The Time Variable in Models of Consumer Behavior

ABSTRACT - Time is variable which not only pervades all aspects of behavior, but also is perceived differently by different people and at different periods in their life; yet it has been virtually ignored as a salient factor in consumption behavior. This paper examines how time has been incorporated/treated in the major conceptual models of consumer behavior. Several suggestions for further research conclude the paper.

Citation:

Douglass K. Hawes (1980) ,"The Time Variable in Models of Consumer Behavior", in NA - Advances in Consumer Research Volume 07, eds. Jerry C. Olson, Ann Abor, MI : Association for Consumer Research, Pages: 442-447.

Advances in Consumer Research Volume 7, 1980     Pages 442-447

THE TIME VARIABLE IN MODELS OF CONSUMER BEHAVIOR

Douglass K. Hawes, University of Wyoming

ABSTRACT -

Time is variable which not only pervades all aspects of behavior, but also is perceived differently by different people and at different periods in their life; yet it has been virtually ignored as a salient factor in consumption behavior. This paper examines how time has been incorporated/treated in the major conceptual models of consumer behavior. Several suggestions for further research conclude the paper.

INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND

Three years ago, Jacoby, Szybillo, and Berning (1976, p. 320) pointed out that "despite the fact that time pervades every aspect of human behavior, consumer researchers have given it scant attention." Since that time, several Conferences and a number of papers have addressed the topic of "time" and its role in human behavior. The American Psychological Association conference in Toronto in 1978 included a session entitled, "Temporal Dimensions of Consumer Behavior." The presentations in this session covered time and leisure behavior, time and money tradeoff notions, the investment of time by households, and an overview of time budget studies.

The Association for Consumer Research's 1978 conference included a Special Topic session called "Time: The Fundamental Things Apply." The gist of the presentations in this session has been captured in the session summary paper by Holman and Venkatesan (1979). The topics covered included various meanings of time, individual differences in time orientation, how individuals conceptualize the future and time budget studies. Additionally, the Journal of Consumer Research has issued a call for papers for a special issue of JCR on the Consumption of Time (Ferber, 1978).

Finally, the American Marketing Association's "Conceptual and Theoretical Developments in Marketing" conference in Phoenix in February, 1979 included a session entitled, "Is it TIME for a New Theory of Consumer Behavior.'' The papers included an overview of time and behavior in general, a discussion of the role of time resources in consumer behavior, and a presentation on creativity and its implications for consumer behavior. These papers will appear in the forthcoming conference Proceedings, entitled Conceptual and Theoretical Developments in Marketing (AMA, 1979).

Based upon the papers presented in these sessions, the point now seems to be "well established" that time is/ can be a salient variable in affecting some kinds of behavior. This is further supported by Lee and Ferber (1977, p. 75) who found that "use of time variables is significant in helping to explain purchase of durables, ownership of credit cards, and amount of insurance." In a cross-cultural context, Arndt and Gr°nmo (1977), and later Hawes, Gr°nmo and Arndt (1978) found that both in Norway and in the United States, time spent shopping varied significantly with a number of demographic variables.

FOCUS OF THE PAPER

A topic which has not been addressed in detail in these preceding papers is the way in which time is treated in the major models of consumer behavior. This paper proposes to address that gap by examining the use of the time variable in each of the better known conceptual models of buyer/consumer behavior. Has time been treated explicitly or only implicitly? Has testing of the model found any significance in the time variable? It is hoped that the contribution of this effort will be to stimulate further thought, discussion, and research on this topic.

TIME IN THE MODELS

The Engel-Kollat-Blackwell, Howard-Sheth, Nicosia, Hansen, Becker and two of Professor Sheth's newer models are reviewed. The views of Professors Katona, McGuire, Schary and others are also noted.

General Review

The general topic of the relationship of time to consumer behavior has been reviewed by Jacoby, Szybillo, and Berning (1976). This review focused heavily on time in economics, time-budgets in sociology and home economics, decision time in psychological experiments, and a potpourri of marketing related studies. The authors' synthesis stressed time as a baseline variable over which consumption activities and decision making proceeds.

Expenditures of time, time intervals, time spans, points -in-time and how time is valued are stressed. The effects of varying perceptions of time on purchase and use behavior are not discussed, however. The authors do note though that "the entire subject of how perceptions of recency arise and their effects on consumer behavior remains to be explored" (p. 335). One must complement these authors for a thorough review of an "ignored" area in consumer behavior.

