Team Purchase: Consumer Empowerment Through Collective Actions

In this research, we examine the phenomenon of team purchasing to highlight a collective action that is initiated and organized by consumers. Through team purchase, consumers negotiate and challenge the conventional market system and manipulate it to achieve their own ends. We conducted depth-interviews with team buyers and merchants in three Chinese metropolises. Consumers’ rationales, tactics and rituals in team purchasing are examined. We plan to participate in team purchases and collect ethnographic data to capture the interactions, negotiations and transactions. The aim is to theorize a model of consumer collective actions and discuss its implications for the contemporary marketplace.



Citation:

Jeff Wang and Xin Zhao (2009) ,"Team Purchase: Consumer Empowerment Through Collective Actions", in NA - Advances in Consumer Research Volume 36, eds. Ann L. McGill and Sharon Shavitt, Duluth, MN : Association for Consumer Research, Pages: 931-932.

Authors

Jeff Wang, City University of Hong Kong, China
Xin Zhao, University of Hawaii at Manoa, USA



Volume

NA - Advances in Consumer Research Volume 36 | 2009



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