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Exploring the resources associated with consumer vulnerability : Designing nuanced retail hardship programs

Glavas, Charmaine
; 
Letheren, Kate
; 
Russell-Bennett, Rebekah
; 
McAndrew, Ryan
; 
Bedggood, Rowan E.
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Author
Glavas, Charmaine
Letheren, Kate
Russell-Bennett, Rebekah
McAndrew, Ryan
Bedggood, Rowan E.
Abstract
Retailers across a variety of sectors offer hardship programs to assist consumers who are experiencing vulnerability. Hardship programs are typically designed as a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach, viewing consumer recipients as one homogenous group. To investigate the resources associated with consumer vulnerability, we thematically analyzed reports from 20 government-funded projects in Australia which directly assisted 32,498 low-income households in the energy retail sector. Our findings reveal three resource ‘bundles’: connections-resource-bundle, convenience-resource-bundle and security-resource-bundle. We then provide recommendations for retailers and service providers on what they can do to alleviate hardship for consumers within each resource-bundle.
Keywords
consumer vulnerability, hardship, retail, resource-based view, motivation-opportunity-ability, consumer services
Date
2020
Type
Journal article
Journal
Book
Volume
57
Issue
Page Range
1-11
Article Number
ACU Department
Peter Faber Business School
Faculty of Law and Business
Collections
Peter Faber Business School
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Letheren_2020_Exploring_the_resources_associated_with_consumer.pdf
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AM_Letheren_2020_Exploring_the_resources_associated_with_consumer.pdf
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CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
URI
https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14802/7718
Relation URI
DOI
10.1016/j.jretconser.2020.102212
Source URL
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0969698920301570?via%3Dihub
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Open Access Status
Published as ‘gold’ (paid) open access
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Open
Notes
Crown Copyright © 2020 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
For Author manuscript: © Crown Copyright © 2020 Published by Elsevier Ltd. Creative Commons: Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0
Research data: available at https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0969698920301570?via%3Dihub#ec-research-data Download under CC BY NC 3.0 licence