Purpose This paper introduces the Consumer-Curated Post-Purchase Video (CCPPV) method as a qualitative approach for exploring consumers’ everyday consumption practices. Design/methodology/approach The CCPPV method comprises five stages: participant recruitment, participant-generated post-purchase video recording, video observation and memo-taking, follow-up auto-driving interviews and integrated data analysis. Participants record their post-purchase experiences, which are analyzed using Textual-Visual Thematic Analysis to integrate visual and verbal materials. Findings This paper presents the CCPPV method as an alternative configuration of participant-generated video and auto-driving interviews. The method invites participants to select, arrange and narrate aspects of their post-purchase experiences and treats these representational choices as part of the analytical material. Although curation and self-presentation may also occur in mobile ethnography, video diaries and other participant-generated visual methods, CCPPV foregrounds participants’ selective representational choices through a bounded post-purchase recording task and their subsequent interpretation during auto-driving interviews. Originality/value The paper contributes to qualitative consumer research by conceptualizing consumer curation as an analytically significant practice within a specific post-purchase research design. Rather than claiming methodological superiority over related visual approaches, the paper demonstrates how a bounded, participant-curated video exercise can be combined with memoing, auto-driving and textual-visual analysis to explore how consumers select and frame meaningful aspects of their consumption.
Purpose This paper aims to examine how hybrid forums can be operationalised as a qualitative research method for engaging with concern-work in mission-driven market contexts. It responds to a gap in existing scholarship by shifting attention from conceptual accounts of hybrid forums to their practical design, facilitation and analysis as an interventionist research methodology. Design/methodology/approach This study adopts an interventionist qualitative research design based on a series of hybrid forums convened with non-profit arts organisations navigating tensions between mission-driven commitments and data-driven practices. The forums were organised as iterative, scenario-based workshops involving heterogeneous organisational actors and sector intermediaries. Data were generated through recorded discussions, workshop artefacts and reflexive observations, and analysed iteratively using multi-layered coding supported by NVivo to trace how controversies developed across forums over time. Findings The findings show that hybrid forums function as sites of relational concern-work, where concerns emerge, layer and evolve through interaction rather than appearing as fixed problems. The forums enabled the articulation of intertwined economic, ethical and organisational tensions, particularly around data practices and organisational capacity. Scenario-based engagement also supported the articulation of prospective market imaginaries, revealing experiences of constrained agency in which data illuminated possible futures without guaranteeing action. Originality/value This paper advances hybrid forums as an interventionist methodological approach for qualitative marketing research. It contributes to concerned markets scholarship by empirically demonstrating how concern-work unfolds in practice and by capturing the anticipatory and processual dimensions of market-making often inaccessible through conventional qualitative methods.
Purpose Early Career Researchers (ECRs) constitute the largest population of scholars within contemporary higher education, yet they face increasing pressure associated with publication expectations, academic precarity and intensifying performance cultures. This editorial argues that dedicated publication pathways for ECR-led research represent an important intervention for journals, learned societies, institutions and the wider academic community. Drawing on the development of this Special Issue, we reflect on a developmental publishing model designed to support ECRs through a rigorous yet constructive review process. In doing so, we discuss the publication journey of nine ECR-led contributions and considers the opportunities and limitations of dedicated publication incentives. We contend that ECR-focused special issues should become a more prominent feature of the marketing discipline and outline how journals and scholarly communities can better cultivate supportive, inclusive and developmental research cultures. To advance this discussion, we introduce a SEED manifesto for early career research, which calls for greater attention to Support, Empowerment, Equity and Development as guiding principles for fostering the next generation of marketing scholars. Design/methodology/approach This special issue presents ECR-led research projects. It emerges as part of broader ECR support initiatives offered by the Academy of Marketing. Findings Nine papers contribute to this special issue. They represent a diversity of qualitative market research that theorises consumption, examines sustainability, questions materiality, explores marginalisation, investigates digitalisation, adopts participatory methods, provides alternative perspectives and advances methodological innovation. Originality/value This special issue provokes the academy to consider how ECR research can be more readily nurtured, fostered and developed. The SEED manifesto introduces key considerations and provocations for scholars, journals, learned societies and institutions alike.
