings. UTP is a new type of time pressure, which differs from chronic time pressure (CTP) and situational time pressure (STP). The objective is to construct a measurement scale, the nomological validity of which will then be used to test the impact of UTP on retirees’ motivations to volunteer. Quantifying this influence is important because it will enable us to move away from using ‘free time’ as the main criteria in the recruitment and retention of volunteers from this target population.

The aim of this article is to understand how objects circulate between people who deposit them on the sidewalk (disposers), especially on “bulky item” collection (BIC) days and those who retrieve them (gleaners). Analysis of representations of 17 disposers and/or gleaners reveals three forms of sociality: (1) charitable donation (or disposing of items out of a wish to pass them on to other people), (2) balanced reciprocity (in which disposers and gleaners both view BIC as a system for the circulation of objects), and (3) generalized reciprocity (in which the desire to pool possessions is augmented by the wish to combat waste). The findings also reveal that the anonymity of the context leads disposers and gleaners to intersecting interpretations of what the other party is doing (for whom and why), which fuel and sometimes temper these forms of sociality. The findings add to the existing literature on disposition/gleaning by uncovering the forms of sociality at work between strangers in public space and the distinctive and anonymous circulation of objects resulting from them. The findings are also of relevance to public actors regarding the issues arising for waste management.

This research aims at understanding the role of market offers constructing a stigmatised identity for consumers with disabilities; it further underlines the conditions under which these consumers may manage this stigma effectively. After a literature review focused on stigmatised identity construction through a symbolic interactionist perspective, the authors describe a qualitative study carried out with motor-disabled consumers. The results illustrate how both standard offers and those specially designed for the motor disabled lead to a dead end that contributes to stigmata construction. They also point out how these consumers manage to develop other identities.

This article presents the protocol of online multi-image elicitation (OMIE) in an effort to evaluate its methodological contributions – using an example – and analyse its effectiveness as a marketing research technique. We will outline the theoretical and epistemological foundations of this mixed method approach, as well as the principles underpinning its development and the analytical possibilities available. We will show how this hybrid mechanism combines the appeal of an interpretive protocol using both images and text, while at the same time generating – on a large scale – rich- and good-quality data that can be used for statistical purposes. We will see that OMIE is suitable for analysing the experiential and emotional components of consumption.

Goudey and Bonnin provide an important demonstration of our willingness to accept robots regardless of the degree to which they look like us. This comment seeks to expand their insights in two ways. First, by broadening our conception of what constitutes a robot, I argue that we have already accepted many non-humanoid robots, and that even robotic entities without a visual presence can be compelling and engaging. Second, I suggest expanding the original paper’s psychological treatment of category ambiguity through the anthropological treatment of Mary Douglas. Douglas suggests that category ambiguity is abhorrent because things perceived to transgress categorical boundaries challenge our cultural beliefs and social order. In the case of robots, the beliefs that are challenged are our basic understandings of what makes humans unique and privileged in the world. As machines grow more and more capable, by some accounts they threaten to eclipse and even supplant the human race. I identify several behavioral and ethical research issues that are imperative if we are to deal with and prepare for such possibilities.