Asian Families and Consumer Decisions

Introduction
Families represent a large and growing market worldwide. The family has been identified as the most important decision making and consumption unit. Since last two decades, this domain has attracted interests of marketers and academicians. Marketers in emerging Asian economies are just beginning to experience the growing influence of families in the consumption process. The abrupt changes in lifestyle patterns, increasing per capita incomes, extensive media and major socio-cultural as well as economic changes are bringing altogether new perspectives in consumer markets in Asia. The tested marketing concepts in the west are not as effective as in the traditional Asian consumers. Marketers need to move beyond the traditional predictable techniques that worked for generations. The latest data from World Bank shows that global family consumption has been rising year on year. In 2016, India’s total household final consumption expenditure was growing at 8.7 % annually; China was growing at 7.8%, Indonesia at 5% Cambodia 6.7%, Pakistan 6.9% and the Philippines at 7%.

Objective
While family as the fundamental unit of analysis remains central to many consumption decisions, it has received relatively insufficient attention from researchers in the areas of marketing and consumer behavior, and many nuances have been overlooked. The premise of this special issue is that this lack of attention is due to a restrictive notion of the role of family in consumption decisions and that many fertile research areas can be identified.

Recommended Topics
Topics to be discussed in this special issue include (but are not limited to) the following:

• Family Buying Process
• Consumer Decision Making Dynamics in Family
• Strategic Alliances that Family Members make
• Family Life Cycles and impact on Market
• Children as an important Decision Maker
• Child Socialization and Parent’s Reverse Socialization
• Family Decisions in Tourism, Consumer durables, Gadgets, other specific industries
• Social Media and Family’s Consumer Attitudes
• New Parenthood & Changing Consumer Decision
• Other related studies

Submission Procedure
Researchers and practitioners are invited to submit papers for this special theme issue on “Asian Families and Consumer Decisions” on or before June 30, 2018. All submissions must be original and may not be under review by another publication. INTERESTED AUTHORS SHOULD CONSULT THE JOURNAL’S GUIDELINES FOR MANUSCRIPT SUBMISSIONS at http://www.igi-global.com/publish/contributor-resources/before-you-write/. All submitted papers will be reviewed on a double-blind, peer review basis. Papers must follow APA style for reference citations.

All submissions and inquiries should be directed to the attention of:
Dr. Monica Chaudhary monicarana@gmail.com
Dr. Suhail Mohammad Ghouse suhailmghouse@gmail.com