Consumer-activity identification: Identifying antecedents and outcomes
(A2022-107012)

AUTHORS

Matthew Hawkins, ICN Business School; Anastasia Thyroff, Powers College of Business, Clemson University; Alexandra Rome, ICN Business School

ABSTRACT

Consumers rely on symbolic objects to construct their identity. One symbolic object that consumers rely on are the activities they engage in, what they do. However, consumer identity research has neglected consumer-activity identification (CAI) in favor of deepening our understanding of the antecedents and outcomes of consumer-brand identification (CBI). We implement a survey to discover antecedents and outcomes to CAI. The study confirms that CBI is an outcome of CAI. Moreover, the data reveals that the perceived social benefits of engaging in the activity is an antecedent to CAI. However, we find that consumers who engage in activities that enable social interactions leads to lower CBI. Furthermore, we confirm existing research by showing that brand social benefits is an antecedent to CBI but does not impact CAI.