Abstract
Most gift-giving research focuses on how aspects of the giver, recipient, or their relationship impact gift exchange. This longitudinal study of the Christmas giving of five informants demonstrates that givers strategically incorporate, or allow themselves to be influenced by, third parties when selecting gifts for recipients. Moreover, givers' motivations for incorporating these influences can change over time. Thus, seemingly personal gifts to recipients actually reflect givers' relationships with others in the social network. Our taxonomy of 10 social influences on givers' behavior, as well as givers' motivations and the relational processes associated with each, broadens the scope of current gift-giving research and begins exploring how social relationships impact gift exchange.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 547-558 |
Number of pages | 12 |
Journal | Journal of Consumer Research |
Volume | 30 |
Issue number | 4 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Mar 2004 |
Keywords
- Charity and Gift Giving
- Shopping Behavior
- Sociological Theories/Analysis
- Depth/Long Interviews
- Observation
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Business and International Management
- Anthropology
- Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous)
- Economics and Econometrics
- Marketing