Browsing by Author "Foxall, Gordon R."
Now showing 1 - 10 of 10
Results Per Page
Sort Options
Item Open Access Cognitive style and consumer innovativeness(Cranfield School of Management, 1986) Foxall, Gordon R.; Haskins, ChristopherThe identification of consumer innovators offers marketing managers the opportunity to tailor new products to the buyers who initiate the diffusion of innovations. Progress has been made in identifying such consumers in economic and social terms, but there are advantages of cost and convenience in isolating the personality profiles of innovators, especially during prelaunch product testing. But innovative consumers' distinctive personality traits have proved elusive. This paper reports an investigation of innovative brand choice in the context of new food product purchasing which employed the Adaption-Innovation Inventory (KAI). This highly reliable test of cognitive style correlates with several personality traits known to be associated with innovativeness; it also has high validity in the prediction of behaviour over a wide range of contexts. The research reported went beyond the common expectation of a simple, direct relationship between personality and brand choice to investigate the predictive validity of the KAI over a range of product continuity/discontinuity. The results are considerably more encouraging than those of earlier research for the identification of personality/consumer choice links. They suggest an operational measure of product continuity/discontinuity and support the use of the KAI as a viable marketing tool.Item Open Access Consumer theory:Some considerations of a behavioural analysis of choice(Cranfield School of Mangement, 1987) Foxall, Gordon R.The dominant paradigm for consumer research in the context of marketing is "cognitive information processing'. The fundamental assumption of this frame of reference is that observable behaviour is necessarily preceded by intrapersonal mental events which also so serve to explain that behaviour. So strongly entrenched is this paradigm that models of consumer choice derived within it readily accommodate critical viewpoints, absorb and assimilate even antithetical models of man such as that presented by radical behaviourism. Behaviourism has been misinterpreted and misrepresented by consumer researchers who have adopted a cognitively-based mode of explanation to the -exclusion of all others. This paper raises the question of how scientific progress is possible in consumer psychology, given the preeminence of this explanatory mode. It argues that cognitive information processing explanations should be subjected deliberately and systematically to a rigorous critique based upon the contrasting assumptions about the causes of behaviour which are found in alternative perspectives. Particular attention is drawn to the potential contribution which radical behaviourism might make in this respect and its role is illustrated through discussion of the explanation of consumer innovativeness.Item Open Access Consumers' intentions and behaviour: A note on research and a challenge to researchers(Cranfield School of Management, 1983) Foxall, Gordon R.This paper examines the widespread attempts of market researchers to predict aspects of consumer choice on the basis of survey respondents' verbally-expressed intentions to buy. In particular, it assesses the Fishbein behavioural intentions model which represents the most sophisticated technique available for such work. Theoretical, experimental and practical evidence is advanced to demonstrate the futility of employing models which assume linear continuity between intentions an behaviour in the predications of many managerially-relevant aspects of consumer behaviour,notably brand choice. the major purpose of the paper is the identification of an important source of weakness in theassumptions which underpin current market research practice. the concluding section draws attention to the need for viable altenatives.Item Open Access Contra-indications of science in advertising research(Cranfield School of Management, 1986) Driver, John C.; Foxall, Gordon R.Opinions differ about the application of scientific method to advertising research. The nature of scientific enquiry is also frequently disputed. Against this background basic views of science are discussed in connection with advertising research. Apparently the advertising community largely disregards the results of such research and adheres to beliefs which are plausible but unsubtantiated. This is demonstrated in the two cases of cognitive models of consumer response and advertisers' quest for the optimal budget. In this paper these contra-indicators of science are set in the context of advertising management.Item Open Access 'Customer-developed innovation' : Conceptual extension and empirical research(Cranfield School of Management, 1985) Foxall, Gordon R.This paper offers a critique of von Hippel's 'customer-active paradigm' of industrial innovation. Whilst acknowledge that this perspective offers a step forward from the previous assumption that manufacturers alone were responsible for product innovation, the paper arques for the conceptual extension of the new paradigm. The possibility of users being directly invovled in product innovation should be unambigiously included in the reconceptualisqation of customer-developed innovation. To the extent of their being entrepreneurially aware of new product oppurtunities, users may initiatethe process of product innovation,not only by producing ideas and designs but by the collection of marketing intelligence to rreduce the uncertainties