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Brands as Mediators and Action Nets
| One of the main goals of the Brand Research Lab is to advance branding theory. In our past and future theorizing, we offer an integrative and processual perspective, based on social representations theory, action nets theory, and assemblage thinking. Our perspective considers recent disruptive technological and societal changes and considers a new role for brands - that of a mediator, used and co-cited by a multitude of agents. |
1. Hemetsberger, Andrea, Maria Kreuzer and Hans Mühlbacher (2022), “Co-creation or Co-destruction? Value-based Brand Formation,” in Stefan Markovic, Richard Gyrd-Jones, Sylvia von Wallpach and Adam Lindgreen (eds.) Research Handbook on Brand Co-creation: Theory, practice, and ethical implications, Edward Elgar, pp. 92-106.
2. Von Wallpach, Sylvia and Andrea Hemetsberger (2022), “Brands in Action: Understanding corporate branding dynamics from an Action Net Perspective,” in Iglesias Oriol, Nicholas Ind and Majken Schultz (eds.) The Routledge Companion to Corporate Branding Routledge.
3. Schöps, Jonathan D., Philipp K. Wegerer, and Andrea Hemetsberger (2017), "Brand-Mediated Ideological Edgework: Negotiating the Aestheticized Human Body on Instagram - The Case of American Apparel," in NA - Advances in Consumer Research, Vol. 45, 474–478.
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Eric Arnould
Andrea Hemetsberger
Maria Kreuzer
Hans Mühlbacher
Jonathan D. Schöps
Philipp Wegerer
Sylvia von Wallpach
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Consumer deceleration, minimalism, and sustainable consumer practice
| Consumer deceleration and mindfulness bear great potential for consumer wellbeing and sustainable consumption practices. We investigate different consumer lifestyles related to minimalism and deceleration and carve out their potential for the routinization of sustainable consumption practices. |
1. Hemetsberger, Andrea and Stephanie Fröschl (2023), “Will minimalists save the world? Capitalist and Socialist paths to sustainability,” proceedings of the Consumer Culture Theory (CCT) conference, Lund, 2022.
2. Hemetsberger, Andrea and Carina Krenn (2023), “Consumer Deceleration and Sustainable Consumption – Four Journeys to Increased Mindfulness,” extended abstract presented at the 8th FAG Workshop, 29.22.-1.12. 2023, Innsbruck.
3. Hemetsberger, Andrea and Carina Krenn (2024), “Consumer Deceleration: Slow Journeys to a Sustainable Self?,” NA-Advances in Consumer Research, forthcoming.
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Moments of Luxury
| Imagine inhaling the fresh scent of a rose after a long winter, driving your convertible for the first time, or indulging in your Yoga practice after a long work day. It is exactly these moments that consumers experience as luxurious. We identified five distinct moments of luxury with distinct experiential qualities, temporal focus and degree of contrast to everyday life. |
1. Von Wallpach, Sylvia, Andrea Hemetsberger, Thyra U. Thomsen and Russel W. Belk (2020), “Moments of Luxury – A Phenomenological View of the Essence of Luxury Experience,” Journal of Business Research, 116, 491-502.
2. Thomsen, Thyra U., Jonas Holmqvist, Sylvia von Wallpach, Andrea Hemetsberger and Russel W. Belk (2020), “Conceptualizing Unconventional Luxury,” Editorial, Journal of Business Research, 116, 441–445.
3. Bauer, Martina, Sylvia von Wallpach and Andrea Hemetsberger (2011), “”My little luxury” – A Consumer-centered, Experiential View,” Marketing Journal of Research and Management, Vol. 33(1), 57–66.
4. Hemetsberger, Andrea, von Wallpach, Sylvia and Martina Bauer (2012), “Because I’m Worth It – Luxury and the Construction of Consumers’ Selves,” in NA - Advances in Consumer Research, Vol. 40, eds. Zeynep Gürhan-Canli, Cele Otnes, and Rui (Juliet) Zhu, Duluth, MN: Association for Consumer Research, Pages: 483–489.
