Browsing by Author "Weijo, Henri"

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  • Access-Based Consumption of Clothes: Ownership, Attachment, and Identity
    (2018) Kerkelä, Iina
     School of Business | Master's thesis
    Whereas ownership has traditionally been central to consumption, consuming objects by accessing them rather than owning is becoming an increasingly attractive alternative for consumers. Access- based consumption is seen to liberate consumers from the obligations of ownership and allow them to experience something they normally could not. The purpose of this study is to explore the phenomena of access-based consumption and gain understanding on the nature of ownership in access-based consumption and its relation to consumers’ identity work. The study is conducted in highly visible and highly symbolic consumption context of clothing, which is assumed to enrich our understanding on the phenomena. The study relies on the consumer research literature of construction-through-consumption and liquid consumption. The study is qualitative and interpretive in nature, relying on semi-structured in-depth interviews of seven clothing library users as the main data collection method. Materiality is added as an additional layer to the study through relying on the method of wardrobe interviews. Wardrobe interviews are employed in order to better understand the person-object relationships. The study deepens our understanding on how objects within the realm of access-based consumption are employed in consumers’ identity narratives and what kind of interplay they have with the objects belonging to one’s own wardrobe. By building on the literature of construction-through- consumption, this study suggests that access-based consumption may provide consumers with unique opportunities for identity expression, identity experimentation, and reaching for desirable identities that are out of consumers reach in traditional ownership. Ownership is found to be an important source for constructing coherent identities. This study adds on our understanding of the nature of ownership in access-based consumption as it illustrates how consumers may form attachment with access-based goods and how they aim to control it. Lastly, this study expands our understanding on managing wardrobe as a clothing collection by illustrating the interplay of liquid, access-based clothes with the solid core of clothes collection, and by suggesting how liquid consumption may help consumers in managing coherent wardrobes.
  • Allotment Gardening as a Consumer Strategy for Alleviating Urban Alienation
    (2019) Erkamo, Helmi
     School of Business | Master's thesis
    This thesis explores intentional interaction between different spatial settings as a way to deal with sociocultural tensions, thus uncovering strategies that consumers can use to alleviate alienation. Allotment gardens provide a suitable context for the study because they are contrasting sub-milieus in the urban sphere. The aim is to develop a possible understanding of the function of allotment gardens in today’s cities where consumers must cope with alienation. Simultaneously, the objective is to broaden our knowledge of consumers as creators of their emancipatory experiences and learn more about revitalizing spatial settings that are part of the everyday milieu of the consumer. As typical for interpretivist CCT research, the study relies on ethnography. The data was collected through non-participant observation together with semi-structured interviews and was then interpreted in the light of existing literature. Previous research has recognized the capacity of therapeutic spaces to work as emancipatory vehicles. Yet, the past focus has been on exceptional contexts and marketer-led experiences. Hence, more knowledge is needed of places that are part of people’s natural habitat and where the consumers themselves act as producers. Consequently, the question this thesis answers is: How do consumers alleviate alienation without disrupting their daily lives and free of marketers’ facilitation? The research led to conceptualizing allotment gardening as a practice that alleviates urban alienation. Consumers intentionally frequent the heterotopia to ease the frustrations stemming from modern life. Specifically, this process happens through the following elements: connecting with nature in the city, immersing into concrete activities and belonging to a close-knit community. These enable consumers to temporarily balance the contemporary inconveniences, and thus they feel better when returning to the alienated sphere. The negotiation happens through recurring visits to the de-alienating environment. The thesis contributes to earlier papers by enlarging the theorizations about consumer emancipation from alienation to an ordinary and nearby setting. It shows that alleviating alienation is possible in niche environments even if their surroundings would contest it. Allotment gardens give the needed opposition to the alienations but are at the same time connected to the city, thus letting the consumers continue their lives as usual. The contributions of the study also extend existing research on alleviating alienation to instances where consumers have the main responsibility for the production of the experience. The thesis demonstrates that consumers themselves are capable of orchestrating de-alienating offering. Together allotment gardeners assemble a solution they need, without higher order guidance from the marketers. These insights are important also from the practical point of view as they present a de-alienation strategy that is more functional and relevant than the past proposals for the majority of consumers.
