Extraordinary Consumption Research Articles

Consumer Dirtwork: What Extraordinary Consumption Reveals about the Usefulness of Dirt

Abstract Societies create material, social, and moral boundaries that define who and what is dirty. “Dirt” encompasses literal and figurative things—objects, beings, ideas—that transgress these boundaries and thus are “out of place.” Previous research describing how consumers avoid and manage dirt assumes that dirt is aversive. The concept of consumer dirtwork emerged from our examination of self-described “dirtbag” wilderness consumers. Dirtwork reveals the potential usefulness of dirt. Instead of cleaning, dirtworkers redraw dirt boundaries, revealing resources they then work to capture. Boundary redrawing describes a continuum of adjustments to dirt boundaries, ranging from small shifts to complete inversions. Resourcing work describes the efforts required to capture the resources that are uncovered by boundary redrawing. Dirtwork results in challenges and rewards, and offers the possibility of continued dirtwork-resourced consumption. Dirtwork contributes by revealing the process wherein consumers make use of dirt, thus demonstrating the usefulness of dirt and fluidity of dirt boundaries. Dirtwork provides a useful lens for understanding consumer behaviors that do not aspire or cannot conform to socially-imposed cleanliness rules, including stigmatized, mundane, and extraordinary consumption. Dirtwork challenges assumptions that clean is good, socially-valuable, safe, and sustainable, and implicit associations of dirt with danger, stigma, and unsustainability.

Ostracizing sources avoid communal tastes: Effect of ostracizing behaviour on extraordinary consumption

AbstractAlthough people often exclude others in their daily encounters and social media interactions, no consumer research on ostracism has solely focused on sources of ostracism. We argue that the influence of ostracism on evasive behaviour is worth investigating since the scant academic investigations on sources are limited to their reparation intentions for their harmful behaviour. Three experiments were conducted to examine the influence of ostracizing behaviour (vs. neutral vs. social interaction) on extraordinary consumption in face‐to‐face and social media contexts. It was uncovered that sources sense dissonant feelings in dissimilar contexts when their behaviour transcends society's normative boundaries and, hence, prefer consumption that does not commonly appear in society as a means to evade this dissonance. The effect was moderated by sources' justification of their behaviour. We initiate consumer research on sources of ostracism and contribute to the marketing practice of introducing extraordinary consumption options by investigating the psychological consequences of ostracizing behaviour.

The Rock in Rio extraordinary consumer experience journey: a value-based approach

PurposeThis study aims to propose a framework for understanding the construction of extraordinary consumer experiences in events from a multidimensional and longitudinal value perspective.Design/methodology/approachThe main research site was the Rock in Rio Brazil VI festival, an extraordinary consumption experience. The study takes a phenomenological interpretative approach, for which input was obtained using multiple data collection techniques (in-depth interviews, diaries and photographs) in a longitudinal study that took place over 18 months. The study also includes the first author’s observations and interactions with the event organizer and its partners during the same period, and post-pandemic complementary data that were collected in 2021.FindingsThe research findings demonstrate the integrative potential of concepts and theories that are analysed in the light of a longitudinal perspective for understanding value formation for consumers in their experience of extraordinary events. It also indicates that the construction of experience involves a high level of interaction and a high degree of engagement with the consumer in order to foster the development of an affective relationship between the service provider and the user that is based on a co-created experience.Originality/valueThe study answers call for more research into understanding consumer value, and how it is created, delivered and developed over time (Helkkula et al., 2012). It also expands our understanding of consumption experiences and the consumer journey (Lemon and Verhoef, 2016). It encourages longitudinal qualitative studies to be carried out and analyses value in the consumption experience in the field of events.

