Abstract This article introduces a new dimension of consumption as liquid or solid. Liquid consumption is defined as ephemeral, access based, and dematerialized, while solid consumption is defined as enduring, ownership based, and material. Liquid and solid consumption are conceptualized as existing on a spectrum, with four conditions leading to consumption being liquid, solid, or a combination of the two: relevance to the self, the nature of social relationships, accessibility to mobility networks, and type of precarity experienced. Liquid consumption is needed to explain behavior within digital contexts, in access-based consumption, and in conditions of global mobility. It highlights a consumption orientation around values of flexibility, adaptability, fluidity, lightness, detachment, and speed. Implications of liquid consumption are discussed for the domains of attachment and appropriation; the importance of use value; materialism; brand relationships and communities; identity; prosumption and the prosumer; and big data, quantification of the self, and surveillance. Lastly, managing the challenges of liquid consumption and its effect on consumer welfare are explored.

Abstract Consumption has always been part of the workplace, yet it has traditionally been seen as nonwork—an activity that depletes rather than creates value. In the knowledge and digital economy, however, consumption and work are becoming increasingly intertwined, calling for a relational perspective on consumption’s productive role. We develop this perspective through a four-year ethnography of coworking spaces across Paris and London, supplemented by post-pandemic archival data. We introduce consumptive work as the instrumentalization of consumption activities in the workplace to generate productive value. Consumptive work emerges within a postindustrial societal context where workplace culture is shaped by consumer ideology, leading to (1) customer entitlement in the workplace, (2) consumer desire toward the workplace, and (3) consumer lifestyle aspirations toward work. Consumptive work is characterized by inconspicuousness, boundarilessness, and communal and market exchange. While it can be empowering, it also fosters neo-normative alienation, particularly through performative play and leisure, and the pursuit of productive wellness. Ultimately, consumptive work reinforces evolving consumer desires and aspirations about office work and workplaces. This study advances interdisciplinary research on consumption and consumption ideology in the workplace, workplace alienation, new ways of working, and consumer research connecting work, home, and leisure.

Abstract This study introduces the notion of chronic consumer liminality (CCL) defined as a recurrently activated state of transition experienced when engaging in frequent, multiple, and nonlinear consumer life transitions. CCL is characterized by (1) reoccurring transitions, (2) ongoing self-transformation, and (3) the embracing of precarity. We find evidence of CCL in a multimethod qualitative study of the flexible consumer lifestyle. CCL emerges as a response to the liquidification of society and the rise of a marketplace ideology of flexibility. CCL is manifested and managed through three CCL navigation processes: destabilizing consumption routines, liquidifying consumption, and asserting control over time and money. Thus, consumers experiencing CCL tend to prefer variety seeking and serendipity over routine even for mundane choices, access-based consumption across domains, and a productivity orientation toward free time. Three skills also facilitate CCL: resilient optimism, adaptability, and self-preservation. This study contributes to research on liminality, consumption in liminality, liquid consumption, and precarity. We conclude with the managerial implications of our framework.

Abstract Access-based consumption, defined as transactions that may be market mediated in which no transfer of ownership takes place, is conceptualized by Bardhi and Eckhardt (2012). While it was introduced to explore consumer engagement in the sharing economy, conceptually it challenges the dominant assumption of ownership in marketing. This paper reflects on the impact of ABC and its boundary conditions. We critically interrogate and expand on five challenges of the original concept: the static dichotomy of access versus ownership; its transactional framing; its lack of identity value; its treatment of ideology; and its reliance on one context. We discuss the implications of ABC for marketing research related to: a prosumer role of the consumer; its ambivalent responsibility and governance; the bundled, or layered notions of access/ownership for digital ownership; as well as its implications for platformized consumption, which reinforces its instrumental sociality, and where value is extracted through data rather than ownership.

Abstract The consumption process constitutes a sequence of acquisition, use/consumption, and disposal. Over the last two decades, acquisition has transformed due to digitization and sharing economy innovations. Consumers obtain goods and services through several practices beyond buying, including renting, sharing, streaming, borrowing, and gifting. Access constitutes equal options to ownership, and non-market-mediated exchanges have become alternatives to market exchanges. While research has begun to study these practices, it remains fragmented, and we lack a unifying conceptual framework of acquisition. This gap risks marketers overlooking the acquisition phase, the essential first touchpoint in the customer journey. We develop a new conceptual acquisition framework organized by the levels of ownership transfer and market mediation. It distinguishes four acquisition modes: market-mediated ownership, market-mediated access, non-market-mediated ownership, and non-market-mediated access. We extend the acquisition concept beyond buying and market exchange, contributing to research on access, sharing, and customer journey, and we advance a future research agenda.