How temporal orientations trigger, nurture and sustain deep engagement with consumption practices

Abstract

Consumer researchers have provided empirical cases and theoretical accounts of the formation of ‘deep engagement’ with practices. Yet, this body of research has neglected Schatzki’s (2006, 2009 ) assertion that individuals differently engage with practices based on future expectations, past orientations and present experiences. This study investigates how different temporal orientations within teleoaffective structures affect the formation of deep engagement with consumption practices. It borrows from Schatzki’s (2006, 2009) ideas and from Thévenot’s (2001 , 2007) notion of regimes of engagement and its multiple temporal orientations to offer a theoretical account of how deep engagement with practices is formed amid consumers’ past, present and future temporal orientations regarding goals, projects, ends and affectivities. It proposes that three types of temporal orientations, which are labelled transformative, maintenance and envisioned-future, enmesh in the teleoaffective structure of practices, triggering, nurturing and sustaining deep engagement with practices.