  • Antagonism within online brand communities
    (2019) Lê, Phuong Anh
     School of Business | Master's thesis
    Perceived benefits of brand community participation, engagement and value co-creation have been underlined in past marketing researches. However, recent research papers have directed focus to outbreak of tensions within these communities. This study illuminates the characteristics of antagonistic consumers who incite communal conflicts and their interactions with the rest of the community. Netnographic methods were employed in conducting the research and the drama that happens within an online game brand community was chosen as the research context. Three groups of antagonistic consumers were identified, including trolls, hostile purists and crusaders. As a response to antagonists’ transgression, the community engages in a continuous learning process, develop new interpretations of brand meanings, habitualise deviant behaviours, as well as devise a resistance mechanism. The study suggests implications on value co-creation process and the role that antagonistic consumption has in the continuation of brand community. It also offers insights to marketers to leverage brand relationship that can help them handle antagonism.
  • Barriers and drivers in access-based fashion consumption
    (2021) Haaparanta, Salla
     School of Business | Master's thesis
  • Brand community coping
    (2019-01) Weijo, Henri; Bean, Jonathan; Rintamäki, Jukka
     A1 Alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä
    The successful alignment of co-creative practices between brand communities and marketers promises many benefits, including stronger consumer brand relationships. Yet recent research has identified the inherent difficulty of creating or maintaining such an alignment. This study builds on these cautionary tales to show how marketer-initiated brand transgressions impact communal brand relationships built on extensive histories of successful co-creation. Building theory through netnographic inquiry of the drama surrounding a poorly managed brand transgression in a video game brand community and a counterexample of positive marketer action, this study introduces a theoretical model of brand community coping and its four stages of instigation, distillation, mobilization, and remembrance. Overall, the study provides new insights on brand transgressions, consumer coping, brand relationships, and co-creation.
  • Collections that are in use: broadening our understanding of consumers' collections
    (2019) Nevanpää, Sari
     School of Business | Master's thesis
    The existing literature of collections has previously concentrated only on collections which items are sacred and consequently separated from their original functional purpose. Thus, the literature has neglected many interesting collections, such as those of sneakers, which items are known to remain in their functional use. The aim of this research was to fill this gap in the existing literature by concentrating on moomin mug collections. As moomin mugs have become a significant phenomenon in Finland and as many of their collectors are known to use these collectibles, moomin mug collections were seen as a fruitful context through which to broaden our understanding of consumers’ collections. The following research question lead the study: what are collections that are in use and how is the consumption experience of using a collection formed? The thesis was conducted as a qualitative phenomenological research and its research philosophical assumptions were based on interpretivism. The data of the research was gathered through nine semi-structured interviews and the informants were chosen based on their known possession and usage of moomin mug collections. In addition to interviews, the research data included photos of moomin mug collections. The purpose of the photos was to broaden the researcher’s understanding of the research context as well as to support the analysis of the interviews. All together the data included 45 photos. What was found from the data is that moomin mug collections are in many ways typical collections, as they have similar features with the collections depicted in the existing literature. On the other hand, a significant distinction was that their items were seen to remain in their functional use. The consumption experience of using moomin mug collections was seen to be formed through different logics of usage, which were the following: everyday usage, mood-based usage, seasonal usage, socially based usage, event-based usage as well as non-usage. These logics were found to be dynamic as they were negotiated by the collectors. Specific negotiation was identified between non-usage and the other logics as it was seen to be possible that the collectibles change their status from unused to used and from used to unused. This could happen through rotation or through a sporadic transition. Finally, collectors were also seen to utilize broken items of their collections in creative ways. This was also seen to be forming the consumption experience of using moomin mug collections. The findings of this research can be seen to broaden our understanding of consumers’ collections by highlighting the following aspects: (1) not all collections are sacred and protected from being used. Instead, also the kind of collections exist, which items remain in their original purpose. These types of collections can be an integral part of their owner’s life and bring a lot of joy to their everyday situations as well as special occasions. (2) Collections are not necessarily protected from the mundane world by storing them in a special place, as they can also be located in the same place with mundane objects. The chosen place supports the usage of the items. (3) Different kinds of collections exist in the continuum of used and unused collections and finally (4) collections that are in use can be in many ways dynamic, ranging from the dynamicity of their logics of usage to creating new purposes for collectibles that have become broken.
