Consumer psychology has enjoyed a continuous increasing interest. In particular, there has been a growth in the number of researchers engaging in this scholarly field in Europe, Asia and Australasia. Hence, what used to be a field dominated by researchers from North America, has become more of an international subject area. This is reflective of the fact that people these days are avid travellers and many emigrate and settle in different countries. This global mobility poses new challenges to marketers when establishing who their target audiences are. Thus, it seemed timely to publish the first International handbook of consumer psychology. The aim of this book is to provide, for the first time, an outline of the current state of research on a wide range of areas within consumer psychology in its increasingly global context.
We invited 71 authors to contribute to this handbook. Not coincidentally, these authors are based in 11 different countries on four continents: Canada, Germany, Spain, USA, China, Poland, the United Kingdom, Austria, Sweden, Australia and Korea. Many of the contributors are originally from a different country than the one they currently reside in. Where suitable, the authors have emphasized cross-culturally relevant research to emphasize the international aspect of this book. This book is written by authors with an extensive knowledge of their respective fields, who come from a range of different cultural backgrounds. Hence, it presents consumer psychology in a comprehensive manner that should appeal to an international audience.