Consumer marketplaces and self‐sufficiency: Meeting consumption needs in community

• Published date: 01 December 2021
• Author: Stephen G. Saunders,Srinivas Sridharan,Dani J. Barrington,Regina Souter,Katherine F. Shields,Semisi Meo,Jamie K. Bartram
• Date: 01 December 2021
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/joca.12403

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Consumer marketplaces and self-sufficiency:

Meeting consumption needs in community

Stephen G. Saunders

1

| Srinivas Sridharan

1

|

Dani J. Barrington

2

| Regina Souter

3

| Katherine F. Shields

4

|

Semisi Meo

5

| Jamie K. Bartram

6,7

1

Department of Marketing, Monash

University, Frankston, Australia

2

School of Population and Global Health,

The University of Western Australia,

Nedlands, Australia

3

International WaterCentre, Griffith

University, Brisbane, Australia

4

Department of Geography, University of

Oregon, Eugene, Oregon, USA

5

Conservation International Fiji,

Suva, Fiji

6

School of Civil Engineering, University

of Leeds, Leeds, UK

7

Gillings School of Global Public Health,

University of North Carolina, Chapel

Hill, North Carolina, USA

Correspondence

Stephen G. Saunders, Department of

Marketing, Monash University, 47-49

Moorooduc Hwy, Frankston, VIC 3199,

Australia.

Email: stephen.saunders@monash.edu

Funding information

Australian Department of Foreign Affairs

and Trade (DFAT) Development

Research Awards Scheme, Grant/Award

Number: 201200898

Abstract

Guided by a “logic of the situation”approach our

research investigated a problematic situation in com-

munity to identify and critically reflect on how

consumer marketplaces and self-sufficiency meet con-

sumption needs. In doing so, we reflect on how a situa-

tional understanding allowed the researchers to form a

more complete view of how consumption needs were

met in community through enabler-led marketplaces,

community-led marketplaces and self-sufficiency. We

also re-conceptualized our thinking as a more broadly

conceived hybrid consumer marketplace to reflect our

more complete understanding. We discuss the theoreti-

cal and practical implications of our more broadly con-

ceived hybrid consumer marketplace and provide a

foundation for further research into consumer market-

places and meeting consumption needs.

KEYWORDS

consumption needs, hybrid consumer marketplaces, self-

sufficiency, situational analysis, water

Received: 28 September 2020 Revised: 25 July 2021 Accepted: 16 August 2021

DOI: 10.1111/joca.12403

© 2021 American Council on Consumer Interests.

J Consum Aff. 2021;55:1691–1711. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/joca 1691

1|INTRODUCTION

How people attempt to meet consumption needs (and desires) is a central topic of interest

within consumer affairs (Hill, 2020). Indeed, it has formed the foundations of most consumer

studies over the years. Moreover, an important complementary quest has been to examine the

capacity of consumer marketplaces to adequately meet consumption needs and support con-

sumer health and wellbeing (Martin & Hill, 2012)—particularly among vulnerable or at-risk

consumers who may lack access and control over certain resource-control combinations (Hill &

Sharma, 2020).

Essentially people attempt to meet consumption needs in two basic ways. They may partici-

pate in consumer marketplaces and engage in value exchange activities (Bagozzi, 1975a;

Houston & Gassenheimer, 1987). Or, they may be self-sufficient, and meet consumption needs

through “absorbing”resources from their immediate environments (Hill, 2010, p. 604). While

these two ways may seem to be distinct and clearly delineated, Layton (2019) points out that

people do not have perfect information and choice sets; and so attempt to meet their consump-

tion needs from what may be possible in their immediate situation. Many eminent social scien-

tists, including Popper (1994), point out that individual people, on average, exhibit an

incomplete or partially wrong understanding of their immediate situation or what social scien-

tist refer to as the “logic of the situation”(Clarke et al., 2018; Palacio-Vera, 2020). For these rea-

sons, many consumer scholars advocate for a broader approach to gain a more complete

understanding of the consumers' situation in the marketplace (Giesler & Fischer, 2017, p. 4).

As such, an important starting point for researchers may be to first understand the “logic of

the situation”facing the consumer and then to delve further into the specific consumption-

related problem and how consumption needs are met through the access and control of differ-

ent resource combinations (i.e., resource-control combinations). For example, Kennedy (2016),

in a study on fast-fashion consumption, explains that it is vital to understand the macro-

situation first when determining what policies and actions are required to promote sustainable

consumption. Otherwise, researchers run the risk of erroneously placing the specific

consumption-related problem within a narrowly defined set of factors and/or individual people.

The consequences of this error may be “ignorant”policy decisions and “failed”actions, which

may ultimately result in “unintended repercussions”for the consumer (Palacio-Vera, 2020).

In this paper, we investigate a problematic situation in community to identify and critically

reflect on how two consumer marketplaces and self-sufficiency co-exist to meet consumption

needs. In doing so, we reflect on how a “logic of the situation”understanding allows the

researchers to form a more complete view of how a broadly conceived hybrid consumer market-

place meets consumption needs.

To undertake our research, we engaged in a critical reflection of a participatory action

research (PAR) project that investigated how water consumption needs were met within an

informal settlement (also sometimes referred to as a slum or squatter settlement) community in

Suva, Fiji. PAR is an approach used by many consumer researchers to develop practical under-

standings, policies and actions to further community health and wellbeing (Ozanne &

Saatcioglu, 2008). Our critical reflection was further guided by situational analysis (Palacio-

Vera, 2020) and the MacInnis (2011) framework for conceptual contributions (Chiu, 2006). Cen-

tral to our critical reflection was the creation of narratives to describe the situation (Bublitz

et al., 2016) and situational maps to articulate its elements (Clarke et al., 2018). Hence, we

aimed to answer six broad situational research questions: (1) What was the overarching situa-

tion in community? (2) What were the various marketplaces used to meet water consumption

1692 SAUNDERS ET AL.