  • Consumer Movements and Collective Creativity:The Case of Restaurant Day
    (2018-08) Weijo, Henri; Martin, Diane; Arnould, Eric
     A1 Alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä
    Consumer movements are resolute and persistent efforts by organized consumer collectives to reimagine elements of consumer culture. Such movements often use creative public performances to promote their causes and to make movement participation more ludic and fun. Yet collective creativity within consumer movements has rarely been an explicit focus of research. Using ethnographic methods and assemblage theory, this study elaborates how collective creativity organizes a consumer movement and facilitates its quest for market change. Findings show how the Restaurant Day movement initially emerged as a resistant response to market tensions relating to constraining food culture regulation in a Nordic market context. Findings then illuminate the movement’s appropriation of collective creativity as its chief mode of organization and participation. Collective creativity builds on iterative and co-constituting deterritorializing and territorializing processes of consumer production that fuel transformative and explorative creativity, respectively, within the market context. The study provides new insights to consumer movement mobilization, organization, member recruitment, and market legitimacy. The study also provides novel theoretical insights to the study of consumer creativity.
  • Consumer Movements and Value Regimes: Fighting Food Waste in Germany by Building Alternative Object Pathways
    (2019-10) Gollnhofer, Johanna; Weijo, Henri; Schouten, John
     A1 Alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä
    Consumer movements strive to change markets when those markets produce value outcomes that conflict with consumers’ higher-order values. Prior studies argue that consumer movements primarily seek to challenge these value outcomes by championing alternative higher-order values or by pressuring institutions to change market governance mechanisms. Building on and refining theorization on value regimes, this study illuminates a new type of consumer movement strategy where consumers collaborate to construct alternative object pathways. The study draws from ethnographic fieldwork in the German retail food sector and shows how building alternative object pathways allowed a consumer movement to mitigate the value regime’s excessive production of food waste. The revised value regime theorization offers a new and more holistic way of understanding and contextualizing how and where consumer movements mobilize for change. It also provides a new tool for understanding systemic value creation and the role of consumers in such processes.
  • Consumer types of sustainable convenience food companies
    (2021) Ranta, Aino
     School of Business | Master's thesis
    The thesis explores sustainable consumption and convenience food market in Finland. Different consumer types are identified for sustainable convenience food companies using ResQ Club as an example company. ResQ Club is strongly present in this study, because it is the first and only company of minimizing food waste by selling convenience food to consumers in Finland. The theory explores sustainable consumption through the lens of the planet, companies, consumers and governance systems. The theoretical frameworks used are sustainable consumer types (Ross & Milne, 2020) and convenience food lifestyles (Buckley et al., 2007) to explore previous findings about sustainable and convenience food consumers. The empirical research includes qualitative interviews of 12 ResQ Club consumers from Finland. The interviews were analyzed anonymously. The values, backgrounds, consumption habits and experiences of ResQ Club were used to identify the different consumer types of ResQ Club. The findings explore the interview material of ResQ Club consumers first through the lens of existing theory, sustainable consumer types and convenience food lifestyles. Then, the theoretical framework findings and discussions with consumers are used to discuss ResQ Club consumer types. The finding of ResQ Club consumer types is significant as it applies to other new entrants in the sustainable convenience food market. Due to sustainable consumption, convenience food and startups utilizing digital platforms being global trends, the new entrants can be expected. Therefore, the new consumer group should be called sustainable convenience food consumers. Finally, the thesis discusses previous literature and the empirical data from the viewpoint of marketing. Marketing is the driver of consumption trends and the communication media between companies and consumers, which is why marketing is crucial in sustainable consumption. Marketing should both be done sustainably and consider psychological appeals and benefits to reach full potential for consumers to behave more sustainably. The conclusions of the thesis discuss limitations and future research based on this study. This thesis limits to the Finnish market and to interviewing only consumer of ResQ Club. Therefore, future studies should explore other actors in the market, such as ResQ Club, the partner restaurants and non-consumers. Future research should also expose gaps in the market for new companies and innovation, some of which interviewees of this study already had ideas for.
