Journal of Consumer Psychology: The Official Journal of The Society for Consumer Psychology

Abstract

This is the last issue featuring articles accepted by the editorial team under the editorship of Durairaj Maheswaran. During the tenure of this editorial team (2005–2008), the team has published 12 Research Dialogues and around 70 articles. The Research Dialogue section, which was originally scheduled to appear in every alternate issue, grew dramatically under the guidance and initiative of Norbert Schwarz and became a regular feature. The Research Dialogue section started with a discussion on “The Horizontal/Vertical Distinction in Cross-Cultural Consumer Research” (Shavitt, Lalwani, Zhang & Torelli, 2006; Shavitt, Zhang, Torelli, Lalwani, 2006) and culminates in this issue with a discussion on Self and Identity (Oyserman 2009a, 2009b). The Research Dialogue section was able to fulfill its primary mission of featuring research topics from Psychology that were novel to consumer behavior, but highly relevant to the research in this domain: Self regulation (Bauemeister, 2008; Baumeister, Sparks, Stillman, & Vohs, 2008), Regret regulation (Inman, 2007; Pieters & Zeelenberg, 2007; Zeelenberg & Pieters, 2007), Cognitive appraisal (Han, Lerner & Keltner, 2007; Lerner, Han & Keltner, 2007), and Self-image motives (Dunning, 2007a, 2007b). Many researchers from the field of Psychology enthusiastically contributed their views on emerging research topics (Gollwitzer & Oettingen, 2008; Liberman, Trope & Wakslak, 2007; Trope, Liberman & Wakslak, 2007). Interestingly, as the relevance and contribution of the Research Dialogue section came to be recognized in the field, several consumer related researchers have come forward to present their ideas on topics that are unique to the consumer in the applied settings: “Question – Behavior Effect” explored the consequences of asking questions on subsequent behavior in a public health context (Fitzsimons & Moore, 2008; Sherman, 2008; Spangenberg, Greenwald & Sprott, 2008). Most important, some of the Research Dialogues such as CLT were able to stimulate follow up research in their domains (Kim & John, 2008). The enormous contribution of Norbert Schwarz to the field in consistently presenting a wide variety of topics and bringing various well-known scholars together is gratefully acknowledged. The research articles featured during this period covered a large array of topics that represented several research domains in social psychology and consumer behavior. The primary focus of most research that appeared was on demonstrating substantive phenomenon of theoretical interest such as meta-cognition (Rucker, Petty & Brinol, 2008), Implicit theories (Hung & Wyer, 2008), and analytic versus holistic thinking (Monga & John, 2008). Also, several articles examined normatively ambiguous behavior such as buying embarrassing products or engaging in embarrassing behavior (Lau-Gesk & Drolet, 2008), and gratuitous sex appeals (Sengupta & Dahl, 2008). In addition, emerging research that extends consumer behavior principles in to new contexts such as art (Hagtvedt & Patrick, 2008) also figured in the portfolio of published articles. Apart from substantive research, several articles that addressed methodological issues such as scale development (Dimofte & Yalch, 2007) and analytical procedures (Iacobucci, Saldanha, & Deng, 2007) were also published. Finally, mention must be made of two articles that addressed very unique social issues such as poverty (Charkravarti, 2006) and illiteracy (Viswanathan, Torelli, Xia & Gau, 2009). One of my objectives at the Journal of Consumer Psychology was to work with young scholars, especially during the early stages of their career and help them develop a viable and rigorous stream of research. The editorial team has worked with several doctoral students and their advisors to help them publish their work in the journal. The young scholars represent the cutting edge of knowledge development and the Journal of Consumer Psychology was proud to participate in the process of emerging and potentially impactful research. Three of these articles were selected for the JCP Young Contributor award (Shen & Wyer, 2008; Kramer & Song-Oh, 2007; Yoon, Gurhan-Canli & Schwarz, 2006). I wish the new editorial team headed by C.W. Park great success in furthering the mission of the Journal of Consumer Psychology and continuing to advance our understanding of Consumer Behavior.