An Overview of Academic Consumer Interest Research in Canada (ca02842)

Part One: What is Academic Consumer Interest Research?

Key CIR Concepts and Main CIR-Related Academic Sub-Disciplines

This Update focuses on academic consumer interest research (CIR) in Canada. CIR for the purposes of this document is the range of consumer-related academic research that is relevant to public policy-making. In preliminary work related to this Update, various terms were used to refer to the body of research concerned. McGregor 2012 provided a review of seminal work on delineating consumer disciplines, which suggested the use of a few key CIR concepts.

A very brief overview of McGregor's work is presented below, however, the reader is strongly encouraged to consult the original paper and its numerous CIR references. Research on the consumer interest, i.e. consumer interest research, concerns itself with both:

1. the direct relationship between consumers and sellers, and
2. the indirect, often latent, impact of this direct, reciprocal relationship on individuals, the economy and society more broadly (including major social issues, the impact of economic and fiscal policies, as well as corporate and marketing behavior).

CIR adopts a consumer perspective when it gives special weight to the interests of consumers relative to those of business, with the intent of shedding light on consumer imbalances. The term consumer-business imbalances refers to various forms of imbalances in the consumer-business relationship, which could in turn work against a consumer's interests during a market transaction.^{Footnote 3} Reacting to such consumer-business imbalances (notably product safety shortcomings), consumer advocates spearheaded a social movement in the 1960s that led to significant government policy activity, which came to be articulated as fundamental consumer rights and attendant responsibilities (discussed below, under Linkages to consumer policymaking). References to consumer rights and responsibilities—such as in the form of "consumers have the right to…"—are now common in consumer interest scholarship. When problems occur, the term consumer issues is used to describe the situation; traditional categories of issues include economic security, health and safety, competition, etc. Taken together, the various types of policy responses to consumer issues form the consumer protection frameworks that are designed to address areas of potential consumer harm.

Figure 1: Interrelated consumer concepts and contributing academic disciplines

 

Source: Reprinted from McGregor 2012.

The breadth of academic disciplines that have the potential to contribute to CIR obviously provides great opportunities from a knowledge-building perspective. However, this breadth also leads to inherent challenges for research development, collaboration and diffusion.

Multidisciplinary Challenges of Consumer Scholarship

As illustrated in Figure 1, CIR involves research and expertise that is drawn from a number of social science disciplines, and uses vocabulary that is drawn from generic, everyday language. Compared to natural sciences, for example, this can be perceived as a complicating factor in the development of a common, consistent understanding of the scope of CIR, given that "Communication of social science research does not generally employ a vocabulary that is specific to a field of inquiry, making it substantially more difficult to distinguish the output that can be clearly attributable to these fields." (Archambault et al. 2008)^{Footnote 5}

Researchers themselves have long recognized the communication and collaboration impacts resulting from the multidisciplinary nature of CIR, as illustrated by this comment in the editorial note in the Journal of Consumer Affairs' first edition:

In more recent years, the multi-dimensional nature of consumer scholarship appears to have expanded even within its existing publications. McGregor 2007 completed a decade review of papers published in the International Journal of Consumer Studies between 1997 and 2006 which highlighted that while papers in the first two-thirds of the decade focused on consumption in the conventional sense (food and nutrition, clothing and textiles, etc.), the latter part of the period had seen the addition of more complex cultural and political dimensions:

Beyond the above-identfied CIR-related subdisciplines, sector-based research fields provide a home for other important CIR scholarship. In sector-based fields such as retail studies, agricultural studies, health science, information technologies etc., some scholars are indeed investigating social and technological trends that have implications for the consumer interest. However, there is some evidence that academic experts involved in sector-specific work that is CIR-relevant might not spontaneously self-identify as CIR academics, which may have negative impacts on research collaboration, dissemination, and access.^{Footnote 6} This again underscores the knowledge-sharing challenges faced by research domains that are by nature multidisciplinary.

Linkages to consumer policy-making

2012 marked the 60th anniversary of President Kennedy's speech to the U.S. Congress on "Protecting the Consumer Interest" (Kennedy 1962). The core rights he outlined formed the basis for the 1982 charter of consumer rights^{Footnote 7} issued by the NGO Consumers International, and the latter's successful lobbying for the adoption of the 1985 United Nations Guidelines for Consumer Protection.^{Footnote 8} The 1960s and 1970s saw strong consumer activism, where the importance of academic CIR for policy-making was acknowledged, including across borders. For example, in the mid 1970s, the U.S. Consumer Affairs Institute organized multi-stakeholder conferences related to consumer policy research.^{Footnote 9} Early in the same decade, the Consumer Research Council of Canada was created with a mandate that included a responsibility "to advise the Minister and the Department of Consumer and Corporate Affairs on consumer research activities which are being carried on in Canadian universities and elsewhere, and on the available sources of research on particular consumer problems" (CRCC 1973). In the 1980s, there were further calls for a greater role for academic consumer research in policy-making, notably from consumer advocates such as the Consumer Federation of America:

Governments have regularly sought academic CIR input in the context of policy-making processes.^{Footnote 10} Through the creation of advisory groups, significant CIR-related research has been produced, notably on the topic of financial services.^{Footnote 11} Certain governmental organizations have also encouraged CIR-relevant research efforts through research funding programs that target or are inclusive of academia.^{Footnote 12} To address topic-specific needs, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada launched in 2004 an Agriculture Policy Research Network. The initiative led to the development of five networks, one of which addresses food consumer and market demand issues.^{Footnote 13}

Another aspect of the role of consumer interest researchers in policy making is through their presence in the work of legislative bodies and government institutions:

At the federal level, various House of Commons committees have included input received from CIR-related academic witnesses.^{Footnote 14} Similarly, in Quebec, CIR-related debates in parliamentary committees of the National Assembly have involved representatives from academia.^{Footnote 15} Academic experts also share their insights through submissions to department-led public consultations, at both the federal and provincial levels.^{Footnote 16}

In 2010, the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development published the Consumer Policy Toolkit, which relied on academic CIR for much of its content on the economics of consumer policy and consumer policy instruments (OECD 2010). In Canada, the Industry Canada 2010 Consumer Impact Assessment Guide acknowledged the role of academic work in policy-making. It identified regular liaison with academics as one of the ways for ensuring continuous improvement in government policy managers' ability to properly recognize the consumer interest (Industry Canada 2010).