Engel-Kollat-Blackwell (1973)

The "second edition" (1973) version of the EKB model considered time in only a cursory way. First, the decision process itself is acted out over time-line. The three variations of decision-making consume varying amounts of time; habitual decision-process behavior (convenience goods) the least amount of time and extended decision-process behavior (major purchases) the greatest amount of time.

Second, time seems to be implicitly included as a cultural variable, though it is never explicitly mentioned. Time "pressure," due in part to working conditions, is a familial factor. Time, as a constraint, is briefly considered in a discussion of time budgets. The fact that there may be differences between time-using and timesaving goods in leisure time is suggested. Noted is the increasing prevalence and value of blocks of discretionary time--hence the need to examine the form and structure of discretionary time as well as the amount. It is also pointed out that "as scarcity of product disappears, the scarcity of time ascends the value scale." (p. 105)

Third, the shorter time horizon of the lower class as compared with the middle and upper classes is noted, as is the tendency of the lower classes towards impulsiveness and immediate gratification. Fourth, the implication of varying time spans of exposure, attention, and retention is suggested under the topic of information processing. Again, this is an area where research is essentially nonexistent, and one can only read into the discussion some potential differences based upon different perceptions of, and reaction to, time and time pressure.

Finally, the discussion of personality does not mention time perception at all. This in spite of studies which suggest that time perception is related to personality factors (Calabresi and Cohen, 1968; Wessman, 1973; Getsinger, 1976).

Engel-Blackwell-Kollat (1978)

The "third edition" (1978) version recognizes time as a salient variable in several more explicit ways than in the earlier editions. The cost of time as a factor in search processes is explicitly mentioned, as is anticipated (economic and other) circumstances. The latter is certainly a function of the perceived relevant time horizon and propensity to invest time in expectation of future payoffs. Consumer time budgets and leisure time are both discussed in more detail and clarity than in the second edition. It is noted, for example, that consumers in the future should be willing to pay "more" money to enjoy their limited leisure time, and that the desire on the part of consumers to save time is increasingly becoming an important marketing factor.

The varying cognitive structures between differing cultures (or subcultures?) and the resultant basic differences in information processing is noted. As Mitchell (1978) stresses, the information processing approach to consumer behavior, by its very nature, is a dynamic time-based process, rather than a static, steady-state approach. It has been found, for example, that there is a differential rate of serial information processing based upon different (cognitive) information acquisition patterns and response times. This edition's expanded discussion of life styles also points out that one aspect of life style is how people spend their time.

Finally, the third edition of the model explicitly defines the variable "anticipated circumstances" to include "time pressure," though "time pressure" itself is not defined.

Howard and Sheth (1969)

The first version of this now well-known model considered time directly in the form of an exogenous variable labeled "time pressure." This was defined as "the inverse of the amount of time the buyer has available to perform the behavior required for the acts of purchasing and consumption" (p. 77). It is said to be "the time required to perform these acts in relation to the time he has allocated to himself for doing them" (p.77). It reflects, however, only momentary, rather than long-term changes in the time available for buying. The authors point out that "not much is known about it" (p. 77).

They go on to postulate that time pressure "will cause search to be more vigorous, but that it seems to limit the things to which attention is paid: span of attention is reduced" (p. 78). It is also suggested that "Buyers under time pressure are less apt to adopt a new brand. They are probably less likely to learn about it and less likely to change their behavior even if they do learn about it" (p. 325). It should be noted, however, that increased brand loyalty is not the only possible reaction to a higher cost of time. Sharir (1974) points out that an alternative pattern of behavior for the household who wants to economize on buying time is to buy at random. "Alternatively, it may buy brands according to the ease of acquiring them" (Sharir, 1974, p. 54). Finally, Howard and Sheth offer the opinion that some advertising messages, by describing the preparation of a product, may create inhibition to the purchase by bringing up a perceived time pressure situation. The buyer may feel that the preparation is too time consuming (p. 381).

This appears to be the extent of explicit consideration of time as a variable in this model. Of course, as in the EKB model, time as a baseline underlies the phenomenon of brand loyalty (over time), diffusion of innovations (over time) and extent of search for information (over time; cost of time vs. benefits). Finally, such personality traits as cautiousness and venturesomeness may contain a time perception dimension. Innovators, who are typically high on venturesomeness, seem to need less time (or perceive time to flow faster) to resolve the stimulus ambiguity caused by an innovation (p.323).

