Search results

This paper aims to explore customers’ insights to understand how they can construct self-identity through the anti-consumption transformation.

Adopting the grounded theory methodology, this paper presents findings from laddering interviews conducted with twenty-two anti-consumers in Sri Lanka. All interviews were transcribed, and thematic analysis was undertaken.

Our findings uncovered that the anti-consumption transformation process is mainly influenced by the social and moral valuation of the environment, external pressure, willingness to change, monetary savings and having children. In particular, the acts of rejection, reduction and reuse are vital behavioral patterns observed in anti-consumption. Moreover, findings reveal that anti-consumption transformation contributes to individuals’ self-identity by changing their surroundings, expressing anti-consumption to others, using increased control and experiencing inner change.

This paper is one of the first attempts to qualitatively explore how pursuing anti-consumption behavior contributes to self-identity construction of an individual from the transtheoretical model of behavioral change perspective.

The sharing economy is a socio-economic system in which individuals acquire and distribute goods and services among each other for free or for compensation through internet platforms. The sharing economy has attracted the interest of the academic community, which examined the phenomenon from the economic, social and technological perspectives. The paper aims to discuss this issue.

Given the lack of an overarching analysis of the sharing economy, this paper employs a quantitative content analysis approach to explore and synthesise relevant findings to facilitate the understanding of this emerging phenomenon.

The paper identified and grouped findings under four themes, namely: collaborative consumption practices, resources, drivers of user engagement and impacts, each of which is discussed in relation to the three main themes, aiming to compare findings and then put forward an agenda for further research.

The paper offers a balanced analysis of the building blocks of the sharing economy, to identify emerging themes within each stream, to discuss any contextual differences from a multi-stakeholder perspective and to propose directions for future studies.

The purpose of this paper is to examine a form of anti-consumption termed moral avoidance.

The study builds and tests a model of moral avoidance, using a sample (n=457) of adults aged 50-94 years.

Two distinct forms of this type of anti-consumption emerged, one based on exploitation of eco-systems and one on exploitation of humans. Ecology concerns and perceived consumer effectiveness are significant antecedents to both forms, while ethical ideology also impacts anti-consumption for social reasons. Greater numbers practice this form of anti-consumption for social reasons than for ecology reasons.

The study uncovers new underlying reasons why people practice moral avoidance and in so doing guides managers in their targeting and decision making.

The study is the first to demonstrate that this form of anti-consumption has two different perspectives: planet and people. Moreover, older adults are important ethical consumers, but no previous study has explored them from an anti-consumption perspective.

As one rewinds the clock to the early days of the twenty‐first century, it can be quite surprising to realise how much the consumer landscape has changed from what it is today. This paper aims to introduce the special issue and attempts to take stock of the last decade and reflect on the transformation of key areas of the changing marketplace and its impact on consumption.

A critical and integrative appraisal of emerging issues in consumer marketing is used to develop a framework for reviewing the relationship between demand‐side and supply‐side trends in the consumer landscape.

In reviewing major developments and trends of the last decade, the paper argues that the consumption landscape now operates in a rapidly changing environment that can be characterised as both turbulent and disruptive. These major shifts are emerging from the physical environment, technological innovation and the transformation of major markets. In all these scenarios, significant events are being experienced which disrupt the ways in which consumers behave and a retrospective of the first decade underscores several of these major shifts.

All of the papers included in this special issue have used one or more methods of inquiry based on conceptual, qualitative and/or quantitative approaches and open up fascinating avenues for future research in areas such as social marketing, branding, anti‐consumption, co‐creation, and social networking to name a few.

The last decade saw a great deal of attention given to social marketing and tackling the “dark side” of marketing to selected groups, often identified as vulnerable consumers. In other cases, such as with “anti‐consumption”, consumers totally avoid consuming certain products which, as a result, may have negative consequences not only for them but for the whole of society such as is the case with the avoidance of vaccination.

This paper is a unique examination of the last decade and its impact on consumer marketing backed up by a collection of strong contributions in emerging areas such as anti‐consumption, social networking, health promotion and addictive products, consumer co‐creation, sustainability and fair trade, branding and multicultural markets.

In this study, it is aimed to examine do-it-yourself (DIY) practices from sustainable and entrepreneurship perspectives and to understand how transformation mechanism works in between altruistic and utilitarian tendencies in shared economy market conditions. Meaning, material and competency of practice theory will be indicative in explaining transformation of existing practices, how practice is transformed and diffused in market ecosystem through the introduction of new objects and opportunities to better understand how values and meanings change.

This study is a phenomenological research interested in explaining contingency of sustainability in between altruistic and market conditions in shared economy ecosystem through DIY practices. The sample of this study is made up of 15 participants actively carrying out DIY activities. Data is analysed with MAXQDA Analytics Pro 2018 program through grounded coding technique.

