salt – sustainability lead users
1. Exploring expected benefits of conventional lead users in the online community Automotive Forum
Content:
The focus of this study consists of exploring what kind of benefits lead users in a conventional innovation field expect from their innovative activity. The theoretical framework revolves around von Hippel’s concept of lead-user theory.
Method:
Netnography (content analysis via MaxQDA) and semi-structured open interviews
Contact person:
Krystallia Moysidou
2. Exploring expected benefits of conventional lead users in the online community DIYnot Building Forum
Content:
The focus of this study consists of exploring what kind of benefits lead users in a conventional innovation field expect from their innovative activity. The theoretical framework revolves around von Hippel’s concept of lead-user theory.
Method:
Netnography (content analysis via MaxQDA) and semi-structured open interviews
Contact person:
Krystallia Moysidou
3. Exploring expected benefits of sustainability lead users in the online community Green Building Forum
Content:
The focus of this study consists of exploring what kind of benefits lead users in a sustainability innovation field – green building, expect from their innovative activity. The theoretical framework revolves around von Hippel’s concept of lead-user theory as well as the concept of socially conscious consumers.
Method:
Netnography (content analysis via MaxQDA) and semi-structured open interviews
Contact person:
Krystallia Moysidou
4. Eco-villagers as lead users? An empirical study
Content:
Eco-villages are often at the forefront of sustainable technologies in their attempt to minimize their ecological footprint. Therefore we may expect that (some) eco-villagers can be considered sustainability lead-users. In an ethnographic study, you are supposed to live a few days within an eco-village and explore the characteristics of sustainability lead users via ethnographic methods
Method:
Ethnography (e.g. Interviews, Observations, Focus Groups etc)
Contact person:
Frank-Martin Belz
5. Characteristics of lead-users in offline automotive communities (e.g. hobby car clubs, tinkering clubs)
Content:
The focus of this study consists of exploring what kind of benefits lead users in an offline community expect from their innovative activity. The theoretical framework revolves around von Hippel’s concept of lead-user theory.
Method:
Qualitative Research: Interviews, Observations, Focus Groups
Contact person:
Roxana Codita
6. Socially-Conscious Consumers: A Literature Review
Content:
The objective of this paper is to review and systemize the broad literature on the socially-conscious consumer, defined as “a consumer who takes into account the public consequences of his or her private consumption or who attempts to use his or her purchasing power to bring about social change” (Webster 1975, 188). As the definition implies, socially-conscious consumers may take up various social issues, thus covering a broad range of social behavior (literature) including “green consumption”, “ethical consumption”, “moral consumption”, “sustainable consumption”, “ecological/ environmental responsible/ conscious consumer behavior”. A special focus should be put on the dilemma arising from the conflict between immediate individual gains and long-term collective interests and on the motivations arising from this conflict.
Systematic literature review:
A systematic review is a literature review focused on a research question that tries to identify, appraise, select and synthesize all high quality research evidence relevant to that question. Fink (2005, p. 3) defines a research literature review as “a systematic, explicit,[comprehensive, (p. 17)] and reproducible method for identifying, evaluating, and synthesizing the existing body of completed and recorded work produced by researchers, scholars, and practitioners.” The review should include journals from the VHB Ranking 2011 with A+, A, B, and C rating since the 1970s.
Introductory readings:
Socially-conscious consumer behavior
Anderson, W.T. & Cunningham, W.H. (1972) The socially conscious consumer. Journal of Marketing, 36, 23–31.
Antil, J.H. (1984) Socially responsible consumers: profile and implications for public policy. Journal of Macromarketing, 4, 18–39.
Jagdish N. Sheth, Nirmal K. Sethia, Shanthi Srinivas (2011). Mindful consumption: a customer-centric approach to sustainability. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 39:1, 21-39.
Moisander, J. (2007). Motivational complexity of green consumerism. International Journal of Consumer Studies, 31, 404–409.
Newholm, T. & Shaw, D. (2007) Studying the ethical consumer: a review of research. Journal of Consumer Behaviour, 6, 253–270.
Peattie, K., & Collins, A. (2009). Guest editorial: Perspectives on sustainable consumption. International Journal of Consumer Studies, 33, 107–112.
Stern, P.C. , Dietz, T. , Kaloff, L. and Guagnano, G.A. (1995) Values, Beliefs, and Proenvironmental Action: Attitude Formation Toward Emergent Attitude Objects. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 25(18): 1611–1636
Webster, F.E. (1975) Determining the characteristics of the socially conscious consumer. Journal of Consumer Research, 2, 188–196.
Method:
Cooper, H. (1998) Synthesizing Research. A guide for literature reviews, 3rd edition (Thousand Oaks, CA, Sage).
Fink, A. (2005). Conducting Research Literature Reviews: From the Internet to Paper (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, California: Sage Publications.
http://www.gse.harvard.edu/library/services/research_instruction/litreviewguides530.html
Contact person:
Roxana Codita
sun – sustainability niches
1. Testing the influence of perceived product attributes upon the adoption of sustainability innovations.
Content:
In a first step you are expected to screen the literature for measures/ scales of perceived product attributes (see Rogers 2005). Based on the identified scales you are to develop/ design an online questionnaire (via unipark), which you will pre-test in a selected online community. The reliability and validity of the tested scales is to be evaluated via qualitative and quantitative (statistical, i.e. exploratory/ confirmatory factor analysis) methods.
Method:
Mainly quantitative (SPSS), but also some qualitative methods.
Contact person:
Roxana Codita