  • Consumption moralism among ethical consumers: the Nordic context
    (2019) Erkamo, Silja
     School of Business | Master's thesis
    As the impact of consumption on environmental and social sustainability has become a global concern, it has become crucial that we find long-term solutions to how sustainable consumption can be organized on a societal level. Thus, understanding present-day ethical consumers, their consumption and the future opportunities ethical consumption may hold for advancing sustainable development is an important avenue of research. This master’s thesis contributes to the literature on ethical consumption by exploring the moral dimension of consumption. The aim of this study is to understand the consumption moralism that underlies ethical consumers’ attitudes and behavior. The present study helps us reach a deeper understanding of the complex moral evaluations and choices that consumers make every day. In addition, the study sheds light on what ethical consumers perceive to cause unsustainable consumption and how they think responsibility for sustainable consumption should be allocated between different actors in a society. Since moral views differ across societies, this master’s thesis studies ethical consumers’ consumption moralism in the Nordic context. This study is qualitative in nature and is grounded on the approach of interpretivism. The basis of the study is seven semi-structured in-depth interviews that were conducted with Finnish ethical consumers. To understand the particularities of Nordic consumption moralism, the findings were analysed through the theoretical lens of statist individualism, exploring the connections between consumer culture and state policies. The study deepens our understanding of ethical consumers and consumption moralism in the Nordic context. The findings suggest that even though the individuals interviewed for this study largely fit the prior theorization of ethical consumers, the way they exercise consumption moralism seems to be particular to the Nordics. The participants use moralization about consumption as a vehicle for wider critique about the state of the world, often taking an institutional view in their moralization. The participants moral views heavily echo the underlying moral logic of statist individualism – a logic prevalent in the policies of Nordic welfare states. While the ethical consumers act of moralizing consumption is initially targeted towards immoral market logic and unsustainable business operations, the moralizing becomes projected towards the state, because the state is expected to monitor market forces. Consequently, the findings indicate that Nordic ethical consumers perceive the state to have a responsibility to guide individuals in the sustainability of their purchasing choices by regulating the market. Thus, even though ethical consumers have assumed a level of personal responsibility for ethical consumption, in the Nordic context ethical consumers don’t believe in a transformation of individuals’ ethical values or the self-governance of businesses, but in-stead, advancing ethical consumption is perceived to be largely the responsibility of policymakers. Tiivistelmä Kuluttamisen vaikutukset kestävään kehitykseen ovat nousseet maailmanlaajuiseksi huolenaiheeksi. On todettu, että on kriittistä löytää kestäviä tapoja kuluttaa, jotta ihmiskuntaa uhkaavat viheliäiset ongelmat, kuten ilmastonmuutos, saadaan kuriin. Jotta voisimme löytää yhteiskunnallisella tasolla kestäviä tapoja kuluttaa, on tärkeää ymmärtää nykypäivän eettisiä kuluttajia, heidän kulutustapojaan sekä sitä, kuinka eettisellä kuluttamisella voitaisiin edistää kestävää kehitystä. Tämä pro gradu -tutkielma edistää tutkimusta eettisestä kuluttamisesta tutkimalla kuluttamisen moraalista ulottuvuutta. Tutkielman tavoite on ymmärtää eettisten kuluttajien kulutusmoralismia. Tutkielma auttaa tavoittamaan syvemmän ymmärryksen niistä monimutkaisista moraaliarvioista ja -kysymyksistä joita kuluttajat tekevät jokapäiväisessä elämässään. Lisäksi tutkimus valottaa mistä eettiset kuluttajat kokevat kestämättömän kulutuksen johtuvan ja miten vastuu kestävän kulutuksen edistämisestä tulisi jakaa yhteiskunnan eri toimijoiden kesken. Koska moraalikäsitykset voivat vaihdella kulttuurien ja yhteiskuntien välillä, tämä tutkielma