The Critical Factors Affecting the Consumer Reselling of Limited Edition Products: A Case in the Korean Fashion Sector

Since e-commerce has revitalized recently in the form of live commerce and Instagram shopping, both purchase and sales have become promoted among consumers while reselling has been facilitated in second-hand item markets and among consumers. Particularly, the new trend of consuming products, rather than merely owning products, has become a mainstream factor in the market. Accordingly, consumers show extraordinary consumption, focusing on the act of purchasing limited edition products of high scarcity and placing more importance on one-off experience rather than ordinary new products or premium products. This study suggests critical factors that facilitate the reselling of limited edition products among consumers for the purpose of examining the consumer reselling of limited edition products, which has been a rapidly growing trend in the fashion market. Based on relevant studies, this research presents four basic factor areas: personal needs, value, experience, and environment. It also defines 20 sub-factors and analyzes the weight of each factor by means of the AHP method. In conclusion, it turned out that factors of personal needs were of the most significant influence. Particularly, it was verified that the need for joining was the most critical factor facilitating consumers’ reselling of limited edition products.

Experiential marketing and the changing nature of extraordinary experiences in post-postmodern consumer culture

Prior experiential marketing research suggests that extraordinary consumption experiences take place within antistructural frames, i.e. outside the realms of everyday life. This paper challenges that notion, through an ethnographic study of consumers attending the Primavera Sound music festival in Barcelona, Spain. We demonstrate that festival attendees perceive their experiences to be extraordinary, despite these occurring within ‘everyday’ structural frames. Consumers' extraordinary experiences unfold through their negotiation of a series of structural and antistructural marketplace tensions, including commercialism/authenticity, ordinary/escapist, and immersion/communing. We outline the theoretical implications of our research for the changing nature of extraordinary consumption experiences, in light of post-postmodern consumer culture. We conclude with managerial implications and provide suggested avenues for future research.

A discourse analysis of pilgrimage reviews

ABSTRACTThis article is the first to provide an account of the discursive features of online consumer reviews of pilgrimage sites. Drawing from pilgrimage studies and narrativity theory in consumer research, the authors explore how consumers communicate the spiritual and material aspects of pilgrimage experiences by examining a corpus of 833 consumer reviews on TripAdvisor of the most sacred pilgrimage sites of the world’s major five faith groups. Pilgrims include analytical discursive features to communicate the material aspect of their consumption experience. They reserve narration for spiritual transformation and the experience of strong emotions. Moreover, review ratings are only reflective of the spiritual aspect of their consumption experience. As such, this research complements previous studies by highlighting the material, physical aspect of this extraordinary consumption experience.

Competing orders of worth in extraordinary consumption community

ABSTRACTThis article argues that tension and conflicts during consumption can be analysed through the lens of convention theory, which is preoccupied with the justification of action under the condition of fragmented institutional environments. Central to the perspective is the co-presence of consumption regimes with incompatible orders of worth which result in disagreements about the legitimacy of modes of justification in consumption communities. Whereas prior research tends to focus on protagonist–antagonist tensions or disputes over how to consume, our results from studying an extraordinary consumption community contribute to an understanding of how heterogeneity emerges when consumers dispute over multiple criteria for justification. We discuss how the order of worth perspective contributes with mundane controversies to a research field that tends to focus on “grand” conflicts and, as such, extend what it might mean to understand consumption communities and their tensions and conflicts.

At Least You're Out of the Rain, Right??: A Discourse Analysis of Pilgrimage Sites Reviews

This paper is the first to provide an account of the discursive features of online consumer reviews of pilgrimage sites. Drawing from pilgrimage studies and narrativity theory in consumer research, we explore how consumers communicate the spiritual and material aspects of pilgrimage experiences by examining a corpus of 833 consumer reviews on TripAdvisor of the most sacred pilgrimage sites of the world’s major five faith groups. Pilgrims include analytical discursive features to communicate the material aspect of their consumption experience. They reserve narration for spiritual transformation and the experience of strong emotions. Moreover, review ratings are only reflective of the spiritual aspect of their consumption experience. As such, our research complements previous studies by highlighting the material, physical aspect of this extraordinary consumption experience.