Howard (and Sheth) - 1974

In this updated version of the 1969 effort, it is explicitly postulated that the exogenous variable "time pressure" is inversely related to search and positively related to intention to purchase (p. 29, 30). In their 1970/1972 empirical test of the Howard-Sheth model, Farley and Ring (1974) did include time pressure as a coded exogenous variable, although they seemed to assume that it is an unchanging sociopsychological variable not affected by the consumer's awareness of, or purchasing of, a product of the particular type in their study (p. 209). Empirically, it was measured as the inverse of the "wife's hours per week of employment". The beta coefficients of this independent variable (X₁₃) as found from either OLS or TSLS, were all .OXX at the greatest.

None of the other six studies of the Howard-Sheth model reported by Holbrook (1974) attempted to operationalize time pressure. As time pressure is certainly a perceptual variable, one can question whether merely using the inverse of "hours to work" is an appropriate operationalization of this construct. One can state then, that time pressure does not seem to have received any meaningful empirical testing through 1973.

Howard and Sheth - (Other modification/developments)

Lehmann, et. al. (1974) discussed an even further modified/simplified version of the Howard-Sheth model in which time is explicitly included as an "exogenous socio-economic variable". It is included in the form of time pressure, as before, but defined as "the amount of time spent shopping". This is, of course, different from the Farley and Ring definition.

It is not clear from the Lehmann, et. al, article what role time played in their simultaneous equation test of Howard-Sheth model. It was hypothesized that satisfaction with the last brand purchased was a function of time (along with five other variables). The OLS R² for the dependent variable labeled "satisfaction" was in the .36 range, but there was no indication of the contribution of the (independent) time pressure variable. Similarly, attitude--like or dislike of the brand--was also hypothesized to be a function of time (along with eleven other variables) in the "Original Model", but not a function of time in the "Revised Model". Based on the data presented, it does not appear that time pressure (as conceptualized and measured) is an important independent variable in the Howard-Sheth scheme.

Nicosia - (1966)

Nicosia states that, "Because it bears on all others, time is a key variable in consumer decision processes... Despite its crucial role in any behavior process, this component has received little attention in the theoretical and empirical literature we examined" (p. 86). He suggests that time may figure in the decision process in at least three ways. First, if an action is seen as a sequence of more elementary activities, time becomes a "subscript" which differentiates these activities. Second, if an action is seen as the final outcome of a cognitive process, "time may be used to differentiate the predispositions and attitudes whose changes and conflicts are resolved into a specific, action-oriented motive" (p. 87). Finally, time may be used to describe not only physical and mental activities, but also the interplay between these two broad classes of behavior determinants.

While time in these three situations is a chronological dimension, the perceived length of a given period of time may vary between groups of consumers. Nicosia notes that as of his writing, "no empirical and little theoretical literature is concerned with time perceived subjectively" (p. 87). He goes on, "We still do not know, however, any procedure for building subjective measures of time. Research in this area is badly needed" (p. 87).

Professor Nicosia has continued his interest in time as a variable in what he now calls the "sociology of consumption'' (Nicosia and Witkowski, 1975; Nicosia and Mayer, 1976). In the article with Witkowski, Nicosia suggests that both increasing discretionary income and increasing discretionary time "interact to create entirely new possibilities in terms of consumption behavior and cultural values, norms, rewards, sanctions, and institutions" (p. 11). The authors go on to state that changes in the perception of risk (due to increased structural provisioning for the future, e.g., social security, pensions) and planning horizons may induce people to pay more attention to "having a good time now" than to planning and saving for the future. "Concurrently, changes in time perspective, combined with discretionary income and time, allow more people to try out more new goods. Consumers have acquired the ability to make mistakes. They can afford to search for variety" (Nicosia and Witkowski, 1975, p. 12).

In the article with Mayer, he suggests that "time should be included in any operational definition of consumption activities. Each activity implies time, but more important, different goods imply different amounts of time allocated to buying, using, and disposing" (Nicosia and Mayer, 1976, p. 68). The thrust here, however, is on differential use of time as a baseline of acquisition and consumption--and only inferentially on how varying perceptions of time might affect the consumer's decision process.