5. Schwarz, Sarah, Andrea Hemetsberger, and Sylvia von Wallpach (2023), "When Less is More: Understanding Luxury in Mobility Contexts," abstract presented at the 4th Brand Meaning Network Workshop, Dubai, AE.
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Russell W. Belk
Martina Bauer
Andrea Hemetsberger
Jonas Holmqvist
Thyra U. Thomsen
Sarah Schwarz
Sylvia von Wallpach
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Consumer Transformation and Consumer Transition
| Consumption objects entail deep meaning for consumers in transition. They serve as important anchors in liminal transitions, as change agents in consiousness transformation, and radically change meaning in first-time transitions, for example to motherhood. In these research projects, we uncover the transformative character of brands in times of transition. |
1. Hemetsberger, Andrea, Maria Kreuzer and Melanie Klien (2019), “From Caterpillar to Butterfly: Experiencing Spirituality via Body Transformation,” special issue on ‘Consuming the Spiritual’, Journal of Marketing Management. 35(5-6), 540-564.
2. Hemetsberger, Andrea, Sylvia von Wallpach and Martina Bauer (2015), “Women in Transition - consumption narratives of first-time motherhood,” in NA - Advances in Consumer Research, Vol. 43, eds. Kristin Diehl and Carolyn Yoon, Duluth, MN: Association for Consumer Research, 368–73.
3. Hemetsberger, Andrea, Bauer, Martina, von Wallpach, Sylvia and Katrin Broger (2013), “’On transit’ – Changes in Consumer-Brand Relationships During Transition from Student to Professional Life, Marketing Journal of Research and Management, Vol. 35(1), 40–49.
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Martina Bauer
Katrin Broger
Andrea Hemetsberger
Maria Kreuzer
Sylvia von Wallpach
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Consumption in Mobility
| Sun, sea, sandals—and work. Nomadic consumers strive for holistic freedom in exotic countries, experiencing cosmopolitanism by following digital careers. Their lifestyle brings forward a novel understanding of how consumption manifests in hypermobile conditions where materiality turns out to be burdensome. The project finds that digital nomads value objects mediating emotional connections to others and other objects across space and time, foregrounding the linking value of materiality. |
1. Schwarz, Sarah and Andrea Hemetsberger (2020), "A Luxury Moment to Go, Please: Paradoxes of Luxuriousness Among Cosmopolite Consumers," NA - Advances in Consumer Research, Vol. 48, 121–25.
2. Aufschnaiter, Christiane, Sarah Schwarz, and Andrea Hemetsberger (2021), "Anchors on the Move: Digital Nomads’ Solid Footholds in Liquidity," NA - Advances in Consumer Research, Vol. 49, 27–31.
3. Schwarz, Sarah (2021), "‘Going’ Green? Nomadic Consumers’ Paradoxical Journey Toward Sustainability," NA - Advances in Consumer Research, Vol. 49, 60–4.
4. Schwarz, Sarah and Christiane Aufschnaiter (2022), “Brand Nomadicity: Redefining Consumer-Brand Relationships in Liquid Modernity,” NA - Advances in Consumer Research, Vol. 50.
5. Schwarz, Sarah, Christiane Aufschnaiter and Andrea Hemetsberger (2023), “Social Linking Practices in Physical Distance: The Material Constitution of Sociality,” Marketing Theory, 23(2), 321–42
6. Schwarz, Sarah and Christiane Aufschnaiter (forthcoming), "Pop-Up Lifestyle: The Case of Co-Living/Working in Nomadism," NA - Advances in Consumer Research, Vol. 52.
7. Aufschnaiter, Christiane, Sarah Schwarz, and Cristel Russell (forthcoming), "The Art of Traveling Minds: Imagining Home Consumption," NA - Advances in Consumer Research, Vol. 52.
