EVERYDAY MARKET HELPING-BEHAVIOR

Research in marketing includes many examples of consumers helping othe r consumers. However; most research has studied helping behavior from the recipients' perspective by examining the use of personal sources o f information. Consequently, very little is known about the prevalence of market helping or why market helpers provide assistance. The autho rs examine the incidence of a variety of everyday market helping activ ities and identify a few key antecedents of market helping behavior Th e results of a study of 302 heads of household confirm significant rel ationships between market helping and two hypothesized predictors: gen eral altruism and marketplace involvement. The market maven construct is shown to mediate completely the relationship of these predictors wi th market helping behavior The authors discuss the implications of the results for public policymakers and consumer welfare.