Challenges of extraordinary experiences in the Arctic

AbstractThis paper presents and discusses findings from extraordinary experiences in the Arctic Svalbard. Although extensive consumer research has focused on the positive, sublime, and communal aspects of extraordinary experiences, little emphasis has been placed on the challenging aspects. By focusing on Arctic horse riding, Arctic adventure travel and dog sledding from a practice perspective, this study provides evidence that extraordinary consumption can be marked by challenges because of unrealistic expectations, troubling learning practices and connecting with others, and how one copes with tensions. We discuss how these four main types of challenges mark consumption and as such provide a nuanced interpretation compared with the positive connotations of previous research. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Design and Analysis of the New High-Reliability Motors With Hybrid Permanent Magnet Material

This paper proposes a new type of motor with hybrid permanent magnet material (HPMM); termed HPMM motor. The key of the proposed HPMM motor is the excitations, which combined rare-earth PM (REPM) with ferrite PM (FPM). To investigate the HPMM motor extensively, the HPMM motors with parallel magnetic circuit (PMC) and serial magnetic circuit (SMC) are designed. Because of the property difference between the REPM and the FPM, both PMC-HPMM motor and SMC-HPMM motor can offer low total harmonic distortion at high winding factor. Besides, the PMC-HPMM motor needs low consumption of REPM and offers low cogging torque, while the SMC-HPMM motor needs the extraordinary consumption of FPM, but offers little lower cogging torque. In addition, the reliabilities of both PMC-HPMM motor and SMC-HPMM motor are improved because of the single-layer concentrated winding and fault-tolerant teeth. Finally, the demagnetization of two motors has been studied, which indicates that the partial demagnetization will occur in the FPM. All these theoretical analyses are evaluated by the time-stepping finite element method.

Optimal smooth consumption and annuity design

We propose an optimization criterion that yields extraordinary consumption smoothing compared to the well known results of the life-cycle model. Under this criterion we solve the related consumption and investment optimization problem faced by individuals with preferences for intertemporal stability in consumption. We find that the consumption and investment patterns demanded under the optimization criterion is in general offered as annuity benefits from products in the class of ‘Formula Based Smoothed Investment-Linked Annuities’.

Optimal Smooth Consumption and Annuity Design

We propose an optimization criterion that yields extraordinary consumption smoothing compared to the well known results of the life-cycle model. Under this criterion we solve the related consumption and investment optimization problem faced by individuals with preferences for intertemporal stability in consumption. We find that the consumption and investment patterns demanded under the optimization criterion is in general offered as annuity benefits from products in the class of ‘Formula Based Smoothed Investment-Linked Annuities’.

Marketplace Tensions in Extraordinary Experiences

Researchers have analyzed various forms of extraordinary consumption experiences, using Victor Turner’s conceptualization of antistructure with a particular focus on their rather romantic and communal aspects. While such a focus contributed greatly to our understanding of these experiences, it also resulted in overlooking much of their individuated characteristics such as boundaries, conflicts, competition, and positional struggles at the interpersonal level. This ethnographic study of commercialized climbing expeditions on Everest provides significant evidence that participants negotiate and manage various marketplace tensions within an individual performance ideology. Our study challenges quixotic use of Turner’s antistructure-structure dichotomy and extends it such that extraordinary experiences, when bought in the marketplace, can be very individualistic and competitive as opposed to being conducive to feelings of community and liminal camaraderie.

Commonalities between Researchmethods for Consumer Science and biblical Scholarship

This article focuses on the consumption/interpretation of the Bible, which is viewed as a complex, qualitative databank, requiring rigorous methodological tools to attempt the hermeneutical interpretive task. A positivist philosophical approach to Bible study is taken, posing questions like ‘What did the original writer intend the audience to understand?’ as a precursor to the question ‘How do we impart thatmessage today?’. Biblical scholarship is extremely sophisticated, and this article delves into many layers of techniques and rigorous analysis, including word studies, studies of phrases and paragraph structures, and sociological hypotheses about politicalagendas. It draws on critical textual, historical, and narrative schools of thought in biblical research. These different methods are presented both as an end in themselves (as tools of literary analysis) and also as means to study the content of the sacredas transcendent experiences of extraordinary consumption in consumer research.