tutkii kulutusmoralismia erityisesti pohjoismaisessa kontekstissa. Tutkielma käyttää kvalitatiivista tutkimusmetodia ja sen tieteenfilosofiset oletukset perustuvat interpretivismiin. Tutkielma perustuu seitsemään puolistrukturoituun syvähaastatteluun suomalaisten eettisten kuluttajien kanssa. Jotta analyysissa oli mahdollista pureutua pohjoismaalaiseen kontekstiin, haastatteluiden löydöksiä tulkittiin valtiojohtoisen individualismin (statist individualism) teorian näkökulmasta. Teoria kuvaa niitä käsityksiä joihin pohjoismaalaisten hyvinvointivaltioiden moraali perustuu, joten löydösten peilaaminen kyseiseen teoriaan mahdollisti kuluttajakulttuurin ja pohjoismaalaisten hyvinvointiyhteiskuntien toimintaperiaatteiden välisten kytkösten tutkimisen. Tutkielma syventää ymmärrystämme eettisistä kuluttajista ja kulutusmoralismista pohjoismaalaisessa kontekstissa. Tutkimustuloksista käy ilmi, että vaikka tähän tutkielmaan osallistuneet eettiset kuluttajat vastaavat pitkälti aikaisempaa teoretisointia eettisistä kuluttajista, heidän kulutusmoralismissaan vaikuttaa olevan erityisiä pohjoismaisia piirteitä. Kulutusmoralismi oli osallistujille ilmaisuväline laajempaan kritiikkiin maailman tilasta ja he ottivat usein institutionaalisen näkökul-man moralismiinsa. Osallistujien moraalikäsitykset peilasivat suurilta osin valtiojohtoista individualismin teoriaa. Vaikka eettisten kuluttajien kulutusmoralismi kohdentui ensin moraalittomiin yrityksiin ja niiden kestämättömiin käytäntöihin, se kohdistui pian kohti valtiota, sillä valtion odotettiin säätelevän markkinavoimia. Löydökset osoittavat, että eettiset kuluttajat odottavat valtion ohjaavan kuluttajia kulutusvalinnoissaan markkinoita säätelemällä. Näin ollen, vaikka eettiset kuluttajat ovatkin omaksuneet henkilökohtaista vastuuta kestävästä kuluttamisesta omien kulutusva-lintojensa kautta, pohjoismaisessa kontekstissa he eivät usko laajamittaiseen kuluttajien arvojen muutokseen tai markkinoiden itsesäätelyyn. Sen sijaan, eettiset kuluttajat kokevat, että kestävän kulutuksen edistäminen on pitkälti poliittisten päättäjien vastuulla.
  • Dimensions of digital disconnection: Consumer strategies for temporary behavior change
    (2022) Virtanen, Elettra
     School of Business | Master's thesis
  • An empirical study of user’s motivation on ride hailing services in an emerging market
    (2021) Nguyen, Le
     School of Business | Master's thesis
    The theory of the sharing economy has been a controversial, ever changing topic and is continuously discussed across academic research fields. In practice, the sharing economy has been integrated in various parts of our life, from short term accommodation, peer-to-peer professional services, to its most dominant sector: mobility. Ride hailing, in particular, is the oldest and most prevailing form of shared mobility, emerging from developed, matured markets such as the U.S, to the fast growing region of SouthEast Asia. In this paper, we will not only explore the motivations of ride hailing users in an emerging market context of VietNam using interview techniques and means-end chain analysis, but also further assess their association strength through hierarchical value maps. Through literature review, we draw up an interview sample of ride hailing main user groups: educated, working professionals living in urban areas. The findings of the paper show that, in contrast to common belief on sharing economy where sustainability is the key motivating factor for users and a dominant theme companies often take advantage of, ride hailing users in VietNam are not aware of any environmental benefit that the service might bring, neither are they motivated by it. They are rather more concerned with other values such as economic benefit, safety, and convenience. This is in line with recent researches indicating that sustainability might create a positive attitude towards the service but extrinsic values are what motivate and retain users. Cultural difference and context specifics might also be at play here. The study further confirms the ongoing discussion on ride hailing in a less discussed context, all the while contributing significant managerial implications for ride hailing companies when deciding their users retaining strategy as well as improving users’ attitude towards their brands.
