Pub Date : 2024-08-21DOI: 10.1177/14705931241275558
Ruiqi Wei, Susi Geiger
Algorithms are central in shaping platform markets, impacting not only calculation processes but also influencing market actors’ relationships and market structures more broadly. As “autonomous” market devices that are executable or operate without the need for human intervention, algorithms continuously organize, prioritize, and rank product profiles, resulting in personalized exchange offers based on data processing. However, different market actors also actively attempt to influence these processes, turning platform markets into what could be described as algorithmic battlefields. Despite the growing significance of market-based algorithms, research on their role in market shaping remains scarce. This paper explores the role of algorithms in shaping platform markets. By drawing together literatures from market studies and critical algorithm studies, four key algorithmic characteristics in “agencing” markets are identified: as market actors, targets of market contestations, boundary objects, and market systems connectors. Based on these roles, the paper formulates a research agenda for studying algorithmic agencing in platform markets.
{"title":"Algorithmic agencing in platform markets","authors":"Ruiqi Wei, Susi Geiger","doi":"10.1177/14705931241275558","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14705931241275558","url":null,"abstract":"Algorithms are central in shaping platform markets, impacting not only calculation processes but also influencing market actors’ relationships and market structures more broadly. As “autonomous” market devices that are executable or operate without the need for human intervention, algorithms continuously organize, prioritize, and rank product profiles, resulting in personalized exchange offers based on data processing. However, different market actors also actively attempt to influence these processes, turning platform markets into what could be described as algorithmic battlefields. Despite the growing significance of market-based algorithms, research on their role in market shaping remains scarce. This paper explores the role of algorithms in shaping platform markets. By drawing together literatures from market studies and critical algorithm studies, four key algorithmic characteristics in “agencing” markets are identified: as market actors, targets of market contestations, boundary objects, and market systems connectors. Based on these roles, the paper formulates a research agenda for studying algorithmic agencing in platform markets.","PeriodicalId":48020,"journal":{"name":"Marketing Theory","volume":"59 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-08-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142217687","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-08-21DOI: 10.1177/14705931241275528
Damien Chaney, Christina Goulding
Numerous consumption experiences have been conceptualized as rituals, comprising pre-liminal, liminal, and post-liminal stages. While prior research has proposed interconnections between these stages, it has been limited in addressing nuanced variations within the liminal stage. Specifically, this study examines the interaction between the pre-liminal and liminal stages. Through a longitudinal and multi-sited approach, incorporating visual anthropology and participant interviews at rock music festivals, we demonstrate that consumers can undergo three types of liminality—unbridled, oriented, and restrained liminality—depending on their approach to preparation and anticipation. While some meticulously prepare for the festival experience, others embrace spontaneity. Similarly, while some eagerly anticipate the festival with positivity, others harbor negative expectations. This research contributes a nuanced understanding of liminality within diverse consumer trajectories.
{"title":"Exploring nuances of liminality: Unbridled, oriented, and restrained liminality in cultural rituals","authors":"Damien Chaney, Christina Goulding","doi":"10.1177/14705931241275528","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14705931241275528","url":null,"abstract":"Numerous consumption experiences have been conceptualized as rituals, comprising pre-liminal, liminal, and post-liminal stages. While prior research has proposed interconnections between these stages, it has been limited in addressing nuanced variations within the liminal stage. Specifically, this study examines the interaction between the pre-liminal and liminal stages. Through a longitudinal and multi-sited approach, incorporating visual anthropology and participant interviews at rock music festivals, we demonstrate that consumers can undergo three types of liminality—unbridled, oriented, and restrained liminality—depending on their approach to preparation and anticipation. While some meticulously prepare for the festival experience, others embrace spontaneity. Similarly, while some eagerly anticipate the festival with positivity, others harbor negative expectations. This research contributes a nuanced understanding of liminality within diverse consumer trajectories.","PeriodicalId":48020,"journal":{"name":"Marketing Theory","volume":"37 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-08-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142217661","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-08-14DOI: 10.1177/14705931241270853
Hayden D Cahill, Ross Gordon, Lauren Gurrieri, Theresa Harada
In this paper, we explore how platformisation facilitates potentially harmful consumption practices of sports betting. Our research draws on ideas from the platformisation and social practice theory literature and features a netnographic study of a sports betting community of practice hosted on the English-language platform Reddit. We consider how platformisation shapes sports betting consumption practices, and the implications for consumers. Our findings demonstrate how platformisation facilitates harmful sports betting consumption practices by causing: (1) intrusion of these practices into work, time, and the consumption of sport; and (2) competitive intensification among and between consumers, against the gambling industry, and against consumers themselves. We discuss the implications from our research findings for platformisation theory, the platformisation of consumption practices, and sociocultural perspectives on gambling. Further, we offer suggestions for how policy and practice can ameliorate gambling harms that are facilitated through platformisation, and identify opportunities for further research.
