This book sheds light on the consumption of spiritual products, services, experiences, and places through state-of-the-art studies by leading and emerging scholars in interpretive consumer research, marketing, sociology, anthropology, cultural, and religious studies. The collection brings together fresh views and scholarship on a cultural tension that is at the centre of the lives of countless individuals living in postmodern societies: the relationship between the material and the spiritual, the sacred and the profane. The book examines how a variety of agents - religious institutions, spiritual leaders, marketers and consumers - interact and co-create spiritual meanings in a post-disenchanted society that has been defined as a 'supermarket of the soul.' Consumption and Spirituality examines not only religious organizations, but also brands and marketers and the way they infuse their products, services and experiences with spiritual meanings that flow freely in the circuit of culture and can be appropriated by consumers even without purchase acts. From a consumer perspective, the book investigates how spiritual beliefs, practices, and experiences are now embedded into a global consumer culture. Rather than condemning consumption, the chapters in this book highlight consumers' agency and the creative processes through which authentic spiritual meanings are co-created from a variety of sources, local and global, and sacred and profane alike.

This special issue of Review of Marketing Research is unique in that it contains chapters by marketing legends in their own words. Bagozzi, Hunt, Kotler, Kumar, Malhotra, Monroe, Sheth, Wind and Zaltman summarize not only their research but also the salient aspects of their academic life journeys.

Consumption research is burgeoning across a wide range of disciplines. The Routledge Handbook on Consumption gathers experts from around the world to provide a nuanced overview of the latest scholarship in this expanding field. At once ambitious and timely, the volume provides an ideal map for those looking to position their work, find new analytic insights and identify research gaps. With an intuitive thematic structure and resolutely international outlook, it engages with theory and methodology; markets and businesses; policies, politics and the state; and culture and everyday life. It will be essential reading for students and scholars across the social and economic sciences.

This book focuses on a new type of inclusive consumer decision-making process model (CDM) related to new leading-edge consumers. There have been two main types of CDMs for consumer behavior: one is the stimulus–response model and the other is the information-processing model. The stimulus–response model is applicable when consumers buy low-involvement products, and the information-processing model applies for high-involvement products. Thus consumers’ decision making depends on the involvement level for the products. With the advent of the widespread use of the Internet, however, the situation has changed. Consumers whose information sensitivity is high (i.e., among leading-edge consumers) now use the Internet to search for information even for low-involvement products. The consumers’ decision-making process depends therefore on their information sensitivity, not on the involvement level of the products. Also, these leading-edge consumers become in effect another type of media as they broaden their experience through the Internet. Under these circumstances, research about leading-edge consumers and the introduction of a new CDM is highly significant. This book gathers data about leading-edge consumers, analyzes these data, then proposes a new type of CDM called “circulation marketing”. Following this model, not only the previous types of CDM, but also the new kind of CDM, including share behavior of leading-edge consumers, is explained.

Successful interaction with products, tools and technologies depends on usable designs and accommodating the needs of potential users without requiring costly training. In this context, this book is concerned with emerging ergonomics in design concepts, theories and applications of human factors knowledge focusing on the discovery, design and understanding of human interaction and usability issues with products and systems for their improvement. This book will be of special value to a large variety of professionals, researchers and students in the broad field of human modeling and performance who are interested in feedback of devices’ interfaces (visual and haptic), user-centered design, and design for special populations, particularly the elderly. We hope this book is informative, but even more - that it is thought provoking. We hope it inspires, leading the reader to contemplate other questions, applications, and potential solutions in creating good designs for all.

​ The luxury market has transformed from its traditional conspicuous consumption model to a new experiential luxury sensibility that is marked by a change in how consumers define luxury. In a global context, it is crucial to understand why consumers buy luxury, what they believe luxury is, and how their perception of luxury value impacts their buying behavior. This handbook aims to provide a holistic approach to luxury marketing with respect to the characteristics and the key challenges and opportunities of luxury brand management. Therefore, the multifaceted contributions by authors from different parts of the world will offer both a research and management perspective of luxury marketing and deliver a concentrated body of knowledge with contributions from diverse elements.