Purpose This study aims to explore how consumers reevaluate deeply integrated country-of-origin (COO) stigmas in the context of market disruption. The authors aim to examine consumers’ perceptions of “Made in China” and highlight the legitimation mechanisms they use to navigate the novel market environment. Moreover, the authors decipher the cognitive and affective dimensions of country image to identify the cues that trigger the transformation of “Made in China” stigma. Design/methodology/approach This study adopts a qualitative, consumer-centric approach based on 20 in-depth interviews. The theoretically driven snowball sampling technique ensured sample diversity across socio-demographic characteristics, prior automobile use and purchase intention. The analysis of narratives lets us capture the transformation of embedded stigma. Findings The post-2022 market disruption facilitates the transformation of consumers’ COO perception and forces consumers to reconcile old product cues with new realities, revealing the tension between cognitive and affective cues. The findings demonstrate that consumers develop unique legitimation mechanisms at both cognitive and affective levels. Consumers perceive borrowed legitimacy through Western partnerships and the ubiquity of Chinese automobiles in taxis and carsharing as a novel cue of quality and reliability, and local production as a cue of ease of service and trustworthiness. Meanwhile, price decouples from brand heritage, serving as a new status proxy. These mechanisms challenge the conventional trust-building strategy, facilitating a rapid stigma transformation. Originality/value This study makes several key contributions. First, it introduces novel institutional trust accelerants that explain the transformation of embedded stigma under choice constraints. Second, it extends the Theory of reasoned action (TRA) by mapping cognitive and affective cues to TRA’s attitudinal and normative pathways.
Purpose Despite the centrality of objects in consumption, they are often invisible at a methodological level in qualitative consumer and marketing research. This has resulted in overdependence on participants' recalled lived experiences, thus limiting the depth and scope of elicited narratives. This paper aims to discuss object-centred methods, an alternative approach based on postphenomenological principles, which treats objects as key research components and explores their potential to generate rich qualitative data that would otherwise be difficult to obtain.Design/methodology/approach This paper maps the ontological orientations underpinning how objects are understood and researched. It synthesises insights from marketing and other disciplines, offering methodological clarity for consumer and marketing researchers.Findings Firstly, the authors map and appraise the usage of objects in consumer research. Secondly, the authors discuss object-centred interviews and object-centred ethnographies, providing practical advice for data collection. Thirdly, postphenomenological data interpretation and analysis strategies, with particular focus on material hermeneutics and variational cross-analysis, are explained.Originality/value The authors introduce postphenomenology as an analytical lens for unveiling objects' agency and mediative capacities. The authors offer guidance for researching with objects (i.e. object-centred interviewing, object-centred ethnography), where objects are recognised as active mediators in human-world relations, thus shaping perceptions, understanding and action. The authors propose tools that can unearth richer narratives of lived experiences and objects' roles in shaping and facilitating consumption. Attentiveness to objects throughout the research process can stimulate novel theorisations, which advance marketing theory across a wide range of areas, such as consumer-object relations, modes of consumption, and sustainability.
Purpose Marketing scholarship has paid limited attention to how socially marginalised groups, particularly queer women, mobilise the logics of platformisation to organise and sustain communities. This omission is particularly salient in contexts marked by market exclusion and institutional constraints, conditions frequently encountered by queer-feminist communities in the Global South. Examining a queer women-led intentional community – D Village – located in rural China, this study aims to illustrate how members strategically engage with platformised infrastructures to cultivate community and collectively construct what the authors term a “Mycelial Safety-Net”. This safety-net enables participants to navigate market exclusion and resist the broader social marginalisation experienced by queer women. Design/methodology/approach The authors used a two-year netnographic study of queer female community members’ digital traces, complemented by a participatory ethnographic investigation of their lived experiences in D Village. The empirical material comprises field notes from two field visits and semi-structured interviews with ten queer villagers. Findings The findings reveal how queer women leverage the logics of platformisation to organise a Mycelial Safety-Net across interconnected micro-, meso- and macro-levels. At the micro level, the underground mycelium captures the decentralised, rhizomatic and often invisible connections through which queer-feminist individuals engage with digital platforms. At the macro level, the soil signifies the broader socio-political, economic and technological conditions of platformisation that simultaneously enable and constrain queer-feminist lives and communities. At the meso level, the rhizomatic coordination among queer women becomes materially manifested as mushrooms, emerging as entrepreneurial initiatives, cooperative organisations and collective infrastructures of care within the platform economy. Originality/value To the best of the author’s knowledge, this study is among the first in marketing scholarship to examine how marketing logics, particularly platformisation, can be strategically appropriated by queer women to organise and sustain alternative market structures of intentional community under conditions of institutional marginalisation. Drawing on an intentional community led by queer women in China, the authors challenge the epistemic dominance of platformisation research that has largely been informed by Global North, elitist and heterosexual perspectives. By foregrounding the experiences of queer women in the Global South, the authors demonstrate how platformised infrastructures can be repurposed to cultivate collective care, community resilience and more socially just forms of market organisation.
