Business School

Consumer behaviour

This research stream focuses on the study of consumers and consumption-related issues. Contemporary issues include consumers’ experiences and responses to marketing communications, packaging, design and companies’ social responsibility efforts, and the impact of the computer-mediated environment.

Research in these areas encompasses the following domains:

Consumers in the digital environment
How the digital environment differs from the physical environment and how digital technology affects relationships with consumers.
Consumers’ responses to marketing communications
How consumers read advertising texts, process advertising messages, and respond to messages embedded in entertainment content.
Consumers’ experience of shopping
How consumers construct the shopping experience, what motivates their shopping behaviour, and what happens when their expectations are disconfirmed.
Consumers’ experience of possessions and place
How do ritual, possession meaning, and self-conceptualisation influence consumers’ attachments to possessions and places?
Ethics and corporate social responsibility (CSR)
How consumers react to companies’ CSR efforts.