Hansen - (1972)

Hansen's essential use of time as a variable lies in the hypothesis that the consumer will experience an increasing time pressure (undefined) as cognitive conflict (arousal?) continues during the choice process. The author hypothesizes that the more cognitive conflict the consumer perceives, the more time he will need to eliminate the conflict. In other words, time as well as the necessary efforts, are factors influencing the extent of information acquisition. Time, as used here, however, seems to be chronological or objective time.

The author also raises the issue of whether or not consumers, when they evaluate alternatives whose study extends over time, apply a discounting factor such that the most immediately available alternatives become relatively mere attractive (p. 220). He subsequently writes off this issue as being "of minor importance in consumer and similar behavior" (p. 220).

Hansen expected that the time it will take an individual to make a choice will increase with the level of involvement and the perceived uncertainty. The increase was believed to be of an inverted-U shaped form rather than monotonically increasing. In subsequent research, he found that the "measure of choice time, however, does not vary significantly across situations" (p. 291). He concludes that choice time as a phenomenon "is not of major importance in consumer behavior" (p. 294). This conclusion might be questioned, however, in light of other studies cited in this paper.

Becker - (1976)

Becker (1965) was one of the first economists to suggest that time is an economic variable of equal importance with market goods and services and money. As such, these factors are combined via the household production function to produce basic useful commodities from which utility is derived and supposedly maximized, subject to various constraints. The consumer's demand for these market goods, therefore, is a derived demand analogous to the demand by a firm for industrial goods and services. Hence, the cost of time is on equal footing with the cost of market goods.

One important result of this approach is that the concept of the household's "full income" embodies both time and money income constraints. The magnitude of the household's "full income" is shown to be "independent of the fraction of time the household chooses to allocate to income earning activities" (Becker, 1976, p. 135).

Becker suggests that a) time can be converted into goods by using less time at consumption and more at work, i.e., time can be converted into goods through money income; and b) a compensated uniform rise in earnings will lead to a shift away from earnings-intensive and time-intensive commodities to goods-intensive commodities (e.g., clothes dryers), i.e., goods-intensive commodities tend to be consumed more at middle ages when wage rates tend to be the highest. On the other hand, consumption of time-intensive commodities (e.g., pleasure travel) tends to reach a trough before the peak wage rate age and then to increase with age and declining wage rates. This approach is based upon the long-standing economic principle that "a reduction in the price of some factor of production will shift the production processes toward techniques that are more intensive in the use of that factor [here, time] and toward commodities that use the factor relatively intensely (Becker, 1976, p. 139). Similarly, if the price of time remains constant, an increase in the marginal productivity of that factor (time) will increase the use of it in the production process in order to minimize the total costs of (household/individual) production.

The net effect of Becker's approach (and that of Staffan Linder [1970]) is to recognize that the value of time changes for an individual (or family) at various stages in his (its) life cycle, and these changes induce substitution toward relatively cheaper input factors of production. When income, and consequently the value of time, is relatively high, the individual works more, takes less leisure time, and generally behaves in ways which conserve time and use money (and time saving shopping goods) relatively intensively. "So an understanding of the use of time seems necessary for an understanding of the consumption of most market [and one might add, non-market as well] goods and services" (Becker, 1976, p. 142).

Sheth - (1974, 1977)

Two of Professor Sheth's many models will be considered, those of family buying decisions (Sheth, 1974) and cross-cultural buyer behavior (Sheth and Sethi, 1977). His model of industrial buying behavior will not be reviewed. In his model of family buying decisions, Professor Sheth includes a variable labeled "time pressure" as an exogenous determinant of family buying decisions, particularly of the extent of joint decision making. "The more a family is pressed for time, for whatever reason, the less will be the incidence of joint decision making" (Sheth, 1974, p. 30). He goes on to state that time is a scarce resource and hence the "importance of any activity that uses up (more) time than it can return to the family is reduced" (Sheth, 1974, p. 30). This variable is never operationally defined, however, nor are any of the factors affecting time pressure defined or discussed.

Sheth's cross-cultural buyer behavior model (which focuses mainly on the adoption process) includes a variable labeled "value of time" (Sheth and Sethi, 1977, p. 373). The hypothesis is that "the more value a culture places on time as a scarce resource, the more rapid a diffusion the innovation will experience. This is especially true of innovations that are based on technological breakthroughs" (Sheth and Sethi 1977, p.382). Again, this variable and its precedent conditions are not defined. The authors do not indicate the relationship if any, between "time pressure" and "value of time".