{"title":"How platformisation shapes sports betting consumption practices and implications for harm","authors":"Hayden D Cahill, Ross Gordon, Lauren Gurrieri, Theresa Harada","doi":"10.1177/14705931241270853","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14705931241270853","url":null,"abstract":"In this paper, we explore how platformisation facilitates potentially harmful consumption practices of sports betting. Our research draws on ideas from the platformisation and social practice theory literature and features a netnographic study of a sports betting community of practice hosted on the English-language platform Reddit. We consider how platformisation shapes sports betting consumption practices, and the implications for consumers. Our findings demonstrate how platformisation facilitates harmful sports betting consumption practices by causing: (1) intrusion of these practices into work, time, and the consumption of sport; and (2) competitive intensification among and between consumers, against the gambling industry, and against consumers themselves. We discuss the implications from our research findings for platformisation theory, the platformisation of consumption practices, and sociocultural perspectives on gambling. Further, we offer suggestions for how policy and practice can ameliorate gambling harms that are facilitated through platformisation, and identify opportunities for further research.","PeriodicalId":48020,"journal":{"name":"Marketing Theory","volume":"43 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-08-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142217663","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-08-12DOI: 10.1177/14705931241272856
Ye (Nicole) Yang, Julie L Ozanne
This study examines how consumers coordinate temporary access of their private homes in a home swapping market in which different guiding principles compete. Drawing on the theory of justification, we find consumers strategically use objects to stabilise the different economies of worth that govern this access-based marketplace. Three economies of worth, domestic, civic, and market, are stabilised in homes signalling to visitors how to coordinate their use of the home. Moreover, consumers facilitate the coexistence of all three economies of worth by managing justifiable and object-led compromises. Our findings contribute to understanding that the peaceful coexistence of economies of worth occurs through stabilising objects that guide both coordination and compromises. Our findings extend the current explanations of why markets with plural institutional logics are often conflictual, fragile, and unstable. We also propose theoretical and managerial implications on the strategic use of objects to support a diverse but stable market.
