Introducing a spatial perspective to analyze market dynamics

Abstract

Grounded in work on geography and markets, this article offers a conceptual framework to study the dynamics of markets through a spatial lens. The characteristics of four key spatial dimensions (place, territory, scale, and network) are explained and leveraged to provide distinct analytical vantage points and to conceptualize how various types of spaces matter differently in market dynamics. Findings from a qualitative meta-analysis identify 12 unique mechanisms tied to the four proposed spatial dimensions, which offer alternative theoretical avenues for unpacking market phenomena. These four spatial dimensions are then combined with 12 space-based mechanisms to offer novel research avenues for marketing scholars interested in market system dynamics.

Consumption, crisis, and coping strategies of lower class families in Brazil: A sociological account

“…New subjectivities also emerge from the top down institutional creation of moralistic regimes, which from the state to corporations, to consumers “imbues the socialization of consumers into an ethos of responsible consumption with heightened moral significance” (Giesler & Veresiu, , p. 853). At the meso‐level, markets constitute spaces for negotiation between dominant ideologies and consumers’ identity narratives, supporting conforming (Üstüner & Holt, ) and transgressive (Karababa & Ger, ) consumption practices and performances that concur to the construction of consumers’ “self‐perception as a certain type of subject, thus facilitating the enactment of specific subjectivities” (Castilhos, Dolbec, & Veresiu, , p. 7). At the very micro level, consumer‐to‐consumer relationships produce regimes that affect the acquisition of practical knowledge about specific product categories, shaping consumers’ taste in late socialization (Arsel & Bean, ).…”

There is no place like home: Poverty and the squatter house

“…Challenging the western romantic notion of home and answering the call for spatially grounded studies in consumer research (Castilhos et al, ; Saatcioglu & Corus, ), home is treated as a dynamic space that shapes and it is shaped by the interplay of spatial, material, symbolic, social, and temporal dimensions. Rather than treating the house or any consumption space as only a setting where consumption relationships occur (e.g., Epp & Price, ; Hamilton, ) or as a symbolic product overlooking its materiality and spatiality in shaping experiences, relationships and meanings (e.g., Hill, ; Saatcioglu & Corus, ), the home is conceptualized as a dynamic spatial product open to material and immaterial flows.…”

“…Overall, having control or not over one's most intimate environment, the interaction of material, spatial, symbolic, and social dimensions in shaping the home environment are underexplored. Specifically, the paper attempts to answer the call for incorporating spatial theories toward the understanding of consumption spaces (Castilhos et al, ; Saatcioglu & Corus, ; Saatcioglu & Ozanne, ). Space is not just a setting, but it shapes and it is shaped by the interactions within it (Lefebvre, ).…”

“…It functions as a site for complex, interrelated or contradictory sociocultural ideas about individuals' relationships with others, with things and with spaces (Mallet, ). This study aims to build on this gap by focusing on the call toward the use of spatial theories toward the understanding of consumption spaces (Castilhos, ; Castilhos, Dolbec, & Veresiu, ; Saatcioglu & Corus, ; Saatcioglu & Ozanne, ). The house, similar to every space, is not a static structure, but embeds the ideology, power and knowledge that produced it (Lefebvre, ).…”

Experiencing ethical retail ideology in the servicescape

“…These servicescapes facilitate a form of experience that is embedded in and connected to the various physical, sensorial, temporal, and social elements entailed in it (e.g. Appadurai, 1986;Castilhos et al, 2016;Dion & Arnould, 2011;Kozinets & Handelman, 2004;Scott et al, 2014). Such a theoretical perspective allows us to better understand how consumers use various store elements to construct their consumption experiences and how servicescapes conveying an ethical ideology are intertwined in these experiences.…”