Individual Consumer Identity Formation in a Politicised World

Abstract: Thesis Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to gain an understanding of how consumers build their individual identities through everyday political acts of consumption. Methodology & Empirical Data: This study is conducted based on a social constructionist worldview with a qualitative research design, adopting an inductive approach. The literature review and 19 semi-structured interviews jointly create the basis for discussion on the research question under study. Theoretical Perspective: This thesis draws upon the three literature streams of consumer identity, political consumerism, and identity construction through everyday political consumerism. Based on these bodies of literature, relevant key concepts are identified to provide a theoretical basis for the conducted empirical research and its qualitative analysis. Main Findings & Contributions: Three inseparable modes are identified, namely motivations, inner conflicts, and identity negotiations, jointly showing the different ways of identity construction through everyday political consumerism as part of a complex and intertwined process. Practical Implications: This study illuminates the so far only scarcely addressed invisible and subtle forms of political consumption practiced on a daily basis in connection to micro-level individual identities, providing implications for both scholars in consumer research and practitioners in marketing.