8. Aufschnaiter, Christiane, Sarah Schwarz, and Cristel Russell (forthcoming), "Home is Where the Wi-Fi Connects: Digital Nomads and Their Spaces," Consumer Culture Theory Conference.
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Christiane Aufschnaiter
Andrea Hemetsberger
Cristel A. Russell
Sarah Schwarz
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Digital Market Systems
| Can consumers, hashtagged discourse and algorithmic affordances of social media change the fashion market? In these projects we show that fashion discourse changes established market boundaries through sticky webs of connections across social media platforms. |
1. Schöps, Jonathan D., Stephanie Kogler, and Andrea Hemetsberger (2020), "(De-)stabilizing the digitized fashion market on Instagram–dynamics of visual performative assemblages," Consumption, Markets & Culture, 23 (2), 195–213.
2. Schöps, Jonathan D., Stephanie Kogler, and Andrea Hemetsberger (2021), "(De-)stabilizing the digitized fashion market on Instagram–dynamics of visual performative assemblages," in Digitalized Markets, edited by Johan Hagberg and Hans Kjellberg, London, UK: Routledge.
3. Schöps, Jonathan D., Christian Reinhardt, and Andrea Hemetsberger (2022), "Sticky market webs of connection – human and nonhuman market co-codification dynamics across social media," European Journal of Marketing, 56 (13), 78–104.
4. Schöps, Jonathan D., Sarah Schwarz, and Veronika Rojkowski (2024), "Memetic Logics of Participation: Fitness Body Culture on Instagram," Marketing Theory, 24(1), 65–89
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Andrea Hemetsberger
Stephanie Kogler
Christian Reinhardt
Jonathan D. Schöps
Sarah Schwarz
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Consumer Identity Projects
| Instagram has many faces. Among those, Instagram's content and visuals work as a source of mythic and symbolic resources for consumers, helping them to construct narratives of identity. |
1. Schöps, Jonathan D. (2018), “Consuming Commodified Selves – Accelerated Identity Co-Construction Dynamics Through Fashion Performances on Instagram,” in NA – Advances in Consumer Research, Vol. 46, 434–39.
2. Schöps, Jonathan D. (2020), “Consuming Commodified Bodies – Performative (Re-)embodiment of Digital Corporeal Consumption,” in NA – Advances in Consumer Research, Vol. 48, 115–20.
| Jonathan D. Schöps |
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The Power of Person Brands
| How do person brands co-create brand value with consumers? These research projects consider personification an important and lasting trend in the digital age, and reveal how various personas (e.g. brand leaders, celebrities, staff) acquire brand value in interaction with consumers. | 1. Wieser, Verena E., Marius K. Luedicke, and Andrea Hemetsberger (2021), "Charismatic Entrainment: How Brand Leaders and Consumers Co-Create Charismatic Authority in the Marketplace," Journal of Consumer Research, 48(4), 731–51.2. Brugger, Teresa and Verena E. Wieser (2021), “The Iconization of Greta Thunberg: The Role of Myths in Co-Creating a Person Brand,” Brand Co-creation: Theory, Practice, and Ethical Implications,” ed. Stefan Markovic, Richard Gyrd-Jones, Sylvia von Wallpach, and Adam Lindgreen, Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing.3. Wieser, Verena E., Hemetsberger, Andrea, and Marius K. Luedicke (2019), “Protest Rhetoric’s Appeal: How Brands as Moral Entrepreneurs Recruit the Media into Moral Struggles,” The Contested Morality of Markets: Research in the Sociology of Organizations, ed. Simone Schiller-Merkens and Philip Balsiger, Bingley, UK: Emerald. |
Andrea Hemetsberger
Teresa Brugger
Marius Lüdicke
Verena E. Wieser
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Co-Creating Consumer (Learning) Experiences