Others

Schary (1971, p. 50) pointed out several years ago that "An expenditure of time is involved each time a product is used, and the consumer's perception of that time may influence both his product choice and the way he uses it. Therefore, time is a potentially valuable dimension in understanding the variation in behavior patterns among consumers, since they may choose different products to perform similar functions." The author goes on to present a conceptual model of time utilization which focuses on the use of time as part of the consumer's choice process. The key suggestions which arise from this model are (Schary, 1971, p. 55):

1.  The nature of the role of time will depend on the nature of the chosen activities.

2.  There may be cyclical patterns of time valuation.

3.  There are undefined subjective attitudes which create consumer's time valuation and whether time expenditures may be substituted for money expenditures.

4.  These subjective attitudes may influence the perceived duration of activities.

5.  It may be possible to vary the design and suggested use of products to create the desired time perception.

Katona (1975), in his synthesizing volume Psychological Economics, notes that:

We have at all times a time perspective. This time perspective extends backward as well as forward. Our life space (to use a term of Kurt Lewin) as of a given moment encompasses some of our past experiences, our perception of the present, and our attitudes toward the future...

Not all our past experiences affect us at a given moment because memory is selective. Sometimes the organization is such that our time perspective extends far into the past, while sometimes fairly recent events appear to be wiped out. There are great differences in the forward extension of the time perspective as well. Under certain circumstances we may live for the moment and our aspirations and expectations may play no effective role (p. 45).

McGuire (1977, p. 321) suggests that "the consumer's time perspective has changed drastically through history, and even during the immediate past. Quite obviously, one's aspirations and actions as a consumer are greatly affected by the extent to which one is bound by the past and by one's view of the future". He goes on to point out that tolerance for delayed gratification is significantly influenced "by the extent of one's time-binding and one's view regarding the future" (p. 321). One's relative evaluation of the past, present, and perceived future affects whether one is satisfied with the old and familiar or seeks newness and novelty.

McGuire (1977, p. 332) believes that there is a growing "pessimistic consciousness that time is running out, particularly in the domain of material life. He also suggests that economic cycles such as booms and recessions also affect consumers' basic orientation toward time,... "but the implications of these effects have been only superficially examined" (p. 322).

The study of the history of the family, including changing family roles over the life cycle and other "internal dynamics" is a "relatively new field" (Hareven, 1977, p. 57-58). This author suggests that several different patterns of time--individual time, family time, and historical time--are all synchronized in the family as a collectivity. "Timing has also become a central feature in the scheduling of family events and the transitions of individuals into different family roles...The understanding of 'time' patterns along the life course provides an insight into one of the least understood aspects of family behavior--namely, the process of decision making within the family" (Hareven, 1977, p. 59).

Two recent studies have examined the significance of time usage in a family context in explaining marketplace behavior. Lee and Ferber (1977) used separate husband and wife time budgets, as a generalized indicator of life style, to study how well time usage explains differences in acquisition of durable goods, ownership of credit cards, amount of insurance owned, and net total family assets. They found that use-of-time variables were significant in helping to explain the acquisition of durable goods, insurance and credit cards. Hawes, Gr°nmo, and Arndt (1978), in a cross-national study of consumers' use of time for shopping and for leisure, also used separate husband and wife time-bud-get data to examine the impact of differential amounts of time spent shopping on other use of time. They found that, in both countries, spending more than or less than 30 minutes per day (average) on shopping was a critical cutting-point in significantly distinguishing different family life-styles.

Settle and Alreck (1977, 1978) have recently developed a scale, called the F-A-S-T Time Orientation Test, to measure consumers' time orientation. The four dimensions are Focus (location of consciousness on the time spectrum, past to present to future); Activity (perceived time pressure and supply, relative to activity level); Structure (tendency to see time in distinct blocks rather than a continuous flow); and Tenacity (willingness to delay gratification over substantial periods of time).

The authors found that the Structure and Tenacity scales "provided somewhat more substantive evidence of a systematic relationship with consumer attitudes" (p. 520), than the other two scales. For example, highly structured persons believed in planning large purchases, budgeting, having a shopping list, avoiding impulse buying, and being brand and store loyal. Highly tenacious persons were less likely to use credit cards, and more likely to save up and buy large items rather than several smaller ones.