  • Enchantment and perpetual desire: Theorizing disenchanted enchantment and technology adoption
    (2021-03-01) Belk, Russell; Weijo, Henri; Kozinets, Robert V.
     A1 Alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä
    Dominant perspectives on technology adoption and consumption tend to be cognitive, instrumental, and individualistic. We offer a desire-centered, future-oriented, and culturally grounded alternative model called the Disenchanted Enchantment Model (DEM). Drawing on historical evidence and revised interpretations of theories of enchantment and disenchantment by Weber and Saler, we show that desire is at the heart of technology consumption?s enchantments, and how its fulfilment is temporary, skeptical, and ironic. We provide an important cultural counterbalance to models such as the Technology Acceptance Model, which replace wonder with reason. Instead we theorize the process that drives contemporary technology adoption as centering on desirous senses of wonderment and anticipation. We offer current and recent examples of the DEM process and discuss the implications this model holds for a new understanding of technology, consumption, desire, and broader consumer culture.
  • European marketing research and tenure track - exploratory study
    (2024) Saanio, Aaro
     School of Business | Master's thesis
    This master’s thesis uses historical data of the 75 highest ranking European marketing departments along with 26 Nordic non-highly ranking departments to explore the development of research. Special emphasis was given to find out whether the implementation of tenure track has impacted the research. This analysis resulted in several interesting notions about the changes in the European field of marketing. First, it was found out that the research productivity has decreased after the implementation of the tenure track. Between 1997 and 2009 publications in top journals per year per academic was around 0,245 and between 2010 and 2022 it was around 0,200. Second, this thesis illustrates that the quantity of publications in top journals researchers have been publishing as an assistant professor before promotion to associate professor has been decreasing. Furthermore, the quantity of publications in top journals before promotion to full professor has been gradually decreasing. Third, it was found out that between 1996 and 2022 the percentage of top journal publications among all publications in the data set has been decreasing. This may possibly be the result of two phenomena: 1. diversification of the journals available, 2. top researchers have relocated to universities outside of Europe and/or fewer extraordinarily performing researchers are starting their careers in European top universities or Nordic universities. Fourth, the annual citations per publication have also been decreasing in the top European universities during the tenure track era. In the early 2000s the annual citations per publication were on an upward trajectory, but this trend did not continue in the 2010s. Fifth, in the tenure track era, average research papers have more co-authors than they had before the implementation of it. Furthermore, the yearly increase in the average number of co-authors is greater in the tenure track period. Sixth, there are now more external collaborations beyond the limits of one’s own institution than there were 20 years ago. Interestingly, the yearly increase in the average number of affiliations per publication is now greater than the yearly increase in the average number of authors per publication. Seventh, the top journals are now less dominant in the European field of marketing than they were in the pre-tenure track period. In the pre-tenure track period 12,5% of the publications of the sample academics were published in the top-journals, while their share is only 8,6% in the tenure track period. Eight, the highest-ranking universities among the universities in the sample have not significantly increased their productivity compared to the lower ranking universities. Of the top 70 European marketing departments, the ranks 31-40 had the most increase in productivity. Nineth, the researchers in the sample were the first authors in 44,9% of their publications in the pre-tenure track period and 31,1% in the tenure track period. However, before making any conclusions about the decrease, the increase in the number of authors should be considered. Tenth, the analysis on Author Keywords and titles of the publications reveals interesting changes between periods, journals and ranks of professorships. There are changes not only in the topics, but also in the language used.
