Home > Research > Publications & Outputs > Using attachment theory to illuminate consumers...

Electronic data

  • Using attachment theory to understand consumers' tensions Manuscript copy

    Rights statement: This is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Journal of Business Research. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Journal of Business Research, 92, 2018 DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2018.07.033

    Accepted author manuscript, 771 KB, PDF document

    Available under license: CC BY-NC-ND: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License

Links

Text available via DOI:

View graph of relations

Using attachment theory to illuminate consumers’ tensions between their sense of self and goal-pursuits in relationships

Research output: Contribution to Journal/MagazineJournal articlepeer-review

Published
<mark>Journal publication date</mark>11/2018
<mark>Journal</mark>Journal of Business Research
Volume92
Number of pages13
Pages (from-to)197-209
Publication StatusPublished
Early online date27/07/18
<mark>Original language</mark>English

Abstract

Consumers face tensions in deciding which goal to pursue, who to be and which self to present in daily life. Yet we know little about these tensions consumers experience as they respond to distinct interpersonal contexts (e.g., perceived support, trust, conflict and sense of belongingness). To this end, we explore the consumption deliberations that consumers undertake for self-presenting when faced with varying interpersonal encounters. We used interview data with women aged 19-62 and Rabinovich and Kacen’s (2013) qualitative coding methodology to examine interpersonal patterns of self-presentation. During the data analysis, attachment theory emerged as important in illuminating the tensions participants experienced in pursuing 4 types of goal-pursuit (intimacy, prevention, performance and authenticity) aided by their consumption choices for self-presenting in specific interpersonal contexts. Our findings show intrapsychic and interpersonal influences are not non-interacting entities, but rather need to be studied in conjunction when examining how people create desired social images/identities.

Bibliographic note

This is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Journal of Business Research. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Journal of Business Research, 92, 2018 DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2018.07.033