Identity Transition and Consumer Behavior

This research aims at investigating the effect of identity transition on consumer behavior. Indeed, despite marketing literature recognizes that identity changes over time (for instance when one gets married or gets a new job), little is said about how the transition from an old to a new identity affects consumption. Basing on works in both marketing and organizational behavior literatures, we investigate whether the magnitude of the identity transition, that is the degree of discontinuity from a previous identity to a new one, affects consumers’ choices. Results from two studies show that new identity-related products are preferred by people experiencing a high-magnitude, but not by people experiencing a low-magnitude transition