Purpose Current marketing literature claims that consumers can establish relationships with virtual conversational agents (VCAs) that can be referred to as interpersonal ones. Despite the risks that these relationships can entail, the investigation of negative VCA social roles is still underdeveloped. This study aims to address this gap.Design/methodology/approach The authors launched a qualitative survey in which participants were asked to write about a prototypical episode regarding a negative relationship with a VCA.Findings A typology of five negative VCA social roles emerged: Dealer, Diminishing partner, Stalker, Enemy and Annoying acquaintance.Practical implications Understanding how consumers interact in negative relationships with VCAs can give policymakers and practitioners a clearer idea of the risks that consumers are exposed to during these interactions, foreshadowing possible negative effects and helping them to find a way to prevent them.Originality/value This work proposes a deep analysis of the dark side of consumer-VCA relationships that has previously been understudied, especially in terms of VCA social roles.
Purpose Live-streaming commerce reshapes buyer-seller relationships, yet the relational mechanisms underpinning these dynamics remain undertheorized. Drawing on commitment-trust theory (CTT), the purpose of this study is to investigate how live shopping marketplace design, governance and community dynamics configure CTT antecedents and outcomes in a shoppertainment context.Design/methodology/approach A hybrid qualitative approach analyzed 13,690 user reviews from Whatnot (2020-2025) via BERTopic modelling, generating 56 topics. Equal-allocation stratified sampling yielded 1,120 reviews for thematic analysis, combining inductive exploration of marketplace dynamics with deductive CTT-guided coding of antecedents and outcomes.Findings Five themes reveal trust operating as a dual-object phenomenon directed simultaneously at individual sellers and the platform as intermediary. Dual-role participation reshapes trust criteria; embedded capital and interactional immediacy extend CTT antecedents to synchronous exchange; and marketplace design simultaneously enables relational value and consumer harm through dark patterns, addiction discourse and gambling-like mechanics.Practical implications The findings of this study inform platform governance decisions, seller trust-building practice and regulatory frameworks addressing mystery-box mechanics and compulsive buying risk.Social implications Explicit user reports of addiction, fear of missing out exploitation and gambling-like mechanics indicate live shopping platforms are sites of genuine consumer vulnerability demanding ethical platform design and policy intervention.Originality/value This study illustrates how BERTopic can support a principled qualitative sampling strategy and applies CTT to live-streaming commerce, proposing embedded capital and interactional immediacy as context-specific constructs. A tentative proposition is offered that commitment and trust may operate as performance-sensitive rather than purely enduring states in this setting, warranting longitudinal investigation.
Purpose This study aims to examine how researcher and participant vulnerabilities intersect during sensitive fieldwork. Using three introspective case studies of a junior researcher working with Syrian refugees in France, it highlights the emotional and ethical complexities of such encounters and proposes strategies to manage mutual vulnerability at individual and institutional levels.Design/methodology/approach This study builds on the first author's reflexive field diaries from her PhD fieldwork with Syrian refugee families and, through iterative dialogues with the second author, highlights moments where mutual vulnerabilities came to light.Findings The findings reveal that mutual vulnerability manifests through three interrelated facets: corporeality, social difference and power. It extends beyond fieldwork to encompass academic hierarchies and supervisory relationships, illustrating how institutional and social dynamics intertwine to shape researchers' and participants' emotional, ethical and relational experiences.Originality/value This study introduces mutual vulnerability to show how both researchers and participants face shared risks in qualitative research, offering new ways to manage boundaries, ethics and emotional challenges.