DIYers' relationship with market results them to create roles subject to their dependence on altruistic values of sustainability and their stance to anti-consumption in between alternative and mainstream economy. When they converge to the market, DIY activities turn into medium of marketing activities. When they diverge from the market, they become “transformers” embracing principles of shared economy. Contingency appears depending on three conditions: one is related with active participation in DIY or market practices. Second is related with occupation status that DIYers have. Third is related with competence that active DIYers have.

This study is aimed only at active participants. Therefore, it is possible to see the effects of altruistic and market behaviour more clearly. However, this group represents a minor group that will make it possible to comment on a small group. This is one of the limitations of this study.

In the study, proximity and distance to mainstream market condition are taken as the basis and market structure is taken as an agent. By this way, DIYers' activities evaluated not only from social and economical perspective but also their transformation compared to capitalist market conditions challenging altruistic values of DIY, sustainability and sharing economy. Thus, this study is evaluating sustainability, shared economy and DIY not as an entity but as a process.

This paper aims to contribute to the special issue theme by analysing intentional non‐consumption through anti‐consumption and consumer resistance lenses.

A total of 16 in‐depth interviews with women who intentionally practise non‐consumption for sustainability were completed.

Two major themes where identified: I versus them: the careless consumers, and The objective/subjective dialectic in mundane practices.

While it is tempting to delineate one concept from another, in practice, both anti‐consumption and consumer resistance intersect and represent complementary frameworks in studying non‐consumption.

This paper aims to investigate collective identity construction process and applicability of resistance dimensions to the Freegan phenomenon.

Data triangulation approach combines netnography of the Freegan online discourses, and content analysis of mainstream consumer views of Freeganism.

Participation in shared practices facilitates Freegan collective identity construction through convergence of radical consumer resistance and market‐mediated anti‐consumption.

Multi‐dimensional conceptualization of resistance is applicable to analyzing consumer movements.

Through data triangulation, this research offers an analysis of internally negotiated and externally ascribed Freegan group identities.

Because steadily growing consumption is not beneficial for nature and climate and is not the same as increasing well-being, an anti-consumerism movement has formed worldwide. The renouncement of dispensable consumption will, however, only establish itself as a significant lifestyle if consumers do not perceive reduced consumption as a personal sacrifice. Since prior research has not yielded a consistent understanding of the relationship between anti-consumption and personal well-being, this paper aims to examine three factors about which theory implies that they may moderate this relationship: decision-control empowerment, market-control empowerment and the value of materialism.

The analysis is based on data from a large-scale, representative online survey (N = 1,398). Structural equation modelling with latent interaction effects is used to test how three moderators (decision-control empowerment, market-control empowerment and materialism) affect the relationship amongst four types of anti-consumption (e.g. voluntary simplicity) and three different well-being states (e.g. subjective well-being).

While both dimensions of empowerment almost always directly promote consumer well-being, significant moderation effects are present in only a few but meaningful cases. Although the materialism value tends to reduce consumers’ well-being, it improves the well-being effect of two anti-consumption styles.

Using only one sample from a wealthy country is a limitation of the study. Researchers should replicate the findings in different nations and cultures.

Consumer affairs practitioners and commercial marketing for sustainably produced, high-quality and long-lasting goods can benefit greatly from these findings.

This paper shows that sustainable marketing campaigns can more easily motivate consumers to voluntarily reduce their consumption for the benefit of society and the environment if a high level of market-control empowerment can be communicated to them.

This study provides differentiated new insights into the roles of consumer empowerment, i.e. both decision-control empowerment and market-control empowerment, and the value of materialism to frame specific relationships between different anti-consumption types and various well-being states.

The research analyzes the presence of two global brands – Fiat and International Federation of Association Football – in Brazilian demonstrations in conjunction with the 2014 World Cup. The purpose of this paper is to extend the brand cultural resonance construct and highlights its boundary-straddling nature. The analysis reveals the dynamics of brand meanings established including why some brands have their meanings enriched through collective appropriation, while others become vessels of negative content and targets of anti-consumption movements.

A multimethod approach, which included observation, analysis of cultural texts and in-depth interviews with 21 demonstrators, was adopted for the study.

The study extends the construct of brand cultural resonance proposing an additional facet, named Institutional Resonance. This dimension relates to the meanings that arise from a brand’s institutional role and interactions with other social institutions, like governments, the economy, religious, and educational systems. Institutional Resonance occurs when a certain brand becomes the archetypal representation of a social institution. This study also presents two forms of brand cultural resonance: arrows or targets. As arrows, brands lend their symbolic resources to the construction of protesters’ messages helping them to communicate their ideas. As targets, brands become social enemies and represent negative poles of social contradictions.

This study investigates consumer appropriation of marketers’ actions. The research depicts Institutional Resonance as an interactive and acute phenomenon which promotes a social negotiation on a playing field where different agents forge brand meanings and reputations.