“To Spanx or not to Spanx”: How objects that carry contradictory institutional logics trigger identity conflict for consumers

Maria Carolina Zanette and Daiane Scaraboto

Journal of Business Research, 2019, vol. 105, issue C, 443-453

Abstract: Despite claims supporting its relevance, the role of objects as carriers of institutional logics has been overlooked in marketing research. This study examines how the extended materiality of consumption objects—that is, the material substances, designer intentions, and marketing efforts objectified in them—may trigger identity conflict for consumers, particularly when such objects are carriers of contradictory institutional logics. We collected and analyzed qualitative data on body-shaping undergarments (i.e., shapewear), which carry the contradictory logics of constricted femininity and flexible feminism. We explain how the extended materiality of shapewear creates intimate tension for consumers by interfering with how consumers relate to their own bodies and to other people, thereby prompting identity conflict.

Keywords: Institutional carriers; Extended materiality; Identity conflict; Shapewear; Institutional logics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0148296319301651
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:105:y:2019:i:c:p:443-453

DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2019.02.065

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Business Research is currently edited by A. G. Woodside

More articles in Journal of Business Research from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().