| These research projects investigate how brands, and specifically front-line staff, can assist consumers in learning situations. We consider live-long-learning as mega-trend, and reveal how consumer can overcome learning barriers (that can ultimately turn into consumption barriers) in interaction with brands. | 1. Riehle, R., Wieser, V. E., & Woermann, N. (2020). Battling Fear, Building Trust: How Service Providers Manage Emotions When Consumers Fail. NA - Advances in Consumer Research, Vol. 48, 622-23. 2. Woermann, Niklas, and Verena E. Wieser, (2016), “Consumption Skill Acquisition in Ski Schools: Towards a Theory of Embodied Learning”, 44th Association for Consumer Research Conference, Berlin, Germany. |
Ramona Riehle
Verena E. Wieser
Niklas Woermann
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Leisure-Experience Brands as Consumption Community Platforms
| About athletes and spectators.These research projects investigate how leisure experience brands (e.g. events, adventure parks) serve as value creation platforms for various stakeholders, including consumers, workers, and the media. We promote a perspective of brands as community platforms, and reveal how they unite a heterogenous and invidiualized crowd of stakeholders via community practices and emotionality. | 1. Grohs, Reinhard, Verena E. Wieser, and Pristach, Matthias (2020), “Value Cocreation at Sport Events,” European Sports Management Quarterly, 20/1, 6987.2. Riehle, Ramona, Wieser, Verena E., and Andrea Hemetsberger (2022), "Service workers as consumers: Addressing the liquid service worker inside brands," CCT Conference, Oregon.3. Gabl, Sabrina, Stoeckl, Verena E., and Andrea Hemetsberger (2013), “The Two Sides of the Gold Medal: Paradoxes of the Olympic Experience,” 41st Association for Consumer Research Conference, Chicago, USA. |
Sabrina Gabl
Reinhard Grohs
Andrea Hemetsberger
Ramona Riehle
Verena E. Wieser
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Resolving (Emotional) Consumption Barriers
| How do consumers deal with negative emotions involved in acts of consumption? These research projects explore how consumers overcome consumption barriers buying into interactive emotion management services (e.g. ski schooling or adventure experiences) or voluntarily accepting health risks involved in acts of mundane consumption. | 1. Riehle, Ramona (2021), "Controlling the Uncontrollable: Consumer Voluntary Risk-Taking amidst the Covid-19 Pandemic", NA - Advances in Consumer Research, Vol. 49, 55-9. 2. Riehle, R., Wieser, V. E., & Woermann, N. (2020). Battling Fear, Building Trust: How Service Providers Manage Emotions When Consumers Fail. NA - Advances in Consumer Research, Vol. 48, 622-23. |
Ramona Riehle
Verena E. Wieser
Niklas Woermann
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True Crime Podcast Consumption
| Why are consumers fascinated by stories about horrific crimes? In this research project, we aim to unravel female consumers' fascination for contemporary true crime podcasts, such as Zeit Verbrechen or Mordlust. | ongoing project (competitive conference paper currently under review) |
Stephanie Kogler
Ramona RIehle
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Visual Brand Co-Construction in Social Media
| How are brands (visually) co-created in social media? These research projects explore the visual co-construction of brands, particularly on Instagram. We employ the perspective of brands as assemblages and investigate how a well-known lifestyle brand is assembled by visual contributions of diverse actors relevant to brand meaning co-construction, such as brand managers, employees, consumers, and influencers. |
1. Kogler, Stephanie (2019), "How Employees Embody the Brand", in NA - Advances in Consumer Research, Vol. 47.
2. Kogler, Stephanie (2018), "How Employees Relate to Their Brand Online: A Critical Visual Analysis of Hollister" in NA - Advances in Consumer Research, Vol. 46.
3. Kogler, Stephanie, Joonas Rokka, and Andrea Hemetsberger (2017), "Creating Brand Reputation: How Employees Express Their Brand in Social Media Networks", in NA-Advances in Consumer Research, Vol. 45 (Abstract).
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Andrea Hemetsberger
Stephanie Kogler
Joonas Rokka
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