Purpose Individuals experience transitions that disrupt everyday life and impact well-being. The transition to self-management of a chronic condition, in particular, involves sustained changes and heightened vulnerability. Although these transitions are increasingly recognized as complex, marketing scholarship often relies on traditional methods that limit how such transitions are explored and understood. This study aims to introduce a novel method for accessing participant-led data in researching health-illness transitions.Design/methodology/approach Timelines are visual representations that support the recollection and sequencing of significant life events. Two participatory workshops were conducted with young people living with type 1 diabetes and family members. Participants created timelines to visually depict the dimensions that situate their healthcare journeys and behaviors, supported by a professional artist-facilitator and reflective practices.Findings Timelines enabled in-depth participant reflection on the meaning and impact of health-illness transitions over time. The visual process supported participant agency, collective sense-making and active interpretation of lived experiences that are often difficult to articulate verbally due to their complex nature.Originality/value A key contribution of this study lies in advancing the growing repertoire of participatory creative methods in marketing and consumer research. Specifically, it introduces a novel method for exploring transitions related to health and illness, revealing how vulnerability and agency fluctuate throughout the healthcare journey as individuals navigate shifting roles, relationships and care networks.
Purpose The purpose of this research is to examine how social media influencers reshape endorsement persuasion through emotional intimacy and parasocial relationships, extending beyond traditional credibility-based models. By integrating McGuire's Communication-Persuasion Matrix (CPM) with Parasocial Interaction (PSI) theory, the study explores the emotional and relational mechanisms driving persuasion between Korean beauty influencers and Taiwanese female followers.Design/methodology/approach This study employed a qualitative design to investigate persuasion dynamics in Taiwan's K-beauty influencer endorsements, focusing on the CPM and PSI. A purposive sampling strategy recruited four amateur Taiwanese K-beauty YouTubers with Korean cultural experience and 32 female followers aged 20-32, all engaged for over a year. Semi-structured interviews captured participants' lived experiences, meaning-making and relational dynamics. Rather than statistical generalization, the study aimed for analytical generalization by generating theoretical insights.Findings This study reveals a dual-process mechanism where cognitive persuasion and affective PSI jointly shape influencer-follower dynamics in culturally embedded contexts. Korean beauty influencers leverage credibility cues - attractiveness, authenticity, homophily and culturally resonant self-presentation - aligning K-beauty ideals with Taiwanese values. These inputs foster a recursive cycle of attention, comprehension, desire and purchase, mediated by parasocial bonds and cultural norms like sincerity. Findings extend classical persuasion models by showing how cross-cultural influencers build deeper trust and identification than celebrities.Originality/value This study offers originality by addressing three major gaps in influencer endorsement research: its Western bias, reliance on linear persuasion models, and lack of dual-perspective analysis. By focusing on Taiwanese K-beauty influencers and followers, it demonstrates how cultural values - such as sincerity, relational modesty and aspirational femininity - shape persuasion and parasocial intimacy. Theoretically, it reconceptualizes persuasion by integrating CPM with PSI theory, introducing a dual-process framework that captures both cognitive and affective dynamics in digital contexts. Practically, it highlights the need for culturally responsive strategies, urging marketers to prioritize authenticity, emotional resonance and culturally attuned storytelling to foster consumer loyalty.
PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to address the challenge marketing scholars face in making sense of the volatility and uncertainty characterizing contemporary markets. This study introduces speculative exploring as a relational methodological approach for studying how markets are formed and transformed under such "liquid" conditions. The notion of liquid modern markets points to a tension in which markets are temporarily stabilized through standards, infrastructures and institutional arrangements, while at the same time remaining open to change as these arrangements are continually negotiated and reworked in practice. By engaging directly with uncertainty and complexity, the proposed approach enables a more dynamic and context-sensitive analysis of the evolving and interconnected processes shaping consumer markets.Design/methodology/approachThe literature on relationality in marketing and Science and Technology Studies is reviewed and analyzed, with insights also drawn from the author's in-depth fieldwork on the sharing economy.FindingsThis study identifies four key methodological principles and research strategies for speculatively exploring contemporary markets: following epistemic work, thinking like a practitioner, tracking relationality in motion and uncovering absent presences. These principles offer a dynamic approach for engaging with the complexity and fluidity of today's rapidly evolving market landscapes.Practical implicationsPractitioners can apply these principles to effectively navigate liquid markets, such as sharing economy markets, influencer markets and other emerging phenomena, where market boundaries are fluid, roles ambiguous and legal categories require constant redefinition.Originality/valueThis study responds to recent calls by the journal to address the limitations of traditional qualitative methodologies during times of market transition, particularly in the context of environmental, political and organizational disruption.
