Research in marketing includes many examples of consumers helping other consumers. However, most research has studied helping behavior from the recipients’ perspective by examining the use of personal sources of information. Consequently, very little is known about the prevalence of market helping or why market helpers provide assistance. The authors examine the incidence of a variety of everyday market helping activities and identify a few key antecedents of market helping behavior. The results of a study of 302 heads of household confirm significant relationships between market helping and two hypothesized predictors: general altruism and marketplace involvement. The market maven construct is shown to mediate completely the relationship of these predictors with market helping behavior. The authors discuss the implications of the results for public policymakers and consumer welfare.
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