Mapping the underlying drivers of nowism as a consumer trend, and its impact on customer satisfaction and customer loyalty

摘要

Every now and then, a powerful consumer trend surfaces, leaving companies noother choice but to familiarize with the trend and its implications, and adapt to it.Since first introduced as a consumer trend in 2009, nowism has received growingattention as a trend that deserves recognition, yet no empirical research has beenconducted on this subject. This leaves managers with no information or guidelineson how to handle this influential consumer trend. Our main goal with thisdissertation is to rectify this situationWe employ a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods, where ourobjective is to explore the construct of nowism, identify its underlying drivers,and uncover its impact on customer satisfaction and loyalty. We hypothesize thatpositive life orientation; impulsive behavior; extraversion; and individualism, allinfluence nowism positively. Moreover, we hypothesize that these relationshipsare moderated by discretionary income and free time. Further, we employ asegmentation technique based on life cycle, and hypothesize that the young, freeand simple segment is more likely to have a high degree of nowism compared tothe segments chaos in my life and got my life back. Lastly, we hypothesize thatnowism will have a negative effect on customer satisfaction and customer loyalty.The Norwegian markets of grocery chains and mobile subscriptions are set ascontexts when assessing customer satisfaction and loyalty.Data was collected using a combination of convenience and snowball sampling,yielding a final sample of 378. Our proposed models are tested by employinganalysis of variance (ANOVA) and regression analyses, and further replicated byusing partial least squares (PLS). The results reveal that positive life orientation;impulsive behavior; extraversion; and individualism all have a positive impact onnowism. However, we found no moderating effects from discretionary incomeand free time. Further, our research reveals that young independent individuals aremost likely to adhere to nowism. Lastly, we found no significant effects ofnowism on customer satisfaction and loyalty. Overall, our findings will helpmanagers gain a deeper understanding of nowism, and enable them to exploitbusiness opportunities related to the trend. This may in turn lead to competitiveadvantages and economic prospering.