Co-Creating Alternative Markets: Consumer Efficacy in Risk Abatement

Many consumers are disappointed with the current food marketing system, and are concerned by the risks they feel they take and the compromises they make with preferred values by engaging with it. In an attempt to manage their feelings of risk and dissatisfaction with sub-optimal choices, they engage in marketplace activities that lie outside of the mainstream. These new market choices are often better equipped to address the desires and concerns of the consumers who engage with them. This occurs through co-creation of product, values, and community, and increased and more transparent risk assessment resources. Community Supported Agriculture programs are used here as an example of how alternative-market consumption choices lead to transformation of the consumers, their communities, and the market itself.

Citation:

Melea Press (2009) ,"Co-Creating Alternative Markets: Consumer Efficacy in Risk Abatement", in NA - Advances in Consumer Research Volume 36, eds. Ann L. McGill and Sharon Shavitt, Duluth, MN : Association for Consumer Research, Pages: 114-118.