The Settle/Alreck approach differs noticeably from the other views noted. First, it appears to be concerned primarily with the long run, as opposed to (for example) the Howard-Sheth focus on the immediate situation. Second, it is multi-faceted in its attempt to tap different dimensions of time perception. It would appear that this path deserves further exploration.

The phenomenon of investing current time in the expectation of future benefits has been cogently discussed by Juster (1978). He suggests that "virtually everything people do, and virtually every product or service they buy, can be characterized as an investment in some future benefit." (Juster, 1978, p. 6). It is believed that the investment of time "will tend to be greater if people are more farsighted (future oriented) in terms of their relative valuation of present vs. future benefits. ...people who place a great deal of value on the present and little value on the future are likely to invest less than people who weight the future more heavily (Juster 1978, p. 10). An implied suggestion here is that time may well be perceived and valued differently depending on whether the activity is felt to be one of only current consumption, or rather one of investment in some future goals.

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS

Papers presented at previous professional meetings (AMA, ACR, AMA) have suggested that the varying perception, valuation and usage of time is a salient factor in/across human behavior. The use of time as a variable in models of consumer behavior has, on the other hand, been minimal. It is obviously a baseline parameter in all the various models. Time is considered generally to be an exogenous constraint in the form of a fixed budget. It is also generally recognized that time has a cost, and this affects information search (and perhaps actual processing), shopping behavior, selection of goods and services, and the subsequent use of these goods and services.

It seems to be accepted that time in some way exerts a "pressure" upon various stages of the decision process, purchase process, and use process. The exact nature of this "pressure" has not been defined, however. Attempts at operationalizing this "time pressure" variable have both preceded adequate conceptualization and have not been consistent. As a result, the operationalizations which have been used have shown only minimal relationship to the selected dependent variables. A mere meaningful, usable, consumer behavior-oriented definition of "time" is needed.

Appropriate conceptualization of time pressure as a multifaceted, subjective phenomena varying across different groups of people in different ways at different times would seem to be a necessary first step. Simplifying the operationalization of this variable to "hours of employment," "hours spent shopping" or even "the inverse of time available" is not going to suffice if the true nature of the varying perception of time is to be determined. While "the inverse of time available" is intuitively sound as a measure of time pressure, one might suggest that as far as consumer behavior is concerned, "time" should be limited to discretionary time, not total time. Non-discretionary and paid work time (Voss and Blackwell, 1979) would be left out of the computation. Similarly, time pressure should be a function of both the number of activities which the individual believes to be competing for his discretionary time, and the speed at which the individual believes he can complete the various "necessary" competing activities. A critical distinction (or might it be a distinction without a difference?) which needs to be clarified is that between the perception of time and the value of time.

One starting point would be in defining "time perception.'' A definition should include such elements as what portion of the temporal horizon preoccupies people's attention; how do people feel about the past, present, and future; what are the interrelationships between these three time zones; how do people experience the "sensation" of time; and how related is the perception of time to personality versus to one's culture. Such other elements as whether time is seen as a linear or circular phenomenon, and what units are used in conceiving of time are also important. It is entirely possible that these units are not consistent across different groups of people or with increasing age.

The following topics in the study of consumer behavior would appear to be especially fertile areas for investigation of the role of varying time perceptions.

1. Cross Cultural/Subcultural Studies of Consumer Behavior

a) How does the perception of time vary across important cultures and subcultures? How important is saving as opposed to consuming time?

b) Personality traits

c) Problem recognition

d) Information search and processing

e) Shopping behavior

f) Diffusion of innovations

g) Brand loyalty vs. level of industrial development

2. New Product Acceptance

a) Is the product perceived as consuming or saving time?

b) How does perception of the past and future reflect desire for novelty and change? For innovations?

3. Brand Loyalty

a) Is it a function of attitudes toward the past and future?

4. Family Decision Making

a) Does the perceived extent of the past, present, future over the life cycle affect decision making, purchases, and chosen activities?

5. Marketing Communications

a) Can varying perceptions of time be usefully addressed in copy and/or execution? "Saving time" already seems to be.

This is certainly not meant to be a comprehensive list, but rather some areas that seem, at this point, to be particularly relevant. The number of potential theses and dissertations is limited only by one's imagination. There is probably less known about the role and effects of time in buying and consumption behavior than any other area of the discipline.

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