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Samuel K. Bonsu

Other affiliations: York University
Bio: Samuel K. Bonsu is an academic researcher from Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration. The author has contributed to research in topics: Corporate social responsibility & Customer retention. The author has an hindex of 13, co-authored 33 publications receiving 1322 citations. Previous affiliations of Samuel K. Bonsu include York University.

Papers
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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors argue that the discourse of value co-creation stands for a notion of modern corporate power that is no longer aimed at disciplining consumers and shaping actions according to a given norm, but at working with and through the freedom of the consumer.
Abstract: Co-creation is a new paradigm that has captured the imagination of marketing and management professionals and scholars. Drawing on Foucault's notion of government and neo-Marxist theories of labor and value, we critically interrogate the cultural, social, and economic politics of this new management technique. We suggest that co-creation represents a political form of power aimed at generating particular forms of consumer life at once free and controllable, creative and docile. We argue that the discourse of value co-creation stands for a notion of modern corporate power that is no longer aimed at disciplining consumers and shaping actions according to a given norm, but at working with and through the freedom of the consumer. In short, administering consumption in ways that allow for the continuous emergence and exploitation of creative and valuable forms of consumer labor is the true meaning of the concept of co-creation.

651 citations

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TL;DR: This article found that bereaved Asante consumers engage in conspicuous ritual consumption in pursuit of newer social identities for their deceased and themselves and that funerals involve a reciprocal and continuing relationship between the living and the dead.
Abstract: Theory on identity negotiations posits that a person's identity-construction project ceases upon death. We tested this proposition using death-ritual consumption experiences of consumers in Asante, Ghana, West Africa. We found that bereaved Asante consumers engage in conspicuous ritual consumption in pursuit of newer social identities for their deceased and themselves and that funerals involve a reciprocal and continuing relationship between the living and the dead. In addition, we found that terror-management theory is limited in its relevance for non-Western contexts. We also detected limits to the ability to transform global capital into local capital.

196 citations

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TL;DR: In this article, the authors draw on participant observation in the virtual-technology context of Second Life to explore cocreation's prepossessing claim of consumer empowerment and its connections to contemporary forms of social organization.
Abstract: In this article, we draw on our participant observation in the virtual-technology context of Second Life to explore cocreation's prepossessing claim of consumer empowerment and its connections to contemporary forms of social organization We conclude that while consumers are genuinely empowered by co-creation practices, this empowerment that frees the consumer in a diversity of ways also offers significant avenues for entrapping the consumer into producing for the firm In the end, co-creation is a veneer of consumer empowerment in a world where market power, in large measure, still resides in capital On this basis, we suggest that the seeming demise of capitalism espoused by some scholars is premature to the extent that capitalism has the uncanny ability to meld into newer social formations such as those afforded by Second Life Thus, a more realistic vision is an interloping of the ethical and capitalist economies

160 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
Samuel K. Bonsu1
TL;DR: The authors draw on 93 consumer interpretations of advertising images to suggest how North American consumer perceptions of Africa are linked to sociohistorical facilities that support ideological notions of inferior African “otherness.”
Abstract: I draw on 93 consumer interpretations of advertising images to suggest how North American consumer perceptions of Africa are linked to socio‐historical facilities that support ideological notions of inferior African “otherness.” I seek to make salient the unacknowledged denial of colonial discourses’ import into contemporary reproduction of African inferior otherness, toward revealing the durability of the racial divide rooted in colonial history and ideology. I find that discourses on Africa are attached to colonial tropes of savagery, exotica and rhetoric of benevolence. The related consumer tensions and ambiguities fund powerful ideological work that perpetuates colonialism in globalization. I conclude that although the physical instruments of brutality associated with imperialism are no longer in direct use, these colonial instruments live on in contemporary advertising and related discourses.

86 citations

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TL;DR: The base-of-the-pyramid (BoP) corporate strategy as discussed by the authors perceives market-based solutions to the problem of global poverty, and is premised on the view that people in BoP markets live in fundament...
Abstract: The Base-of-the-pyramid (BoP) corporate strategy perceives market-based solutions to the problem of global poverty. The strategy is premised on the view that people in BoP markets live in fundament...

55 citations


Cited by
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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, Imagined communities: Reflections on the origin and spread of nationalism are discussed. And the history of European ideas: Vol. 21, No. 5, pp. 721-722.

13,842 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Reading a book as this basics of qualitative research grounded theory procedures and techniques and other references can enrich your life quality.

13,415 citations

01 Jan 2015
TL;DR: Familiarity, ease of access, trust, and awareness of risks, will all be important for the future.
Abstract: 萨义德以其独特的双重身份,对西方中心权力话语做了分析,通过对文学作品、演讲演说等文本的解读,将O rie n ta lis m——"东方学",做了三重释义:一门学科、一种思维方式和一种权力话语系统,对东方学权力话语做了系统的批判,同时将东方学放入空间维度对东方学文本做了细致的解读。

3,845 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, a synthesizing overview of consumer research addressing the sociocultural, experiential, symbolic, and ideological aspects of consumption is provided, with the aim of providing a viable disciplinary brand for this research tradition that we call consumer culture theory.
Abstract: This article provides a synthesizing overview of the past 20 yr. of consumer research addressing the sociocultural, experiential, symbolic, and ideological aspects of consumption. Our aim is to provide a viable disciplinary brand for this research tradition that we call consumer culture theory (CCT). We propose that CCT has fulfilled recurrent calls for developing a distinctive body of theoretical knowledge about consumption and marketplace behaviors. In developing this argument, we redress three enduring misconceptions about the nature and analytic orientation of CCT. We then assess how CCT has contributed to consumer research by illuminating the cultural dimensions of the consumption cycle and by developing novel theorizations concerning four thematic domains of research interest.

2,926 citations