J Consum Policy (2013) 36:197–201 DOI 10.1007/s10603-013-9224-2 BOOK NOTES
Book Notes “Economics and Social Sciences” 2/2013
Published online: 6 April 2013 # Springer Science+Business Media New York 2013
Maurie J. Cohen, Halina Szejnwald Brown, and Philip J. Vergragt (Eds.): Innovations in sustainable consumption. New economics, socio-technical transitions and social practices. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, 2013. ISBN 978-1-78100-125-7. 320pp., GBP 85.00. This edited volume recognizes that traditional policy approaches to reduce human impacts on the environment through technological change—for example, emphasizing resource efficiency and the development of renewable energy sources—are insufficient to meet the most pressing sustainability challenges of the twenty-first century. Instead, the editors and contributors argue that we must fundamentally reconfigure our lifestyles and social institutions if we are to make the transition toward a truly sustainable future. The chapters pinpoint specific areas in which innovation will be required. These include economic policies, socio-technical systems of production and consumption, and dominant social practices. Wesley Cragg (Ed.): Business and human rights. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, 2012. ISBN 978-1-78100-579-7. 352pp., GBP 97.00. Over the last two decades, the relationship between business and human rights has emerged as one of the most pressing issues in the field of business ethics. Do corporations have human rights responsibilities? If so, what is the nature of these responsibilities and do they differ in any significant way from those of governments? Is it reasonable or realistic to expect corporations to respect human rights in environments where governments, particularly in the developing and underdeveloped world, need economic development and have a limited capacity and/or interest in enforcing human rights standards and laws? The chapters take up these questions, examining them from both theoretical and practical perspectives. Topics discussed include the debates leading to the creation of the ISO 26000 standard and the United Nations human rights framework for business entities, as well as the nature and limits of the human rights responsibilities of business, the roles and responsibilities of international trade bodies like the World Trade Organization in protecting human rights, and the implications of the current debate for international trade agreements and trade with China. Dominika Gawlowski: Lebenslange Markenbindung – Bedingungen der Entstehung von Brand Attachment durch Konsumentensozialisation. Hamburg: Dr. Kovač, 2013. ISBN 9783-8300-6874-7. 358pp., EUR 98.80. Great attention is being paid to lifelong brand relationship as more and more companies become aware of the importance of this topic—reflecting the fact that the success of companies depends on repurchases. Moreover, half of the brand relationships across all product categories are created up to the age of 24. Brand attachment can be defined as the strength of the cognitive and affective bond connecting the brand with the self. Consumers can attach to
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brands in almost every product segment—whether for children’s brands, brands that are used by a consumer throughout his lifetime or brands with a future usage. Parents can act as gate keepers and offer the opportunities of consumption for their children. For this reason, companies address parents in order to approach the children. In the context of consumer socialization, parents as socialization agents pass on the brand relationship to their children. Most of the time, this happens through subtle, subconscious social interaction processes. From a marketing perspective, this dissertation focuses on three aspects of brand attachment: First, the differences in the communication of families and the influence on the emotional brand attachment of the children; second, product categories in which brand attachment plays a significant role; and third, the individual differences towards this disposition. Gerd Gigerenzer, Ralph Hertwig, and Thorsten Pachur (Eds.): Heuristics. The foundations of adaptive behavior. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011. ISBN 978-0-19-974428-2. 912pp., GBP 65.00. How do people make decisions when time is limited, information unreliable, and the future uncertain? Based on the work of Nobel laureate Herbert Simon, the Adaptive Behavior and Cognition (ABC) Group at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin has developed a research programme on simple heuristics, also known as fast and frugal heuristics. This reader compiles 40 articles that have been published in journals across many disciplines on such diverse issues as investment, sports, and everyday things—always analysing the role of simple heuristics and the decisions of “homo heuristicus.” In the social sciences, heuristics have been believed to be generally inferior to complex methods for inference, or even irrational. Although this may be true in “small worlds” where everything is known for certain, we show that in the actual world in which we live, full of uncertainties and surprises, heuristics are indispensable and often more accurate than complex methods. Contrary to a deeply entrenched belief, complex problems do not necessitate complex computations. Simple heuristics exploit the information structure of the environment, and thus embody ecological rather than logical rationality. Ulrich Grober: Sustainability: A cultural history. Totnes Devon: Green Books, 2012. ISBN 9780-8578-4045-5. 