Purpose Despite the growing impact of socio-economic insecurity and geopolitical tensions on contemporary marketplaces and vulnerable consumers, the concept of risk has remained under-researched in marketing theory and practice. Accordingly, this conceptual paper aims to highlight and critically examine the interrelationships between novel forms of risk and marketplace phenomena. Design/methodology/approach This study adopts a conceptual approach guided by an interdisciplinary and humanistic understanding of risk-related phenomena. Synthesizing academic studies, government data and contemporary media reports, this paper provides theoretical and practical guidance for rethinking marketplace risks and vulnerable consumers. Findings The contribution of this study is threefold. First, this paper identifies the emergence of new and under-discussed risk conditions, stemming from the micro- and macro-environment, and their impact on vulnerable consumers and communities. Second, this study critically discusses the inclusivity processes and ideological underpinnings structuring empirical research designs, experts’ reports and (mis)representations of marketplace risks. Third, this paper proposes how marketing scholars can use innovative methodological frameworks and qualitative research tools to examine and mitigate emerging risks in diverse and unexplored contexts. Practical implications Researchers and public policymakers can consider and infuse the findings of this study to inform the implementation of strategies and policies seeking to improve living conditions in deprived, ecologically sensitive and armed conflict-ridden marketplaces. Originality/value This paper provides fresh insights on how qualitative methods can explore and tackle the impact of risks stemming from rising inequalities, geopolitical tensions and climate change upon marketplaces and vulnerable consumers.
PurposeLive shopping, defined as real-time product promotion and purchasing through interactive livestreams on social media platforms (e.g. Facebook Live, Instagram Live and TikTok Live), is increasingly shaping digital consumption. While prior research has examined its role in stimulating impulse buying among mainstream consumers, little is known about how these emotionally charged environments affect economically vulnerable young people. This study aims to explore the psychosocial mechanisms underlying impulsive consumption in live shopping contexts among low-income youth.Design/methodology/approachAdopting an exploratory, inductive and phenomenological design, the study draws on 30 in-depth interviews with beneficiaries of Portugal's National Minimum Income Support programme. Interviews focused on lived experiences of live shopping, emotional states, social comparison and self-regulation. Data were analysed using inductive thematic analysis to identify recurring psychosocial processes shaping impulsive purchasing.FindingsThe findings reveal that live shopping operates as an emotional-financial behavioural loop in which boredom, stress and social comparison interact with platform affordances (e.g. countdown timers, real-time interaction and staged scarcity) to undermine self-regulation. Livestreams were predominantly hosted by Portuguese-based influencers promoting both national and international brands. Impulsive purchases generated short-term gratification followed by regret and financial strain. Importantly, participants also developed self-devised coping strategies (including deliberate pauses, emotional awareness practices, shared decision-making and personal ethical consumption rules) that mitigated impulsivity without external enforcement.Research limitations/implicationsThis study is based on a qualitative, phenomenological design with a purposive sample of low-income youth, which limits statistical generalisability. However, its strength lies in analytical depth. Future research could test the proposed emotional-financial cycle across different socioeconomic groups, platforms and cultural contexts, and examine how payment modalities or platform governance structures further shape impulsive consumption dynamics.Practical implicationsThe findings highlight the need for more responsible live shopping practices when targeting economically vulnerable consumers. Platforms and influencers should consider limiting high-pressure cues (e.g. countdown timers, exaggerated scarcity) and increasing transparency about persuasive techniques. The study also points to the value of low-cost, consumer-centred interventions (such as pre-purchase pauses, emotional awareness cues and shared decision-making) that can strengthen self-regulation without restricting access to digital commerce.Social implicationsThis study reframes impulsive buying in live shopping as a socially situated response to economic vulnerability rather than individual irresponsibility. By showing how emotionally persuasive digital environments disproportionately affect low-income youth, it calls for greater societal awareness of digital consumption inequalities. The findings highlight the importance of consumer protection, ethical influencer practices and emotional and financial literacy initiatives that recognise vulnerability without stigma. More broadly, the study contributes to debates on social inclusion, dignity and well-being in digitally mediated marketplaces, with implications for reducing harm and promoting more equitable forms of participation in online consumption.Originality/valueThis study advances the concept of situated compensatory impulsivity, reframing impulsive buying as a context-dependent response to emotional deprivation and symbolic exclusion. By documenting consumer-generated resistance strategies, it challenges portrayals of economically vulnerable consumers as passive victims of digital persuasion and offers actionable insights for responsible digital commerce, consumer protection and education aligned with Sustainable Development Goal 12.
