Why is pet goods consumption imperceptible for economists? A scoping review

Abstract

AbstractNowadays, pets more frequently are becoming family members which deserve certain products and goods, as well as services. In this way, pets are becoming consumers even they do not have a possibility to make decisions (as opposed to human being) as we analyze taking into account human being. Recently pet-related topics are gaining more attention in the press and among researchers in the field of marketing and psychology. Numerous articles regarding pet-related business patterns, like pet insurance, day care and pet friendly hotels are published. No wonder, the popularity of pets among households has been growing for many years. In this article, a scoping review aimed at identifying available studies about expenditures on pet goods and owners’ economic consumption choices has been conducted. A comprehensive search strategy was used across Scopus and EBSCO database. The results show that there is only a few studies concerning pet goods consumption through the lens of economic theories. As such this topic in not explored enough while the market of goods and services is growing.