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The Best Laid Plans: Why New Parents Fail to Habituate Practices

Author

Listed:
  • Tandy Chalmers Thomas
  • Amber M Epp
  • Eileen FischerEditor
  • Margaret C CampbellEditor
  • Ashlee HumphreysAssociate Editor

Abstract

Consumers regularly fail to habituate newly adopted practices. In contrast to established practices, this often occurs because understanding a practice is different from actually doing it. Our work explores this “messiness of doing” and explains why consumers successfully habituate some newly adopted practices after experiencing obstacles (i.e., misaligned practice elements) but not others. Utilizing a longitudinal approach that follows first-time parents from pregnancy through the first eight months postpartum, we track how parents plan for practices and how those plans unfold. We document a process whereby parents first engage in extensive planning and preparation prior to the birth of their child, during which parents build two realignment capabilities (anticipation and integration). After the baby’s arrival, some practices invariably do not work. Parents respond to these misalignments by following one of five paths—differentiated by the capabilities parents build while planning—that result in practice abandonment, vulnerable habituation, or habituation. Our work highlights the challenges associated with translating a social practice into an enacted practice and the corresponding importance of accumulating realignment capabilities during planning. To facilitate habituation of newly adopted practices, how consumers make plans for these practices may ultimately matter more than what they actually plan to do.

Suggested Citation

  • Tandy Chalmers Thomas & Amber M Epp & Eileen FischerEditor & Margaret C CampbellEditor & Ashlee HumphreysAssociate Editor, 2019. "The Best Laid Plans: Why New Parents Fail to Habituate Practices," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 46(3), pages 564-589.
  • Handle: RePEc:oup:jconrs:v:46:y:2019:i:3:p:564-589.
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/jcr/ucz003
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. repec:oup:jecgeo:v:50:y:2023:i:2:p:282-302. is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Khanijou, Ratna & Cappellini, Benedetta & Hosany, Sameer, 2021. "Meal for two: A typology of co-performed practices," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 134(C), pages 675-688.
    3. Eric Arnould & David Crockett & Giana Eckhardt, 2021. "Informing marketing theory through consumer culture theoretics," AMS Review, Springer;Academy of Marketing Science, vol. 11(1), pages 1-8, June.
    4. Anne Kastarinen & Elina Närvänen & Anu Valtonen & Linda L Price & June Cotte & Zeynep Arsel, 2023. "Doing Family over Time: The Multilayered and Multitemporal Nature of Intergenerational Caring through Consumption," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 50(2), pages 282-302.
    5. Francesca Bonetti & Matteo Montecchi & Kirk Plangger & Hope Jensen Schau, 2023. "Practice co-evolution: Collaboratively embedding artificial intelligence in retail practices," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 51(4), pages 867-888, July.
    6. Hosany, A. R. Shaheen & Hosany, Sameer & He, Hongwei, 2022. "Children sustainable behaviour: A review and research agenda," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 147(C), pages 236-257.
    7. Thomas, Tandy Chalmers & Epp, Amber M. & Price, Linda L., 2020. "Journeying Together: Aligning Retailer and Service Provider Roles with Collective Consumer Practices," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 96(1), pages 9-24.

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