TY - JOUR

T1 - How best to get their own way

T2 - children's influence strategies within families

AU - Kerrane, Ben

AU - Hogg, Margaret

PY - 2012

Y1 - 2012

N2 - How do children decide how best to try and get their own way?Despite extensive studies of children’s influence strategies there hasbeen little research into understanding why children utilise given influencestrategies i.e. “the underlying motivations of strategy usage”(Palan and Wilkes 1997, p.167). The motivations that drive the choiceof different influence strategies result from a combination of personalgoals and environmental factors. The family environment provideschildren with some of their most important experiences about how bestto compete for limited resources (e.g. time, attention, money). Choicesabout the allocation of income across family members’ preferences arecentral to children’s consumer socialization. In order to throw morelight on the motivations for children’s choice of particular strategies intheir family environment (Cotte and Wood 2004), we investigate thefamily environments in which the influence strategies are played out;and how far the family environment has a moderating effect on thetypes of influence strategies that children use.Our contribution is thus twofold. Firstly we seek to betterunderstand the family environments in which children reside; andsecondly, to identify the implications that the different family environmentsmay have in relation to each child’s choice of influencestrategies within their family setting. Our study responds to Cotteand Wood’s (2004) and Flurry’s (2007) call for research that exploresfurther the purchase influence of children in families, specifically byexploring how the family environment affects the influence strategiesthat children employ.

AB - How do children decide how best to try and get their own way?Despite extensive studies of children’s influence strategies there hasbeen little research into understanding why children utilise given influencestrategies i.e. “the underlying motivations of strategy usage”(Palan and Wilkes 1997, p.167). The motivations that drive the choiceof different influence strategies result from a combination of personalgoals and environmental factors. The family environment provideschildren with some of their most important experiences about how bestto compete for limited resources (e.g. time, attention, money). Choicesabout the allocation of income across family members’ preferences arecentral to children’s consumer socialization. In order to throw morelight on the motivations for children’s choice of particular strategies intheir family environment (Cotte and Wood 2004), we investigate thefamily environments in which the influence strategies are played out;and how far the family environment has a moderating effect on thetypes of influence strategies that children use.Our contribution is thus twofold. Firstly we seek to betterunderstand the family environments in which children reside; andsecondly, to identify the implications that the different family environmentsmay have in relation to each child’s choice of influencestrategies within their family setting. Our study responds to Cotteand Wood’s (2004) and Flurry’s (2007) call for research that exploresfurther the purchase influence of children in families, specifically byexploring how the family environment affects the influence strategiesthat children employ.

M3 - Journal article

VL - 39

SP - 366

EP - 373

JO - Advances in Consumer Research

JF - Advances in Consumer Research

SN - 0915-5524

ER -