IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/oup/jconrs/v20y1993i2p229-44.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Gift Selection for Easy and Difficult Recipients: A Social Roles Interpretation

Author

Listed:
  • Otnes, Cele
  • Lowrey, Tina M
  • Kim, Young Chan

Abstract

Using interpretive techniques, we explore the meaning underlying Christmas shoppers' description of some recipients as "easy" or "difficult," in terms of gift selection. We argue that recipients are described as such because they either help or hinder givers' attempts to express specific social roles through exchange. We identify six such roles that givers express alone or in combination to each recipient on their gift lists. These are the pleaser, the provider, the compensator, the socializer, the acknowledger, and the avoider. We discuss the implications of our findings and suggest areas worthy of further research. Copyright 1993 by the University of Chicago.

Suggested Citation

  • Otnes, Cele & Lowrey, Tina M & Kim, Young Chan, 1993. "Gift Selection for Easy and Difficult Recipients: A Social Roles Interpretation," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 20(2), pages 229-244, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:jconrs:v:20:y:1993:i:2:p:229-44
    DOI: 10.1086/209345
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/209345
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1086/209345?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Branco-Illodo, Ines & Heath, Teresa, 2020. "The ‘perfect gift’ and the ‘best gift ever’: An integrative framework for truly special gifts," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 418-424.
    2. Georg Muller & Mark Bergen & Shantanu Dutta & Daniel Levy, 2006. "Private label price rigidity during holiday periods," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 13(1), pages 57-62.
    3. Cheng, Andong & Meloy, Margaret G. & Polman, Evan, 2021. "Picking Gifts for Picky People," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 97(2), pages 191-206.
    4. Wagner, Tillmann & Rudolph, Thomas, 2010. "Towards a hierarchical theory of shopping motivation," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 17(5), pages 415-429.
    5. Carlson, Jay P. & Paul, Iman, 2022. "Pick a card: Price ranges and gift card choice," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    6. Vanhamme, J. & de Bont, C.J.P.M., 2005. "“Surprise Gift” Purchases of Small Electric Appliances: A Pilot Study," ERIM Report Series Research in Management ERS-2005-081-MKT, Erasmus Research Institute of Management (ERIM), ERIM is the joint research institute of the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University and the Erasmus School of Economics (ESE) at Erasmus University Rotterdam.
    7. Peeraya Lekkumporn, 2013. "Personal Values and Gift Giving: The Case of Choosing a Restaurant for Hosting Dinner," Diversity, Technology, and Innovation for Operational Competitiveness: Proceedings of the 2013 International Conference on Technology Innovation and Industrial Management,, ToKnowPress.
    8. Cartwright, Joanna & McCormick, Helen & Warnaby, Gary, 2016. "Consumers' emotional responses to the Christmas TV advertising of four retail brands," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 29(C), pages 82-91.
    9. Laura Birg & Anna Goeddeke, 2016. "Christmas Economics—A Sleigh Ride," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 54(4), pages 1980-1984, October.
    10. Chen, Ning & Petersen, Francine E. & Lowrey, Tina M., 2022. "The effect of altruistic gift giving on self-indulgence in affordable luxury," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 146(C), pages 84-94.
    11. Amar Ahmed, 2020. "Consumer Behaviour as a Way to Studying Sociology of Culture," International Journal of Social and Administrative Sciences, Asian Economic and Social Society, vol. 5(2), pages 143-155, June.
    12. Guido, Gianluigi & Pino, Giovanni & Peluso, Alessandro M., 2016. "Assessing individuals' re-gifting motivations," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(12), pages 5956-5963.
    13. Reshadi, Farnoush, 2023. "Failing to give the gift of improvement: When and why givers withhold self-improvement gifts," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 165(C).
    14. Gunasti, Kunter & Baskin, Ernest, 2018. "Is a $200 Nordstrom Gift Card Worth More or Less Than a $200 Gap Gift Card? The Asymmetric Valuations of Luxury Gift Cards," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 94(4), pages 380-392.
    15. Söderlund, Magnus & Colliander, Jonas, 2015. "Loyalty program rewards and their impact on perceived justice, customer satisfaction, and repatronize intentions," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 25(C), pages 47-57.
    16. Cavanaugh, Lisa A. & Gino, Francesca & Fitzsimons, Gavan J., 2015. "When doing good is bad in gift giving: Mis-predicting appreciation of socially responsible gifts," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 131(C), pages 178-189.
    17. Vanhamme, Joëlle & de Bont, Cees J.P.M., 2008. "“Surprise Gift” Purchases: Customer Insights from the Small Electrical Appliances Market," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 84(3), pages 354-369.
    18. Ertimur, Burçak & Muñoz, Caroline & Hutton, James G., 2015. "Regifting: A multi-perspective processual overview," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 68(9), pages 1997-2004.
    19. Laroche, Michel & Cleveland, Mark & Browne, Elizabeth, 2004. "Exploring age-related differences in information acquisition for a gift purchase," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 25(1), pages 61-95, February.
    20. Todd Green & Julie Tinson & John Peloza, 2016. "Giving the Gift of Goodness: An Exploration of Socially Responsible Gift-Giving," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 134(1), pages 29-44, March.
    21. McGrath, Mary Ann & Otnes, Cele, 1995. "Unacquainted influencers: When strangers interact in the retail setting," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 32(3), pages 261-272, March.
    22. Givi, Julian, 2020. "(Not) giving the same old song and dance: Givers’ misguided concerns about thoughtfulness and boringness keep them from repeating gifts," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 87-98.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:oup:jconrs:v:20:y:1993:i:2:p:229-44. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://academic.oup.com/jcr .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.