본 연구의 목적은 현대 소비자의 소비자역할에 대한 인식과 그 수행을 알아보고 이와 함께 소비자운동에 대한 인식을 진단하기 위해 소비자역할과 소비자운동에 대한 개념의 체계화와 척도 항목 구성 및 척도 개발, 그리고 실증조사에 이르는 일련의 연구 과정을 수행하였다. 소비자역할은 크게 경제적 역할과 사회적 역할로 나뉘며 구체적으로 사회, 개인, 참여, 기업관계, 공공, 대인의 6개 하위 영역으로 구성되었다. 소비자운동은 경제영역과 환경 윤리의식 및 참여를 포함하는 사회영역의 2개 영역으로 나뉘며 구체적으로 개인적으로 관심을 갖는 수준, 기업에 대해 요구 및 표현하는 수준, 단체 활동 수준, 환경 윤리 의식 및 참여 수준, 적극적 항의 수준의 5개 영역으로 구성되었다. 실증분석 결과, 현대 소비자는 경제영역에서의 개인적 역할 수준을 넘어 사회적 의식을 가진 능동적 주체로서의 역할로 의식이 확장되고 있으나, 대인적 역할이나 기업과의 관계에서의 역할에 대한 인식 수준은 낮은 것으로 나타났고, 전반적으로 역할인식에 비해 역할수행 수준이 낮게 나타나 실천력이 부족하였다. 소비자운동 역시 단체 활동이나 적극적 참여 및 항의 수준의 소비자운동에 대한 인식이 낮게 나타났다. 본 연구는 경제와 사회의 질적 성장을 위해 소비자가 담당해야 하는 역할을 진단하고, 소비자의 권익 증진의 바탕이 되는 소비자운동에 대한 의식 향상에 필요한 기초 자료를 제공하였다.
The contemporary society’s main paradigm has been shifted from production to consumption. As consumption becomes a main part of living, the province of consumer roles has been broadened. Today’s consumers are in charge of being responsible members of the current society beyond an economic subject. Extended consumer roles mean that consumers have more duties and rights corresponding with their newly given status. Consumers’ awareness of their duties and rights is improved when they perceive their extended consumer roles. Based on the perception of the extended roles, consumers can be more aware of consumer movement, a purposive effort for improvement of consumer rights and interests. In this sense, the purpose of this study is to examine the current consumer roles and consumer movement to deepen the understanding of contemporary consumer affairs.
First of all, this study explores what consumer roles are in the contemporary society, and develops a scale to measure consumers’ perception and performance of their roles. The concepts of consumer roles are systemized which are extracted from a number of literatures regarding the concept of consumer and their roles. The concept of consumer roles is divided in economic and social areas and is classified into 6 subcategories: individual, participatory, firm-related, public, social, and other consumer-related. The scale for measuring consumers’ perception and performance of their roles is comprised of 21 items. Overall, the perception level of consumer role is higher than the performance level. Individual consumer role has the highest perception level which is related to managing their own lives. On the contrary, the perception of other consumer-related role is the lowest among those roles. It shows that consumers know their roles as an individual consumer enough while they hardly recognize their roles to form a community and make a relationship with other consumers.
Second, the concept of consumer movement is also divided in economic and social sectors and is subdivided into 5 categories: personal concern, claim and expression to firms, organizational action, participation and protest, and environmental and ethical consciousness. The scale to measure the perception of consumer movement is composed of 22 items. The highest level of perception of consumer movement is in the subdivision of claim and expression to firms. It represents that consumers regard firms as a core counterpart responsible for consumer issues. The consumer movement perception in regard to organizational action records the lowest level. This indicates that consumers feel organizational movement have less relevance to them.
Third, the consumer movement in regard to personal concern and environmental and ethical consciousness is emerging concepts of consumer movement. The type of personal concern is taking action for self-help in personal lives without participating in collective movement. This is a meaningful consumer movement because consumers make an effort to protect and improve their rights and interests by themselves and it enables to make consumer movement a part of everyday life. The consumer movement in regard to environmental and ethical consciousness is related to the social responsibility required to the consumers in contemporary society. It is needed to raise consumers’ consciousness of this type of consumer movement because it is essential for sustainable society. According to the result of this study, consumers already have relatively high perception of these types of consumer movement. It proves maturity of perception about consumer movement.
Fourth, the perception of consumer movement is in relation with the perception and performance of consumer roles. The result implies that consumers first have to understand their roles adequately to be aware of consumer movement. The perception of participatory and social consumer roles is highly related to the perception of consumer movement. These types of consumer roles have an impact on improving consumer movement perception. It means that there are needs of educational support for consumers to know their extended roles.
The results indicate that although the contemporary consumer roles have been expanded from private life domains to social and environmental domains, the perception on the consumer role in relation with others or with firms is relatively deficient. Also, contemporary consumers lack the perception on consumer movement related to organizational activities and participation and protest. This study provides useful scales and information for consumer role and consumer movement and this will guide to determine the proper consumer role and the proper definition of consumer movement for qualitative economic and social development.
