Concerned market innovations acknowledge that businesses can no longer be driven by profitability alone and have to integrate non-economic values and collective concerns. Studying the evolution of such an innovation – a mobile phone recovery and recycling scheme – we find that social concerns enter the market and are integrated into its functioning through representational, exchange and normative practices. The integration of social concerns in the market results in the transformation of these practices so that they better fit the marketplace but lose their original form. Consequently, the representational, exchange and normative practices remain confined to society rather than being permanently integrated into and having a profound impact on the marketplace.
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This research develops a new conceptual framework based on use intention for classifying purchases. Accordingly, it moves past the dominant material vs. experiential dichotomy as well as adding a third purchase type: activity engagement purchases, which are defined as purchases that support sustained consumer activities overtime. This new typology is empirically examined to understand how different purchase types contribute to consumer happiness. Activity engagement purchases emerge as a conceptually and empirically distinct type of purchase that consumers can readily classify and recall. Activity engagement purchases also generate greater happiness than material or experiential ones – which is found to be driven by their ability to fulfill consumers’ competency needs and facilitate value expression.
- Research
- Marketing, Sales and Communication