224pp., GBP 14.95. This book offers a historically rich and nuanced introduction to a concept that could not be of more pressing importance for the twenty-first century: the concept of sustainable development. It shows that sustainability is an age-old aspiration and a concept deeply rooted in human culture—not just a recent invention. Ulrich Grober reassesses the concept of sustainability using a range of historical instances of its application. He considers the vision of men such as Hans Carl von Carlowitz, credited with having first formulated the three pillars of sustainability 300 years ago, namely: environmental equilibrium, economic security, and social justice. The journey takes in Francis of Assisi‘s thirteenth-century Canticle of the Sun, as well as Greek philosophers and Enlightenment scholars. The author reveals that sustainability is always born of crisis and yet also marks the birth of new awareness, a realisation that the planet we live on has to be sustained and preserved for future generations. Richard Hyde, Nathan Groenhout, Francis Barram, and Ken Yeang (Eds.): Sustainable retrofitting of commercial buildings. Warm climates. London: Earthscan, 2012. ISBN 978-184971-291-0. 482pp., GBP 90.00. Despite the recent improvements in energy efficiency being made in new buildings, it is important that the existing commercial building sector also takes action to meet emission reduction targets. The objectives and challenges of such action will reduce the risk of the
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sector becoming obsolete due to high energy use and poor environmental performance. This book presents a theory-based, practice-support methodology to deal with sustainable retrofitting opportunities for existing commercial buildings in warm climates using bioclimatic design as the basis. The book has four main parts, focusing on eco-design and renovation, bioclimatic retrofitting, technological and behavioural change, and case studies of retrofitting exemplars. The latter shows the effectiveness of strategies suggested for effective environmental performance. Daniel Kahnemann: Thinking fast and slow. Harlow: Penguin, 2012. ISBN 978-0-14103357-0. 512pp., GBP 8.99. This bestseller by Nobel laureate Daniel Kahnemann is one of his key books written for a broad readership. Reaching back to his early work with Amos Tversky, he explains how human decision making really works—and why human choices are so often less “rationale” than assumed. The answer lies in the two ways we make choices: fast, intuitive thinking (or system 1), and slow, rational thinking (or system 2). This book reveals how our minds are tripped up by error and prejudice (even when we think we are being logical), heuristics and biases, and provides the reader with practical techniques for slower, smarter thinking. It aims at enabling the reader to make better decisions at work, at home, and in the supermarket. Allan Kimmel: Psychological foundations of marketing. London: Routledge, 2012. ISBN 978-0-415-62001-7. 286pp., GBP 49.99. Psychological Foundations of Marketing considers the impact of psychology on marketing practice and research, and highlights the applied aspects of psychological research in the marketplace. The textbook presents an introduction to both areas, and provides a survey of the various contributions that psychology has made to the field of marketing. Each chapter considers a key topic within psychology, outlines the main theories, and presents various practical applications of the research to marketing practice. Topics covered include: motivation, perception, decision making, personality and lifestyle, and social behaviour and social influence on consumption. Doug McKenzie-Mohr, Nancy R. Lee, P. Wesley Schultz, and Philip Kotler: Social marketing to protect the environment: What works. Thousand Oaks: Sage, 2011. ISBN 9-781-41299129-2. 256pp., USD 47.00. Behaviour change is central to the pursuit of sustainability. This book details how to use community-based social marketing to motivate environmental protection behaviours as diverse as water and energy efficiency, alternative transportation and watershed protection. With case studies of innovative programmes from around the world, including the USA, Canada, Australia, Spain, and Jordan, the authors present a clear process for motivating social change for both residential and commercial audiences. The case studies illustrate conservation applications for both work and home and show how community-based social marketing can be harnessed to foster more sustainable communities. Sabine Plassmann-Weidauer: Die Bedeutung des Preises beim Kauf von Öko-Lebensmitteln: Preiskenntnis und Zahlungsbereitschaft bei Öko-Konsumenten. Hamburg: Dr. Kovač, 2011. ISBN 978-3-8300-5947-9. 270pp., EUR 85.00. The price for organic products is seen as the main barrier for consumers to buy (more) organic products—and hence the most important marketing instrument for suppliers of organic food. The aim of the dissertation was to clarify whether consumers do really react as sensitively
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to the price of organic products as it is often assumed. For this purpose, price knowledge and willingness-to-pay for organic products were analysed. In addition, it was surveyed how far the willingness-to-pay stated in interviews corresponded to the real purchasing behaviour. Interviews with 642 consumers of organic food were carried out in combination with customer observations both in conventional and organic food shops. The results show that price knowledge of organic food consumers is inaccurate and that the willingness-to-pay for organic products is considerably higher than currently assumed. Surprisingly, the majority of organic products were also purchased even when the products did cost more than the buyers had originally been prepared to pay. The results challenge the current argument that the price for organic food is a main barrier for buying organic products. Even though price-related aspects affect a consumer’s purchasing behaviour, the importance of product prices is put into perspective even during the shopping act by additional product information. Recommendations for a consumer-oriented marketing of organic products are derived. Anneke von Raggamby and Frieder Rubik (Eds.): Sustainable development, evaluation and policy-making. Theory, practise and quality assurance. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, 2012. ISBN 978-0-85793-254-9. 336pp., GBP 80.00. This reader is structured according to the policycycle, highlighting different functions that evaluation can play in its phases. Analysing the relationships between sustainability and assessment, the perception of sustainability problems are presented and the role of evaluation and assessment studies during policy formulation and policy implementation is discussed. Policy reformulation is also explored, including monitoring and quality improvement schemes. The book contributes to the discourse of evidence-based policy-making and its assessment. It does so by combining the two issues of policy evaluation and sustainable development linking both to the policy-cycle. Providing theoretic insights, reflections, and case studies, the book concludes by addressing the quality and impact of evaluations. Joachim Scholderer and Karen Brunsø (Eds.): Marketing, food and the consumer. Festschrift in honour of Klaus G. Grunert. Harlow: Pearson, 2013. ISBN 978-1-7827-3526-7. EUR 30.00. In this Festschrift honouring Klaus Grunert, the editors compile a wide range of contributions from consumer researchers who are active in the field of marketing, food, and the consumer in general and who collaborate with MAPP (Centre for Research on Customer Relations in the Food Sector) at Aarhus School of Business in particular. The 12 chapters of this reader are organized in four parts: the history of MAPP; product quality and the consumer; market orientation; labelling and information, including “nudging” as a new policy tool. The reader also features an overview of Klaus Grunert’s work. Joel Waldfogel: Scroogenomics. Why you shouldn't buy presents for the holidays. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2009. ISBN 978-0-6911-4264-7. 186pp., USD 9.95. Scroogenomics illustrates how consumer spending for holiday gifts generates vast amounts of economic waste. Economist Joel Waldfogel provides explanations to show us why it's time to think twice before buying gifts for the holidays which are very often not appreciated. His basic argument goes like this: When we buy for ourselves, every dollar we spend produces at least a dollar in satisfaction, because we shop carefully and purchase items that are worth more than they cost. Gift giving is different. We make less-informed choices, max out on credit to buy gifts worth less than the money spent, and leave recipients less than satisfied, creating what Waldfogel calls "deadweight loss." This waste is not confined to Americans; however, most major economies share in this “orgy of wealth destruction.” While recognizing the difficulties of altering current trends, Waldfogel offers gift-giving alternatives.
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Victoria Wells and Gordon Foxall (Eds.): Handbook of developments in consumer behaviour. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, 2012. ISBN 978-1-84980-244-4. 624pp., GBP 165.00. This handbook examines the area of consumer behaviour from the perspective of current developments and developing areas for the discipline, to new opportunities that comprehend the nature of consumer choice and its relationship to marketing. Consumer research incorporates perspectives from a spectrum of long-established sciences: psychology, economics, and sociology. Including more recent fields in consumer research, the handbook is organized in five parts featuring 15 chapters: consumer culture, consumers in context, consumer impulsivity and compulsiveness, neuroscience and consumer choice, and consumer behaviour in an evolutionary perspective. John Young: Hunger, thirst, sex and sleep: How the brain controls our passions: Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2012. ISBN 978-1-4422-1823-9. 161pp., USD 39.95. Sensations of hunger, thirst, sexual attraction, and love can dominate our thoughts to the exclusion of almost everything else, but until the last 10 years or so, the precise reasons why these passions arise have not been understood very well. We now know that these, and other drives like the urge to sleep, are controlled by a small portion of the brain called the hypothalamus. This book presents the latest information about how the brain controls our most basic drives in an accessible language. Michael Zwick, Jürgen Deuschle, and Ortwin Renn (Eds.): Übergewicht und Adipositas bei Kindern. Heidelberg: Springer, 2011. ISBN 978-3-531-17568-3. 324pp., EUR 29.95. Overweight and obesity among children and adolescents have become a social problem, also in Germany, which requires new approaches in research and practice. The book is based on an interdisciplinary research project. It encompasses articles from sociology, philosophy, epidemiology, physiology, psychology, biography research, economics, and risk research that deal with obesity in various theoretical and multi-methodical ways. The main results are summarized from the perspective of systemic risk research. The contributions provide new insights and recommendations that may contribute to a better understanding, coping, and prevention of juvenile obesity. Particularly where the empirical results refer to possible preventive measures, the authors intend to leave the academic discourse and to extend the discussion on obesity to interest groups and the public.