  • Finnish consumers in the furniture sector towards the circular economy – a consumer culture theory approach
    (2024) Tran-Nevalainen, Anh
     School of Business | Master's thesis
    The development of the circular economy extends to several industries, including the furniture industry. With the issue of wasteful consumption, consumers are deemed to be the key enabler of the circular economy in the furniture context, hence the focus on consumer-centricity in this paper. In the Finnish context, previous research has shown key consumer motivations and deterrents among consumers in making more sustainably-conscious consumption choices. However, there is a clear neglect in the study of consumer identity projects in the furniture sector and the intricate influences on the adoption of circular practices. The paper then aims to investigate the consumer identity projects that contribute to the development of the CE in Finland by answering these questions using the frameworks from consumer culture theory and the consumer circularity model: What are the furniture consumption methods that Finnish consumers use? What consumer identity projects influence those methods? Studying Finnish consumers in this direction can help depict the meanings and discourses surrounding each furniture buying and discarding choice. With the goal to study the circular economy perspectives of young and highly educated Finnish consumers, the paper targets Bachelor, Master students, and recent graduates in the capital region of Finland in the form of in-depth and semi-structured interviews. This qualitative approach unlocks deep-rooted motivations and deterrents of adopting CE practices that stem from personal values, family culture, community and national influences. The findings from the interviews confirm the emerging themes of conformed identity, value-based identity, and green identity. These are followed by several consumer identity projects being found, having both positive and negative effects on the willingness to adopt circular practices in the furniture sector. These include: self-contamination, loss of self, merged self, self-restoration, past self, ascribed identity, social identity, family self, and acquired identity. The paper highlights that while performing a conformed identity, Finnish consumers take part in both solid and liquid consumption. If further contributes to the identity-driven discussion of the circular economy, in which the conformed identity closes the loop in the circular economy with several liquid disposal methods such as resell, donate, give away, and at the same time, enlarges this loop with solid acquisition and usage methods such as reduce, hoard, care, repair, and restore. Moreover, value-based identity is another identity that was revealed across the four levels of self and the disposition process. The value-based contributions to the identity discussion are the use value by maintaining the longevity of the items, increased resale value by owning high quality items or taking great care of furniture, social value by disposition based on social needs, and increased creative and artistic self with restoring furniture. Finally, green identity emerges as a constant in intensive care for furniture, the frequent use of recycling centers, the peer bond, and respect for nature. Based on these findings, the author proposes the circular identity model in the furniture sector. Several implications are discussed to eliminate the identity-driven deterrents of the circular economy. First, professional cleaning of used furniture before resale to acknowledge the fear of contamination. Second, more promotion of circular practices through education and design innovation to tackle the over-reliance in parental support for fixing and restoring furniture. Third, collaborative recycling practices between furniture producers and recycling centers can improve the retrieving system. Finally, marketing tactics towards circularity can target both the father and mother of the modern household, as the mother no longer holds the sole power in decision making. Hence, by understanding the consumer identity projects through various levels of self that dictate consumer behaviors, businesses, marketers, and policymakers can tailor strategies to encourage and facilitate the transition towards a more circular approach to furniture consumption.
  • Friendship and consumption
    (2023) Taavitsainen, Senni
     School of Business | Master's thesis
    The main objective of this study was to extend anthropological and sociological studies of friendship into the realm of marketing and consumer behavior. Given the limited research into the interplay between friendship and consumption, this thesis sought to explore how these concepts contribute and interact with each other. Undeniably, with the rise of a market-driven society, consumer relationships are To achieve the objectives of this study eleven in-depth interviews were conducted to divulge a deeper understanding of consumer experiences as they pertain to friendship and how friendship is built and fostered through consumption experiences. Interviewees consisted of university-educated young-adult consumers between the ages of twenty-four and thirty. The findings of this study revealed that consumption is deeply embedded in the building blocks of friendship, namely: volition, trust, fidelity, and solidarity. Additionally, friendship helps to define new meaning for consumption as it allows for increased volition in establishing friendships. Similarly, it was unveiled that friendship contributed to an increased moral pressure to consume especially through norm manipulation. Finally, though consumption is ever-present in friendship, true friendship is marked by the ability to set the relationship free from market bonds. The results of this research contribute to the knowledge and understanding of every-changing consumer behavior and how friendship has transformed with the rise of a market-driven society.