of the commercial exploitation of innovations. Their doing so is evidence of this active involvement in product innovation and disconfirms the essentially passive role in that process assumed by the customer-active paradigm.Item Open Access Ethical purchase behaviour and social responsibility in business(Cranfield University, 1985-10) Smith, N. Craig; Foxall, Gordon R.This thesis is about the decisions made in markets: whether decisions and what decisions are made by consumers. It isa study in consumer sovereignty and particularly In the way this may be used In ensuring social responsibility In business. Pressure group influence on purchase behaviour, particularly in the use or threat of consumer boycotts, suggests an extension of consumer sovereignty beyond its mere technical meaning within economics to a more literal meaning. Consumer authority in the marketplace may not simply refer to the more immediate characteristics of the offering such as product features or price but, as boycotts show, other charac- teristics such as whether the firm has investments in South Africa. Consumer boycotts are but the most manifest and organised form of purchase behaviour influenced by ethical concerns. Yet ethical purchase behaviour, although found in many markets, is largely unre- cognised In the literature. The novelty of this topic and the perspective on consumer sovereignty entailed an emphasis on conceptualisation in the research. The nature of capitalism and consumer sovereignty, the ideology of marketing, the problem of the social control of business, and pressure groups in the political process and their strategies and tactics, are explored to develop an argument which supports the notion of ethical purchase behaviour. A model is proposed identifying a role for pressure groups In the marketing system, explaining ethical purchase behaviour at the micro level by recognising negative product augmentation. Survey research and case studies support the model and the argument. Guidelines for action are proposed for pressure groups and business, suggesting both seek to influence a legitimacy element in the marketing mix. At a more conceptual level, consumer sovereignty is shown to offer potential for ensuring social responsibility in busi - ness. Of the three mechanisms for social control of business, the market may be used to greater effect through ethical purchase beha- vi our. However, consumer sovereignty requires choice as well as information. Pressure groups may act as a countervailing power by providing the necessary information, but competition is essential for choice. Consumer sovereignty Is the rationale for capitalism, the political- economic system in the West. This study questions the basis of such a system if political or ethical, as well as economic decisions, are not made by consumers in markets. Hence the argument for ethical purchase behaviour becomes an argument for capitalism.Item Open Access Evidence for attitudinal-behaviour consistency:Implications for consumer research paradigms(Cranfield School of Management, 1983-10-20) Foxall, Gordon R.Evidence is presented in this paper to show that the view ofmarketing communications effects promulgated by numerous marketing, advertising and consumer behaviour texts and journals should be questioned. This is the portrayal of advertising, in particular, as strongly persuasive, a pre-purchase influence which acts upon purchase behaviour by first operating upon and modifying mental attitudes. The latent process conception of attitude upon which this perspective is founded lacks convincing empirical support. Situational rather than inner-state variables appear to mediate behaviour and may require prior importance in explicative and predictive accounts of consumer choice. Recognitive of this would require a probability conception of the attitude construct which would have profound implications for consumer research and marketing management. Above all, it suggests that an alternative psychological paradigm might be accorded a more central place investigations of consumer behaviour.Item Open Access Item Open Access Marketing strategy in corporate context(Cranfield School of Management, 1986) Foxall, Gordon R.; Driver, John C.There is a growing body of thought - reflected in a burgeoning literature - which champions the benefits of 'strategic marketing' as a means of corporate salavation. This article seks to put marketing into its correct corporate context - not as the ultimate locus of strategic planning and action, but as a managerical function concerned with the implementation of a philosophy of creating profitable customer satisfaction. The article argues that currently-fashionable excesses among those who apparently seek the aggrandisement of the marketing function make necessary this re-affirmation of the role of marketing management.Item Open Access Optimal advertising:Adstock and beyond(Cranfield School of Mangement, 1986) Driver, John C.; Foxall, Gordon R.Decision-makers are frequently exhorted to employ `scientific' budgeting techniques based on the marginal logic of formal economic analysis; some have claimed success in this regard. Yet survey data continue to reveal that most managers in practice use various combinations of ad hoc and, at best, quasi-systematic methods of budget determination. This paper examines the theoretical basis of the prescribed marginal approach and argues that it is generally incapable of implementation given unresolved specification problems in the incorporation of measures of cumulative advertising effect and the behavioural definition of the advertising process.