{"title":"Coordination and compromise across competing economies of worth","authors":"Ye (Nicole) Yang, Julie L Ozanne","doi":"10.1177/14705931241272856","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14705931241272856","url":null,"abstract":"This study examines how consumers coordinate temporary access of their private homes in a home swapping market in which different guiding principles compete. Drawing on the theory of justification, we find consumers strategically use objects to stabilise the different economies of worth that govern this access-based marketplace. Three economies of worth, domestic, civic, and market, are stabilised in homes signalling to visitors how to coordinate their use of the home. Moreover, consumers facilitate the coexistence of all three economies of worth by managing justifiable and object-led compromises. Our findings contribute to understanding that the peaceful coexistence of economies of worth occurs through stabilising objects that guide both coordination and compromises. Our findings extend the current explanations of why markets with plural institutional logics are often conflictual, fragile, and unstable. We also propose theoretical and managerial implications on the strategic use of objects to support a diverse but stable market.","PeriodicalId":48020,"journal":{"name":"Marketing Theory","volume":"5 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-08-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142217664","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-08-07DOI: 10.1177/14705931241272873
Marian Makkar, Ye (Nicole) Yang, Rachel Lamarche-Beauchesne
This study examines how consumers navigate their spiritual needs for transcendence in everyday consumption. While extant literature shows that both spiritual utilities and tensions emerge in sacred consumption, we build on and extend this research by illuminating how consumers navigate sacralisation and problematise profane consumption objects and practices. We employed Mary Douglas’s pollution theory to examine how consumers navigate cultural meanings of purity and transgressions. Through a qualitative study of vegan fashion consumption, we found that consumers negotiate the meaning of purity to govern everyday consumption practices in ways that resemble characteristics of religious institutions (e.g. faith and doctrines). Vegan consumers tolerate consumption transgressions through practices and rituals to sustain their faith within what is regarded as a polluted marketplace. Our study contributes to a novel perspective on consumer spirituality in regulating sacred and secular consumption and moralising relationships with the material world.
{"title":"Navigating spirituality in vegan fashion consumption: Purification and transgression tolerance","authors":"Marian Makkar, Ye (Nicole) Yang, Rachel Lamarche-Beauchesne","doi":"10.1177/14705931241272873","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14705931241272873","url":null,"abstract":"This study examines how consumers navigate their spiritual needs for transcendence in everyday consumption. While extant literature shows that both spiritual utilities and tensions emerge in sacred consumption, we build on and extend this research by illuminating how consumers navigate sacralisation and problematise profane consumption objects and practices. We employed Mary Douglas’s pollution theory to examine how consumers navigate cultural meanings of purity and transgressions. Through a qualitative study of vegan fashion consumption, we found that consumers negotiate the meaning of purity to govern everyday consumption practices in ways that resemble characteristics of religious institutions (e.g. faith and doctrines). Vegan consumers tolerate consumption transgressions through practices and rituals to sustain their faith within what is regarded as a polluted marketplace. Our study contributes to a novel perspective on consumer spirituality in regulating sacred and secular consumption and moralising relationships with the material world.","PeriodicalId":48020,"journal":{"name":"Marketing Theory","volume":"26 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-08-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141938987","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-07-24DOI: 10.1177/14705931241264535
Benjamin Rosenthal
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.
消费者研究人员提供了关于 "深度参与 "实践形成的经验案例和理论阐述。然而,这些研究却忽视了沙茨基(2006 年、2009 年)的论断,即个人会根据未来预期、过去取向和当前经验,以不同方式参与实践。本研究探讨了远程情感结构中的不同时间取向如何影响深度参与消费实践的形成。它借鉴了 Schatzki(2006,2009)的观点和 Thévenot(2001,2007)的 "参与制度"(regimes of engagement)概念及其多重时间取向,对消费者在目标、项目、目的和情感方面的过去、现在和未来时间取向如何形成深度参与实践进行了理论阐述。它提出了三种类型的时间取向,分别被称为变革型、维持型和未来设想型,它们融入了实践的远程情感结构,引发、培养和维持了对实践的深度参与。
{"title":"How temporal orientations trigger, nurture and sustain deep engagement with consumption practices","authors":"Benjamin Rosenthal","doi":"10.1177/14705931241264535","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14705931241264535","url":null,"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.","PeriodicalId":48020,"journal":{"name":"Marketing Theory","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-07-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141771213","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-05-10DOI: 10.1177/14705931241253408
Hwanho Choi
Prior studies suggest that the primary function of graphicons, such as emoji and stickers, is to enable more effective digital communication between individuals. In a digitally interactive environment, graphicons are an important means of expressing and exchanging sentiments, emotions, and thoughts. However, there is little understanding of the use of graphicons in the context of social and cultural conditions and their effect on impression management. Through analysis of in-depth interview data, the present study identifies three strategic applications of graphicons: social necessity, pursuit of social propriety, and expression of authentic self. Our findings suggest that individuals utilize various tools in the digital space to facilitate impression management. Graphicons are specifically used to convey relational meanings, and their usage is strongly related to social and cultural contexts and norms.