PurposeThis study aims to approach the meat paradox – the conflict between meat consumption and concern for animals – from a sociocultural perspective, exploring the sociocultural meanings assigned to animals by those who have made the choice to reject meat and adopt plant-based diets. Design/methodology/approachA netnographic study was conducted, analysing publicly available writings from 26 bloggers who self-identified as vegans or vegetarians. This rarely used approach in meat paradox research captures natural discussions about confronting the dilemma, deepening our understanding of its sociocultural meanings. FindingsThe study identifies three key meanings – viewing animals as unique beings, as equal beings and as cared-for beings. It underscores that animals and human–animal relationships play a central role in shaping dietary choices, particularly when those choices challenge prevailing social norms. The study also details sub-meanings within these broader meaning categories. It shows that respect for animals’ existence, recognition of their moral equality, and belief in their right to compassion and welfare are nuanced and deeply embedded in the cultural practices surrounding meat consumption. Practical implicationsThe study encourages marketers and policymakers to address consumers’ dilemmas concerning both animals and dietary choices. Promoting plant-based diets should highlight animals’ individuality, equality and welfare, using integrated communication and social support to make compassionate, plant-based eating a socially accepted and sustained norm. Originality/valueThe study contributes to the meat paradox literature by adopting a sociocultural perspective, particularly addressing how animals and human–animal relationships frame consumers’ perspectives on plant-based dietary choices.
PurposeStudying complex phenomena in marketing requires robust multi-method qualitative designs. This paper aims to develop and present a multi-phase, multi-method qualitative market research framework for studying complex phenomena in marketing. Design/methodology/approachDetails are given of a four-phase multi-method design used to study a complex phenomenon in marketing − how sustainable brands and consumers co-create sustainability − culminating in the development of a framework. FindingsThe development and implementation of a four-phase multi-method design illustrates how systematic, meticulous and multi-angled qualitative research can contribute to understanding complex phenomena such as sustainability and can progress theory in this critical space. Three research design principles − layering, coordination and multi-method integration − are identified as essential for theory building when examining complex phenomena. Practical implicationsRecommendations guide both academics and practitioners to enhance research outcomes in research related to complex phenomena such as sustainability. Originality/valueThis study offers a multi-phase, multi-method qualitative market research framework designed to support scholars studying complex marketing phenomenon characterised by relational complexity, multiple actors and multi-platform dynamics, or where scholars seek to build theory in this domain.
PurposeEmployee personal branding has been linked to such company benefits as improved profits and customer relations. Research has suggested that employees engage in personal branding to increase employability and promote career development. However, there is a lack of research providing evidence on what drives employees to create and develop their personal brands in the workplace. Drawing on impression management theory, this study aims to investigate employee motivation for personal branding in the workplace.Design/methodology/approachData were collected using semi-structured interviews with 15 employees of a large multinational production company. Criteria and snowball sampling strategies were used to select the study participants. Interpretive phenomenological analysis was used to analyze data.FindingsThe study proposes a model of three meta-drivers of employee personal branding in the workplace: appeal, authenticity and influence. The meta-drivers of appeal and authenticity provide the foundation for the brand-building process by creating the initial impression and committing the individual to perform consistently with it. This emerging brand influences others to act toward the individual according to what he or she projects. The influence meta-driver is not limited to impression management but is also related to employee proactive behavior.Originality/valueThis study expands the impression management theory to include the concept of proactive behavior to explain employee motivation to build personal brands. The authors also provide evidence that tangible factors are not the primary motivation for employee personal branding, contrary to previous suggestions.
PurposeMiddle-class consumption and savings preferences have significantly transformed after the global COVID-19 pandemic. Contrary to expectations, demand for non-essential and experiential goods/services is increasing rapidly in emerging markets. This research aims to explain this phenomenon by examining the psychological mechanisms underlying middle-class consumers' savings and consumption choices in the new normal.Design/methodology/approachThirty-eight middle-class Indian consumers were interviewed. The data were analysed using a grounded theory paradigm and thematic analysis.FindingsPeople resolve trade-offs between consumption and savings by making extreme choices or balancing. Reduced self-continuity perceptions and a preference for materialistic happiness lead to increased spending on non-essential purchases. A propensity for precautionary savings and a focus on sustainable, mindful consumption drive preference for savings. Balancing consumption and saving is guided by status quo behaviour and scope sensitivity for specific product categories.Originality/valueFor middle-class consumers, savings and non-essential consumption are interrelated, so they continuously trade between the two. Hence, to understand middle-class consumption, their consumption and savings choices must be studied together. Post-pandemic, the consumer psyche regarding preferences for savings versus discretionary spending/consumption has changed. This study contributes to the marketing literature and practice by exploring the psychological mechanisms underlying the altered savings-and-consumption trade-off of Indian middle-class consumers. It provides theoretical and marketing implications for the post-pandemic new normal times.
