Religion And Consumer Behaviour

Religion is an important part of individual lives, playing a major role in our decision making and puchasing. Understanding the influence of religion on consumer behaviour is therefore an essential practice for business. The COVID-19 pandemic has especially enhanced the influence of consumers’ religiosity on their consumption decisions. This book concentrates on understanding the relationship of religiosity with various aspects of consumption and consumer behaviour to improve policy and build on an under represented topic. In this edited collection, expert contributors, academicians and researchers discuss the influence of religion on consumer behaviour in depth including the “dark side” of religion on consumers’ consumption behaviour and religious cults. The chapters also explore the ethical issues surrounding consumption and the role of religion on branding and sustainable practices. With a broad perspective, the book draws on examples of practices from Christianity, Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism. This book will be a particularly valuable resource for scholars and upper level students of marketing, consumer behaviour and consumer psychology. The interdisciplinary perspectives will also appeal to those studying sociology and globalization.

Examining how religion influences the dynamics of consumption in developing nations, this book illuminates the strategic placement of these nations on the global marketing stage both in terms of their current economic outlook and potential for growth.

"Religion is an important part of individual lives, playing a major role in our decision making and puchasing. Understanding the influence of religion on consumer behaviour is therefore an essential practice for business. The COVID-19 pandemic has especially enhanced the influence of consumers' religiosity on their consumption decisions. This book concentrates on understanding the relationship of religiosity with various aspects of consumption and consumer behaviour to improve policy and build on an under represented topic. In this edited collection, expert contributors, academicians and researchers discuss the influence of religion on consumer behaviour in depth including the "dark side" of religion on consumers' consumption behaviour and religious cults. The chapters also explore the ethical issues surrounding consumption and the role of religion on branding and sustainable practices. With a broad perspective, the book draws on examples of practices from Christianity, Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism . This book will be a particularly valuable resource for scholars and upper level students of marketing, consumer behaviour and consumer psychology. The interdisciplinary perspectives will also appeal to those studying sociology and globalization"--

Research Paper (postgraduate) from the year 2018 in the subject Business economics - Marketing, Corporate Communication, CRM, Market Research, Social Media, grade: 14, Leuven Catholic University, course: Economic Anthropology, language: English, abstract: This paper investigates how religion influences consumer behavior and the associated impact on the economy. Business organizations are set up with the aim of making a profit. The primary objective of any business is to maximize returns, and all efforts are directed towards this aim. Firms make a profit by selling goods and services to the customers. Therefore, high sales volume would translate to high returns for a company. The amount of goods and services sold by a company depends on the demand. When the demand for products is high, there is an increase in the sales and this translates to economic growth. This implies that there is a direct link between how people consume products and economy. It is worth noting that consumer behavior is a significant determinant of demand. However, consumer behavior is influenced by religion as it affects people's values and actions. It affects how and when consumers spend their money.

This book sheds light on the consumption of spiritual products, services, experiences, and places through state-of-the-art studies by leading and emerging scholars in interpretive consumer research, marketing, sociology, anthropology, cultural, and religious studies. The collection brings together fresh views and scholarship on a cultural tension that is at the centre of the lives of countless individuals living in postmodern societies: the relationship between the material and the spiritual, the sacred and the profane. The book examines how a variety of agents - religious institutions, spiritual leaders, marketers and consumers - interact and co-create spiritual meanings in a post-disenchanted society that has been defined as a 'supermarket of the soul.' Consumption and Spirituality examines not only religious organizations, but also brands and marketers and the way they infuse their products, services and experiences with spiritual meanings that flow freely in the circuit of culture and can be appropriated by consumers even without purchase acts. From a consumer perspective, the book investigates how spiritual beliefs, practices, and experiences are now embedded into a global consumer culture. Rather than condemning consumption, the chapters in this book highlight consumers' agency and the creative processes through which authentic spiritual meanings are co-created from a variety of sources, local and global, and sacred and profane alike.

Religion is a topic that businesses often ignore, in spite of 70% of the world being religious. Whether the silence results from the taboo nature of the topic or the thought that religion is a separate domain from consumption and business, the scant attention cannot be denied. Many do not realize or simply resist the idea that religion is a key contributor to a consumer's core values, which then contribute to consumption decisions, voting practices, reaction to pro-social messages and public policy, as well as donating behavior. The field of behavioral economics discusses how various social and cognitive factors influence economic decision making, which encompasses consumer decision making in business and public policy. This field needs to incorporate religion as an influencer to economic decision making. To be able to manage a business effectively, or carry out public policy decisions, the influence of believe systems and religion must be taken into account. Thus, this book provides one of the first comprehensive investigations into the relation between religion and behavioral economics. It is relevant to current managers, anyone involved in the marketing, MBA students, and also upper-division undergraduate students. Each of these groups will benefit from a clear understanding of religious groups and how religion influences consumer decision making.

This book presents selected papers from the 33rd Eurasia Business and Economics Society (EBES) Conference, virtually held in Madrid (Spain) due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The theoretical and empirical papers gathered here cover diverse areas of business, economics and finance in various geographic regions, including not only topics from HR, management, finance, marketing but also contributions on public economics, political economy and regional studies.

Presenting an overview of an emerging field in the study of contemporary religion, this book, together with a complementary volume Religion in the Neoliberal Age, explores issues of religion, neoliberalism and consumer society. Claiming that we have entered a new phase that implies more than the recasting of state-religion relations, the authors examine how religious changes are historically anchored in modernity but affected by the commoditization, mediatization, neoliberalization and globalization of society and social life. Religion in Consumer Society explores religion as both shaped by consumer culture and as shaping consumer culture. Following an introduction which critically analyses studies on consumer culture and integrates scholarship in the sociology of religion, this book explores the following topics: how consumerism and electronic media have shaped globalized culture, and how this is affecting religion; the dynamics and characteristics of often overlooked middle-class religion, and how these relate to globalization and differences between 'developed' and 'emerging' countries; emerging trends, and how we understand phenomena as different as mega churches and holistic spiritualistic journeys, and how the pressures of consumer culture act on religious traditions, indigenous and exogenous; the politics of religious phenomena in the Age of Neoliberalism; and the hybrid areas emerging from these reconfigurations of religion and the market. Outlining changes in both the political-institutional and cultural spheres, the contributors offer an international overview of developments in different countries and state of the art representation of religion in the new global political economy.