Consumer Identity Renaissance: The Resurgence of Identity-Inspired Consumption in Retirement

Hope Jensen Schau, Mary C. Gilly and Mary Wolfinbarger

Journal of Consumer Research, 2009, vol. 36, issue 2, 255 - 276

Abstract: Using multimethod data, we investigate retirement as a life stage centered on consumption, where cultural scripts are particularly contested and in flux and where we witness an increase in breadth and depth of identity-related consumption, which we term consumer identity renaissance. While prior research on older consumers focuses on corporeal and cognitive decline and its impact on individual decision-making situations, our attention is drawn to the competency and growth potential of those who have exited their formal productive stage and privilege consumption as a means to create and enact identity. Contrary to the received view of older consumers simply reviewing and integrating their already developed identities, we find retirement can be a time of extensive identity work with multiple revived and emergent inspirations weaving across all time orientations (past, present, and future) and involving intricate consumption enactments.

Date: 2009
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