Consumer Vulnerability: Advancing a multidisciplinary perspective of vulnerability
Guest Editors: Jessica Wyllie, The University of Newcastle; Jamie Carlson, The University of Newcastle; Ranjit Voola, The University of Sydney; Tania Sourdin, The University of Newcastle.
The deadline for submissions has now passed.
This special issue aims to extend the conceptual, methodological and practical understanding of consumer vulnerability and to identify opportunities to facilitate consumers in overcoming vulnerability. The guest editors are interested in papers that focus on temporary, transient (e.g. homelessness, low literacy, obesity) as well as state-and-class based perspectives of consumer vulnerability in an effort to uncover proactive strategies for organisations and policy makers that work towards safeguarding and empowering vulnerable consumers. Papers that examine systemic options as well as those focussed on the training of frontline personnel and available support systems in exchanges with vulnerable consumers are also welcome. Priority will be given to submissions that seek to broaden the theoretical understanding of consumer vulnerability beyond subjective lived experiences (e.g. narratives of consumer vulnerability) and to consider the role of macro forces that contribute to vulnerability. We are also interested in case studies that demonstrate optimal implementation of policies and strategies that cater to vulnerable consumers.
We welcome conceptual or empirical submissions that investigate consumer vulnerability from a marketing, anthropological, legal or sociological perspective. A variety of empirical approaches is acceptable (e.g. ethnography, phenomenology, survey, experimentation, historical or archival research), as well as insights drawn from across the globe. The main criterion for publication within this special issue is that the submission content is both rigorous and original.
Recommended topics are as follows, but are not limited to:
- Empowering consumers to overcome vulnerability
- Understanding and managing consumer responses to vulnerability
- Role of individual characteristics (e.g. biological and/or psychosocial) and individual states (e.g. grief) on vulnerability framing, experience and behaviour amongst consumers
- Marketing and/or policy responses that influence the experience of consumer vulnerability
- Regulatory and cultural responses to vulnerability
- Complaints handling and dispute resolution processes and their capacity to support vulnerable consumers
- Social consequences of marketing actions
- Impact of the external conditions (e.g. distribution of resources, physical & logistical elements, contractual components) to the imbalances of power in exchange relationships
- Systematic strategies that examine entry and exit processes to consumer vulnerability
- Role of digital and social media platforms in educating and engaging vulnerable populations
- Mechanisms influencing service adoption and consumption amongst vulnerable consumers
- Understanding consumption contexts that enhance vulnerable experiences
- Recording of vulnerability on consumer profiles and business support systems
It is a requirement that submitted manuscripts have not been published, accepted for publication, or be currently under consideration elsewhere. The authors are encouraged to keep the length of the manuscript within 8,000-10,000 word limit. Manuscripts must be submitted in accordance with the author guidelines available on the journal homepage. Enquiries can be directed to the guest editors via: Jessica.Wyllie@newcastle.edu.au
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