This landmark work contains classic and contemporary writings including some of the most provocative and influential contributions to the field from across the social sciences over the past thirty years, thus representing the increasing interdisciplinary richness of research in consumer behavior. The change in emphasis from research on the individual, to the context in which individuals create meaning from their consumption choices is a key thematic device in these three volumes, which focus on the field of advertising and consumption, possessions, brands and the self and (sub)cultures of consumption.



Consumer behaviour emerged as an independent field of research within marketing nearly sixty years ago. These sets presents important insights from the key research articles published about consumer behavior and consumption, drawing on the most influential and provocative contributions to the field from a range of international journals and books. These sets combine theoretical and empirical studies which reflect how our understanding of the relationships within consumer behavior research have evolved. The interdisciplinary richness of the field of consumer behavior is reflected in the impact of the social sciences (e.g. sociology, anthropology and psychology) on the key publications. These sets will capture the inter-change and application of social science theories, concepts, conceptual frameworks and empirical results within the field of consumer behavior research. The topological shape of the academic field has changed considerably since the publication of a series of key citation articles in the late 1980s and early 1990s; most notably because of the growing influx of influences from sociology and anthropology; and the arts and humanities ~ although applied psychology remains the foundational discipline for much of the published work in the field.