{"title":"Self-presentation and impression management: Understanding graphicon experience","authors":"Hwanho Choi","doi":"10.1177/14705931241253408","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14705931241253408","url":null,"abstract":"Prior studies suggest that the primary function of graphicons, such as emoji and stickers, is to enable more effective digital communication between individuals. In a digitally interactive environment, graphicons are an important means of expressing and exchanging sentiments, emotions, and thoughts. However, there is little understanding of the use of graphicons in the context of social and cultural conditions and their effect on impression management. Through analysis of in-depth interview data, the present study identifies three strategic applications of graphicons: social necessity, pursuit of social propriety, and expression of authentic self. Our findings suggest that individuals utilize various tools in the digital space to facilitate impression management. Graphicons are specifically used to convey relational meanings, and their usage is strongly related to social and cultural contexts and norms.","PeriodicalId":48020,"journal":{"name":"Marketing Theory","volume":"36 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-05-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140930781","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-05-08DOI: 10.1177/14705931241249624
Anna Fyrberg Yngfalk, Markus Fellesson
This paper critically examines consumer violations of employees in the Nordic retail sector. In bringing these violations to light, we analyse how employees become subjectified by the ideals of consumer sovereignty, and how service work is discursively and practically aligned with the notion of the sovereign consumer. We demonstrate how the discourse of consumer sovereignty intersects with gendered service work and the expectations of feminine sexual availability, and how this alignment reproduces gender and power inequalities. Drawing on studies of consumer violence and misbehaviour and feminist research on service work, we argue that the patterns of subjugation and consumer abuse are intrinsically embedded both in the ideal of consumer sovereignty itself and in the strategies that employees use to constitute themselves within prevailing market and gender orders. The study provides a critical understanding of how consumer sovereignty operates in tandem with gender structures to form subjugating practices that both enable and normalise consumer violations.
{"title":"Service with(out) a smile: The reproduction of gendered consumer violence","authors":"Anna Fyrberg Yngfalk, Markus Fellesson","doi":"10.1177/14705931241249624","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14705931241249624","url":null,"abstract":"This paper critically examines consumer violations of employees in the Nordic retail sector. In bringing these violations to light, we analyse how employees become subjectified by the ideals of consumer sovereignty, and how service work is discursively and practically aligned with the notion of the sovereign consumer. We demonstrate how the discourse of consumer sovereignty intersects with gendered service work and the expectations of feminine sexual availability, and how this alignment reproduces gender and power inequalities. Drawing on studies of consumer violence and misbehaviour and feminist research on service work, we argue that the patterns of subjugation and consumer abuse are intrinsically embedded both in the ideal of consumer sovereignty itself and in the strategies that employees use to constitute themselves within prevailing market and gender orders. The study provides a critical understanding of how consumer sovereignty operates in tandem with gender structures to form subjugating practices that both enable and normalise consumer violations.","PeriodicalId":48020,"journal":{"name":"Marketing Theory","volume":"26 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-05-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140941957","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-04-26DOI: 10.1177/14705931241249020
Jonatan Södergren, Oscar Ahlberg, Mattias Hjelm
The scientific tradition in marketing research has alienated marketing practitioners from academics. As a counterpoint, we argue that theory from the humanities, especially theatre and drama studies, can provide meaningful insights into consumer culture. Inspired by the Theatre of the Absurd, we develop four absurd prompts present in consumer culture: menace, aphasia, parody, and frustration. Taken together, these prompts amount to an absurd condition, a hall of mirrors, in which consumers inevitably find themselves. While the market promises different ways out of this condition, through manners, speech, sincerity, and attainment, we argue that these promises remain empty, amounting only to absurd inversions leading to new halls of mirrors. Through the lens of the Theatre of the Absurd, we map such promises of inversions and their implications for marketing theory.