  • The Great Escape: Metaphors for Consumer Escapism
    (2018) Fanta, Jonathan
     School of Business | Master's thesis
  • Haters gonna hate: antagonist consumers and co-creation
    (2018) Suviranta, Aura
     School of Business | Master's thesis
    Co-creation of value between brands and their loyal consumers has become more and more commonplace in multiple industries, and expectations from practitioners have been high. In the early days of co-creation, views on the phenomenon were overwhelmingly positive, and promised increased brand awareness and loyalty, creating a culture of sustained innovation, and most importantly, helping the bottom line. However, in recent years, dialogue has shifted from an excludingly positive narrative to encompass “the dark side of co-creation”. This dark side manifests in forms such as infighting in online brand communities, consumers turning on marketers and brands, and co-innovation gone wrong. These types of interactions can make the work of an online community manager stressful, difficult, and taxing. This study illuminates the dark side of co-creation by introducing three different types of antagonist consumers. These consumers are in interaction with brands, like co-creation literature suggests, but not in a mutually-beneficial way. They may even harm the mutual co-creation occurring between the brand and other consumers. I name these three types of antagonist consumers The Concerned Citizens’ Brigade, The Lone Wolf Crusader, and The Troll, and provide managerial suggestions for dealing with each of them online. This study is an auto-netnographic inquiry which reflects back on and complements my experiences as a community manager for B2C retail brands faced with antagonist consumers on an almost-daily basis. In this study, there is no “one” field site; instead, my dataset consists of examples of these antagonist consumers and the interactions I had with them over multiple social media accounts over multiple years. I complement these personal experiences with well-known global examples. The literature review of the study outlines the concept of co-creation and discusses recent developments in co-creation literature. I then dive into literature on antagonistic consumption and negative consumer engagement, which has up to now received scant attention within co-creation studies. Following the literature review, I outline the gap in the literature and the purpose of the study, and introduce four research questions. After detailing my methodology, I analyze my findings and group antagonist consumers into three distinct types. Then, I give managerial suggestions for dealing with each type of antagonist consumer, and finally, I reflect on the limitations of the study and indicate potential directions for future research.
  • How does the future of creating hedonic, engaging user experiences look like in the age of GenAI tool ChatGPT? User experience as a way of managing digital touchpoints in customer experience
    (2023) Killinen, Ella
     School of Business | Master's thesis
    This thesis studies how professionals in the field of User Experience anticipate GenAI tool ChatGPT will affect their field in the future and whether they identify it has capabilities to enable the designing of more engaging and user hedonic value-increasing interfaces and experiences. Furthermore, this thesis seeks to bring clarity into the theoretical constructions of experience; this is reasoning for the introduction of User Experience with Customer Experience, and especially as part of Customer journeys and touchpoint management. The study herein utilizes a qualitative netnographic research method to enter, collect, and analyse the discussions of UX professionals on different social platforms, ranging from blogs to different threads, during times of major Artificial Intelligence developments. The key findings of this research suggest the discussion of the benefits from ChatGPT remain partly on a speculative and anticipating level, however with supported benefits of the tool operating as an idea sparker, and an organizing and summarizing tool. The netnographic research method, characterized as a spiralling method always building on priorly collected data, reveals larger anticipations and suggestions for the field altogether; a more holistic, business-strategic mindset is suggested to become more crucial in the future, with AI tools making some aspects of the UX work more efficient. These findings can be interpreted to support the theoretical background’s justification for the better incorporation of the theories of User Experience and Customer Experience – eventually bringing theory and practise closer together on a field that operates between humans and technological innovations.