After 50 Years, It Is Time to Talk about Value Hierarchy and Inequality
研究认为消费者研究必须探讨价值等级的过程性及其与不平等的关系，基于1970-2021年癌症护理市场的实证证据，提出价值等级如何塑造并表现为不平等，并构建了未来研究议程。
Abstract This research enriches the field’s perspective on value and argues that to seriously address inequality during the next 50 years, consumer research must explore processual aspects of value hierarchy and consider its relationship to inequality. Doing so recognizes the duality of structures as embodying outcomes and agency, as well as the need to view value not only as what it is but also as what it does. To begin to address limitations in the literature, we use empirical evidence from an investigation of the cancer care market from 1970 to 2021 to understand how value hierarchy shapes and manifests as inequality. This is conceptualized as: distribution of multilevel resources, consolidation of consumer power, stratification of consumer agency, and (de)credentialization of worthiness. Building on each of these, we discuss a research agenda for future JCR inquiries and introduce “value hierarchy as inequality” as a big-tent issue for consumer research.