{"title":"Marketing and the theatre of the absurd","authors":"Jonatan Södergren, Oscar Ahlberg, Mattias Hjelm","doi":"10.1177/14705931241249020","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14705931241249020","url":null,"abstract":"The scientific tradition in marketing research has alienated marketing practitioners from academics. As a counterpoint, we argue that theory from the humanities, especially theatre and drama studies, can provide meaningful insights into consumer culture. Inspired by the Theatre of the Absurd, we develop four absurd prompts present in consumer culture: menace, aphasia, parody, and frustration. Taken together, these prompts amount to an absurd condition, a hall of mirrors, in which consumers inevitably find themselves. While the market promises different ways out of this condition, through manners, speech, sincerity, and attainment, we argue that these promises remain empty, amounting only to absurd inversions leading to new halls of mirrors. Through the lens of the Theatre of the Absurd, we map such promises of inversions and their implications for marketing theory.","PeriodicalId":48020,"journal":{"name":"Marketing Theory","volume":"52 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-04-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140803079","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-04-16DOI: 10.1177/14705931241245589
Craig J Thompson
This essay gives closer historical consideration to the unprecedented disciplinary impact of Belk’s (1988) conceptualization of the extended self. This canonical article initially appeared to be another flashpoint in the paradigmatic conflict between positivist and interpretivist consumer researchers. However, Belk’s portrayal of consumers as agentic actors who produce their own identities through a network of possessions and symbolic artefacts proved to be highly compatible with interdisciplinary trends toward a more holistic and socio-culturally situated understanding of consumer behavior. Accordingly, Belk’s “extended self” created an ontological bridge between interpretivist studies of consumers’ co-constituting relations to the socio-material world and consumer psychologists’ quest to expand their research interests beyond the study of rational decision making processes. While some marketing historians have suggested that the extended self’s seminal influence derives from its generative “vagueness,” I propose that its transformational effects on the broader field of consumer research trace to a genius of mythopoesis and a genius of timing. I then discuss how the logic of ontological reconfiguration, manifest in Belk’s conceptualization, can foster more synergistic and innovative inter-paradigmatic dialogues between consumer culture theory (CCT) and consumer psychology.
{"title":"Transcending paradigmatic schisms and building ontological bridges: How Russ Belk’s “extended self” became canonical consumer research","authors":"Craig J Thompson","doi":"10.1177/14705931241245589","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14705931241245589","url":null,"abstract":"This essay gives closer historical consideration to the unprecedented disciplinary impact of Belk’s (1988) conceptualization of the extended self. This canonical article initially appeared to be another flashpoint in the paradigmatic conflict between positivist and interpretivist consumer researchers. However, Belk’s portrayal of consumers as agentic actors who produce their own identities through a network of possessions and symbolic artefacts proved to be highly compatible with interdisciplinary trends toward a more holistic and socio-culturally situated understanding of consumer behavior. Accordingly, Belk’s “extended self” created an ontological bridge between interpretivist studies of consumers’ co-constituting relations to the socio-material world and consumer psychologists’ quest to expand their research interests beyond the study of rational decision making processes. While some marketing historians have suggested that the extended self’s seminal influence derives from its generative “vagueness,” I propose that its transformational effects on the broader field of consumer research trace to a genius of mythopoesis and a genius of timing. I then discuss how the logic of ontological reconfiguration, manifest in Belk’s conceptualization, can foster more synergistic and innovative inter-paradigmatic dialogues between consumer culture theory (CCT) and consumer psychology.","PeriodicalId":48020,"journal":{"name":"Marketing Theory","volume":"9 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-04-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140616452","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}