Reconciling materialism and anti-consumption: A grounded approach to the co-existence of solid-liquid consumption in fashion rentals

Abstract

As a sub-type of anti-consumption, the rise of access-based services like rentals triggered an ontological disconnect with the notion of materialism by shifting the focus from owning possessions, like luxury fashion, towards their usage. The once straightforward binary philosophical understanding of ownership-based vs. access-based consumption however has been upended as access-based services facilitate the quick circulation of luxury fashion items through rentals, catering to the consumers' insatiable desires. Additionally, access-based services present the potential for acquiring these items at discounted prices via rent-to-buy options. Access-based services have therefore intensified the conflict between material possession pursuits and anti-consumption principles, resulting in dissonances among consumers that signal the possibility of more underlying ontological disconnects and changes to consumption to emerge. The accelerated usage and post-usage object acquisition in liquid consumption also negate the idea that materialism solely identifies with solid consumption and challenge the conventional antithetical relationship between materialism and anti-consumption. This thesis explores the conflict between materialism and anti-consumption that consumers experience in liquid consumption, particularly in fashion rentals. Using constructivist grounded theory approach, this thesis is underpinned by a netnographic study where archived data from an online community and two consumer review websites were triangulated with 50 semi-structured interviews of consumers of a popular fashion rental platform. Data analysis followed the cyclical application of the constructivist coding process and analytical strategies of constant comparisons, memo writing, theoretical sensitivity, theoretical sampling, and theoretical saturation that ultimately led to the emergence of three core categories. Findings suggest the conflict between materialistic desires and higher-order goals in solid consumption led consumers to liquefy their consumption by subscribing to fashion rentals. Fashion rentals enable consumers to adopt minimalistic practices where they prioritise higher-order goals that are embedded in both materialistic and anti-consumption values, thereby resolving the desire-goal conflict. Upon anticipating the quick circulation of luxury fashion may threaten their anti-consumption-based higher-order goal in fashion rentals, consumers resolve the conflict with self-serving justifications that emphasise higher-order goals characterising both anti-consumption and materialistic values. With rising desires for luxury fashion, consumers revert to solid consumption, via purchases of second-hand items, which they anticipate may threaten their anti-consumption-based higher-order goal. To resolve the conflict, consumers employ self-licensing via their prior restrictive buying, and prioritisation of higher-order goals embedded in anti-consumption values. Using the combined analytical lenses of Belk et al.'s (2003) desire theorisation, Schwartz et al.'s (2012) refined theory of basic values, and Kotabe and Hofmann's (2015) self-control theory, this thesis contributes to existing scholarship by redefining the dynamic desire process, identifying motivations to control, downplay, or endorse desires, emphasising desire-goal conflicts as a catalyst for transitions across the solid-liquid consumption continuum, and illustrating the co-existence of materialistic and anti-consumption values on the continuum. The study has contextual limitations like the focus on fashion rentals as a liquid consumption form, lack of consideration of variations in luxury perceptions in fashion rentals and lack of acknowledgement of the influence of environmental constraints in desire-goal conflicts and resolution process. Future studies could explore alternative liquid consumption forms, luxury value perceptions associated with rental brands and the influence of environmental factors.