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Consumers and their transformation tales

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Author Info
Pilar Rojas Gaviria () (Centre Emile Bernheim, Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels.)

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Abstract

Inspired by an on-going empirical research on consumers and their tales about disruptive events they have faced in their life, this paper illustrates the value of using interpretative hermeneutics for analyzing consumption during these transformations. Such disruptive events are for instance: Divorce, death of beloved ones, marriage of convenience, or expatriation. In these kinds of contexts, a hermeneutical analysis allows researchers to study punctual consumption occurrences (buying, consuming or dispossessing) as being an expression of a personal narrative re-building that facilitates a deeper understanding of underlying motives. Investigating life disruptive events and their consequences on consumption behaviors appears to be particularly important in contemporary societies, where people are increasingly facing new endings and new beginnings during life, making reconstruction and adaptation a necessary process.

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File URL: http://www.solvay.edu/EN/Research/Bernheim/documents/wp08039.pdf
File Format: application/pdf
File Function: First version, 2008
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Publisher Info
Paper provided by Université Libre de Bruxelles, Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management, Centre Emile Bernheim (CEB) in its series Working Papers CEB with number 08-039.RS.

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Length: 16 pages
Date of creation: Dec 2008
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:sol:wpaper:08-039

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Related research
Keywords: Consumer transformation; narrative identity; symbolic consumption and interpretative hermeneutics;

Find related papers by JEL classification:
M31 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting - - Marketing and Advertising - - - Marketing

This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

References listed on IDEAS
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  1. Schouten, John W, 1991. " Selves in Transition: Symbolic Consumption in Personal Rites of Passage and Identity Reconstruction," Journal of Consumer Research: An Interdisciplinary Quarterly, University of Chicago Press, vol. 17(4), pages 412-25, March.
  2. Hirschman, Elizabeth C, 1992. " The Consciousness of Addiction: Toward a General Theory of Compulsive Consumption," Journal of Consumer Research: An Interdisciplinary Quarterly, University of Chicago Press, vol. 19(2), pages 155-79, September.
  3. Hudson, Laurel Anderson & Ozanne, Julie L, 1988. " Alternative Ways of Seeking Knowledge in Consumer Research," Journal of Consumer Research: An Interdisciplinary Quarterly, University of Chicago Press, vol. 14(4), pages 508-21, March.
  4. Aaron C. Ahuvia, 2005. "Beyond the Extended Self: Loved Objects and Consumers' Identity Narratives," Journal of Consumer Research: An Interdisciplinary Quarterly, University of Chicago Press, vol. 32(1), pages 171-184, 06. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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