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Vulnerable consumer engagement: How corporate social media can facilitate the replenishment of depleted resources

Fletcher-Brown, Judith, Turnbull, Sarah, Viglia, Giampaolo, Chen, Tom, Pereira, Vijay (2021) Vulnerable consumer engagement: How corporate social media can facilitate the replenishment of depleted resources. International Journal of Research in Marketing, 38 (2). pp. 518-529. ISSN 0167-8116. (doi:10.1016/j.ijresmar.2020.06.002) (The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided) (KAR id:107087)

The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided. (Contact us about this Publication)
Official URL:
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijresmar.2020.06.002

Abstract

Technology may facilitate health and wellbeing consumer engagement. When there is scant public health provision and socio-cultural norms marginalize consumers stigmatized from cancer, we reveal how a brand’s corporate social media campaign can support vulnerable consumers with resource constraints. Drawing from a transformative consumer research lens, we investigate five years of computer-mediated communications facilitated by the Indian brand Dabur Vatika. Through a grounded theory and an abductive reasoning approach, we unveil how vulnerable consumers directly or indirectly affected by cancer leverage brand's social media to replenish resources. First, we identify how vulnerable consumers engage to replenish depleted emotional and social support resources. We further expand consumer engagement scholarship by offering a preliminary definition of “vulnerable consumer engagement”. Second, we provide a nascent classification of vulnerable consumers in a consumer-producer role, Principal Vulnerable Consumers and Associate Vulnerable Consumers, distinguished by their proximity to the vulnerable context. Lastly, we reveal how brands may perform a transformative role, to replenish social, emotional and operant resources at the micro level through the engagement of vulnerable consumers with corporate social media. This insight is informative for policymakers, advertising practitioners and transformative consumer research academics.

Item Type: Article
DOI/Identification number: 10.1016/j.ijresmar.2020.06.002
Subjects: H Social Sciences
Divisions: Divisions > Kent Business School - Division > Department of Marketing, Entrepreneurship and International Business
Depositing User: Professor Tom Chen
Date Deposited: 24 Sep 2024 11:43 UTC
Last Modified: 25 Sep 2024 13:18 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/107087 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

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