Exploring the patterns in political consumption: A review and identification of future research agenda

Abstract

Of late, political consumption (PC) has gained currency within the marketing and management literature, however, due to its cross‐disciplinary nature, it is also one of its more fragmented concepts. Based on a theme‐based structured systematic review of the literature, we adopt a wide conceptualization of the term and examine prior used methods and research themes. We offer several important contributions. First, we present the current state of PC literature, and show that the emergent literature streams on the concept have moved on from consideration of political consumption, and more toward consumer political polarization. In particular, research has coalesced around a motivated socio‐cognitive perspective of consumer political ideology. Second, we provide a comprehensive framework that links antecedents, processes and outcomes. Last, we discuss directions for a deeper research agenda on PC, and propose future research themes.