PurposeThis study aims to examine consumer perceptions of gendered power dynamics in sexualized advertising, with a specific focus on how audiences interpret advertisements that reinforce versus reverse traditional gender roles. Design/methodology/approachUsing a qualitative photoelicitation approach, 350 participants from the USA and the UK viewed advertisements depicting either male dominance or female dominance and provided open-ended responses. Data were analyzed through the Stimulus–Organism–Response (S-O-R) framework and schema theory to examine cognitive and affective processing patterns and resulting evaluative outcomes. FindingsResults reveal clear asymmetries in interpretation. Male-dominant portrayals commonly elicited outrage, discomfort and sometimes resigned acceptance as a familiar (if criticized) advertising code. Female-dominant portrayals were frequently interpreted as humorous, exaggerated, confusing or illegitimate, often neutralizing the intended disruption of gender norms. Across conditions, male objectification generated stronger resistance than female objectification, reflecting persistent gendered biases in how sexualized power is evaluated. Overall, gender role reversals appear to trigger cognitive dissonance and shape brand perceptions and purchase-related judgments. Research limitations/implicationsThis study relies on qualitative, open-ended responses and a defined stimulus set; findings are interpretive rather than causal. The sample is limited to two national contexts (the USA and UK), suggesting opportunities for cross-cultural replication and experimental follow-up to test boundary conditions and downstream behavioral effects. Practical implicationsMarketers should recognize that attempts to challenge gender stereotypes through sexualized female dominance can backfire if audiences interpret the execution as parody or inauthentic. Practitioners should pretest for schema-violation responses (e.g. humor, disbelief, skepticism) and design portrayals of gender power that challenge norms without undermining credibility. Policymakers and advocacy stakeholders can use these insights to anticipate when “subversive” portrayals may inadvertently reinforce existing scripts. Social implicationsThe social implications of this study reveal how gender-stereotyped and overly sexualized ads reinforce harmful societal norms, particularly around women’s roles and authority. These advertisements contribute to a culture that diminishes women’s power, as both male and female participants struggled to perceive women as authoritative figures. This perpetuates inequality and shapes internalized perceptions of femininity, impacting self-confidence. The study suggests that biased representations in media influence societal views on gender roles, contributing to mental health challenges. Encouraging more equitable portrayals in advertising could help break these damaging stereotypes and foster a more inclusive and balanced societal mindset. Originality/valueThis study extends advertising and gender research by explaining why sexualized role reversals are processed asymmetrically through entrenched gender schemas. It advances S-O-R applications by showing how cultural scripts filter organism-level reactions into patterned attitudinal outcomes, and it highlights how consumer critique can function as a normalization mechanism rather than straightforward resistance.
PurposeThe purpose of this study is to respond to a growing interest in collaborative autoethnography in marketing and consumer research. We seek to extend the method's theoretical grounding and methodological principles to incorporate a feminist ethics of care and "better" introspection.Design/methodology/approachAcknowledging the white, Western masculine lineage of autoethnography in marketing and consumer research, as well as an increasingly competitive and restrictive neoliberal academy, our framework takes up a spirit of resistance. We propose a version of subjective personal introspection built on a feminist ethics of care and a de-centring of Western thought. Our framework incorporates thick reflexivity, kinship and seeking accountability towards not only others but also ourselves as researchers.FindingsTo demonstrate the utility of this framework, we use a series of critical illustrative experiences from a collaborative autoethnography conducted between 2020 and 2023. Our data reveal a form of emotional labour aimed at seeking accountability, embracing discomfort and vulnerability and challenging hegemony. We explain how these themes emerge within the research team - and at the community and institutional levels - across the life cycle of a research project.Originality/valueThis research departs from previous autoethnographic work in marketing and consumer research by embracing the political nature of the research process. In striving for inclusion through principles and praxes to steer the neoliberal academy away from metrics and staged competition towards responsible research, we contribute to scholarship that envisions a better world.
